Wonder Science

Seventeen-year-old Aidan Lockwood lives in the sleepy farming community of Temperance, Ohio - known for its cattle ranches and not much else. That is, until Jarrod, a friend he hasn't seen in five years, moves back to town and opens Aidan's eyes in startling ways: to Aidan's ability to see the spirit world; to the red-bearded specter of Death; to a family curse that has claimed the lives of the Lockwood men one by one...and to the new feelings he has developed for Jarrod.

In her wise and elegant new audiobook, Jane Goodall blends her experience in nature with her enthusiasm for botany to give listeners a deeper understanding of the world around us. Long before her work with chimpanzees, Goodall's passion for the natural world sprouted in the backyard of her childhood home in England, where she climbed her beech tree and made elderberry wine with her grandmother. The garden her family began then, she continues to enjoy today. Seeds of Hope takes us from England to Goodall's home-away-from-home in Africa.

If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic.

It’s time to kick off a time-twisting adventure with the Wonder Team! After suffering an injury on the football pitch, Leah is bored of resting at home. Her friends, Mimi and George, know that another adventure in time will cheer her up! Travelling back to 1950's America, the Wonder Team find themselves right in the middle of the Space Race. When one of the lead mathematicians goes missing, Leah and her friends must use all their detective skills to find her and stop the rocket launch ending in disaster.

Forty years ago, the park ranger Jon Waterman took his first journey into the Alaskan Arctic, to the Noatak headwaters. He was astonished by the abundant wildlife, the strange landscape, and its otherworldly light—how the “frequent rain showers glow like lemonade poured out of the sky.” Taken with a new sense of wonder, he began to explore the North on several trips in the 1980s.

As one of the most beautiful and intriguing birds found in nature, hummingbirds fascinate people around the world. The lightest birds in the sky, hummingbirds are capable of incredible feats, such as flying backwards, diving at speeds of 61 MPH, and beating their wings more than 60 times a second. Miraculous creatures, they are also incredibly vulnerable when they first emerge from their eggs. That’s where Brenda Sherburn comes in. With tenderness and patience, she rescues abandoned hummingbirds and nurses them back to health until they can fly away and live in the wild.

Former teachers Richard and Judy Dockrey Young bring their frightening performances alive on audio with 14 ghost stories from the American Southwest.

For the past 170 years, schools across the world have been targeted by UFOs. These are not simple fly-overs. In these cases, the objects hover for long periods at extremely low elevation, often landing next to the school. In many cases, humanoids are seen. Elementary schools, junior high and high schools, colleges - all have been targeted.

Many scientists believe that we are currently living through the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, with species disappearing at a rate not seen for tens of millions of years – a trend that will only accelerate as climate change and other pressures intensify. What does it mean to live in such a time? And what exactly do we lose when a species goes extinct? In Lost Wonders conservationist and science writer Tom Lathan tells the stories of ten species that have lived, died out and been declared extinct since the turn of the twenty-first century.

Kids who enjoy looking up at space and dreaming of exploring the solar system will love this lively, fact-filled tour of our galaxy, with engaging information.

Heard about the lizard that shoots blood from its eyes? Or the ancient Romans who used pee as mouthwash? Did you know that going on a roller coaster can cure kidney stones? In this compendium of obscure facts listeners will be treated to baffling knowledge they would never learn at school. Broken into chapters including geography, space, and history, a team of experts has scoured the world to find the silliest and most pointless facts that it has to offer.

In the summer of 2012, Steve Jenkins was contacted by an old friend about adopting a micropiglet. Though he knew his partner, Derek, wouldn't be enthusiastic, he agreed to take the adorable little pig anyway, thinking he could care for her himself. Little did he know, that decision would change his and Derek's lives forever. It turned out there was nothing "micro" about Esther, and Steve and Derek had actually signed on to raise a full-size commercial pig. Within three years tiny Esther grew to a whopping 600 pounds.

In 1961, Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have experienced a bizarre night that included extraterrestrials, flying saucers, and a few lost hours during which they could recall very little until they underwent hypnosis. Their mysterious story was just the first of many that have been told by people who have since come forward with their own similar experiences. Although there are thousands of people who claim to have experienced alien abduction, much of the world remains skeptical.

This is a selection of the myths and legends of Scotland, filled with local color, from Scottish journalist, folklorist, and writer Donald Alexander Mackenzie. These stories offer not only glimpses of ancient times and of old habits of thought and life but also of the country itself at different times of the year.

As two worlds reel from a colossal final pulse that cuts off all contact between them, two unimaginable discoveries raise the stakes even further. In a secret American facility, a power hidden from society for a decade is about to break free. And something much bigger, buried deep beneath the Scottish Highlands for thousands of years, is about to rise up.

With this Junior Genius Guide to Greek mythology, you’ll become an expert and wow your friends and teachers with all the best ancient stories: how Prometheus outsmarted the gods, how Achilles’s heel led to his death, and how we mere mortals always seem to get mixed up in so many misadventures. With cool trivia and fun quizzes to test your knowledge, this guide will have you on your way to whiz-kid status in no time!

Unleash your child's curiosity and make science way more exciting using S.T.E.M. stories can be more beneficial than any video game – even if they've never shown interest before! S.T.E.M. stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Children need to learn S.T.E.M. because these subjects help them understand the world around them. S.T.E.M. teaches kids to solve problems, think critically, and be creative.

Next to a continent or in the middle of the ocean, all islands are surrounded by water. These landforms can be rock, sand, or even coral. Listen to Islands to learn about life on these isolated places.

So much of our world seems to make perfect sense, and scientific breakthroughs have helped us understand ourselves, our planet, and our place in the universe in fascinating detail. But our adventures in space, our deepening understanding of the quantum world, and our leaps in technology have also revealed a universe far stranger than we ever imagined. With brilliant clarity and wit, best-selling author Marcus Chown examines the profound science behind 50 remarkable scientific facts that help explain the vast complexities of our existence.

Can you find your way out of any maze, even blindfolded? You can, if you know this one simple secret.