Claire Cameron

International Bestseller One of the most anticipated books of 2017: The Millions, CBC, Chatelaine, Globe and Mail, Maclean's From the author of The Bear, the enthralling story of two women separated by millennia, but linked by an epic journey that will transform them both Forty thousand years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate. But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people, even if it means sacrificing part of herself. In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives. Haunting, suspenseful, and profoundly moving, THE LAST NEANDERTHAL asks us to reconsider all we think we know about what it means to be human.

A Novel

The Last Neanderthal

A powerful suspense story narrated by a young girl who must fend for herself and her little brother after a brutal bear attack While camping with her family on a remote island, five-year-old Anna awakes in the night to the sound of her mother screaming. A rogue black bear, three hundred pounds of fury, is attacking the family's campsite -- and pouncing on her parents as prey. At her dying mother's faint urging, Anna manages to get her brother into the family's canoe and paddle away. But when the canoe runs aground on the edge of the woods, the sister and brother must battle hunger, the elements, and a wilderness alive with danger. Lost and completely alone, they find that their only hope resides in Anna's heartbreaking love for her family, and her struggle to be brave when nothing in her world seems safe anymore. This is a story with a small narrator and a big heart. Cameron gracefully plumbs Anna's young perspective on family, responsibility, and hope, charting both a tragically premature loss of innocence and a startling evolution as Anna reasons through the impossible situations that confront her. Lean and confident, and told in the innocent and honest voice of a five-year-old, THE BEAR is a transporting tale of loss -- but also a poignant and surprisingly funny adventure about love and the raw instincts that enable us to survive.

The Bear

In this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Bear and The Last Neanderthal, Claire Cameron confronts the rare genetic mutation that gave her cancer by investigating an equally rare and terrifying event—a predatory bear attack.

When Claire Cameron was nine years old, her father told her he was dying. In the years after he was gone, she overcame her grief among the rivers and lakes of Algonquin Park, a vast Canadian wilderness. Around that same time, in 1991, a couple was killed in a rare predatory black bear attack in the park—an event that shocked and haunted Claire.

Years later, with children of her own, Cameron was diagnosed with the same kind of deadly skin cancer as her father. Caught in a second wave of grief, she was told by her doctor, “the ideal exposure to UV light is none.” No longer able to venture into the wilderness as she once had, she again became obsessed with the bear attack in Algonquin Park. How could terror rip through such a beautiful place? Could she separate truth from fiction? She headed north to investigate.

Seamlessly weaving together nature writing with true crime investigation in this unflinching account of recovery, How to Survive a Bear Attack is at once an intimate portrait of an extraordinary animal, a bracing chronicle of pain, obsession, and love, and a profoundly moving exploration of how we can understand and survive the wildness that lives inside us.

A Memoir

How to Survive a Bear Attack

The line painter

A young girl who must fend for herself and her little brother after a brutal bear attack in this "emotional tour de force" (Megan Abbott) While camping with her family on a remote island, five-year-old Anna awakes in the night to the sound of screaming. A rogue black bear has entered the family's campsite and is attacking her parents. At her dying mother's urging, Anna manages to get her brother into the family's canoe and paddle away. But when the canoe runs aground on the edge of the woods, the sister and brother must battle hunger, the elements, and a wilderness alive with danger. Lost and completely alone, they find that their only hope resides in Anna's struggle to be brave when nothing in her world seems safe anymore. Told in the innocent voice of a child, THE BEAR is a transporting tale about love, loss, and the raw instincts that enable us to survive.

From the author of The Bear, the enthralling story of two women separated by millennia, but linked by an epic journey that will transform them both 40,000 years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate. But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people, even if it means sacrificing part of herself. In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives. Haunting, suspenseful, and profoundly moving, THE LAST NEANDERTHAL asks us to reconsider all we think we know about what it means to be human.

Quarantamila anni fa. L’ultimo gruppo famigliare della specie Neanderthal vaga sulla Terra, in un ambiente sempre più ostile. Dopo una stagione terribilmente difficile, sono rimasti in pochi. Tra loro c’è Girl, la figlia più grande. è nella giusta età della riproduzione e la sua famiglia è determinata a recarsi nel luogo conosciuto per gli accoppiamenti: Girl deve trovare un compagno per salvare la specie. Durante il cammino, però, il gruppo si disperde. Girl viene abbandonata. Con lei c’è solo Runt, un trovatello accolto nel gruppo qualche tempo prima. In condizione di costante pericolo e con l’avvicinarsi di un altro inverno glaciale, Girl si rende conto di avere una sola possibilità per salvare il suo popolo. Ai giorni nostri, l’archeologa Rosamund Gale vuole portare a termine l’importante campagna di scavo, prima che nasca il suo bambino. Mancano poche settimane al parto, ma portare alla luce nuovi reperti fossili della specie Neanderthal – il più emozionante tra i misteri dell’evoluzione umana – è per la dottoressa Gale un impegno esaltante. Rosamund e Girl sono legate da un filo sottile e al contempo molto forte attraverso i millenni. Tra preistoria e storia, le due donne condividono la medesima esperienza di maternità. Un libro commovente e ricco di suspense, intenso e incalzante, che porta il lettore a riconsiderare in modo nuovo i termini della grande domanda: cosa significa essere umani?

L'ultima dei Neanderthal

Peter Moss

Charlie Owen

Hightly Commended ( Third prize) in the Standing Conference on Studies in Education book prize for books published in 1999. `It was a breath of fresh air to see 'contentious' issues dealt with in an enlightened and informative way. We are certain it will move the debate on years!' - Chrissie Meleady, Sheffield Childrens' Centre `Looks most interesting and will certainly be very useful' - Bronwen Cohen, Director, Children in Scotland `It's a challenging and exciting book and I hope it is widely used' - Margy Whalley, Director, Pen Green Research, Development and Training Base, Pen Green Centre for Under 5's and Their Families

Gender and Caring Work

Men in the Nursery

A powerful suspense novel narrated by a young girl who must fend for herself and her little brother after a brutal bear attack. While camping with her family on a remote island, five-year-old Anna awakes in the night to the sound of her mother screaming. A rogue black bear, three hundred pounds of fury, is attacking the family's campsite -- and pouncing on her parents as prey. At her dying mother's faint urging, Anna manages to get her brother into the family's canoe and paddle away. But when the canoe runs aground on the edge of the woods, the sister and brother must battle hunger, the elements, and a wilderness alive with danger. Lost and completely alone, they find that their only hope resides in Anna's heartbreaking love for her family, and her struggle to be brave when nothing in her world seems safe anymore. This is a story with a small narrator and a big heart. Cameron gracefully plumbs Anna's young perspective on family, responsibility, and hope, charting both a tragically premature loss of innocence and a startling evolution as Anna reasons through the impossible situations that confront her. Lean and confident, and told in the innocent and honest voice of a five-year-old, The Bear is a transporting tale of loss -- but also a poignant and surprisingly funny adventure about love and the raw instincts that enable us to survive.

Carmen Dalli

Linda Miller

Nancy Barbour

Recent authoritative evidence suggests that an estimated 200 million children under five fail to achieve their developmental potential due to factors including poor health and nutrition and the lack of stable high quality care. A significant number of the world’s children today lack the basic rights to health, development and protection. In light of such statistics, early childhood services for young children have expanded around the world. The SAGE Handbook of Early Childhood Policy draws critical attention to policy in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) its relationship to service provision and its impact on the lives of children and families. The perspectives of leading academics and researchers from Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Australasia and Asia have been arranged around five key themes: Part 1: The Relationship Between Research, Policy And Practice: Country Case Studies Part 2: Equitable Early Childhood Services: Intervention to Improve Children’s Life Chances Part 3: Extending Practice: The Role of Early Childhood Services In Family Support Part 4: Participation, Rights and Diversity Part 5: Future Directions for Early Childhood Policy This handbook is essential reading for practitioners, stakeholders and others committed to working within early years services to achieve an awareness of policy and its implications for services and practice.

The SAGE Handbook of Early Childhood Policy

Care Work in Europe provides a cross-national and cross-sectoral study of care work in Europe today, covering policy, provision and practice, as well as exploring how care work is conceptualized and understood. Drawing on a study which looks at care work across the life course in a number of European countries, this book: explores the context and emerging policy agendas provides an analysis of how different countries and sectors understand and structure care work examines key issues, such as the extreme gendering of the workforce, increasing problems of recruitment and turnover, what kinds of knowledge and education the work requires and what conditions are needed to ensure good quality employment considers possible future directions, including the option of a generic professional worker, educated to work across the life course and whether ‘care’ will, or should, remain a distinct field of policy and employment. This groundbreaking comparative study provokes much-needed new thinking about the current situation and future direction of care work, an area essential to the social and economic well-being of Europe.

Current Understandings and Future Directions

Care Work in Europe

Janet Boddy

Care work and care workers past, present and future are examined in this edited collection which guides readers through an introduction to care work towards a critical understanding of potential futures for the field.

Present and Future

Care Work

Early childhood education and care has been a political priority in England since 1997, when government finally turned its attention to this long-neglected area. Public funding has increased, policy initiatives have proliferated and at each general election political parties aim to outbid each other in their offer to families. Transforming Early Childhood in England: Towards a Democratic Education argues that, despite this attention, the system of early childhood services remains flawed and dysfunctional. National discourse is dominated by the cost and availability of childcare at the expense of holistic education, while a hotchpotch of fragmented provision staffed by a devalued workforce struggles with a culture of targets and measurement. With such deep-rooted problems, early childhood education and care in England is beyond minor improvements. In the context of austerity measures affecting many young families, transformative change is urgent.

Towards a Democratic Education

Transforming Early Childhood in England:

Sonia Jackson

Graham Connelly

Children and young people in care rarely match the academic achievements of their peers and policy and procedures to address this inequality have not yet remedied the problem. Drawing on ideas from social pedagogy, the authors present a new approach - learning placements and caring schools. They show that education and care must be considered integral to both out of home placements and schools. Packed with practice examples, it includes chapters on early childhood education and care, as well as alternatives to school and higher education, covering everything from birth up to the age of 25. It highlights the potential benefits of a range of learning opportunities, from drama and outdoor activities, to bedtime stories and mentoring as well as providing support for teachers in their role as carer. Chapters include key points, case studies, practice points and useful resources. This is a unique evidence-informed practical guide for students and professionals in the fields of social work, social care, psychology and education.

Learning Placements and Caring Schools

Educating Children and Young People in Care

Die Welt vor 40.000 Jahren. Ein besonders strenger Winter hat die letzte Sippe der Neandertaler hart getroffen, nur wenige haben überlebt. Unter ihnen auch „Mädchen“, die älteste Tochter. Nun bricht die Familie auf zu dem jährlichen Treffen, um einen geeigneten Partner zu finden. Doch die raue und unwirtliche Natur fordert ihren Tribut. „Mädchen“ und „Kümmerling“, ein Bastard ungewisser Herkunft, bleiben allein zurück. Als die Zeit der Winterstürme naht, erkennt Mädchen, dass es nur eine Möglichkeit gibt, ihr Volk zu retten, auch wenn sie dafür ein großes Opfer bringen muss. In der Jetztzeit arbeitet die schwangere Archäologin Rosamund fieberhaft daran, neue Neandertal-Artefakte zu bergen, bevor ihr Kind auf die Welt kommt. Über Jahrtausende verbunden durch gemeinsame urweibliche Erfahrungen, geht die Geschichte beider Frauen zentralen Themen im Leben aller Frauen auf den Grund.

Roman

Neandertal

It’s 1:08 a.m. when Carrie’s car breaks down on the highway somewhere north of Lake Superior. It’s dark, the road is quiet, her cell phone is down, and she is alone. She took off from Toronto that morning, running from grief over the death of her boyfriend, and unable to cope with the truth about the events that led to it. The relief Carrie feels as a truck pulls up soon turns to fear after its driver offers her a lift. Frank, her would-be rescuer, is a line painter, putting lines on the road “to stop people from being killed.” But after Carrie gets in the truck, she starts to realize that this will be the road trip of her life -- a trip of terror, transformation and forgiveness. Claire Cameron has created a unique portrait of Carrie, a young woman whose actions are driven by grief and shame, her personality a beguiling combination of naïveté and streetsmarts. Frank is equally sharply drawn, his flashes of humour and tenderness disguising the wreckage within. Written in spare, unvarnished prose that brims with menace against the forbidding backdrop of a northern landscape, The Line Painter takes us on a riveting trip down a twisted road of memory and redemption.

Claire Cameron

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