Bea the sheep knows she's "ewe-nique" and when her flock doesn't want to put up with her antics any longer she decides to go her own way. Bea moves to the big city and tries every new job she can think of--including a cloud, a library lion, and more--until she finds the confidence to be herself again and return home...only to inspire her flock to be more unique themselves. This hilarious and surprising story reiterartes a familiar lesson without talking down to the reader. From Bea's hilarious expressions to the wacky predicaments she finds herself in, readers will be delighted with this fantastic new character and her bold personality.
From the author of Indie Next Pick and New York Times Editors' Choice Goodnight, Beautiful Women comes a transportive and chilling debut novel of two sisters growing up on an isolated Northern European island in the shadow of their late mother and the Devil It’s 1825, four generations after Berggrund Island’s women stood accused of witchcraft under the eye of their priest, now long dead. In his place is Pastor Silas, a widower with two wild young daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are outcasts: imaginative, oppositional, increasingly obsessed with the lore and legend of the island’s dark past and their absent mother, whom their father refuses to speak of. As the girls come of age, and the strictures of the community shift but never wane, their rebellions twist and sharpen. Ever capable Ulrika shoulders the burden of keeping house, while Bea, alone with unsettling visions and impulses, hungers for companionship and attention. When an enigmatic outsider arrives at their door, his presence threatens their family bond and unearths – piece by piece – a buried history to shocking ends. All the while Berggrund’s neighboring island The Blue Maiden beckons, storied home of the Witches’ Sabbath and Satan’s realm, its misted shore veiling truths the sisters have spent their lives searching for. A Nordic Gothic laced with the horrors of life in a patriarchy both hostile to and reliant on its women, The Blue Maiden is a starkly beautiful depiction of lost lineage and resilience.
Bea is a bird of unusual tastes . . . While the other birds peck at ants and watch worms wiggle, Bea likes to bake buns and berry pudding. She loves dancing to disco beats and singing sweet songs to the moon. In everything she does, Bea stands out from the flock! A joyful story about being true to yourself and daring to be different.
