Sheila became a Life Peer in 2010 in recognition of her leadership in mental health and learning disability. Baroness Hollins is Chair of the Board of Trustees and editorial content is still overseen by her, together with a wider team of expert authors, artists and readers who find pictures easier than words. The number of titles continues to grow, with over 80 stories published since 1989.

He interviews biologists. He conducts field observations. He travels to Africa and Yellowstone National Park, and the Pacific coast between the United States and Canada. He talks to many specialists. Broadly speaking this book comes in three parts, each focussing on the family- and wider social-dynamics of a single species: first elephants, then wolves, then killer whales. More specifically, though, it’s about us too: the way we humans look at both ourselves and the world; about the imaginary dividing line we draw around ourselves to separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom; about the idea that we are different—special. And I say “imaginary” because the author’s aim is to show how absurd this idea is.This quote begins the chapter on wolves. And yet, it describes so much more. This book is about the many observations and discoveries and intimate views of animal behavior to challenge the boundaries between humans and non-human animals.

We are delighted to be once again partnering with our friends at City Lit to host the Mental Wealth Festival. This year the festival focuses on connections, exploring ways that connection supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing and celebrating the numerous ways in which we connect with others, ourselves, and the world around us. Whether you are reading the book with one person or a group, encourage people to tell the story in their own words. You will discover what each person thinks is happening, what they already know, and how they feel. You may think something different is happening in the pictures yourself, but that doesn’t matter. Wait to see if their ideas change as the story develops. Watch, wait and wonder. Join Beyond Words’ afternoon book clubs to explore the magic of pictures for yourself. Beyond Words staff and self-advocates will lead on a series of small book clubs developing visual literacy, empathy and understanding of each other through reading their picture stories. Beyond Words’ new two year project to support people with learning disabilities and autism to find work has been launched today, 13 December, by Damian Green, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. When I came to Poland at the beginning of the war, my daughter Anastasia asked me, whether I could share my experiences with a Polish artist who wanted to document it all in drawings. How do you tell your story of escape from your war-torn homeland? How do you share your emotions and put them into words coherently, for the other side to understand?A great number of Ukrainians and Poles continue to volunteer in different fields of life. They are active, conscious and united in their response to the atrocities and mass killings of the Ukrainians. From the beginning of the war, Poles have shared their homes and possessions. They have offered housing, food, clothes and heartfelt support. This is a very precious quality. It strengthens us, makes as more human. And deep in our hearts, we hope that victory will arrive soon because good has to win over evil. This is the world we believe in and we are trying to build. Lo mejor de Mentes Maravillosas es que todos vamos a disfrutarlo: los científicos, los amantes de los animales, los que lo desconocen casi todo y aquellos a los que nunca les interesó saber. Resulta imposible simplificar cuánto aprendizaje se esconde sobre estas páginas. Nunca sospechábamos que los cuervos podían resolver puzzles complejos, que los lobos son los animales con la comunidad más humana posible, que los monos quedan cerca de un sentido de la estética, que los elefantes almancenan un conocimiento geográfico e histórico soberbio, o que las orcas parecen saber qué sienten los humanos y buscan constantemente la interacción con ellos. Algunas historias nos pondrán muy tristes cuando nos demos cuenta de la extinción a la que estamos conduciendo a estas especies. La gran mayoría de las narraciones nos dejarán asombrados al reconocer actuaciones y sentimientos nunca antes intuidos en los animales: justicia, sentido de la decisión, luto, deducción... Y si el libro es lo suficientemente largo y profuso en detalles, no hace sino aumentar nuestra sed de conocer más a medida que lo vamos leyendo. A female killer whale in Peuget Sound playing with her three-year daughter. Children are rare in this salmon eating species in decline, and this one was killed accidentally by naval practice gunnery or demolition Much of the information on elephants, wolves, and killer whales was about their family lives and how they communicate. All three of these species have strong female leadership and lifelong bonds between mothers and their children. They also have systems of meaningful vocalization that probably can be considered language. Each member of each of these species is a distinct individual with personality characteristics very similar to those of humans. The details of their lives in the wild are fascinating. The details of their individual and large-scale murders by humans are horrifying.

Lucy Goes Riding is a brand new book all about the joy of shared activities and making friends. It shows Lucy trying out horse riding for the first time, making new friendships and strengthening old ones. This story was developed in memory of our colleague and friend Carrie Dunton, who died in 2021. The importance of friendships and horses were just two of the many things that mattered to Carrie. We miss you Carrie and are sure this short story will give pleasure to many people. For the people watching them over the years, the animals’ individual personalities shine through no less than what we experience with our own pets. And their personalities seem obviously critical to their success or challenges in the social roles they assume. Yes, we get a special amplification of social memory and abstract communication with human language, but is this capability a difference in degree or a qualitative leap above particularly brainy animals? Though animals may have a pretty extensive range of communication calls and signals and primitive levels of syntax and generativity when taught symbolic modes of communicating with humans, what stands out is their ability to “read” each others’ intentions and feelings without words. And touch is a persistent and universal mode of sharing emotions and social cohesion among the three species (as well as dolphins and primates). Of course nobody really knows what is conveyed in the rich sonar and aural productions of Cetaceans, the howling of wolves, the recently discovered complex vocalizations of elephants in the low frequency range below human hearing, and the repertoire of gestures being uncovered among gorillas and other apes. When I chose to read this book I thought I was going to get something like The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think which I gave four stars, but rather than concentrating solely on dogs the focus would cover many animals. Carl Safina's book is wider in scope and completely different in focus. Hare's book is very good, but Safina's is better, in my view! Hare's book draws conclusions by looking at particular experiments, stipulating how they were carried out and analyzing their results. It is a book about the latest scientific studies on dogs’ cognitive abilities.

CEO, Alicia Wood, has re-articulated what Beyond Words stands for, defining our strengths in supporting both visual and emotional literacy and exploring a wider readership for our stories, with our main focus being book clubs or groups whether in community, educational or therapeutic settings. Relatos reflexivos tras mirar a los ojos de un delfín, lágrimas cuando ves la muerte injusta de seres que al igual que nosotros viven en cohesión durante toda su vida y mucha, mucha satisfacción con el nacimiento de un nuevo miembro de la familia. Pero todo ello no se limita a la parcela humana, sino que son sentimientos contrastados y observados día a día por parte de cada uno de los protagonistas de este libro: animales. Since then, Lucyna and I have been meeting to discuss the changing perception of the war. We exchange our views on women who become ever so stronger in new environments. They work, they learn Polish, they raise children, they take on new jobs, they support each other and the elderly in need. This is particularly important as COVID-19, and the importance of the vaccine, is no longer front and centre in the media. We hope this resource will help people to continue conversations about the importance of protecting their health, in many ways, in the long term”.

Il saggio che ho appena finito di leggere, è diviso i 4 parti e parla più nello specifico di 3 specie di animali: gli elefanti, i lupi e e orche. Ma non solo, vi è un excursus su molti altri animali, per esempio: i bonobo, gli scimpanzè, i topi, gli uccelli ecc... When the War Cameis an expansion of Beyond Words’ previous short resource on the war in Ukraine. Continuing their work with Polish artist Lucyna Talejko-Kwiatkowska, they have produced a full-length picture story about a family from Ukraine who is forced to flee their home. The book is aimed at helping those fleeing unimaginable circumstances to begin to tell their own stories and talk about their feelings. It may also be useful to help build empathy and understanding amongst children and adults in countries welcoming refugees. As the story has no words, it can cross language barriers and be used in a wide variety of contexts. This book is dedicated to the people of Ukraine. The efforts to get to know these species in their natural state in the wild are confounded by stresses and losses due to impacts of mankind. More and more what gets observed by their long-term monitors is angle both on pathology and resilient adaptation to changes in their environment, food sources, and unnecessary deaths of key family leaders. The social devastation to family structure and survival is covered in examples from each species in the aftermath a losses of the matriarch. In the case of elephant and wolf examples, the parks in Kenya and Yellowstone are too small to protect species whose range goes outside park and, for elephants, do not a sufficient barrier to poaching. The continuing decline of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest reflects loss of their salmon prey, pollution such as lead, boating or fishing accidents, or adverse impacts of naval operations such as from sonar blasts or demolition (as many as ten species specialize in different food prey, such as seals among their Arctic cousins). As we can see clearly from Safina’s narrative the loss of key family members can mean death to a whole family from the disruption of missing leadership, cultural knowledge, and the emotional center for adults and infants alike. He emphasizes how we need to be aware of these consequences and hopefully get more serious about halting the continuing decline in each species’ populations still going after reductions of 90% or more in their numbers and ranges over the last couple of hundred years. Aren���t we, by fits and starts, even through the darkness of unspeakable human horrors, always searching for peace, always seeking more perfect ways of taming ourselves? Self-domestication does indeed seem part of the human program. The process of becoming more civil is called civilization.Lo mejor del libro es que la ciencia brilla por todos lados, argumentos sólidos y coherentes que muchas veces y como bien dice el autor: te hace tambalear al ver cosas que no eres capaz de explicar. Porque... y si las orcas nos entienden más que nosotros a ellas? If you've ever wondered how unique humans are with their emotions, family relations, problem solving, and intelligence get this book. I had already read some of the book's material in Frans de Waal's book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?. De Waal also makes a strong case for animals and against humancentric schools of thought.