The Little Pine Cone wants nothing more than to stay where she is, playing in the wind all day long at the top of Mother Tree. She continues to see all that happens to her sister pine cones and begins to imagine what could happen to her. This simple and charming story, crafted by Ella Syfers Schenck and retold by Chris Bauman , is a coming of age parable. The Little Pine Cone reminds us to have hope and to continue learning who we are and what we want in life. Whimsical, and vibrant watercolor illustrations by Laween bring a new dimension to this story, drawing us ever closer to the emotional journey of The Little Pine Cone. Although you may not understand everything that happens we need to remember, something good is going to happen to you. Ella Syfers Schenck was a native of Osage, Kansas, growing up in Topeka, Kansas and was graduated from Western College in Oxford, Ohio. She taught English in Minnesota, Arizona and Denver, Colorado, and spent a year in China for the Presbyterian Board of Missions. She retired from teaching in 1951. She was one of the founders of Camp Farthest Out and active in the PEO and Trinity Methodist Church in Denver. She wrote religious poems, many of which were published in magazines across the country. She reared and educated Evelyn Bauman, Chris Bauman's grandmother. She died in 1964. Chris Bauman has always been a bit of a modern renaissance man. He's been a firefighter, one of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, a cereal entrepreneur (yes, the breakfast food kind), an Ironman Triathlete, and a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Somewhere along the way, he earned a Bachelor's degree from Point Loma Nazarene University and an MBA from The University of Texas. He and his wife live in Mountain View, California with their daughter. The Little Pine Cone is his first book.