“The inspiration for this book came to me one afternoon as I watched my son, Hudson, playing with his toy bus. I was trying to keep pace with his three-year-old mind as he got deeper and deeper into a fantasy involving nothing more than a yellow plastic box and armless figurines. At least that’s what I saw. He saw frantic commuters rushing to catch the 77 local bus to Australia. He jumped in place, mouth open and slapping his knees, joyously reacting to a world I couldn’t see, but one powerfully present for him...”. – Jordan Matter

Photo: “Dancers Among Us”: Macys, NYC – Annmaria Mazzini. (Photo by Jordan Matter)

A “Star Wars” superfan has brought the universe to his backyard. Amateur photographer Zahir Batin, from Selangor in Malaysia, added stormtroopers, X-wings and other famous sights to his native Tanjong Karang rice fields. The Malaysian snapper decided to combine his love for his hometown with his passion for the out-of-this-world space opera and, in particular, the toys. The amazing shots show TIE fighters on fire flying overhead and AT-AT walking tanks towering over tiny children, as well as Dark Side forces marching through the countryside. Here: a Nubian Royal Starship hovers over the Malaysian rice fields. (Photo by Zahir Batin/Mercury Press)

Nimbus, the 2 month old clouded leopard cub, who was hand reared at the home of curator Jamie Craig. Photographed sitting in her hammock at Cotswold Wildlife Park, Burford, Oxfordshire, UK on September 2014. Jamie Craig the curator of the Cotswold Wildlife park has hand reared the baby clouded leopard in his family bathroom after he was rejected by his mother. Now two months old Nimbus is been fed a cat milk replacement diet by bottle and is given soft toys to play with. It is hoped that the leopard will re-join others at the park and eventually join their breeding program. (Photo by SWNS/ABACAPress)

Galapagos – Rocking the Cradle: Four major ocean currents converge along the Galapagos archipelago, creating the conditions for an extraordinary diversity of animal life, April 25, 2016. The islands are home to at least 7,000 flora and fauna species, of which 97 percent of the reptiles, 80 percent of the land birds, 50 percent of the insects and 30 percent of the plants are endemic. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak for National Geographic/World Press Photo)

Birds behaviour winner: Land of the Eagle by Audun Rikardsen, Norway. High on a ledge, on the coast near his home in northern Norway, Rikardsen carefully positioned an old tree branch that he hoped would make a perfect golden eagle lookout. To this, he bolted a tripod head with a camera, flashes and motion sensor attached, and built himself a hide a short distance away. From time to time, he left road‑kill carrion nearby. Very gradually – over the next three years – a golden eagle got used to the camera and started to use the branch regularly to survey the coast below. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

The carcass of a yacare caiman lies in the dried-up river bed of the Pilcomayo river in Boqueron, Paraguay, August 14, 2016. In Paraguay, alongside the Pilcomayo River, black vultures flew over a shrinking pond where a group of crocodilian reptiles known as yacare caimans sought refuge. Water from the river, which divides Paraguay and Argentina in the area of the Gran Chaco, was scarce. This is not an uncommon sight in the region of General Diaz, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) northwest of the country's capital Asuncion, where the Pilcomayo's waters form lakes and streams that give life to capybaras, birds and caimans. (Photo by Jorge Adorno/Reuters)

Jaison Vargas, crocodile tour guide, takes a picture of an American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) during a tour at the Tarcoles river, in Tarcoles, Garabito municipality, Costa Rica, on March 31, 2022. Crocodile tours in the estuary of the Tarcoles River are a popular attraction for visitors to Costa Rica's Pacific coast, as the area gets back on its feet after being shaken by the pandemic. The river is home to nearly 500 species of birds and some 2,000 American crocodiles, many of which have been named after famous people. (Photo by Luis Acosta/AFP Photo)

“Happy Feet” the emperor penguin that washed up on the Kapiti Coast last week, undergoes a medical examination at Wellington Zoo on June 29, 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand. The young penguin landed on NZ shores last week, after traveling over 3,000 kilometres from the antarctic. The ill penguin was operated on at Wellington Zoo several times this week to remove sand and sticks from it's stomach with hopes it will recover fully. A team of experts is likely to decide today, whether the bird will remain in captivity in New Zealand, or be transported back the the antarctic. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)