Praise for the Magical Animal Adoption Agency series ' This] gentle tale of magic and self-reliance will entertain confident new independent readers.

This delightfully enticing start of a new chapter book series tells a tale of friendship, courage, and community, with exquisite black-and-white illustrations throughout. Danger lurks, and as it approaches, Mona finds that this hotel is more than a warm place to spend the night. But the Heartwood Hotel is not all acorn souffl and soft moss-lined beds. As it turns out, Mona is precisely the maid they need at the grandest hotel in Fernwood Forest, where animals come from far and wide for safety, luxury, and comfort.

Jon's Tricky Journey: A story for Inuit children w.When Mona the Mouse stumbles across the wondrous world of the Heartwood Hotel in the middle of a storm, she desperately hopes they'll let her stay.

Fatima and the Clementine Thieves: Book launch (To.

Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift o.

Telling Tales Tuesday: Itah Sadu (Hamilton, ON).

Telling Tales Tuesdays: Paul Covello (Hamilton, ON).

The launch for the first two books in the Heartwood Hotel series, A True Home and The Greatest Gift, will be held next week in Vancouver so, if you can, be sure to check it out. Graced with the black-and-white pencil drawings of American illustrator Stephanie Graegin, Heartwood Hotel's first book, A True Home, has surely found a place for itself in youngCanLit by captivating and gladdening our own hearts.

By doing this, Kallie George makes A True Home a suitable read-aloud for younger children who will easily be able to imagine the Hotel with its miscellaneous accommodations (including the root floors with hibernation suites, trunk floors, branch floors, twig floors and honeymoon and penthouse suites) and star-gazing balcony and ballroom. But even the wolves, though frightening to many of the residents at the Heartwood Hotel, have an inane quality about them, squabbling about their achievements and the existence of the Heartwood Hotel. That majestic tree's hotel is built upon a solid foundation of respect for all creatures and the natural world of interrelationships, though as in the human world some need to be avoided if one is to survive. How do I convey to readers the infinite sweetness and gentility of A True Home? From the warm-hearted atmosphere and compassionate mission of the Heartwood Hotel and its staff to the plot of finding home, amidst common foibles and uncommon dangers, Kallie George's text is rich in friendship, courtesy, diversity and affection.

A true home heartwood hotel