The Tortoise and the Hairpiece

The Tortoise and the Hairpiece is the story of a lonely young tortoise named Jake who is embarrassed by his bald head. Even though other animals invite him to play, he keeps to himself, positive that nobody will really want to be his friend because he looks different. When he tries to look like everyone else, it doesn’t quite work the way he planned. After getting some help from a local misguided buzzard and a wise owl, he learns that everyone is best at being themselves and that he doesn’t need to try to be someone else or look like someone else just to make friends. True friends care about Jake for who he is inside and that’s what makes him special.

The Tortoise and the Hairpiece is the story of a lonely young tortoise named Jake who is embarrassed by his bald head. Even though other animals invite him to play, he keeps to himself, positive that nobody will really want to be his friend because he looks different. When he tries to look like everyone else, it doesn’t quite work the way he planned. After getting some help from a local misguided buzzard and a wise owl, he learns that everyone is best at being themselves and that he doesn’t need to try to be someone else or look like someone else just to make friends. True friends care about Jake for who he is inside and that’s what makes him special.

Don Winn is the author and creator of the Cardboard Box Adventures series of interactive children's books. He currently lives just outside of Austin, Texas, and has been writing creatively for over twelve years. He began by writing poetry, but eventually began writing children's stories also. He has sometimes expressed surprise that he became a writer, because he remembers that when he was in school, writing was not one of his favorite subjects. But now it is one of his favorite things to do! When Don was a child and visited his grandmother, she would read with him every night out of a big children's dictionary. Even though that's not the most exciting thing to read, Don remembers it vividly because it was a time that the two of them spent together, reading and talking about what they had read. Mostly he remembers the warm bond it created between them. Because of this, the idea of lap-reading is something that Don Winn hopes to encourage through his interactive books. Every book teaches a simple, valuable lesson and contains a few questions for discussion at the end that parents can use to help start conversations about important topics with their children. Most importantly, reading and talking about these stories helps strengthen and maintain both communication and the loving bond between parent and child. The name for the Cardboard Box Adventures series comes from one of Don's favorite childhood activities: playing with a big, empty cardboard box. The box could be anything he imagined it to be...a rocket ship, a submarine, a fort, a tent, a cave...the possibilities were endless. And so through his light-hearted stories, Don Winn hopes to encourage children to use and develop their imagination in many ways. Because although imaginary childhood adventures are a wonderful beginning, it's also true that continuing to foster imagination in children helps them to learn and grow, to solve problems, and to become more empathetic and compassionate adults.