Lisa the Pig Finds A Home a Sanctuary One

The family of Animal Helpers is growing. The second installment Animal Helpers: Sanctuaries is due to hit bookstores later this month, and once again author Jennifer Keats Curtis introduces us to passionate animal caretakers at five sanctuaries.

Sanctuary One is a care farm, which is a working farm that brings people, animals and nature together in a unique therapeutic environment. One special resident is Lisa the pig, at 700 pounds Lisa’s former owners were unable to continue to care for her. She is now a permanent resident a Sanctuary One, and just in time for Valentine’s Day you can watch this love story unfold below.

Caring for Lisa and all the other animals at Sanctuary One is very costly; they will be selling Animal Helpers: Sanctuaries as a fundraiser. Please visit their website to learn more about Sanctuary One.

Animal Helper: Victoria Campbell

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.

Have you ever wondered how desert animals stay clean?

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.

Inspiration

To continue with the theme of how a book begins this week we consulted our experts and interviewed Sylvan Dell authors. What sparks your creativity?

 

“Everything!  I’m a naturally very curious person. In a single day, I can think of hundreds of ideas. For example, if I’m at a stoplight, I begin to wonder, “What if…. or Why?”  For example:

What if the car next to me suddenly disappeared?

Why are stoplights red/yellow/green?  Who first decided that?

What if it started to rain so hard that I couldn’t drive home?

I encourage parents to take advantage of time spent in a car with their children and try asking them “What if….” They might create a story before they even get home!” – Terri Fields

Terri Fields is the author of the August release The Most Dangerous as well as Burro’s Tortillas for Sylvan Dell.  A long-time teacher and award-winning author of books for all ages click here to learn more about Terri Fields.

 

 

“I am most creative in the morning – often very early – before my house wakes up.  Hot chocolate mixed with coffee in my favorite mug (given to me by my oldest daughter that reads, “Actually, I Am the Boss of You”) helps me be imaginative as does a cloudy day (versus a sunny day because then I want to be outside doing stuff!). I work through story lines and ideas when I’m in the woods or on the beach alone every day.  When I return to my computer, I’m ready to write.” – Carrie A. Pearson

A Warm Winter Tail due to hit shelves in August is Carrie’s first book for Sylvan Dell to. Carrie is an avid writer of nonfiction for Michigan Magazines, and winner of the SCBWI-Michigan Picture Book Mentorship Award. To learn more about Carrie A. Pearson click here.

 

“Listening to music that tells a story or delivers an emotion is what stirs my creativity. But when it’s time to write, I need to turn off the music so that I don’t hear anyone else’s words but my own!” – Kelly Kizer Whitt

Kelly Kizer Whitt’s first book for Sylvan Dell is Solar System Forecast due out in August. Read more of Kelly’s work in her online blogs about astronomy for Astronomy Today, Suite 101 and The Sierra Club. Click here to find more information about Kelly Kizer Whitt and Solar System Forecast.

 

Thanks to our authors for a look at what inspired their upcoming books!

Summer Reading Rewards

The Sylvan Dell offices are buzzing with excitement today! June kicks off Summer Reading. We are offering two free movie tickets with the purchase of an eLibrary, and rewarding reading by giving away prizes each week.

Over the course of the next two months go on a road trip with Sylvan Dell from the depths of the ocean then blast into outer space. Every two weeks we will be featuring a new free eBook. For the first two weeks, we are offering Animals are Sleeping for the new reader, and in coordination with the American Library Association theme of the month. Then explore the ocean with Ocean Hide and Seek, seek out where animals live in Habitat Spy, climb into the clouds with A Day on the Mountain and finally blast into space with Solar System Forecast, a Sylvan Dell new release.

With this exciting news, we have also developed a new Sylvan Dell iPad app available for purchase in the iTunes store. Now you can read your favorite Sylvan Dell books on the go. Just like our website the iPad app has auto-flip features audio available in English and Spanish as well as access to our quizzes and For Creative Minds sections.

As you know at Sylvan Dell, we are committed to make learning adventurous, especially when nature is in full bloom. To prevent the “summer-slide” make reading fun with activities, and keep checking with Sylvan Dell for great rewards throughout the summer.  Click here and send us a short story about which Sylvan Dell books is your favorite and what makes this books so special. You will win three of Sylvan Dell’s latest books.

Meet the Planets Receives a Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family!

Meet the Planets, a spring 2012 release from Sylvan Dell Publishing, has just received a Learning Magazine Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family!

Teachers’ Choice Awards have been a part of Learning Magazine since 1994. Since that time, the program has grown to become one of the most recognized and prestigious awards in the educational market. The Teachers’ Choice Awards for the Family is the only awards program that requires panelists to be both teachers and parents. The winners will receive a spotlight in the magazine’s Children’s Book Award section, as well as a seal distinguishing them as a Children’s Books winner.

John McGranaghan has always been fascinated by outer space and he shares that fascination in a humorous and educational way through Meet the Planets and Saturn for My Birthday. John has also written stories and articles for Boys’ Quest Magazine, Pockets Magazine, Columbia Magazine, and local newspapers. He is winner of the 2001 Pockets Fiction Contest. When John isn’t writing, he enjoys sports and spending time with his wife and two boys. John is a school counselor in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Klein has been a freelance artist for nearly 20 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. In addition to the Furs and Feathers, Klein also illustrated Meet the Planets, Where Should Turtle Be?, Little Skink’s Tail, and If a Dolphin Were a Fish for Sylvan Dell Publishing. Her other books include The Out to Pasture series, authored by Effie Wilder.  This is the second Teachers’ Choice Award this year for Laurie.  She previously won the Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom for Fur and Feathers in October.

Soar into the Solar System to witness the first Favorite Planet Competition, emceed by none other than the former-ninth planet, now known as dwarf planet Pluto. The readers become the judges after the sun can’t pick a favorite and the meteors leave for a shower. Who will the lucky winning planet be? Could it be speedy-messenger Mercury, light-on-his-feet Saturn, or smoking-hot Venus? Readers learn all about each planet as Pluto announces them with short, tongue-in-cheek facts. Children will spend hours searching the art in Meet the Planets for all the references to famous scientists and people of history, space technology, constellations, art, and classic literature.

Eureka! Multiply on the Fly is a Winner!

Multiply on the Fly written by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Erin E. Hunter is a California Reading Association’s “Eureka! Silver Honor Book Winner” for 2011.

 The California Reading Association is a non-profit professional organization of educators devoted to the use of “standards-aligned instruction” and “research-based teaching strategies” in all aspects of reading and language arts education from the kindergarten level through college. The “Eureka! Children’s Book Award” was created to identify outstanding nonfiction books for children. Winners of this and other awards can be viewed in their journal, The California Reader or on their website, www.californiareads.org.

 Multiply on the Fly follows the arithmetic feel of Suzanne Slade’s What’s New at the Zoo? and What’s the Difference?. In this book children discover the world’s insects: from pirate bugs to Luna moths, while simultaneously learning multiplication. Teeming with fun facts, readers will multiply a variety of insects, including dragonflies, hungry honeybees and stealthy walking sticks.

 Suzanne Slade is the award-winning author of over 80 books for children. Her works include picture books, biographies, as well as many non-fiction titles about animals, sports, and nature. Slade has also written Animals are Sleeping and The Great Divide (which follows the series into division) for Sylvan Dell. One of her favorite parts of the writing process is researching and learning new things. Slade lives near Chicago with her husband Mike, two children, and their tiny dog Corduroy. For more information on Slade, you can visit her website at www.suzanneslade.com

 Erin E. Hunter is both a children’s book and scientific illustrator, specializing in entomological and botanical illustration. She has taught botanical illustration and field sketching at University of California at Santa Cruz, and has even drawn insects under a microscope for the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. She illustrated the fourth book in Slade’s arithmetic series; The Great Divide, as well as Sylvan Dell’s A Day on the Mountain.  Hunter lives with her husband on California’s Monterey Peninsula where she tends to flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables in her yard when she’s not sketching and painting. Hunter’s website is www.eehunter.com.

 Check out more on Multiply on the Fly via the book’s homepage on our website.  Congrats to all!

Let’s Toot the Horn of our Award-Winning Author, Donna Love!

Author Donna Love has become a USA Best Book Awards Finalist for her latest picture book, The Glaciers are Melting!

USABookNews.com is an online publicaion that provides coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the online community of the world.  JPX Media Group, in Los Angeles, California, is the parent company of USABookNews.com.

Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of USA Book News, said that this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to over 500 winners and finalists. 

This is now the ninth year that these awards have been distributed.  Keen says, “The 2011 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States.  With a full publicity and marketing campaign promoting the results of the USA ‘Best Books’ Awards, this year’s winners and finalists will gain additional media coverage for the upcoming holiday retail season.”

The Glaciers are Melting! deals with the story of Peter Pika, who is certain that the glaciers are melting after a drop of water falls on his head.  He decides to go speak to the Mountain Monarch about it.  Joined along the way by friends Tammy Ptarmigan, Sally Squirrel, Mandy Marmot, and Harry Hare, they all wonder what will happen to them if the glaciers melt.  Where will they live, how will they survive?  When Wiley Wolverine tries to trick them, can the Mountain Monarch save them?  More importantly, can the Mountain Monarch stop the glaciers from melting?

Donna Love is an award-winning author whose husband is a district ranger on the Lolo National Forest.  Two of their three children are now in college.  In addition to The Glaciers are Melting!, Donna’s other books include Henry the Impatient Heron, Loons, Diving Birds of the North, and Awesome Ospreys, Fishing Birds of the World. Awesome Ospreys became a Skipping Stones Press Honor Award Winner in 2006, for promoting ecological understanding and cooperation around the world. With a background in art education, Donna substitute teaches at the elementary and high school level. Throughout her years as a substitute and while raising her own children, she found she had a gift for explaining nature to children. She and her husband have three grown children and one grandchild.

If you are interested in learning more information about Love visit her website at www.donnalove.com. Check out more one her book, The Glaciers are Melting! through our homepage.

Deep in the Desert Wins Silver Moonbeam Award

Deep in the Desert has just received a silver Moonbeam award!

The Moonbeam Awards are 100% dedicated to identifying the best children’s books published each year for the North American market. The Moonbeam Awards are one of the fastest growing U.S.-based award contests focused on children’s books. Award-winners appear for an entire year at http://www.moonbeamawards.com. Winners will also be featured in http://www.IndependentPublisher.com and highlighted prominently in their monthly newsletter, which goes out to more than 8,000 subscribers worldwide, many of whom are agents, buyers, and librarians.

Catchy desert twists on traditional children’s songs and poems will have children chiming in about cactuses, camels, and more as they learn about the desert habitat and its flora and fauna. Tarkawara hops on the desert sand instead of a kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree. And teapots aren’t the only things that are short and stout—just look at the javelina’s hooves and snout. Travel the world’s deserts to dig with meerkats, fly with bats, and hiss with Gila monsters! Whether sung or read aloud, Deep in the Desert makes learning about deserts anything but dry. Learn more by visiting www.SylvanDellPublishing.com

Rhonda Lucas Donald has written more than a dozen books for children and teachers including her most recent titles: Animal Rights: How You Can Make a Difference and Life on Other Planets. In addition, she has won awards for articles and stories appearing in Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard magazines. Rhonda specializes in writing about science, and especially likes to write about animals and space. She fell in love with science as a kid, and read every dinosaur book in school library. Weaving science into verses and songs is her way of making it fun. Rhonda shares her Virginia home with husband Bruce, dogs Maggie and Lily, and her very dignified cats, Darwin and Huxley. Visit her website at www.BrownTabby.com

Sherry Neidigh, a graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design, has been freelasnce illustrating for over twelve years. Sherry’s love of animals and nature comes through in her bright, colorful art. In addition to illustrating Count Down to Fall (Fall 2009) and The Best Nest for Sylvan Dell, Sherry has illustrated several trade and education titles including Who Needs That Nose?, If I Had a Tail, and Black and White.  Sherry lives in South Carolina. Visit Sherry’s website at www.SherryNeidigh.com

Hurricane Teaching Activities

As the hurricane season keeps blowing, take advantage of the great hurricane resources on the Sylvan Dell website! Play a hurricane crossword puzzle, learn hurricane vocabulary, and all about how to prepare for a hurricane.  Check out the hurricane activities here, or visit the Ready, Set…WAIT! book homepage on our website.

Ready, Set…WAIT!

Hurricane . . . just the word brings to mind the power of these natural disasters. Humans watch the news and know of impending arrival. We board up windows and gather supplies. We might huddle in our homes or go inland. Then we wait for the storm to arrive. But what do wild animals do? Do they know when a storm is coming? If so, how do they prepare? This book explains how nine animals sense, react, and prepare for a hurricane. Based on research or observations, the brief portraits are explained in simple, poetic language for children of all ages.