The Secret BayThe Secret Bay

Kim Ridley
Illustrated by Rebekah Raye
ISBN: 978-0-88448-433-2
Ages: 2-4

Estuaries form where river meets sea and fresh water mixes with salt. Teeming with life, these places of salt marshes, mudflats, and tidal backwaters serve as nursery areas for oceangoing fish, migratory stopovers for shorebirds, and homes for an amazing diversity of snails, bivalves, fish, mammals, horseshoe crabs, fiddler and blue crabs, terrapin turtles, plankton, and many others, all of whom we meet in the pages of this delightful book.

 

swimming-home-270x300Swimming Home

Susan Shetterly
Illustrated by Rebekah Raye
ISBN: 978-0-88448-354-0
Ages: 6-11
Lexile Measure: 830L

The story follows a school of fish (river herring, or alewives) on a journey of hundreds of miles, escaping porpoises, seals, eagles, and herons.

Swimming Home is also the moving story of a boy and his father who see the fish stopped just short of their goal by a new road, and transport them across the last hundred feet.

The Tilbury House Nature Book series brings the natural world to life for young readers without anthropomorphizing animals. Each book aims for the highest standards of scientific accuracy and storytelling magic.

Reviews:

Susan Shetterly writes with an elegance of expression that takes my breath away. Swimming Home is a simple, enlightening story, told with suspenseful pacing and a deep sympathy for the natural world. I can t wait to read this to a child in my life. –Monica Wood, author of When We Were the Kennedysi, Any Bitter Thing, and Ernie’s Ark

Susan Hand Shetterly infuses this appealing story with the sensitivity to the natural world that defines all her work. –Frank Graham Jr., Audubon Magazine contributing editor and author of Since Silent Spring

You will be swept away by this dramatic story of alewives enduring their perilous annual journey and a boy and his father who help them along the way. –Jennifer O Connell, author/illustrator of The Eye of the Whale

About the Author/Illustrator:

Susan Hand Shetterly writes about wildlife and wildlands for adult and youth audiences.

Rebekah Raye is the illustrator of The Secret Pool, a Kirkus-starred picture book about vernal pools and winner of the 2014 John Burroughs Association Riverby Award.

 

secret_pool_coverThe Secret Pool

Kimberly Ridley
Illustrated by Rebekah Raye
Publication date: September 1, 2013
Hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-339-7
9 x 10, 32 pages, color illustrations
Children / Nature; Grades 2-4

“The Secret Pool is enchanting! I encourage parents, grandparents, and friends of children everywhere to read the book with a young one—and then open the door to see if you can find a vernal pool. If you don’t live in a region where vernal pools can be found, look for something else in nature that changes through the seasons and serves as a home for wildlife.” —Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Children & Nature Network

“With poetic text and informative sidebars, this beautiful book delightfully captures the drama and mystery of vernal pools. Dive in and get lost in this magical world.” —Joyce Sidman, Newbery Honor-winning children’s author and winner of the 2013 National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

 

[youtube id=”aoiRkQAmZo4″ align=”right” autoplay=”no” maxwidth=”500″] “It reads with the delight and dangers of a fairy tale, but it’s grounded in science.” —Holly Meade, award-winning illustrator of almost thirty books

You might walk right by a vernal pool and not notice it. Often mistaken for mere puddles in the woods, vernal pools are the source of life for many interesting creatures. If you look carefully you can find them—and be amazed! These secret pools form every year when low places on the forest floor fill up with rain and melted snow. They soon become home to hatching wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp. Even in late summer and fall, when many vernal pools have shrunk to mud holes, creatures such as turtles and snakes rely on these places for shelter and food.

The Secret Pool introduces young readers to the wonders right underfoot as the voice of a vernal pool shares its secrets through the seasons and as sidebars provide fun facts on its inhabitants and the crucial role these small, often overlooked wetlands play in maintaining a healthy environment.

Bear-ly There
Rebekah Raye
Publication Date: September 2009
Hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-314-4
9 x 10, 32 pages, illustrations
Children / Nature; Grades 3-6

Purchase Bear-ly There inscribed to you by Rebekah Raye.

What do you do when there’s a bear in your backyard? A big black bear shows up one moonlit night and creates a real ruckus, first breaking into the shed where the grain is kept for the geese (who aren’t too happy about it), then raiding the bird feeders. The bear is also causing problems at other homes in the neighborhood, getting into the trash and compost and eating dog food that was left out overnight. One neighbor offers to shoot it. Another one suggests calling the game warden to have the bear tranquilized and relocated. But the child among them knows what is best. A bear belongs in the woods, Charlie says, and together with the adults he clears the yards in the neighborhood of any food that would tempt the bear. His dad comes up with a good idea for warning the bear away—and it works! Bear-ly There shows that it’s always best for the bear if it stays in the woods, away from humans. An occasional glimpse of a bear through the trees or at the far side of a meadow is much, much better than having one in the backyard—for us and for the bear.

Rebekah Raye is an artist beloved for her bird and animal paintings and sculpture. Her warm, expressive work is derived from her affinity with the natural world around her at her studio and home in East Blue Hill, Maine (where she had a bear visitor not too long ago). She illustrated Thanks to the Animals by Allen Sockabasin and is the author and illustrator of The Very Best Bed. Rebekah shares her love of art and her skills in workshops for adults and children and makes frequent school visits.

Teachers Guide for Bear-ly There

“I love the book, its message, and its illustrations! We had a bear in our neighborhood and went through the same experience that the family in the book does–and by taking down our birdfeeders and removing the things that were attracting the bear and her cub, we got them to stop hanging around our houses. If you have bears at your house, you are the problem, not the bear! The boy in this book may have saved the bear’s life by taking action and putting up that poster to educate his neighbors.”
—Lynne Cherry, Children’s Author (The Great Kapok Tree), Environmentalist, and Filmmaker

“Rebekah Raye presents a wonderfully illustrated, true-to-life story many of us who live in bear country might encounter. Bear-ly There presents straightforward and entertaining ways to coexist with these amazing creatures of the forest for all ages.”
—Sean Matthews, Associate Conservation Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society

“Wonderful illustrations; wonderful message and text. Loved it. We have that same problem right here (and we just raised a goose, too).”
—Bernd Heinrich, author of Summer World: A Season of Bounty Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, Mind of the Raven, and other books

 

 

The Very Best BedThe Very Best Bed

“Dangle upside down from a branch—like a bat?

Or float with your nose just above water—like a seal? Every animal has its own way of sleeping, and the squirrel’s quest to find the ‘very best bed’ may just inspire the reader to snuggle up with a good book—like this one—at bedtime.”

—Amy MacDonald, Children’s Book Author

A bushy gray squirrel is ready for bed, but where will he sleep tonight? He finds a cozy den, but a big black bear is already sleeping there. On his way up a tree, he sees a family of bats, but sleeping upside down doesn’t suit him. A beaver slaps his tail on the pond before he dives down to his bed in his lodge, but the squirrel doesn’t want to get his feet wet. Here’s a snug hole in a tree, but it’s overflowing with raccoon babies. Rebekah Raye’s wonderful watercolor paintings take us along on the gray squirrel’s search for just the right bed. Where, oh where, will he sleep tonight?

Rebekah Raye is an artist beloved for her bird and animal paintings and sculpture, derived from her affinity with the natural world around her at her studio in East Blue Hill, Maine. She illustrated Thanks to the Animals, by Allen Sockabasin, and teaches workshops for children and adults.

Signed copies of The Very Best Bed as well as selected prints from the book will be on sale at the artists gallery throughout the summer.

Published by:
Tilbury House, Publishers
2 Mechanic Street, Suite 3
Gardiner, Maine 04345

207-582-1899
Web Site: http://www.tilburyhouse.com

 

thanks_cover_sm

Thanks to the Animals

Little Zoo Sap and his family are moving from their summer home on the coast to the deep woods for the winter, traveling on a big bobsled pulled by big horses through the snow. When Zoo Sap falls off of the sled unnoticed, the forest animals hear his cries. First to come are the beaver, who put their tails together to cradle him. Then all the other animals circle round—everyone from the tiny mouse to the giant moose to the great bald eagle—keeping him warm and safe until his father comes back to find him.

Aallen_zoo_sapllen Sockabasin is a Passamaquoddy who devotes much of his time to teaching and preserving the Passamaquoddy language. A master musician, he has written, performed, and recorded Passamaquoddy stories and songs. He has been a tribal governor, a member of the tribal council, and director of child welfare for his tribe, and a health educator. He is the father of five grown children and a young son named Zoo Sap.

Signed copies of Thanks to the Animals as well as selected prints from the book will be on sale at the artists gallery throughout the summer.thanks1

Published by:
Tilbury House, Publishers
2 Mechanic Street, Suite 3
Gardiner, Maine 04345

207-582-1899
Web Site: http://www.tilburyhouse.com