Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

~ Arnold Lobel [1933-1987] author of many popular children's books.

Compiled by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, the Birdbooker Report is a weekly report that has been published online for years, listing the wide variety of nature, natural history, ecology, animal behaviour, science and history books that have been newly released or republished in North America and in the UK. The books listed here were received by Ian during the previous week, courtesy of various publishing houses.

Featured Title:

• Kiser, Joy M. America's Other Audubon. 2012. Princeton Architectural
  Press. Hardbound: 192 pages. Price: $45.00 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US].
  SUMMARY: Nearly everyone is familiar with John James Audubon and his seminal color-plate book, The Birds of America. But few people are aware of another monumental volume of artwork, Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Inspired by viewing Audubon's lithographs at the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia, twenty-nine-year-old amateur naturalist and artist Genevieve Jones (1847-1879) began working on a companion volume to The Birds of America, illustrating the nests and eggs that Audubon omitted. Her brother collected the nests and eggs, her father paid for the publishing, and Genevieve learned lithography and began illustrating the specimens. When Genevieve died suddenly of typhoid fever, her family labored for seven years to finish the project in her memory. The original book, sold by subscription in twenty-three parts, included Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Theodore Roosevelt among its subscribers.
  Only ninety copies of the original book were published in 1886, and fewer than twenty-five copies now remain in institutions and private hands. Featuring reproductions of all sixty-eight original color lithographs, archival photographs, selected field notes, and a key to the eggs and birds, America's Other Audubon chronicles for the first time the story behind the making of this extraordinary nineteenth century book. America's Other Audubon includes a foreword by Leslie K. Overstreet, curator of Natural History Rare Books at the Smithsonian Institution.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: The original sells for $45,000 to 48,000 U.S. A must have for those with an interest in bird art and/or American ornithological history.

New and Recent Titles:

• Picker, Mike, Charles Griffiths and Alan Weaving. Field Guide to Insects of South Africa. 2004. Struik Nature. Paperback: 444 pages. Price: $32.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
  SUMMARY: This new guide will be of great value to entomologists, both amateur and professional, as well as to students, nature conservation officers, game rangers, gardeners, farmers, tourists and anyone with an interest in natural history. An introductory chapter discusses the insect body, life history, classification and distribution patterns and relatives of southern African insects. It also touches on collecting, displaying and curating insects and explains 'How to use this book'.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A useful photographic guide to the insects of the region!
• Gould, James L. and Carol Grant Gould. Nature's Compass: The Mystery of Animal Navigation. 2012. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 294 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: We know that animals cross miles of water, land, and sky with pinpoint precision on a daily basis. But it is only in recent years that scientists have learned how these astounding feats of navigation are actually accomplished. With colorful and thorough detail, Nature's Compass explores the remarkable methods by which animals find their way both near home and around the globe. Noted biologist James Gould and popular science writer Carol Gould delve into the elegant strategies and fail-safe backup systems, the invisible sensitivities and mysterious forces, and incredible mental abilities used by familiar and rare species, as they investigate a multitude of navigation strategies, from the simple to the astonishing.
  The Goulds discuss how animals navigate, without instruments and training, at a level far beyond human talents. They explain how animals measure time and show how the fragile monarch butterfly employs an internal clock, calendar, compass, and map to commence and measure the two-thousand-mile annual journey to Mexico -- all with a brain that weighs only a few thousandths of an ounce. They look at honey bees and how they rely on the sun and mental maps to locate landmarks such as nests and flowers. And they examine whether long-distance migrants, such as the homing pigeon, depend on a global positioning system to let them know where they are. Ultimately, the authors ask if the disruption of migratory paths through habitat destruction and global warming is affecting and endangering animal species.
  Providing a comprehensive picture of animal navigation and migration, Nature's Compass decodes the mysteries of this extraordinary aspect of natural behavior.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A detailed treatment on the subject.
  
• Stilwell, Jeffrey D. and John A. Long. Frozen in Time: Prehistoric Life in Antarctica. 2011. CSIRO Publishing. Hardbound: 238 pages. Price: $77.00 U.S. [Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: No other continent on Earth has undergone such radical environmental changes as Antarctica. In its transition from rich biodiversity to the barren, cold land of blizzards we see today, Antarctica provides a dramatic case study of how subtle changes in continental positioning can affect living communities, and how rapidly catastrophic changes can come about. Antarctica has gone from paradise to polar ice in just a few million years, a geological blink of an eye when we consider the real age of Earth.
  Frozen in Time presents a comprehensive overview of the fossil record of Antarctica framed within its changing environmental settings, providing a window into a past time and environment on the continent. It reconstructs Antarctica's evolving animal and plant communities as accurately as the fossil record permits.
  The story of how fossils were first discovered in Antarctica is a triumph of human endeavour. It continues today with modern expeditions going out to remote sites every year to fill in more of the missing parts of the continent's great jigsaw of life.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction into the paleontology of Antarctica.
• DiTerlizzi, Tony. A Hero For WondLa. 2012. Simon and Schuster. Hardbound: 464 pages. Price: $17.99 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: The highly anticipated new illustrated novel in the New York Times bestselling The Search for WondLa series.
  Before the end of The Search for WondLa, Eva Nine had never seen another human, but after a human boy named Hailey rescues her along with her companions, she couldn't be happier. Eva thinks she has everything she's ever dreamed of, especially when Hailey brings her and her friends to the colony of New Attica, where humans of all shapes and sizes live in apparent peace and harmony.
  But all is not idyllic in New Attica, and Eva Nine soon realizes that something sinister is going on -- and if she doesn't stop it, it could mean the end of everything and everyone on planet Orbona. Three illustrations trigger a 3-D Augmented Reality flying game that mimics action in the novel.
  Featuring an abundance of lavish two-color illustrations and spot art throughout and introducing a host of remarkable characters that reinforce the importance of friendship, A Hero for WondLa has all the hallmarks of a classic book -- of the future.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: Fans of the first book should enjoy this book!

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Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen is an avid and well-known book collector, especially to the publishing world. Mr Paulsen collects newly-published books about nature, animals and birds, science, and history, and he also collects children's books on these topics. Mr Paulsen writes brief synopses about these books on his website, The Birdbooker Report.

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