An exquisite picture book captures the wide-open beauty of the prairie.

ELSIE’S BIRD 
Jane Yolen
Illustrated by David Small

Philomel Books
Penguin Group USA)
ISBN: 978-0-399-25292-1
$17.99 Hardcover
Picture Book set in the Great Plains during homesteading years.

When Elsie runs into the blowing grasses of the prairie, calling her canary, your heart will break; when the canary finds her, you will cheer!

“This poignant and powerful picture book closes with an uplifting rising of prairie voices–music to Elsie’s ears.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

 “Yolen’s evocative story, full of wonder and warmth, rolls smoothly… while the illustrations realize the grasslands of Nebraska with…ease and aplomb.”—School Library Journal, starred review

Buy this book from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores

MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting ELSIE’S BIRD !
Midwest Connections rebate form for ELSIE’S BIRD  (PDF) 
- coming soon!

ELSIE’S BIRD   is available from Philomel Books/Penguin Group (USA) or from your preferred wholesaler.  Be sure to contact the publisher for more information about this title. 

ELSIE’S BIRD will be featured on the front cover of the 2010 MBA Catalog.

If you are interested in inquiring about an event, interview, or book club event or phoner with author Jane Yolen and/or with illustrator David Small, who do not live in our Midwest region, please contact Katie Kurtzman, Publicist, at Katie.Kurtzman@us.penguingroup.com or via phone at 212-414-3556. 

MBA and Philomel would love to have your comments and reviews for this Midwest Connections Pick. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!

DOWNLOADS

• Full-color sign/flyer (PDF)
• Full-color shelf-talker (PDF)
• Author photo (JPG)
• Illustrator photo (JPG)
• Book cover photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections rebate form for ELSIE’S BIRD (PDF)
  - REBATE DEADLINE JANUARY 15, 2011
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jane Yolen and David Small bring to life the story of young Elsie: a girl who leaves Boston, where she has been extraordinarily happy, to go across the nation with her father to the lonely, wide-open spaces of the prairie.  Her only friend is her pet canary Timmy Tune.  Will she leave the sod house to explore the prairie, to get to know it?  No.  She hunkers down inside with Timmy and that is enough.  Until the day the canary gets out of the cage, flies out the door, and into the prairie, drawing her—in a wonderfully dramatic scene—onto the prairie, too.  When Elsie races into the blowing grasses of the prairie, calling her canary, your heart will break; when the canary finds her, you will cheer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR

Jane Yolen is one of America’s most beloved storytellers.  Author of one of the bestselling Caldecott Medal winners ever, Owl Moon, she has written over two hundred books, covering almost every genre: novels, plays, poems.  Perhaps above all, she loves the picture book which combines her love of rhythm with storytelling itself.  She spends part of her year in Scotland, where she has a home, and where she wrote the Philomel Scottish Quartet books, and the rest in Hatfield, Massachusetts.  She has a daughter, Heidi, who is also a novelist, and two sons.

David Small grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and began drawing the borders of his workbooks from the time he was in elementary school.  It was the way he expressed himself.  He attended Case, a special high school for talented young people, and went on to earn an MFA from Yale.  He and his wife Sarah Stewart have written several books together, The Librarian and The Gardener among them, The Librarian winning a Caldecott honor book.  His So You Want to Be President, written by Judith St. George, has been a perpetual favorite.  His NY Times bestselling Stitches is his first adult book.