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Rocky, the adorable owl found in NYC Rockefeller tree, is featured in new children’s book

The cover of "Rocky's Road to the Big City." (Jessica DelVirginia.)

Remember that adorable little owl that was found in the Christmas tree being used to light up Rockefeller Center?

If you somehow missed one of the best nuggets of good news to happen this year, a tiny owl was discovered inside the New York City tree, right around Thanksgiving time.

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Rocky, the owl found in the Rockefeller Christmas tree, has been returned to the wild -- Read full story.

It turns out that the owl traveled all the way from Oneonta, in upstate New York, to the big city, and he was found while the tree was being set up.

The owl, named Rocky, was nursed back to health, and she was eventually set back free into the wild by Ravensbeard Wildlife Center.

The internet immediately fell in love with Rocky, as did author Jessica DelVirginia. In fact, she loved Rocky’s story so much that she decided to write a children’s book about the celebrity owl.

“After hearing her story, I could not get Rocky out of my head,” DelVirginia said. “She was so tiny, and those giant bewildered eyes made her cartoonish and adorable.”

DelVirginia teamed up with her friend and illustrator Courtney Ling to bring Rocky’s wild adventure to life.

The story pretty much recaps Rocky’s journey to NYC and back, and it features vivid illustrations that children will be sure to love.

“Her story was a little bit of brightness in an otherwise dark year, and it seemed to resonate with not only New Yorkers, but people around the world,” DelVirginia said. “We knew children would want to read about her, so we wrote the book.”

The new children’s book, called “Rocky’s Road to the Big City” is available to buy on Amazon.


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About the Author
Jack Roskopp headshot

Jack is a Digital Content Editor with a degree in creative writing and French from Western Michigan University. He specializes in writing about movies, food and the latest TV shows.

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