ALANi & the Giant Kelp Elf
Authors: Gayle and Tom Joliet
10” x 11.5” – 64 pages
Hardcover — $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-9840007-6-051995
Kelfie and his Kelp Elf Clan need help. Their undersea home, the giant kelp forest off the coast of Laguna Beach, is being destroyed by over-fishing and pollution. Can their human friend, Alani, help them find a solution so they won’t have to leave their homes forever?
This is an engaging story for young children to teach environmental awareness and civic responsibility. Alani and Kelfie realize that people must speak up to create laws that protect the land and sea creatures who cannot speak for themselves.
BOOK REVIEW:
STU NEWS – Jan. 17, 2020 | Tom and Gayle Joliet’s children’s book, Alani and the Giant Kelp Elf, gains wide praise and distribution
By LYNETTE BRASFIELD — Go to Review
TESTIMONIALS:
A wonderfully illustrated story, inspiring for both young and old to advocate for protection of their natural world through the whimsical telling of how one community was able to establish a Bluebelt of protection for its coastal waters. -One World One Ocean
A delightful, creative tale linking us to the wonders of the ocean and land. The story reminds us of the challenges we must overcome and inspires us to protect our natural resources. -Laguna Bluebelt Coalition
More than a children’s fantasy, this is a fable for our times that stimulates our imaginations while simultaneously calling on us to care for land and sea critters. I wanted this beautifully crafted story to never end. -Tom Osborne, Ph.D. / Enivonmental Historian and author
A delightful way for young readers to learn the ecology of Southern California’s coastal habitat and the importance of healthy kelp forests. Effectively illustrates how human actions can have a positive impact on all living things. -Laguna Ocean Foundation
Susan Weidhass –
“I’m thrilled for you both, to see this dream finally come true! To bear witness to the result of your years nurturing this vision with your beautiful paintings, writing, editing, persistence… it must still seem surreal to you to finally hold the book in your hands!
Your steadfast commitment to promote a better world for us and for future generations, in such a loving way, has been an inspiration and an honor. You have given us a legacy to share; a compelling story to help educate.
You are still wonderful teachers to the core, and now with this legacy, we can all help spread the message even farther to restore and sustain our world, above and below the water line.”
Susan Weidhass
Cynthia Obrand –
“OUTSTANDING and well deserved!”
Cynthia Obrand
Tom Osborne –
Green Light
A Tale of a Girl, a Garden, and an Elf
Tom Osborne
Decades ago I remember reading to our then young sons the Dr. Seuss classic, The Lorax. What a powerful, imaginative book that was. In his inimitable style of wordplay, the author taught children and by inference their parents about air pollution, the value of trees, and the importance of young people taking action to preserve nature’s gifts.
Though I’m assuredly not an authority on children’s books, until very recently I’ve not read one that comes close to moving me with an environmental message like The Lorax. Having just finished reading Alani and the Giant Kelp Elf written and illustrated by Gayle and Tom Joliet, I have to say this book hits many of the high marks I would look for in children’s environmental literature.
The setting for this fable for our time is the Laguna Bluebelt, that is, the band of coastal water along much of Laguna’s coast that has been established as a Marine Protected Area, where fishing has been restricted and, in some cases, prohibited. Decades ago, overfishing and urban runoff pollution had taken a heavy toll on marine life, including the giant kelp. Ocean activists, led by the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, advocated for and succeeded in obtaining in 2012 MPA legal status for a swath of our city’s gem-like coastline. This was an impressive environmental achievement about which numerous local newspaper accounts have been written. Until now, however, none of these accounts have told the story for children, the inheritors of this legacy who will one day need to be the stewards and guardians of Laguna’s marine life and habitat.
The girl (Alani), the garden (the South Laguna Community Garden Park), and the elf (sculpture) all exist in real life. They are not fictional. What is fictional is the richly textured, imaginative, and poignant story spun around and connecting all three.
Here’s what happens. On her way home from school, young Alani visits our local community garden and while watering plants sees “a beautiful nautilus shell shining in the sunlight” attached to “a rubbery seaweed stem.” The real world is left behind when Alani slides down an underground “lava tunnel,” with the nautilus shell necklace in hand, and learns that she had been summoned by an elf named Kelfie, who represents undersea elves worldwide seeking help from humans to stop polluting and overfishing their local waters so that kelp habitat and fish stocks could be replenished. Without intentionally giving away subplots mixed in with non-fictional developments involving community garden events, I’ll just say your children and grandchildren will love this book.