Pete The Incredible Puffer Fish: A Love Story in the Florida Keys - Paperback

by Elia Chepaitis (Author)

Pete the Incredible Puffer: A Love Story in the Florida Keys is not only a gentle story about a humble, pudgy, spiny fish who became a hero, but also an introduction to the marine life of the Florida Keys, and an adventure story featuring three intrepid teenage explorers. Because he is surrounded by spectacular sea creatures, Pete believes that he is plain and ordinary. He also thinks that he does not have to worry about the predators and dangers that other fish face but he is mistaken, on both counts. One day, even though he is inflated, poisonous, and covered with spines for protection, Pete finds himself in a worrisome predicament. With courage and perseverance, Pete calls upon a unique talent to overcome adversity and help his friends. And he falls in love. Meanwhile, the three teens snorkel, camp, and explore reefs and islands from the Keys to the Dry Tortugas. They collect and release aquarium specimens, and are conscientious guardians of the endangered coral reefs. The book is intended to excite readers from the second grade and up, and to be read to smaller children. The characters' curiosity, energy, and kind-hearted initiatives are reminiscent of Tom Sawyer and Anne of Green Gables. Readers may be inspired to pursue independent adventures themselves, even in their back yards, knowing that frontiers like the coral reefs are waiting for them. The thirty-page book contains numerous color illustrations and photographs that attempt to capture the magnificence and diversity of the Keys: fish, sea turtles, live coral, birds, boats, and fortresses. The atmosphere is one of trust, responsibility, and mutual respect, against the beguiling background of a simple but rich lifestyle.

Author Biography

Elia Chepaitis is an avid kayaker and environmentalist who lives in the Florida Keys most of the year, and also spends time at a retreat on a bluff in Maine and a family home facing Long Island Sound in Connecticut. She is a member of the Key West Writers Guild, an award-winning poet, a former newspaper columnist, a professor emeritus of information systems, the recipient of three Fulbright fellowships, and the inventor of an intuitive alternative to Braille. She is also the author of the forthcoming Murder with Kayaks in the Florida Keys, and also The Opium of the Children: The Drug Trade in Early Victorian England. But her very favorite job was lifeguarding and teaching swimming.