Perfect Picture Book Friday: LIZARD INVASION

Posted on August 15, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends. I always love featuring books that entertain and educate…and when they are written by dear kid lit folks I have met in person, that makes it even more enjoyable! Author Marta Magellan and I met at NCTE in Boston last November…and it was wonderful! And so, when I discovered that one of her books has been updated, I knew I’d want to share it with you. PLUS, Marta stopped by to share the story behind the story.

Written by Marta Magellan

Illustrated by Mauro Magellan

Published by Eifrig (Update printing September 15, 2025

Ages: 5 and up

Themes: Lizards, Animal Habitat, STEM

Why I Love This Book:
1. I love books that entertain and educate – books that spark a child’s interest and get them to want to know more!
2. I love books that can be enjoyed at home as well as used in the classroom!
3. I love books that provide young readers with great illustrations and photos!

And now the promised treat…a visit from author Marta.
Welcome, my friend! Thank you for stopping by to chat with us. Can you tell us a little bit about the book…and how it came to be?

MARTA: Thank you so much, Vivian. I’m so happy to visit Picture Books Help Kids Soar.
Synopsis:
The little green lizard called the Carolina or green anole is the only native anole in the United States, and it is in trouble. An invasion of lizards from other countries is taking their territory, eating their eggs, even eating them. Green anoles are important to gardens and forests because they are unintentional pollinators. As they search for insects to eat, they spread pollen and help plants grow. Green anoles belong here, but the invading lizards moving into Florida from other areas are more aggressive. Will the little green anole survive?

How I came to write the book:

For some reason, I love watching lizards. I even had several lizards for pets until I decided wild animals belong in the wild. Back in 2009, I wrote a book titled Those Lively Lizards for Pineapple Press, a Florida regional publishing house. A librarian in the north of Florida found it on her stack and suggested it be used for a summer workshop called Nature Detectives, sponsored by the St. Augustine Garden Club. They invited me to present the book. The St. Augustine Garden Club gave each child a plant, and they were willing to buy the kids who attended a book, too. Those Lively Lizards was about all types of lizards from anoles to Komodo dragons, and my presentation had nothing to do with pollination (which is what they wanted). So my book just wasn’t quite right for them (I had heard that before–the story of my writing life–“it’s not the right fit for us” LOL).

Five years later, the director of the program wrote to me again. She wanted a book solely on anoles, the small kinds that unintentionally pollinate plants, and she asked me to recommend one. I could not find any still in print. A small independent publisher, Eifrig Publishing (a PAL publisher with SCBWI), had just published my picture book, The Nutty Little Vulture, which my brother, Mauro Magellan had illustrated. I proposed a book about anoles to Penny Eifrig, and she said she would publish it with a caveat “…if Mauro illustrates it.” Anole Invasion was published in 2019. Since then, every book but one that I wrote for Eifrig Publishing has been illustrated by Mauro (interspersed with photographs). Together we have created several books about pollinators, and the garden club always uses them for their Nature Detectives workshops. He also illustrated one we wrote for Pineapple Press, Python Catchers, Saving the Everglades, about the Burmese python invasion.

Why an update?

Five years after using Anole Invasion in the St. Johns County libraries, the director of the Nature Detectives workshops, Cathy Snyder, wrote that she wanted to use it again (they usually bought from 200-250 copies). In those short few years, Florida has been overrun with nonnative reptiles. You might have heard about the Burmese pythons that invaded the Everglades, but all kinds of reptiles now call Florida home. Because Eifrig is a small publisher, she had run out of copies of the original, so she agreed to update the book when Cathy Snyder suggested it. The person listed as Science Editor, Kirsten Hines, is a herpetologist, who is environmentally focused, and she once again vetted the manuscript. We changed the title to Lizard Invasion because now all kinds of lizards are invading the little native lizard’s territory, not just anoles. My brother also redesigned the cover to be bolder and cleaner, and the publisher listed it and got a new ISBN number. Those leaves are design elements; I don’t think Mauro illustrated them. He illustrated the lizards on page 4, 10, 15, 19, 20, 23, and the cover. I am attaching a photo of both of us if you need it.

Other information:

The only one of the Eifrig books Mauro did not illustrate was Amazing, Misunderstood Bats, which sold to schools and even to use as a mentor text in an education class at Columbia University. Although Eifrig Publishing is a very small publisher, it has been delightful writing for Penny Eifrig. I love presenting the pollinator books to children all over Florida, and especially to the Nature Detectives workshops. The kids enjoy getting a new book, signed by the author and a plant to boot. It’s a great program.

Bios:

Author Marta Magellan and Illustrator Mauro Magellan are a brother and sister team who have collaborated on picture books focused on conservation and wildlife. Almost all their books have won honors from Eureka! Nonfiction Award, Green Earth Book Award, Florida Book Award Bronze, Crystal Kite and more. Marta spent most of her career teaching English Composition, Creative Writing and as advisor to the literary magazine at Miami Dade College. Now she writes full time. Mauro is a songwriter as well as an author, illustrator, and drummer with the band Dan Baird and Homemade Sin.

Lizard Invasion will be in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble September 15. It is also available in print in advance on the Eifrig website from June 15.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lizard-Invasion-Floridas-Little-Survival/dp/1632334062/ (until Sept. 14, Kindle only)

Amazon link for the paperback updated version which should be available Septembeer 15.

Eifrig Publishing: https://www.eifrigpublishing.com/products/anole-invasion

Thank you all for spending your precious time with us. If you love the books that are featured here, I hope you will help them become successful. You can:
Buy the book
Review the book
Tell friends about the book (Please share this post on social media)
Ask your local library to purchase copies for their collection.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Perfect Picture Book Friday AND Book Birthday: THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES Plus Giveaway

Posted on August 1, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Well, dear friends, this is a very special post!!! It’s a double your pleasure/double your fun because it’s a Happy Book Birthday for this book…PLUS, it’s a Perfect Picture Book Friday also!!!

THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES

Written by Stephanie Gibeault

Illustrated by David Hohn

Published by Sleeping Bear Press (August 1, 2025)

Why I Love This Book:
1. I love stories that are inspired by true events!
2. I love stories where the text engages young readers…and encourages them to get in touch with protecting our planet!
3. I love stories that have glorious illustrations!

This Perfect Picture Book Friday/Book Birthday post includes quite a bit from author Stephanie Gibeault…I’m grateful to her for stopping by to chat and share.

ME: Hello Stephanie! Thank you so much for giving us your time…and for the generous giveaway of a copy of THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES…and for telling us about this fabulous new book of yours. Can you tell us what the book is about…and how you came to write it…and how we can get a copy of our own?

STEPHANIE:
Thank you so much for having me, Vivian. It’s always a pleasure to stop by your blog.
Summary of book:
Cybil Preston needs a dog. But not just any dog. She needs a dog to help her with her
work. Cybil is a beehive inspector who works to ensure the health of commercial
beehives in Maryland. Hundreds of hives are shipped across the country as farmers
need bees to pollinate their crops. Without the bees, there wouldn’t be foods like apples,
almonds, and strawberries. But the bees must be healthy to be shipped, and there’s a
deadly disease, foulbrood, that is highly contagious. If even one infected hive left the
state, entire bee populations could be wiped out. Dogs, with their ultrasensitive sense of
smell, can sniff out even the tiniest scent of foulbrood in a hive. A well-trained, focused
detection dog can inspect 50 hives in 10 minutes. Work that would take Cybil an entire
day to do. When Cybil meets Mack, an unruly and lonely dog, she wonders if she has
found her canine colleague. Can rambunctious Mack be trained to meet this important
challenge? Readers of all ages will enjoy this warmly illustrated true story of Cybil and
Mack as they work to save the bees.

Inspiration:
Thank you, Vivian, for celebrating The Dog Who Saved the Bees with me! This is a
book of my heart, so I’m overjoyed to see it out in the world. And David Hohn’s
illustrations are incredible. The first time I saw them, I cried.
The path to publication for this story started in 2018 when I first met Cybil Preston, the
apiary inspector in the book. I interviewed her about her sniffer dog Mack for an article I
wrote for the American Kennel Club. After I sent the article in, I couldn’t stop thinking
about Cybil and Mack’s story. Before she rescued him, Mack was living all alone in a
garage. He was untrained and unruly, but Cybil couldn’t bear to leave him in that
situation. So she took him home and began months and months of training. First, she
had to teach this easily distracted dog just to listen and focus. Then Mack needed to
learn to detect the scent of foulbrood, a deadly bee disease. Eventually, Mack became
the only certified foulbrood scent detection dog in the United States! After working for
the Maryland Department of Agriculture for nine years, Mack retired last summer. He’s
now enjoying a life of leisure on Cybil’s farm.
The story of Cybil’s determination and Mack’s transformation pulled at my heart, and I
just knew I needed to share it with young readers. Thankfully, Cybil was on board for
countless interviews. Over the years, I tried many approaches to this biography,
including a middle grade version. Eventually, after loads of revisions (a special thank
you to my critique group The Word Weavers) I received an offer from Sleeping Bear
Press in April of 2023.

ME: Oh, this is wonderful, Stephanie. And dear friends, here’s a little bit about Stephanie and illustrator

Here’s a little bit about Stephanie:
Stephanie Gibeault is an award-winning author of children’s picture books and middle
grade nonfiction including Making Sense of Dog Senses (a Eureka! Honor book),
Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing
Mathematical Abilities (a Mathical Honor book and Best STEM Book by the NSTA), and
Dogs vs. Humans: A Showdown of the Senses among others. As a former biologist with
a Master of Science in animal behavior, Stephanie used to spend her time grunting with
gorillas and stinking like marmoset monkeys. Years later, being a certified professional
dog trainer meant being covered in fur and drool. Now she spends her days just outside
of Toronto, Canada, sharing her love of dogs and other animals through her writing.
Find out more at stephaniegibeault.com.
Social Media Links:
Bluesky: @stephaniegibeault.bsky.social
Instagram: @stephanie_gibeault
Purchase Links:
Blue Heron Books (my local indie in Uxbridge, Ontario)
Bookshop.org
Barnes & Noble
Walmart
Amazon Canada
Amazon US

And here’s a little bit about the illustrator:
David Hohn is the illustrator of Just Like Beverly: A Biography of Beverly Cleary, which garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Thank you for spending your precious time with us today, dear friends! And please remember to leave a comment for a chance to WIN a copy of THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES…you get one ticket in the giveaway hat for the comment, and if you share on social media, you get another ticket…so please share widely…that’s a wonderful way to help new books get discovered by parents and teachers and the kids who will love this book!

This is the dog who inspired the book!!!

Happy Book Birthday: MY NAME IS AI LIN

Posted on July 1, 2025 by viviankirkfield

HURRAY! Book birthday posts are my favorite because it means we are welcoming a new book baby into the world! And this one is so special because it focuses on the importance of a child’s name…and especially in the early years, your name is a large part of your identity, who you are. And if folks mispronounce it or have trouble saying it and stumble each time they try, that can make a child feel like there is something wrong with them. I’m so happy to welcome Maria Wen Adcock and her debut picture book, MY NAME IS AI LIN, illustrated by Yu Ting Cheng, and published by Sleeping Bear Press…it launches TODAY!!!

In this empowering story, one child shows that by making the effort to properly pronounce someone’s name, we send the welcoming message that everyone is worthy of respect and dignity.

When Ai Lin starts school, none of her classmates can say her name. The children make several attempts, but they still cannot pronounce it properly. They ask Ai Lin if they can just call her by another name. It’s not that important, right? But Ai Lin knows the significance of her Chinese name. No, it can’t be changed. Her name is part of her identity and heritage. Her name was chosen not only for what it means, but also for how it sounds. It ties her to her family—present and past—and to its traditions.

When Ai Lin shares her family history with her classmates, they come to understand that a name can be a person’s story, special and unique. Ai Lin’s name, and all that it means and stands for, is as personal as a fingerprint, as distinct as a snowflake.

And we are so lucky…author Maria has stopped by to share the story behind the story…what inspired her to write this.

ME: Hello Maria! Thank you so much for visiting Picture Books Help Kids Soar! And CONGRATULATIONS!!! What a beautiful book this is! And an important one! Can you tell us why you wrote it?

MARIA:
The idea for this book came about because I know many people who have assumed “American” names for various reasons. Sometimes they wanted to fit in, so they changed their names. For example, “Jose” became “Joe.” Other times, someone else asked them to change their names because to make it easier for them to remember or say – this is what happens to Ai Lin in my story. And then there were other times when it was not their choice, such as with my dad. When he immigrated to America, someone in the processing center told him he needed an American name and picked out “William” for him. I’m guessing it’s because my dad’s last name, Wen, started with a “W”, so the guy chose a first name with the same letter. My dad had no say in it.

For parents and children with diverse backgrounds, I hope they will be proud of their names. If it’s an uncommon one, they should know they don’t need to change it to make other people feel more comfortable unless they want to. Their names are their identities.

For those who are curious about other people’s names that are different than what they’re used to, I’d encourage them to make an effort to pronounce someone’s name correctly. It’s okay to ask someone how to pronounce their name if their not sure how to say it.

Oh, that’s wonderful, Maria! Thank you for sharing all of this!

And thank you, dear blog readers, for spending your precious time with us. I hope you love this book as much as I do…and please remember that books become a success and get into the hands of the children who need them when we:

Buy the book
Review the book
Tell friends about the book – please share the post on your social media
Ask your local library to purchase copies for their shelves

Happy 4th of July week and weekend, dear friends. Please stay safe and share positivity!