Fox Cities Book Festival: Connecting writers and readers across our diverse communities.

Stephanie Feuerstein was always drawn to animals and nature. She spent hours exploring the fields and forests around her house growing up. She felt a deep connection to the outdoor world and loved learning about the critters she would find there. That, and an innate love for reading and writing, brought her to the point where she began writing children’s books. In 2008, she wrote The Monarch’s Gift, and found illustrator Kathryn Wedge through a mutual friend. Kathryn also loved the Monarch butterfly, raising them and creating beautiful paintings of them as they went through their life cycle. These paintings became the artwork for The Monarch’s Gift.

The book, Ella, Eddie, and Egg, was created specifically for the 1000 Islands Environmental Center and Conservancy’s 50 year anniversary. Stephanie’s 20 year career as a naturalist helped her create this story as a reflection of the progress we have had in the health of our environment since she was a child. She remembers seeing the thick sludge and filthy waters in the Fox River when an eagle was a rare sight and the water in the river was shunned by the community as dirty. Today, the river has become a beautiful and healthy ecosystem with Bald Eagles nesting successfully all along the banks. Ella, Eddie, and Egg celebrates that success and illustrator Mary Vander Sanden captured the quirky innocence of the eaglets with beautiful line drawings.

Ella, Eddie, and Egg can be purchased at 1000 Islands Nature Center in person for $12.00 per book. The Monarch’s Gift can be purchased for individual sales at The Book Store in Appleton, 293 W. Northland Ave. or booksellers can contact Stephanie directly at Stephatac@gmail.com to purchase books at wholesale prices.