Read This Book Again!

Why, oh why do kids insist on having the same story read to them again and again?  With a sigh, we pick up the book for the hundredth time and begin to read.  "Don't we want to  read something different tonight?  How about this one?"  But, of course, we cannot dissuade our little one from repeating the same beloved book.  But all is not lost.  There are several excellent reasons why this repetition is amazingly important, crucial even, for a child's cognitive development.

Repeat to learn

Kids learn through repetition, so it’s not surprising that they tend to ask for the same books over and over — this is how their brains absorb the stories and language patterns within. In fact, a 2011 study of children’s language acquisition found that when kids were read the same book multiple times, they remembered and retained the meaning of a new word better than kids who read different books (all containing the same word). It’s likely that hearing the phrasing and structure of a story many times over helps children grasp and hold on to new vocabulary. It’s also exciting for your child to learn a book so well that she knows what’s coming and can anticipate or even repeat and chime in with the words — the same way we all love being able to know what’s coming and sing the words to a favorite song.

Repetition actually changes the brain: every time we practice a word, concept, or skill, neuro-chemicals are released and pathways between brain cells are strengthened and solidified. So when your toddler puts an old favorite in your lap and hunkers down to hear it for the hundredth time, she’s not just being particular — she’s exercising a built-in learning strategy that supports her growing mind.


Repeat for comfort

Little children are creatures of habit. It’s a principle that holds true not just for reading, but for other aspects of life too. The same fishy cup for lunch, the same walking route to the park … kids look for patterns and regularity to help them figure out how the world works, and they find comfort and security in rituals. This is especially important for younger kids, who are little scientists and feel reassured when they can predict what’s ahead.

Reading the same book over and over is soothing to your child, which is one of the reasons it’s a great activity as part of bedtime routine. Just as with other aspects of the evening pre-bed line up — like a bath or a bottle of milk — hearing the words of a familiar book helps your child settle in and relax, and it makes a great cue for sleep. Toddlers and preschoolers can be particularly repetitive in their reading taste, but even older kids who read on their own sometimes revisit favorites over and over.

Repeat, and expand

Since reading the same books incessantly is developmentally appropriate (just bring the topic up with other parents of young kids for verification), it’s a good idea to follow your child’s lead. It's especially important when a particular book has become part of a sleep routine or some other transition point through the day. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t open up other possibilities as well. For example, before bed, set up the agreement that you read three books: two that your child chooses and one that you choose. This way you can put a book in the rotation that you enjoy reading. Don’t let this activity become mind-numbing for you. The more fun you have reading to your child, the more likely you are to do it frequently and with enthusiasm.

Make a plan with your child that respects her need for repeating tales, but also ignites up your own excitement (since she’s cueing off of you as well) — that way you can both look forward to snuggling in and cracking a book together.

Happy reading with your child or grandchild--over and over and over...

Heather Turgeon authors the weekly  Science of Kids column for Babble and her health and science writing has appeared in places like Salon, The Huffington Post, and The Daily Beast. 

Children's Book, Magical Matthew, by Penelope Anne Cole

Magical Matthew, a lovely and thoughtful book by Penelope Anne Cole, was launched in October, 2012, by Guardian Angel Publishing. 

It is the story of young Matthew, a boy who realizes he has magical powers, is confused by them in the beginning, but then he tries to use them to do good.

Matthew's good friend, Lily, is a young girl who must use a wheelchair. One day as Matthew and she are talking, Lily notices some strange and wonderful occurrences around Matthew.  She thinks she needs to understand him better and decides to watch him closely.  The book ends on a happy and hopeful note and will leave the reader with a fine feeling about life in general.


Magical Matthew, Ms. Cole's debut book, is about goodness and sharing and caring for friends.  This is a book that has a marvelous message for young children.

The artwork by Kevin Collier is whimsical and colorful.  The children's faces are joyful and full of life. The combination of Cole and Collier join to make a winning book for children and parents alike!

You can learn more about Ms. Cole, her books and what is coming next at:  http://penelopeannecole.blogspot.com/

Mr. Collier's work may be found at:  http://kevinscottcollierhomepage.blogspot.com/

Samantha Bell--Artist for All Seasons

 It is my great pleasure to have as my guest today, Samantha Bell. She is a fine illustrator of children's books, and she works in many media, including watercolor. Sam was the illustrator who brought Bella and Britt to life in the Bella and Britt series, (Guardian Angel Publishing) for which I am eternally grateful!

As every writer of children's books knows, the written word is only half of the book.  Without the illustrator's talents, the book is not a book at all.  The illustrator brings it to life.  Gives it bones upon which to hang the story.  When I think of Britt and Bella, the words I wrote telling their story are not what comes to mind.  Rather, it is the girls themselves--the lovely, spunky, fearless girls that Sam's creative talent brought to the series.

NS  Please tell us about your earliest illustrating. School, even earlier? How did it happen?

SB  My very earliest illustrations were for a story I wrote when I was about seven years old. The story (or stories, rather -- it was a series!) was about the adventures of a cat named Kitty De Dums. I typed them up on half-sheets of paper and added an illustration to every page.

NS  Your illustrations are so lifelike. Do they come from models, your head, both?

SB   I'm all in favor of reference material! :) I find models for the people I illustrate and use reference photos for the other things in the picture. I love using models, because then the children who pose for me can literally see themselves in the books!

My typical process is this: After reading the manuscript, I work out a story board for each page, deciding what will be in each illustration. I do this with little scribbles, and I'm probably the only one who can tell
what the scribbles are supposed to be. From this, though, I know what I'll need for each illustration -- models, animals, objects, etc. -- and then go from there.

NS   What is a typical day like for an illustrator? Do you have a studio?

I'm not a full-time illustrator, but rather a full-time mom, so I don't think I ever have a typical day. With four children at home, my day might go like this: Wake up, work in some illustrating time, get the family up and going, run through the day's activities of schoolwork, appointments ,lessons, errands, housework, and meals (with a little illustrating time squeezed in again), get folks off to bed, and illustrate some more. I have some really good lighting in my studio, so I can work late at night if I need to. And my studio? A tiny room at the front of our house that used to
be the nursery for my youngest. We just call it the "art room", because sometimes my kids work on projects in there too.
 
NS   You illustrate animals so beautifully, too. Do you use some real animals as models?

SB  It's harder for me to work from life when illustrating an animal; that is, unless it's sleeping! So I find or take my own reference photos, coming up with a collection that shows the animal from lots of different angles so I have enough to work from.

 NS  The illustrations you did for the Bella and Britt series are so gorgeous. I feel that I know these girls as well as my own children. I am always amazed at how well you capture their personalities. How do you do it?
SB  It must be my models! When I meet with the girls, I take along my storyboard and tell them what I need them to do. They are so much fun to work with! They "act out" the story as I take a million photographs --they are so patient!

Guardian Angel Publishing October Releases!

Have a look at the October releases for Guardian Angel Publishing.  Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators! 

Every child at some point in his or her lives has a fear of monsters. Through charming, funny rhyme, see how one child conquers her fear of the monster in her room.

 What happens when the child finds out that monsters have fears, too?

 

Matthew has a secret. He fixes things magically. Matthew secretly uses his magic to fix things for his family and friends. Later, he expands his magical good deeds by fixing things in his neighborhood. Matthew’s friend, Lily, suspects something. Matthew must decide whether to tell her the truth or not.

 
A tiny burro shows up at a little boy's house and becomes a real asset to the family.  The day he disappears, they never expect to see him again until he prances in one dark spooky night.

An entertaining alphabet book with unusual animals doing zany things, aardvarks, komodo dragons, and many more incredible creatures. The comical illustrations will capture the imagination while building reading skills at many levels. Also included are activities for parents/teachers to do with children.

Rachel loves to doodle on walls, on her school books, and on her back pack. Anywhere Rachel can doodle she does, but it gets her into big trouble. She tries to draw and color in other places. She learns she can mix colors to make more colors. Suddenly, Rachel’s doodling becomes a lot more fun!

Find these and other great Guardian Angel Publishing titles at www.guardianangelpublishing.com

The Not-So-Nice Tale of Tobermory Cat

Here is quite an amazing story from the Scottish island of Mull. It was brought to my attention from The Guardian and written by Alison Flood. 

Once upon a time, a ginger tom cat lived in Tobermory on the Scottish isle of Mull. The tourists loved him; a local artist even set up a Facebook page collecting photos of him lounging on walls, soaking up the sunshine. A Scottish publisher decided to commission a children's book about the Tobermory Cat, and asked a well-known author to write it. Everyone lived happily ever after. The End.

Except it wasn't. The idyllic town of Tobermory – and an innocent ginger cat – have been drawn into an increasingly surreal copyright battle, which has rumbled on for months and become ever more vicious, featuring hate mail, "screams of abuse" over the telephone and cyber-bullying. And all over a cat that does not seem to care at all!

The dispute boils down to this: the local artist, Angus Stewart, says it was his Facebook page that made the Tobermory Cat famous, and that by writing a book about the cat, the publisher and the author are taking his idea.
The publisher, independent Edinburgh press,  Birlinn, says the cat has been known to locals and tourists for years. Local bookseller Duncan Swinbanks agrees. He says he's taken pictures of the cat, lying on the beach with a crowd watching it, dating back to before Stewart's Facebook page started.

"The idea was arrived at with no knowledge of [Stewart's] website," says Birlinn managing director Hugh Andrew, a visitor to Mull for 20 years. "I've published a lot of books in Mull but haven't done anything recently … I was thinking away in Tobermory when I was there last summer, and walking along the road I saw a huge ginger cat, with four or five people photographing it. I went to [local bookseller] Duncan [Swinbanks] and he said that's the Tobermory cat. I said let's do a children's book, and he was very enthusiastic. As I was going he said 'the cat's quite well known – there's a Facebook page'."

"This whole book was done because we're suffering on the island from the recession – our visitor numbers have fallen," says Swinbanks. "Hugh and I talked about this, and he said let's do a book on the cat."

Andrew approached author Mairi Hedderwick to write the book; she wasn't keen. He tried Debi Gliori, and she got on board. They decided to visit Mull for Gliori to meet the cat, get a feel for the place and, "as a matter of courtesy", to "go to see the people that were involved with the cat, and explain what was going on", said Andrew.


This included Stewart, and, as Gliori recounts in a lengthy blog post from late last week – the first time she has spoken out about the situation – the meeting did not go well.
"We would never have heard of the cat had it not been for the Facebook page. It was his idea. If he hadn't put in all the work into the Facebook page, nobody would ever have heard of the cat," she says he told her and Andrew. Andrew offered Stewart the opportunity to advertise his gallery and paintings on the back of the book, but he wasn't interested.

Time passed. Gliori had an idea for her story: all the villages of Mull have their own special cats, which draw visitors from near and far, except for Tobermory, because its cats aren't special. One ginger tom, however, wants to change this. "Ideas are 10 a penny. You can't copyright them," Gliori told the Guardian. "There was no stealing of ideas whatsoever."

Stewart turned to Facebook. "Dear Facebook friends," he wrote on a dedicated open page. "SHARE or LIKE any posts will REALLY HELP MY CAUSE – as it could virally create a MONSTER CELEBRITY CAT which can fight off any Edinburgh Publisher intent on taking all of my creative work. If Facebook can overthrow dictators it can pee on a publisher."

Then he named Gliori and Birlinn on Facebook for the first time. "Sadly this Tobermory Cat is shutting up shop … I honestly believe [Gliori] is taking my idea and title. There are half a million cats in Scotland and lots of towns – so their claim to have come up with the same idea and title independently of my existing work seems 'unlikely'. Their action means I will have no rights over my creative property, how it is used and deprives me of the right to earn an income from it in the future."

The post prompted an outpouring of fury on Facebook, where Stewart's supporters shared contact details for Birlinn and Gliori. The story was, as one put it, that the "corporate bastards are grinding down the individual", and plans were made to express the "disgust" felt to Gliori and to Birlinn.
The publisher received hate mail, and aggressive anonymous phone calls from members of the public. "It was scary for us," said Andrew. "There were screams of abuse to our intern and people in the office. I've had hate mail … We've had to get Amazon to remove defamatory comments. They set out to destroy the book, and I've had no real redress … To accuse us of theft, of plagiarism, is absolutely the most serious charge you can make about my business, and to Debi. It's absolutely devastating to our livelihoods if it sticks."

Gliori, meanwhile, was drowned in vicious Twitter messages. As she writes on her blog, "I became aware that my name was almost trending on Twitter. There were multiple mentions of it, and none of them good. Several people went further and got into my account and started firing off tweets to all my followers, informing them that I was a thief … Some of the tweets were nasty. Little fantasies of what the lovely Facebook friends of the Artist would like to do to me, if they got up close and personal … the 'friends' of the artist were massing on Facebook. They were leaving me messages. They knew where I lived. They were digging around on the internet, googling me, digging up whatever they could find.

Her illustrated children's book, The Tobermory Cat, has just been published, but Gliori is still shaken from her encounter. "I keep thinking I'm fine now, I'm over it, and I go out in public to do an event, and I'm thinking who's out there, who's going to stand up in the audience and do something horrific," she says.

Stewart has also just published a book, a collection of photographs of the cat.  He did not wish to speak to the Guardian – he is "being cast as some sort of bully and it is very dangerous stuff", he said in an email – but did point towards his numerous posts on the subject, in which he explains his reasoning.

"I don't claim copyright of a real cat – that would be foolish," he has just written on a writers' forum on which writers have been expressing their outrage over Gliori's treatment for the past few days. "I claim copyright on my fictional work called Tobermory Cat and a fictional celebrity cat character entirely of my making. My star is not one cat, he is a construct, I use three cats, none of which has the given name Tobermory Cat … Their book is out, same ginger cat, same title, same car surfing antics, extracted details, the story of a cat becoming a celebrity cat – a graphic story, the prequel to my story but ending with a celebrity cat. If this book is the first of a series, they have occupied the ground. They brush me off, preferring to spend thousands on lawyers rather than supporting my work – but I try to secure the future rights or they will own the lot."

The nitty gritty details of this extraordinary story are being picked over endlessly online. Nicola Morgan, an author, former chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and friend of Gliori's, points out that "there is no copyright on ideas or on titles, and that "creative people are creative not because of where they get their ideas but because of what they do with them". Other writers suggest that if the idea belongs to anyone, Saki might justifiably lay claim to the first Tobermory cat.

And the cat itself? It continues sleeping in the sun.

Spookley Helps with National Bullying Prevention Month

Happy Halloween, all you ghosts and goblins out there!  A bit of encouraging news on the Stop Bullying Front:

Spookley, the star of The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano, illustrated by Susan Banta (Holiday Hill Farm; Barnes & Noble), is now in his second year as official spokes-pumpkin for National Bullying Prevention Month, sponsored by the Minneapolis-based family support organization PACER (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights).

According to Publishers Weekly,  this year, PACER is providing a free “Stop Bullying Before It Starts” digital toolkit that allows educators to bring Spookley’s message of tolerance and acceptance into the classroom.

Tools included in the kit are: an audio recording of the book by Bobby “Boris” Pickett (writer and performer of “The Monster Mash”), lesson plans and activities that teach bullying prevention, a Spookley classroom play by Troiano, access to classroom streaming of the animated Spookley movie, and links to a variety of other anti-bullying resources.

 

 Scholastic Book Clubs, which promotes the Spookley picture book through its programs, has organized an awareness campaign to get word of the toolkit to teachers via social media and other outreach methods. Teachers can register online for the toolkit.

The movie will also be shown at pumpkin patches and corn mazes across the country, and is airing on the Disney Channel throughout the month of October. It is being offered as a digital download and rental for the first time, and Spookley’s story is available as an app for the iPad/iPhone, Android, and Nook platforms as well.

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Being Produced by Disney

Judith Viorst hit upon a real winner with her children's book, Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, written in 1972.

Fox originally was adapting the book as a new project but has no longer decided to produce it. Disney, however, has come to the rescue and is taking it.

Deadline reports that the project will continue with the same pieces in place that were established over at Fox. Lisa Cholodenko, who earned an Oscar nomination for her 2010 film The Kids Are All Right, is still directing the movie with a script she co-wrote with Rob Lieber, and Steve Carell is still attached to star as Ben, Alexander's father.

 
The new report says that many of the other major studios, including Universal, Sony, and MGM, showed interest in making the movie, but Disney ended up moving the fastest. While the project was far along in development at Fox, they ended up deciding not to make the film because it's budget was getting too large. Disney seemed to  have had more faith in its potential.

The story follows a young boy named Alexander who, from the very moment he wakes up, starts having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. The gum he was chewing the previous night has ended up in his hair, his sweater falls in a sink full of water, his cereal box is missing its toy... the list goes on. While this will be the first live-action adaptation of Viorst's book, it was previously made as an animated musical for HBO in 1990.

Kids Can Read Themselves into a Scary Halloween!

Ah, Halloween.  Ghosts, goblins and groans.  My children loved the holiday!  What better way to get into the spirit than with a good scary book.  Here are a few recommendations for you!

GHOSTS IN THE HOUSE
By Kazuno Kohara
For ages 1-6
 
There are fuzzy pumpkin costumes in sizes as small as 6 months, so why not a Halloween board book for toddlers? This one tells the tale of a little girl who moves into a new house only to discover it is haunted. No worries. Turns out she’s a witch, and she knows exactly what to do. In a twist on the sheet-as-ghost costume, our little witch gathers the pesky ghosts, puts them in the washing machine, hangs them on the line, and makes bed sheets out of them. Stylishly illustrated in orange and black, this story has just right balance for very young children.
 
THE MONSTER RETURNS
By Peter McCarty
For ages 3-7
When the phone rings and Jeremy’s blue monster announces that he is bored and coming back, Jeremy invites his friends over to draw their own monsters. Then, when Jeremy’s monster arrives, he is greeted by a roomful of friends. And friends are just what the monster and Jeremy need!

 
HOCUS POCUS HOTEL
(Volumes 1 and 2)
By Michael Dahl
For ages 8-11
When Tyler Yu (a bully) asks Charlie Hitchcock (a geek) to meet him after school, Charlie fears the worst. But Ty just needs his help solving a mystery at the Abracadabra Hotel, a retirement home for magicians, where his dad is the manager. As the two join forces and discover the hotel is haunted, an unlikely friendship develops. A delightful, spirited new series filled with riddles, magic tricks and secrets.



WITCHES: THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE TALE OF DISASTER IN SALEM
By Rosalyn Schanzer
For ages 10 up

A riveting, real-life horror story of what happened in Massachusetts in 1692 after two young girls began twitching, contorting their bodies into strange shapes and mumbling odd things. As the “virus” spread to other villages, people began to distrust their friends and neighbors, believing they were witches in cahoots with the devil. Mass hysteria reigned, reputations were ruined and lives were lost. A terrifying historical event, vividly brought to life.

GHOSTS I HAVE BEEN
By Richard Peck
For ages 11 and up

The time: 1914. Quirky, fun-loving Blossom Culp would do anything not to feel like a social outcast. So she conjures up a story about being able to see the future (since her mother is a fortune-teller, it’s not as far-fetched as it seems). And sure enough, her gullible schoolmates begin to believe it. But when some of Blossom’s predictions come true, and she begins to have visions, flash-forwards and a particularly vivid deja-vu about a young boy on the Titanic, Blossom realizes that her new paranormal “normal” has its own set of problems.

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
By Ransom Riggs
For ages 13 and up

A creepy, scary, touching book about a young man who seeks to uncover the life his grandfather lived as a boy, only to discover a world of unexpected terror.
As Jacob stumbles into a time loop, part paradise and part nightmare, he finds himself trying to unlock the mysteries of Miss Peregrine’s Home and the peculiar children it housed, who may all still be alive—and hell-bent on ridding the world of monsters. Mesmerizing vintage photos give the story an added dimension and make the characters starkly real.

What? Goosebumps Author Writes Horror Novel Where Kids are the Bad Guys?

By now most of you know I am a major R.L. Stein fan.  I love his style. He has done so much for boy readers and continues to do so.  Here is something new for the author.  He has turned his villains on their heads as it were.  Have a look at what he has written. 

Red Rain may have some tropes in common with R.L. Stine's best-selling series of scary books for children, but the audience here is clearly readers who enjoy the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Villainous lawn gnomes and ventriloquist dummies are replaced by real people who cause real pain.

The horror is grisly. Stine likes food metaphors to convey the gore: Windpipes ripped out of throats like "some kind of long pasta noodle." A young woman holding her intestines as "a gusher of pink and yellow sausage" oozes through her fingers.

It's not really spoiling any suspense to say Stine has flipped his "Goosebumps" formula and made the kids the villains instead of the good guys.

 When twin 12-year-old boys Samuel and Daniel are adopted by a travel writer after a deadly hurricane off the South Carolina coast, there are ominous signs that all is not well with the "bruvvers." Readers understand something's amiss immediately, even if it takes the book's characters awhile.
It's a page turner until the end, with short chapters that help increase the pace. Stine enjoys himself writing not for kids but about them.

For parents, there's plenty here to keep you up at night. Stine deftly makes one of his characters a child psychologist whose questions mirror our own: How much freedom of choice should kids have? When do they deserve to be treated like adults? And if you suspect they're up to no good with their friends, how quickly should you step in?
Quicker than they do in this wicked little book, that's for sure.

ROB MERRILL Associated Press

Thank You, Literary Classics!

This morning at 5:30, I had a lovely surprise.  When I turned on my computer, there was a message for me from the Children's Literary Classics Organization. 

 I was informed I'd been awarded the Gold Award for my children's book, Sea Turtle Summer.  Having read such exciting news, I read on and found my second book in the Bella and Britt series, One Pelican at a Time, had won the Silver Award.

This was truly an embarrassment of riches, and I have been over the moon ever since.  To be in such august company as Larry Dane Brimner and Lisa Manzione is, indeed, remarkable.  I am grateful and humbled.

Children's Literary Classics have given awards for years and are coveted. Their credo is as follows:

Literary Classics, an organization dedicated to furthering excellence in literature, takes great pride in its role to help promote classic children's literature which appeals to youth, while educating and encouraging positive values in the impressionable young minds of future generations. Judging is based upon the criteria set forth by Literary Classics' highly selective awards committee which honors books promoting character, vision, creativity and learning, through content which possesses the key elements found in well-crafted literature.


While considering myself fortunate, I want to thank my publishing house, Guardian Angel Publishing and particularly 
Linda Burch, publisher.  I was given the opportunity to thrive and grow as an author within this House, and I am grateful for it.

For me, in many ways, my life began anew when I took up the pen as an author.  It is an idiosyncratic way of life but one I love and cherish.

  Thank you Literary Classics for the honor.  Today was a time-out day for celebration.  Tomorrow morning, when 5:30 arrives, I will be back at my computer working as an author.

The Importance of a Birthday

As I had a birthday this past week, I began to think about the significance of such an event.  After all, that day does occur once a year, whether we like it or not.  So why should we even think about it?
 
For me, a birthday heralds taking stock of where I am and where I want to go.  Like the New Year you ask?  Yes and no.  Yes, because the new year does cause us to look back and hopefully, to look to the future. And no because a birthday is so much more personal.
 
 A birthday is in many ways a rebirth.  It is a thankfulness for the time behind us, all those milestones that add up to a life lived to that point. A life well lived or a life lived not quite to the fullest. 

But that birthday holds a promise as well.  A promise to continue striving to do better in all areas of achievement, to continue to grow emotionally and intellectually, to continue to become better acquainted with oneself and those we love.
 

So, a birthday?  No big deal.  Just another day.  I think not.  It is an opportunity to deal with the very DNA of our lives and hopefully become all the better and stronger for having put in the effort. 

Sea Turtle Let Off Hook, Rescued From Pirate Fishermen

Rangers at Cocos Island in Costa Rica recently discovered an endangered green sea turtle hooked by fishermen. Fortunately, the turtle was released alive, though injured.

While Cocos Island is, in fact, a national park, the rangers’ discovery suggests foul play in protected Pacific waters. Conservation officials say the incident draws attention to the threat of illegal long-line fishing.

Researchers have tagged green sea turtles around Cocos Island, Costa Rica.

Biologist and executive director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Todd Steiner, said in a statement earlier this week,

Pirate fishermen are wreaking havoc on sea turtles and sharks of the Pacific, even at this remote ‘protected’ site, more than 350 miles from the mainland, destroying one the most incredible hotspots of marine biodiversity in the Pacific.

And while they are killing endangered sea turtles, the primary goal of these pirate fisherman is to actually catch sharks for their fins, which are then shipped to Asia to make shark fin soup.

Fisherman release long-lines that have hundreds and sometimes thousands of baited hooks inside these waters and risk unintentionally killing wildlife—not only turtles, but also whales, dolphins, and seabirds.

Steiner added that park rangers have accumulated a mountain of long-lining gear in the surrounding waters of Cocos Island.
“When fishers are willing to risk losing many thousands of dollars of gear, it confirms this is not an isolated incident,” he said.

The hooked turtle named Swift is one of 17 turtles tagged with a satellite transmitter off the coast of Costa Rica as part of a conservation project conducted by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and the Costa Rican organization Pretoma.

The conservationists are tracking the sea turtles’ migrations in hopes of eventually creating protected swimways that will guide the turtles to and from their feeding and nesting areas.
While Cocos Island is commonly referred to as Shark Island for the abundance of hammerhead sharks, white-tipped reef sharks, and whale sharks swimming in its tropical waters, it comes as no surprise that the island is a hot spot for shark hunting. 

Even though the island’s protected waters were expanded last year by five times what was already labeled a ‘no-fishing zone,’ these pirate fisherman refuse to stop.  And despite the fact that shark fin trading is illegal in Costa Rica, it still continues. Sign the petition to the President of Costa Rica requesting to stop the shark finning once and for all!

Alisa Manzelli, Global Animal

Interview with Cole Gibsen, Author of Young Adult Fantasy, Katana

 NS  I am so delighted to have as my guest today Cole Gibsen, author of Young Adult novels and fellow SCBWI member of The Bookends of southern Illinois, our beyond valuable critique group.  Please give the readers a bit of information as to how you came to writing novels for young adults.

CG  My childhood through teen years were pretty rough. But no matter how bad things got for me, books were always there to provide me with an escape. There was a brief time in my life when I found myself homeless and had to live out of my car. I firmly believe that the books I checked out from the library that I read parked in truck stops are the reason I survived such difficult times. Books helped me—I’d go so far as to say they saved me— and I wanted to give back and do the same for others.

NS   I know for a fact how good you are at writing YA fantasy. Was that always an interest, or did you develop an appetite for that part of the genre?
 
CG   Fantasy has always been a favorite because of its ability to transport the reader into different worlds. I enjoy writing for teens because I because I remember how difficult my own teen years were and I believe if anyone needs and small escape from their daily lives, it’s them.
 
NS  Congratulations on your debut YA novel, Katana and your second, Breathless. Can you compare the two novels, or are they totally separate entities?

 CG  Thank you! While both novels are fantasy, they couldn’t be more different. Rileigh, my main character in Katana  is strong, feisty, and fierce. She’s everything I wanted to be when I was growing up. Edith, my main character from Breathless, is broken and glimpses of my own home life can be seen on the pages.   

NS  My readers always want to know about an author’s typical writing day.  Can you describe yours for them?

CG  I have a five-year-old. So up until this year finding time to write was a bit of a challenge. But now the kiddo has started school full time and I have eight glorious hours to write.  **And the people rejoiced!!!** Typically, I like to slam out a rough draft as fast as I can (typically within a month) and then I like to take my time editing it (another two to six months.)

NS  What is up next for you, and when can we expect it?
 
CG  The sequel for Katana – Senshi – releases March, 2013 and I couldn’t be more excited!
 
NS   Where can your fans find you and your books?

CG  You can find out more about me and my books at my website: www.ColeGibsen.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cole.gibsen 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/colegibsen

Star Wars Reads Day is Today!

For all of you Star Wars fans out there:  The Force will be with more than 1,200 bookstores and libraries across the U.S. on Saturday, October 6, when they will host events in commemoration of the first-ever Star Wars Reads Day.

An initiative of Lucasfilm and its publishing partners, the event marks the first time that the franchise’s publishers have banded together for such a broad-reaching venture. Participating publishers include Abrams, Chronicle Books, Dark Horse Comics, Del Rey, DK, Klutz, Random House Audio, Scholastic, Titan Magazines, and Workman.

Star Wars Reads Day events will feature a range of activities, including raffles, giveaways, trivia contests, and book signings. Select celebrations will include appearances by authors and artists who have created Star Wars books for either the children’s or the adult market – or both.

In order to extend the reach of the celebration, NBC’s Today Show Charitable Foundation has signed on as the official charitable partner. Each participating publisher has donated Star Wars titles from its list, and the foundation, which provides gifts to underserved children and teenagers nationwide, will distribute the books to its affiliate organizations.

So jump into your all-non terrain vehicle and get on over to your favorite bookstore or library for a forceful celebration!