Red Slider is an adventure novel for children. 

Benjamin is a red-eared slider in a pond of painted turtles.  His friends are as unusual as he is, and include a frog with the courage of a knight, a polka-dot turtle, and his best friend Wibble, who has an unusual habit of collecting artifacts from the dreaded tulegs. 

But Benjamin's unusual friends turn out to be his best helpers when he proves that he's not only different because of the red stripe on his neck, but also because of the courage in his heart.

Join Benjamin and his friends on their quest for a new home as theirs is threatened by the tulegs and their giant rumblers.

A note from the author:

The idea for Red Slider occurred to me during the lucky convergence of two events.  In June of 2005, I watched as construction equipment cleared away several acres of trees (including my second favorite tree in the world!) to make way for new luxury homes.  I felt sad not only about the loss of such old and majestic trees, but also because that area had been home to many deer, small mammals, and coyotes.

The very next month, I was swimming in Emerald Lake (Vermont), when I was disturbed by the rumbling of trucks passing by on VT-7, adjacent to the lake.  Having just spotted a bevy of frogs and an assortment of turtles, I wondered if they ever thought about the rumbling off to their left.  (and the voices along the path, children chasing them around, etc., etc.)

Together, the two events painted a story in my mind.  A story of a pond full of animals living a very "normal" life next to a busy roadway.  A story in which that pond becomes threatened with destruction, and a story in which the animals try to help themselves in the face of this grave danger.

Red Slider is not a story about saving animal habitats - it's an adventure story about Benjamin and his friends.  I hope that, first and foremost, children enjoy the adventure.  If, along the way, they learn a little something about ecosystem balance, wildlife conservation, and zoology - well, that would be OK too!

Blair Hickson Riley