Trudy Nicholson – illustratör

Approximately 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. The exceptional 0.1% reproduce via asexual or clonal means, which vary wildly and are fascinating in their own right. In this book, John C. Avise describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of the world's approximately 100 species of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction.Approximately 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. The exceptional 0.1% reproduce via asexual or clonal means, which vary wildly and are fascinating in their own right. In this book, John C. Avise describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of the world's approximately 100 species of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction.By considering the many facets of sexual abstinence and clonal reproduction in vertebrate animals, Avise sheds new light on the biological meaning and ramifications of standard sexuality.

Gathering the stories of people whose lives have adapted to the unique features of the North Atlantic coast, the book moves from Wampanoag Indians to eighteenth-century seafarers to contemporary teens. Readers are invited to feel the throb and pulse of the surf as Helen Keller felt it, track an otter through a southern New Hampshire winter, harvest blueberries as the Micmac Indians once did, and join a young boy as he tries to save a lobster from the cooking pot. The lives of fishermen and women, of sailors lost in the fog, of a whale trapped in a pond in Newfoundland—all become richer and more memorable when woven into the fabric of literature.The book is divided, as are all books in the series, into four sections: Adventures, Great Places, Reapers and Sowers, and Wild Lives. The treasure trove of stories, poems, journal entries, and essays about the region is followed by a brief natural history, including a list of areas to visit to experience the wilder side of the North Atlantic Coast region.

Children learning to fish in the tidewaters of Chesapeake Bay, a girl escaping Ocean City to see her first American oystercatcher, a family canoeing through Okefenokee Swamp, brothers catching a trophy bass together—these are some of the vivid stories, contemporary and historical, in this multilayered portrait of the South Atlantic Coast.