Love A Sea Turtle

Leap Books connected with Casey Sokolovic when she wrote to tell us how much she enjoyed Bonnie Doerr's book Stakeout, about endangered sea turtles. (That's Casey with the book). But when we heard about what Casey has done to help sea turtles, we asked if we could feature her on our blog. This is Casey's remarkable story:   

A third grade school field trip to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in 2005 sparked a passion within me to want to help the sea turtles. Coming home that day, I talked to my mother about the visit and how sad I was for the sick and injured turtles and wondered what I could do to help and “make a difference”. I developed a plan and, like many others my age, decided to hold a bake sale and sell lemonade. Science fairs, school open houses, farmers markets, civic events and most anywhere I could sell cookies and lemonade and talk about sea turtles, you would find me. A couple dozen cookies have turned into more than ten thousand cookies baked and sold.

    I wanted to help the sea turtles “last” and from that my mother and I came up with Help Them L.A.S.T. - Love A Sea Turtle. My passion for sea turtles has grown from baking and selling sugar cookies into a thriving local grassroots organization with passion, purpose, a strong non-profit, collaborators and community support.

    The mission statement of Love A Sea Turtle is committed to saving the world’s sea turtle population, inspiring young people to get involved, and providing hands-on environmental educational experiences and summer camps to underprivileged youth.
   

My work with the sea turtles has opened my eyes that there is a genuine need to get every student involved in volunteerism. I developed and filmed an educational video and in the last two years, have spoken to more than 5,500 students - showing the video (click here or see below) and speaking to them about sea turtles and getting involved.

    In late summer of 2007, coffee was added to go with the sugar cookies in an effort to attract adults to the cause. A visit to the roasting facility for Joe Van Gogh Coffee in Hillsborough, North Carolina, led to the creation of a Fair Trade Organic “Sea Turtle” blend of coffee. Joe Van Gogh agreed to donate 10% of net profits of the Sea Turtle Blend to the Sea Turtle Hospital every year.

    In the spring of 2008, Joe Van Gogh took notice of my sales of Sea Turtle Blend. The marketing team at Joe Van Gogh created an exciting logo and custom label. The big “public” launch for Sea Turtle coffee was in May of 2009. I was asked to set up my information display at several locations in Chapel Hill. The Sea Turtle Blend was a top seller in the Whole Foods Stores in NC/SC for Joe Van Gogh during the spring and summer. This fall, Fresh Market began carrying the Sea Turtle Blend in stores nationwide, and it continues to be a top seller.

    In May of 2010, I co-founded The Great Bake for Oceans’ Sake, a coast to coast grassroots bake sale initiative, to raise money for ocean causes. The initial idea was an effort to help raise money for the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies after the Gulf oil spill. The Great Bake has raised awareness and resulted in thousands of dollars being donated to multiple ocean related efforts. Love A Sea Turtle will be promoting bake sales for ocean conservation groups during National Week of the Ocean, March 31 – April 6. It’s simple: hold a bake sale and donate the proceeds to your favorite ocean conservation group.

Another of my fundraisers is a trail run that includes a 5K and 10K along with a nature walk. The run will be March 2nd and it is the 4th annual event.

What Are You Doing to Go Green?

From now until the end of April, schools around the country are working on going green. If you want information on a start-up kit for your school, you can contact GEF, the Green Education Foundation. The site also offers lesson plans and ideas. Be sure to share your results with GEF to be entered in a drawing for a Green in Action award.  Winners get $250 for their classrooms.

Here's what one school did:



Leap Books supports environmental action in many ways. We've gone green in our book printing and office practices. And we publish authors who not only write about environmental themes, but are active in helping the planet.

Bonnie J. Doerr researches endangered animals, but she doesn't just get the facts. She helps the organizations by participating and doing fundraising. A portion of the sale of Doerr's books have gone to assisting the National Key Deer Refuge and the Turtle Hospital.




Doerr was recently featured as a green author on Linda Martin Andersen's blog and enjoyed this opportunity to promote "green" writing / living and National Green Week. To find out more about Doerr, vist her at Bonnie Blogs Green or read all about her the Girls Scouts website, where she is a featured author. Bonnie's books include Stakeout and Island Sting. She's researching in the Florida Keys right now on her next eco-mystery on pelicans.

Author Judith Graves Appearances

Watch for Judith Graves appearing at the following venues:
  
January 28, 2013: Family Literacy Night
Dr. Bernard Brosseau School, Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada

Presentation on “How Inspiration Strikes”, and a reading from her steampunk short story, The Steadfast Steam Soldier, published in Winter Wonders, a charity anthology that supports literacy.

February 23: Young Authors’ Conference
Sherwood Park, Alberta

THE BONES OF THE STORY: Screenwriting and FICTION TO DIE FOR workshops

Graves will talk about writing scripts for film and television and offer tips on the craft of screenwriting. Learn how to plot a script using her outline structure, The Bones of the Story.  From gripping logline to epic showdown, she’ll provide students with the foundation they’ll need to create their own dreadfully cool scripts.

February 24: Freedom to Read Week

The brilliant blogger, Amy, from A Simple Love of Reading is celebrating Canadian Freedom to Read Week with guest posts by a number of authors. Graves will be kicking off the week with a post on censorship both as a library technician and a young adult fiction author.

Shiny New Website and Free Books

We're thrilled with our new website design. We hope you will be too.

To celebrate the launch of our redesigned website as well as Leap Books' third anniversary, we're offering free books.We'll be drawing 3 names (one for each year we've been in business).  Just leave a comment here about our new site, friend us on Twitter and/or Facebook, and let us know. You'll get one entry each time you spread the word.

Be sure to mention which of our books you'd like to receive and whether you'd prefer a print or ebook. If you don't mind waiting, you can request a future release, such as Maria V. Snyder's book, Storm Watcher, coming in the fall of 2013.

Winners will be chosen at midnight on January 31, 2013.

We also have some terrific new releases, giveaways, and special plans for this year. So watch for more exciting news later this month.

What's with the Twibbon?

People have been asking about the Twibbon on our Twitter account. That multicolored ball shows that Leap Books is a partner on the Children's Book Council (CBC) Diversity Committee. The committee is "dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s and young adult literature." Leap Books believes diversity enriches everyone's life experiences, so we strive to publish books that feature a variety of voices in our novels for teens and tweens. We think all children and teens should see themselves and their lives depicted in books.

We are always open to agented submissions portraying multicultural characters and diverse life experiences, so we are actively looking for authors and illustrators who can share their culture through words or art. For more about what Leap Books is looking for, watch for the article on multiculturalism by Sue Ford in WRITER'S GUIDE TO 2013 (The Writer's Institute) for an interview with our publisher.

Here are a few Leap Books with a diversity connection:

Island Sting and Stakeout by Bonnie J. Doerr both have a Cuban American hero.

 Under My Skin and Second Skin, set in Canada, have a First Nations hero.

For the Love Strangers stars teenager Darya, who along with her brother, was adopted from Russia.

Christmas Blogfest... Dozens of Opportunities to Win

Celebrate the holidays with Long and Short Reviews -- and fill your stockings with books and other gifts!

From 12/17/12 - 12/21/12 dozens of authors in all genres will be blogging and you can win!

Every post will be offering a goodie... all you have to do is leave a comment.  One comment will be chosen at random at every blog to win -- it might be you!

Our own Jacqueline Horsfall is one of the exciting lineup of bloggers, and she'll be offering a free copy of her book, For the Love of Strangers. You may select your choice of a paperback or ebook.

To enter, head to the YA Blogfest, and comment on all the blogs to increase your chances of being a winner. And to read Jackie's blog, here's the link.

For another chance to win great prizes, Jackie is also doing a giveaway through MTG Reviews in January. Stay tuned for more details!

No Ordinary Book

Spirited has been selected for the Children's Book Council Winter Seasonal Showcase, No Ordinary Book. The title is also featured on the CBC homepage.

What makes Spirited so special?

First of all, it's filled with stories by talented authors. Contributing authors include Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill William-son, Linda Joy Singleton, Heather Kenealy, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Carmen Tudor, John W. Otte, Halli Dee Lilburn, and Mark Finnemore.

Second, the anthology benefits charity. All proceeds from the sale of SPIRITED will be donated to 826 National, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting students, ages 6-18, to improve their writing skills.

Third, it contains AR. If you prefer your apparitions 3-D rather than 2-D, slide the AR icons under your webcam to see the augmented reality leap off the page. (Thanks to Karl Gee for the AR.)