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Soar

Soar

$14.99
$14.99
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Product Description

About the Book

SOAR follows four children — Belle, Tel, Bem, and Ray — and their dog, Simba, on a joyful day at Forest Park. They roll down hills, cross a curvy bridge without fear, and fall and rise again, laughing. At the end of the path, they fly kites they built with their own hands.

Written in bouncing, chant-like language made for reading aloud, SOAR is a picture book about the pure joy of outdoor play, the courage to keep going, and the pride of making something yourself and watching it soar.

Age & Grade Range

Ages 3–8 · Preschool through Grade 2 — a read-aloud picture book for storytime, bedtime, and early-elementary classrooms. The rhythmic, repetitive language also makes it a strong pick for emerging readers building fluency and confidence with read-along or shared reading.

Main Themes

• Joy in Motion: The pure, physical joy of outdoor play — running, roaring, jumping, and soaring without restraint.

• Resilience: Belle, Tel, Bem, and Ray fall, crash, and rise again laughing — a gentle, embodied lesson in bouncing back.
• Family Ritual & Togetherness: A recurring family ritual, rain or shine, with Mom and Simba along for every trip down the hill.
• Nature & Wonder: Ducks, birds, turtles, and egrets along the river invite young readers to notice and love the natural world.
• Making & Creativity: The children build their own kites — hands-on creativity that turns imagination into something that flies.
• Courage: No one fears the curvy bridge — a quiet model of courage for readers facing their own "bridges."
• Sense of Place: Forest Park is rendered with real, specific love, inviting children to see their own neighbourhoods as worthy of story.

 

For Parents and Educators

SOAR earns a place on the shelf — and in the lesson plan — for reasons that go well beyond a pretty cover:

• Built for Read-Aloud Literacy: Alliteration, onomatopoeia ("crashhhhhhh!"), And chant-like repetition builds phonemic awareness and makes SOAR a natural fit for read-aloud fluency practice and early literacy circles.
• Champions Active, Outdoor Play: A joyful, screen-free model of outdoor play that parents can point to — and that classrooms can pair with recess, nature walks, or a real kite-flying day.
• Supports Social-Emotional Learning: The children's fall-and-rise moment offers a low-stakes, high-warmth entry point for conversations about resilience, courage, and trying again.
• Opens a STEM & Maker Connection: Kite-building turns the book into a ready-made STEM/maker extension — wind, flight, and design — that pairs naturally with a classroom kite-building activity.
• Warm, Everyday Representation: A loving single-mom household, a dog who's part of the family, and four children of color at the center of the adventure — everyday representation without a lesson attached to it.
• A Real Place Children Can Visit: Rooted in a real, mappable park, SOAR pairs naturally with local field trips, geography units, and "celebrate your own backyard" writing prompts — a model any community can adapt to its own local park.

In short: SOAR is a book that gets read twice — once for the joy of the language, and once because a child asks for it again the next night.

About the Author

Juliet I. Ezepue is a storyteller, a wife, and a mother of four. She is a college professor, and her husband serves as a frontline worker.

With roots in both Nigeria and the United States, Juliet draws on the richness of two cultures to write stories that reach young hearts and gently guide children through life's biggest lessons. She lives in Saint Louis, Missouri, with her family and their dog, Nala.

Learn more at julietiwelunmor.org.

About the Illustrator

Tooba Alam is a self-taught illustrator and fine artist who works in both soft, translucent watercolors and digital media — often blending the two in a single piece. Her mother, Shama, is a fine artist too, and nurtured Tooba's love of art from her earliest years.

Tooba specializes in children's book illustration, creating immersive worlds with subtle touches of fantasy that spark curiosity and wonder in young readers. She has contributed to a range of art projects and is honored to bring her illustrations to SOAR.

She can be reached at tooba.aalam01@gmail.com.


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