Thursday, July 18, 2013

Dippy Duck's Adventures

Dippy Duck's Adventures (Purchase on Amazon)
This is the second children's book that came out from Mirror Publishing. Using the Frye readability system, it qualifies for 4th to early 7th grade reading level and I hope to have it designated for public school library buying .
   The story is a  true event that happened on the farm that my husband and I owned in NJ before we moved to Florida. We bought the farm to accommodate the 4 children that we gained custody of just months after we got married. We eventually added one more to the brood; and those, along with all of the animals we accumulated, made for an active farm life on our "gentleman's farm" out in the country not far from the Delaware Water Gap.
   Our 11 year old son was very much into the animals on the farm. and still is today, on his property in Jupiter Farms, Florida. (There, he has a pond hosting alligators and new babies every season, just behind his house!) The story starts when a fox enters the duck pen where we had a flock of Pekin ducks that we raised for the restaurant market. Erich managed to rescue a duck from the jaws of a red fox before he managed to get away over the fence. An injured wing provided him with the name "Dippy" and he became a pet that followed Erich around the farm along with our Dalmatian, Tally.
   The book is embellished with my own illustrations and presents a very good picture of what farm life with the animals was like on 40 acres, out in the country. Our closest neighbor was more than a half mile away and the privacy and peace was a welcomed respite from our jobs all week. I was an art teacher with a long drive to school and my husband was a safety engineer for an insurance company with the whole state of NJ as his territory. Since we both worked full time, we enjoyed the farm evenings, weekends and during the summer...thus the term "Gentleman's farm."
   Taking a bit of literary license, Dippy gets into a little trouble and the story takes an interesting turn before resolving. Written in 8 chapters, it runs about 4000 words and also provides a Glossary for some of the unfamiliar farm terminology. It is a soft-cover, 8.5 x 11" with some interesting and informative reviews on the back.
  A Christmas Moon, the first book from Mirror and Dippy are available on AmazonBooks.com, Barbesandnoble and Booksamillion.com...or ordered through me directly, for a signed copies of either book. Email me at Barbara@barbarabeswick.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment