If you’ve read either of Carol Story’s books, you won’t be surprised to learn that Dr. Suess was her favorite author of children's books. But that’s not how she got started writing children’s books of her own.
Carol’s mother had a habit of writing rhymes to mark special occasions; she always referred to them as “Rotten Rhymes”. Over the years, Carol had picked up that habit and would write rhymes to commemorate special occasions of friends and family – retirements, weddings, relocations. She started writing Rotten Rhymes late in her career in the corporate world, and continued do it even more frequently after retirement.
In her retirement, Carol began volunteering for various environmental causes, long a passion of hers. One of her favorite volunteer jobs was walking the beach in Stratford, Connecticut for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, where she helped monitor the piping plovers, least terns, common terns and American oystercatchers nesting there. She volunteered there during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 nesting seasons.
She would share her observations with her mother, who had long been interested in birds. After her mother’s death and at the suggestion of a friend, she wrote “Ellie’s Day at the Shore” as a way to tie together her mother’s memory with her volunteer work.
“Ellie’s Day at the Shore” earned a 5-star review from Readers Favorite. It was also featured in a blog for Audubon Connecticut, where Carol talked about her volunteer work, in Birds of New England, a birding column by Chris Bosak, and in an article in Hearst Media Connecticut. (See links to each of these articles under “Links” on this page.)
In 2019, Carol began volunteering for Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, where she chats with guests and gives them information and insights about the many animal residents there, as well as a little about the history of the Zoo. She enjoyed writing “Ellie’s Day at the Shore” so much that she decided to write a book about Ellie and Carol going to the Zoo. She collaborated on the project with Jack Bradley, another Zoo volunteer who is also a photographer. All the animal pictures you see in the book were taken by Jack.
The result of that collaboration is “Ellie’s Day at the Zoo”, a picture book with a story.
Carol also writes for and edits The Howler, a newsletter for volunteers and staff of Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport. Carol lives in Connecticut and is a volunteer Docent at the Zoo.
You can follow or contact the author at https://Twitter.com/carols5835 or https://www.instagram.com/carols5835/