Nature's Great Events

by Karen Bass (Editor)

"Nature's Great Events" will be a landmark television series showcasing our planet's most spectacular natural events and the global climatic phenomena which transform entire landscapes, drawing in millions of animals and determining their fate. The series combines the epic scale of the BBC One's "Planet Earth" with the intimate, emotional stories of individual animals as they struggle to survive. This book will closely follow the structure of the television series. In addition words, pictures, and graphics will provide an eyewitness experience and reveal the mechanisms of the different events. Each chapter is set in a different location on our planet and shows how immensely powerful natural forces can drive chain reactions involving everything from microscopic organisms to entire tracts of rainforest, ultimately culminating in a spectacular natural event.From the flooding of the Okavango Delta in Southern Africa, attracting great herds of near starving elephants into the jaws of waiting lions, to the melting of the Arctic ice disrupting hunting polar bears, both book and television series will follow the fortunes of a few key characters before during and after each great event.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Photography, Science

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian's note: there is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.
Karen Bass is a producer and book editor for the BBC.

Reviews

[April Brown]

This book covers the six story television series in far greater depth with fascinating facts and pictures.

Is the story as good as I remember? – Yes

What ages would I recommend it too? – Toddlers and older. The pictures are fascinating to any age, and can be treated like a bedtime storybook.

Length? – At 315 pages, each segment is about 26 pages long, an hour or so read per night.

Characters? – Memorable, several characters.

Setting? – Ocean, desert, polar regions.

Written approximately? – 2007.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – You wonder what will happen next on the planet. Will these same events be viewable in ten years, and how will they change?

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? This book is written with British spelling and measurements. While this may not be too confusing in fiction, where measurements occur less often, lengths in feet and miles in this book can become confused to the reader. Often, you have to stop, go back, and re-read a sentence leaving out the first measurement for the one in parenthesis.

Short storyline: Each segment follows the film team of each particular show. My favorite by far is "The Great Plains," with the story of the desert antelope and the elephants. The Ice stories could be refreshing in summer for those who like icy stories.

[Gil Segev]

This book is somewhere between a photography book and a natural history one. Chronicling several 'events' on the planet, it is chock-full of interesting facts and stories. It really makes you appreciate the incredible synchronization that happens every day in this phenomenal planet. Many of the photos were quite spectacular, but the stories lack plot or structure, which can make for a confusing read.

[Elaine]

Not only is this book GORGEOUS, but it was so interesting to read from the perspective of the people who catch these amazing events on film. My favorite picture was of the hundreds of white beluga whales swimming through turquoise arctic melt waters. My favorite story was the lions of the Great Wildebeest Migration. Stunning.

[Katy German]

I won a copy of this book while dicking around on twitter, so I love it already. Plus, it has a dust jacket, a very nice matte finish cover that is not a simple copy of the DJ, and printed endsheets - very fancy schmancy.

[Evander]

The photography is absolutely stunning.

[Rudi Opperman]

One of the best nature books I've read.