Tori Nighthawk caught our attention and hearts before we even cracked the cover of her wonderful book Don’t Judge a Bird by Its Feathers.
Tori is a 16-year-old gifted artist capable of creating detailed imagery from memory as well as from references. Although she enjoys drawing many kinds of animals, she has always held a soft spot for birds, and has created countless illustrations and paintings of them.
Tori Nighthawk wrote and illustrated Don’t Judge a Bird by its Feathers at the age of 13. She drew her illustrations by hand, scanned them into her computer and then used graphic design programs to colorize the images. Her book was published in May of 2013 and promptly won a Gold Medal Mom’s Choice Award and a Pinnacle Peak award for Children’s Educational Books.
Tori has traveled extensively. She was chosen to travel with People to People as a Student Ambassador to Australia as well as several European countries. One of Tori’s favorite family trips was to the Galapagos Islands because the animals there are unafraid of humans; allowing her to study their interactions at close proximity. Observing people and wildlife greatly inspired her book “Don’t Judge a Bird by Its Feathers.”
Luminous was the most popular bird of paradise in the New Guinea rainforest. She had beautiful feathers and everyone admired her. Phoenix had loved her since they were chicks, but with his drab feathers and awkward dancing, he thought he didn’t stand a chance. Phoenix didn’t let that stop him. He cleverly tried new things, listened to advice from others and in the end, he proved that there was a lot more to him than met the eye.-Amazon
As a winner of Gold Medal Mom’s Choice Award and the Pinnacle Peak award for Children’s Educational Books, Tori hopes to teach young children to be kind to each other, and to overlook superficial differences; to encourage kids of all ages to resist peer pressure, and be true to themselves; and to inspire everyone to continually strive to reach their dreams.
Tori just turned 16, and will be starting college this fall. When she isn’t traveling the world, Tori lives in Southern California with her parents, her younger brother and a variety of family pets.
We are very proud to include Tori in our MCCBD 2016 Sponsor Line-up.
Connect with Tori on Facebook and Instagram.
For more details on how you can become a Sponsor for Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2016, go HERE.
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