Swimming Lessons (34 page)

Dear Reader,

For millions of years the sea turtles have survived the changes and fluctuations of our planet. Recently, however, the species has been threatened with extinction. Sick, debilitated and injured sea turtles are increasing in number.

You
can
make a difference!

Sea turtle hospitals have been established around the world to help ensure the future of the species. Here in South Carolina, when a sick or unhealthy sea turtle is found along the coast it is brought to the Sea Turtle Hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium, where staff and volunteers can take care of it in the state-of-the-art facility.

If you’d like to support this worthy effort, you can make a donation to your local sea turtle hospital, or to:

• Sea Turtle Hospital
  South Carolina Aquarium
  100 Aquarium Wharf
  Charleston, SC 29401
  Or go to www.scaquarium.org
  

• Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital
  P.O. Box 3012
  822 Carolina Ave.
  Topsail Beach, NC 28445
  

The turtles thank you!

1. Monroe’s novels are inspired by the natural world. For
   SWIMMING LESSONS
   , Mary Alice volunteered at the sea turtle hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium. In the novel she writes about the rehabilitation and release of a beautiful loggerhead on the Isle of Palms—“Big Girl.” The reader witnesses the transformation of the sea turtle from an emaciated, weak, barnacle-encrusted creature to a gleaming, healthy, strong specimen of a sea turtle in her prime. How is this symbolic of Toy’s transformation in the novel?
   
2. Toy raises the universal question, “Am I a good mother?” As Toy explores this question, she examines the tending instinct. Is the tending instinct, or the drive to nurture, inherited? Is it carried on the X chromosome? Or is being a good mother something that is a learned behavior?
   
3. Sea turtles are guided by their instinct to return to the beach of their birth, to leave the sea and to crawl ashore to dig a nest. Then they return to the sea, never to return to the nest. Despite this seeming abandonment, this is their biological model. They are following an instinct over 100 million years old. What makes a good mother in the human species? What instincts do we follow?
   
4. Toy’s story is a redemptive one. How did Miss Lovie change Toy’s life? How does Cara continue the tra
   dition? Discuss how the power of one person—a role model or a mentor—has the power to change someone’s life.
   
5. In
   SWIMMING LESSONS
   , Toy’s life was changed by the influence of Miss Lovie, and later, the women in the Turtle Team. As the years pass, Toy’s daughter, Little Lovie, is raised by the “village” of the Turtle Team. Discuss how this kind of innovative family structure can provide a network of love and support.
   

I am grateful to the South Carolina Aquarium for their endless support during the writing of this book. The sea turtles in this story were case histories at the aquarium’s sea turtle hospital and their successful releases home to the sea are testament to the dedication of the staff and volunteers. In particular, Kelly Thorvalson, Kevin Mills, Jason Crichton, Shane Boylan and Arnold Postell.

Thank you also to Jean Beasely and the volunteers at the Karen Beasely Sea Turtle Hospital, North Carolina. At the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Conservation Program, thanks to DuBose Griffin, Charlotte Hope, Sally Murphy, Joan Seithel. And to Meg Hoyle at the Botany Island Sea Turtle Program.

Special thanks to Micah and Daniel LaRoche of the Cherry Point Seafood company, and to Shane and Morgan Zeigler at Barrier Island Eco-Tour on Isle of Palms.

My love and thanks to fellow Isle of Palms/Sullivan’s Island Turtle Team members and to all the volunteers who walk the beaches for our beloved loggerheads.

Many thanks to my editors, Margaret O’Neill Marbury and Martha Keenan, to my agents Robert Gottlieb and Kim Whalen, and to Eileen Hutton at Brilliance Audio.

As always, I am forever grateful for the support of my family: Markus, Gretta and Zack Kruesi, and Claire, John and Jack Dwyer.