Creature Crossing - Hardcover

Betty Levin is the author of many popular books for young people, including The Banished; Look Back, Moss; Away to Me, Moss; Island Bound; Fire in the Wind; and The Trouble with Gramary. Betty Levin has a sheep farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where she also raises and trains sheepdogs. In Her Own Words...

"I started writing stories almost as soon as I began to read. They were derivative and predictable-as much a way of revisiting characters and places in books I loved as it was a means of self-expression. I don't remember when words and their use became important. In the beginning was the story, and for a long time it was all that mattered.

"Even though I always wrote, I imagined becoming an explorer or an animal trainer. This was long before I had to be gainfully employed. It wasn't until after I'd landed in the workplace, first in museum research and then in teaching, that I returned to story writing-this time for my young children. Then a fellowship in creative writing at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College gave me and my storymaking a chance. One affirmation led to another, and now there are books-and some readers.

"When I talk with children in schools and libraries, I realize that child readers are still out there. When they get excited about a character or a scene, a new dimension opens for them, a new way of seeing and feeling and understanding.

"Of course there is always one child who asks how it feels to be famous and to be recognized in supermarkets. I explain that the only people who recognize me are those who have seen me working my sheep dogs or selling my wool at sheep fairs. That response often prompts another query: Why write books if they don't make you rich and famous? I usually toss that question back at the children. Why do they invent stories? How does story writing make them feel?

"Eventually we explore the distinction between wanting to be a writer and needing to write. If we want to write, then we must and will. Whether or not we become published authors, we all have tales to tell and stories to share. Literature can only continue to grow from the roots of our collective experience if children understand that they are born creative and that all humans are myth users and storytellers."

Grade 3-5Another ecological novel about three friends who first appeared in Starshine and Sunglow (Greenwillow, 1994). When Ben finds a small creature in a ditch, he is sure that it is a baby dinosaur and he dreams of fame and fortune. He shares his secret with Kate and Foster and the three of them care for the animal together. When the children discover that the liz-thing is really an endangered spotted salamander, they also learn that many of these creatures are killed by cars as they cross the road during their migration back to their original hatching pool or pond. The friends, along with their conservation-minded neighbor, come up with a plan to get the salamanders safely to their breeding pool. The characters are well defined and light suspense keeps readers interested. Black-and-white illustrations highlight the action. Creature Crossing fits in nicely with ecology units and would serve as an appropriate read-aloud.Cheryl Cufari, Glencliff Elementary School, Niskayuna, NY
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