Janie Veltkamp loves a happy ending.

"Swoop and Soar" has one.

"You've got to have a happy ending if you're going to inspire kids," she said Friday.

In her new children’s book with co-author Deborah Lee Rose, Veltkamp tells the true story of the rescue of two wild osprey chicks named Swoop and Soar that were only 10 days old when they became orphans when a storm shattered their forest nest in Florida.

"Science helps find them a new family and home in the wild," the raptor biologist said.

Veltkamp knows about saving birds. That's what she and husband Don have done for nearly three decades through Birds of Prey Northwest based in St. Maries.

They have helped rehabilitate thousands of injured and near-death birds of prey, including bald eagles, falcons, hawks and osprey.

She said education and conversation are key to raising awareness and finding solutions to protecting these majestic creatures.

The book introduces readers to environmental challenges ospreys face today from extreme weather, habitat loss, and plastic pollution.

It also explains how Veltkamp and other scientists reintroduced ospreys, to bring back the once endangered species, after the insecticide DDT wiped them out in parts of the U.S. and other countries. December 2022 marks 50 years since DDT was banned in the U.S.

Veltkamp said many may not remember DDT or even know its use led to the deaths of thousands of raptors.

"It's important we talk about the past so we don't repeat it," she said.

The recovery of the populations of bald eagles and osprey "are modern day success stories," Veltkamp said, and she's proud to be part of it.

Such birds are an indicator species, she said, and teach people how well they are taking care of the planet.

"If the bald eagle and osprey can't survive on the planet, we don't have a very good chance, either," she said.

Veltkamp said, through stories like "Swoop and Soar: How Science Rescued Two Osprey Orphans and Found Them a New Family in the Wild," and her previous book with Rose, "Beauty and the Beak: How Science, Technology, and a 3D-Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle," she hopes to youth come to know about the challenges faced by wildlife, and what they can do to protect them.

She shared that message with more than 100 adults and kids in two presentations at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library Saturday.

The story of "Swoop and Soar" unfolds as Veltkamp "is in a race against time to nurse the chicks back to health and place them in a new nest with new osprey parents. But will the new parents accept Swoop and Soar as their own young? Or will the parents reject the chicks, and fly away forever?"

Don't worry. Veltkamp made sure there's a happy ending.