Picture books are my first love, and I'm thrilled the Chronicle books picked my manuscript, Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack, Quack, out of their "slush" pile. I am also delighted that award-winning illustrator Sylvia Long brought it to life so wonderfully with her beautiful watercolor and pen and ink illustrations.
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| Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack, Quack, illustrated by Sylvia Long, Chronicle Books 2005. |
Other editions: Scholastic Book Clubs paperback edition with CD 2006
Korean translation with CD, Hansol Education Co. 2007
Commendations:
San Jose Mercury News recommended Gift of Reading program book 2005
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Book List 2006
From The New York Times Book Review: "…a simple nature walk, charmingly conveyed."
For more reviews, click HERE.
How I Decided to Write Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack, Quack
Birds intrigue me, especially shore birds, and watching ducks up close at the San Francisco Baylands was great inspiration. When I sat down to write, I found it nature to imagine being a little duckling, which is what I did when I wrote this story.
Poetry
I'm currently working on two nature-based poem collections that have a nonfiction component, so they can be easily used in the classroom.
Spider Poem Collection
A fun fact accompanies a related haiku, acrostic, and free verse poem for each of 11 spiders.
Here's an excerpt:
Spitting Spider
Fun fact: These spiders don't spin webs--they trap prey by spitting a gluey venom.
Then, like all spiders, they turn their prey into liquid and slurp it up!
S ticky venom spew--
P erfect
I nsect
T rap
Merry Meal
Out to find a breakfast bite
Spider spots her prey--
Unsuspecting cricket
Along its merry way.
Quick! A batch of catch-it-all--
Glue and venom mix.
Out her fangs she shoots--ptooo!
Deadly gum that sticks!
All wrapped up in zigzag strips,
Cricket must just stay.
Spitting spider slurps it up--
A merry meal today.
Seahorse Poem Collection
Each poem highlights an aspect of seahorse life--mating behavior, appearance, habitat--and is accompanied by a related fun fact.
Here's an excerpt:
Babies!
More babies!
Tons of babies!
Daddy seahorse giving birth—
out his pouch they float.Teeny tiny babies,
miniature seahorses
filling the sea
like snowflakes
in an underwater
blizzard,
each one unique.
A few will survive,
and tomorrow
daddy seahorse’s pouch
will be full again, with--
Babies!
More babies!
Tons of babies!
Fun fact: Male seahorses give birth to 100 to 300 babies at once on average (and sometimes up to 1,500!) from a pouch in their front sides. On average, only 2 out of the thousands of babies from one seahorse mom and dad pair survive to adulthood.
