Christmas Eve Blizzard

A young boy and his abuelo push aside their Christmas preparation to rescue a beautiful cardinal during a blizzard. The bird quickly responds to their kindness, regains it strength, and flies off. The cardinal sweetly and unexpectedly rewards the boy, his grandfather, and their entire village with a lifetime of Christmas cheer.The “For Creative Minds” section contains instructions to create a bird-friendly backyard, simple bird feeder crafts, a “Cardinal Numbers” math game, and information on what to do if you find an injured bird. It encourages children to care for animals. Free teaching activities and interactive quizzes are available at Sylvan Dell Publishing's website.2006 NAIBA Picture Book of the Year Award nominee 2005 ASPCA Henry Bergh Book Award finalist 2005 NYLA Book of the Season

Andrea Vlahakis is a busy children's author, having been published in Highlights for Children, Turtle, Ladybug and Appleseeds. In addition to her own writing, Andrea is an instructor at the Institute of Children's Literature. A large portion of Andrea's work revolves around nature and birds. The inspiration for this book comes from her childhood home—when she was eight, her father hung a cardinal-red birdfeeder from their old apple tree and her love of bird watching was born. It also comes from her own rescue of a bird during a blizzard a few years ago, with the help of an equally snowbound wildlife rescue person on the other end of the phone. Andrea lives in Connecticut surrounded by woods, streams, and lots of birds to watch. Emanuel (Manny) Schongut is a prolific, multi-faceted freelance illustrator who works in children's books, book covers, textbook illustration, editorial art, posters, and advertising art – essentially he does it all!. Some of his numerous clients include Masterpiece and Mystery Theater, Public Television, New York Magazine, and New York Times Sunday Magazine. His cover art and/or illustrations grace books from a wide variety of book publishers including Harper & Row, MacMillan, Doubleday, Morrow, Green Willow Books, and now Sylvan Dell. In addition to his own artwork, Manny taught reportorial art and figure drawing at Pratt Institute in New York for several years. He now illustrates and teaches in the San Francisco Bay area.