Wayne L Brillhart
English Setters Rusty and Purdy who look after the yard find the birdfeeder on the ground broken one winter morning after a heavy snowfall. The birds want to know if Dottie the Deer knocked it down since she did once before; but it wasn’t broken when she did it. Purdy assures the birds they will find out. Roger the Red-bellied Woodpecker finds Dottie and she soon appears. She says she was sleeping and didn’t know what happened. Donna the Downy Woodpecker looks for clues and finds huge footprints over ten feet apart in the deep snow. (The huge footprints are what initiated the writing of this book.) The huge footprints become the bigger mystery. Nancy the Red-breasted Nuthatch says they look like the Bigfoot prints she’s seen up North. Jimmy the Junco asks 'Who’s Bigfoot?' Nancy explains and the birds are alarmed and plan to warn their friends. Edward the Bald Eagle shows up and tells them not to blame Bigfoot; he’s up North. After Edward’s departure a surprise occurs that solves the mystery. So who do you believe? When you find out who made the big footprints don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret. They have to read the story themselves or you can read it to them. A goal of this book is to get children excited about reading. After the story on the 'Where the Story Came From' page the author explains how he was able to solve the mystery to encourage children with logical thinking. The book is 100% photographs taken in the author’s backyard. Glossary and Bibliography in back for teachers, homeschoolers and advanced children.
