Girl discovers Bard Owl and saves its baby

Linda and I love Bard owls, so of course I loved Mary Atkinson’s book, Owl Girl, published by Maine Authors Publishing. On the title page, in addition to her autograph, Mary wrote, “Listen for your owl!”

And we do. When a group of Bard owls gets excited, they hoot like monkeys. It’s pretty amazing.

Mary, a former teacher and educational consultant who lives in Maine and works full time as a published poet and children’s writer, has created, in Owl Girl, a story for 6 to 12-year-olds.

The book features a young girl, Holly, whose parents leave her and her brother at their grandparents while the parents take a trip. Turns out that Gram is very strict and Holly is miserable until she discovers a Bard owl in the woods. Eventually, the owl has two babies. And Holly gets to rescue one of them.

I don’t want to give away the whole story, but it’s a good one.

You can learn more about Mary and her work at www.maryatkinson.net.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.