Description

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One day Catalina overhears the king planning to build a wall and fears her family will never be able to visit. Catalina tricks the king into building walls that droop, drip, swirl, and swoosh away. But now the king demands a wall that will outlast even a Twinkie. Luckily, Catalina has the perfect ingredients to bake up a family reunion

A wonderful story of inclusivity and compassion perfect for initiating conversations with kids in today's world.

About the Author

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Patty lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, their crazy awesome toddler, a dog named Pippa, and a dog named Spencer. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of St Thomas and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota. She currently works in higher education. Her first book, Catalina and the King’s Wall, will release May 5th, 2018 from Eifrig Publishing. At all hours of the day (and night) she can be found standing at her desk, helping her university run smoothly and working on her next story.

Praise For…

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“In a not so faraway kingdom, not so long ago … [Catalina] overheard [the king] say, ‘I do not like the people in the nearby kingdom. They are different. I must build a wall to keep them out!’ ‘Oh no,’ Catalina said …. ‘I’ve got to do something!’” (pp. 1-4). And so begins the story of Catalina’s clever plotting (and the king’s own undoing) to prevent him from building a wall that would separate Catalina from her family who lives in the nearby kingdom.

Does the king’s rant and Catalina’s worry sound all too familiar? It should. The story’s premise parallels political rhetoric and anxieties in the U.S. today. Though Catalina and the King’s Wall draws from current politics, the story transcends time and place. It is an excellent tale that can spark important conversations and lessons of several virtues (and vices) common across eras, location, and cultures. Catalina illustrates the virtues of love, hard work, perseverance, and resourcefulness, while the king displays the vices of bias, self-indulgence, and hot-temperedness. And as all good stories of prosocial lessons portray, the virtuous flourish in the end, while those with vices suffer the consequences of their thoughtless, selfish failings.

Catalina is a talented baker in the story, so in the spirit of this theme, the book’s illustrations are the icing on the cake. The pictures on each page are as colorful as the characters’ personalities are, with very little white space existing in the pen and watercolor illustrations. The thoughtfulness of details in the setting on each page (e.g., the ornate frame of the king’s mirror) is incredibly eye-catching. Best of all, Catalina’s baked goods – made from her love and hard work – are beautifully depicted on each and every page. I highly recommend this book for all progressive parents.

by Tonia Bock, PhD in Developmental and Educational Psychology
Professor of Psychology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN