books in order

Celia Barker Lottridge Books In Order

Curlew Books In Order

  1. Ticket to Curlew (2001)
  2. Wings to Fly (1997)

Novels

  1. Ticket To Canada (1992)
  2. The Wind Wagon (1995)
  3. Berta: A Remarkable Dog (2002)
  4. Home Is Beyond the Mountains (2010)
  5. The Listening Tree (2011)

Collections

  1. Ten Small Tales (1994)
  2. American Stories & Poems for Children (2001)

Picture Books

  1. The Name of the Tree (1990)
  2. One Watermelon Seed (1990)
  3. Something Might Be Hiding (1996)
  4. Music for the Tsar of the Sea (1998)
  5. The Little Rooster and the Diamond Button (2001)

Non fiction

  1. Prairie Dogs (1994)
  2. Telling Tales (2003)
  3. Stories from Adam and Eve to Ezekiel (2004)
  4. Stories from the Bible (2005)

Curlew Book Covers

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Picture Books Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Celia Barker Lottridge Books Overview

Ticket to Curlew

It is 1915. Endless stretches of grassland against a boundless sky are all Sam Ferrier sees when he and his father arrive in Curlew, Alberta, to build a new house for their family. He wonders why his restless father would move them to this lonely, barren place, so different from Iowa. But after the house gets built and the family joins them, Sam gradually discovers that there is much more to the prairie than he realized. The tall gras*ses hide a mysterious collection of gleaming white skulls. Torrential thunderstorms appear with startling swiftness out of a clear blue sky. And when one day he finds that his little brother has suddenly disappeared, Sam discovers that this new land can be both awesome and terrifying. Young readers join the Ferriers as they learn to survive the prairie’s brutal winters and devastating isolation and as Sam makes new friends with a brave and resourceful horse named Prince.

Wings to Fly

In Ticket to Curlew, Sam Ferrier and his family moved to Canada and learned to respect their harsh new home and find beauty in its endless prairies. In this sequel, 11 year old Josie, now well settled in her new home, longs to have a friend her own age. So when a girl named Margaret moves to the area from England, Josie is thrilled to have a buddy for riding to school, exploring the mysterious, abandoned silver house, and dreaming about the future. But what does the future hold for a young girl in 1918? Could Josie fly airplanes like her hero*ine Katherine Stinson? Will she be a teacher like Miss Barnett? What if she becomes like Margaret’s sad mother, who can t bear to even unpack her fine English china in the crude sod house that is her new prairie home? Wings to Fly tells the powerful and poignant story of a young girl facing her future in the dramatic Canadian wilderness.

The Wind Wagon

Sam Peppard, a blacksmith in 1860s Kansas, builds a prairie schooner that sails to Denver, Colorado, powered by wind.

Berta: A Remarkable Dog

Berta the dachsund is an easy dog to love. She sleeps a lot and doesn’t seem to be bothered by much of anything not even when Margery Miller’s best friend Rosalind calls Berta a sausage dog. But Margery knows that one day, Berta will surprise everyone by doing something remarkable. And she does. It starts in early spring, when Berta suddenly becomes interested in the newborn chicks that Mr. Miller brings home to raise. Then she starts watching after the baby piglets in the barn. When the Millers are given a newborn lamb to raise, Berta immediately jumps into his box and protectively curls herself around him. She barks when it is time for his feedings, and she tries to lick him clean. Margery begins to piece it together: Berta wants to be a mother, and she has finally found a baby to look after! But a dachsund is an unusual mother for a lamb, particularly when it begins to grow. That’s when Margery and her friends decide that he needs some help if he is going to learn how to be a sheep. This is an engaging story about animals and their human companions.

Home Is Beyond the Mountains

When the Turkish army invades northwestern Persia in 1918, nine year old Samira and her parents, brother and baby sister are driven from their tiny village. Taking only what they can carry, they flee into the mountains, but the journey is so difficult that only Samira and her older brother survive. Shunted from one refugee camp to another, from Persia to Iraq and back again, Samira finally ends up in an orphanage, where it seems that she will live out her childhood. Then Susan Shedd, the new orphanage director, arrives and, to Samira’s amazement, announces that she will take all the children back to their villages to make new lives for themselves. With wonder and fear, Samira and three hundred other orphans embark on an epic march of three hundred miles through the mountains towards home.

Ten Small Tales

Celia Barker Lottridge knows that young children respond best to tales told with inviting rhythms, and better still when the stories have reassuring endings and embody simple truths. Here Lottridge has collected and retold ten remarkably fresh folk tales from Malaysia, Russia, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, China, Africa, and India. There’s the little girl that proves she is not too little to help with the family garden; the fox who takes advantage of other people’s generosity until she becomes too greedy for her own good; the little boy who can’t get to sleep until his grandmother brings him yet another bedtime companion; and more. The stories, complemented by serene pen and watercolor illustrations, promote cooperation and self awareness and are a pleasure to read again and again.

The Name of the Tree

When a drought spreads through the land of the short grass, the animals set out across the great plain to find food. Their only hope for survival is a tree with a variety of colorful fruit. The problem is its branches are too high. To reach them, the wise old turtle says, one must know The Name of the Tree, something only King Lion is privy to. In this Bantu folktale retold by Celia Barker Lottridge, the hero is not the most cunning or the strongest but the one that tries the hardest. Ian Wallace’s striking illustrations of desert landscape and luscious fruit help bring this tale to life. A strong read aloud, handsomely illustrated. Booklist

One Watermelon Seed

On the Toronto Public Library’s 10 best books of 2008 list for Children up to 5 years of age On Resource Link’s ‘Best of 2008’ List Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice, 2009 First published in 1986 and a staple ever since for parents of preschool children and teachers of primary grades, One Watermelon Seed is presented in a new edition with a bold new cover and interior art. In this deceptively simple counting book, Max and Josephine tend their garden while readers follow along, counting from one to ten as the garden is planted. Then readers can count in groups of tens as the garden is harvested, while they search through the pictures for the many small animals that are hiding throughout. A concise and clever text introduces color and rhythm, and the illustrations are bright and engaging, making this a perfect counting book for children aged four to seven.

Something Might Be Hiding

Jenny frets over the disarray of boxes, furniture, and clothing in a new house, until her quest to discover the scary creature that might be lurking somewhere inadvertently familiarizes her with her surroundings.

The Little Rooster and the Diamond Button

One day a little rooster who is pecking on the road finds a magic diamond button. An evil sultan desperately covets it even though his palace is filled with precious stones. He enlists three foolish henchmen to help him but the rooster returns in triumph to the old woman who owns him. This traditional tale teaches the timeless lesson that greed is no match for wit, courage, and humor.

Telling Tales

Storytelling is relationship. Stories become the threads that bind a family. We all tell stories about our experiences and daily life. When we die, it is our stories that are remembered. Family stories remembered and shared help the family, and the individuals who comprise it, to survive and flourish. Storytelling within the family provides quality time; creating bonds, increasing listening skills, and fostering communication. Enrich your family life, connect with your children, and celebrate your ancestors by learning to tell family stories, folktales, and nursery rhymes. Telling Tales: Storytelling in the Family is a fascinating guide to the art of gathering and telling stories. Written by three renowned storytellers, Telling Tales includes personal stories, how to tips and extensive resource lists, and builds upon the success of the acclaimed first edition. Storytelling is contagious. Telling stories helps us make sense of what is happening around us and within ourselves. Stories are our powerful gift to the younger generation.

Stories from Adam and Eve to Ezekiel

In this handsome companion volume to Stories from the Life of Jesus, Celia Barker Lottridge brings her gifts as an award winning storyteller to the Jewish Bible. These texts from the Old Testament are essential for reading the books, for looking at the art, and for listening to the music from the past two millennia and long before. Lottridge’s striking prose highlights the drama of such stories as Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, Daniel in the lion’s den, the famed exodus from Egypt, Lot and his wife who turned to stone, and more. At a time when religion is both omnipresent and absent from children’s lives, this version of the Jewish Bible is presented to young readers as a narrative of interest both for the compelling quality of the stories it tells and for the deep, resonant role it has played in Western culture. Acclaimed illustrator Gary Clement interprets these tales with respect and vitality.

Stories from the Bible

This gorgeous boxed set comprises two of Celia Barker Lottridge’s acclaimed Bible books: Stories from the Life of Jesus and Stories from Adam and Eve to Ezekiel. The first volume is a powerful retelling of events in Jesus life and the stories he told, focusing not on interpretation but on the stories themselves, as they might have been told in Jesus own time. The gospel accounts of the life of Jesus are a cornerstone of Western culture as well as being important religious texts, and Lottridge s spare and eloquent versions introduce them to young readers as a vital part of their cultural heritage. Linda Wolfsgruber s stunning illustrations perfectly complement the text. In the second book, Lottridge brings her storytelling gifts to the Jewish Bible. These tales are essential for understanding the art of the past two millennia of Western culture. This version of the Jewish Bible intrigues young readers for both its power as story and its profound moral lessons. Gary Clement s iconographic artwork honors both the stories and the rich history behind them.