Turtles in My Sandbox

Imagine finding turtle eggs in your sandbox! When a mother diamondback terrapin lays eggs in a young girl’s sandbox, the girl becomes a “turtle-sitter” to help the babies safely hatch. She raises the teeny hatchlings until they become big enough to fend for themselves in the wild. Then, with the help of experts, she releases them.

Jennifer Keats Curtis is thrilled that children can identify exotic animals, but she also wants to help bring children closer to the animals in their own backyards. By combining language arts with science in a “once upon a time” setting, she hopes to bring this Gulf Coast and Atlantic species to life, to help young children understand important ecological issues and what they can do to help. Jennifer’s first book, Oshus and Shelly Save the Bay, won the Frederick Douglass Award (Maryland Council of Teachers of English Language Arts). Besides writing children’s stories, Jennifer writes for a wide variety of magazines, Maryland Life Magazine, It’s Your Life, and Corridor, Inc. Avid fans of anything having to do with water, Jennifer and her family spend their summer in and on the Chesapeake Bay. She resides in the Annapolis, Maryland area, with two daughters, one husband, one golden retriever, two hermit crabs, and of course, a turtle.Emanuel Schongut (illustrator) is a prolific, multi-faceted freelance illustrator who works in children's books, book covers, textbook illustration, editorial art, posters, and advertising art – essentially he does it all! Some of his numerous clients include Masterpiece and Mystery Theater, Public Television, New York Magazine, and New York Times Sunday Magazine. His cover art and/or illustrations grace books from a wide variety of book publishers including Harper & Row, MacMillan, Doubleday, Morrow, Green Willow Books, and now Sylvan Dell. In addition to his own artwork, Manny taught reportorial art and figure drawing at Pratt Institute in New York for several years. He now illustrates and teaches in the San Francisco Bay area.