Wowrus by Monica Roe

 A gentle and moving picture book about how looking on the bright side might not always be the brightest solution.

Walrus is such a good friend. In fact, he's so good at cheering friends up and finding the bright side in any situation that sometimes his friends call him "Wowrus."

But when Walrus breaks a tusk during the Great Iceberg Classic, it hurts! He doesn’t want to hear about the silver linings of having only one tusk! As he nurses his wound, Walrus starts to understand that pointing out the positive doesn't always help. It takes Narwhal listening to him for Walrus to realize that perhaps not everything can—or should—be bright all the time…and that’s okay too.

Monica Roe grew up in an Appalachian farming community and spent her childhood haunting the local library, where she was once almost locked in at closing time (she saw this as a huge win; the librarian disagreed). She has worked for over a decade as a pediatric physical therapy consultant for off-road Alaskan communities and is a researcher/advocate for the social model of disability and inclusive rural health. A first-generation graduate, Monica currently studies public health at the University of Alaska Anchorage, focusing on disability-inclusive disaster preparedness for rural communities threatened by climate change. When not in Alaska, Monica and her family can be found in rural South Carolina, where they raise honeybees and sometimes get stung.