New Releases by Allan W. Eckert

Par un jour orageux de 1870, Ben MacDonald, un petit garçon un peu sauvage, se perd dans la prairie américaine où ses parents ont installé leur ferme. Surpris par la tempête, Ben se glisse dans un terrier où vit une mère blaireau. De la rencontre de ces deux êtres solitaires naît une extraordinaire aventure.

Explores America''s westward expansion beyond the Mississippi River, 1834-1848.

Captured at the age of twelve by a U.S. General he comes to regard as father, Johnny Logan, a nephew of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, eventually rejects the ways of his tribe and becomes an American spy during the War of 1812.

In 1841 a party of men, women, and children set out from Missouri led by John Bidwell, the prince of California pioneers. Their trip to California across the plains and mountains, as revealed in the journal of their leaders, is a tribute to human courage, endurance, and faith. The Bidwell pioneers were followed by many other parties, including the Donner-Reed party. Caught in the Sierra Nevada mountains by the icy grip of an early winter, the Donner party built crude shelters and struggled to survive. Soup made of boiled leather and powdered bones became a luxury. Of the 79 persons who started, 34 died before an expedition out of California rescued the survivors.

Originally published: Boston: Little, Brown, c1983. (The winning of America series)

A very special young adult nature novel about the life and adventures in survival of a North Carolina king snake, from the time of his hatching until he becomes adult. The story shows the way he lives, how he catches and eats his prey (including other snakes, even poisonous ones), his value in the balance of nature and the fascinating events of his life, shedding new light and understanding about the lives of snakes, which, despite their value to man, are so often misunderstood and deliberately killed just because of what they are or what they are perceived to be.

"Eckert''s skills as a naturalist, previously displayed in his Newbery Award-winning Incident at Hawk''s Hill, are here given full expression and armchair adventurers will soon be caught in its spell. The pristine and often savage beauty of the killer rainforest is described in lush detail; the reader is right there, watching. Once the reader has been snagged, he''ll be as much a captive of the magnificent forest as is Sarah Francis and just as intent as she to survive in a paradoxically terrifying and beautiful environment. The reader cannot help by hold his breath!" -Cincinnati Enquirer

Recreates events which actually occurred in the opening up of the Northwest Territory in the period 1700 to 1900 based on written documents.

This is a fantasy, a la C.S.Lewis, about twins (boy and girl) who find their way into a parallel world in which there are strange creatures, strange people, strange topography, and evil kings and warlocks trying to rule the entire land of Messmeria. The twins join the "good" forces to help overcome the evil ones.

His mother was a housecat gone wild—a huge, tiger-striped cat who survived almost certain death at the hands of a man intent upon destroying her and her family. His father was a bobcat—a proud, cunning creature of the Wisconsin countryside, whose tumultuous courtship with her resulted ultimately in his own violent death. The Crossbreed himself was their largest offspring—the only one that strange litter the feral housecat bore to resemble his sire, even though his markings were those of his mother. His intelligence and ability and the combination of the better attributes of both breeds enabled him to survive in a world of enemies and t undergo an incredible odyssey of over two thousand miles in four years. The Crossbreed is a swiftly paced, sometimes brutal sometimes sad, always compelling novel of an indomitable spirit; of the perfection that is nature and of the cruel and sometimes wonderfully tender moments between men and animals.

This nature novel, by following the hatching and lifetime experiences of the last know wild passenger pigeon, chronicles the life, natural history, and ultimate extinction of this species which was once the most abundant bird species in North America. The last wild bird was killed in 1900; the last captive bird died in 1914.

Here at last, is the ultimate guidebook to actual locales that can be driven to for collecting rocks, minerals and fossils in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The four volumes, with over 1,200 maps, describe over 5,000 specific sites; this Volume 1 includes over 300 to-scale maps marked with over 1,000 collecting sites and detailed directions on getting there, the types of rocks, minerals and fossils to be found at each site, and how and where to search once you''ve arrived.

Running away from a vicious trapper, seven-year-old Ben MacDonald is separated from his family and eventually ends up on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, where he is taken in by a tribe of Metis Indians.

Readers will find fascinating details about the discovery, whereabouts, and value of famous opals, from such classic specimens as the Burning of Troy Opal to the Bonanza Opal and other more recent discoveries. Finally, the book surveys today''s major opal-producing areas and provides current information on opal occurrence worldwide. Punctuating the text are useful tables, extensive glossaries of opal types and opal-related terms, and beautiful photographs that capture the essence and mystery of this most exquisite stone.

An award-winning author chronicles the settling of the Ohio River Valley, home to the defiant Shawnee Indians, who vow to defend their land against the seemingly unstoppable. They came on foot and by horseback, in wagons and on rafts, singly and by the score, restless, adventurous, enterprising, relentless, seeking a foothold on the future. European immigrants and American colonists, settlers and speculators, soldiers and missionaries, fugitives from justice and from despair—pioneers all, in the great and inexorable westward expansion defined at its heart by the majestic flow of the Ohio River. This is their story, a chronicle of monumental dimension, of resounding drama and impact set during a pivotal era in our history: the birth and growth of a nation. Drawing on a wealth of research, both scholarly and anecdotal—including letters, diaries, and journals of the era—Allan W. Eckert has delivered a landmark of historical authenticity, unprecedented in scope and detail.

A biography of the famous Shawnee describes Tecumseh''s plan to amalgamate all North American tribes into one people, his role as statesman and military strategist, and his death in the Battle of Thames.

A narrative account of the defeat and dispossession, by 1780, of the Iroquois tribes of New York State and upper Pennsylvania despite the valor of the great chief, Joseph Brant.

Back in the land of Mesmeria now under the rule of the evil King Krumpp, Lara and Barnaby discover all their friends imprisoned and the only way that they can rescue them is to find and learn how to use the secret volumes of the Warp and the Wand. Sequelto "The Dark Green Tunnel."

A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie and spends a summer under the protection of a badger.