The Edwin L. and Elizabeth L. Skelton Foundation generously donated copies of author Roger Reid’s young adult novel Longleaf to twenty elementary and middle schools in Coffee County, Alabama. The Skelton Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to benefit charitable, religious, scientific, literary, or educational purposes.
Longleaf combines a fast-paced adventure story blended with scientific fact about the lore, beauty and environmental significance of the longleaf pine ecosystem. A number of reviewers gave Longleaf good marks, including the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books.
Roger Reid is a writer, director, and producer for the award-winning Discovering Alabama series from the Alabama Museum of Natural History in cooperation with Alabama Public Television. His novel has been endorsed by the Longleaf Alliance of Alabama, whose Research Coordinator Mark Hainds continues to appear with Reid at school and library presentations throughout the southeast. NewSouth Books has also published Reid’s sequel to Longleaf, Space, set at Alabama’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
The Skelton Foundation made its donation to the Longleaf Alliance to help with their education outreach program. Foundation representative Donald Pittman wrote that the schools were very happy to receive the books.
Space and Longleaf are available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.