BLUE IGUANA

Publisher: Namelos
Publication Date: Spring 2014
Award Recognition: Short-listed for the Nature Generation’s Green Earth Book Award

“Clarice is a heroine of exceptional quality, a young woman who wades through her plaguing self doubts and reaches the other side, recognizing her personal challenges but ultimately refusing to let them limit her.”

…Informative and well-researched details about blue iguanas are intellectually and emotionally compelling, bonding the reader to both the animals and to Clarice in her devotion…. Give this to a fan of Schrefer’s Endangered, an animal lover, or a sensitive soul looking to find her way.

—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, RECOMMENDED

“Clarice, who narrates, cares so much for animals that she must leave her favorite teacher’s biology class rather than dissect a frog. She practices what she preaches: she is vegan and will not wear leather goods. When Clarice decides to spend the summer at the Blue Iguana Recovery Program in the Cayman Islands, readers learn about this unusual habitat right along with Clarice. She describes the rough karst terrain as she accompanies two researchers attempting to find out where a blue iguana named GRG (Green-Red-Green, referring to her markings) has stashed her eggs, the sweltering heat inland, and the smell of the ocean on a windy day. Readers also learn about the lizards’ diet, their life expectancy and how many eggs they typically lay. Before her trip, it seemed impossible for Clarice to imagine being a marine biologist and eating fish, as is the case with one of her new friends, but she begins to see there’s room for balance and interconnectedness in the world.

“Readers will grow to care as much for the blue iguanas as Clarice and the other volunteers do. When tragedy strikes the preserve, it may well feel as devastating to readers as it is for the volunteers. Give this absorbing read to any nature lover.”

—Jennifer M. Brown, children’s editor, Shelf Awareness

THE SUNDOWN RULE

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Namelos Llc. Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 1, 2011 **A Kirkus Best Books of 2011 Bank Street College Children’s Book of Outstanding Merit, 2011-2012, Best Children’s Books of the year list**

(starred, Kirkus) This spare, lovely novel concerns that moment in childhood, at once universal and utterly lonely, when one is forced to recognize that all life is mortal… Unfolding with the implacable clarity of the natural world Louise reveres, the novel proves that a quiet story can be as gripping as the busiest action-packed narrative—and with more staying power.

—Kirkus Reviews

[This] heartfelt story about a girl who feels most at home in nature will make even hardcore city dwellers wake up to the wonders of the natural world…Jean Craighead George fans will be thrilled to discover Wendy Townsend, a writer with a kindred spirit.

—Shelf Awareness

LIZARD LOVE

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Front Street Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 1, 2008

“In her debut novel, Townsend displays a remarkable narrative gift. …[H:]er language really comes alive when talking about the natural world; her sensuous herpetological descriptions are unflinching, evocative, and positively elegant. Even the minor characterizations are full and complex, and the relationships drawn among them resonate with the honesty of adolescence. Though Grace’s naïveté seems surprising at first, this story will still find an enthusiastic audience among young people walking the daily tightrope between fitting in and growing up.”
Starred review**

—Booklist

Bank Street College Children’s Book of Outstanding Merit, 2009, Best Children’s Books of the Year list

“…I’m bowled over by the descriptions of animals – so beautiful and precise and yet available to any reader, not esoteric… Any kid who reads this book will have her eyes opened to nature in a brand-new way.”

—Norma Fox Mazer