Long ago, the Council of Barakelth was defeated and its items of power lost. Now, the Council is trying to reform and the race is on between them and the Skrel of Skrelbard to find the artefacts. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Three skrel find themselves pitted against elves and humans in an attempt to prevent the ancient order from taking control of the world. The stakes are high, but the cost may be higher.

Discover nature's most colourful creatures in a major new book on colour in the animal kingdom. For many animals use of colour is essential to surviving in the wild. Both a built-in defence mechanism and a cunning tactic for attack, this biological advantage helps animals hide from dangerous predators and catch unsuspecting prey. It is used in many different ways, primarily to mask one's identity, movement or location, and changes over time as animals evolve and adapt to live. This stunning photographic collection reveals 100 creatures from around the world paired with fascinating insights from leading UK zoology author Steve Parker. Each animal will have a profile of 300 words paired with striking photographic examples featuring a wealth of colour and ingenious uses of colour for display or disguise. Learn how: The octopus can change its opacity, colour and pattern in response to threats. The walking leaf insect has evolved a strikingly similar shape and colour to the leaves it eats. The arctic fox changes its fur colour to white in the winter, perfectly blending in with the snow - but climate change is disrupting this age-old adaptation. This study of some of the most innovative uses of colour by animals, packed with beautiful photography and fascinating insights, will delight all lovers of the natural world.

Get your umbrella, your sun hat and your snowshoes ready for this thrill-packed journey through the world of weather. Find out about different climates and weather patterns; discover the processes that drive them; learn the secrets of forecasting the weather and read about record-breaking weather and weird weather events, such as 'animal rain', 'ice bombs', 'ball lightning' and much more. This title also looks at the hot topics of pollution and climate change - how human activity can affect the weather, the impact of global warming and, most importantly, what we can all do to help. It's packed with fascinating facts and stories that will bring the extraordinary world of weather to life, making it perfect for budding meteorologists, young and old! Contents includes: Daily Weather Seasons and Climate Extreme and Amazing Weather Using the Weather The Weather is Changing About Lonely Planet Kids: Lonely Planet Kids - an imprint of the world's leading travel authority Lonely Planet - published its first book in 2011. Over the past 45 years, Lonely Planet has grown a dedicated global community of travellers, many of whom are now sharing a passion for exploration with their children. Lonely Planet Kids educates and encourages young readers at home and in school to learn about the world with engaging books on culture, sociology, geography, nature, history, space and more. We want to inspire the next generation of global citizens and help kids and their parents to approach life in a way that makes every day an adventure. Come explore!

Build your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right level Plants are amazing, different around the world - and the biggest living things ever. There are leaves twice as long as a bus, flowers that attract insects by smelling like dead bodies, and trees that grow taller than the Statue of Liberty or weigh ten times as much as a blue whale! Copper/Band 12 books provide more complex plots and longer chapters that develop reading stamina. Text type - An information book. The book is organised into short chapters to help children practise the skills of locating and identifying important information. The glossary and index on pages 30 and 31 can be used to develop children's information retrieval skills further. Curriculum links - Science

In the Pre-Cambrian era there were no image-forming eyes, and organisms just had basic light receptors to tell the difference between light and dark. For colour to exist there needs to be light, an image-forming eye and a brain to process the data.Around 543 million years ago roughly six major groups of animals existed. Approximately 20 million years later, a blink of the eye in evolutionary history, there were 38 groups - similar to the number that exists today. This dramatic increase may be explained by the evolution of image-forming eyes. With the world suddenly in focus for many species, the benefit of being able to hide oneself, appear threatening or attractive and communicate with one's own species became much more acute.Drawing on spectacular specimens from the Museum's collections, Colour and Vision looks at the evolution of the eye, the uses of colour in nature, from a warning or disguise to an irresistible invitation, and explains how colour works.

Fossils offer an unparalleled insight into the amazing history of our planet. This practical volume explains the best ways to hunt fossils from plants, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, including how to plan a field trip and present your finds. A directory provides a visual guide to more than 375 fossils, from the first multicellular life to the giants of the oceans. Entries include a photograph of the fossil, a detailed factbox, and an artwork reconstructing the appearance of the original plant or animal. With insights into finding, classifying, dating, collecting and understanding fossils, from the earliest ferns to fearsome dinosaurs, the book reveals what fossils are and how they fit into geological history, the sites in which they can be found, and what the study of fossils tells us about our natural world. Newly updated, with expert text and over 950 superb photographs and illustrations, this classic book is essential reading for anyone keen to learn more about the origins of our natural world.

This book looks at today's most advanced technology and shows how it may be used in the future to explore our solar system. Part of the Bug Club reading series used in over 3500 schools Helps your child develop reading fluency and confidence Suitable for children age 9-10 (Year 5) Book band: Blue A Phonics phase: N/A

Packed with amazing infographics and awesome stats, this best-selling series has a fun and accessible world-record book approach. With bold and colourful illustrations, eye-catching photographs and the latest expert research, Record Breakers books are the perfect purchase for kids who love brain-bending facts! From man-eating sharks to snakes that grow longer than buses, check out the greatest record breakers of the animal world! This book is packed with awesome and extreme creatures, on land, in the sea and in the sky. Discover the fastest, the biggest, the tiniest and the deadliest animals in the world! Statistics are presented through colourful graphics, with lots of freaky facts to fascinate.

Evolution: The Whole Story contains everything you need to know about the development and survival of life on Earth. Each chapter of this accessible and lavishly illustrated book takes a major living group and presents thematic essays discussing the evolution of particular subgroups as they appeared on Earth with reference to detailed comparative anatomy, evolutionary legacies, and the breakthrough theories of eminent scientists. Accompanying the essays are amazing photographic features that investigate the characteristics of individual organisms in detail: in some, remarkable fossils, assembled skeletons, and lifelike reconstructions are presented and analyzed; while in others, living species are depicted and compared in detail to their direct ancestors, creatures that may have lived millions of years ago.

This book looks at today's most advanced technology and shows how it may be used in the future to help us to get about! Part of the Bug Club reading series used in over 3500 schools Helps your child develop reading fluency and confidence Suitable for children age 8-9 (Year 4) Book band: Grey A Phonics phase: 5

From deserts to polar lands, this series takes an in-depth look at different ecosystems around the world. Learn about how each ecosystem is formed, the wildlife that lives there, and how climate change and human interaction are affecting the planet. This title features: amazing fact panels; stunning photographs of different environments, including animals and human inhabitants; and, clear, modern design.

An all-in-one illustrated guide to human anatomy with encyclopedic coverage from bones and muscles to systems and processes. This in-depth manual to the human body's physical structure, chemical workings, and potential problems is a must-have reference to help further your studies or knowledge of how our bodies work.

Each page of The Human Body Book, updated to reflect the latest medical advances, is illustrated with colourful and comprehensive diagrams, which are thoroughly annotated to take you right into the cells and fibres that are responsible for keeping the human body ticking.

The opening chapter, Integrated Body, explains how the parts of the body work together at various levels of size and hierarchy to produce the living whole. It also contains an overview of the major body systems, enlivened by real-life 3D medical scans of the entire body. The chapters that follow provide coverage of the body function by function, system by system. Eleven main body systems are covered in turn, with each section ending on common injuries, diseases, and disorders afflicting that system. The book concludes with a chapter on Growth and Development which looks in detail at how the body changes over the course of a human lifespan.

Mars is the closest planet to Earth, but how much do we know about it? Written by science author Steve Parker, this fact-packed book takes a look at the physical features of the planet and at the amazing exploration that has been done on Mars. Mars is the closest planet to Earth, but how much do we know about it? Written by science author Steve Parker, this fact-packed book takes a look at the physical features of the planet and at the amazing exploration that has been done on Mars. Yellow/Band 3 books offer varied sentence structure and natural language Photographs of Mars taken from space on pages 14-15 help children recap and provide a wealth of speaking and listening opportunities. Text type: An information book Curriculum links: Science

Combining learning and play, this book is designed to introduce young children to nature study with fascinating practical examples. Once children have discovered some of the smaller wonders of the natural world, they can learn to appreciate and care for it throughout their lives. The ten terrific projects to help youngsters learn about the world around them include a wild flower window box, a shoe-box museum, a bean-in-a-box maze, a wiggly wormery, bark and leaf rubbings, a miniature pond, a book of pressed flowers, and a garden grown from muddy boots! Each project is accompanied by an illustrated list of materials and there are additional tips on safety and being a good naturalist. Clear stage-by-stage photographs show children completing each project so that young readers learn alongside them, and the ideas use simple materials and basic equipment that are easy to find around the home. An informative introduction provides simple instructions on safety and caring for the environment. This is the perfect starter book for 3- to 7-year-olds - for older readers to use with minimum supervision, or for younger ones to enjoy with adult help.

Project X Origins is a ground-breaking guided reading programme for the whole school. Action-packed stories, fascinating non-fiction and comprehensive guided reading support meet the needs of children at every stage of their reading development. Each book contains inside cover notes that highlight challenge words, prompt questions and a range of follow-up activities to support children in their reading. Project X Origins guided reading notes offer step-by-step teaching support for each book with guidance about phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, spelling, grammar, punctuation and writing. Each set of notes has in-built assessment and is fully correlated to all UK curricula. This pack contains 1 set of guided reading notes and 5 reading books, 1 of each of: A Wild Ride, Don't Look Down, Atlantic Adventure, Sam's Flood Plan, The Water Cycle.

Project X Origins is a ground-breaking guided reading programme for the whole school. Action-packed stories, fascinating non-fiction and comprehensive guided reading support meet the needs of children at every stage of their reading development. Each book contains inside cover notes that highlight challenge words, prompt questions and a range of follow-up activities to support children in their reading. Project X Origins guided reading notes offer step-by-step teaching support for each book with guidance about phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, spelling, grammar, punctuation and writing. Each set of notes has in-built assessment and is fully correlated to all UK curricula. This pack contains 1 set of guided reading notes and 30 reading books, 6 of each of: Ant Storm, Ant Attack, Charge!, Round-up, Animal Conflicts.

Space stations, including Skylab, Mir and the ISS are a vital outposts of scientific endeavour. Although only the ISS remains in orbit, the story of man's quest to live and conduct experiments in space is a tale of adventure, tragedy and genius. Six books that reveal the thrilling journeys, triumphs and disasters that men and women have experienced in the exploration of our universe. These books examine the mind-blowing technologies involved in space endeavours and tells the all too human stories of some of the key figures.

More than 3,000 satellites have been placed in orbit around Earth since the very first, Sputnik 1, made history in 1957. Satellites perform a huge variety of functions. From the huge Hubble Space Telescope to weather and communications satellites, these objects make a difference to our lives here on Earth every day. How do they get there, how do they stay up there and what job does each of them do? Find out in this in-depth look at all kinds of satellites. Six books that reveal the thrilling journeys, triumphs and disasters that men and women have experienced in the exploration of our universe. These books examine the mind-blowing technologies involved in space endeavours and tells the all too human stories of some of the key figures.

Every planet in our solar system and some of the moons and other space objects have been visited by at least one probe and in the future, more probes and craft will visit these worlds in our endeavour to learn about space and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Some probes, such at the Verena 13 probe that landed on Venus, were designed to last just a few minutes. Others, such as the Voyager probes, are still sending data back to Earth from far out towards the edge of our Solar System. Each probe is designed to do a unique job and this book reveals the genius of their design. Six books that reveal the thrilling journeys, triumphs and disasters that men and women have experienced in the exploration of our universe. These books examine the mind-blowing technologies involved in space endeavours and tells the all too human stories of some of the key figures.

From the first rockets to leave Earth's atmosphere and the animals that made brave journeys into space, such as Laika the Soviet stray dog, to the first spacewalks and the tragedies of the loss of all crew members of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles, this book looks at the people, who's part in various space programmes around the world, have helped to push the boundaries of space travel for future generations. Six books that reveal the thrilling journeys, triumphs and disasters that men and women have experienced in the exploration of our universe. These books examine the mind-blowing technologies involved in space endeavours and tells the all too human stories of some of the key figures.

Project X Origins is a ground-breaking guided reading programme for the whole school. Action-packed stories, fascinating non-fiction and comprehensive guided reading support meet the needs of children at every stage of their reading development. Explore Building Wembley to find out how and why the brand new Wembley Stadium was created. Each book contains inside cover notes that highlight challenge words, prompt questions and a range of follow-up activities to support children in their reading.

In this series, you get behind the wheel of vehicles that rule! Discover just what machines can do, and take a look at what makes them work. Machines Rule: Space takes a close look at all the exciting machines that make space travel possible, from satellites to space suits.

More than 999 of every 1,000 species that have ever lived on the planet have become extinct. As part of evolution, extinction of the old allows emergence of the new. It is integral to the Earth's continually changing range and richness of life-forms. Extinction: not the end of the world? is a highly readable introduction to the causes of extinction, the different types of extinction and how relevant it is to the world today. The book discusses today's key issues, from biodiversity and conservation to the threat of human extinction, as well as exploring the major extinction events of the past and explaining how scientists know all this. Throughout the book there are engaging extinction case studies from around the world showing, for example, how local extinctions such as the large blue butterfly can be reversed. Presenting the latest research in an accessible and engaging way, this is a complete introduction to an important and often complex subject. The book is published to accompany the major new exhibition of the same name which opens at the Natural History Museum, London, in February 2013.