Search results for ""kingfisher""

For the first time, Kingfisher brings its expertise in beautifully-designed, trusted non-fiction to the sphere of learning to read. This new graded reading series will grip children's interest. Developed with literacy experts, the five-level series will guide young readers as they build confidence and fluency in their literacy skills and progress towards reading alone.

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Longquan wares were made mainly in Zhejiang province over a period of over sixteen hundred years, from the 3rd to the 19th centuries. There are two outstanding features of the beautiful Longquan ceramics, one is that the body is made of porcelain, and the other, that the glaze contains kaolin in its composition. This gives Longquan ware unique colour and quality. The body is smooth and dense, the glaze either unctuous or shiny, the colour a myriad shades of kingfisher blue and jade green. The result of development of porcelain technology at Longquan was a tough, attractive, and versatile celadon material that was ideally suited for export. Longquan vessels found their way to a variety of markets around the world, from royal palaces to common dwellings. During the Yuan dynasty a peak in quantity was reached, with more than 150 kiln sites overall. Many new decoration techniques and forms of mass production for global exports emerged, until production almost expired entirely during the late Ming dynasty, due to a range of still-debated reasons. It is readily apparent that the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang province produced a wide range of wares, in vast quantities, over a period of more than 500 years. During the Southern Song period premier kinuta ceramics glazed with shimmering pale bluish-green colours attracted the highest approbation. During the early Ming dynasty the Daoyao kiln manufactured superlative imperial ceramics for the imperial household. However, despite their great beauty and perceived worth, Longquan ceramics have never been regarded as one of the “Five Great Wares”. This book combined some of the rarest and most exquisite Longquan wares of over 270 pieces from museums and Art Institutes around the world.

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For the first time, Kingfisher brings its expertise in beautifully-designed, trusted non-fiction to the sphere of learning to read. This new graded reading series will grip children's interest. Developed with literacy experts, the five-level series will guide young readers as they build confidence and fluency in their literacy skills and progress towards reading alone.

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Chickadees amid cherry blossoms, peacocks nestled in wisteria branches, sleeping owls against a moonlit night sky and majestic cranes diving in the ocean waves—these are some of the transcendent pleasures offered in this exquisite collection of plates bound in an accordion style format that honors the Japanese bookbinding tradition. Every major artist of this genre is included—from Keisai, Keibun and Hokusai to Hiroshige and Koson—as the history of Japanese printmaking unfolds in stunning detail. An introductory booklet explores the centuries long role that nature has played in Japanese art, from Chinese influenced works of the Kano school, which depicted the bird as a Buddhist symbol, through to the ukiyo-e, when artists strove to capture fleeting moments of pure joy. Fans of Japanese art, lovers of birds, and anyone who enjoys beautiful depictions of the natural world will cherish this sumptuous, satisfying volume of earthly delights.

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Call of the Kingfisher is the enchanting debut from composer and wildlife recordist, Nick Penny. This love letter to a short stretch of Northamptonshire's River Nene celebrates all the wild things that live there, especially the kingfishers. Uniquely, it comes with bonus audio content to complement the text, accessed via QR codes. Nick has walked beside the river at Oundle for four decades. But for a whole year he gave the waterway all the time it asked for. The more attention he gave it, the more he saw the kingfishers and heard their high whistling calls. Set in a lovely but little-known part of England, Call of the Kingfisher relates a year by the river, the author's experiences there and the different people he meets. Other strands are woven around the elusive feathered protagonist: explorations of local history and landscape, from Roman and Bronze Age sites to watermills and centuries-old stone churches; visits at different times and to different places in the valley; homages to naturalists who lived nearby; forest dawns and dusks listening to the precious song of nightingales. But the background tapestry is the sights and sounds, and greens and browns, of the riverbank, shot through with the blue and orange threads of a kingfisher's glowing feathers. As a composer and wildlife recordist, Nick has a deep interest in sounds in the natural environment. He both uses the local landscape and wildlife sounds as inspiration, and brings fresh insights into the sounds of the countryside. The book includes access to a number of high-quality birdsong recordings made alongside the River Nene - audio soundbites of nature's riches, from kingfishers and nightingales to owls and cuckoos. This is a book about the things that can be seen and heard when we approach nature with patience and curiosity. It celebrates people who have used that focus to help preserve wildlife and pass on their knowledge to future generations. Above all, Call of the Kingfisher serves as a call to appreciate what we've got, wherever we are, and to use our ears as much as our eyes when we experience the natural world.

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For fans of the best-selling Amazing Machines series, this interactive early-learning activity book is the perfect purchase for vacations and long journeys, and is packed full of trucks! Trucks that are are tough, strong, and big. Trucks that can carry and push and tip. Trucks with radios, cabs, and beds, pistons that hoist, tilt, and shift. Preschool children will love the activity pagesthere are counting, matching, drawing, writing, coloring, and lots of other activities, as well as two pages of stickers to use.

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For fans of the best-selling Amazing Machines series, this interactive early-learning activity book is the perfect purchase for vacations and long journeys, and is packed full of trains! Trains that huff and puff and rattle and rush. Trains that can rumble over bridges and through tunnels.Trains with rails and wheels and coaches to carry people across the world. Preschool children will love the activity pagesthere are counting, matching, drawing, writing, coloring, and lots of other activities, as well as two pages of stickers to use.

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Discover the answers to all the questions you've ever wanted to ask about the natural world, history, space and more!Which insect tastes with its toes? Why do moths flutter around lamps? How do spiders make thread? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this fascinating question-and-answer book all about spiders, butterflies, beetles and more! Accessible and entertaining text makes learning about insects fun, and information is presented in bite-sized nuggets, making it ideal for reading aloud.Bright illustrations by illustrator Bethany Lord bring the wide variety of bugs to life. This is the ideal book for kids who love exploring nature.

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The bestselling I Wonder Why series has the answers to all the questions you've ever wanted to ask about the natural world, history, space, and more!Why do lizards lose their tails? Which turtle fishes with its tongue? Why do some snakes pretend to be dead? Learn the answers to these questions and more in I Wonder Why: Snakes Shed Their Skin, a fascinating question-and-answer book all about reptiles. Amanda O''Neill makes learning about the natural world fun with her accessible and entertaining style, and information is presented in bite-sized nuggets, making it ideal for dipping in and out.Bright illustrations by Gareth Lucas bring amazing reptiles to life including snakes, chameleons and turtles. Discover fascinating facts about these scaly and spiky creatures, and their strange and unique behaviors.

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From USA Today bestselling author T. Kingfisher comes a dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.

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Dark and twisted family roots threaten to strangle their home's foundations in this chilling haunted house novel from the award-winning master of modern horror, T. Kingfisher. In this ordinary North Carolina suburb, family secrets are always in bloom. Samantha Montgomery pulls into the driveway of her family home to find a massive black vulture perched on the mailbox, staring at the house. Inside, everything has changed. Gone is the eclectic warmth Sam expects; instead the walls are a sterile white. Now, it's very important to say grace before dinner, and her mother won't hear a word against Sam's long-dead and little-missed grandmother, who was the first to put down roots in this small southern town. The longer Sam stays, the stranger things get. And every day, more vultures circle overhead...

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From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Calla dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm''s The Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.*The hardcover edition features a foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn't have any doors between roomsthere are no secrets in this houseand her mother doesn''t allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother''s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don't force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren't evil sorcerers.When her mother unexpectedly moves them into t

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