Books with author Marc Simmons

In 1978, a young killer whale “Keiko” was collected off the east coast of Iceland and spent the next 18 years in human care. At Reino Aventura Park in Mexico, his home was not conducive to good health, and over time his condition deteriorated. In 1993, Keiko became the star of Free Willy, a Warner Bros. blockbuster movie, that enchanted the public and led children and adults to believe that a whale, long-held in the care of man, could successfully make its way in the wild.Animal rights organizations lobbied for a real-life release program for Keiko, similar to his fictitious counterpart, and millions of dollars were raised to return the orca back to his home waters.Author Mark Simmons was leader of the team of animal behaviorists brought to Iceland as part of the release project. But the program was doomed to failure from the start; plagued by hidden agendas and an organization unable to recognize that Keiko needed to learn to be wild before any chance at survival could exist.

“This picture book has all the earmarks of a classic. Simont gets it all right.” —The Horn Book (starred review)Caldecott Medalist Marc Simont's heartwarming tale of a stray dog is told with tender simplicity and grace.When a little dog appears at a family picnic, the girl and boy play with him all afternoon, and they name him Willy. At day's end they say good-bye. But the dog has won their hearts and stays on their minds.The following Saturday the family returns to the picnic grounds to look for Willy, but they are not alone—the dog catcher is looking for him, too!Awards for this book include: Caldecott Honor Book * New York Times Best Illustrated Book * ALA Notable Children's Book * Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book * Amazon.com Editors’ Pick * School Library Journal Best Book * New York Public Library’s “One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing”

Today, as much as ever before, the red-rock, pinon-covered state of New Mexico remains tierra encantada, "the land of enchantment," to Indians, Anglos, and descendants of the conquistadores.New Mexico's long history of intermingling peoples and of efforts to balance human needs with nature's resources can instruct a nation facing similar hard decisions in the late twentieth century. It is a story, believes author Marc Simmons, that contains within it a perpetual declaration of independence.

In 1978, a young killer whale “Keiko” was collected off the east coast of Iceland and spent the next 18 years in human care. At Reino Aventura Park in Mexico, his home was not conducive to good health, and over time his condition deteriorated. In 1993, Keiko became the star of Free Willy, a Warner Bros. blockbuster movie, that enchanted the public and led children and adults to believe that a whale, long-held in the care of man, could successfully make its way in the wild.Animal rights organizations lobbied for a real-life release program for Keiko, similar to his fictitious counterpart, and millions of dollars were raised to return the orca back to his home waters.Author Mark Simmons was leader of the team of animal behaviorists brought to Iceland as part of the release project. But the program was doomed to failure from the start; plagued by hidden agendas and an organization unable to recognize that Keiko needed to learn to be wild before any chance at survival could exist.

This popular fourth-grade-level textbook introduces the young reader to New Mexico's past and present, beginning with its geography and covering the changes in the state's culture, society, and economy from earliest times and until the present. Mindful that the student reading this book is probably learning about New Mexico history for the first time, this volume's abundant illustrations and engaging text will spark and sustain readers' interest. New Mexico has been continuously settled for over 10,000 years, and this book is centered on the various cultural traditions contributed and blended over time by many groups of people. When students finish the book, they will better understand how different cultures shaped the way we live today as well as know major events and key people in New Mexico's development. A separate teachers guide, complete with lesson plans and instructional suggestions as well as student activities and exercises, is also available. If twenty or more copies of New Mexico! are purchased, one copy of the teachers guide is free. (Call for more information.)

In the spring of 1883 Apache raiders massacred Judge McComas and his wife Juniata and kidnapped their six-year-old son Charley as the family traveled on a desolate road in southwestern New Mexico Territory, all victims of revenge sought by the Apaches for Gen. George Crook's campaign.At the time, the entire circumstances concerning this tragic incident had not been fully understood--or perhaps cared about. In Massacre on the Lordsburg Road, historian Marc Simmons brings to light one of the last massacres of the Indian wars, presenting exactly why and how the McComases met their end on that desolate road, the events that led up to it, and the public reactions that followed.Simmons recounts the raids and counter-raids leading up to the massacre and General Crook's subsequent Sierra Madre campaign. This was the first use of the "Hot Pursuit Treaty" signed between the United States and Mexico in 1882, allowing troops of either country to follow hostile Indians across the border.With balanced, honest treatment Simmons constructs from long-buried fragments the events of that fateful day, the motivation for the attack, the subsequent publicity and search for the missing son, and, in broader terms, the cultural friction and clash between the Apache and the settler. The puzzlement of why a reputably wise and able man would lead his family into such a fatal predicament, the pursuit of the Apaches into Mexico by General Crook, and the ironic circumstance of Charley McComas's death at the hands of Crook's troops in a raid on the Apache camp, illustrates that past events were as complex and as human as those today.Though academically thorough in its exploration and deliverance, Massacre on the Lordsburg Road will interest general readers of Indian history.

Joan Myers' rich black-and-white photographs of the area surrounding the Santa Fe Trail are accompanied by an historical essay by author Marc Simmons. Text and photographs combine to realize a vivid sense of what the trail was like throughout its 60 years of use and what has become of its remains today. An evocative visual and historical retracing of one of the most important overland trade routes of the nineteenth century.

In the spring of 1883 Apache raiders massacred Judge McComas and his wife Juniata and kidnapped their six-year-old son Charley as the family traveled on a desolate road in southwestern New Mexico Territory, all victims of revenge sought by the Apaches for Gen. George Crook's campaign.At the time, the entire circumstances concerning this tragic incident had not been fully understood--or perhaps cared about. In Massacre on the Lordsburg Road, historian Marc Simmons brings to light one of the last massacres of the Indian wars, presenting exactly why and how the McComases met their end on that desolate road, the events that led up to it, and the public reactions that followed. Simmons recounts the raids and counter-raids leading up to the massacre and General Crook's subsequent Sierra Madre campaign. This was the first use of the "Hot Pursuit Treaty" signed between the United States and Mexico in 1882, allowing troops of either country to follow hostile Indians across the border.With balanced, honest treatment Simmons constructs from long-buried fragments the events of that fateful day, the motivation for the attack, the subsequent publicity and search for the missing son, and, in broader terms, the cultural friction and clash between the Apache and the settler. The puzzlement of why a reputably wise and able man would lead his family into such a fatal predicament, the pursuit of the Apaches into Mexico by General Crook, and the ironic circumstance of Charley McComas's death at the hands of Crook's troops in a raid on the Apache camp, illustrates that past events were as complex and as human as those today.Though academically thorough in its exploration and deliverance, Massacre on the Lordsburg Road will interest general readers of Indian history.

“This picture book has all the earmarks of a classic. Simont gets it all right.” —The Horn Book (starred review)Caldecott Medalist Marc Simont's heartwarming tale of a stray dog is told with tender simplicity and grace.When a little dog appears at a family picnic, the girl and boy play with him all afternoon, and they name him Willy. At day's end they say good-bye. But the dog has won their hearts and stays on their minds.The following Saturday the family returns to the picnic grounds to look for Willy, but they are not alone—the dog catcher is looking for him, too!Awards for this book include: Caldecott Honor Book * New York Times Best Illustrated Book * ALA Notable Children's Book * Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book * Amazon.com Editors’ Pick * School Library Journal Best Book * New York Public Library’s “One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing”

Today, as much as ever before, the red-rock, pinon-covered state of New Mexico remains tierra encantada, "the land of enchantment," to Indians, Anglos, and descendants of the conquistadores. New Mexico's long history of intermingling peoples and of efforts to balance human needs with nature's resources can instruct a nation facing similar hard decisions in the late twentieth century. It is a story, believes author Marc Simmons, that contains within it a perpetual declaration of independence.