About the Author

Author Jennifer Keats Curtis wants to help bring children closer to the animals in their own backyards. By diligently researching her topic and interviewing real experts, including children working to help preserve and protect local wildlife, the former journalist has developed a knack for teaching young children about important ecological issues and what they can do to help.

Her first book, Oshus and Shelly Save the Bay (a paperback about oyster siblings quest to save their beloved Bay from pollution) won an award from the Maryland Council of Teachers of English Language Arts.

Her second book, Turtles in My Sandbox (a hardback based on a headstarting program in which schoolchildren raise diamondback terrapins in the classroom and then help experts tag and release them), a finalist for the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award, has been incredibly well received in the schools and by the public. With pet diamondback terrapin, Rascal, in hand, Jennifer regularly visits schools around the state to teach kids why turtles are laying eggs in sandboxes rather than on their usual nesting site-the beach. Besides combining imagination and scientific facts in page format, Jennifer also encourages students to reach out technologically by visiting www.terrapinbook.com, a unique website that she helped create with partners from Maryland's Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, and Maryland State Department of Education. The website, which provides a wealth of information about this elusive animal, also enables students raising terrapins to transmit data online to experts who are trying to learn more about it. Further, the site virtually opens up the popular headstarting program to students who do not have the opportunity to participate in the hands-on program.

Jennifer's third book, Osprey Adventure, is a heartwarming tale of how a boy and his biologist father save an osprey from certain death after it becomes accidentally entangled in fishing line. Illustrated by Marcy Dunn Ramsey (who illustrated Priscilla Cummings' Chadwick the Crab series), the book is based on the work of a real Bay hero, biologist Peter McGowan.

Jennifer's next book, about children who find help for a baby owl, will be the fourth in her animal series. It is scheduled to debut in early 2009.

Most days, this University of Maryland Phi Beta Kappa graduate can be found among students and teachers talking about literacy or conservation. She also regularly presents writing workshops to elementary school students. When she's not in schools, Jennifer contributes to several magazines and serves as editor-at-large for Maryland Life Magazine.

Jennifer resides in the Annapolis area, with her family, amidst several animals, most of them small.

Can’t find Osprey Adventure? Make a request in your local bookstore or contact the author: jcurtis@cablespeed.com. Or, order it online from any major bookseller, including Amazon.com, Borders.com, and BarnesandNoble.com.

To contact Jennifer about a visit, click here jcurtis@cablespeed.com or call 410.626.7657.