A tale of 'Beauty and the Beak'
(Courtesy photo by GLEN HUSH) Janie Veltkamp of Birds of Prey Northwest with Beauty the Bald Eagle before the bird received her new 3D-printed beak. Veltkamp is hosting a launch event for her new children’s book, “Beauty and the Beak,” this Saturday in the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.
Life was wonderful for Beauty the Bald Eagle, hunting and soaring through the skies of Alaska.
But everything changed when she was shot, shattering her beak. After being left for dead, she was eventually rescued and spent several months healing at a wildlife center. She eventually was brought to North Idaho by Janie Veltkamp, a raptor biologist, to live at Birds of Prey Northwest.
Veltkamp was determined to give Beauty a new beak. She teamed up with engineer Nate Calvin, and together they did just that by creating a 3D-printed prosthetic beak for Beauty. After months of design and testing, the new beak was ready and the surgery performed. A metal rod and glue would hold the beak in place. When the surgery was complete, the beak looked almost as real as Beauty's own beak. But would it work like a one?
Beauty's story is told in Veltkamp's first children's book, "Beauty and the Beak: How Science Technology, and a 3D-Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle," co-authored by Deborah Lee Rose, an internationally published and award-winning author of children's books.
"It’s fact-filled, and it’s a great, true story laced with science," Veltkamp told the Daily Bee in July.
The tale of "Beauty and the Beak," published by Persnickety Press, a sister imprint of the Cornell Lab Publishing Group, is a California Reads teacher recommended title and is on the Junior Library Guild list of titles as well. The book encompasses Beauty's entire story, complete with photos and detailed information about bald eagles, which were once on the endangered list.
Veltkamp is hosting a book launch event in Coeur d'Alene on Saturday with a free, live birds of prey presentation, along with book sales and signing of "Beauty and the Beak." The event is from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, 702 E. Front Ave.
"It’s unimaginable," Veltkamp said. "It sounds easy to embark on writing a children’s book, but it’s a difficult market to break into. If you want more than just a picture book, you have to really work at it."
Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.