Danger! Nesting Alligators!

About the Book

Elizabeth, Louisiana, is the perfect place to live. Mama, Daddy, and Beaux love the house. Daddy and Beaux particularly like it because West Bay Game Reserve is right behind the house, and Clyde’s Pond is across the highway. Hunting and fishing without even getting in the car! Then Daddy deploys to Afghanistan for army duty, Mama gets a job in the library, and Beaux, eleven years old, is too old for a babysitter this year. This summer challenges Beaux with exciting new adventures. He makes new friends, gets a job, and goes to summer school. The whole family calls this exciting summer the Alligator Summer.

About the Author

Anita Harrison Van Ouwerkerk, the youngest of eight girls, grew up in the piney woods of Louisiana. When she wasn’t playing basketball or singing, she was often curled up with a good book or exploring the nearby swamp. Anita completed her master’s degree in education at the University of New Orleans and returned, with her husband, to the piney woods. The huge bull gator in this story lived in the lake behind the home of Anita’s dear friends, Mr. Billie and Ms. Lillie Anderson. Anita and her family spent many hours on Ms. Lillie’s back porch, sipping iced tea and peering through binoculars, watching the gators nest and raise their young.