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Sally Lee Baker Author of “TONI TANAGER” receives coveted Book Excellence Award

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Sally Lee Baker’s book puts fun into reading out loud.

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Faro, July 8, 2019 – Sally Lee Baker’s “Toni Tanager” wins a Book Excellence Award in the Children’s Fiction category. Founded in Toronto, Ontario, the Book Excellence Awards is an international book awards competition dedicated to recognizing both independent and traditionally published authors and publishers for excellence in writing, design and overall market appeal. Previous Winners and Finalists of the Book Excellence Awards have doubled their book sales, garnered attention from film producers, received distribution in bookstores and increased their visibility and media attention.

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“I was pretty excited”, says Sally. “Winning this award was actually an answer to prayer as it was the 20th book I had published but the first to be entered into a contest.”  Inspired to write tongue twisting tales featuring different letters of the alphabet and enjoying elementary student's responses to previous books Baker wrote “Toni Tanager” to feature T in another tongue twisting tale.  Unlike other authors who come with a story in mind, Sally creates stories using what words are available starting with the featured letter.

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“Toni Tanager”, a small bird, teases two three-toed tree toads until Terri Tanager takes her to task to treat the tree toads like she would like to be treated.  Baker challenges readers with new words, gives a moral without preaching and delights children who search for the hidden letter in each illustration.

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The book has already received some great reviews from industry leaders.

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Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite:

Toni is a tanager, a small but very colorful bird with a tweeting attitude. She is honest to the core, almost brutally honest, taking pleasure in taunting the tree toads for only having three toes. Terri, another tanager, scolds Toni, insisting that she consider the feelings of others, in this case the tree toads. Even if what you say is the truth, it isn’t nice to torment someone with honest observations. Or, as Terri says, “Treat the tree toads like you would like to be treated.” Toni has a lot to learn. She’s also boastful and thinks she’s the best tweeter, but she isn’t. And when others point that out, she feels the pain of honesty. But, she also learns another valuable lesson - that if she tries hard, she will perhaps become a terrific tweeter.

Sally Lee Baker’s charming picture book story, Toni Tanager, is a fun read-aloud, illustrated tongue twisting tale brought to you by the letter “T.” It is an alliteration of fun with repeated ‘t’ words. It’s a real tongue twister of ‘t’s’ complete with valuable messages and interesting trivial information on tanagers and tree toads. But there is a definite plot to this tongue twister. Toni has to learn not to tease and not to brag, two very important lessons that everyone needs to learn, young and old. The story of t’s is accompanied by boldly colorful illustrations which really move this tongue-twisting story along. This book is a lot of fun, as well as being humorous, honest, clever, and educational.

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About the Author – Sally Lee Baker writes and illustrates children’s books from her home in Faro, Yukon Territory.

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She wrote her first tongue twister for kids using the letter “B” in a Writing for Juveniles class in college. After marrying, raising two girls and then reading to grandchildren, she was inspired to write and illustrate alliterative stories using each letter of the alphabet.

Sally Lee Baker has always enjoyed art and has taken a few workshops by local acrylic and water color artists.  Using her art  lessons and computer skills Sally drew characters for her stories, scanned them on to her computer to color and manipulate through a drawing program.   By the time she wrote the "H" alliterative story she was able to do all the drawings on the computer alone.

As library clerk at her local public school she had many opportunities to read to students and note which books were well received and which were not. With one daughter and family near Edmonton, Alberta, Sally takes advantage of visits there to read in other public schools.  When asked about signing books in one school library the librarian responded, I was laughing a little about you signing your books.  I have them displayed on the top of the bookshelf ever since I got them and they are always signed out.  The students love, love, love them.  There may not be as many to sign for you, I will have to start collecting them as they come back for the next little bit.

Sally and her husband, Ted, spend retirement in Faro, Yukon where they are very involved in EMS, church, sports activities, and the local free store.

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About the Book Excellence Awards – Founded in Toronto, Canada, the Book Excellence Awards is an international book awards competition dedicated to recognizing both independent and traditionally published authors for excellence in writing, design and overall market appeal. Previous Winners and Finalists of the Book Excellence Awards have been New York Times’ best-sellers, spoken at the United Nations and TEDx, and have had their books optioned by movie studios. To learn more, visit: https://www.bookexcellenceawards.com.