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Highway Surfing

by Timothy Potter

60 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-0287; ISBN 1-4120-2459-5; US$11.50, C$13.23, EUR9.23, £6.23

Zooming and soaring into every child's heart! Enjoy the dangerous, wacky, and mischievous adventures of five teenage birds surfing America's highways. Fun for all ages.

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About the Book      About the Author      News!      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

What is highway surfing? Well, birds highway surf all the time, it's just that people don't know it. It's a sport reserved only for the bravest of birds, or the most foolish. When the wind is blowing hard, a bird flies high into the air above a long stretch of highway, and at just the right moment it swoops down toward an 18 wheeler and catches the wind just behind the air foil, which is the curved piece on top of the truck cab that pushes the air up. It is very dangerous because if it misjudges the height of the air foil it could mean bye-bye birdie.

Highway Surfing is about a group of birds who like to surf. Blackie, a crow, Big Red, a Cardinal, Maggie, a Magpie, George, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Little Sparrow are bird friends that are very different, but have one thing in common. Crazy adventures! If they are not surfing, they might be bothering people to get food, disrupting parties, or bombarding cat shows.

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About the Author

Born and raised in Upstate New York, Tim Potter spent many hours in outdoor activities. He is a lover of all kinds of pets, from cats and dogs, to his favorite, birds. He enjoyed writing stories in elementary school. Fellow students often asked to hear his stories during writing time.

The vision of Highway Surfing came into being from an actual experience that happened in front of his car while driving home one day. Tim now resides in Southern California with his wife, Fran. He has two children, Jason and Karen, and of course, two birds, Bell and Sky.

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Excerpts

Excerpt 1:

Blackie Crow awakened to the sound of a blustery wind. He hopped out of bed and to his delight saw all the trees were bending and swaying with the wind. "Time to call the gang," he said, "This is a great day for highway surfing!"

The first friend Blackie called was Big Red, a cardinal with a mohawk haircut and a beak with a crack in it from a tangle he had with an eighteen wheeler the last time they had surfed the highway.

What is highway surfing? Well, birds highway surf all the time, it's just that people don't know it. It's a sport reserved only for the bravest of birds, or the most foolish.

When the wind is blowing hard, a bird flies high into the air above a long stretch of highway, and at just the right moment it swoops down toward an eighteen wheeler and catches the wind just behind the air foil, which is the curved piece on top of the truck cabthat pushes the air up. It is very dangerous because if it misjudges the height of the air foil it could mean bye-bye birdie.

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Excerpt 2:

Big Red was up for another round with an eighteen wheeler, even though he had just nipped the top of the air foil the last time they went surfing. Red was one tough bird, and the gang all knew it! So when Blackie called, Red was ready to go.

Little Sparrow was just having his morning worm when Blackie gave him a call.

"Hi ya Little Sparrow, you up to some highway surfing today?" Little Sparrow was a bit timid because he was small, but he was a feisty little fellow.

"You bet I am Blackie," Sparrow replied. "I got some new feather wax I want to try. It's supposed to get you up to top speed in no time at all. I'll let you try it."

Maggie Magpie was just taking her morning shower under the creek falls. She was a very pretty Magpie, as far as birds go. She was also one of the best highway surfers around. Once she and Big Red had surfed tandem. Maggie on top of Big Red's shoulders was something to see!

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Excerpt 3:

George started to fly down by the little girl's head. He meant to glide by her and give her a nice friendly chirp in her ear to say hi, but George isn't the most graceful bird around. He came too close to her head, and instead of chirping in her ear, he touched it with his beak. The girl was so startled that she threw up her hands to protect herself, and when she did, she hit one of George's wings. That made him lose his flight balance and he started to tumble, and wouldn't you know it, he fell straight on top of the cake!

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Excerpt 4:

Little Sparrow yelled out, "Surfs up!" as he headed off. He had built up some great speed when he met the truck. He flew over the air foil and the force of the wind was so strong that it took his breath away. "Oh no!" Little Sparrow said as he took a deep breath of the air, "Cattle air!"

If you have ever driven or ridden behind a cattle truck, you know what Little Sparrow was smelling at the time. As he made his way down the top of the truck he let out a big "Moooooooooooo." All the cattle started mooing. Little Sparrow was laughing and coughing because of the sounds and the smell. He was having a great ride except for the smell! "Think I will end this ride with a somersault." Little Sparrow tucked his head into his chest and flipped over, to all his friends delight.

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Excerpt 5:

"I just don't think he's ready!" Maggie yelled to the others, who now were all quiet because they were worried themselves. "I'm flying over there and stopping all of this." Maggie was very fast when it came to surfing. She could pick up speed quickly, she had a knack for it.

As the car approached George was feeling awful. He was starting to doubt himself but he thought, "I can't turn back now, everyone is watching me. I've got to do it now."

His eyes were starting to water. He was scared now, but when you are with friends you sometimes just do things you really don't want to do.

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Catalogue Information

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