SEA Recommended: Wind Quest
If you have kids and are looking for a great book to share the spirit of adventure and the healing power of the ocean, then look no further! With incredible illustrations by Isaac Mitchell and captivating words by Eli Marmar, this book is a must read. This project has taken a community based approach and is being self-published via Indiegogo. To get your hands on a copy (or two) and to support these ocean stewards take a sneak peak below and preorder at their Indiegogo page. Dive in and enjoy!
Wind Quest is an oceanic adventure, written to inspire deep connections with nature.
The story follows a twelve-year-old boy and his parents, living on a sailboat in the arctic. They are a family of surfers, herbalists and do it yourself-ers, surrendered to an adventure. Their fate becomes intertwined with a narwhal whale, a medicine woman and her daughter. Adventure, ingenuity and suspense guide every turn of this middle-grade oceanic fiction. We are all children of the earth and the sea. Through their exploration, we can discover a deeper sense of ourselves and this innate connection. Our hope is to inspire our children to dream, to imagine and to wonder at the awe of nature.
The healing power of water has been a running thread through author Eli Marmar’s life. After eight years of designing wetsuits for O’Neill, Marmar has spent the last decade as co-founder of ‘Freewaters Footwear’ whose brand ethos is centered on clean drinking water projects. A portion of Wind Quests profits are set aside for the same clean drinking foundations. “One of the greatest gifts of being a parent is the ritual of reading your kids books and telling them stories,” Eli says. “night after night, year after year of storytelling, I found my imagination reawakening. When the seed of Wind Quest hit me, I felt compelled to write it out, because in these crazy times, it is so important to spark children’s sense of adventure and reawaken their spiritual connection to the planet.”
The illustrator, Isaac Mitchell, spent 5 years traveling around the world and sailing across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and throughout the Caribbean waters. He lives on the boat, Shady Grove, featured in this novel and is continually extracting inspiration from his relationship with the water. The illustrations evoke a classical, wood - print style seen in early editions of Moby Dick. Throughout the novel are footnotes intended to encourage young readers to dive deeper into the realms of earth science, nautical lore, navigation, geography, ecology, and herbal medicine.
"The smiles of serendipity are revealed when surrendered to adventure.”
Wind Quest is taking an unconventional approach to publishing. It will be self published via crowdfunding on Indiegogo. “We always envisioned this project being community based,” Eli said. “So crowdfunding is a great way to build grassroots support for the book. Like raising a child, it takes a village.”
Learn more at igg.me/at/windquest.