Wake Up Island

Wake up, little one, a soft voice beckons, the world around you is already stirring. As Wake Up, Island gently rouses the sleepy child, it summons a world of nature coming to life on a summer island in the magical North Woods. Sunlit fingers touch the shores, pine trees stretch their limbs, and lichen warms on ancient rock. Doe and fawn rise from their grass bed and pearls of dew bead a spider’s finely woven web. Mallards skim the water’s surface. Ravens perch and gargle greetings, chickadees call dee, dee, dee, and a heron swoops—minnows flee! The moose and her calf wade, munching on plants. The red squirrel chatters. The black bear lazily scratches her back against a tree. Conjuring the morning life around a cabin fragrant with berry pancakes, this timeless book wakens the child in every reader to the wonders of nature that greet every new day in the charmed world of a northern woodland island.

A gripping narrative of unprecedented valor and personal courage, here is the story of the first American battle of World War II: the battle for Wake Island. Based on firsthand accounts from long-lost survivors who have emerged to tell about it, this stirring tale of the “Alamo of the Pacific” will reverberate for generations to come. On December 8, 1941, just five hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes attacked a remote U.S. outpost in the westernmost reaches of the Pacific. It was the beginning of an incredible sixteen-day fight for Wake Island, a tiny but strategically valuable dot in the ocean. Unprepared for the stunning assault, the small battalion was dangerously outnumbered and outgunned. But they compensated with a surplus of bravery and perseverance, waging an extraordinary battle against all odds. When it was over, a few hundred American Marines, sailors, and soldiers, along with a small army of heroic civilian laborers, had repulsed enemy forces several thousand strong––but it was still not enough. Among the Marines was twenty-year-old PFC Wiley Sloman. By Christmas Day, he lay semiconscious in the sand, struck by enemy fire. Another day would pass before he was found—stripped of his rifle and his uniform. Shocked to realize he hadn’t awakened to victory, Sloman wondered: Had he been given up for dead—and had the Marines simply given up? In this riveting account, veteran journalist Bill Sloan re-creates this history-making battle, the crushing surrender, and the stories of the uncommonly gutsy men who fought it. From the civilians who served as gunmen, medics, and even preachers, to the daily grind of life on an isolated island—literally at the ends of the earth—to the agony of POW camps, here we meet our heroes and confront the enemy face-to-face, bayonet to bayonet.

After a concussion that affects her balance, memory, and other abilities, twelve-year-old Kat goes to I-Can, the "Miracle Clinic in the Swamp," where she joins forces with other patients to expose a plot that endangers them all.

Facing Fearful Odds is based on interviews and correspondence gathered from more than seventy of Wake's American defenders and on research in archival and printed sources. The book covers the planning and political struggles that began Wake Island's transformation into a naval air station and submarine base, the U.S. Navy's eleventh-hour efforts to garrison and fortify Wake, and the various air, sea, and land attacks that resulted in the atoll's capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy. This study attempts to correct the myths that shroud what happened on the atoll. - from preface.

Early in the year, our North American forests come to life as native wildflowers start to push up through patches of snow. With longer days and sunlight streaming down through bare branches of towering trees, life on the forest floor awakens from its winter sleep. Plants such as green dragon, squirrel corn, and bloodroot interact with their pollinators and seed dispersers and rush to create new life before the trees above leaf out and block the sun's rays. Wake Up, Woods showcases the splendor of our warming forests and offers clues to nature's annual springtime floral show as we walk in our parks and wilderness areas, or even in shade gardens around our homes. Readers of Wake Up, Woods will see that Gillian Harris, Michael Homoya and Shane Gibson, through illustrations and text, present a captivating look into our forests' biodiversity, showing how species depend on plants for food and help assure plant reproduction. This book celebrates some of nature's most fascinating moments that happen in forests where we live and play.

Teachers, entrepreneurs, successes and stars come together in this volume to reveal their keys to personal success in relationships, in business and in life. From self-realization guru Dr. Wayne Dyer to basketball superstar Jerry "Dr. Memory" Lucas, each one of these contributors speaks to a slightly different perspective. Overcoming obstacles, perceiving your truest purpose, finding the courage to be passionate about what you do best: everyone can learn from these leaders in business, training, teaching and industry. Success isn't a gift; you have to seize it. This is the manual.

Lyrical words and elegant woodcuts capture the quiet beauty of the forest as day fades to night and autumn gives way to the North Woods winter While we are tucked in, snug in warm blankets as we listen to bedtime stories, the woods around us whisper another tale. As the golden leaves waft through the lengthening shadows, the loon sings one last lullaby, the whirring hummingbird takes one last sip, the industrious beaver saws one last branch for her lodge. Here, in enchanting words and woodcuts, is the magic of night falling and winter approaching in the North Woods. Hush Hush, Forest peers through twilight’s window at the raccoon preening, the doe and fawn bedding down, the last bat of the season flitting away. The owl surveys, the rabbit scurries, the bear hunkers, readying her den. Marking the rhythm between the falling leaf and the falling snowflake, picturing the rituals of creatures big and small as they prepare for the long winter’s sleep, this charming book captures a time of surpassing wonder for readers of all ages—and bids everyone in the hushed forest a peaceful good night.

A gentle, rhyming story, full of beautiful baby animals and perfect for bedtime. One by one, all the animals in the forest wake up to find something very special has happened - they don't know what it is yet but they know it's very special. They each gather a gift and form a procession to find out what it is. Finally they reach a clearing and there they meet a beautiful, shy and wonderful newborn baby fawn.

In a book that draws on interviews with American POWs, as well as their Japanese captors, and diaries secretly kept by prison-camp inmates, the author of Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island offers a moving history of the incarceration of the American defenders of Wake Island after their surrender to the Japanese during World War II.