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New & Noteworthy News!

Amelia Island Book Festival this weekend!

February 14, 2011
Created 10 years ago, the Amelia Island Book Festival is dedicated to promoting literacy by showing that reading is fun and worthwhile. Authors, writers and readers mingle at readings, talks, discussions and socials for two days.

"Authors in Schools Day" on Friday brings some of us into schools, allowing local children to meet and connect
with real authors. I always enjoy that part of the Festival, as well as the Writers' Workshop at FSC where I'll be one of the presenters (3:30 p.m.) Please see the web site below for more information.

On Saturday, you'll have a chance to meet and hear renowned authors all day long in this beautiful historic harbor town which they also call "Book Island." The event is free!

It's a pretty long drive for me from south Florida, but I wouldn't miss it!

And, if you stay over the weekend, please look for me at The Book Loft on Centre Street on Sunday from 1-3 p.m. where I'll be signing my new "Aussie" book along with my others.
Hope to see ya, Mates!
HREF="http://www.ameliaislandbookfestival.com/
"> Amelia Island Book Festival
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G'Day Mates!

January 28, 2011
Hip, Hip, Hooray! My latest book, "Over in Australia, Amazing Animals Down Under" has not yet been released, but two reviews have already come in and are very favorable. Please check out the "My Books" section on this web site to read what Kirkus has to say, (They call it an "informational" picture book.) and also Publishers Weekly: "It's a remarkably layered and entertaining trip to the land of Oz." Read More 
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"Hoppy" New Year!

January 6, 2011
Tags: "Music" in the Marsh!
The sounds of frogs and birds in the marsh are music to my ears! And the best news as we begin 2011 is that these two books are now available in paperback on Amazon.com for $6.95.
Click onto the covers of both these books on my home page to get there. And please check out all the wonderful reviews these two books got when they were first published in hardcover in 2000 and 2002. They "sing" of nature!

Can't wait to do my "frog orchestra" with students at schools as we make the music of the night, and share all the Audubon birds that make the music of the day, now that paperbacks are available to schools. And the great news is that these two books are now also available as "E" books. Go to:
HREF="https://www.lernerbooks.com/Search/Pages/results.aspx?k=Marianne Berkes"> Lerner Books

If anyone wants a bookplate that says "Hoppy" Reading for Marsh Music, and "Enjoy the sights and sounds" for Marsh Morning just send me an e-mail. Read More 
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More "Migration" News

December 4, 2010
"Going Home, the Mystery of Animal Migration" has been recognized as an NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book . (Check out this exciting review under "My Books" and click onto the migration book.) Can't wait to this book at the National Science Teachers Association Annual Conference in San Francisco in March 2011. And, "Going Home" also just won a 2010 Mom's Choice Gold Award. What a great way to end a year that has been filled with all kinds of wonderful reviews and awards! Read More 
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National Geographic's "GREAT MIGRATIONS"

November 15, 2010
GREAT MIGRATIONS: The global television event on the National Geographic Channel began last week and is truly remarkable. There are free educational resources available
at:HREF="http://www.greatmigrationseducation.com/user/home/"> Great Migrations.

My favorite is the “multigenerational” migration of the Monarch Butterfly. It is beautifully filmed and narrated in a way that children can easily understand. The map showing a monarch’s journey north and then back to Mexico by its offspring is excellent. Also shown is how monarchs lay eggs on milkweed plants, so their offspring can make it all the way to Canada. But how do they know when it gets too cold, to head south to a place they have never been? Is a map printed in their genes?

It still mystifies me, and of course, after viewing this piece three times at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/great-migrations-educator-resources/video/monarch-migration/ I went to my latest book, Going Home, the Mystery of Animal Migration to enjoy illustrator, Jennifer DiRubbio’s gorgeous illustration of the monarch page along with the other nine migrating creatures I wrote about in this book.

Here's the verse about the monarch:
Going home, going home; dancing in the sky.
Waking from our winter sleep, it's time for us to fly.
We rested in our "family tree" filling every space.
But now it's time to travel on and find another place.

If you haven’t seen the book, I hope you will check it out on this web site or at www.dawnpub.com or www.amazon.com. And don’t miss viewing this incredible National Geographic “gem!”

P.S. To download reproducible bookmarks of the ten migrating creatures in my book, including the beautiful monarch, go to www.dawnpub.com and click onto "Teaching Tools." Read More 
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FICTION, FACT AND FUN at FAME

November 4, 2010
How's that title for teaching alliteration? Today and tomorrow I'm at the fabulous, fantastic FAME Annual Conference in Orlando, meeting lots of wonderful Florida educators as well as other authors and illustrators.

This year the theme is "Teamwork" and I'm hoping to share how, with the help of art, music, language arts, science, and math teachers, library media specialists can really make my eight picture books come alive! Come prepared for a lively session of "FICTION, FACT AND FUN" on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday morning. If you can't make the workshop, (I hope lots of people come because I need participation in the curriculum connections.) look for a lady in a turquoise Ocean Reef jacket and say hello. And don't forget the book signings!  Read More 
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Making a Splash at The Florida Aquarium

November 2, 2010
Last weekend I had a "swimmingly" GREAT time at The Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa, signing my "seashell" and "ocean reef" books, and meeting so many wonderful kids, parents, grandparents, and educators. One of the big cruise ships was docking right nearby so people were stopping by from all over the country. The Aquarium, one of the best in the country, is a wonderful family destination with plenty of fun activities like Swim with the Fishes, Penguins: Backstage Pass and a Wild Dolphin Ecotour. There is even an outdoor water fun zone for the children! The best part of the day was that my granddaughters, ages 10 and almost 7 and their parents and my grand niece and nephew and family were there to share this special day. Thanks to all the fine staff at the aquarium for this memorable adventure! Read More 
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"Picture Books No Longer A Staple for Children"???

October 17, 2010
The New York Times, whose motto for years has been “All the news that is fit to print” stated in an October 8th article that “picture books are no longer a staple for children.” In my opinion this one-sided comment was NOT “fit to print.” I can’t imagine very many parents, librarians and educators believing it.

As for the pushy parents who deprive their children of being children, shame on them. I am reminded of a book Read More 
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Going Home, the Mystery of Animal Migration, Starred review in Library Media Connection

October 7, 2010
While studying animal migration for my book, “Going Home” I observed a female loggerhead turtle crawl to the shore on a moonlight night and deposit her eggs in a nest in the sand. It was incredible how this creature traveled on such a dangerous journey, returning to the same place where she had been born 20 years before. How did she know the way?
What a story!
At a school I recently visited in Illinois, third graders each read a verse for a different migrating animal’s story.  Read More 
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SIBA Annual Conference in Daytona Beach

September 21, 2010
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) represents booksellers, publishers and authors in FL, NC, GA, LA, AL, AR, TN, KY, VA and MS. I’m so happy that this year their annual Trade Show is in Daytona Beach so I can meet and greet SIBA members and autograph my books. I’ll be at the Sunburst Books Booth with Chris Wicht on Sunday, Sept 26 from 11-12.  Read More 
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