Life in the Slow Lane: A Desert Tortoise Tale

Is life in the "slow lane" really better? Tortoises think so! Shelly the Tortoise and her Grandpa spend the day learning about their cousins (crocodiles), eating their favorite foods (prickly cactus and flowers) and losing races with jackrabbits. Life in the slow lane seems perfect - except for those homes and highways moving into the tortoises' habitat. How can people and tortoises really live together? Shelly and her Grandpa know the answer - do you? In delightful rhymed verse, Conrad J. Storad tells the story of the tortoise and explains how it has adapted to survive in the desert. Useful information about these amazing creatures appears at the end of the book. Nathan Jensen's illustrations of tortoises taking it easy - and one Type A rabbit who learns to slow down - add to the charm of this informative book for children. Ages: 4-8

Conrad J. Storad is the award-winning author or editor of more than 50 science and nature books for children and young adults. His newest titles include the picture books Gator, Gator, Second Grader, Monster in the Rocks, Fang and Stinger (An Arachnid Story), Arizona Way Out West & Wacky, and Arizona Way Out West & Witty - Library Edition, fun history and activity books for young readers co-authored with Linda Exley, and Arizona Color Me Wacky, a fun coloring/learning book for beginning readers. AZ Witty was named One Book Arizona for Kids in 2012 by the Arizona State Library. It was also selected to represent Arizona as part of the 52 Great Reads program run annually at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. by the National Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. In 2012, AZ Wacky won several national awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal Award for Nonfiction, the Moonbeam Children's Book Award Silver Medal for Nonfiction, and a USA Book News Best Book Award for nonfiction activity books. In November 2011, Los Angeles-based USA Book News named Storad's Rattlesnake Rules as "Best Children's Nonfiction Picture Book in the USA." The National Federation of Press Women honored his book Mars as Best Children's Nonfiction Book for 2011. In 2006, Storad's Don't Call Me Pig! (A Javelina Story) was selected by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as part of her program to promote reading. More than 93,000 Arizona first-graders received a special edition copy. In 2001, Libraries Limited and the Arizona Library Association honored him with the Judy Goddard Award as "Arizona Children's Author of the Year."