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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!

The Fine Art of Capturing Buffalo

$29.95

More than 200 beautiful color photos showcase the breadth and diversity of Buffalo’s embarrassment of riches from the vast expanse of parks and gardens, architectural treasures, and the arts and cultural scene, to its proud past and positively brilliant future. It’s a visual celebration of the waterfront, colleges, fairs and festivals, and the amazing spirit of our neighborhoods.The Fine Art of Capturing Buffalo is the perfect gift for family, friends, clients, co-workers, and potential employees.

The Photographing Tourist

$29.95

Winner of 18 international awards. Beautifully illustrated with more than 300 photographs from around the world, and featuring twelve magazine-style travel narratives, The Photographing Tourist takes you on a journey to remote corners of our fascinating world. Filled with stories about isolated cultures, exploring local life, and challenging personal adventures, this storytellers guide to travel and photography reads like an eight-month collection of your favorite travel magazine. From environmental portraits and local lifestyles, to landmarks and sacred places, the chapters explore different photographic subjects that a tourist photographer will encounter. Sprinkled throughout the book are also technical shorts with valuable information on elements of design, composition, depth of filed, exposure, using lines, and developing a point of view. You will learn to think differently about travel and photography and to investigate a destination as part of the human condition. Above all, this book will encourage you to truly cherish your chance encounters as you photograph the world.

The Rainbow City: Celebrating Light, Color, and Architecture at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo 1901

$24.95$39.95

A beautiful celebration of the light, color and architec¬ture of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. This oversized, coffee table book features two surprise pullout pages, one with a lovely watercolor rendition of the PanAm grounds, and the other a delightful night skyline of the PanAm that illustrates why Buffalo came to be known as the City of Light.

Tillie: A New York City Girl, 1906-2001

$24.95$34.95

Lost photographs, a found memoir, discovered documents, and warm, endearing memories inspired historian Mark Goldman, author of the biography of John Albright, to focus his research on his own family history. In learning about and telling his mother’s story, he discovered he was also telling an important part of the story of New York City during a unique and vibrant era in the mid-1900s. Tillie’s life growing up in mid-century New York City – living on Riverside Drive, playing in Central Park, accompanying her father to work in the Garment District in a Willys Jeep, becoming involved in the Spanish Civil War – reveals a colorful facet of the Jewish immigrant experience through the eyes of a fierce woman. Lushly illustrated with found family photographs, this memoir by award-winning author and historian Mark Goldman is a feast for the eyes and will speak to your soul.

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

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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.