Save the…Rhinoceroses
Have I mentioned that Save the…Rhinoceroses is on sale? Can’t remember if I gave this one a shout-out on its pub date!
And did you know that a contented rhino makes a sound like mmm-wonk? This is my favorite rhino fact.
(I lobbied for “rhinos” instead of “rhinoceroses” in the title but got overruled by somebody at the publisher. Shame. Once you start saying “rhinoceroses” it’s really, really hard to stop.)
Manticore
Working hard on revisions for The Griffin’s Boy…so will just share one fun legendary creature: the manticore. Body of a lion, head of a human, said to devour its victims completely and leave not even a bone behind.
Read MoreWood Frog
I’ve been preparing a presentation for a school about nonfiction writing, based on Save the…Frogs! and it occurred to me that I have not yet posted about the wood frog.
Such a simple name, such an unassuming appearance–but this frog is amazing. It lives north of the Arctic circle and in the winter it freezes. It’s a frog-shaped lump of ice. In the spring it thaws out and hops back to a perfectly normal form of life.
How can it survive being frozen? Turns out one reason freezing is so deadly is that ice expands. Freezing a living being means that when water inside the cells freezes, it ruptures the cell’s membranes.
But the wood frog can replace most of its internal water with glucose. Glucose does not expand when frozen. So the frog freezes, thaws, and lives.
Frogs really are incredible.
Happy Pub Day, Save the…Rhinos!
Delighted to announce that Save the…Rhinos! is now available. Each of the books in these nonfiction series has an intro by Chelsea Clinton and is full of fabulous animal facts and true stories of conservation success.
The best rhino fact–a contented rhino (lots of grass, plenty of warm sun, no other bothersome rhinos around) makes a noise like this: mmmmmwonk.
May your day be full of mmmmmmwonk!
Sarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews