Welcome to the website for my latest book, Lacy’s Adventure: The Quest of a Decorator Crab and Her Friends. It is part two of a trilogy, telling the life and adventures of a unique decorator crab named Lacy. My last of this trilogy, addressing climate change, will come out by next year.

I invite you to go on this adventure with me into the world of Lacy and her friends — to learn about their habitats, and the challenges each face living in the tidepools and oceans. Explore how they learn to cope as humans might with not only dangerous predators, but also ocean pollution and garbage near shore.

I hope you’ll take courage from these creatures as they come together and work as a team to help solve the pollution problems that threaten their very existence. Their united effort reminds us that we, together, can make a huge difference in the ways we care for our planet and for each other. May my stories illustrate for you that as an individual, working alone or with others, you can do things to protect our Earth. Each one of us is gifted and more empowered than we realize to create a more clean, safe, and beautiful world around us.

Please feel free to explore the website and listen to the free narration and music, done by my brother, Steve Halter. You can also read about the purpose of my books, check out some recommended links for parents and educators.

Just a little note:

I have been asked why I chose to anthropomorphize my animal characters in stories that are embedded in science and ecology. It is my belief that we, whether young or old, more readily connect with characters we can identify with as we read their stories and live vicariously their lives and challenges. I think back to how deeply I was moved by books like Charlotte’s Web and Black Beauty as a child. These stories featuring talking animals had a big impact on me as I related to the fears, loneliness, pain, and uncertainties these animals faced and overcame through the love and joy they created together. More recently, my husband and I have taken a keen interest in YouTube videos such as Unlikely Animal Friendships, Geobeats, The Dodo, and countless other animal documentaries that show the depth of intelligence and feelings animals of all kinds demonstrate!

While sharing these stories with my own students through my years of teaching, I saw that they helped us become united in compassion towards all living things. So, I am motivated to offer to a wider audience my tales that portray animal characters with words and feelings like those of humans, in the belief that we are all brothers and sisters, no matter who we are.