Nature was a form of religion for naturalist, essayist, and early environmentalist Henry David Thoreau (1817–62). In communing with the natural world, he wished to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and … learn what it had to teach." Toward that end Thoreau built a cabin in the spring of 1845 on the shores of Walden Pond — on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson — outside Concord, Massachusetts. There he observed nature,...

"When Blondina is revealed to be a long-lost princess, she hopes to say good-bye to the miserable life of an orphan. But all that awaits her in the palace is bullying and ridicule for her common background, and the cold, condescending gaze of her father, the emperor. Her first and only friend is a black cat she meets in the garden. Though Amon has a big attitude for a little ball of fur, he's the perfect buddy she always wanted. And the best part--he...