Kobee Manatee: Heading Home to Florida

by Robert Scott Thayer BA, Lauren Gallegos BA (Illustrator)

Overview

LEXILE Measurement: AD610L
Gold Medal, 2016 Readers' Favorite International Book Award in the Children's Educational category

Winner of the 2015 International Book Award in the Children's Educational category

Packed with exciting illustrations and interesting facts, this adventure story will enchant as it creates awareness for the endangered Florida manatee. In late September, Kobee Manatee is on a twelve hundred-mile mission to get back home to Florida from Cape Cod, Massachusetts before the impending cold threatens his life. On his journey, he meets two new friends: Tess the seahorse, who loves to learn, and Pablo the hermit crab, who is in search for a new shell. Will Kobee and his friends make it to Florida in time?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780988326927
Publisher:	Thompson Mill Press
Publication date:	11/05/2013
Series:	Kobee Manatee Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Robert Scott Thayer is an award-winning recording artist in the pop, jazz, and children’s genres and a member of the Save the Manatee Club in Maitland, Florida. He is the author of Kobee Manatee: A Wild Weather Adventure. He lives in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Lauren Gallegos is a children’s book illustrator who enjoys hiking and the beauty of nature. She is the illustrator of Vulture Verses: Love Poems for the Unloved. She lives in Brea, California.

What People are Saying About This

Dr. & Director of Science and Conservation, Save the Manatee Club - Katie Tripp

"Children can learn a great deal about manatees and their habitat by reading about Kobee and his friends and their traveling adventure."

Dr. & Director of Science and Conservation, Save th - Katie Tripp

"Children can learn a great deal about manatees and their habitat by reading about Kobee and his friends and their traveling adventure."

Editorial Reviews

“A swimmingly fun, educational trip sure to be enjoyed by young friends of the manatee.”  —Kirkus Reviews


“This luxuriously illustrated, infectiously charming story makes us want to save the manatee and have a plush version to hug.”  —Foreword Clarion Reviews


“Children can learn a great deal about manatees and their habitat by reading about Kobee and his friends and their traveling adventure.”  —Dr. Katie Tripp, director, Science and Conservation Save the Manatee Club


“Preschool through early elementary aged children will enjoy learning about Manatees thanks to Thayer’s combination of enticing storyline and fun facts, not to mention Gallegos’s excellent pictures.”  —The Children’s Book Review


“A thoughtful and entertaining introduction to manatees for young children that effortlessly mixes fact and fiction. These gentle and mysterious creatures have found effective advocates with the launch of this talented author and illustrator team.”   —BlueInk Review

From the Publisher

"A thoughtful and entertaining introduction to manatees for young children that effortlessly mixes fact and fiction. These gentle and mysterious creatures have found effective advocates with the launch of this talented author and illustrator team."

BlueInk Reviews

"Preschool through early elementary aged children will enjoy learning about manatees thanks to Thayer's combination of enticing storyline and fun facts, not to mention Gallegos' excellent pictures."

(www.thechildrensbookreview.com) - The Children's Book Review

"This luxuriously illustrated, infectiously charming story makes us want to save the manatee and have a plush version to hug."

ForeWord Clarion Reviews

A manatee, a hermit crab and a sea horse make an unlikely but enjoyable trio as they share facts, fun and friendship down the Eastern Seaboard. Thayer's debut children's book introduces readers to Kobee--a manatee in a purple newsboy cap and yellow shirt--as he swims from Massachusetts' Cape Cod Bay to his Florida home of Blue Spring State Park. This affable marine mammal is not alone on his adventure. Tess, a sea horse, and then a South Carolina hermit crab named Pablo join him for his dip in the Atlantic Ocean and his search for warmer waters. Through their interactions, the reader learns more about manatees. Kobee, the tale's narrator, proves an invaluable traveling companion: He provides cover, protects his friends from close calls with both a shark and a giant sea turtle, helps Pablo locate a new shell and leads the group on their journey to his manatee habitat. Kobee has his own dangerous encounter as he, Tess and Pablo narrowly escape a collision with a boat. He warns that it's sometimes difficult for boats to sight him. He cautions, "One of my manatee friends was badly hurt by a boat propeller." Not to worry, though: Kobee is appropriately careful and circumvents catastrophe throughout his exploits. Thayer's charismatic characters are further animated through Gallegos' vibrant, color-saturated illustrations, bringing the story to life. Readers, however, are pulled away from the illustrations and the narrative at times by "Kobee's Fun Facts," superimposed boxes that provide facts and information about manatees. This clunky stylistic choice, however, does not undermine the information they present. When Tess remarks about Kobee's large size, the boxed information states, "The average manatee is 10 feet long and weighs between 800 to 1,200 pounds!" Between Kobee's narration and Thayer's trivia, this is an entertaining tool that one can easily imagine supplementing lessons in marine conservation or biology. A swimmingly fun, educational trip sure to be enjoyed by young friends of the manatee.

Kirkus Reviews