January 21, 2012

One of our readers, 11-year-old Cassidy, uploaded this photo of her puppy this week. Cassidy wrote: "My puppy GiGi was an amazing puppy and was soo lovable!" Knowing how many dog lovers there are among my readers, I suspect others of you are going to agree! 

December 11, 2011

If your family has either an iPad, Nook Color or Nook Tablet, you can have a free Seymour Simon eBook called FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS!

Last year, Barnes and Noble wanted to create a bonus for people who bought their new Nook Color. They asked Seymour to write an eBook that they could give away free as a gift to all their customers. That was Seymour’s first eBook, and the title is perfect - the facts are really fun! For example, did you know that dogs’ feet sweat? Or that a pot-bellied pig can open the refrigerator?!

Here is a sample page from the book, which also has "Read to Me" narration.

FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS is free not only for the Nook Color and Nook Tablet, but you will also receive it when you download the "Nook Kids for iPad" app. So, if you have any of these devices, be sure to check out this 48-page book. It is a gift to you from Barnes and Noble and Seymour Simon!

December 1, 2011

A student named Nequira wrote last night with a good question that I often hear when I speak in schools. 

Nequira asked: How do you come up with what you want to write, what pictures you are going to use, and what title you’re going to put on the cover?

          I have loved nature since I was a young child. Although I grew up in the Bronx – a very crowded part of New York City – the natural world was all around me. There is weather in the city, just as there is in the country. You can see the sun, moon and stars from a rooftop in the city. And I explored a vacant lot on my street, which wasn’t exactly a park, but still had birds, earthworms, small plants, and trees. When I grew up I became a science teacher, so it was natural that when I started to write books, I was writing about science and nature topics that interest me.

Then, the hard part starts! Whenever I want to write about a subject, I need to study. I start by looking at research that other people have done. What experiments have they run? What animals have they observed? By studying all the work that others have already done, I learn about the subjects that I write about in my books. 

Readers often ask about how I get the photographs for my books. Sometimes I travel to places myself and take the photographs. I have photographed glaciers in Alaska, volcanoes in Hawaii and wildfires in California. Other times, I arrange to use other people’s photographs. Often these are specialists - like a scientist who has been living in Antarctica and observing penguin behaviors. Someone like that has photographs that I could never get in a single, short trip.

In the case of my newest book, BUTTERFLIES**, we searched long and hard for the perfect photograph for the cover. We finally found this one from photographer Kha Dang, who also raises butterflies for the Butterfly Magic Exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

When it is time to decide on the title, I talk with my editor, who works at the company that publishes and sells the book. The editor gives me notes, suggestions and corrections on my writing (much as your teacher would), and also makes the final decision about the title.

Sometimes it is easy to pick a title (like BUTTERFLIES), but sometimes there is a lot more discussion before we finally settle on the right title. 

For example, my eBook FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS was originally going to be called DOGS’ FEET SWEAT. Which do you think was the better choice?

Also, I wanted you to know that FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS is a free book that I created for Barnes & Noble when they launched the Nook Color last year. If you have a Nook Color or an iPad (with the "Nook Kids for iPad" app loaded) in your classroom or library, this book will automatically download to the device. 

April 12, 2011

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" features 15-year-old Regina Mayer, who lives in Germany and wanted a horse in the worst way. Unfortunately, her parents didn’t agree.

So, Regina did the next best thing. When this cow, named Luna, was born on her family’s farm, Regina decided to train her. She put a halter on the calf and started taking her for long walks in the woods. Then, she tried walking her with a saddle on, and finally, she sat in the saddle. Now, she not only rides Luna, but she has taught the cow how to jump!

Photo: Kerstin Joensson / AP

April 10, 2011

This is our Chipmunk.

He lives in the screened-in porch on the ground floor of our house. He gets in and out through a tear in the screen. Cute, isn’t he?

I haven’t named him. Do you have any ideas?

March 30, 2011

Did you ever have a hermit crab as a pet? Lots of kids do. Part of the responsibility of owning a hermit crab is making sure it has a larger shell available when it outgrows the one it came in.

What you’ve probably never seen is what happens in the wild. Researchers in Belize discovered that when one crab finds a suitable empty shell, it waits until a crowd of other crabs join it. Then they climb, piggyback-style, onto each others’ shells, in a line from largest to the smallest. Once the first crab squeezes into the free shell, then the whole line follows, right down the row.

Photograph of Hermit Crab swapping shells © www.osfimages.com

February 27, 2011

What a great time I had at Churchville Elementary School last week! The flurry of reading, writing and sharing by the students - which happened before, during and after my visit - was just wonderful!

Look at this great bulletin board done by sixth graders. They read my GLOBAL WARMING book, used a Carbon Footprint Calculator to determine their own impact on Earth’s atmosphere, and then wrote EARTH PLEDGES about their promises to change their own behavior to be better environmental citizens. Wonderful!

A student named Taylor F. wrote today to tell me that she has read almost all of my books that are in her library - FIFTY-SEVEN (57) books. Wow! Taylor!! You must be one of my biggest fans!

The comments and photographs are still coming in, including this one from a teacher and her son (a third-grader in the school).

Hi Mr. Simon!

Thank you so much for visiting Churchville! I am one of the third grade teachers there, and my son is a third grade student at Churchville as well!  When we got home, we were so excited to talk about your visit!  We love your books and enjoy reading them!  

On a side note, yesterday was our dog’s 10th birthday!  Ethan wanted to share this picture of our dog, Maveric, with you! 

Thank you again,

Tara and Ethan

Maveric is a beautiful dog, isn’t he?

Dear Seymour,

Your engaging website has been a rich resource for our students to learn about science. They have been reading your blog posts at school and at home and many have made personal connections to what they read. As a result of those connections, they were inspired to write comments of their own, send you photos, ask you questions and enter your contests. They did research and conducted a survey. They were excited to see their work published so quickly on your website and shared with a wide audience of readers across the country. This experience has been invaluable for our students as readers, writers and learners. We look forward to continuing to use your website to enrich our exploration and understanding of the fascinating world of science.

Sincerely, Gail Gorgol / Librarian / Churchville Elementary School 

I think that I am the one who should say "thank you" to everyone at Churchville Elementary. You really know how to make an author feel welcome! I loved spending time with you all.

Seymour Simon

February 16, 2011

Recently, Mr. K’s fifth grade class in Churchville, Pennsylvania read my book DOGS and created a poll about kids’ favorite dogs. That led to three weeks of students writing about their favorite dogs. We even ran a dog-related contest one snowy day in January.

I think it is time for cat lovers to have their say! Write and tell us about your favorite cat and why you love him or her.

Here’s an interesting, little known fact about cats to get you started: Scientists have discovered that a cat’s purr can coax its owner into giving them what they want by using a special noise that the human brain can’t ignore. According to the study, cats’ subliminal ‘feed me’ messages are disguised as ordinary purrs but have a high-pitched element that makes a human react as if it is an emergency, just like the cry of a baby.

Cats are highly intelligent animals. But you cat-lovers already knew that, didn’t you?

February 10, 2011

We’ve had many comments this week on the blog entry where I asked readers to tell me their favorite kind of dog. A lot of you have dogs (or know dogs) and you really love them!

Jackie took it even further, uploading a photograph of herself and her dog with this note:

"Dear Seymour. I wanted to tell you that my favorite dog is a Hungarian Puli, a sheep dog. This is a photo of her and me when I was little. Her name is Choulie! (pron: CHEW-lee) My mom said our dog is a rare breed! I didn’t know that until now!!!!"

Hungarian Pulis were bred to be sheepdogs, and were used for both herding and guarding livestock. As a family dog, they make good security dogs and faithful family guardians. They see their family as their "flock," and do not like strangers until they are sure that person is not a threat to the family. I first learned about Hungarian Pulis because my neighbor had one. I needed to be introduced to their Puli and let him see the family showing me affection before it was safe to walk into their yard!

The Puli’s coat falls in long, tight curls, almost like dreadlocks. With that thick coat a Puli can even fight off a wolf, because it is so hard for the wolf’s teeth to penetrate the curls to bite the skin. Those long locks also make a Puli virtually waterproof, which is probably why many European canal boat owners used Pulis to guard their homes.

These dogs are a lot of fun, because they are highly intelligent and keep a sense of puppy-like playfulness all their lives. However, if you are considering having one as a pet, you should know that Pulis need a lot of exercise. You’ll be happiest if you both enjoy an active, outdoor lifestyle.

Jackie, your Mom is right that you don’t see too many Hungarian Pulis in the U.S. these days. But, did you know this is an ancient breed that has been around for a long time? There is historical evidence of Pulis in Asia at least 2,000 years ago!

Thanks for uploading your photo and telling us about your best friend!

Photo: American Kennel Club

February 8, 2011

Over the summer, I got a call from Barnes and Noble. "Hey Seymour," they said. "We’re making the first color reader for kids. How would you like to write a book for us that we can give away to every single person who either buys a NookColor device, or downloads the NookColor app for their iPad?"

That sounded pretty good to me, so after some discussion, we decided to create a book called FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS. I did a lot of research to come up with unusual and surprising facts about common (and not so common) household pets.

The 11 pets profiled in this book are:

Bunnies, cats, dogs, goldfish, guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, parakeets, pot-bellied pigs, snakes and Shetland ponies. 

 Do you know why cats go night crazy?

Have you ever heard that pot-bellied pigs are so smart that some can open the refrigerator when they are hungry?! And you’ll discover that dogs’ feet sweat (and why). The book is really a lot of fun, and to top it off, actress Leslie Carrara (Abby Cadabby) does a spirited, funny reading that gives the book a dose of extra pizzazz!

Thanks to all the folks at Barnes and Noble.com for working with us to make this special eBook available free to all my readers. Go to the page for FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS on my website, where you will find links to either download the free book for your NookColor, or a link to download the NookKids app for your iPad.

Happy reading!

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