Lady Bug: Action Hero!

Lady Bug - Action Hero! is the story of a beautiful, sweet, and very strong little Lady Bug who lives in the 'forest of forever.' She is friends with a ditsy blond butterfly named Betsy, the wise old Mr. Turtle, and Jeremy the frog. Into the forest appears a tap-dancing caterpillar. Later come the ferocious fire ants! Lady Bug saves old Mr. Turtle (who cannot move fast enough) from the ants, using her Karate skills. Into the forest at twilight fly two beautiful Love Birds. They are clearly very much in love. While the forest creatures sleep, a hunter creeps in, and captures one of the Love Birds. To make matters worse, just then a wasp flies in, and heads straight towards Jeremy. Lady Bug rushes to protect him, and the Wasp, so taken aback by the courage of this little bug, breaks down in tears.. They all console her, and become fast friends. Lady Bug now has to find the lost Love Bird. She travels far and long, and finds her at last in the home of a young family who has a little girl. The little girl convinces her parents to let the Love Bird return to the forest. Lady Bug and the Love Bird fly home. There is great rejoicing. But the Hunter returns to finish the job, not realizing there is another member of the family - the Wasp! She attacks him, sending him off howling in pain. And remember the caterpillar? Well from the depths of the forest appears a fuzzy little face - it squirms and rolls around and soon we see a beautiful butterfly - a friend for Betsy. And the moral of the story? A hero can be small in size, but is always big of heart.

Kim Tuttle, author

Kim Tuttle was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, and attended the University of Florida on full scholarship with a double major in music and French. She was a highly trained dancer, continuing her studies at the prestigious Stuttgart ballet school, where she soon became staff pianist and subsequently ballet instructor. In 1986 she made more international gains by becoming ballet mistress of the highly regarded Zurich Ballet In 1987 she returned to Gainesville and took over the reins of DANCE ALIVE!, an exciting and highly respected national touring company. Ms. Tuttle has created over 100 ballets, received three choreographic fellowships from the State of Florida department of cultural affairs, and received the Nancy Smith Award from the Florida Dance Association in June 2000 for 'Outstanding Achievement and Excellence in the Field of Dance'. Her ballets have been seen worldwide. She continues to enjoy music as a chamber pianist, accompanist, and occasional composer. Her literary achievements, although small, have found their way into ballets as narratives, and into state magazines as ballet reviews. This is Ms. Tuttle's first, and perhaps her only, book.

Catherine Goldman-Bloomfield, illustrator

Ms. Goldman received her B.A. with Specialization in Drawing and Painting from California State College. Her gifts as an equine artist have brought her numerous commissioned paintings for race track luminaries and owners of thoroughbreds such as Spendthrift, Nashua, Affirmed, and Man O' War. She created and executed catalogue covers, magazine covers and art, newspaper art, media guides, and program covers for such thoroughbred industry entities as The Blood Horse, Kentucky Derby, Ocala Breeders' Sales Company, Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, Washington State Breeders' Association, Arlington Park Race Track, Gulfstream Park, Woodbine Race Course and Santa Anita Race Track. An accomplished dancer, she studied ballet with Carmelita Marracci and Stanley Holden, among others. She has designed and painted backdrops for DANCE ALIVE!'s productions of Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the Rite of Spring. In 1996 she began writing and illustrating for Dancer Magazine.