Page 1 - A River's Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn

A RIvER s GIFtS
’ ’

PAtRIcIA NEWMAN is grateful For thousands of years,
for nature’s gifts and is happiest A RIvER s GIFtS
outside near water. When she was NEWMAN • DONOVAN the Elwha River flowed north
a student, her teachers helped her
make connections between what she through the Pacific Northwest,
learned in class and what she saw
in the wider world. Understanding sharing its gifts with the animals,
those connections inspired her THE MIGHTY ELWHA RIvER REBORN
to protect nature. As an author, she shows readers plants, and people along its banks.
how their actions ripple around the world, empowers
them to find their own connections to nature, and The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, who
encourages them to use their imaginations to act on call themselves the Strong People, caught
behalf of their communities. Her other distinguished salmon from the river, taking only what
titles include Planet Ocean; Eavesdropping on Elephants; A RIvER’S GI they needed. River, forest, salmon, and
Sibert Honor title Sea Otter Heroes; Zoo Scientists to the
Rescue; and Plastic, Ahoy! Strong People nourished one another.
www.patriciamnewman.com
Everything changed when strangers arrived
NAtAsHA DOnOvAn is the F in the 1790s. They did not understand the
illustrator of the award-winning
Mothers of Xsan series (written river’s gifts, and they saw the land and
by Brett Huson) and the picture the river as theirs to tame. In time, they
book biography Classified (written built two dams to provide electricity to a
by Traci Sorell). She illustrated
the graphic novel Surviving the tS THE MIGHTY ELW growing town, which flooded the Strong
City (written by Tasha Spillett), People’s land and hurt the salmon that fed
which won a Manitoba Book Award and received an the river.
American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA)
honor. She also made the art for the graphic novel
Borders, an adaptation of the short story written by Yet this is not the story of a tragedy. Sibert
Thomas King. Natasha is Métis, and she spent her honoree Patricia Newman and award-winning
early life in Vancouver, British Columbia. She now illustrator Natasha Donovan join forces to
lives with her partner Sky and their dog Luna, and tell a tale of hope and renewal, showing
they currently split their time between Washington
State and British Columbia. When she’s not drawing, how the Strong People, a national park, and
she takes every opportunity to explore the magical others worked together to remove the dams
rainforest that surrounds her. HA RIvER REBORN and restore this precious ecosystem so that
www.natashadonovan.com
all could enjoy the river’s gifts once again.

AN IMPRINT OF LERNER PUBLISHING GROUP
Jacket illustrations © 2023 PATRiciA NEWMAn
by Natasha Donovan MILLBROOK
ILLUSTR ATIONS BY
j MiLlBROOK PRESs NATASHA DONOvAN

An imprint of Lerner Publishing Group
AN IMPRINT OF LERNER PUBLISHING GROUP
www.lernerbooks.com j Reinforced binding