Otto, the world famous giant dog, travels from France to New York City with his master, Duke. When the ship on which they are sailing is struck by a hurricane and sinks, Otto must save the crew and passengers.
This “poetic, poignant” (US Weekly) debut features last great adventures, unlikely heroes, and a “sweet, disarming story of lasting love” (The New York Times Book Review). Eighty-three-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from rural Saskatchewan, Canada eastward to the sea. As Etta walks further toward the crashing waves, the lines among memory, illusion, and reality blur. Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. “I will try to remember to come back,” Etta writes to her husband. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a far-away war. He understands. But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in and Otto struggles to keep them at bay. Meanwhile, their neighbor Russell has spent his whole life trying to keep up with Otto and loving Etta from afar. Russell insists on finding Etta, wherever she’s gone. Leaving his own farm will be the first act of defiance in his life. Moving from the hot and dry present of a quiet Canadian farm to a dusty, burnt past of hunger, war, and passion, from trying to remember to trying to forget, Etta and Otto and Russell and James is an astounding literary debut “of deep longing, for reinvention and self-discovery, as well as for the past and for love and for the boundless unknown” (San Francisco Chronicle). “In this haunting debut, set in a starkly beautiful landscape, Hooper delineates the stories of Etta and the men she loved (Otto and Russell) as they intertwine through youth and wartime and into old age. It’s a lovely book you’ll want to linger over” (People).
Ellis the Elephant is back and ready for another adventure in American history! In From Sea to Shining Sea, the fourth installment of Callista Gingrich’s New York Times bestselling series, Ellis explores the early years of the United States and heads west into uncharted territory with Lewis and Clark. In previous books, Sweet Land of Liberty, Land of the Pilgrims’ Pride, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, Ellis learned about pivotal moments that have shaped America. Now, in From Sea to Shining Sea, America’s favorite time-traveling pachyderm discovers a new and growing nation along with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and others. Authored by Callista Gingrich and illustrated by Susan Arciero, From Sea to Shining Sea will delight those who want to know how brave Americans forged a growing nation and spread freedom from coast to coast.
Otto the Octopus journeys through the ocean helping his marine friends who have become endangered by waste left behind by humans. Designed to keep younger audiences engaged with short, rhyming sentences, Otto's Ocean helps encourage children to build compassion for living creatures and have empathy for our struggling planet.