New Releases by Priscilla Cummings

Chadwick the Crab is back You're invited to explore a variety of puzzles, mazes, and coloring pages that will encourage you to draw or use stickers to create a Chesapeake Bay scene, learn about things that don't belong in the bay, and discover some fun facts along the way. This is so much more than a coloring book. It's the Chadwick the Crab Chesapeake Bay Academy, and all are welcome

Annie writes a letter home each of the twelve days she spends exploring Maryland at Christmastime, as her cousin Tyler shows her everything from a great blue heron on the Chesapeake Bay to a train ride through the Allegheny Mountains. Includes facts about Maryland.

A Chadwick Treasury begins with the original story of Chadwick the Crab, a little crab in the Chesapeake Bay who has big dreams of becoming a star at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The adventures continue when Chadwick teams up with friends Bernie the Sea Gull, Toulouse the Canada Goose, and Baron Von Heron, among others, to tackle the problem of pollution in Chadwick and the Garplegrungen. Romance blossoms next. Chadwick asks his special friend, Esmerelda, to marry him. Chadwick's Wedding is a joyous event in Shady Creek. Finally, in Chadwick Forever, our beloved crabs celebrate the arrival of their new family just when other bay friends find themselves on the endangered species list. Chadwick hopes readers will enjoy the stories and will also be inspired to help keep the Chesapeake Bay a safe place to live.

Chadwick the Crab and his friends--Bernie the Seagull, Hector Spector Jellyfish, Baron von Heron, Toulouse the Canada Goose, and Matilda Egret, to name a few--live in the Chesapeake Bay and share many adventures. Snuggle up with your youngest "readers" and introduce them to the Bay's most endearing crab and his buddies with fun rhymes and flaps that lift to reveal who's who. This delightful board book will increase language and identification skills, along with developing small motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

A companion novel to Priscilla Cumming's highly acclaimed The Red Kayak and The Journey Back Thirteen-year-old Kate Tyler must ask herself how far she will go to protect her older brother, J.T., when he returns home after nearly a year in a juvenile detention facility, only to find himself ostracized and bullied as he attempts to make a fresh start. Kate compromises her own values and risks getting herself into serious trouble as she launches a secret campaign to protect her brother long enough for him to find his place in the family – and in the world – again. As a follow-up to Red Kayak, Cheating for the Chicken Man brings J.T., Kate, and Brady Parks together again as they struggle with the complicated issues of fairness, friendship, and forgiveness.

Cuddle with Chadwick the Crab as you read books from the Chadwick series! Chadwick the Crab, Chadwick's Wedding, Chadwick Forever, Chadwick and the Garplegrungen are all written by Priscilla Cummings and Illustrated by A.R. Cohen. Ages 3 and up.

A teenage boy faces his past and seeks redemption in the gripping companion book to Red Kayak Nine months in a juvenile detention facility was the punishment for his crime. After just a month he makes a bold escape that nearly kills him and soon an angry fourteen-year-old Digger is on the run. When injuries stop him, Digger hides at a riverside campground, where he befriends a young boy and a girl his own age. New friends, a job caring for rescued horses, and risking his life to save another make Digger realize that the journey back is not just about getting home. But he come to terms with his troubled past and face what he's really running from?

Ages 5 to 8 years. Chadwick the Crab and Bernie the Sea Gull are worried that they are going to lose a good friend forever. Hester, a Delmarva fox squirrel, has discovered a book telling her she is on the endangered species list. Not only that, a mysterious monster is lurking around Shady Creek. All this happens just when Chadwick and Esmerelda are getting ready to welcome their family home.

Teaches the alphabet by using the words of things that can be found in the Chesapeake Bay.

Fourteen-year-old Natalie O'Reilly's world is turned upside down with the news that she will soon go blind. As if this weren't shocking enough, she is forced to face the fact that she must now attend a school for the blind to learn Braille and how to use a cane. As Natalie tackles the skills that will help her to survive in a sighted world, she inwardly hopes for a miracle that will save her sight. But will that miracle come, or will she need to learn to embrace her new life?

From cats and fish to turtles and ducks, explores the way animals in the Chesapeake Bay sleep.

Chadwick, a Chesapeake Bay crab, yearns for adventure and finds it in a most dangerous form, prompting the birds and marine animals who share the Bay to come to his rescue on the mainland.

Wedding shells are ringing Chadwick the Crab is getting married, and everyone is preparing for the big event Esmerelda is choosing her bridesmaids. Baron von Heron is writing the ceremony (in rhyme, of course). Toulouse, the gourmet goose, is baking a corn and eelgrass cake. Then Chadwick begins to have second thoughts about marriage, and as if that weren't bad enough, Esmerelda disappears Suddenly, the wedding is off and the search is on. Only then does Chadwick realize how much he loves the prettiest girl crab in all of Shady Creek. Early reader-ages 5-8.

Rhyming text identifies items of every color of the rainbow found in or near the Chesapeake Bay.

In Chesapeake 1-2-3, companion book to Chesapeake ABC, the bay comes alive for preschoolers and toddlers learning to count. Pages and scenes grow more crowded as readers approach "ten," then see all the numbers once again. One girl went out to fish; two ospreys fly up high; three sails are on each boat; learn to count--the Chesapeake Way! This book will delight youngsters with its clever rhymes and whimsical drawings. Picture book-ages 0-6.

A crab leaves his home at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to help clean up the pollution in the Chesapeake Bay which is threatening the lives of his animal friends.

Ages 5 to 8 years. Beneath the back steps, by a rock in the shade, Beetle Boddiker lives in the house that he made. A jumble of sticks and a tumble of leaves, It is a simple bug house. But do not step on it, please! Beetle Boddiker is a tiny beetle who rarely leaves home. But one day he needs to be brave and venture forth across the great jungle of a lawn and the ocean of rocks in the driveway to visit his brother, Nevins, who lives in a rusty tin can across the street. Join Beetle Boddiker on an adventure that is not to be missed.

Brady loves life on the Chesapeake Bay with his friends J.T. and Digger. But developers and rich families are moving into the area, and while Brady befriends some of them, like the DiAngelos, his parents and friends are bitter about the changes. Tragedy strikes when the DiAngelos’ kayak overturns in the bay, and Brady wonders if it was more than an accident. Soon, Brady discovers the terrible truth behind the kayak’s sinking, and it will change the lives of those he loves forever. Priscilla Cummings deftly weaves a suspenseful tale of three teenagers caught in a wicked web of deception.

An underwater holiday adventure with a surprise visit from Santa

Three junior high school girls accuse their music teacher of inappropriate actions. The story is told through the eyes of one of the accusers, Claire, who lives in the shadow of a disabled younger brother, and the teacher’s daughter Melody. Interwoven in the story are the problems the three accusers face in their own lives and the work Melody does at a horse farm where she helps disabled children – one of whom turns out to be Claire’s brother.

When Grace's family is evicted from their Washington, D.C., apartment just before Christmas 1932, and she and her younger brothers are sent to the Mission, Grace wonders what will become of her sick older brother, her pregnant mother, and her out-of-work father.

Fearing she'll never be part of the "normal" world again, not with her face, leg, and hand badly burned in an accident, 12-year-old Kelley faces skin-graft operations, uncomfortable dressings, and a plastic mask she must wear at least a year. But Kelley discovers many things about herself, including a talent she never knew she had.

Introduces Chadwick, a blue crab, and his various animal friends who live in and near the Chesapeake Bay.

When his family comes to live on his grandfather's farm in Pennsylvania while his father is out of work, eleven-year-old Will must deal with his father's distant behavior, his grandfather's heart attack, and caring for a goose he has shot.

On his first fall migration to Maryland, a Canada goose becomes separated from his family and finds his way south in the company of a snow goose who becomes a special, lifelong friend.

Two ospreys in search of a new home decided to start a restaurant business on a channel marker at the mouth of Shady Creek.

Here is the story of a great blue heron, with a great big problem. Oswald can't straighten his long neck into the up position. When Oswald's turn comes to guard the marsh, he's unable to see over the tall grass, so he turns to his favorite pastime and is happily reading a book about weather when a fox nearly nabs his cousin Ophelia. Poor Oswald is banished to a far corner of Shady Creek. There he meets some friendly little birds, the timberdoodles, who recognized his special talent: forecasting the weather. Only after Oswald's timely warning about a tornado do the other herons finally accept, and cherish, Oswald for who he is.