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by Kristy Molzahn Phillips (Author)
A biographical novel of Pacific Northwest educator and environmentalist Edna Breazeale, whose gift launched the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve-and who, decades after her death, is still inspiring generations of students, neighbors, and family.
Edna grew up as a curious farm girl on the shores of Padilla Bay. But one stolen day to herself on the beach in 1915 led to a mind-opening lesson from a member of a local tribe. That same day ended with a surprise announcement and changed the trajectory of her life-and the land itself.
A lifetime of teaching and travel shaped Edna. But she never outgrew the girl who loved her family's Padilla Bay farm and all the creatures that called it home. In her eighties, she put her love of learning and the land to work one last time: After helping stop the industrial development of Padilla Bay, she turned that farm over to the State of Washington in 1980 with one requirement: that it be used to teach, preserve, and protect.
The result: The Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, a research facility that offers stewardship, education, and professional training on a range of environmental topics. At more than 8,000 acres, it's the second-largest eelgrass meadow on the Pacific Coast.
In 1981, Edna received the State Environmental Excellence Award. Today, 30,000 people a year go through the Reserve.
But very few know her story.
Written by a member of the Breazeale family, Girl Without End tells that story. A blend of fiction, biography, and memoir, with a soft breath of magical realism, this book is about a woman whose adventurous life, unconventional choices, and forward-thinking philosophy changed her family, her students, and the landscape of Washington forever.
Fueled by the wider themes of women's empowerment, conservation, and environmentalism, Girl Without End is also about a family-particularly the women-and how, even as we forge ahead into the future, we carry pieces of the past, and what we love, forward with us.
