Nightly adventures abound in Oakleighville, filling Ophelia’s well-lived life. She is an elf owl, who on her independent journey finds prey, enjoys the friendships of other nocturnal creatures, and relishes the musical melodies of a young girl, Octavia, who diligently practices the cello and digeridoo. Displaying naturalistic intelligence, Ophelia is other-world connected in her immediate environment with an assortment of other animals as well.
Sandra Gonsalves-Domond
Dr. S. Virginia Gonsalves-Domond is a Full Professor of Social/Personality Psychology who has been an academician for 44 years. She has taught at Bates College and Sarah Lawrence College. Having been a Mental Health Consultant for Head Start for over 25 years, she has provided direct interventions to special needs children and their families and has successfully authored Head Start grants. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and was selected by her peers for the prestigious Henry Bischoff Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Gonsalves-Domond is an accomplished and published author, Book Reviewer, Grants Writer, Head Start Trainer/Facilitator/Workshop Leader, and poetess. She enjoys reading, singing, museum-visiting, travelling, and the theater. Dr. Gonsalves-Domond published the following children’s books: Alliterative Animals: A to Z (Dorrance Publishing Company, 2021); Stella, the Stealthy, Stellar Squirrel in Spartanasha (Dorrance Publishing, 2023); and Laci, the Largemouth Bass (Archway Publishers, 2023). Books 4 and 5 are published by Innovative Ink in 2024 (a division of Kendall Hunt). The titles of these new publications are Ophelia, the Happy Elf Owl and Idony, the Birthday Iguana. Sydney, the Snake in a Bodega Town is Dr. Gonsalves-Domond sixth book and is also published by Innovative Ink.
Dr. Gonsalves-Domond was a Visiting Professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy in 2021. In summer 2022, she obtained a Nippon Foundation Fellowship at the Japanese Studies Institute at San Diego State University. Dr. Gonsalves-Domond loves writing children’s narratives.