Birds teach gardener lessons in 'Bird Lady Meets Mort and Ort in "It's a Great Day for Pulling Weeds"'

LAKE CARROLL, Ill. - Author and registered nurse Janet E. Golden, writing under the pen name Gramma Golden, launched a new marketing campaign for her children's book "Bird Lady Meets Mort and Ort in 'It's a Great Day for Pulling Weeds'" (published by AuthorHouse) this year with an online radio interview about her book, which can be found online at www.toginet.com/podcasts/authortalk.

Golden shares an educational message through a whimsical story about talking birds who teach a gardener to correct her irresponsible gardening habits.

As a result of reading numerous articles and reports about the drastic loss of vital pollinators and their habitats in magazines, journals and the news media, Golden's desire is to teach the younger generation to become responsible gardeners.

"I have noticed changes in our own gardens with a decrease in butterflies, bees and blooms in the past few years," Golden says. "I want my readers to help Bird Lady in her effort to help nature and our environment survive by making changes to their practices."

Mort and Ort Aahkamort are unusually attractive and vividly colored birds who visit Bird Lady's garden. Throughout the story, Mort and Ort teach Bird Lady to recognize her careless gardening practices. The lessons Bird Lady gets from Mort and Ort help her make changes in her garden so that nature may thrive.

"Children are naturally drawn to their surroundings - they are curious and love chasing butterflies, birds, bugs and the like," Golden says. "It is vital to teach our youngsters now to become responsible in reversing our gardening practices and nurturing our environment so that wildlife can be sustained."

In attempting to reach more children and adults with her message, Golden has read her book to more than 1,700 elementary school children in the past year, a senior center gathering, Vacation Bible School attendees and as the guest author at a Young Authors Award Ceremony for children and their parents.

Golden writes blog posts in an effort to continue with her theme of educating readers, young and old, about various concerns regarding nature.  So far, a series of 12 blogs can be read on her website, www.grammagoldenbooks.com.

"Bird Lady Meets Mort and Ort in 'It's a Great Day for Pulling Weeds'"

By Gramma Golden

Softcover | 8.5 x 11 in | 38 pages | ISBN 9781491867709

E-Book | 38 pages | ISBN 9781491867716

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Gramma Golden is a registered nurse and healthcare educator. She strives to teach young readers to care for, and be responsible stewards of, the environment in which they live. She has written a monthly newspaper article for the past ten years on nature and preservation of natural habitats for the lake community in which she lives. She lives in northwestern Illinois with her husband.

. For the latest, follow @authorhouse on Twitter.

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'Letters from Ralph' shows journey of soldier through collection of letters

ORANGE CITY, Iowa - World War II was a time when family and friends could only hear about the whereabouts and condition of their loved one overseas through letters. Authors Lee and Bonnie Meier have teamed up to preserve the letters and the legacy of one soldier with their new book, "Letters from Ralph: A Soldier Writes Home During World War II" (published by Lulu).

The book tells the story of a young soldier from Iowa through his own letters. Ralph writes home to his parents and brothers as he is experiencing the hardships of war. The letters show the young soldier's efforts to assure his family that he was okay. "Letters from Ralph" follows Ralph through his training through his time in the European theater, including D-Day.

The authors, who were taught by Ralph when he was a professor at Northwestern College, obtained the letters from his daughter shortly after his death. It was their goal to preserve the letters so that future generations could understand war in a time before cell phones and video messaging.

An excerpt from "Letters from Ralph":

"The men are all arguing about who is going to get out of the Army and who will have to stay in for a few more years. Personally I expect the worse and rather think I'll get a peek at Japan. I've seen enough foreign countries to suit me but I'd be a little too restless to settle down anyhow."

"Letters from Ralph"

By Lee and Bonnie Meier

Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 262 pages | ISBN 9781483418537

E-Book | 262 pages | ISBN 9781483418520

About the Author

Lee and Bonnie Meier are natives of Orange City, Iowa. Lee is a retired dentist, and Bonnie is a retired school superintendent.

MOLINE, IL -- WQPT and Fourth Wall Films production of the documentary, "Letters Home to Hero Street," recently won two awards at the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival. The film won a gold award for People's Choice and a silver award in the Professional Documentary Long category.

"Letters Home to Hero Street" tells the story of Frank Sandoval, one of the eight Mexican-American soldiers who lived on 2nd Street in Silvis to die in World War II and Korea, through the letters he sent home during his training to the time he was killed in Burma.

"We are thrilled that audiences responded to Frank's story, which is a universal tale experienced by every soldier and his or her family," said Lora Adams, co-producer of the film. "WQPT is honored to work with Fourth Wall Films on this important project."

The film was supported in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

WQPT is a media outlet of Western Illinois University.

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MOLINE, IL -- WQPT can now be seen in full high definition (HD) on DirecTV. The change has been one year in the making and was started at the request of many DirecTV viewers.

In order to satisfy the requests for WQPT's main channel in HD, the station was required to trade in the standard definition (SD) carriage of both WQPT and our secondary channel, MHz Worldview.

"It takes more band width to broadcast in high definition," said WQPT General Manager Mary Pruess. "Therefore, our SD carriage of both WQPT and MHz Worldview were traded in order to accommodate the change to HD."

DirecTV viewers can still see MHz Worldview on DirecTV channel 2183 (with the appropriate equipment), or it remains free, over the air, anytime on WQPT-2 (24.2). Over-the-air and Mediacom viewers are not affected by this change.

WQPT is a media service of Western Illinois University.

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