• Age: 3 to 7
• Grade: p to 2

A tender and lyrical story celebrating the natural world and our place within it, Wild Trails to the Sea follows a coastal family as seasons change and children grow. With a hopeful refrain, a parent shares their dreams for their young ones, urging them to pay attention to every bit of magic the world has to offer, from watching a mayflower bloom to skipping pebbles on an icy pond, encouraging a lifelong love of natural spaces.

Told in gentle free-verse with luminous, tactile illustrations, this nostalgic story celebrates raising children in the great outdoors and will leave them enchanted with the lemon-burst of spruce tips, the steam of saltwater bonfires, and white rocks as vast as the moon.

While this book will resonate with any reader who appreciates a coastal landscape, those familiar with the unique coasts of Nova Scotia will find delight in recognizing places such as the Cape Breton Highlands, Long Lake, High Head trail, Hirtles Beach, and Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct. And those who have yet to visit will be inspired to explore them.

The debut children’s picture book by celebrated Halifax-based editor and co-author of Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women and York-based, Nova Scotia–born paper-collage artist Elena Skoreyko Wagner, Wild Trails to the Sea is a love letter to the earth, the sky, and the sea—and to their future stewards.

Penelope Jackson is the co-author of the middle-grade books Papergirl and Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women. An editor and ghostwriter of children's and adult books for over two decades, she is also a singer/songwriter and gardener. She hikes wild trails and swims in the cold ocean with her family in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Elena Skoreyko Wagner is a Canadian illustrator and paper collage artist living in York, UK. Her work has appeared in Flow magazine, the New York Times online and Brain Pickings. Elena's work typically comprises lovingly collected paper scraps imbued with their own histories, assembled to illustrate intimate stories and experiences. Her work focuses on ordinary life, celebrating the wonder and magic that exist there.? Elena lives in a wonky Victorian terraced house with her German husband, three kids, and countless DIY projects

Elena Skoreyko Wagner's profile page