Coming Soon!
Our fourth installment in the Kobee Manatee® series!
Kobee Manatee and his pals are swimming from the Cayman Islands to Belize. Kobee wants to help his cousin Quinn clean up plastic litter at her new, all-veggie underwater bistro called Quinn's Seagrass Café. However, along the way, the friends encounter harmful effects of climate change and several unforseen problems – a distressed loggerhead turtle, a giant Portuguese man-of-War, and a venomous scorpionfish. Their adventure takes another surprising turn when Pablo plunges into the Great Blue Hole! Can Kobee and his buddies save Pablo?
A Caribbean adventure loaded with fun, surprises, and facts about climate change, and plastic pollution in our oceans.
"Kobee Manatee is a lovable and magnetic host, leading readers into the waters that cover 70% of the earth while opening young minds to the connections between human actions and marine ecosystems. Creating opportunities, which inspire love for our marine animals can cultivate an environmentally responsible conscience that can last a lifetime." - Dr. Tracy Fanara, Inspector Planet & NOAA Coastal Modeling Portfolio Manager
Kobee Manatee
Shipwreck Sea Friends
Kobee Manatee
A Wild Weather Adventure
Kobee Manatee
Heading Home to Florida
The Original – Book 1 LEXILE MEASURE: AD610L This beautifully illustrated children’s informational picture book about the rare and threatened manatee is for parents, grandparents, children, teachers and librarians who want a captivating adventure that can be enjoyed again and again.
Kobee Manatee takes a rare summertime trip from Florida all the way up to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. But he needs to get home before winter sets in or he’ll die from the cold. Kobee meets two new friends along the way; Tess a seahorse and Pablo a hermit crab. Will their twelve hundred mile journey south be a safe one with so many unforeseen obstacles ahead?
“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 of Science and Conservation, Save the Manatee Club
Award-Winning Children’s Educational Picture Book Series
Selected for the 2018 International Literacy Association (ILA) – Children’s Book Council (CBC) Children’s Choices Reading List!
Gold Medal Recipient in the “Children’s K-3” category of the 2017 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards!
Silver Medal Recipient in the “Cover Design: Children’s/YA“ of the 2016 Ben Franklin Awards
Gold Medal Recipient in the “Children’s Educational” category of the 2016 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards!
Winner in the “Children’s Educational” category of the 2015 International Book Awards!
Gold Award Recipient in “Children’s Picture Books” – Mom’s Choice Awards!
Award-Winning Finalist in the “Children’s Educational” Category of The USA Best Book Awards!
INDIEFAB Finalist in Foreword’s Book of the Year Awards!
Kobee Manatee: Heading Home to Florida is a recipient of the prestigious Mom’s Choice Award. The Mom’s Choice Awards® (MCA) evaluates products and services created for parents and educators and is globally recognized for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. Using a rigorous evaluation process, entries are scored on a number of elements including production quality, design, educational value, entertainment value, originality, appeal and cost. Around the world, parents, educators, retailers and members of the media trust the MCA Honoring Excellence seal when selecting quality products and services for families and children.
Manatee Fun Facts
Travel to the Bahamas with Kobee Manatee and Friends as They Encounter Some Really Wild Weather!
Discover Fascinating Weather Facts with our Newest Title!
Click Here to Find out more:
Kobee Manatee: A Wild Weather Adventure
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https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-scott-thayer/kobee-manateecWuktOeT/
KIRKUS REVIEW
A manatee and his friends swim across the Gulf Stream and brave a hurricane on their way to the Bahamas in this colorful adventure for young readers.
In his second engaging children’s picture book, Thayer (Kobee Manatee: Heading Home to Florida, 2013) expertly weaves in true-life weather facts with a simple but eventful tale. A resourceful manatee named Kobee sets out on a 300-mile swim from Key West, Florida, to Nassau with his friends, a hermit crab named Pablo and a purple, pink-maned sea horse called Tess. There, Kobee plans to surprise his sister, Kim, on her birthday. But before the travelers reach the festive celebration, amid the multicolored coral reefs of the Bahamas’ warm waters, they face some suspenseful challenges. First, there’s a scary waterspout and a thunderstorm at sea: “Two lightning bolts shot right past us. The sky rumbled and roared.” A spinning hurricane follows:
“The east winds swirled… I went for air just as a GIANT wave spun us around like a washing machine.” Throughout the adventure, Kobee is both a navigator and educator; additional facts and figures, boxed and labeled “Kobee’s Fun Facts,” supplement the manatee’s explanations of the weather phenomena that the trio encounters. The book also tells its young audience, in text that doesn’t talk down to them, how to protect themselves in a thunderstorm, how storms rotate depending on the hemisphere they occupy, and how to identify different types of clouds: “white, wispy” cirrus, “creamy cotton” cumulus, and cirrocumulus resembling “fish scales.” Readers also learn of the two types of waterspouts (tornadic and fair weather), why the sky is blue, the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius, and that “a raindrop falls at an average speed of 17 miles per hour.” Despite the book’s encyclopedic quality, however, it’s a charming, simple story. The illustrations, rendered in colorful acrylic on illustration board, harmonize nicely with the active text, mixing real-world and fantasy elements in lavish sky and ocean settings.An appealing picture book distinguished by its colorful images, creatively distilled meteorological facts, and simple but dynamic storytelling.
Review is for Book 2: A Wild Weather Adventure
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https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/kobee-manatee-a-wild-weather-adventure/
Sarah Stewart
This vibrantly illustrated and amusing adventure will make learning about weather feel incidental.
With stunning images accompanying an adventurous tale that teaches young readers interesting weather and geographical facts, Kobee Manatee: A Wild Weather Adventure is a delight.
Kobee and his seafaring pals are on a voyage across the Gulf Stream to surprise his sister Kim for her birthday in her home waters of Nassau. They know the three hundred mile journey will be risky—it’s hurricane season after all—but they are brave and tenacious and so decide to give it a try. Using cloud formations to predict the weather and traversing several climates, aquatic features, and sometimes perilous weather events, the friends stick together through both storms and sunny skies.
Lauren Gallegos’ lush and vibrant illustrations make the book truly special. Her bold colors and dynamic scenes bring to life all of the adorable characters and their surroundings. The hurricane-plagued seas truly feel violent, while the waters of Blue Lagoon feel calm and bathtub-warm. Kobee and his friends are emotive and lively.
Though rooted in scientific teaching and dense with weather and water facts, this is an amusing story that will make learning feel incidental. Each scene features a sidebar called “Kobee’s Fun Facts” that offers a bigger breadth of learning for older readers, such as definitions of weather phenomena and an explanation of Fahrenheit and Celsius. While most of these facts line up with the story’s plot points, a few feel a little out of place and thus inconsistent. But this is a small matter in an otherwise wonderful volume that is highly recommended for weather watchers of all ages.
Review is for Book 2: A Wild Weather Adventure
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https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/kobee-manatee
Mamta Madhavan
In Kobee Manatee: A Wild Weather Adventure by Robert Scott Thayer, Kobee and his pals are anticipating a rough journey on the Atlantic Ocean as they plan to surprise Kobee Manatee’s sister Kim for her birthday. Kim lives in the Bahamas and their journey is during the hurricane season. Will Kobee and his friends Tess, the sea horse, and Pablo, the hermit crab, travel safely and reach Nassau in the Bahamas three hundred miles away where Kim lives?
It’s a storybook filled with an exciting adventure and Kobee’s fun facts are very useful, informative and educational for young readers. The story also connects readers beautifully with the ocean and teaches them a few things about the weather. The illustrations are colorful and lively and add to the appeal of the storybook. They also add pace and movement to the story. Each scene has something to do with the ocean and the weather, and the fun facts give clarity to the author’s words. The book will make a good bedtime storybook and it can also be used for read aloud sessions in classrooms and school libraries.
The author does an excellent job of weaving educational matter and story together to give children an adventurous storybook that sees them going on an exciting trip with Kobee, Tess and Pablo. The different moods of the sea are indeed very interesting to read as the trio travels to the Bahamas. It’s definitely worth having in one’s personal collection as the fun facts can be read again for reference.Review is for Book 2: A Wild Weather Adventure
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Rob Marciano, ABC News Senior Meteorologist
“A rare children’s book that gives kids a colorful learning adventure and some weather fun facts parents will enjoy too.”
Testimonial is for Book 2: A Wild Weather Adventure
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Kirkus Reviews
“An appealing picture book distinguished by its colorful images, creatively distilled meteorological facts, and simple but dynamic storytelling.”
Testimonial is for Book 2: A Wild Weather Adventure
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ForeWord Clarion Reviews
“This vibrantly illustrated and amusing adventure will make learning about weather feel incidental.”
Testimonial is for Book 2: A Wild Weather Adventure
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Kirkus Reviews
“A swimmingly fun, educational trip sure to be enjoyed by young friends of the manatee.”
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.
Review is for Book 1: Heading Home to Florida
~Kirkus Reviews
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BlueInk
“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
Review is for Book 1: Heading Home to Florida
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The Children’s Book Review
“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.” – The Children’s Book Review (www.thechildrensbookreview.com)
Review is for Book 1: Heading Home to Florida
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Save the Manatee Club
“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 of Science and Conservation, Save the Manatee Club
Review is for Book 1: Heading Home to Florida
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ForeWord Reviews
“This luxuriously illustrated, infectiously charming story makes us want to save the manatee and have a plush version to hug.” – ForeWord Clarion Reviews
Review is for Book 1: Heading Home to Florida
Robert Scott Thayer
Kobee Manatee
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