Jade Lake is a beautifully illustrated epic adventure written entirely in rhymed verse. It is the third book in The Adventures of Puff series and follows a cat's journey through the finger mountains of Hunan Province China. This creative story is perfect for elementary readers as it teaches lessons about honor, courage, the value of loyalty in friendship, and the relentless desire to fulfill a dream.

As the story unfolds, a mischievous monkey misinforms Puff that the exploding fireworks announcing the Chinese Lunar New Year signal the end of time. In a desperate attempt to escape the chaos, Puff ends up getting lost in a dark forest. He soon runs into a friendly red panda who helps him thwart a near fatal attack by a clouded leopard as they find their way to a safe refuge near Jade Lake.

Once there, Puff runs into an unusual group of animals called The Forest Ambassadors who are sent on a mission to save the forest and its inhabitants from imminent destruction. They travel in pairs as they overcome nearly vertical cliffs and perilous caverns to escape evil trackers only then to face the most dangerous obstacle of all...

About the Author: Wallace C. Kamens began writing poetry at an early age and developed an insatiable desire for the English Romantic Poets and Transcendentalists. He attended countless classes in literature and writing as an undergraduate to better hone his skills and direction. Over the years he developed a unique style of weaving mixed meters in rhymed verse associated with various types of animals in his stories. The meters and rhythms were inspired musically with his talent for playing nearly all types of string instruments, particularly the cello, mandolin, bouzouki, and taropatch.

Touched with a natural sense of rhythm and meter for both writing and music, he became more interested in the music side with the desire to teach and pursued a Music Education degree at Westminster Choir College in Princeton New Jersey, then afterward continuing at Elizabethtown College in Music Therapy.

Eventually, after traveling around the world studying indigenous modal variations in various countries, he found himself in Middleburg Florida where he owned a successful Montessori school for many years. It's at this point he realized firsthand the power of rhymed verse and the effect it has on children and began writing The Rainbow Forest.