Nature's Guardian Angel: John Muir — Wayne Hunt

Nature's Guardian Angel: John Muir is a lively biographical novel about John Muir's boyhood and young adulthood. John Muir, often known as “the father of America's National Parks”, was born in Dunbar, Scotland, located on the beautiful North Sea coast. This novel is about his young life--growing up in Dunbar, moving to America, growing up on a farm, inventing many wonderful things, and attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison. There he discovered his keen interest in ‘all things natural' and went on to become one of the world's greatest naturalists. Using lively dialogue and vivid narrative, it presents to young readers a historic portrait of the great naturalist's young life. This book synthesizes a wealth of published books into an easily read and understood book that introduces young readers to the wonderful life of a great Scottish-American pioneer. Creating a guardian angel, Natura, to protect and guide John Muir to become the person he was born to become, this book introduces children to the nature of guardian angels, which many people believe to truly exist. With this protagonist in John Muir's life, an antagonist, of course, must be created to balance the good with the evil that is so evident in our real world. Therefore, Serpenta, an evil spirit, is created and weaved into the story to represent the evil side of this good-evil equation. With this combination of factual biographical history and fictional narrative, young readers will be fully engaged in the storyline, thereby making this book a very enjoyable book to read.