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Marianne Berkes and Cathy Morrison are not newcomers to children’s books, Tortoise and Hare’s Amazing Race is their third book together at Arbordale and individually each of these ladies has an impressive collection of stories and book awards. We are happy to release this adaptation of the classic fable and bring a bit of math into the race!

To learn more about the inspiration behind Marianne’s writing here is a sample of her interview:

What drew you to writing, children’s books ?

As a child our home was filled with books and music. I wrote plays that my friends and I performed in the summer, in our backyard. My dad even helped us build some of the scenery. Reading, writing, music and theater have been a constant in my life. In high school I did interviews for the school paper, and in college wrote my first picture book for a children’s lit class. But it was many years later, after I moved to Florida, that I said “I can do this!” Reading so many books to children at the library where I worked, I kept coming up with ideas of my own. Because I love kids and love “words” I started submitting my stories to publishers, and one day…

What do you hope children get out of your stories?

An appreciation of our earth and respect for nature. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a child and still do. Discovering nature is a life-long adventure that I hope kids today still appreciate. Nature has so many stories to tell and is available to anybody, any place, any time. I hope kids will be entertained by my books, but also that they will want to learn more about the topic. My first book, published in 2000, was about frogs making music in the night. Hopefully after reading this book, kids will go outside in the early evening, especially after a rain, and listen for the sounds I’ve written about. I’ve followed with stories about birds, shells, creatures living in an ocean reef, rainforest animals, Arctic animals, animals that migrate, Australian animals, forest animals (like Polly Possum) and river animals. In Arbordale’s The Tree that Bear Climbed kids also learn how a tree grows, and Daisylocks is about plant life. I’ve also written a book about the planets that I hope kids enjoy. How can we ask them to save the earth, if they don’t learn to appreciate it first? My books are lyrical in verse, making it easy and fun for kids to read with lots of fact blended in. I want kids to really get inside my books, to read them more than once, each time finding something new and exciting!

Do you want to know more read the full interview here!

Leave a comment and enter to win your own copy of Tortoise and Hare’s Amazing Race! Then click below for fun math activities in the For Creative Minds section.

December is a time for friendship, and what better way to demonstrate friendship to children, than through a picture book?  Here are a few of Sylvan Dell’s favorite books about friendship with fun and easy activities that you can do this holiday season.

Newton and Me – While at play with his dog, Newton, a young boy discovers the laws of force and motion in his everyday activities. Told in rhyme, Lynne Mayer’s Newton and Me follows these best friends on an adventure as they apply physics to throwing a ball, pulling a wagon, riding a bike, and much more. With the help of Sherry Rogers’ playful illustrations, children will learn that physics is a part of their world. They will realize that Newton’s Laws of Motion describe experiences they have every day, and they will recognize how forces affect the objects around them.

Activity: Help you child get to know their friends. Start a conversation and learn about their family pet or favorite toy. Encourage your child to ask questions.

Moose and Magpie – It isn’t easy being a moose. You’re a full-grown adult at the age of one, and it itches like crazy when your antlers come in! In Bettina Restrepo’s Moose and Magpie, young Moose is lucky to find a friend and guide in the wisecracking Magpie. “What do the liberty bell and moose have in common?” the Magpie asks as the seasons begin to change. Then, when fall comes: “Why did the moose cross the road?” Vivid illustrations by Sherry Rogers bring these characters to life. Laugh along with Moose and Magpie, and maybe-just maybe-Moose will make a joke of his own!

Activity: Comedy hour – give your child and friends a “microphone” and encourage them to tell jokes. Make sure they know not to tell jokes at their friend’s expense.

Home in the Cave – Baby Bat loves his cave home and never wants to leave it. While practicing flapping his wings one night, he falls, and Pluribus Packrat rescues him. They then explore the deepest, darkest corners of the cave where they meet amazing animals—animals that don’t need eyes to see or colors to hide from enemies. Baby Bat learns how important bats are to the cave habitat and how other cave-living critters rely on them for their food. Will Baby Bat finally venture out of the cave to help the other animals?

Activity: Prepare a winter scavenger hunt for your child and friends. They can go on an adventure together and the reward can be a cup of hot coco and talking about their fun adventures of the day.

Habitat Spy – Let’s spy on plants, insects, birds, and mammals in 13 different habitats. Told in rhyming narrative, Habitat Spy invites children to search for and find plants, invertebrates, birds, and mammals and more that live in 13 different habitats: backyard, beach, bog, cave, desert, forest, meadow, mountain, ocean, plains, pond, river, and cypress swamp. Children will spend hours looking for and counting all the different plants and animals while learning about what living things need to survive.

Activity: While running those busy errands this season turn off the radio and play “I Spy” in the car while driving around town.

The Giraffe Who was Afraid of Heights – Imagine if the one thing that keeps you safe is what you fear the most. This enchanting story tells of a giraffe who suffers from the fear of heights. His parents worry about his safety and send him to the village doctor for treatment. Along the way, he befriends a monkey who is afraid of climbing trees and a hippo that is afraid of water. A life-threatening event causes the three friends to face and overcome each of their fears. The “For Creative Minds” section includes fun facts and animal adaptation information, a match-the-feet game and a mix-n-match activity.

Activity: Sending out holiday cards? Help your child make a holiday card thanking their friends for their help and friendship throughout the year.

Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! – Children facing cancer—whether their own, a family member’s, a friend’s, or even a pet’s—will find help in understanding the disease through this book. A young boy discovers his dog’s lump, which is then diagnosed with those dreaded words: “It’s cancer.” The boy becomes a loving caretaker to his dog, who undergoes the same types of treatments and many of the same reactions as a human under similar circumstances (transference). Medical writer and award-winning children’s author, Sherry North artfully weaves the serious subject into an empathetic story that even young children can understand.

Activity: If a good friend is sick and children do not understand Champ’s Story is a great conversation starter. Give your child crayons and a piece of paper help them express their feelings through art.

These and many other fun books and lessons are available for the holidays at www.sylvandellpublishing.com.

As I've been casting about trying to get a sense of the Brooklyn character, turns out the creators of a new book from Brooklyn art publisher powerHouse Books beat me to it. Photographer Seth Kushner and writer Anthony LaSala are the brains behind The Brooklynites, a gorgeous book of photographs, interviews and essays (coming out in October) on the diverse denizens of the best borough. The accompanying photography exhibition will be up at the powerHouse Arena (an amazing combination of "gallery, boutique, book store, performance, and events space" in the DUMBO neighborhood) from September 6 to September 30. Seth and Anthony kindly agreed to a joint email interview for Brooklyn Lit Life, in which they talked about the surprises and rewards of their project and their love for the place they grew up.

Describe your particular literary project, and your role in it.
Why Brooklyn? What made you decide to live/work here, in both practical and emotional terms?

Anthony: I had wanted to work on a long-term project about something I love for a while. Growing up in Brooklyn and living here my whole life (with the exception of four years spent away at college), I have always wanted to explore the borough through writing and photography. I have known Seth since high school (we both went to Abraham Lincoln High School on Ocean Parkway) and when I approached him with the idea, I knew we could really create something special. The design was to capture the words and faces of the people of Brooklyn within the varying neighborhoods of the borough.

Seth: Yeah, it really started with Anthony. I also had been looking for a long-term project to work on for a while, but couldn’t find anything to hold my attention for long enough. So, when Anthony mentioned Brooklyn, I thought, “That’s it.” Of course, I didn’t think it was going to go on for this long. It’s been over three years.

Anthony: We went around to some of our favorite spots in Brooklyn and began meeting people on the street. I would interview them about their experiences living and working in Brooklyn and Seth would photograph them on the spot.

Seth: We devised a system that would allow us to work fast. Anthony had a series of questions that he would ask each time, tailoring them a bit for each individual of course, which would lead them to give him a good quote about their experiences of living in Brooklyn. I would then do the shoot with only a Hasselblad, usually no tripod, and a hand-held flash on a long cord, so it would mimic a more complicated lighting set-up. Anthony always holds the flash and I tell him where to point it. Aside from being the writer on the project, he’s also the human light stand. Anyway, all this serves to help us to work quickly, with a minimum of equipment.

Anthony: Eventually we started making appointments with various people. We were trying to meet with every type of person in every neighborhood of the borough. This led to us meeting some famous people from here – Spike Lee, Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez, Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem, John Turturro, Fischerspooner, etc…. We also covered every major institution in Brooklyn – The Aquarium, B.A.M., Brooklyn College, The Prospect Park Zoo, The Botanic Gardens, Peter Luger’s, Greenwood Cemetery, The Brooklyn Museum, etc


Is there a Brooklyn sensibility or character? How would you describe it? How does it differ from the character of New York City as a whole?

Anthony: There is definitely a Brooklyn sensibilty. That is what we tried to convey with our project. It’s this unique mix of bravado, frankness and sincerity that you really don’t find anywhere else. I felt it was very important to convey the true emotions and stories of each and every subject. With some people it was easy to pull out their feelings about Brooklyn and their tales. With others it was a little tougher. But I think we did a good job of portraying each of our subjects.

Seth: We also did our best to try to cover every type of person, every nationality, every walk of life, in an attempt to show how incredibly diverse Brooklyn really is.

It’s very interesting to us to see what a particular subject is willing to reveal. Some of the most special moments came when we would approach strangers on the street and we wouldn’t know what they were going to say and then they would surprise us by basically spouting poetry. One such time we were in Bed Stuy and an older black gentleman in a suit danced up on us and said, “You know you wanna take my picture.” He was right, because I did. After the shoot, Anthony went into interview mode and asked his name, which was Billy T. Williams, and his age, to which he responded- ““I'm older than cold water and sweeter than salt.”


What about your particular neighborhood? Does it have its own unique character? This can include the kinds of people you tend to find there, particular characters or places that epitomize the neighborhood, etc.

We did begin the project in our own neighborhood, Bay Ridge. We were very interested in capturing it’s unique character, so one of our first subjects, was Dominick, the barber. For years we always passed by this old time barber shop on Third Avenue and thought how great it would be to photograph. Not only was the shop just classic looking, with old barber chairs, bird cages and an old cash register, but the barber always struck us as a great looking Bay Ridge character. He’s an older Italian gentleman, always dressed in doctor’s scrubs and always with a charming smile. So when we conceived of the project, we thought of him immediately.



What do you think of the direction Brooklyn, or at least your neighborhood, is going? What does the future look like in terms of economics, demographics, culture, and other changes?

Anthony: It’s inevitable to not see the huge transformations going on around Brooklyn. From Red Hook to East New York to Canarsie, the whole place is shifting with new immigrants coming in and huge buildings going up in months. It’s amazing. At the same time I think we both gravitated towards a lot of the places and people that have lingered here through all the metamorphosis’ that have taken place through the years. But it’s all exciting – the changes and the things that remain. It all makes this place special.


Is there a Brooklyn literary sensibility? Which writers or works most emblematize Brooklyn for you? Which older writers set the tone? Which contemporary writers are you reading with interest?

Seth: We actually got to met and work with many of our favorite writers - Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Safran Foer Paula Fox and Paul Auster – they all appear in the book. Auster in particular was a “must-have” for us since the beginning. The only problem; he kept turning us down. He was simply too busy, he said, the first three times we contacted him.

Anthony: I even tried tracking him down at a book signing – he said no to the project, but did sign my book

Seth: With the project almost completed, we decided to take one more shot, sending him a letter where we basically pleaded with him by telling him the project “would never be complete without him.”

Anthony: He finally agreed to participate.

Seth: We were nervous entering his Park Slope brownstone on the day of the shoot, because of all the build-up. We didn’t have to be, it turned out, because Auster was gracious and charming. He said our endeavor was a “worthy project.”

Anthony: Meeting him and his wife, author Siri Hustvedt, in their overwhelming beautiful Park Slope home was a highlight for Seth and I. The photograph of him seated in his parlor reveals the architectural beauty inside one of Brooklyn’s famed brownstones as well as the intense eyes behind one of America’s most revered writers.


Why do you think Brooklyn has such a dense population of writers? Is there something particularly literary about Brooklyn? Where and how do people read here?

Anthony: Brooklyn is such an inspiration every single day. Just walking around the block can be stirring. There is always something going on to spur your imagination and your emotions. It’s the perfect place for writers.


What events, series, readings, happenings, places, stores, publications, movements, etc. seem to you currently interesting or important in the Brooklyn literary world?

Seth: I really enjoyed the Brooklyn Book Fest at Borough Hall last year. Anthony and I went for the day and heard some great readings. I think the organizers did a very nice job of bringing Brooklyn’s literary community together and creating an event/forum for everyone, including the readers to be involved. We’re going to be doing a signing there this year and we’re very excited to be a part of it.