In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby. Private detective Charlie Parker is hired by a lawyer to shadow the police investigation and find the infant but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in much more than a missing child.

Bill Bryson, instead of retiring to enjoy his loving and beautiful wife and large and happy family, challenges himself to hike the Appalachian Trail: 2,200 miles of America's most unspoiled, spectacular, and rugged countryside from Georgia to Maine. The peace and tranquility he hopes to find, though, is anything but, when the only person he can find willing to join him on the trek is his long-lost former friend Katz, a down-on-his-luck serial philanderer....

In [this book, the author] talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. [He] shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply - and find the joy of family connectedness in the process. -Dust jacket.

One little pig has made a little den for herself in the woods, and another little pig has a small hut next door. One morning they return from a walk to find that their big friend Bear has moved into the den and an even larger Moose into the hut. CRASH! With both homes collapsed, they're all in a pickle--but what if they find a way to build a house in the woods that all four of them can share?

"One of the most famous works of 19th-century American Transcendentalist literature is excerpted and illustrated by Italian artist Giovanni Manna, who brings Thoreau's natural experiment to life"--