Abayomi: The Brazilian Puma, The True Story of an Orphaned Cub is a second picture book from the team, author Darcy Pattison and illustrator Kitty Harvill. (The first was Wisdom: The Midway Albatross.) In Abayomi, Pattison explores what happens when civilization takes over wildlife’s home, and a mother puma is hungry and desperate to feed her cubs. She goes to a farmer’s chickens, which, of course, does not make the farmer happy. In this true story, the mother puma is killed accidentally during a struggle, leaving her cubs. One cub is rescued, Abayomi, and scientists are trying to nurse it back to health, without touching or taming it, so they can return him back to the wild. The paintings by Kitty Harvill are beautiful and add to this touching story, which doesn’t actually have an ending yet, because Abayomi is not ready to go back to the wild as of the writing. This story may be heartbreaking for younger children; heck–it’s heartbreaking for me. But it’s important for children to understand how our growth and civilization affect wild animals. Pattison and Harvill treat the subject with gentleness–there’s no preaching here!
Pattison also includes some wonderful resources in the back of the book to find out more about this subject and how scientists are trying to help wild animals.
If you are using this book in the classroom, you could do a KWL chart–what do kids know about pumas before they start reading the book? Then ask them what do they wonder. Finally after reading this, what have they learned?
Students may also feel motivated to brainstorm ways to help wild animals in their own neighborhoods or to visit some of the resources listed in the back of the book!
Great news! I have a copy of the book to giveaway! Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Author Darcy Pattison drew my attention to this on Facebook. I know many of you would want to know about this event, so here you go–it will be great to share with your students and/or children!
Wildlife artist, KITTY HARVILL is offering a series of black and white, printable creative coloring pages for students to participate in Draw a Bird Day (dabday.com) on or about April 8. As the artist for Wisdom, the Midway Albatross: Surviving the Japanese Tsunami and Other Disasters for over 60 Years, Harvill is well-versed in bird art. The three creative coloring pages include a set-up for students :
Add a landscape for a soaring bird
Add a bird flying over a tsunami wave
Complete a drawing of a bird using a photo reference.
The Draw a Bird Day (http://www.dabday.com/) was created to honor the memory of Dorie Cooper. During World War II, she cheered up soldiers by encouraging them to draw birds. Soon the walls of the sick ward was covered with bird pictures. When ten-year old Dorie died in 1946, her coffin was covered with drawings from soldiers, nurses, and doctors. To remember her life and inspiration, Draw A Bird Day asks people to simply draw a bird and share it with someone on April 8.
Because April 8 falls on Easter this year, we are encouraging parents and teachers to do the Draw a Bird activities the week before or after.
To participate, download the creative coloring pages and use them to draw birds with kids.
To share, post pictures online, then email the location to [email protected]. We will PIN all submissions to the Draw a Bird Day: April 8, 2012 Board at http://pinterest.com/darcypattison/draw-a-bird-day-april-8-2012/
Download Coloring Pages:
http://albatross.darcypattison.com/albatross/draw-a-bird-day-coloring-pages/
I have several things to discuss today, so this post is going to be a little different than the usual. First, I was lucky enough to get my free 48-hour copy of Wisdom, The Midway Albatross on Friday for the anniversary of the Japanese tsunami. Darcy’s book, with illustrations by Kitty Harvill, is beautiful. It’s an inspiring and beautiful story, along with wonderful illustrations. Wisdom, an albatross living on Midway, has survived tropical storms, a tsunami, hurricanes, and more, and she is still alive and giving birth! What an amazing survival story. Kids will love it, and they will be sitting on the edge of their seats and waiting in anticipation to see if Wisdom lives to see another year toward the end of the book. Darcy did an amazing job with the story and Kitty with the illustrations. I highly recommend you check it out and share it with some children!
I wanted to announce the winner of Stranger Moon, a middle-grade, adventure story written by Heather Zydek. The winner is Clara Gillow Clark! Congratulations!
Do you know someone who needs help to get started on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In? or Someone who is struggling with setting up promotion on these three sites. Or maybe it’s you. Maybe you are having trouble finding friends on Facebook or setting up your author page? Maybe Twitter hashtags make your head spin. Are you having trouble figuring out how to ask for recommendations on Linked In? If so, then consider taking my beginning social networking ONLINE class, starting on Friday. It is a super easy and laid back format.
Here is the COURSE DESCRIPTION: This beginners’ class will teach writers how to set up a profile on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and connect with people they know; to build a following of fans; to start working on a brand/image; and to promote books, articles, magazines, and blogs. Instead of using Facebook and Twitter to write about your fabulous dinner or disastrous day at the grocery store, you will begin to learn to sell yourself and your writing! This class is for beginners—if you already use all three of these social networks on a daily basis and are interested in learning more about how to market yourself on them, then you’ll want to take Margo’s Advanced Social Networking class.
To sign up, go to this link: http://wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html#MargoDill_BeginningSocialNetworking. If you have questions, leave them in the comments or e-mail me at margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com.
Finally, I am a Juice in the City affiliate, although I am not very good at it. 
Anyway do you see on my sidebar the black and pink box that says JUICE IN THE CITY? This widget will take you to a website that offers all kinds of deals–many of them are local (and by this I mean specific to a certain place such as Atlanta or LA), but some are nationwide because they are Internet companies. Many of them are great deals for MOMs or TEACHERS or GRANDPARENTS. If I notice any from time to time, I will make sure to point them out in my posts. So, I am doing this for today’s post:
You can get $45 worth of kids’ clothes for $22 from a place called Little Froglet. (Photo courtesy of Juice in the City/Little Froglet)
If you are interested in getting 51%
Abayomi: The Brazilian Puma, The True Story of an Orphaned Cub is a second picture book from the team, author Darcy Pattison and illustrator Kitty Harvill. (The first was Wisdom: The Midway Albatross.) In Abayomi, Pattison explores what happens when civilization takes over wildlife’s home, and a mother puma is hungry and desperate to feed her cubs. She goes to a farmer’s chickens, which, of course, does not make the farmer happy. In this true story, the mother puma is killed accidentally during a struggle, leaving her cubs. One cub is rescued, Abayomi, and scientists are trying to nurse it back to health, without touching or taming it, so they can return him back to the wild. The paintings by Kitty Harvill are beautiful and add to this touching story, which doesn’t actually have an ending yet, because Abayomi is not ready to go back to the wild as of the writing. This story may be heartbreaking for younger children; heck–it’s heartbreaking for me. But it’s important for children to understand how our growth and civilization affect wild animals. Pattison and Harvill treat the subject with gentleness–there’s no preaching here!
If you are using this book in the classroom, you could do a KWL chart–what do kids know about pumas before they start reading the book? Then ask them what do they wonder. Finally after reading this, what have they learned?