AUTHOR • POET • EDUCATOR
FRANK FINALE
THE BOOKS
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To The Shore Once More, Volume III
ISBN-10: 0-9777077-7-6 • ISBN-13: 978-0-9777077-7-5
Hardcover with dust jacket, 204 pgs. 130+ paintings. Actual size: 12 1/4" x 12 1/4"
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Join acclaimed author and poet Frank Finale once more as he captures “Life at the Jersey Shore” while exploring universal themes that touch us all. This oversized volume contains more than one hundred-thirty resplendent paintings by forty-five contemporary artists and features some of the loveliest landmarks and locations at the Jersey Shore.
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The book is divided into four chapters by season and takes place in many of the towns and regions along the coast. Frank and the artists take readers on a journey through the past and present, from Sandy Hook to Long Beach Island, and these graceful personal essays, poems, and paintings will elicit an emotional response and lingering memory.
To The Shore Once More, Volume II
ISBN-10: 0-96332906-2-2. Hardcover with dust jacket, 180 pgs. Actual size: 12 1/4" x 12 1/4"
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Containing more pages and artwork than Volume I (with 180 pages of text and 144 full-color paintings by more than forty area artists), this oversized coffee table book of prose, poetry, and works of art takes readers on a journey down the Jersey Shore—from the tip of Sandy Hook to the point of Cape May.​
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Join once more acclaimed author and poet, Frank Finale, and his family on a journey through the past and present as he once again captures life along the shore while exploring universal themes that touch us all. These graceful personal essays and poems elicit an emotional response and lingering memory. They are also perfect for reading aloud throughout the year and, as with Volume I, may even become a family tradition in years
to come!
To The Shore Once More, Volume I
ISBN-10: 0-96332906-1-4​. Hardcover with dust jacket, 168 pgs. Actual size: 12 1/4" x 12 1/4"
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Oversized and beautifully designed, printed, and bound with 168 pages of text and over 100 full-color paintings by area artists, this is one of the most enchanting and beautiful books about the Jersey Shore ever published. It is sure to bring many nights of reading and viewing pleasure and will make a great gift for special occasions and the holidays.
The essays and poetry written by acclaimed, local poet and writer, Frank Finale, elicit an emotional response and lingering memory. These graceful personal essays and poems capture the essence of the Jersey Shore while exploring universal themes of life and nature. The book is divided into six chapters, four by season—Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn—plus chapters on Christmas and Poetry. These seasonal stories and poems are perfect for reading aloud throughout the year and may even become a family tradition in years to come! Also inside, you'll find stunning, full color paintings of some of the loveliest landmarks and locations at the Jersey Shore.
A Gull’s Story
A Tale of Learning about Life, the Shore, and the ABCs
ISBN-10: 0-9632906-3-0​. Hardcover with dust jacket, 36 pgs. Actual size: 10 1/2" x 10 1/2"
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This beautifully written and illustrated children's book tells the tale of the Gull Family and their adventures along the New Jersey Shore.
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Highly detailed and visually stunning, this family book will teach children their ABCs while on a well-rounded journey at the Shore, with a few life lessons along the way. Thoughtfully written by Frank Finale and exquisitely illustrated by children's book artist Margie Moore, this book will not only appeal to preschoolers learning their ABCs but to all children (through age 9) who want to learn about the Jersey Shore's creatures, environment, history, and more.
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The book includes a glossary of terms as well as a comprehensive workbook for children, parents, and teachers can be downloaded for free by clicking HERE.
A Gull’s Story, Part 2 Counting at the Shore
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777077-0-6 • ISBN-10: 0-9777077-0-9. Hardcover with dust jacket, 36 pgs. Actual size: 10 1/2" x 10 1/2"
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This beautifully written and illustrated children's book is the companion volume and sequel to “A Gull's Story,” the beloved ABC picture book of the Jersey Shore.
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“A Gull's Story, Part 2” teaches counting at the Shore, from 1 to 20, and revisits the Gull Family and “Baby Gull” (who now, a few years older, prefers to be called “Little Gull”) and their adventures along the Jersey Coast. Children will love Little Gull's counting journey at the Shore where he learns not only to count but also of the natural wonders, creatures, and landmarks that make up his world along the coast. A comprehensive workbook for children, parents, and teachers can be downloaded for free by clicking HERE.
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Written by Frank Finale. Illustrated by Margie Moore.
A Gull’s Story, Part 3 Colors at the Shore
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777077-2-0 • ISBN-10: 0-9777077-2-5. Board book, 32 pgs.
Actual size: 8 1/2" x 8 1/2"
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This beautifully written and illustrated board book is a companion volume and prequel to
"A Gull’s Story" and "A Gull’s Story, Part 2," the beloved "ABC" and "Counting" books of the Jersey Shore.
Children will see and learn the seven traditional colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple—plus other colors including brown, black, and white as well as the concepts of light and dark.
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This family book will not only appeal to preschoolers learning their colors but to all children who want to learn about the Jersey Shore’s natural wonders, creatures, landmarks, and more.
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Written by Frank Finale. Illustrated by Margie Moore.
The Poets of New Jersey
Hardcover: ISBN-13: 978-0-9632906-8-7; ISBN-10: 0-9632906-8-1
Softcover: ISBN-13: 978-0-9777077-2-0; ISBN-10: 0-9777077-2-5
240 pgs. Actual size: 6 1/4" x 9 1/4"
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Celebrating sixty-five extraordinary poets who have lived and worked in New Jersey, from Colonial times to the present, many of the poets included in this anthology are among America's finest. Stephen Dunn, the Pulitzer Prize poet, originally from Port Republic, writes the Foreword; X. J. Kennedy, the renowned poet, originally from Dover (whose comprehensive text, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama, has taught generations of college students), writes the Introduction.
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Co-edited by Frank Finale, Emanuel di Pasquale, and Sander Zulauf, all poets themselves, had one simple criterion in compiling the works: they "wanted to hear the pure, clear words of the poets who have called this place home." They were interested in the sum of poetic greatness distilled from life in this state—the poetry New Jersey poets have written, whether New Jersey oriented or not.
Under a Gull’s Wing
ISBN 0-945582-36-6. Hardcover, 207 pgs. Actual size: 6" x 9"
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"Under a Gull’s Wing" is a contemporary collection of poems and photographs about the Jersey Shore. The anthology covers such quintessential shore subjects as boardwalks and beaches, love and loss, legends, lore, and famous landmarks from the tip of Sandy Hook to Victorian Cape May. The contributors include some of the nation’s best known poets—Walt Whitman, John Ciardi, Robert Pinsky (the nation’s Poet Laureate), A. R. Ammons, and Maxine Kumin, among others.
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A mix of celebration, lament, and history, Under a Gull’s Wing presents all of the Shore: from the natural beauty of Island Beach and the Forsythe Refuge to familiar and timeless beach towns to the decay of Asbury Park and Atlantic City. Even such quirky history as Lucy the Margate Elephant and the High-Diving Horse of Atlantic City’s old Steel Pier are remembered.
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Co-edited by Frank Finale and Rich Youmans