Colourful and lively illustrations draw you into a touching tale about how a community of all shapes and sizes comes together, just in time for Christmas.

Hello, moose, says the girl. Hello, beaver! Hello, squirrel! Every morning she leaves her family cabin in the woods to visit her forest and wetland friends. With winter coming, Christmas excitement is building and there is an extra big smile on her face as her “hellos” echo across the forest. Her furry friends are also preparing for winter and are very happy to listen as they chew the last of the fresh stems along the pond, while the bear searches for a cozy den for the winter. All is right with the world until an unexpected challenge for the girl and her family brings team forest (and wetland) together to make it the best Christmas ever! It is the girl’s love and respect for the animals that bring their love and respect back to her doorstep.

Glynnis Hood grew up in the Creston Valley in southeastern British Columbia. She spent her summers in little boats and running barefoot along the shores of Kootenay Lake. Now summers are spent in chest waders and canoes, her winters on snowshoes and skis. For much of her adult life she worked in various protected areas, from Canada’s west coast to the mountains of BC and Alberta, to the Subarctic, and finally the southern boreal forest of central Alberta. She has always loved critters with eyelashes, and she completed a PhD in biological sciences at the University of Alberta on wildlife and wetland ecology. She is now a professor of environmental science at the University’s Augustana campus. Her closest neighbours are a family of beavers. She is the author of The Beaver Manifesto (Rocky Mountain Books) and Semi-aquatic Mammals: Ecology and Biology (Johns Hopkins University Press). Glynnis lives in Camrose, Alberta.

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Ardis Cheng is originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After many years of waking up to a Rocky Mountain backdrop, she flew east to study design, first in coastal Halifax, and then lakeside in Toronto. Always on the lookout for new design challenges, Ardis’s search brought her to sun-drenched Melbourne, Australia, where she completed a PhD in medical education and worked in learning-design, writing and creating images to help communicate complex information in everything from the sciences to the arts and the trades. While hopping between France, the US, Canada, and Australia for love, Ardis began creating picture books and illustrations about her travels. Her works attempt to capture and share, with a touch of humour, the sights, sounds, customs, and spirit of the people and wildlife she met along the way. Visit her at ardischeng.com.

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