Featured: Three Children’s Books by Local Authors
Katrina Hyena, Stand-up Comedian – Sophie Kohn, illustrated by Aparna Varina
For grades K-3 – Sophie Kohn presenting on Friday October 20
An early chapter book about a laughing hyena who yearns to be a stand-up comedian that will have kids rolling with laughter.
When the spotted hyenas in Katrina’s clan laugh, it’s meant as a warning to alert the clan that danger is near. But that’s not why Katrina laughs. Katrina laughs because she thinks the world is just sooooo funny!
This causes great frustration with the other hyenas. Every single time Katrina starts laughing, they think she’s in danger and rush to help her. What if Gary the Lion is on the prowl?!
Katrina, whose dream is to be a stand-up comedian, thinks her stressed-out clan worries too much about Gary, so she decides to help them relax by putting on a comedy show.
This laugh-out-loud story will have readers developing their own jokes, and the hilarious illustrations will act as a helpful guide for emerging readers, who will devour chapter after chapter. The recurring theme of self-acceptance assures readers that it’s okay to be different, and that sometimes it’s our differences that make us special.
Key Themes:
Embracing Uniqueness: Shows that our unique traits can turn out to be our greatest strengths.
Self-Acceptance: Teaches young readers that it is okay to be different.
Project Wild One – Louise Sidley
For ages 8-12 – Louise Sidley presenting to grades 4-6 on Tuesday October 20
Ten-year-old Robbie finds himself raising a wild mallard duckling that has become separated from her family, and the summer holds one adventure after another. To give Wild One the will to live, Robbie introduces her to the bright and bold domestic duckling, Peeper.
Taking care of two maturing ducklings proves difficult, both physically and emotionally. Added to Robbie’s fears, his granddad, a former duck hunter, moves into the family home for the summer, challenging Robbie’s ideas about protection and freedom, intention and foolhardiness, and life and death in the natural world.
By the end of the summer, solitary Robbie has made friends with one of the kids whose families come to the lake each summer, and the two boys take action to save Wild One’s pond from destruction. Come autumn, Harold must leave for the city and Wild One must migrate, but Robbie and Peep will be waiting and watching for their return
Wild Spirits – Rosa Jordan
For ages 8-12 – Rosa Jordan presenting to grades 7-9 on Tuesday October 20
Wild Spirits is the story of a young teen boy, Danny, and an older teen girl, Wendy, whose friendship begins when Danny asks Wendy for help in caring for two baby raccoons. Danny has a rough home life and has no friends his own age because this is a town where the boys are heavy into hunting and he isn’t. He only wants to protect wildlife, not kill it.
Wendy works at a bank but has always looked after injured and orphaned wildlife, so she knows a lot about it. What Wendy doesn’t know how to do is keep herself safe after a bank holdup, when the criminals get away and start making threatening phone calls, saying they’ll hurt her if she tells the police anything about them (which she already has.) She gets so scared that she can hardly stand to be around anyone she doesn’t know. She quits her job and, out on the farm where she lives, starts taking in more and more exotic animals. Danny hangs out at the farm, too, helping Wendy look after the exotic animals she collects – everything from fawns to bobcats.
Danny begins to develop the skills he needs for a career in working with exotic animals, which is what he wants to do when he finishes school. What Wendy gets out of helping Danny is a true friend, a boy whom she first thinks of as “just a kid” but who, when the criminals finally do come after her, saves her life.