Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Virtual Book Tour Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Written and Illustrated by Karen B. Winnick 

Ages: 7-9 | 40 Pages

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group (2025) | ISBN: 979-8886452846

Publisher’s Book Summary: Where did all the wolves go? The birds, the fish, and the beavers? When the top predator was wiped out, the balance of nature in Yellowstone National Park was disrupted. The circle was broken.

Written in a lyrical style, Why Wolves Matter is an ecological tale that helps children to understand the interconnectedness of all things in the natural world. Once all the wolves were gone, the elk population grew so large that the trees and vegetation on which they fed disappeared, throwing the Park and the remaining wildlife into disarray.

A nonfiction picture book, including a timeline and bibliography, Why Wolves Matter is about the importance of the top predator in nature, how balance was restored in Yellowstone National Park, and how the circle was made whole again—with important historical and scientific relevance for children.

A deeply committed animal person, Karen B. Winnick has created many picture books about animals. She’s a member of an oversight commission for the Los Angeles Zoo, and a member and supporter of many groups working to save animals, including wolves.

PURCHASE LINK


Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Bookshop.org


MY REVIEW


Keystone species are just that - KEY to their ecosystems. When humans eliminated wolves in the Yellowstone area, the entire ecosystem suffered. This picture book depicts the cascade effects from the removal of wolves by leaving blank white spaces to show the various species that also disappeared. Outlines of birds, fish, and beavers illustrate the loss of various pieces within Yellowstone as the system tipped out of balance. Readers can see how the overpopulation of the elk led to overgrazing which led to loss of habitat for other animals and so on…and so on. The author circles the story around from the early days of a balanced ecosystem, through the times of disappearing species, and back again to the reintroduction of the wolves and the recovery of the area. While many kids hear about food chains in science lessons, they do not always grasp the interdependence of the animals and plants involved. Reading this book would make it very clear how intertwined the environment of an area is and how removing one key piece can bring it all crashing down. An author’s note, timeline of key events, and extensive bibliography make this book useful in classrooms and libraries, even beyond the appeal to individual readers.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Karen Winnick is an author and illustrator of Why Wolves Matter, Can You Spot the Leopard: An African Safari, Good Night, Baby Animals, Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers, Sybil’s Night Ride, Lucy’s Cave, A Year Goes Round, Barn Sneeze, Cassie’s Sweet Berry Pie, Sandro’s Dolphin and Patch & The Strings. She is the author of The Night of the Fireflies. Her paintings have been exhibited in local galleries, and her poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies. She has also produced a play, Kindertransport, about Jewish children sent to England during WWII.

Karen serves as President of the Board of Commissioners for the Los Angeles Zoo; the Board of Trustees Emeritus at Brown University; the Board of Trustees at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library; the Board of Trustees of Fauna and Flora, International and the Board of Governors Syracuse University Hillel. She has also served on the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Museum in New York and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in Washington, D.C.

Karen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University. She also studied in Florence, Italy, at NYU, the School of Visual Arts, and at the University of California, Los Angeles.

For more information, visit karenbwinnick.com.

https://www.instagram.com/karenbwinnick/

TOUR SCHEDULE

Monday, February 17, 2025

The Children’s Book Review

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Me Two Books

Book Activity for Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Crafty Moms Share

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Friday, February 21, 2025

icefairy’s Treasure Chest

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Monday, February 24, 2025

One More Exclamation

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

The TipToe Fairy

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

The Fairview Review

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Cover Lover Book Review

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

The Starlit Path

Author Interview with Karen B. Winnick

Monday, March 3, 2025

Deliciously Savvy

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Country Mamas With Kids

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Glass of Wine, Glass of Milk

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Q&As with Deborah Kalb

Author Interview with Karen B. Winnick

Friday, March 7, 2025

Writer with Wanderlust

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Monday, March 10, 2025

Froggy Read Teach

Instagram Post about Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Mrs. Makes Reading Fun

Book Review of Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story

This post is sponsored by Karen B. Winnick. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal views.

Monday, February 24, 2025

Winter Reading 2025 Buried Deep and Other Stories

I admit it - I am a Naomi Novik fan. Since I first read Uprooted, I have appreciated her characters, her world-building, and her amazing plots. This collection of short fiction includes pieces set within worlds or accompanying stories that we already know from her other books. It also has a story set within the world of her next planned series. Some have previously been published in other anthologies or magazines, but together they make a precious little bundle.

What will you find inside?

- a tale of pirates and a promised bride who is easily the match for the spirited Elizabeth Swann

- a trip back to the Scholomance after it is reopened (yes, more Orion Lake!)

- a condemned man in Roman times sent off to kill a dragon and he winds up meeting Julius Caesar

- Ariadne and the minotaur

- an early, shorter version of Spinning Silver 

- an encounter with Irene Adler (yes, "the woman")

- a group of fairies handing out blessings at the birth of a baby girl

- a teapot in the trenches of WWI that may be something more than just cookware

- a junior bureaucrat on a foreign planet

- Elizabeth Bennett and her dragon

- a young bride and her stepson trying to survive the Black Death

- and that last story, a taste of things to come with wizards and sea krakes and oceans to explore.

Whether you sit down and read the book through from start to finish, or pick and choose which story suits your mood on a particular day, you will have a delightful time. You will laugh at silly young fools. You will groan with frustration at unfair situations that the characters must overcome. And you will cheer for determined young women who manage to make their own way in the world despite all the odds stacked against them. If you are a Novik fan already, you know what sort of treat to expect. If this is your first encounter, prepare to hunt down the rest of her books as soon as you finish this one.

I read an advance copy provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Winter Reading 2025 Candle & Crow: Ink & Sigil, Book 3

 

Kevin Hearne once more returns to the world of the Iron Druid in this third installment of the Ink & Sigil series. Al MacBharrais has faced gods, fae, magical monsters and creatures of all sorts. He is brave, or foolhardy enough, to have a hobgoblin as a servant. With his craft he can create magical sigils and use them to keep the magical and mundane worlds safely separate. But with all his abilities and all the powerful beings he knows, he has suffered for years in a cursed existence. The time has finally come for him to focus on this problem and find a solution.

It doesn’t help that there are actually two curses. One causes his apprentices to die, while the other causes just the sound of his voice to make anyone to whom he speaks frequently to hate him. It is a lonely existence with no one to teach the secrets of his craft and having to depend on a text-to-voice app to “speak” aloud to others. So Al does some research and finds a seer who can tell him how to locate the source of the curse.

Of course - it’s never that easy. While he is trying to solve his personal problems he still has to carry out his work as a sigil agent. And everyone around him seems determined to make life more complicated. His servant Buck plans to pull off a major caper that will make him the most famous hobgoblin of all. The Morrigan, ancient goddess of death, now has a new human body and wants to live in the mortal world and even date humans. His employee Nadia is starting up a new church to worship the god she invented, who loves cheese and whisky. The police are prowling around asking questions. It never rains but it pours, as the saying goes.

After the first two books in the series left readers and Al with only more questions about his cursed state, the resolution of Candle & Crow almost seems hurried. Perhaps it is just that we have waited so long (like Al) to find out who did this to him and why. But the ending feels like it is too easy, despite all the obstacles. It is still an enjoyable read - and the inclusion of some time with Atticus and Oberon is always welcome (as are Oberon's insights into the flavoring of sausages). Perhaps things can spin off to let us see some of the other sigil agents in action? This is a world that is hard to step away from once you have discovered it.

I read an advance copy provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Winter Reading 2025 The Queens of Crime



I don't know how Marie Benedict does it, but she has such an incredible talent for bringing historical fiction to life. I'm sure there are long hours of research to get all the details of fashion, food, and even the everyday language of the characters correct. All that effort results in an amazing experience for us as readers. This time she captures the personalities of the leading female authors of the Golden Age of Mystery. Each of them is portrayed from her wardrobe to her attitude with all the pieces in place. Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories. Agatha Christie of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot fame. Ngaio Marsh with her fictional British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Margery Allingham who wrote about gentleman sleuth Albert Campion. And Baroness Emma Orczy the inventor of the Scarlet Pimpernel. 

When the male members of the Detection Club try to pooh-pooh the little ladies, these formidable women decide to take on a real life mystery and solve it to prove their skills. The case they choose to solve involves a young nurse who disappears while on a short trip out of town with a friend. When her body is discovered, male journalists and the public in general put it down to death by misadventure, but the Queens of Crime have other ideas. They use their social and political contacts to locate and speak to persons of interest. Each of them is able to play a role when necessary, based on their own strengths. Benedict portrays the Baroness and her more traditional place in society, the brash Ngaio with her forthright colonial spark, as well as the difference in the ages of the various women and their levels of confidence in contributing to the group effort. She also nails the climate following the war and the generation of "surplus women" that were forced to adapt to lives that were much different than that of earlier generations. 

Even if you have not read one of Benedict’s novels before, you will be a fan before these brilliant ladies reach the end of their investigation. Recommended for readers who enjoy the books of the featured characters, as well as those who have delighted in previous titles by Marie Benedict.

Winter Reading 2025 Shot Through the Book (A Lighthouse Library Mystery 12)


The Bodie Island Lighthouse Library is a favorite place to visit in the pages of each new adventure with librarian Lucy McNeil. This time the library is hosting a book festival featuring several local authors and big name headliner Todd Harrison. When that headliner winds up mysteriously dead, Lucy is caught up once again in looking for the truth of what happened. There are plenty of suspects - the other authors who wanted to be the main speaker at the event, the one who accused him of stealing her story idea and profiting from it, disappointed fans who heard he was ending his popular series and starting something completely different... It seems too many people had motives to make solving the case easy. When Harrison's widow begins pressuring local police and using her bereavement as a means to further her own political ambitions, things really get out of hand. This series has plenty of mystery elements - a cast of local characters with their assorted quirks and foibles, multiple motives to sort through, a protagonist who knows the majority of the suspects (or can find ways to question them), and enough suspects working at cross purposes to keep things unclear for the police. Lucy is an amateur sleuth, however unwilling, who uses her local knowledge and her resources to try and put things right. The fact that the death occurs on her own porch this time gives her some extra motivation to close the case. The setting with the library at its center and the way each story is somehow tied to books (authors, festivals, displays, etc.) make this series a cozy home away from home for bibliophiles and mystery lovers alike. Whether readers are returning for another visit to Bodie Island or just encountering Lucy and the library for the first time, it will be a pleasurable experience.

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Virtual Book Tour The Three Stones of Ebon




ABOUT THE BOOK


The Three Stones of Ebon

Written by David and Keiko Mello

Illustrated by Keiko Mello

Ages 8-12 | 264 Pages

Publisher: Strive Publishing (2023) | ISBN-13: 9781948529228

Publisher’s Book Summary: Eleven-year-old Jack knew the old lady down the street was kinda weird. But things get even stranger when she sends him a gift that transports Jack and his cat, Lucky, into the wondrous world of Sturgus, a land of prophecies, pirates, magical creatures, and talking cats. Aided by Abigail, a student of magic, Jack and Lucky must evade a cursed assassin and find the three stones that will wake Ebon, king of the flying horses and rightful protector of Sturgus, before the evil wizard Pale corrupts the land forever.

PURCHASE LINK


Amazon

Bookshop.org


MY REVIEW


Jack is a typical tween who enjoys hanging out with his friends, 

spending time with his cat Lucky, and making jokes about the odd old lady who lives down the street. But when his dad does some work at her house, she sends home a gift for Jack - a decorated urn with characters on it that look just like Jack and Lucky. And when there are odd noises and strange lights from the urn in the middle of the night, suddenly they are in another world.


The new world is full of wonders - flying horses, cyclops, pirates, talking wolves, centaurs, Aquaticans (merpeople), sea serpents, and magic users good and bad. Can Jack and his new allies find the missing magic stones of Ebon in time to defeat the evil sorcerer Pale and save the world of Sturgus? They must travel to the ends of the world, across mountains and seas, pursued by an assassin and always in danger from the hordes commanded by Pale. Is the ancient prophecy really correct and will Jack ever make it back to his own home again? The sights he sees, the dangers he faces, and the friends he makes will keep readers turning the pages to find out.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


David Mello grew up on army bases throughout the USA and Germany. His love of comic books, stand-up comedy, and rooting for the underdogs shaped his writings, from short stories to mini ‘zines and various adventures in revolution. When he isn’t writing, David usually has a camera in hand.

Keiko Mello, born Keiko Welch, hails from an interracial family in Minneapolis’s Northside. As Keiko grew up, she used drawing, dancing, and playing drums in rock bands to ground herself. She and David met in 1997 in Seattle and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Today, David and Keiko are slow-travel digital nomads. Their latest project as STAY MELLO CREATIVE is crafting the second book in a planned trilogy; the working title is The Adversary of Ebon.

For more information, visit https://www.staymellocreative.com/.

TOUR SCHEDULE

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

The Children’s Book Review

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Crafty Moms Share

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Friday, January 31, 2025

The Starlit Path

Interview with David and Keiko Mello

Monday, February 3, 2025

Get Outside and Read

Instagram Post about The Three Stones of Ebon

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Deliciously Savvy

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Country Mamas With Kids

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Friday, February 7, 2025

Froggy Read Teach

Instagram Post about The Three Stones of Ebon

Monday, February 10, 2025

The Fairview Review

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

icefairy’s Treasure Chest

Book Review of The Three Stones of Ebon

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Q&As with Deborah Kalb

Interview with David and Keiko Mello


This post is sponsored by David and Keiko Mello. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.