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“Shannon-sama! Did you see? Sassi the Butterfly Lady’s site is back! Their comic is updating again!”

“That’s the comic about the land of dreams isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and Sassi brought one of her stuffed animals to life with her magical rose wand! His name is Geezmo.”

“That’s so cute.”

“Heh, maybe we should try that wand on Hikousen. It might wake him up for a few minutes.”

“zzzzzzz….”

“Heheee… Hikousen’s our guard kitty.”

“We used to have a link to Sassi’s comic on our other site. I added a new one to our Fun Place to Visit List It’s called Enchanted Dreams now.”

“That’s win. If she’s got magical powers and she’s fighting the bad guys, hey, she’s part of the sisterhood.”

“Yay! I like her comic ’cause of the butterflies. Everyone go see! It’s one of the best comics and we can’t wait for the next update! Ja minna!”

Having a multicultural background can be a kind of disability for kids. Thus PaperTigers focuses on children’s books in English that, through their multicultural perspectives, are liberating and informative for children of all cultures. But kids with disabilities, whether otherwise multicultural or not, often feel like they’re from another country, if not planet. It’s natural, say the people at Bookbird, to link “the representation of disabled people with multiculturalism and the issue of bias-free books.”

Today’s tour of resources for children’s books about disabilities begins in New Zealand, where the wonderful website Storylines has an extensive annotated list of books for and about children with disabilities, from blindness to paralysis to Asperger’s.

An annotated list of children’s books about special needs is here, and here’s an excellent Amazon list of best children’s books on disabilities. An old (2001) but comprehensive list of books, organized by disability and followed by a list of publishers, with contact info and links, comes from the U.S.-based National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. The American Library Association presents the Schneider Awards, honoring authors or illustrators for a book that “embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.” Click here for current winners.

PaperTigers has more personal perspectives: Suzanne Gervay discusses her book, Butterflies (scroll down here for a mini-review), about a girl growing up with severe burns. Author Ann Bowler talks about her own learning disability. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian, about a kid with multiple disabilities who’s negotiating multiple cultures as well, is reviewed here.

In Australia, I had the opportunity to meet a phenomenal woman who helps children who can’t speak to communicate in other ways. While not for kids, Rosemary Crossley’s book Speechless, about her work with children, offers insight and inspiration for us all, whatever our culture or disability.

The 1970’s marked the coming of age for Australian children’s literature, says YA writer Susanne Gervay. “There was a new breed of children’s authors and illustrators reflecting a confidence in an Australian identity and its landscape in all its diversity.” Contributing to the subsequent explosion of “best selling wickedly irreverent kids’ books” was the writers’ use of quirky Australian humor.

Among the writers of those “innovative, brazenly Australian” early books for children, Gervay cites Di Bates, a prolific writer who is still a bundle of energy. Bates produces a fortnightly online newsletter, Buzz Words, with industry news for writers, editors, illustrators and librarians. Subscribers also receive Books Buzz, a monthly compendium of reviews of new books by Australian children’s writers. Alliteration-loving Bates’ latest books are Big Bad Bruce and The Hold-Up Heroes.

Gervay’s own recent innovations in children’s literature are cross-media and inter-generational collaborations. After publishing frank and open YA books treating disability (Butterflies) and bullying (I Am Jack), her most recent book, That’s Why I Wrote This Song, was inspired by her rock musician daughter Tory’s lyrics and tune. Tory and Susanne now do speaking gigs together, and Susanne’s website features links to MySpace and YouTube. Her expertise on Cutting Edge YA Literature was featured in the July PaperTigers update. And here’s Aline’s recent blog post, with more details on Gervay’s cross-media innovations.

“Z-bot to Hana. This is a Gamepowa Video Alert. Transmitting now.”

“Outstanding, Z-bot. Continue sensor sweeps. Hana out.”

“Whoa, Z-bot! What’s up?”

“Yay! It’s Z-bot! It’s Z-bot!”

“I have instructions from Commander Acey to notify LadyStar personnel. We have a Gamepowa Video Alert. Data has already been transmitted to the Hana.”

“What is a Gamepowa video alert?”

“It has butterflies! Let’s go see!”

Two more miles through the woods...seven more mosquito bites...and Mystery Writer remains a mystery. 

The boys were off getting haircuts this weekend, so E and I decided to take the little black nature journal on another hike.  This time, we checked out Silver Lake Bog, a beautiful trail that starts with a half-mile boardwalk stroll before climbing through the woods to a bluff overlooking Silver Lake.


For a couple weeks now, we've been trying to track down the owner of a beautifully sketched and written nature journal that a student's father found by the side of  a hiking trail.  It chronicles seven years of Adirondack hikes and includes the names of every bird and wildflower spotted along the trails, but no name of an owner.  Last week, we checked the log book at Poke-o-Moonshine mountain to see if we could figure out who hiked there on the date noted in the journal, but the log book didn't go back that far.  We ran into the same problem at Silver Lake Bog this weekend.  The first entry in the book is from just over a month ago.



We didn't find our Mystery Writer, but here's what we did find:

Many, many lovely bunchberry plants,



A pitcher plant (Did you know that this is a meat-eating plant?  Doesn't it look alien?)




A White Admiral butterfly,



A friendly toad, and a tiny garter snake, no bigger than a Number 2 pencil, who slithered under a log before we could snap his picture.



We enjoyed some writing time up on the bluff, so close to all the things Mystery Writer loved, but no closer to knowing her name.



We'll hike again next week, but I'm afraid we'll run into the same problem -- log books that have been replaced since Mystery Writer's last visit.  Where are the old ones?? 

This afternoon, I called DEC headquarters, where a woman told me that I should check with Chris.  Chris might have them, over in Lands and Forests.  She transferred me to his voice mail.  He's out of the office until June 25th. 

Part of me is glad.  I am loving the sunshine, the warm rocks, the leaves under my feet.  Besides, nothing ruins a good mystery like having it solved too soon.

We searched for butterflies at the "butterfly garden" at the Farbach Werner park, with little success, but had a nice time walking along the trail amid the trees.

Well, at least I did get a photo of these two "butterflies."

Who ever heard of butterflies with attitude!

Thanks to Writtenwyrd's blog, I learned that I had missed some recent American news: the disappearance of honey bees.

NYTreports in February 2007 that honey bees across North America have been dying off in droves, or just missing in action and not returning to the hive, affecting not only production of honey, but all things bee-related including agriculture, like the fruit and nut crops. The phenomenon has been labeled "colony collapse disorder" or CCD.

CCD has honey bee "farmers" in a dither and the worry is spreading. According to this YahooArticle , our whole lifestyle, table of plenty, FOOD is in jeopardy by the problems facing honeybees. New Zealand reported fears about CCD spreading to their shores, and Australia had a bit of a panic upon finding a nest of Asian honeybees (known to carry a problematic mite that might be causing the CCD) in the mast of ship in Cairns harbor, Queensland. ABCNews

Then in April, a prominent scientist released his report closing in on a fungus found to have affected Asian bees and discovered in the corpses of American bees. JoeDiRisi'sDiscovery But not all scientists agree this is the sole cause of CCD.

THE BEST ARTICLE is this from Guerilla News Network. And the answers don't seem simple, but of course, at least some of the the problem's cause seems to lie with humans.


So now what I really want to know is where are all the yellow sulphur butterflies in Saipan? We used to have so many, and they flocked across Chalan Monsignieur in droves so that I thought of getting a bumper sticker that read "I brake for butterflies." Now I've seen a few this year, but usually in groups of two or three, not the twenty or more that was common.

Can someone educate me? Are they disappearing due to habitat loss (my suspicion) or something else?