Works by
Priscilla Cummings
(Writer)

Chadwick the Crab Picture Book Series
Inspired by her current home in Annapolis, MD.

• Chadwick the Crab (1986) with A. R. Cohen, Illustrator
  Chadwick, a Chesapeake Bay crab, yearns for adventure and finds it in a most dangerous form, prompting the birds and marine animals who share the Bay to come to his rescue on the mainland. Age 5+

• Chadwick and the Garplegrungen (1987) with A. R. Cohen, Illustrator
  A crab leaves his home at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to help clean up the pollution in the Chesapeake Bay which is threatening the lives of his animal friends. Age 5+

• The Chadwick Coloring Book (1988) with A. R. Cohen, Illustrator
  Children can color characters and scenes from the Chadwick stories. Age 2+

• Chadwick's Wedding (1989)
  Wedding shells are ringing! Chadwick the Crab is getting married and everyone is preparing for the big event! Esmerelda is choosing her bridesmaids, Baron von Heron is writing the ceremony (in rhyme, of course), and Toulouse, the gourmet Canada goose, is baking a corn and eelgrass cake. But then, just as Chadwick begins to have second thoughts about marriage, Esmerelda disappears! Suddenly, the wedding of off and the search is on. Age 5+

• Chadwick Forever: Save Our Endangered Friends (1993)
  Chadwick the Crab and Bernie the Sea Gull are worried they’re going to lose a good friend forever. Hester, the Delmarva fox squirrel, has discovered a book telling her she’s on the endangered species list. Not only that, but there’s a mysterious monster lurking around Shady Creek. And all this happens just when Chadwick and Esmerelda are getting ready to welcome their big little family home. Age 5+

• Meet Chadwick and His Chesapeake Bay Friends (1999)
  Introduces Chadwick, a blue crab, and his various animal friends who live in and near the Chesapeake Bay. Age 2+

See also:

• Chadwick Sings: A Little Bay Music ( ) by Val and Pam (Valerie Leonhart Smalkin and Priscilla Cummings)
  Based on Priscilla Cummings’ Chadwick the Crab

  Val and Pam sing the story of Chadwick the Crab in fourteen delightful songs. Available only on tape

Other Picture Books

• Oswald and the Timberdoodles (1990)
  Oswald is a great blue heron with a great big problem. He can’t straighten his long neck. This creates trouble when it becomes Oswald’s turn to guard the marsh. Unable to see over the tall grass, he is banished to a far corner of Shady Creek. There he meets a group of friendly little birds, the timderdoodles, who recognize Oswald’s special talent: forecasting the weather. Only after Oswald’s timely warning about a tornado do the other herons finally accept Oswald for who he is.  Age 3+

• Sid and Sal's Famous Channel Marker Diner (1991) with A. R. Cohen, Illustrator
  For years Sid and Sal, two typical ospreys, nested on top of a dead pine tree at the edge of a peaceful cove. When their tree was knocked down to make way for the Cozy Cove Condos, Sid and Sal were fortunate to find a new home on a channel marker at the mouth of Shady Creek. The channel marker was so spacious, in fact, that they decided to open a restaurant there, too. They called it “The Channel Marker Diner.”  Age 5+

• Toulouse: Story of a Canada Goose (1995)
  On his first fall migration to Maryland, a Canada goose becomes separated from his family and finds his way south in the company of a snow goose who becomes a special, lifelong friend.  Age 5+

• Chesapeake ABC (2000) with David Aiken, Illustrator
  Age 2+

A is for anchor,
B for boat and bay.
Come and learn the alphabet.
Have fun – the Chesapeake way!

• Chesapeake 1-2-3 (2002) with David Aiken, Illustrator
  Chesapeake 1-2-3 introduces children to numbers by using special sights found in and around the Bay. As a companion book to the popular Chesapeake ABC, this book will delight youngsters with its clever rhymes and whimsical drawings. Age 2+

  Do you know how to count?
  Do you enjoy the Bay?
  Take a look inside this book
  And count the Chesapeake way!

• Chesapeake Rainbow (2004) with David Aiken, Illustrator
  Chesapeake Rainbow helps youngsters learn their colors. The book is a bright and wonderful companion book to the popular Chesapeake ABC and Chesapeake 1-2-3.  Age 2+

  Blue is the color of the water in the Bay,
  And blue is the color of a perfect day.
  The heron that we call Great Blue is blue.
  The stripe down a crab’s leg? It’s blue, too.
  Blue is a color of the Chesapeake Bay.
  Let’s think of another that we see everyday. . .

• Santa Claws (2006) with Marcy Dunn Ramsey, Illustrator
  Travel beneath the Chesapeake Bay where Spud, a feisty, young blue crab, hates to nap. Waking his underwater friends, Spud launches a rollicking Christmas Eve party that is interrupted by an unexpected traveler in need of Spud’s help. Can Spud help bring Christmas to the Bay?   All ages.

Novels

• Autumn Journey (1997)
  When his family comes to live on his grandfather's farm in Pennsylvania while his father is out of work, eleven-year-old Will must deal with his father's distant behavior, his grandfather's heart attack, and caring for a goose he has shot.

• A Face First (2001) -- An ALA Notable Book and a nominee for the Sunshine State Young Readers Award
  Twelve-year-old Kelley is afraid she'll never be part of the "normal" world again, for a terrible car accident has left her face, leg, and hand badly burned. Waking up in the hospital disoriented and in agony, she can't remember the details of the accident. But the details of recovery soon become painfully clear to her-skin-graft operations, uncomfortable dressings, torturous hand exercises, and debridement. But worst of all is having to wear a plastic mask for at least a year so her facial skin won't grow back puffy and hard. How will she ever face the world again and make people, as her physical therapist says, "see a face first, then a mask"?
  
  In this riveting story of a young girl's struggle to recover from catastrophic burns, Kelley discovers many things about herself, including a talent she never knew she had. Most important, she learns that although a face is the first thing one sees, a second impression can make all the difference. The author of the highly acclaimed Autumn Journey takes us on another life-changing journey-one of determination, courage, and survival.

• Saving Grace (2003)
  The year is 1932, and the McFarland family has been hit hard by the Great Depression. When they lose their home just before Christmas, Grace, eleven, and her two younger brothers are sent temporarily to a children's home. Grace tries to understand: Mama's new baby is due any day, and Grace's beloved older brother, Pete, is terribly sick. Her stay at the mission is cut short when she is invited to spend the holidays with the Hammonds, where they treat her like a daughter. What will happen when it's time for Grace to go home? Are family bonds more important than the security the Hammonds offer her? Inspired by a true story, Saving Grace is a testament to how love and loyalty triumphed during one of the bleakest periods in American history.

• Red Kayak (2004)
  First hailed as a hero for his dramatic water rescue of a little boy, thirteen-year-old Brady Parks soon makes a discovery that puts him at the heart of an enormous tragedy. Alone with his dark secret, Brady is ultimately forced to choose between loyalty to his lifelong friends and doing what he knows in his heart is right. Priscilla Cummings weaves a suspenseful, multilayered tale of three teenage boys caught in a wicked web of their own making.

• What Mr. Mattero Did (2005)
  For days, three seventh-grade girls—Jenna, Suzanne, and Claire—agonize over whether to say anything. Finally they summon the courage to speak up about their music teacher, Frederick Mattero. What happens next is chaos. Parents are called. A teacher is accused and attacked. The gossip mill churns like mad. Police arrive to question other students, beginning with Melody, Mr. Mattero’s daughter. Did Mr. Mattero do anything improper, or are the three girls simply lying? Told from two points of view, Claire’s and Melody’s, this novel takes readers into their private, middle-school worlds as they struggle to discover the truth. Age 10+