Bugs In Danger:  Our Vanishing Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles
Bloomsbury Children's Books


By now you've probably heard that bees are disappearing--but they aren't the only species at risk. Populations of fireflies, butterflies, and ladybugs have all been declining in recent years, too. This middle grade nonfiction explains the growth, spread, and recent declines of each of these four types of insects. Exploring human causes, like the Baltimore electric company that collected fireflies to attempt to harness their phosphorescent lighting source, to natural occurrences, like the mysterious colony collapse disorder that plagues bee populations, master nonfiction storyteller Mark Kurlansky shows just how much bugs matter to our world. Read More >>

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Frozen in Time:  Clarence Birdseye's Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food
Delacorte Books for Young Readers; Simultaneously available in a hardcover and trade paperback edition. Each edition includes an 8-page black-and-white photo insert.


The story of an odd man of imagination who  changed the world of food. Today Clarence Birdseye seems on the one hand very old fashioned but on the other curiously modern.

This biography—perfect for middle-grade readers—tells the life story of Clarence Birdseye, the man who revolutionized the frozen food industry, and is adapted from Mark Kurlansky’s adult work Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man.

Adventurer and inventor Clarence Birdseye had a fascination with food preservation that led him to develop and patent the Birdseye freezing process and start the company that still bears his name today. Hi...
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Battle Fatigue
Bloomsbury, October 2011


A young adult novel about a boy born in the shadow of World War II. His childhood is all about war and he believes that when he comes of age there will be a war waiting for him. There is, in a place called Vietnam, and he struggles with a growing feeling that his war is wrong and that maybe all war is wrong.  This is a different kind of coming of age story about growing up with the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement , and finally the Vietnam War. It is about learning to stand up not for what youare told is right but what you believe is right.

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The World Without Fish:  How Kids Can Help Save the Oceans
Workman, April 2011


A children's book that explains, through both text and a graphic novel, the current crisis in the oceans, the frightening tragedy of a sea devoid of fish, the impact of that sad outcome, and how to prevent it.

Mark Kurlansky, beloved author of the award-winning bestseller Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, offers a riveting new book for kids about what’s happening to fish, the oceans, and our environment, and what, armed with knowledge, kids can do about it.

Written by a master storyteller, World Without Fish connects all the dots—biology, economics, evolution, politics, climate, history, ...
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The Story of Salt
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006
Illustrated by S. D. Schindler.


The Children’s version of the best selling Salt, how one of the world’s most sought-after commodities shaped history and then lost its value. For Ages 7-10. The Story of Salt received the ALA Notable Book Award . Translated into numerous languages.

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The Girl Who Swam to Euskadi
The Center for Basque Studies, 2005, available through University of Nevada Press.
Illustrated by the author.


Bilingual in Basque and English, a picture book, the story is a celebration of Basque culture.  A little girl in Gloucester, Massachusetts is taken for a swimming lesson by her father and swims too far.  She finds herself in the strange land of Euskadi, Basque land, where she has a series of adventures.  But when she returns to the United States no one believes that such a place exists.

Click here to view selected Watercolors for this book painted by the author.


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The Cod's Tale
G. P. Putnam ‘s Sons, 2001.
Illustrated by S. D. Schindler.


The thousand year history of fishing the Atlantic Cod with history, recipes and humor. The children’s version of the best-selling Cod. For ages 7 - 10. Received the Orbis Pictus award from the National Council of Teachers of English. Translated into several languages.

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