Ten-year-old Shanna has an uneasy feeling about a stranger her seven-year-old brother Rye met on way home from school. Is she just a silly chicken or is this what Momma calls intuition? Shanna and Rye are also disturbed by an angry presence in the shadows under some pine trees and by a mysterious raven. Their mother shows them how to use the magic of Imbolc to protect themselves and stand up for their beliefs. This is the first book in the Children's Wheel of the Year series for earth-centered, Pagan and Wiccan families. It is also a useful book for anyone teaching children about multicultural tolerance and about how to use intuition rather than prejudice to judge potentially dangerous situations. Arie Farnam grew up with earth-centered spirituality, She is an eclectic Pagan with a path that reflects the cultural diversity of her family as well as a deep connection to nature and ancestors. Other than the Children's Wheel of the Year stories, she writes fantasy with Pagan themes for adults, blogs about herbs and sends out the Hearth Circle newsletter. She lives with her husband, two children and a gray cat in a house known as "the Gingerbread Cottage" just outside Prague in the Czech Republic. Julie Freel was born into a Protestant family and taught Sunday school as a young woman. She loved the hymns, but had difficulty fully embracing the faith. She later hitchhiked to the Arizona desert and found her spirituality through a deep connection with the earth. She moved to Northeastern Oregon where she lives on Pumpkin Ridge at the edge of a unique native plant preserve. Freel now works as a children's and family health counselor, juggles twelve grandchildren and serves as the hearth-keeper of Farnamistan. In those few moments she has free, she paints in a studio in a meadow filled with wildflowers.