Product Description Provides contextualized reading practice students need to learn and retain new vocabulary.Before Reading, Reading Check and After Reading activities review and reinforce vocabulary, ensure comprehension, and build critical thinking skills.Links to The Oxford Picture Dictionary provide a visual glossary for easy reference.Audio CDs include recorded versions of all the readers. About the Author Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, author, documentary scriptwriter, and radio commentator who writes for children as well as adults. Among her award-winning books are "The Good Good Pig, Journey of the Pink Dolphins", "Spell of the Tiger", and "Search for the Golden Moon Bear". She has made four trips to Peru and Brazil to study the pink dolphins of the Amazon; and on other expeditions, she was chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire; bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica; undressed by an orangutan in Borneo; and hunted by a tiger in India. She also worked in a pit crawling with eighteen thousand snakes in Manitoba; handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana; and swum with piranhas, electric eels, and dolphins in the Amazon. Research for this book included travel to China and Mongolia to see the latest discoveries of giant bird fossils, and to Australia to see the most dangerous birds in the world. She lives in New Hampshire.Jayme Adelson-Goldstein, co-author of The Oxford Picture Dictionary is an adult education ESL teacher, curriculum consultant, and certified teacher trainer. She has given professional development workshops for adult education instructors throughout the United States on topics such asstudent-centered instruction, ESL techniques and multilevel instruction.