This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Robert Scott Thayer is the author of the award-winning Kobee Manatee Children’s Educational Picture Book Series. Robert also has won several International Songwriting Awards including those from Billboard. Grammy Award winner, Jim Cravero, produced his newest children’s tune, Kobee’s Song. It’s fun, upbeat, and has a solid reggae groove.
Ever since he was young, Robert had a passion for manatees. His admiration for these endangered marine mammals grew, which resulted in Thayer studying manatees in greater detail. His plans include creating a complete Kobee Manatee series, which is educational, entertaining, and fun for children, parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians.
Thayer also has a strong interest in weather, the oceans, and sea life, which are subjects for other titles in his Kobee Manatee series. Robert has a degree from Temple University. He is also a member of the Author’s Guild, SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), the Save the Manatee Club in Maitland, Florida and BMI. Robert currently resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Learn more about Robert at robertscottthayer.com
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Kobee Manatee: Heading Home to Florida is a children’s educational picture book written by Robert Scott Thayer and illustrated by Lauren Gallegos. While most manatees rarely travel very far, Kobee Manatee likes to have adventures, and he’s made his way from Blue Springs State Park in Florida up the Eastern United States coast to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The water is starting to get a bit cold up there in Cape Cod Bay now that it’s September, so Kobee will be heading back south to his home in the warmer Florida waters before winter comes. Kobee is a West Indian manatee, and he’s a warm-blooded mammal. He thrives in water that’s 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Manatees that winter in Florida will often travel to the Gulf of Mexico or along the Southeastern Coast of the United States. When Kobee set out on his 1200 mile journey back home, he was on his own, but he soon meets up with Tess, a seahorse who also wants to get to where the water is warmer, and Pablo, a hermit crab from South Carolina, who is far from home. The three companions make their way southward along the coast until they finally reach Blue Springs State Park. Along the way, they have a number of interesting encounters.
Robert Scott Thayer’s educational picture book for children, Kobee Manatee: Heading Home to Florida, is a treasure trove of little known facts about the manatee presented on each page in Kobee’s Fun Facts. And they are both a lot of fun and enlightening at the same time. As I read through this entertaining and gorgeously illustrated book, I couldn’t help but share some of those amazing manatee facts with a friend. Lauren Gallegos’ illustrations are stunning, and they follow the gist of the story perfectly. And as they are predominantly in shades of blue and green, Kobee himself could enjoy these pictures as those are the two colors a manatee can see -- see now you know an amazing fact about manatees as well -- and there are a lot more of them inside the book. There’s also an impromptu and easily understandable geography lesson hidden within the pages of this picture book as the reader follows Kobee and his friends as they head south. Adults will have as much fun as their young charges reading this most impressive picture book, and new readers will find the book exciting and challenging to look at and read on their own. I had a marvelous time reading it and now consider myself nearly an expert on the strange and wondrous creature called the manatee, well, if not an expert, a lot more knowledgeable than most. Kobee Manatee: Heading Home to Florida is most highly recommended.
