2025 Texas Great Read
Youth Selection

Matagorda Magic: The Hidden Life of a Texas Bay written by Kimberly Ridley and illustrated by Rebekah Raye

Matagorda Magic: The Hidden Life of a Texas Bay
Follow the lives of a resident family of American oystercatchers (shorebirds with bright red-orange bills) as you explore the diversity of an estuary, where rivers meet the sea, in Matagorda Bay. Matagorda Magic: The Hidden Life of a Texas Bay is a beautifully illustrated book for students in grades 3-8 that reveals the importance of estuaries as critical habitats for more than 200 species of resident and migratory birds, including the endangered whooping crane. Matagorda Magic invites young people, their families, and teachers to discover the wonder of estuaries through the lives of their animal inhabitants. Sidebars illuminate the fascinating lives of oystercatchers, whooping cranes, oysters, blue crabs, shrimp, spotted seatrout, and other animals who depend on estuaries for survival.

Matagorda Magic Activity Sheet Download our list of ideas and activities for your classroom or school library, related to Matagorda Magic
 

About the Author

Kimberly Ridley is the author of the award-winning children’s books The Secret Stream, The Secret Pool, The Secret Bay, and Extreme Survivors: Animals That Time Forgot. She is the former editor of Hope Magazine and has written for many publications, including the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and Down East Magazine. 
 

About the Illustrator

Illustrator Rebekah Raye has illustrated numerous children’s books, including The Secret Pool and The Secret Bay. She is the author of The Very Best Bed and Bear-ly There, winner of the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for Environmental Issues.

Matagorda Magic: The Hidden Life of a Texas Bay was published by Texas A&M Press in 2024.