I'll Follow the Moon - Hardcover

Tara, Stephanie Lisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0989433463 ISBN 13: 9780989433464

Publisher: Stephanie Lisa Tara Children's Books, 2005

Synopsis

OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD--Double-gold medalist begins simply in baby sea turtle's voice:"I'm coming Mama, I'll see you soon, I know just how, I'll follow the moon." Celebrating the love between mother and child comes an achingly beautiful story that has captured hearts around the world. Written by a new mom, by accident, when she sang a little song to her fussing newborn, I'll follow the moon donates to charity: every book saves a turtle. [G]orgeous watercolors chronicle the journey of a baby sea turtle from its hatching to its first swim in the sea." --Kirkus Reviews
"[C]aptivates children with poetry..." --New York Times
"[A] tiny one-inch hatchling teaches the world about courage...utterly magnificent..." --San Francisco Chronicle
"[B]aby turtle wins hearts everywhere, expect your kids to hug you tight afterthe first read...expect to be asked to read again and again and again..." --USA Today
"[I]'m coming Mama, I'll see you soon, I know just how, I'll follow the moon...we can't get baby turtle's song out of our heads....achingly sweet little bedtime book for wee ones." --Huffington Post
"[N]o surprise at all that this book has a worldwide toddler-cult following...baby turtle serenades us all so sweetly with his song of home. Proceeds to turtle charities too!" --National Geographic
"[H]ats off to this turtle hatchling who has garnered millions of fans across the planet...a tiny activist who is saving his own kind...bravo." --World Wildlife Fund
"[S]tephanie Lisa Tara and Canadian illustrator Lee Edward Fodi have teamed up to create a lyrical rendition of a green sea turtle's first glimpse of life. Hatched on a moon-washed beach, the baby turtle finds its way by instinct across the expanse of sand to the sea and a rendezvous with its mother. Written in simple verse in the first person, the rhythmic text is full of action and sensory detail and loaded with alliteration and onomatopoeia for an enjoyable read-aloud. The refrain, "I'm coming, Mama.....," repeated on each double page spread, is soothing and reassuring of the joyful reunion to come. The atmosphere of a quiet but determined struggle to break free of the egg soon gives way to growing excitement as the turtle mingles with fellow hatchlings and catches his first tempting sensations: the smell of salt air, the sight of the moon's glow, the gentle touch and beckoning sounds of the waves rushing to shore. Once he's free of the land, new motions take over: gulp, spin, float, swim...The final happy refrain is new and satisfying: "I'm here, Mama - here with you. I know I'd find you, Moon did too. "[F]ramed by endpapers of soft, limitless, under seagreen, Fodi's delightful illustrations feature an animated and engaging baby emerging from an egg buried in golden sand. With other tiny turtles, he is shown plowing through the damp sand, sampling the salty sea air and marching unerringly toward the moonlight glimmer, his guide to the ocean. Once afloat, he soon comes face to face with "eyes like mine" in his new watery home. The gold of sand, blue of sky and green of the sea repeated throughout the book bring a sense of harmony. The turtle is the focal point of all the pictures. The illustrator has carefully integrated the turtle's actions with Tara's verse which relies heavily on verbs: roll, slide, tumble......crawl, scoop, shove. Young children will be propelled through the story in the illustrations as well as the text." *Highly Recommended. Gillian Richardson, who lives in BC, is a former teacher-librarian and freelance writer. --Canadian Materials Magazine, Gillian Richardson
"[I]n this tranquil bedtime story, a baby sea turtle hatches on the beach and wants to find his mother. And he knows just how -- he'll follow the moon! From his gentle struggles to break free of his egg to his determination to dig his way out of the sand nest, we follow the baby sea turtle on each step of his instinctive journey home." Very highly recommended. --Books of Wonder

About this title

From the Publisher:

Stephanie Lisa Tara credits an overactive imagination for her whimsical, story-verse style. As a child, Stephanie transformed people and pets into animated personalities through fanciful lyrical rhymes. No one was safe!

Stephanie earned a B.A. in English literature and poetry at the University of Connecticut. She spent the next ten years writing ad copy in Manhattan. After the birth of her daughter, Madeline, Stephanie decided to focus on her passion--children's verse, which she deeply believes has the inherent power to charm, inspire, and teach children and adults alike. Tying verse together with insight means magic for Stephanie. Her work is inspired by literature's lauded children's authors--from Grimm to Lear to Seuss.

From the Author:

One night in 2001, about a month after I brought baby Madeline home from the hospital, I noticed something quite strange on the beach in front of our south Florida home. It was late and Mom was tired, doing a last-one-of-the-day bottle feeding on the deck after a long day of new mom activities. As Maddie slurped down the final ounce of her formula with that familiar glup, glup, glup sound, I noticed dark, tiny shapes scurrying across the sand. What was this? I wondered and went down for a closer look. There they were! Baby turtles streaming out of hundreds of small nests, gentle rises in the sand were their markers. The babies made fanciful patterns in the sand as they dashed on little green legs in a remarkable race to the sea. I watched them hop, one by one, into welcoming waves that sparkled under the beautiful moonlight. "I'm coming Mama..." they seemed to be saying, and I realized that I was witnessing one of nature's sacred events, the love bond between mother and child. It is this precious feeling that inspired me to write I'll Follow the Moon, that came into being a few years later.

With love,
Stephanie Lisa Tara

About this edition

• Publisher: Stephanie Lisa Tara Children's Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0989433463
• ISBN 13: 9780989433464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 50
• Illustrator: Fodi Lee Edward