Interview by Suzanne Ordas CurryDorothy Papadakos is setting out to make a difference. And she is doing it by reaching children. Her novel, The Kingdom of Winter, has not only become beloved by those children (and adults) that are reading it but has also become invaluable as a teaching tool in several districts, and with good reason. The book is all about our planet, our physical world and it's changes and what we must be doing to preserve it, It's quite the heavy and overwhelming subject but through her writing and plot devices she manages to make it engaging and adventurous. Read on to find out more about this book and what other projects she is taking on. And oh.. find out about just how much she admires Greta Thunberg.
Heroic knights, starry dogs... tell me what The Kingdom of Winter is about.
Dorothy Papadakos: The book is about science-savvy kids who enter a realm never revealed to humans until now: the Kingdoms of the Seasons. This incredible climate science adventure with heroic knight Sir Windham the North Wind takes them into wild & wonderful nature on land, in sea and sky and into our galaxy where the Great 88 Constellations live — lead powerfully by Orion and his starry dogs Canis Major & Canis Minor.
They all have one goal: stop the Fire Witch (global warming) and cool down Earth with the return of Winter on Winter Solstice. If they succeed, the other three Kingdoms — Spring, Summer & Autumn — can get back into their 3-month rhythms. Earth's astonishing built-in mechanisms, at work 24/7 in our soil, water and atmosphere, re-awaken to keep the planet in balance. But … the Fire Witch was just a minion of the true villain who emerges in book #2, The Kingdom of Spring, with a verrrry different climate plan for Earth … a Fifth Season.