A Search for Safe Passage

Animals in the Great Smoky Mountains embark on a dangerous journey of survival in this educational adventure book for ages 7-13 about the places where wildlife must cross roads.

This compelling, accessible narrative is perfect for introducing readers to the problems and solutions around the global issue of roadway ecology, animal migration, and the 'barrier effect.'
Best friends Bear and Deer grew up on the North side of a beautiful Appalachian gorge. In the time of their grandparents, animals could travel freely on either side of a fast-flowing river, but now the dangerous Human Highway divides their home range into the North and South sides. On the night of a full moon, two strangers arrive from the South with news that will lead to tough decisions, a life-changing adventure, and new friends joining in a search for safe passage.


About the Author

Author Frances Figart grew up in eastern Kentucky where she learned to love living near wildlife. Always a writer and editor, she now directs the Creative Services department at Great Smoky Mountains Association and edits Smokies Life magazine, the premier benefit for GSMA members. She is the editor of the 2019 GSMA title, Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography, which won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award that same year. She authored a collection of her autobiographical essays, Seasons of Letting Go: Most of what I know about truly living I learned by helping someone die. A Search for Safe Passage is her first book for young readers. Frances Figart lives near Asheville, North Carolina.

Illustrator Emma DuFort hails from west Michigan and visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park frequently as a child. After graduating from Grand Valley State University with a degree in illustration, she returned to live and work in the Smokies. Starting out as a sales assistant in visitor centers run by Great Smoky Mountains Association, she soon became a publications specialist working with GSMA's Creative Services department. Emma has also earned a naturalist certification from Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. A Search for Safe Passage is the first book she has designed and illustrated. Emma DuFort lives near Gatlinburg, Tennessee.