KIMBERLY BEHRE KENNA: ARTEMIS SPARKE & THE SOUND SEEKERS BRIGADE
ON BIG BLEND RADIO: Author Kimberly Behre Kenna discusses the first installment on her Brave Girls Collection, “Artemis Sparke and the Sound Seekers Brigade.” Publishing on World Wetlands Day, February 2, 2023, (Fitzroy Books / Regal House), this magic-filled new middle grade book promotes environmentalism, celebrating what makes you unique, finding your voice, and standing up for what’s right. Part of the proceeds from book sales will benefit Save the Sound, a nonprofit based in New Haven that works to fight climate change and promote ecological restoration in the Long Island Sound area, where the story is set. Listen here in the YouTube player or download the podcast on PodBean.
Heartfelt and humorous, “Artemis Sparke” follows a group of underdogs who conjure up the ghosts of historic ecologists to help save a salt marsh and appease Mother Nature.
When Artemis Sparke has had it with humans, she heads to the nearby salt marsh to hang out with the birds, plants and mollusks who don’t make a big deal of her stutter. The shoreline sanctuary is predictable, unlike her family and friends, and the data in her science journal proves it. But one day that data goes haywire, and her bird friend RT confirms it: the salt marsh is dying. Artemis discovers that the historic hotel where she lives with her mom may be part of the problem, but speaking up would mean confronting the cranky hotel owner who happens to be her mom’s boyfriend and boss. Artemis conjures up help from deceased ecologists, and as she works to untangle their clues, she finds family secrets that could be the key to saving the salt marsh. An empowering read about the importance of finding your voice, “Artemis Sparke” will strike a chord with kid activists everywhere.
After years as an adolescent and family counselor, and then as a fifth grade teacher of ecology and language arts, Kimberly Behre Kenna returned to school for her MA in creative writing from Wilkes University. Her middle-grade novel, “Artemis Sparke and the Sound Seekers Brigade” was a finalist and received Honorable Mention in the 2019 Tassy Walden New Voices in Children’s Literature Competition. It will be published by Fitzroy Books 2/2/23. Another book in her Brave Girl Collection, “Jett Jamison and the Secret Storm” is forthcoming from Black Rose Publishing 8/3/23. A third in the collection, as yet unpublished, won second place in The Institute of Children’s Literature 2022 MG Mystery First Pages Contest. Her poems and short stories have been published in American Writers Review, Mused, Plumtree Tavern, and Rubbertop Review. Her full-length play, “Ana’s Hummingbird,” was given a staged reading at The Dramatists Guild in NYC. She’s a member of SCBWI and PEN America, and now devotes herself to writing full time. Connect with her at www.kimberlybehrekenna.com
