"Simple text and full color photographs introduce beginning readers to the characteristics of droughts."--Provided by publisher.

Readers are introduced to the perils of famine and drought and the lasting effects they have on Earth's geography and human population. This captivating text brings forth how famine and drought happen, what measures are taken to avoid them, and how they have impacted different parts of the world.

When a drought tests the commitment of a mail-order bride from Maine to her new home on the prairie, her stepchildren hope they will be able to remain a family.

"They were fire and terror to the Western world, while in the East the dragons brought life-giving rain. Now, no longer hailed as gods and struggling in the overheated pollution of Beijing, only the Eastern species survives. As drought plagues the aquatic dragons, a mysterious disease--shaolong, or "burnt lung"--afflicts the city's human inhabitants. Jaded college student Xiang Kaifei scours Beijing streets for abandoned dragons, distracting himself...

"In the vein of The Dry and Before the Fall, a town's dark secrets come to light in the aftermath of a young priest's unthinkable last act in this arresting and searing debut thriller. In Riversend, an isolated rural community afflicted by an endless drought, a young priest does the unthinkable, killing five parishioners before being taken down himself. A year later, accompanied by his own demons from war-time reporting, journalist Martin Scarsden...

Describes the events of the devastating dust storms of the 1930s.

In Mississippi in the early 1900s ten-year-old David Logan's family generously shares their well water with both white and black neighbors in an atmosphere of potential racial violence.

This fictional account of the closing months of the war against the Portuguese and the consolidation of the independent West African nation of Guinea-Bissau both reflects and critiques the revolutionary process. Mortu Nega, as its title implies, is a unique kind of elegy - not so much to the victims of the liberation struggle as to its survivors. Like the Zimbabwean film Flame (1996) and Gomes' own more disillusioned second feature Udju Azul di Yonta...

"Readers discover the dangers of freak weather and study the science behind wildfires in this age-appropriate guide to natural disasters. Specific case studies of deadly wildfires and freak weather events are presented alongside maps to help readers visualize where they took place. Readers are also presented with facts about how these natural disasters happen and what can be done to prepare for them, and they're introduced to the people who study...

Twelve-year-old Della Kelly of Maryville, North Carolina, tries to come to terms with her mother's mental illness while her father struggles to save the farm from a record-breaking drought.