Join Mia, the adventurous mouse, on her travels as she encounters Africa's wild animals and birds, and wrestles with the strained relationship between her and her two brothers. Learn about the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of a sister she never knew, and find out what it means to follow the ripples in the water.
“The content is rich with topics relevant to young children: love, friendship, forgiveness, bullying, loss, justice, and success. . .this book is ideal to use for literature circles and whole class readings.” San Francisco Book Review
A mouse named Mia, who loves adventure, gets inspired by her papino’s trip to Africa. Her papino would read his journal from his adventure to Africa to Mia. He tells Mia about King Abdalla the lion and his father. A long time ago, Mia’s big sister, Zola, wandered off and lost her memory. Mia’s big brothers, Cade and Rupert, tried to scare Mia out of liking adventure because they don’t want to lose Mia just like they lost Zola. They also wonder what’s in Papino’s journal. Mia gets scared, but she never stops liking adventure. Her Papino would tell her to dip her toe in the water and see where the ripples would take her. Mia sails on a journey to Africa, meeting lots of friendly animals along the way, like Twiga the giraffe and Deka the elephant. However, there are lots of other dangerous animals that try to eat her, like Effiom the crocodile and Faizeen the cheetah. But little does she know Cade and Rupert have been following her on her adventure the whole time! Mia’s other friend, a bird named Pern, watches Cade and Rupert from above, just in case. Mia loves adventure, so she’ll never stop doing it. Mia’s curiosity and love for adventure give her toe a dip in the water, and a journey begins!
“The content is rich with topics relevant to young children: love, friendship, forgiveness, bullying, loss, justice, and success. . .this book is ideal to use for literature circles and whole class readings.”
San Francisco Book Review
Mia, Ripples in the Water was awarded the Bronze medal in the 2020 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards in the Best First Book-Chapter Book category. Created to bring increased recognition to exemplary children's books and their creators the Moonbeam Awards are juded by expert panels of youth educators, students, librarians, booksellers and book reviewers of all ages.
This year the program received 1,140 entries with medalists represented from 36 U.S. states plus D.C., 4 Canadian provinces and 7 countries overseas.
Mia, Ripples in the Water is a double winner in the 2020 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, sponsored by Story Monsters, LLC. The book earned recognition in both the Middle Grade Fiction and Best Cover Design categories. The awards are a worldwide book competition created in 2009 to celebrate the best in children's books. The Purple Dragonfly awards are geared toward books that appeal to children of all ages. Award recognition puts the seal of approval on books and lets parents, grandparents, educators, and caregivers know they are giving children a book of the highest caliber.
Mia, Ripples in the Water was named a finalist in the 2020 International Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest. Her first chapter book, author D. A. Jennings was recognized in the Children's Fiction category.
Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of American Book Fest said this year's contest yielded over 2000 entries from authors and publishers around the world, which were then narrowed down to the final results.
