Books with author Amy Lucas

'Funny' and 'exciting' are words used by readers of Snail Trail. 'There's nothing snail's pace about this story,' one TV broadcaster carries on. 'There are many swift twists and turns executed by our pint-sized misses Marple as they solve a highly unusual village mystery. Looming large all the while are the exotic Land Snails who inspired the tale ...'Who has delivered two baby giant African land snails to each house in the village of Newton, and why? Is it an April Fool's joke like the grown-ups think? Nine-year old bet friends and detectives-in-the-making, Amy and Charlie, decide to solve the mystery. Number one suspect, Mr. Brown is often heard driving his car up to the top of the village at night. He never shaves, always acts weird. Then snail posters appear all over the village. A secret spilled in the playground leads the girls into a snail hunt high up on Zig Zag common. Then a schoolboy goes missing ... the girls' mums start to behave suspiciously. As the girls make an amazing discovery, a discovery that will change their, and the villagers lives forever, the truth dawns. But just who comes out of the mystery with egg on their face?This story which came out of a real-life incident appeals to children and grown-ups alike and highly suitable for shared reading.

At the present time the interest in the ancient life of this earth is greater than ever before, and very considerable sums of money are being expended to dispatch carefully planned expeditions to various parts of the world systematically to gather the fossil remains of the animals of the past. That this interest is not merely confined to a few scientific men, but is shared by the general public, is5shown by the numerous articles, including many telegrams, in the columns of the daily papers. The object of this book is to tell some of the interesting facts concerning a few of the better known or more remarkable of these extinct inhabitants of the ancient world; also, if possible, to ease the strain on these venerable animals, caused by stretching them so often beyond their due proportions. The book is admittedly somewhat on the lines of Mr. Hutchinson's "Extinct Monsters" and "Creatures of Other Days," but it is hoped that it may be considered with books as with boats, a good plan to build after a good model. The information scattered through these pages has been derived from varied sources;6some has of necessity been taken from standard books, a part has been gathered in the course of museum work and official correspondence; for much, the author is indebted to his personal friends, and for a part, he is under obligations to friends he has never met, who have kindly responded to his inquiries. The endeavor has been conscientiously made to exclude all misinformation; it is, nevertheless, entirely probable that some mistakes may have crept in, and due apology for these is hereby made beforehand. The author expects to be taken to task for the use of scientific names, and the reader may perhaps sympathize with the old lady who said that the discovery of all these7strange animals did not surprise her so much as the fact that anyone should know their names when they were found. The real trouble is that there are no common names for these animals. Then, too, people who call for easier names do not stop to reflect that, in many cases, the scientific names are no harder than others, simply less familiar, and, when domesticated, they cease to be hard: witness mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, boa constrictor, all of which are scientific names. And if, for example, we were to call the Hyracotherium a Hyrax beast it would not be a name, but a description, and not a bit more intelligible.8Again, it is impossible to indicate the period at which these creatures lived without using the scientific term for it—Jurassic, Eocene, Pliocene, as the case may be—because there is no other way of doing it.