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Discarded Ancestors

$24.95$34.95

Treasure lives amidst the rubble of lost neighborhoods. Mixed-media artist Elizabeth Leader found a discarded family album and transformed it into collages that capture the rise and fall of the Rust Belt, honoring the immigrants and refugees who built America. Discarded Ancestors is a unique and beautiful coffee table book that poignantly illustrates a vibrant era in the nation’s industrial past couched within its decline.

Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities

$39.95$49.95

The fascinating story of the historic Elmwood District is told for the first time, from the arrival on the Niagara Frontier of Joseph Ellicott, through the role played by Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks and parkways, and into the decline and renewal during the modern era. This lushly illustrated book educates and enlightens, telling the stories of the people who gave Elmwood its enduring character, transforming it from dense forest into one of America’s top ten neighborhoods.

The Cayuga Island Kids Series

$35.00$50.00

The Cayuga Island Kids series features a diverse group of big-hearted friends who work together to solve mysteries, have adventures, and organize community projects. They are fact detectives who think, brainstorm, research, and collaborate to uncover answers and puzzle out solutions. Above all, they are kind, helpful, smart, and resourceful kids who have lots of fun together.

 

These chapter books are perfect for 7- to 10-year-olds in 1st through 4th grade.

 

“Any book that begins with a map of an island is my kind of story. Enliven that setting with a diverse group of characters who are consistently kind—and bursting with curiosity—and you’ve got all the elements of a series that is alive with adventure, friendship, and mystery.”
~ James Preller, author of the Jigsaw Jones mystery series

 

Book 1: The Mystery of the Barking Branches and the Sunken Ship

This entertaining mystery-history adventure is based on real events surrounding one of the biggest puzzles of the Great Lakes! The Cayuga Island Kids set off on a hunt for a certain kind of tree and instead unearth a cannonball thought to be from a treasure ship built right on their island that sank in 1679 and was never recovered. As they hunt for clues and follow leads, they discover that the island they live on is home to a whole lot of history. And, it turns out, a whole lot of mystery, too. We all have history in our own backyards, just waiting to be discovered by inquisitive, adventurous, and fun-loving fact detectives!

 

Book 2: The Adventure of the Big Fish By the Small Creek     

Moving from knowing something has to be done to getting it done takes determination, teamwork, and sometimes, looking in a new direction. In this award-winning second book in the series, the Cayuga Island Kids rescue a mallard caught in the plastic rings from six-pack of cans. Moments later, a girl on a bike carelessly tosses a plastic bottle in the creek. That’s when they decide it’s time for action. How the Cayuga Island Kids go from fishing a plastic bottle out of the creek to bringing the community together to build a recycling bin big enough to hold plenty of plastic makes for a lively adventure. Young readers will be entertained as they come to realize the importance of brainstorming ideas, teamwork, the value of community effort, recycling, and the promise of new friendships. Best of all, readers will cheer on the Cayuga Island Kids as they come to realize that, although we are each just one person, together we can make a BIG difference.

 

Book 3: The Case of the Messy Message and the Missing Facts

It’s fall as Book 3 of the Cayuga Island Kids chapter book series opens. Julian explores food science as he experiments with recipes for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Being a cookie sampler takes Mac’s mind off his troubles with fractions. Yoko practices for the school play tryouts, and Maya helps Ms. Choi with the Make-and-Take-Club. Lacey, of course, is searching for the next mystery to solve. And then two of Ms. Choi’s glitter pens go missing. The clues and evidence point to a suspect, but are the Cayuga Island Kids jumping to conclusions? When a classmate jumps to conclusions and shares false information about Julian’s cookies, the kids join forces to set the facts straight. And while researching explorers for a school project, the kids uncover misinformation that blurs the truth, and makes the reasons for being a fact detective crystal clear. Sorting through clues and evidence—just like research—means making sure you have all the facts, and not just a fraction of the truth. Young readers will cheer for the Cayuga Island Kids as they embark on this adventure involving misinformation, faulty assumptions, flour bugs, glitter pens, and chocolate chip cookies.

 

Click here to download Educator Guides and Activity Kits!

Elinormal Saga

$24.95

Eleven-year-old Elinor Malcolm just wants to be normal. Lonely, she goes in search of her best self and a best friend.

In Elinormal, her bossy mom threatens to sue if Elinor is not granted a spot in a prestigious ballet academy. The problem is, Elinor has no interest in ballet. While sitting out the first class in an area park she meets Indira who helps her realize that she is a capable and kind individual. Elinor opens up and makes a friend at school who enjoys all the same things she does. The people in her life finally converge—secret identities are revealed, and Elinor has an epiphany about the nature of relationships and the power of love.

In the sequel, New Girl: The Further Adventures of Elinormal, Elinor is ready for the first day of seventh grade when a last-minute phone call turns her world upside down. She misses the first week of school and when she gets back she’s called “the new girl” even though she’s not. Elinor quickly learns that people are complicated and relationships take work. Lots of work. As she discovers who she is, who she wants to be, and what she wants most in life, she struggles to balance friendships, both old and new, while also unraveling her mother’s mysterious past.

Both of these delightful books explore the complexity of friendships, the reality of disappointments, and the trouble with secrets.

 

Check out the Elinormal book trailer!

 

Meet the Author

 

Click here to download Educator Guides and Activity Kits!

 

FOR READERS Ages 9-12 | Grades 4 – 8

FORMAT  SOFTCOVER | 5″ x 8″

ISBNs 978-1-952536-22-9 | 978-1-952536-34-2

Easter Basket Package

$35.00

Three beautiful children’s books with bunnies and birds and compelling stories promise to provide kids with a break from chocolate and jelly beans!

 

An endearing tale that captures the hearts of mothers and children of all ages. In The Chickadees and the Moon AboveMama Chickadee tells her chicks to look up at the moon and think of her; she’ll be looking at the same moon and thinking of them…Chickadee Tree will always be their home. It’s also a perfect gift for new mothers, empty nesters, and birdies who are leaving the nest.

 

Fluff, Puff and Stuff reveal their favorite hiding places. In this charming rhyming book, young readers enter the world of dust bunnies—which happens to be right beneath their their own bed! The Dust Bunnies is perfect for Easter baskets, spring cleaning season, and for any chore-resistant child.

 

And when the brief brilliance of a shooting star touches Clover the bunny’s heart, he is sad because he thinks it will be forgotten. Wise old Owl shows him how shooting stars, like those we love, are remembered forever. Clover and the Shooting Star is a story of wonder and hope housed in a sturdy board book format that is perfect for even the very youngest little bunnies.

 

Save by purchasing the Easter Basket Package!

 

FREE STANDARD SHIPPING to U.S. addresses

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – Buffalo Special

$40.00

On this eleventh day of Giftmas we offer both of our alphabet books:

B is for Buffalo: An Aerial Alphabet, with drone photography by the talented Christopher Hyzy that provides a magnificent overview of Buffalo’s architectural grandeur, from the Albright-Knox to Temple Beth Zion,

Buffalo From A to Z, Come Take a Tour with Me, led by the inimitable Bob Uffalo and featuring more than 60 iconic places to go and things to do, especially for kiddos (although we’ve found plenty of adults consulting this beautifully illustrated book).

Comes with a buffalo ornament.

FREE Calendar if you buy two sets of the bundle.

FREE SHIPPING & DELIVERY BY CHRISTMAS IF ORDERED IN ERIE COUNTY

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – Around The World For Christmas

$40.00

Holiday travel plans cancelled? Wander the world from the comfort of home! Or give the world to the person who means the world to you! Nearly 1,000 exquisite photographs in more than 200 full color pages of The Photographing Tourist: A Storyteller’s Guide to Travel and Photography takes readers to Kenya, China, Nepal, India, Tibet, Venice, Greenland, the Galápagos, and beyond! It is no wonder that this extraordinary book has won more than a dozen awards. Even better, every purchase benefits the Innocent Eyes project founded by the late David Noyes, photographer and journalist, to support educational opportunities for children in the developing world.

And then travel back in time, more than 250 years! That was when the great Carl Linnaeus sent his young protégé Pehr Kalm to the New World to search for new species. The Finn became the first scientist to ever see and document Niagara Falls! Benjamin Franklin published his findings bringing worldwide attention to this natural wonder. From Finland to Niagara Falls: Explorer Pehr Kalm in North America 1748-1751 was written in Finnish; City of Light had it translated into English. The original illustrations by Riikka Jäntti are simply delightful. This unique book (with species names in Latin and excerpts from Kalm’s journals and newspapers of the day) is for the young and the curious of all ages.

FREE SHIPPING

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – Buffalo America

$25.00

You know that ridiculously difficult to buy for guy on your list? THIS is the gift for him. Himself: A Civil War Soldier’s Battles with Rebels, Brits and Devils is a historical novel that takes place during the Civil War era and takes readers from the intensely Irish Old First Ward in Buffalo all the way to the Battle of Appomatox and back. It is a very compelling read. And the Kelly green blown glass buffalo ornament emblazoned with a four-leaf clover will look great on the tree for years to come. It’s a Giftmas Bundle that brings with it the luck of the Irish!

FREE SHIPPING

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – So Much To Choose From

$35.00

A whole library for your favorite youngster, or match each book with a different kid on your list. All three are spectacular, just released in June 2020, and already winning awards! Willy & Lilly by TV meteorologist Jen Stanonis just won a Moonbeam award, The Alekizou is in the running for a Geisel award, and A Kindness Remembered has been submitted for a Benjamin Franklin award!

THREE SIGNED BOOKS

FREE SHIPPING

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – The Wonders Of Nature

$40.00

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life,—no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.” At First Light presents this beauty and majesty that only nature can bring. Nature is made by all sorts of plants and animals so this bundle includes a loganberry ornament.

 

FORMAT HARDCOVER

ISBN 978-1-942483-42-7

FREE, SAME DAY SHIPPING

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – Not A Creature Was Stirring (Except For Some Mice)

$30.00

Five mice. One box of rice. You can imagine the adventures these rodents have in pursuit of their prized cereal grain! By the way, as far as directly following the song goes, the book Five Hungry Mice does it best. See, while on the fourth day of Christmas in the song, the true love sends four calling birds, this book pub does you one better – we send you five mice (in illustrated form of course). They are much quieter than calling birds. Do lock up your Basmati though… And, just what a mouse (or mice) would like is the Buffalo favorite, sponge candy, a crisp chocolate-covered caramelly treat, in ornament form.

FREE, SAME DAY SHIPPING

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – Where We Come From

$40.00

Perfect for that special person in your life who has spent the lockdown going through old photos and tracing the family tree back into the 1800s, especially if any Polish or Eastern European roots turned up. If they have an appreciation for fine art, even better. Elizabeth Leaders poignant mixed media collages showcasing discarded family photos will delight for years to come in this lush, vibrant hardcover art book. Place it on a coffee table and family stories are sure to abound. And the clever blown glass pierogi ornament also honors our working class immigrant forebears who built this nation—and contributed some delicious additions to our culinary traditions.

 

Twelve Days Of Giftmas – For Your Favorite Little Monster

$25.00

“Adorable” is what the reviewers are saying about this brand new picture book, but “interactive” is just as accurate. It comes fully equipped with a song to sing along to, and on this Second Day of Christmas, add to the interactivity with the—yes, adorable!— Monster Match Game. Your favorite toddler monster will delight in pairing up the cards with matching monsters.

FREE, SAME DAY SHIPPING

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