October is flying by, and our Animal Helpers Features are nearing the end. Today we are featuring Kathleen Woods of the Phoenix Wildlife Center. Kathleen shares advice for aspiring animal rehabilitators.

Name: Kathleen Woods

Name of organization/clinic:  Phoenix Wildlife Center

State: Maryland

 Specialty/special areas of experience: Bald eagles, most raptors, songbirds

 Years as rehabilitator/volunteer: 20

 Busiest time of year: March through August

Number of hours you work per week during your busy season:  80+

Number of volunteers in clinic:  10

Why did you become a rehabilitator/volunteer:  I found two baby robins and could not find anyone to take them to.  I also volunteered at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge on the whooping crane project and knew that I was “hooked”.

Most rewarding aspect of rehabilitation: Giving people information over the phone so they can NOT interfere, and having them call back and say it was successful

As a rehabilitator, what is the most common question you are asked?   If I touch it, won’t the mother reject it?

Favorite animal story:  I love all the everyday heroes who go out of their way to rescue an animal and bring it here. 

What advice would you offer to children considering a career in wildlife rehabilitation:  Volunteer, read alot about the field, and consider a degree in biology or animal science, or vet school.  Take animal care classes over the summer at a local Nature Camp. 

Remember meet Kathleen and all the other rehabilitators in Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators, which  is FREE to read unitl October 31st online at www.sylvandellpublishing.com.

As we continue to feature wildlife rehabilitators this month on the Sylvan Dell blog, this week we meet Kim Johnson from The Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary. She shares with us the trials and tribulations of rescuing wild animals.

Texan Kim Johnson often works with her veterinarian husband and a tiny volunteer group at her Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary in Driftwood to care for a wide variety of mammals, including raccoons, squirrels, deer, fox, skunks, even bobcats. “Every year is different and I never know exactly what to expect” says Kim, one of a small handful of licensed rehabilitators in her state, “During Hurricane Ike, 200 squirrels were delivered to my front door.”

Despite her hectic schedule caring for wild animals, many of them babies, for 14-18 hours a day, seven days a week, Kim never seems to lose her sense of humor. “If it’s native and it lives in Texas, it’s been in my house, and maybe even if it’s not native,” she quips.

In many of the pictures that Kim submitted for possible use in Animal Helpers, she is wearing a big smile and very heavy welder’s gloves. The grin is, of course, because Kim loves her job. The gloves are because she is smart and seasoned. After 33 years as a rehabilitator, Kim is keenly aware that those gloves are mandatory equipment for handling fuzzy babies that have big paws, sharp teeth, and claws.  

Name: Kim Johnson

Name of organization/clinic: The Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary

State: Texas

Specialty/special areas of experience: Mammals, raptors

Years as rehabilitator/volunteer: 33 years

Busiest time of year: May-July

Number of hours you work per week during your busy season: 18+ hours a day 7 days a week

Number of volunteers in clinic: 4

Why did you become a rehabilitator/volunteer: For the love of nature and animals

Most rewarding aspect of rehabilitation: Release days and seeing an animal we thought would not pull through survive and be released!

As a rehabilitator, what is the most common question you are asked? If I touched it, will the mother come back?

Having cared for wildlife for so long, Kim cheerfully tells wonderful stories about the creatures that have come through her clinic, such as: A 7-week-old bobcat came to us on Christmas Day.  He was cute as a button, cute in the “I have claws and teeth and know how to use them” kind of way. For some reason, people still think that all little wild animals drink cow’s milk. (Unless they arecows, they do not do well on cow’s milk.) After getting his weight up, this bobcat soon started to fit right in with the rest of the crew.  He ate mice in nanoseconds, soon was jumping up on everything and getting more mischievous by the day!  Seven weeks later, it was time to move him to a larger facility.  This bobcat had grown four times the size he was when we got him. He was ready to mingle with his own kind.  We transferred him to a much larger facility outside of San Antonio where there are 12 other bobcats. He will be released onto a 1,000 plus acre refuge.  We will miss him; but, as with all of our animals, we feel blessed to have them and to be able to give them the care they need for the time we do. 

Favorite animal story:  We got a call that an adult raccoon had his head stuck for the entire night and half of the day in a bird feeder in a tree.  As I got there sure enough, he had wedged himself to where he could rest on the edge of the feeder as he contemplated his problems.  I told the lady that I could save the coon but not the feeder.  She suggested that they have a warning for purchasers of said bird feeder that it could also capture raccoons.  I got on a ladder and proceeded to unscrew the feeder and remove it from the tree.  So far so good.  I quickly realized that the coon was not coming out of the feeder without a chisel or saw and some serious drugs (for the coon of course).  I decided to put said coon and feeder in the back of the SUV and take him the eight miles down the road to the house where Dr. Johnson (Ray) could tranquilize him and we could then figure out how to release the raccoon from his feeder.  Halfway home, I have visions of the coon releasing himself from the feeder and kicking my tail in the car all the way home.  Luckily, for both of us he was quite stuck and we made it home.  Ray was almost laughing too hard to sedate the bugger but we got it done and although he never completely passed out, he was docile enough to unscrew the rest of the feeder and chisel the wood from around his neck without so much as a scratch on him!  He looked at us and groggily ran off without so much as a thank you.

What advice would you offer to children considering a career in wildlife rehabilitation?

Become a veterinarian who specializes in wildlife.  There are few out there and more are needed!

Remember Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators is FREE for the month of October at www.sylvandellpublishing.com, or Read it on your iPad, by downloading the free app Fun eReader in iTunes and entering the code: 2WZ637 in the red box on the App Registration page.

Each book in the new photographic journal series, Animal Helpers, features different ways animals are being helped by experts, volunteers, students, interns, and even campers around our country. Through this unusual series, we hope to bring recognition and awareness to the extraordinary animal helpers and nonprofit centers, clinics, sanctuaries, and rescue zoos in which they work. In the meantime, we will be using this blog to cheer on the work of even more of these unsung heroes, who dedicate their time, patience, and funds to helping save wild animals, one life at a time.

Animal Helpers Out West – Swainson’s Alert with Judy Scherpelz, Executive Director, and Christine Thomas, Volunteer, Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, Fort Collins, CO
www.rmrp.org

On any given day, Judy Scherpelz, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program (RMPR) in Fort Collins, Colorado, might be worried about the owls, hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey who are in the clinic because of car strikes, drought, fire, twine entanglement, electrocution, and the dreaded West Nile Virus.

Fierce as they seem, even raptors are prone to forces of man and nature.

This year, with the worst drought in history alongside some mighty big fires, birds of prey have come into RMRP in record numbers.

“This has been a really hard summer,” remarks Judy, “Young birds are so hungry that they’ll go after road kill that they normally would not go after so these inexperienced youngsters are coming in starving and injured.”

Working long hours, seven days a week, Judy and her small but dedicated, staff rush out to rescue the birds and give them a second chance at freedom. The youngest birds are fed and their wounds are treated as needed. Eventually they attend “mouse school,” where they learn to eat live prey, and “flight school,” where they learn to use those big wings. Now that its fall, RMRP is graduating some of their raptors, including the Swainson’s Hawks, a western raptor related to Red-Taileds.

In fact, by late summer, RMRP staff is officially on “Swainson Alert.”

Like other hawks, Swainies migrate from the U.S. to their wintering grounds in Argentina, where they are known as “grasshopper hawks.” (Those hopping insects are their favorite food.)

What is unusual about these medium-sized hawks is the numbers in which they congregate and the incredibly long distance that they migrate. In Colorado, Swainies gather in huge groups—100 to 500 birds at a time—called kettles. “That term comes from the resemblance to the smoke coming out of a kettle,” explains Judy, “As the birds rise up into the thermals in the sky, they look like smoke coming out of a kettle.” The birds then migrate over 6,000 miles in eight weeks, flying almost 135 miles a day. And, by the time they arrive at the isthmus of Panama/Mexico, there may be thousands of Swainson’s Hawks in a kettle, notes Judy.

Out west, baby Swainies hatch in June. By migration time, they are only three months old. They might be adult size but “they’re young and dumb,” laughs Judy. “Young birds need adult supervision during migration,” she explains, “The older birds know where to feed and how to find food; and, they’ve been to Argentina, so they know the route.”
An important part of releasing young Swainson’s Hawks, then, is to find the kettles so that the young birds can join their elders. The youngsters cannot be released on their own; they will starve.

So, exactly how does one find a kettle in Colorado?

Ask longtime RMRP volunteer Christine Thomas.

Each August, she and her husband, Michael, spend their spare time driving a truck down backcountry roads in the grasslands to search for kettles. “There is no memo from the birds,” jokes Christine, “So, we get out of town on dirt roads and we look high. We look low. We might drive 120 miles a day looking for them for five days to a week.”

Because the Thomases are avid birders, they have traveled these unpaved roads and rural parts of their county a lot looking for raptors. Christine has learned what the birds like—including grasshopper-ladened alfalfa plantings and bathing in puddles from irrigated fields. She often locates plots with water, even those that have pivot sprinklers. Over the years, she and Michael have learned to find out when and what farmers are planting and cutting. They spend a lot of time talking with landowners so that they can learn more about the birds’ habits. They look up, at telephone poles and possible perching spots for the birds; but, they know they have to eventually look down. The hungry birds will be on the ground, eating grasshoppers.

Christine is in awe of these hawks, which she likens to long distance runners. “They spend one-third of their lives migrating all the way to Argentina and then back. They are built for distance and endurance.”

“The first time we saw a kettle of hawks, it took our breath away,” says Christine, “There were so many of them, maybe 500, and when they took off, it was so awesome, like Christmas Day!”

Once the Thomases find the flocks, they hurriedly call the center. Staff then quickly gathers and bands all releasable Swainson’s Hawks at the center, places them into carriers, and races them back to the location, a drive that often takes at least an hour. Prior to release, the Thomases do ensure that the location is a safe spot to release the hawks, preferably in a location without fences or traffic.

Fortunately, the Thomases have gotten quite good at deciphering the clues to find the kettles. If the hawks miss this “great escape” and have to overwinter with RMPR, the care is expensive. The hawks eat three to four mice per day at a cost of about $1 per mouse. Not including labor, the cage, or other raptor necessities, the expenses quickly add up.

This year, RMRP released 16 Swainson’s Hawks (which includes three overwintered from last year); and will overwinter nine.

For more information about RMRP, please visit their website, www.rmrp.org.

Thank you to Jennifer Keats Curtis author of Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators for introducing us to Judy, Christine and the entire staff at RMRP. They are doing wonderful work for these beautiful hawks.

Do you love animals, and want to help wildlife? Meet Victoria Campbell a rehabilitator from Wild Things Sanctuary featured in Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators. Victoria shares her dedication and the rewards of working with natures amazing creatures.

Name: Victoria Campbell

Name of organization/clinic: Wild Things Sanctuary 

State: New York 

Specialty/special areas of experience: Mammals, baby animals 

Years as rehabilitator/volunteer: 6 

Busiest time of year: April-September (especially May-July)                             

Number of hours you work per week during your busy season: up to 140! 

Number of volunteers in clinic: Varies. At the moment, I have 3.

Why did you become a rehabilitator/volunteer: I became a wildlife rehabilitator because I feel a great empathy for the wild animals who do not have owners to look after them and who can get very badly sick and injured and orphaned: they need help too! Also, most patients are in trouble because of human related causes (e.g., cars, pets, construction), and I felt that it was part of my duty as a human to give back to these animals who need help.

Most rewarding aspect of rehabilitation: Having an animal learn to trust me and building an understanding between me and the patient. And it’s pretty fun nurturing the baby animals as well! 

As a rehabilitator, what is the most common question you are asked? How did you get those scratches? What’s the biggest animal/worst bite you’ve ever had? When do you sleep? How do you know all this stuff?

Favorite animal story: Too many to think of! Pretty amazing releasing an animal and seeing it run off smiling…or when a pregnant mama gives birth at Wild Things! 

What advice would you offer to children considering a career in wildlife rehabilitation: Learn as much about animals as you can and see whether there are any places where you can volunteer and learn more about wildlife rehabilitation. Wildlife rehabilitators need to know about animal behavior, veterinary care, animal husbandry, and even skills like cooking and carpentry: there is lots to learn! Also, make sure you have a support system of people who can help you: it is hard work! And reach out to others who are interested and/or who are wildlife rehabilitators as often you learn the most from other rehabilitators and their work. Finally, know that sometimes you need to love the animals enough to make difficult decisions; wildlife rehabilitation is great but it can be very sad too.  

Visit http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ beginning October 1st Read Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators for FREE all month.

On Tuesday, September 25th, the Sylvan Dell offices hosted students from a South Carolina elementary school.  The students came to learn about publishing and test their knowledge of five Sylvan Dell books they had been studying. Teacher’s created questions for the Classroom Jeopardy! and all the action was caught on tape by two of the students.

Enjoy the Video!

A Warm Winter Tail

By Carrie A. Pearson

Illustrated by Christina Wald

Finally, to wrap up the Sylvan Dell Launch Week we end With A Warm Winter Tail.

Sparked from walk in the woods Carrie Pearson wrote A Warm Winter Tail, a twist on staying warm in the long cold months of winter.

Do you ever wonder how animals stay warm in the winter? Well, they wonder how humans do too! In a twist of perspective, wild creatures question if humans use the same winter adaptation strategies that they do. Do they cuddle together in a tree or fly south to Mexico? Take a look through an animal’s eyes and discover the interesting ways animals cope with the cold in this rhythmic story.

Carrie A. Pearson is originally from Hillsdale, Michigan, and now lives in Marquette, Michigan on the sandy shore of Lake Superior. A former early elementary teacher, she is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and is the winner of the coveted SCBWI-Michigan Picture Book Mentorship Award. Her nonfiction work has appeared in Michigan History Magazine. Currently she is working on several picture book manuscripts as well as an historical novel for middle grade readers set in an abandoned orphanage. Along with her husband and their three daughters (and their two Labradoodles), she hikes, bikes, runs, and skis in the woods, windsurfs, kayaks, stand-up paddles, and swims in the chilly water and writes about what she experiences around her. The idea for A Warm Winter Tail, her debut picture book, came from an encounter with a whitetail deer on a wintry day. Stop by Carrie’s website www.carriepearsonbooks.com to learn about her school and library visits.

In addition to illustrating A Warm Winter Tail, Habitat Spy, Little Red Bat, andHenry the Impatient Heron for Sylvan Dell, Christina Wald has illustrated for a wide variety of toys, games, books, and magazines. From a book that featured hundreds of animals on each page (Look, Find, and Learn: Animals of the World) to games including the Star Wars role playing game series, every assignment covers something new and exciting. In recent years, she has illustrated tons of different animals for books and other publications. Christina enjoys the research aspect of such projects, saying that each new book is a fascinating new learning experience. She often integrates travel to research for her illustrations. She lives in Ohio with her husband and three cats. Visit Christina’s website.

The Tree That Bear Climbed

By Marianne Berkes

Illustrated by Kathleen Rietz

In any given city on any given day, a bear climbs a tree. Have you ever wondered how that tree became so strong, or why did that bear choose to climb to the top of a tree? Marianne Berkes and Kathleen Rietz show you just why Bear decided to climb this tree! Have Fun with the coloring page at the bottom, click on the image for a full page to color.

Everyone knows about the house that Jack built, but this is The Tree That Bear Climbed. What makes this tree so fascinating to bear? Starting with the roots that anchor the tree, this chain of events story in cumulative verse explores many different things that help a tree stand tall. It also lends itself to further discussion with fun repetition and detailed picture clues, stimulating a child’s curiosity. Why does the bear climb the tree and what happens when he arrives at his goal?

About the author and illustrator

Award-winning author Marianne Berkes (pronounced Ber-kess with two syllables) is a retired teacher and librarian who turned her love of nature and teaching into writing informational picture books. In addition to The Tree That Bear Climbed and Animalogy for Sylvan Dell, some of Marianne’s other recent and award-winning titles include: Going Home, The Mystery of Animal Migration; Over in the Ocean, in a Coral Reef; Over in the Jungle, a Rainforest Rhyme; Going Around the Sun, Some Planetary Fun, and Marsh Morning. Visit her website at www.MarianneBerkes.com.

A lifelong artist and lover of nature, Kathleen Rietz was drawing and painting before she learned to write her name. Originally, from Peoria, IL, Kathleen received her formal training from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, IL. In addition, to illustrating Desert Baths, The Tree That Bear Climbed, Prairie Storms, and Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! for Sylvan Dell, Kathleen’s other books include Conce Tu Parque, Little Black Ant on Park Street, The ABC’s of Yoga for Kids, and Prayers for Children. She taught art to children and adults at the Community School of the Arts at historic Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, and through a local home school program in her community. For more information about Kathleen, visit her website: http://www.kathleenrietz.com/.

Comment on this post to win a FREE The Tree That Bear Climbed eBook.

Solar System Forecast
By Kelly Kizer Whitt
Illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

Solar System Forecast is full of surprises, from the crazy weather on Neptune, Venus and Pluto to the weather reported guiding you through your adventure in outer space.

Freezing temperatures, scorching heat and a storm bigger than planet Earth is just some of the wild weather you will encounter on your trip through our solar system! Get your fun facts along with your forecast for each major planet, as well as the weather on dwarf planet Pluto, and Saturn’s moon Titan. Any child with an interest in space is sure to love Solar System Forecast, and parents will love the educational “For Creative Minds” section in the back of the book. Get ready for some out of this world fun with Solar System Forecast!

 Here is a behind the scenes look into the illustrations of Solar System Forecast with Laurie Allen Klein.

“Solar System Forecast was a difficult book to do because it wasn’t a traditional children’s book story.  Consisting of a series of weather reports from different moons and planets there wasn’t a central character to follow and each page described a different, unique weather condition – on a non-earth surface.  How, for example, do you illustrate “Spring” with no trees, flowers, grass, animals or even atmosphere to convey the image?

I immediately dove into research, looking up everything I could on meteorology and I found some amazing visual references of clouds and storms, but there was still the central difficulty of depicting any of this in an alien environment.  And speaking of aliens – the most fun, reader-friendly surprise was the fact that the weather reporter was a real, live Alien, but I couldn’t reveal that until the very last page so I couldn’t even use any obvious alien references in any of the other illustrations.  I was afraid it would just be pages of weird landscapes until the big finish at the end.

The only consistent link I had, that flowed through every page, was the weather report itself, and I immediately thought of The Weather Channel. Specifically all the modern technological ways one can get weather updates: TV, computer, laptop, iPad, smart phone, etc. so that became my visual theme.  Showing each report on some different type of technology (some, like the Jupiter hologram being more sci fi) and in a few places the book page itself IS the screen.

 The thing that brought it all together was the morning I noticed my husband getting ready for work.  It was still dark, and he was in his uniform, looking at The Weather Channel on TV, with his coffee cup in hand.  He was surrounded by this eerie blue glow and that’s when I thought of the astronaut on the first page, checking the weather before work – his coffee and Danish in hand, absurdly still having his helmet on and sealed.  It just made me laugh so I took that little hint of silliness into the rest of the book.”

Pay close attention to Laurie’s silliness the weather alien pops up on various pages throughout the book. Can you find him?

About the Author and Illustrator

Kelly Kizer Whitt (Solar System Forecast) has been an admirer of the universe since childhood. From the dark skies of her hometown of Sauk City, Wisconsin, she would gaze at the stars and wonder what was beyond them. Kelly majored in English and studied Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After college she spent three years in Nashville with her husband, Jeremy, before moving to the Milwaukee area. In 1998 she landed her dream job at Astronomy magazine, where she worked as copy editor, photo editor, and assistant editor. Kelly wrote the terrestrial planets section of The Collins Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space, published in 2001. She writes about space for the websites Suite101.com and AstronomyToday.com. She also has a weekly stargazing blog for the Sierra Club online. Besides writing about space, Kelly published a romance novel on Kindle in 2011 titled The Gathering Storm. Kelly’s hobbies include visiting the national parks, creating crossword puzzles, and reading. Kelly lives in Sussex, Wisconsin, with Jeremy, her son Kaden, her daughter Lucy, and their cat Perseus, named for the constellation.

Laurie Allen Klein has been a freelance artist for nearly 25 years. Over the last several years, she has worked as the on-staff artist for a marine park, where she does everything from painting life-size sea animal murals, to illustrating children’s activity books. As evident by the extras included in the art, she has combined her love and fascination with outer space (and science fiction) with children’s illustration in both Solar System Forecast and Meet the Planets. Laurie also illustrated Fur and Feathers, Where Should Turtle Be?, Little Skink’s Tail, and If a Dolphin Were a Fish for Sylvan Dell. Laurie lives in Florida. See more of her artwork at http://www.lauriekleinarts.com.

Leave a comment and enter to win a FREE Solar System Forecast eBook!

What do The Most Dangerous and news reports of West Nile virus have in common, the mosquito. When Terri Fields wrote the story of a ferocious animal contest, she had no idea how topical the book would become at the release date.

With more than 1,000 cases reported in 38 states this outbreak is the largest in U.S. history according to the Center for Disease Control.  Not all mosquitoes carry the West Nile virus and not everyone will show symptoms of the disease if bitten. However, it is important to protect yourself from mosquito bites, as they are proven to transmit several different diseases to humans and animals all over the world.

Even if a non West Nile mosquito bites you, they leave behind an itchy and uncomfortable bump. The best way to protect yourself from a bite is use bug spray with Deet, wear long sleeves and long pants when you are outside and eliminate any standing water in your yard.

In The Most Dangerous, children will be excited by the parade of scary animals, but they will be surprised when the tiny mosquito shows up to the contest. Although the disease is not mentioned in the book, it is a great way to kick off a conversation about West Nile and mosquitoes with kids.

Learn more about The Most Dangerous!

Dangerous animals from all over the world gather for the Most Dangerous Animal of All Contest. Snakes, spiders, sharks . . . who will the winner be? Deadly poison, huge teeth, razor -sharp horns, and fearsome feet are just a few of the ways that animals kill. Predators mean to kill. Prey simply defend themselves. And yet, the unexpected most deadly animal doesn’t mean to harm at all!

Terri Fields (Burro’s Tortillas, The Most Dangerous) has written nineteen books which have garnered a number of awards including the Maud Hart Lovelace Award for Middle Grades Fiction, the Georgia Children’s Choice Award, being named to the Recommended Reading List for Chicago Public Schools, the TAYSHAS (Texas) Reading List, the Southwest Books of the Year List, and as one of the 100 Top Kid Picks in Children’s Books in Arizona. A long time desert-dweller, Ms Fields has enjoyed sharing her books with children all over the world. In addition to writing, Ms. Fields is also a educator who has been named Arizona Teacher of the Year, ING Education Innovator for Arizona, and been selected as one of the twenty teachers on the All-USA Teacher Team of the nation’s top educators. Terri Fields has worked with students in first through twelfth grades.  Ms. Fields sees the world around her in terms of the wonderful stories it reveals. Visit Terri’s website http://www.terrifields.com/.

Award-winning illustrator Laura Jacques is passionate about illustrating children’s books that focus on natural history, wildlife, and environmental awareness for children. In addition to illustrating The Most Dangerous, Baby Owl’s Rescue and Whistling Wings for Sylvan Dell, she has also illustrated For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson, Squirrel Assist, At Home in the Rain Forest, and Wildlife Refuge: A Classroom Adventure. Her books have won several honors and awards, including “NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children” sponsored by the Children’s Book Council and the “KIND Children’s Book Award” sponsored by the Association for Humane and Environmental Education, a division of the Humane Society of the United States. For more information, visit Laura’s website: http://www.laurajacques.com.

September’s Book of the Month read The Most Dangerous here http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/index.php!

DESERT BATHS 

by Darcy Pattison
Illustrated by Kathleen Rietz

Watch the vulture bask in the morning sun, the roadrunner kick up a cloud of dust, the javelina wallow, and the bobcat give her cub a licking with a rough tongue in Desert Baths. As the sun travels across the sky, learn how twelve different desert animals face the difficulties of staying clean in a dry and parched land. Explore the desert habitat through its animals and their habits of hygiene. Told in lyrical prose, this story is a celebration of the desert lands of the American Southwest.

After reading Desert Baths, get into the spirit with a great coloring page below by Kathleen Rietz, or visit www.sylvandellpublishing.com to take the quiz to see what you learned about desert animals.

Darcy Pattison is published in eght languages. In addition to Desert Baths and Prairie Storms with Sylvan Dell, other recent titles include Wisdom: The Midway Albatross and 11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph. She also authored the ebook, How to Write a Children’s Book and the teacher resource book, Paper Lightning: Prewriting Activities to Spark Creativity and Help Students Write Effectively. Darcy is the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award, Individual Artist Award for her work in children’s literature. As a writing teacher, Darcy is in demand nationwide to teach her Novel Revision Retreat. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Children’s Program for the Arkansas Literary Festival.

A lifelong artist and lover of nature, Kathleen Rietz was drawing and painting before she learned to write her name. Originally from Peoria, IL, Kathleen received her formal training from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, IL. In addition to illustrating Desert Baths, The Tree That Bear Climbed, Prairie Storms, and Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! for Sylvan Dell, Kathleen’s other books include Conce Tu Parque, Little Black Ant on Park Street, The ABC’s of Yoga for Kids, and Prayers for Children. She taught art to children and adults at the Community School of the Arts at historic Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, and through a local home school program in her community.

Write a comment and you could win an eBook of Desert Baths!

* Winners in the past 6 months are not eligible for contests.

“When Sylvan Dell asked me if I’d be interested in creating the Animal Helpers’ series, I jumped at the opportunity,” said author Jennifer Curtis,who received the 2012 State of Maryland International Reading Association Council Literacy Award. “These books not only help young readers and their parents learn more about the incredible ways that experts help wild animals, they provide a means of fundraising for each participating clinic. Rescuing and rehabilitating individual animals is incredibly expensive and each participant will use the books to help raise funds for their centers.”

The first book, Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators, features the work of four wildlife rehabilitators, including Kathy Woods of the Phoenix Wildlife Center in Maryland. This well-known rehabilitator was the impetus of Curtis’ Baby Owl’s Rescue. Victoria Campbell of Wild Things Sanctuary in New York; Kim Johnson of the Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary in Texas; and Miriam Moyer and Mary Birney of White Flicker Wild Bird Rehabilitation in Pennsylvania are also featured . U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s Randy Loftus also contributed extraordinary photographs of rescues.

When wild animals get sick they can’t go to the doctor, often wildlife rehabilitators are called to rescue injured, sick or orphaned animals. The rehabilitators nurse the animals back to health in hopes that they will be released into the wild once they have recovered. Kim Johnson, who specializes in mammals and raptors said, “I am very excited for the opportunity to share the rewards of assisting and protecting our wildlife.  I hope the book inspires some to follow our examples and continue the hard but rewarding work of a rehabilitator.”

Jennifer Keats Curtis is passionate about nature; often referred to the green author, you will find Jennifer among students and teachers sharing her love for animals. In addition to the Animal Helpers series, Baby Owl’s Rescue, and Turtles In My Sandbox for Sylvan Dell, some of her other recent titles include Seahorses, Osprey Adventure and Saving Squeak: The Otter Tale. Learn more and request a school visit by checking out her website at www.jenniferkeatscurtis.com and following her on Facebook at Green Author Jennifer Keats Curtis.

Be the first to read Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators, enter to win a FREE eBook here from Sylvan Dell! Comment with your name and email address we will pick 5 lucky winners!

* Winners in the past 6 months are not eligible for contests.

After many long weeks of waiting the Sylvan Dell fall releases are finally here! If you haven’t checked out our new releases online here is an overview. We are having an online launch party all next week, watch the blog for author posts, teaching activities and GIVEAWAYS!!

Desert Baths- All animals bathe to keep their bodies clean and healthy. Humans mi
ght use soap and water, but what do animals, especially those living in dry climates, do to keep clean? Darcy Pattison and Kathleen Rietz team up again to explore the desert to find out how snakes, spiders, and birds bathe. This surprising book teaches children about hygiene and how some exciting desert creatures manage to stay clean without the help of soap and water.

The Most Dangerous-Dangerous animals from all over the world gather for the Most Dangerous Animal of All Contest. Snakes, spiders, sharks…who will the winner be? Deadly poison, huge teeth, razor -sharp horns, and fearsome feet are just a few of the ways that animals kill. Predators mean to kill. Prey simply defend themselves. And yet, the unexpected most deadly animal doesn’t mean to harm at all!

Solar System Forecast-Freezing temperatures, scorching heat, and a storm bigger than planet Earth is just some of the wild weather you will encounter on your trip through our solar system! Get your fun facts along with your forecast for each major planet, as well as the weather on dwarf planet Pluto. Any child with an interest in space is sure to love Solar System Forecast, and parents will love the educational “For Creative Minds” section in the back of the book. Get ready for some out of this world fun with Solar System Forecast!

The Tree That Bear Climbed-Everyone knows about the house that Jack built, but this is The Tree That Bear Climbed. What makes this tree so fascinating to bear? Starting with the roots that anchor the tree, this chain of events story in cumulative verse explores many different things that help a tree stand tall. It also lends itself to further discussion with fun repetition and detailed picture clues, stimulating a child’s curiosity. Why does the bear climb the tree and what happens when he arrives at his goal?

A Warm Winter Tail- Do you ever wonder how animals stay warm in the winter? Well, they wonder how humans do too! In a twist of perspective, wild creatures question if humans use the same winter adaptation strategies that they do. Do they cuddle together in a tree or fly south to Mexico? Take a look through an animal’s eyes and discover the interesting ways animals cope with the cold in this rhythmic story.

By Darcy Pattison

How do you get kids interested in a book about vultures and desert tortoises at a summer program where they are interested mostly in having some fun? And how do you do it while fulfilling the Common Core State Standards?

One of the tenets of the Common Core State Standards is the use of technology with kids. This summer, I volunteered at the Arkansas Audubon (ar.audubon.org/) summer camp. Camp Director Mary Smith agreed when I asked if we could do some videotaping with kids to create a book trailer for my new book, DESERT BATHS.

First, I studied the Common Core requirements. The Common Core ELA Speaking & Listening anchor standard #5 requires students to “Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding.” An appropriate task for this standard is for students to create a video. In this case, we also emphasized close reading of the text of Desert Baths (CC ELA Reading anchor standards #1, 2, 4) to understand how each desert animals stays clean.

Note: The camp had a wide range of ages, so I didn’t use any specific grade level standards. The Common Core provides Anchor Standards, which are in turn specifically interpreted for each grade level. By following the more general Anchor Standard, I was confident that we would accomplish something appropriate for each student.

After the close reading of the text, students were assigned an animal to act out and practiced a couple times.

Videotaping the Desert Baths Book Trailer

Videotaping with kids can be chaotic. In order to minimize this, I set up four stations.

1. Camera man. The camera man was responsible for running the camera and taping the Actor. I use a Kodak Z-i8 hand-held camera because it is the only camera in its class with an external microphone jack. The camera was mounted on a tripod and the Camera Man had to make sure it was the right height for the Actor and was positioned for the setting to fill the screen.
2. Actor. The actor was responsible for standing on the stage, saying his/her lines and acting out how a desert animal takes a bath.
3. Sound Man. I plugged a lapel microphone into the Kodak Zi8 Camera. If you look closely, you can see the wire on the kids. The Sound Man was responsible for making sure the microphone was placed on the Actor correctly. Also, to conserve the batteries of the microphone, it was turned off except when in actual use. The Sound Man was responsible for making sure the microphone was turned on and off at the right times.
4. Stage Director. This was a favorite task, because this person got to yell out, “Quiet on the Set.” In addition to starting and stopping the action, the Stage Director was responsible for making sure everything was set up correctly, the Actor was ready and then directing everyone to start.

The stations worked well because students came to the videotaping in groups of four and each student rotated through all the tasks. They knew their job was important and they took it seriously. Watch and see what fun they had.

New Books are on their way and we couldn’t be more excited to get them into little hands for science fun. Our authors and illustrators will be out and about in their communities and holding launch parties for their titles, we wanted to get in on the fun at Sylvan Dell and will be holding a virtual launch week September 10^th-14^th. Join Sylvandell on Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter for contests and giveaways! For a sneak preview of the six new titles visit www.sylvandellpublishing.com.

Back to School with Begin with Books… It’s always a great experience to really experience the joy a children gets from reading, and we did just that this weekend with a local organization Begin with Books. While passing out books from Sylvan Dell we collaborated with this local affiliate of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to help gain interest in reading. Begin with Books is a fantastic organization that provides children with a book a month until the age of four. This early exposure to reading why we do what we do every day and it’s important to take time out and experience that excitement. Sylvan Dell will continue to work with this organization and others throughout our community to promote literacy. To learn more about begin with books visit their website http://beginwithbooks.org/

For teachers and librarians only! Planning for the upcoming year or looking for some impactful presentations to your school or classroom, Sylvan Dell authors or illustrators love to talk about their work to children. An author or illustrator visit is very inspiring to young minds and may just spark a budding talent. Contact us if you are interested in learning more! If an author can’t travel to your local area Skype visits are fun and check out TeacherTube for exciting and fun new videos!

It seems like yesterday we were buzzing about summer reading programs, and now the time has come to go back to school for new teachers, new tests and new challenges.

Before we jump into the everyday grind that back to school brings, Sylvan Dell has one last summer fun reading event. The winner will receive a prize package with one of our educational books and stuffed animal.

For Kids only:

What is your favorite book?

What did you learn this summer through reading?

What is your favorite animal story?

Why?

Rules For Parents: The answers have to come from children.

You can submit by putting commenting here
send us a message on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/SylvanDell
Or by mail at 612 Johnnie Dodds Blvd. Suite A2 Charleston, SC 29464

Thank you for participating!

To kick off the release of six new Sylvan Dell books here is an interview with Terri Fields, the author of The Most Dangerous!

Did you learn anything from writing The Most Dangerous?

            I learned so many fascinating facts while I was researching this book that I could have written an entire book about each animal.  (Maybe someday I still will!)  Meanwhile, there are some fun added details on page 29 of the on-line teaching guide to the book.  

Here are a few more interesting facts about some of these animals:

•             Great White Sharks will have a tail slapping contest if there is only enough food for one of them. The one with the most slaps gets the food. 
•             Cape Buffalos are supposed to have amazing memories.  If a hunter returns even years after hurting a cape buffalo, it’s said that the cape buffalo will remember and go after that hunter.  Birds called oxpeckers often land on cape buffalos and eat the ticks, fleas and lice on the buffalo’s body or face.
•             Saltwater Crocodiles have receptors at the base of their teeth that let them sense even tiny vibrations in the water. If a crocodile is under water, but not too far from land, animals coming to drink from the water’s edge better watch out!  The crocodile will sense exactly where they are.
•             A Hippo’s hide can weigh as much as a half a ton.  That’s 1000 pounds.  Can you imagine if just your skin weighed that much?  And if you feel thirsty, how much do you drink? A hippo can drink 55 gallons a day! 
•             The Cassowary has the lowest known call of any bird.  Female cassowaries are the second heaviest bird in the world, and even though cassowaries are birds, they can’t fly.
•             Box Jellyfish aretransparent, so people don’t often see them, just feel the sting.  If a number of tentacles touch a person’s skin, it can cause heart failure.  Even if the sting is just from a few tentacles, the pain is so horrible, the victim often goes into shock and drowns because he can’t get to shore.

What is something to think about after reading The Most Dangerous?

            Certainly, these animals are very dangerous, but most of them have a reason.  They are either protecting themselves, providing themselves with food or both.  Though some people also  kill animals to protect themselves or provide food, some people hunt for no other reason than the thrill of the kill. Only people do this.  Does that make them the most dangerous of all?  It’s something to think about!

Did you consider any other titles for this book?

            Coming up with a title is important since it is often a title that attracts or detracts potential readers, right?  Originally, I looked at a number of synonyms for dangerous.  Possible titles included: The Most Menacing, The Most Alarming, The Most Perilous, The Most Threatening.   Eventually, I settled on dangerous because it seemed the most accurate.  However, I submitted my title as The Most Dangerous Animal of All.  My excellent editor shortened the title, and it’s a good thing she did because otherwise, the wonderful cover art would have had to be smaller to fit all those extra words. 

What do you tell students who contact you about writing?

            Many times, I’ll get email from students wanting to know how to get their book published.  I tell them that the most important thing is not publishing the book, but writing, rewriting, and rewriting again until they have a book of which they are really proud.  Then they should share that book with family, friends, even their own school library. 

  What advice would you give parents to get their children interested in writing and reading?

            I would encourage parents to help their children see the world in terms of stories.  Of course, you should read to your child.  That’s a great beginning.  However, there are so many ways to spark children’s creative thinking.  For example, when you’re waiting in line at the grocery, ask your child, “Suppose a big pink dog just ran through the store.  What would happen next?”  By the time you get to the checkout, you and your child may have created a whole story together.  When you’re waiting for a sporting game to start, point to one of the people who hasn’t gone in the stadium yet and say, “Let’s make up a story.  We’ll pretend that that man in the red hat is here today because his son gave him a ticket.  What if he was holding the ticket and a bird plucked it from his hand?”

When you were a teacher, your students won hundreds of creative writing awards.  What advice would you give to teachers to encourage writing?

            Three important pieces to successful classroom writing:

1)       Everyone must know that your classroom is an absolutely safe place to share creativity.  There is a risk for a student to put his/her imagination and heart on paper that isn’t there in answering a math problem.  If you want students to take that leap of faith, they must know they will not face taunts or teasing.

2)      Writing is really about rewriting.  The first draft of anything should just be for the student.  The students should read the next draft aloud to themselves and then answer a series of guided questions about it.  Both drafts should be attached to a third draft, and that is the one the teacher should review and critique.  The fourth draft should be attached to the top of the third draft, and that is the one that should receive the grade, but only if all the other drafts have been completed.  It’s amazing how much students can and will improve their own work if they must complete the process.

3)      With the student’s permission, “publish” and display successful writing for check-out by other students.  Teachers might consider the idea of a classroom library stocked with both student and professionally published books.   

 For more information about Terri Fields and her nineteen books, see her website www.terrifields.com

Seven years and 76 books later the definition of Sylvan Dell is just as difficult now as it was on day one.

The subject recently came up with a librarian, who as a reviewer was trying to classify a Sylvan Dell book. The story is fiction, almost! Scattered throughout the stories featuring cute animals, or space characters are a few scientific facts, some more obvious than others. Then each book has four to six pages of non-fiction material, strategically chosen to enhance those scattered facts. We understand that this concept does not make a teacher or librarian’s job easy.

The time spent reading to a child is very influential and important. Do you remember your favorite book from story time; could you recite every word? Sylvan Dell, inspired by this memory and concept, has taken one-step further into educating children, with our specialty being science and math.

In the Program for International Student Assessment, the United States ranked 17^th in science and 25^th in math. We focus on getting kids interested in these subjects at an early age. This is where the non-fiction “For Creative Minds” section of the book is helpful to parents, and children. For example, a parent is reading Home in the Cave and the child asks, “What is sonar?”  The parent has a resource in the back of the book and is able to look like an expert on the subject. In a similar function, consider that same child a few years later in the classroom learning about bats, they remember Baby Batand the concept of sonar.

However, learning about bats is not the only concept introduced in this book. Baby Bat is learning about growing up and facing fears, the secrets of his cave and how he is helping his habitat. There are many options when classifying a Sylvan Dell book, and we understand that many of our books have an identity problem in the education community. Bats, caves or life lessons where does Home in the Cave fit in lesson plans? The answer is any one of the above and with the common core focus of going beyond the text; teachers are able to draw out many concepts in just one lesson. We have resources to make a teachers job easier posted on our website and easily accessed on a Smartboard. The goal at Sylvan Dell is to make reading and learning fun.

For those teachers or librarians who would like more information or a listing of how our books fit into common core standards, reading levels or just the concepts in each book visit http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/TeachersSchoolLibrarians.htm for resources or contact us for your specific needs at (877) 243-3457.

We are feverishly preparing for our new titles to be released in a few weeks, but I am back to blog and today the education community is on our minds at Sylvan Dell. Over the past few weeks, we have dove into research, to find out what teachers look for and why they enjoy Sylvan Dell’s approach to learning. This has all come about with the new iPad app and launching into technology.

What we have found is there are really great teachers out there that are using innovative teaching techniques and really seeing remarkable results. We were fortunate to meet Kristi Meeuwse a kindergarten teacher here in Charleston, SC. As a book publisher, we were amazed by the work her children were able to accomplish on the iPad. Check out Kristi’s blog http://iteachwithipads.net/.

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