During the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries the southern sea otters were hunted for their rich, thick coats of fur; and they were hunted to near extinction. Today there are only about 2200 southern sea otters left off the central California coast, and there used to be 16,000 to 20,000 of them However, with our help their numbers can and will grow In January 1977 the US Fish and Wildlife Service placed sea otters on the Endangered Species list. Now they are protected by both state and federal law. The current surviving population of southern sea otters descended from a single group...

The Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga angustirostris, the guys with the great big noses and the squabbling harems, are the really big comeback kids; and we mean that, because not only are the elephant seals really big, they have made a really big comeback Hundreds of thousands of these really fun creatures once inhabited the Pacific Ocean, and then they were wholesale slaughtered in the 1800's for their blubber that could be rendered into oil. Only 50-100 of them were left to roam the vast ocean where they spend most of their time until it is time for them to come ashore to molt or mate. They...

The California brown pelican (P.o. californicus) is a subspecies of the widely distributed brown pelican and is the smallest of all the pelicans in the pelican family. The California brown pelican breeds along the Gulf of California from the Sinaloa and Nayarit coast of Mexico, along the Pacific coast of Baja California, and north to the California Channel Islands. Non-breeding pelicans can be seen along the Pacific coast all the way to the up to the state of Washington and British Colombia. There were huge California brown pelican losses from about 1940 to 1970. The species was listed as...

This is the 4th book in the Comeback Kids Book Series, books written for kids, but beautiful enough to take a prominent place on your living room coffee table! And Penelope Dyan and John D. Weigand have done it again and created a wonderful book of photography and poetry that will engage everyone in the quest for the preservation of earth's species. The good part about all of this is that preservation is not based on anything anyone actively has to do. All we have to do is not interfere with nature, and not destroy world treasurers by hunting them to extinction, by destroying their natural...

This is the second book of the Animal Rescue Series; and photographer John D. Weigand and writer and poet, Penelope Dyan, continue with Bellissima Publishing, LLC's plan to save the planet one species at a time by making kids and adults aware of the plight of those creatures over which humankind has been given dominion. Their visit to Hawaii's beautiful Hanauma Bay brings home the wonderful work that is being done there in this nature preserve to save the creatures of the sea. Dyan is an award winning author and poet, and Weigand is an experienced television engineer. Both have been widely...

Paris is a fun place for kids if you know where to look. And our photographer and writer certainly do know where to look for things kids will really like to see. After all, it is all in the presentation So whether you want to travel vicariously though Paris or prepare for a trip, this is the book for you. Enjoy the photographs of John D, Weigand and the poetry of Penelope Dyan and see Paris through their eyes and camera lens. John D. Weigand is an experienced television engineer and an accomplished photographer who has teamed his skills with Penelope Dyan to create several wonderful books,...

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, but was it necessity that caused man to take to the sky or was it curiosity and imagination? It is our contention it was the latter. This book is written in memory of the grandfather of John D. Weigand, Julius Petersen, a Danish immigrant who boarded a boat and became a seaman at the age of seventeen, knew Orville and Wilber Wright, and worked with Thomas Alva Edison at General Electric in Nela Park, Cleveland Ohio. It was the golden age of invention, but the truth is it all actually started much earlier in the renaissance with Leonardo da...

Florence, Italy was the home of Dante, who was born in 1267 and baptized in its Baptistery. It was also the home of Galileo, Michelangelo, Donatello and many others. It's a fun place for a kid. And to peak their interest in this book, there is also a free video on YouTube that goes along with this book to enhance the learning experience where Penelope Dyan sings Cole Porter's song "Would You Like To Take a Walk?" (1931) The video has the same title, so it should be easy to locate on Bellissimavideo. Florence is a place that if it is presented correctly can infuse the imagination and enlighten...