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Stormy's Gallery · Stormy's Reviews
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The Science of Stormy’s Return · Spotted Turtle Research · Reading Level
Story Summary
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Stormy’s Return is an illustrated children’s book based on a true account: A spotted turtle (named Stormy), has a happy life with his friends (and some friendly predators!) in a small swamp next to a railroad. Stormy’s only apparent problem is that he has a handicapped front foot. But as the story says, "He does just fine."
Unbeknownst to the turtles and other creatures of the swamp, surveyors’ tags have gone up on the nearby trees: There’s going to be some kind of development and the little swamp may be filled in!
Never fear! A well-meaning naturalist is moving the spotted turtles to a safer swamp several miles away, and Stormy is the first to go!
But few of us like big changes in our lives, and Stormy is no exception. The new swamp "doesn’t smell right!," "doesn’t look right!," and "there’s no railroad!" What will Stormy do? He struggles with his feelings, but as the title suggests, he wants to go home… although he has no idea how to get there!
How do turtles navigate their way back to their original habitats? In the true story the book is based on, Stormy found his way home within 13 months. In the storybook, Stormy uses multiple clues to guide himself back towards his beloved swamp "with a railroad."
Not to spoil the ending, but he does make it back, and there is a great reunion with friends and some others Stormy probably would never have predicted he would miss!
The story shows a lot about what home and friends mean to all of us, and demonstrates the strengths and abilities we can call on to overcome adversity!
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The Science of Stormy’s Return: |
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A lot of readers, (both parents, grandparents, and children),have really enjoyed the illustrated glossary in the back of Stormy’s Return. In the glossary, over 50 native plants and animals that appear in the story’s illustrations are represented by small paintings that match the plant or animal as it first appears in the book. So a parent or child can say, looking at any of the story’s illustrations, “What’s this?” (bird, or wildflower, or insect). Then more information about it (including common and scientific name) can be found by first searching for its picture in the glossary, and then reading the child friendly “definition” next to the picture. There are even phonetic renderings of the birds’ calls! “Definitions” often include interesting facts and stories that are not found in other sources. |
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When to use the glossary is up to the reader, of course, but aside from a compelling story, the book thus offers the opportunity to learn a lot moré about the plants and animals that can be found in a freshwater wetland habitat. And many of the birds may already be familiar with you from your feeder, or the wild flowers if you garden with native plants. |
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Spotted Turtle Research
I have spent over 18 years studying the spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata) in the real Stormy’s habitat in Wake County, NC, capturing and photographing the turtles for identification, and fitting some of them with radio transmitters to better understand how they use their tiny wetland habitat. I’ve learned a lot about how they interact with other animals from the time of their emergence from hibernation in early spring to the time, in the steamy part of summer, when they bury themselves in the mud again (aestivation). Spotted turtles are very secretive, and scientists are still trying to tease details about their behavior and life histories from years of research and observation in the nearly 20 states they inhabit. By the way - spotted turtles have state-endangered status in each of the states they are found in!
When writing Stormy’s Return, I tried to weave what has been found out about spotted turtle behavior and life history into the details of the story and illustrations. In the illustration on page 8, for instance, Stormy and his “best friend” Buttons are buried in the mud below a catfish with his eye on a dragonfly in the water above. A swamp mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) is in bloom at the edge of the picture.
The text says, in part: “Most turtles don’t bury themselves in the heat of the summer, but spotted turtles do. They don’t like being really hot. It’s cooler underwater in the mud.” This is true: and the swamp mallow blooms in late summer!
They may not realize it, then, but children are not just reading an appealing turtle story in Stormy’s Return: they are learning a lot of specific information about a poorly understood species and its habitat and behavior. It is my hope that one of the results of the publication of the book will be better understanding of an endangered species, perhaps leading to more effective protection of these fascinating turtles in their native habitats in nearly 20 states!
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Reading Level
Over ten years as a science lab teacher in an elementary school provided me with an interesting daily challenge: How could I present the same or similar content to kinder-garteners through 4th or 5th graders, often on the same day?
I had the same task in mind as I put together the story and illustrations for Stormy’s Return. Sure, it’s a picture book, but parents and grandparents need to enjoy presenting it to their children, so the text and illustrations should be interesting to them. At the same time, younger children should have plenty to enjoy and occupy themselves with, especially in the illustrations. Even 4th or 5th graders could conceivably learn a great deal from such a book, if I somehow managed not to “speak down” to them, and provided a sense of humor and suspense appropriate for their age. The science of the book corresponds a lot with
the interest in the natural world characteristic of that age group.
So the book has been enjoyed by three year olds because of its rich illustrations and the skillful way many mothers and grandparents have of using a book to teach many different skills and concepts over a period of time. And older children, especially those who love the outdoors, have embraced the book and its message, some using what they have learned to enrich their own explorations in the woods or to city and state parks. At least that’s what I’ve heard!
As one grandparent of a three year old commented to me when I was sharing with her my plans at that time to produce a new book with fewer words per page for a lower reading level: "Well, don’t dumb it down too much! We’ve got enough of those books already!"
Enough said!
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