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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.

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Over on the Farm cover

So they swished with their tails at the pesky bumblebee

"Waddle," said the mother.

In a muddy pig pen lived a huge mother pig and her little piglets ten.

 It's always fun to get the first look at pdfs from a book I illustrated after the designer has finessed the layout with type and design. It's also fun to work on a book for very little kids that rhymes, can be sung, is a counting book and has a surprise rooster ending. This will be the fourth book Marianne Berkes and I have done together and my fourth book for Dawn Publishing as well. Over on the Farm comes out spring 2016. I'm working on a second book that will come out the exact same day, so I'll be posting some images for that one in a bit. Now back to work for me.

Thanks for taking a look!

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I was delighted to receive this new edition in the mail from the publisher Dawn Publications. What a joy to see that children all over the world are reading and learning about alligators and other swamp creatures in The Swamp Where Gator Hides written by Marianne Berkes. This book is available on Amazon. 

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How far to the top? 1,760 yards or one mile!

No Henry, you really don't have time to play, but you never did listen to me...

5,280 feet is the same as one mile. I already knew that because Denver is the Mile Hi City.

Click on the images for a larger view. And as always, thanks for taking a look!

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2014 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards Results are in and Picture Book – 4-8 Year Old – SILVER Award goes to: The Swamp Where Gator Hides, by Marianne Berkes; illustrated by Roberta Baird (Dawn Publications)

This book was a joy to work on. I now know more about gators that I ever dreamed I would.

Beautiful creatures really!

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The Swamp Where Gator Hides written by Marianne Berkes and illustrated by me, Roberta Baird is now an app!! Click here to download it at 20% off!  Dawn Publications Book App

Preview it now!

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Under the algae that carpets the swamp, near the duck who paddles in ooze, close to the turtle who takes a snooze . . . hides a gator! Still as a log, only his watchful eyes can be seen. But when gator moves, he really moves! What happens to the duck, the turtle, the egret, the deer, and the many other critters of the swamp when gator makes his move!

A great time was had with the kids at The Lighthouse! We learned about the plants and the animals that inhabit the Everglades and studied the layers of swamp water that enables gators and other animals the ability to hide. What a great time we had!

“Here’s a fun tale that introduces young readers to concepts of camouflage and predator-prey interactions. And kids will love searching for the hidden alligator in the beautiful illustrations.”

–Annie Oxarart, Board Member, League of Environmental Educators in Florida                           Available HERE

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Welcome to my latest children's book giveaway!  To celebrate the release of my 2 latest books, "Desert Baths" and "The Tree That Bear Climbed", I am having a fun coloring contest.  This time I am giving away 4 of my children's books, published by Sylvan Dell Publishing!

The books include "Desert Baths", "The Tree That Bear Climbed", "Prairie Storms", and the award-winning "Champ's Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too!".

Here are the rules:

1. Choose ONE of the coloring pages in this post to download and color.  You may color it or have a child color it.  Crayons are fun, but you can also use glitter, paint, etc.  Use your imagination!

2. POST your finished coloring page on your blog, Facebook, Flickr or Instagram, with a LINK back to my blog.  Then leave me a comment here with the link to YOUR coloring page so we can all see your lovely masterpiece.  (You must do this step in order to qualify.)

3. You have until midnight Central Time Zone on Friday, October 12th, 2012 to post your coloring page link as a comment.

4. The winner will be drawn RANDOMLY from all entrants, and their name will be posted on my blog on Monday, October 15th, 2012. (Please be sure I have a way to contact you via email.)

5. This contest is open to residents of the continental US only.

Here are the coloring pages.  Choose one:

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My daughter, Andrea Brown produced this book trailer for Animalogy: Animal Analogies and I think she did a great job. The author, Marianne Berkes is one of my favorite writers today so I was excited to be teamed up with her for this book. Marianne's a retired teacher and librarian who has turned her love of nature and teaching into writing. She uses rhyming analogies about animals to give kids a different way to see how animals are related. . . bat is to flit as eagle is to soar; dog is to bark as lion is to roar. Comparisons include sounds, physical adaptations, behaviors, animals classes and are so fun, readers learn without even realizing it. Animals are to nature, as Animalogy is to fun!

Thanks for taking a look.
Cathy

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As the holiday season approaches many folks will be traveling.
I've been helping teachers, parents and kids find audio books "for the road" recently.

As a public service, it has occurred to me that we might compile some suggestions for good listens in the car or on planes or trains.
Personally, I have found audio books very motivating to get me out walking more frequently.



I like a narrator whose performance or personae does not get in the way of the story. I found Brendan Fraser's narration of Cornelia Funke's Dragon Rider almost too distracting at first because I kept hearing "Brendan Fraser" instead of the story. I knew Funke had envisioned him as Mo in Inkheart so I was interested to see if he could really bring the story to life. I did enjoy the book after a while but felt he was pushing a bit hard on the character's voices. I have not heard any of his subsequent reads. I imagine there is a learning curve.


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Jim Dale's sublime readings of JKRowling's Harry Potter books are the gold standard of audiobook-dom. Yes, I've read them but I found listening to them has highlighted new details and brought the books to life in a whole new way. Dale's performance sets the bar for charicterization and originality.


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Anything read by Allan Corduner.
Corduner read Book one of Septimus Heap series, Magyk with such style and aplomb that I rushed to get the next book in audio form. I was disappointed to discover that Corduner did not read the other books in the series and I could not settle in to the second book at all until some time had passed.



I had been planning to read The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix so when I saw Corduner read them I was thrilled. Mister Monday was excellent. I have book 2 on the old mp3 player now.


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The Joey Pigza books by Jack Gantos, read by the author are hilarious, poignant, touching, scream-out-loud funny. I hope you saw 7 Imp's excellent interview with Gantos during the Winter Blog Blast Tour.

I do not think anybody else but Gantos can read his books. I have still been unable to listen to Love Curse of the Rumbaughs because he did not read it. I think I recall the rep at FSG telling me that he had not initially wanted to let another person narrate. They should have listened to him.


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Sometimes I just know that I will never get around to reading a book. Carl Hiassen's Hoot was on my "want to read" list but it just never seemed to make it to the top of the pile. I was very happy to find the audiobook and Chad Lowe does an outstanding job of bringing the story to life.


More to come... I'd like your suggestions too.

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Additional audiobooks:



Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo by Greg Leitich Smith is an excellent audiobook. The narrators who read Elias, Shohei and Honoria are spot on. Their performances are so good but Recorded Books DOES NOT CREDIT THEM by name anywhere on the jacket or box. Unbelievable.

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