Elanora and the Salt Marsh Mystery by Kathleen Jae (Giveaway)

Readers who enjoy stories with inspiring, strong characters will want to pick up a copy of Elanora and the Salt Marsh Mystery by Kathleen Jae.

After a series of terrifying events, Elanora finds herself separated from the life she has known. Now, she is in a place where she can only travel by water and the only food is the grasses of the marsh. Not everyone is accepting of this stranger in their midst, and Elanora struggles to fit in. When she discovers the water level in the marsh is falling, she must devise a plan to save the creatures who live there.

Adventure, conflict, and a race against time blend together in this inspiring story of a young animal who is put to the test from beginning to end. With support from Beathas and the sea cow, Elanora proves herself to be helpful to her new community and a strong future leader. From first page to last, readers will enjoy coming along with Elanora on her journey. I’m hoping we see more of Elanora and her friends in the future.

Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Publisher : Twenty Paws Publishing (March 20, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 232 pages
ISBN-10 : 0578744406
ISBN-13 : 978-0578744407

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Click here to get your FREE DOWNLOADABLE Elanora and the Salt Marsh Mystery Coloring Page!

GIVEAWAY!

Kathleen Jae is giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Card

&

One Printed Canvas Bag

(Canvas Bag Includes one plushie muskrat (Beathas, Lachi and the rest of the colony); one plushie chipmunk (Elanora); one plushie gray squirrel (Nara); one roseate spoonbill photo transfer hanging by Etsy shop owner FeelinGroovyPhotos (Moira and Muirreal); one framed manatee art print by Etsy shop owner SammWehmanArt (sea cow); one cormorant printed tea towel by Etsy shop owner HearthandHarrow (Pelles); one yellow-crowned night heron signed printed note card by Etsy shop owner BlueHenCraft (Morven); one set of 5 vintage bobcat postage stamps by Etsy shop owner AxmxZ (bullycat); one red-tailed hawk applique iron-on patch by Etsy shop owner PatchParlor (defyer); one reusable shopping bag adorned with assorted forest animals including red fox (oppect), white tailed deer (Damhan), rabbit (quidge) and owl (maurauder); one bird-watching notebook with blue jay (Jae) on front; two signed copies of Elanora and the Salt Marsh Mystery and two Elanora bookmarks.)

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive $50 Amazon Gift Card & one winner will be chosen to win tote bag.
This giveaway ends midnight April 30.
Winner will be contacted via email on May 1.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Adventures of Planetman: The Case of the Plastic Rings by Karen Cioffi

When Thomas hears an animal crying for help, he knows it’s time for Planetman and his cohorts Recycleman and Clean-it-man to get to work.

In this fun adventure, three kids become superheroes in order to make a difference in the world around them. This is a perfect book to celebrate Earth Day, but the lessons it teaches will last for years to come. Extra information includes tips to recycle, reuse, and reduce and fun ways to help our planet. With colorful artwork by Thomas Deisboeck, The Case of the Plastic Rings is sure to entertain readers.

Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Age Range: 4 – 8 years … K – 3
Page count: 48 pages
Published: May 2020
HC ISBN-10: 1950074188
HC ISBN-13: 978-1950074181
PB ISBN-10: 195007417X
PB ISBN-13: 978-1950074174

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

The Runaway Dandelion by Jill Regensburg

This is an adorable and educational story about one dandelion’s flight to a new home and the happy family she finds.

In The Runaway Dandelion, a beautiful meadow is bulldozed to make room for new construction. Harsh chemicals are brought in to kill all the dandelions in the new lawn, but one little dandelion survives. When her petals turn to white fluff she drifts a long way until she settles in a perfect new home and watches the daily life of the people who live there.

I must applaud the author’s desire to bring such an important message to young people. Her passion is evident on each page. As sustainable lifestyles become more prevalent, books such as these will encourage children from an early age. The one challenge I have with the story line is that the dandelion appears to see every inch of the family’s farm from where she is planted in the ground and seems to know the kids aren’t watching TV because they are so busy working on the farm. It’s a little niggle, but it was there for me.

The artwork by Leticia Plate is lovely. The colors and style are perfect for this story. The book has important terms appearing in green instead of in black, which are listed in a glossary at the end along with definitions. There is also a list of resources and useful links in the final pages. The Runaway Dandelion will open up the minds of young people and get them asking questions.

Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: EarthWardProject; 1st edition (May 12, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0998459607
ISBN-13: 978-0998459608

I received a free copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Guest Blogger: Katherine L. Holmes, Author of The Swan Bonnet

Unknown to Dawn, her grandfather has shot an old swan out of mercy. In their coastal Alaskan town, her father buys the swan pelt, preventing her Uncle Alex, a fur trader, from selling it for export. Dawn’s father surprises her part-Aleut mother with a hat she helped to make and also with an idea to catch poachers. Shooting swans has become illegal but Alaska is a territory and Prohibition occupies the Sheriff. Dawn and her mother become involved with suspicious responses to the swan bonnet besides its haunting effect. Because Dawn’s grandparents see the swans first, Dawn agrees to secretly watch the migration with the Deputy Sheriff’s son. But after she and her mother encounter women from a ship and find out about a hunting party, they ride to the inlet. There are also townspeople roving the shore but who is the vigilante and who is the poacher?

The Swan Bonnet Herstory by Katherine L. Holmes

We tend to absorb the history of our environment. As it was for many, Alaska was romantic to me as a frontier, romantic while living in the city. All of a sudden someone would leave Minneapolis for Alaska. My brother went there to do legal work after he had worked with Indian Legal Aid in Duluth. While he was on the south coast, I thought of moving. I read up on the state and became caught up in its history. The near extinction of swans in the United States had me thinking about settings, and soon I was planning a story.

Learning about Alaska was like learning grammar through a foreign language. I’ve never read a history book about Minnesota, though I have Midwestern ancestry going back to the mid-1800s. Mining hopes in Alaska were very similar to those on Minnesota’s Iron Range in the early 20th century. The influx of people in Northern Minnesota had similarities to Alaska’s new population. Sometimes they were the same people. Like Alaska, the fur trade began Minnesota history. I’d heard much about the 1920s on the Iron Range from my mother. Boomtowns and sudden wealth mapped the region.

After being fascinated with two books of Alaskan history, I researched swans. I read how warehouses with thousands of swan pelts were discovered, more than 10,000 at a time. Eventually hunting laws were enforced and a successful environmental chronicle was documented. I began my Alaska story as a shorter fiction about an Irish immigrant couple who bought shore property where swans migrated. But soon the story led to a coastal town and characters emerged.

When I thought of the swans being killed in masses, I knew that few women were part of such a money-making venture. How much did women help such an environmental campaign in a lone setting when a particular species were illegal to hunt? It is known how women responded to Prohibition then.

I posted the book at Authonomy.com in 2009, while I began to re-work the historical detail. I was afraid the swan hat would seem far-fetched. But it wasn’t historically. The West established its own dress. I actually hadn’t seen Chaplin’s The Gold Rush and later, when I watched the VHS, the women’s fur hats were part of the entertainment.

Not until I was rewriting the book did I realize the inspiration for the swan hat. Of course, it was meant to be the white hat of the western. But I remembered from my grade

picture-48920

school years the pheasant pelts one of my brothers brought home after hunting. He hung the pheasant pelts on the wall of his room and then in the basement. These pelts fit neatly on the head so that, with my friends, I wore a pheasant hat – until my mother found out and scared us about lice. There is some kind of method to storytelling after all.

Published by Enigma Press

ISBN: 978-0615794570

172 pages

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Swan-Bonnet-Katherine-Holmes/dp/0615794572/

Katherine L. Holmes’s first published novel, The House in Windward Leaves, was an E-book Fiction Finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Book Awards and also a Juvenile Fiction Finalist in the 2013 National Indie Excellence Book Awards. Her short story collection, Curiosity Killed the Sphinx and Other Stories, was published by Hollywood Books International. In 2013, The Wide Awake Loons was published by Silver Knight Publishing and The Swan Bonnet was published by Enigma Press. Katherine lives in Duluth, Minnesota, where besides writing, she works with used books.

Visit the author online at https://sites.google.com/site/katherinelholmesauthorprofile/

Bella Saves the Beach by Nancy Stewart

A true story of try and try again can be found in Bella Saves the Beach by award-winning children’s author, Nancy Stewart.

Bella is sad when her beloved beach is loaded with trash. But with her best friend Britt away on vacation, it’s harder to clean up the beach than she planned. Each new idea doesn’t bring about the desired result, but Bella is determined to make the beach safe and clean for her animal friends.

To someone who loves learning, a book like Bella Saves the Beach is so wonderful. This book has two messages. There’s the environmental one about how dangerous trash is to wildlife. Then there’s the “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” message. Combining them makes for a superbly told engaging story about one girl’s determination to make a difference.

From the beginning, Stewart’s Bella and Britt series has shown young readers that their ideas matter and how they can make a difference when it comes to caring for our planet and its creatures. In this new book, the author takes that message to a new level by leaving Bella to face the challenge without her best friend Britt’s support. Now it isn’t two kids making a difference. It’s one determined young girl.

At the end of the story, the author shares information on beach trash, facts about creatures mentioned within the book’s pages, and encourages readers to have a Green Picnic on the sand, leaving behind only footprints.

One can’t forget to mention the stunning watercolor artwork of Samantha Bell. She has illustrated all three books in this series. With warm colors and rich details, she brings Bella’s story to life in pictures. A perfect complement to Stewart’s story, the artwork is so lovely you can almost hear the waves hitting the sand and the caws of the birds.

Bella Saves the Beach is a fine addition to the Bella and Britt series. I can’t wait to see what Bella and Britt are up to next.

Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Paperback: 24 pages
Publisher: Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc (February 15, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616333715
ISBN-13: 978-1616333713

The author paid me to promote this book through a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book. This fee did not include a review. This review contains my honest opinions, for which I have not been compensated in any way.

BELLA SAVES THE BEACH TOUR SCHEDULE

Monday, April 22^nd

Guest post at The Children’s and Teens’ Book Connection

Tuesday, April 23^rd

Book trailer feature at If Books Could Talk

Wednesday, April 24^th

Book review at On Words – Opening Eyes, Opening Hearts

Thursday, April 25^th

Book spotlight and giveaway at The Busy Mom’s Daily

Book review at Shannon Hitchcock Pen and Prose

Monday, April 29^th

Book review at Hook Kids on Reading