Awesome Chesapeake: A Kid?s Guide to the Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is an amazing body of water—the largest estuary in North America. This book, the first of its kind, stimulates elementary and middle school children’s interest in the bay by exposing them to the fascinating creatures and plants found in and around the bay’s 2,500 square miles. Concepts such as watershed, airshed, and food web are explained in concise, understandable terms. This book is an effective means for children to discover the interesting traits of some of the plants, animals, birds, and fish they are likely to find in and around the bay. Middle grades–ages 10-13.

David Owen Bell is a ship captain with a background in oceanographic research, marine education, and sail training with young people. Captain Bell is an avid writer and consultant who enjoys visiting schools to share his enthusiasm for writing and the Chesapeake Bay. His titles include Awesome Chesapeake, Chesapeake Bay Walk and Dockmanship. As an outdoor education teacher, he has taken school groups out on the bay to experience how an estuary works. As a licensed Master Mariner, Captain Bell has captained tugboats, sailing ships, excursion boats, and research vessels. He has extensively traveled from Canada to South America and from the Galapagos Islands to the Aegean Sea. His travels have taken him from Canada to South America and from the Galapagos Islands to the Aegean Sea. Artist and longtime illustrator of children’s books, Marcy Dunn Ramsey is a graduate of Emmanuel College where she received a BA degree. She lives with her family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Ramsey has been painting and drawing all her life, and since beginning her illustration career in 1988, has produced more than fifty books, including Awesome Chesapeake, Counties of Central Maryland, Counties of Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore, Counties of Northern Maryland, Counties of Southern Maryland, It’s Up to You, Griffin!, Leonard Calvert and the Maryland Adventure, Oyster Moon, Rosie’s Posies, Santa Claws: The Christmas Crab, Secret of Belle Meadow, Suppose, The World Turned Upside Down, Osprey Adventure, and Beetle Boddiker. Ramsey’s long experience with children has helped her keep in tune with their likes and dislikes. Her greatest efforts are directed at communicating a sense of humor, excitement, and spontaneity in her work that encourages children to continue their discovery of the magic of reading.