Twirlybirch and the Marbled Murrelet

By Jack Saunders

In the sixth instalment of the Twirlybirch series of books for children, Beauregard Twirlybirch emerges as a young environmentalist. What starts out as a simple school photography contest ends up with our hero, together with his Pedal-Powered-Umbrella, coming up against corporate greed in the name of progress and development.
After various setbacks, Beauregard and his dad head out on a fishing and photography trip to their favourite spot in Branwall Forest. Both Beauregard and his dad are saddened when they hear that Branwall Forest is scheduled to be logged so that a new housing development can replace it.
Beauregard’s intention is to find a nature photograph to enter in the school photo contest. After finding and photographing a bird’s egg high up in a nest along the river, he and his friend, Mary, need to identify what kind of bird’s egg it actually is. With the help of Mary’s mother, they determine that it is a Marbled Murrelet.
The race is on! Since the Marbled Murrelet is an endangered species, Beauregard and Mary need to work fast in order to stop the loggers and their chainsaws.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jack Saunders
• Release date: Mar 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463912959

Jack Saunders

I live in a little hobbit hole at the bottom of a steep hill. It would be the perfect place to float down if I had a large enough umbrella. If I floated too far I'd land in the ocean and that would be just fine on a hot day.The Twirlybirch family first showed up in Saudi Arabia while I was spending a few hot and dusty years in Jeddah. I plan to continue telling Twirlybirch tales since it seems like a worthwhile pastime. Beauregard and Sparkle Snowflake deserve to have their stories told and I'm the only one who knows them.

Book preview

Twirlybirch and the Marbled Murrelet Book 6

Jack Saunders

First Smashwords Edition, 2019

Copyright 2018 by Jack Saunders

Published by Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover images courtesy of canstockphoto and shutterstock

Cover by Joleene Naylor

Chapter One

The Soccer Championship

Beauregard woke up on Friday morning and immediately jumped out of bed. ‘Today is the big day, and I am SO... ready!’ he thought to himself. After many weeks of games against the other teams at school, his soccer team had made it to the championship match. They were scheduled to play that afternoon right after school.

As soccer players go, Beauregard was pretty good. He knew there were boys and girls who were better than he was but he always gave a good effort. He liked to play forward but didn’t mind playing as a midfielder or even as a fullback.

The teams were made up of boys and girls in his grade so they were all pretty much the same age. That helped to make the teams fairly evenly matched. Beauregard’s team had won seven games and lost only one. In one of the games that they’d won, Beauregard had even scored two goals.

Downstairs at breakfast Beauregard wolfed down his poached egg on toast. Next, he quickly gulped down his glass of orange juice. His mother was not impressed and she told him, ‘Slow down Beauregard. You need to chew each bite.’

‘I think he’s too excited to chew this morning,’ Beauregard’s dad said with a grin. ‘Today’s the big soccer game, isn’t it, Beauregard?’

‘You bet, and we’re going to whip them!’ Beauregard answered confidently.

‘Well, I hope it goes well for you and your team,’ Auntie Gertrude exclaimed, ‘I’ll be rooting for you!’

‘Are you coming to the game?’ Beauregard asked.

‘We’ll all be there,’ answered his mom. ‘Then your Dad and I thought we’d all go out to dinner afterwards.’

‘Great! We’ll be able to celebrate!’ Beauregard added.

‘What if you don’t win?’ asked Sparkle Snowflake, his younger sister. ‘Do we still get to go out to dinner?’ Beauregard frowned at that thought. He hadn’t considered how it would be if his team lost.

‘Sure we can,’ promised James, ‘and we’ll celebrate Beauregard’s great soccer season and how much he has improved this year.’

Beauregard and the Twirlybirch family lived in British Columbia. Not long ago his precious little sister, Sparkle Snowflake, had accidentally invented the sport of floating under a big umbrella. The sport had become really popular with hundreds of boys and girls who