FIVE NESTS (1980), Fortieth Anniversary of my First Book

Forty years ago on April 1, 1980, my first book, Five Nests, was published by E. P. Dutton. It was illustrated with beautiful art by Ruth Sanderson. For both of us, it was at the beginning of our long careers. (Ruth already had done a few books, but has since illustrated many more.) I was thrilled to become a published author but I never imagined that I would go on to write more than 100 books, and that I would still be writing and publishing books forty years later. (My new books, which will come out in 2022, will bring my total to more than 170.)
Five Nests is a nonfiction easy-read book about five species of birds, each with a different mode of parenting. With robins, both parents take care of the baby birds. With red-wing blackbirds, only the mother cares for the young. With rheas (South American relatives of the ostrich) the father bird cares for the young of multiple females. With Mexican jays, young birds help their parents care for the baby birds hatched in the following season. And, with cowbirds, the mother lays her eggs in the nests of other species and they raise the baby cowbird when it hatches.
Despite being named an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the CBC/NSTA, Five Nests went out of print quickly. It is almost impossible to find today. Two of Ruth’s beautiful black and white illustrations from the interior of the book, in the collection of the Philadelphia Free Library, can be seen on the internet. Mexican jay eggs. Mexican jays.
In 1980, the majority of children’s nonfiction were published with black and white illustrations. That has all changed, and now almost all books have beautiful full color art, like the painting on the cover of Five Nests. I have always hoped that I might one day see Five Nests republished with new full-color illustrations. The final lines of the book, There are many different ways that birds take care of their babies. Each way is a good way., apply to people too, and are just as relevant today as they were forty years ago.

Author photo on back flap of Five Nests

SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS, Now Available as a Kindle Book

My book, SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. It was originally published by Morrow Junior Books in 1999 and is out of print. The cover has been redesigned but the text and full color photos inside are the same as in the original book. SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS is illustrated with pictures that I obtained through photo research from a variety of sources including my own collection. Many came from my trip to South America with my family, which included a visit to Patagonia where we saw penguins, guanacos, condors and all sorts of other wild animals. I am happy to have SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS now available to new readers as an e-book. You can read it with a Kindle app on various devices (I use my iPad) or on your computer.

"When a jaguar walks the forest floor, other animals get out of the way. This meat eater is the largest predator in South America. It can grow up to eight feet long. Jaguars hunt at night and can see well in the dark. They feed on alligators, tapirs, and other large forest animals."
Jaguars, monkeys, snakes, birds and many more species make their homes in the vast tropical forests of South America. Other animals, such as guanacos and bears, inhabit its craggy mountain peaks, while penguins and sea turtles migrate annually to is windswept coasts. Still other animals, including several varieties of deer and foxes, roam its open grasslands. This book, filled with twenty-five breathtaking photographs, highlights many of the most fascinating animals of South America.