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Released May 25th!
Meet Piper, a rugged Pacific Northwest nature-loving 4th grader, who struggles in school. The numbers on her math quiz dance and prance all over the page until she feels like giving up. Though she is encouraged by her teacher to embody the word of the week, “persevere,” it’s not until she’s on a backpacking adventure that she truly understands the work required to overcome a challenge. Join Piper as she trades her unlucky pencil for her beloved, muddy hiking boots and heads out for an Olympic National Park coastal exploration. Usually, the woods are where she feels the most at peace, but this trip becomes more than towering Douglas Firs and chew chews of Northern Flickers when the unexpected sand wall she encounters forces her to grip a little tighter, and truly persevere.
Meet Allison
WRITER | TEACHER | ADVENTURER | MOM | CAFFEINATOR
Allison is a writer, teacher, adventurer, and mom whose love of stories began with Beverly Cleary books and a winning entry in a young author’s contest. A Nationally Board Certified educator with 12 years of experience teaching around the world, she holds degrees in English Literature and Teaching from the University of Puget Sound. Raised in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and now a mom of three, she finds joy in muddy hikes, homemade lattes, and helping kids believe they can do hard things.
I’d love for you to follow along!
What Readers Are Saying:
“This book spoke to my students on so many levels. It works wonderfully as a read aloud, and could even function as a full unit of study! I can’t wait for more books from Rataezyk to share with my kids!”
— Katherine, 4th Grade Teacher
“An incredible story of what it means to persevere both in and outside of the classroom! Rataezyk is a wonderful and moving writer. This should be in every teacher’s classroom library!”
— Andy, 1st Grade Teacher
What child doesn’t get discouraged now and then when struggling with a new school lesson, physical task, or social situation? In this warm hug of a book, Allison Schoening Rataezyk’s “Perseverant Piper” shares a vital life lesson for kids in an approachable and entertaining way, gorgeously illustrated by Arianna Gilligan. The importance of trying again despite challenges, and trusting/believing in yourself, are encouragements any child — people of any age, truly — needs to hear. Rataezyk, an educator and mom, sets Piper’s empowering advice in nature (her beloved Pacific Northwest), adding an important reminder through Gilligan’s enchanting depictions that outdoor beauty, grandeur, and quiet can offer healing and perspective in a child’s world often filled with social challenges and technology. A huge bonus is Rataezyk’s glossary of birds, trees, and other details, plus practical advice on what families need to get out on a nature hike themselves. Empathetic and gently inspiring, this book offers a relatable heroine any parent or grandparent might hope could help reassure a challenge-facing child to pause, take a breath, try one step at a time, and learn to persevere.
— Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll, retired Books Editor, Cape Cod Times, Massachusetts