A couple of years ago I got interested in photographing the brown anoles in my yard in northeast Florida, where we have lots of anoles. I’m not a scientist–I’m a high school special education teacher–and I didn’t know much about anoles, so I began looking up information and learning about them. I ended up with lots of photos and information about anoles and I decided to put together a little book about anoles for kids. Kids in this area see anoles all the time, and I thought they’d be interested in knowing more about them.
I self-published “Lizards on the Fence” at Blurb and I’ve sold and given copies to other teachers, friends, and neighbors. People have told me that their kids or grandkids will take the book out in the yard and compare the photos to the anoles they see, identifying them as males or females, commenting on their dewlaps, and watching young anoles grow. The 10-year-old son of a staff member at my school told his mother, “Mom, this inspires me! Can I have a camera? I want to write a book too!” Maybe a future herpetologist there!
If anyone would like to see the book, there’s a good-sized preview at Blurb. Here is the link: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/603481
I was so happy to find Anole Annals with so much information about anoles! I’m considering going back and working on the book again, revising and adding more photos, so comments are very welcome.
- Lizards on the Fence: Book about anoles for kids - May 5, 2012
Jonathan Losos
I just purchased the book, and it is really lovely. Great photographs, and very informative, with a nice story line about the eponymous lizard on the backyard fence. Full of factual and quite accurate information (ok, I could quibble once or twice over minor details). Great for anyone–child or adult–interested in brown anoles!
KarenC
Thank you for your nice comments! I didn’t expect feedback like that and I really appreciate it. I was happy to hear that there are only a couple of details that could be quibbled over! I tried hard to make it accurate using the resources I could find, but I knew there would be things to correct. I’m glad you enjoyed the book!
BRYCE
i have a brown anole lizard