Capybara Madness

Owner’s Blog

Table display for Celeste and the Giant Hamster

As hard as it was to pull myself away from Caplin for a whole day, I spent this past Saturday at a book festival in Georgetown, Texas. It’s coming up on the holiday season and it seemed like a good idea to get Celeste and the Giant Hamster out in the public eye. This is the first book festival I’ve ever attended, either as an author/participant or as library patron, even though I am an avid reader. I paid my twenty bucks and got my own table, shown above.

Sadly, the book festival people refused to allow Caplin to come, even for an hour or so, to entertain the festival goers. That was a mistake on their part because Caplin would have really livened up the place! Instead I had to use some stand-up cut-outs of him as surrogate capybaras. (I got the standups made at PartyStandups.com. If you’d like a Caplin standup, drop me a comment and let me know what photo you’re going to use so I can send you the full resolution image.)

The real Human Celeste and the fake Caplin Rous

That worked out okay but what I didn’t realize is that I should have marked each of the three stand-ups–one of baby Caplin, one of Caplin at four months and one of adult Caplin–as all being life-sized. Instead I had to tell everyone that when they came up to my desk. Maybe that actually worked better because it was fun to see their expressions of astonishment. (Although they would have been even more astonished by the real Caplin Rous.)

Celeste, my granddaughter and the impetus for writing the book, came and spent a little time with me. But mostly she went to the other book festival activities like the magic show and story-telling. She and the other kids seemed to have a great time. But the meet-the-authors part of the festival was tucked away in a room upstairs and there were no activities up there. For example, a live capybara activity would have been great. Or they could have just had short book-readings. Or they could have had authors talking to kids about what it is like to write.

But, alas, the meet-the-authors section was not well attended. Nevertheless, I had a great time. I met some interesting people, gave out a lot of cards for this blog, talked about capybaras to everyone, and had interesting discussions with some of my fellow authors.

I also gave away many copies of the capybara coloring pages and some kids even colored them at my table (I colored two myself!). If you colored one of the pages, please send me a scan of it to post here, you can use the Contact tab on the left sidebar. It would be great to see your artistic endeavors.

The Meet-the-Authors room at the book festival.

And I learned that Georgetown, Texas has a totally awesome library. It has wonderful open stacks, great art in the hallways and sculpture outside, an actual café in the library with great food. But the best part is the children’s section. It has a South American jungle theme with murals painted on all the walls.

Mural including a capybara in children's section of Georgetown library

Please notice the capybara peeking out of the grass near the bottom left corner. How great is that? Of course, whoever painted it had no idea how large capybaras are because that one would be a midget. Or maybe the jaguar is a giant. Or maybe nothing is drawn to scale. At any rate, I would love to do a book reading / capybara encounter and have Caplin in front of that mural. I donated a copy of the book to the library and gave them one of Caplin’s cards. Hopefully they’ll contact me about it.

Me with Chelsea and Cayla at Kyle Library

Last Friday my owner and I took a quick trip down the the Kyle Public Library to see if they were interested in us doing one of our book reading/capybara encounters.  Before the library opened, I met with some new friends, Shirley Bauder and her two granddaughters Chelsea and Cayla. Shirley took all the photos you see in this post.  (Thanks!) I loved having the kids feed me blueberries, which are one of my very favorite treats.

When the library opened, they asked me if I could stay until 10:30, which is story time for the little kids. Well, we weren’t very prepared but then you don’t have to be when you have a cute animal like me around to provide the entertainment.

My owner got to talk a little bit about Celeste and the Giant Hamster, although it is really for an older audience than we had. And she gave a copy to the library so that all the local kids can read it. Plus we got invited back for an official book reading/capybara encounter. We still have to pick a time and date for that. I will let y’all know when it is settled.

This brings me to a point:

If you would like to have me and my owner visit your local library or your classroom, just drop us a line via the contact button on the left sidebar. We love teaching people about capybaras and rodents in general. If you are a 3-5th grade class and have read my book, I would LOVE to come and talk to you. (My owner needs constant positive feedback or she gets all paranoid that no one likes the book.)

Me interacting with fans at the Buda Library

I heard on the news today (boring but my owner watches it for some reason) that Judge Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina supreme court justice in US history. She and I have something in common: I made a first for capybaras today. I was the first capybara in all of history, probably anywhere on the planet to attend a book reading at a public library.

We had a whole entourage to go to the library. First there was me. The event was actually billed as a book reading / capybara encounter which wouldn’t be anything but a book reading without the capybara would it? My owner also came because she had to do the reading part and she also serves as my chauffeur. Then my friend Clarissa, who is 13, came to be a “capybara handler.” I think she was really more crowd control. And Elizabeth, Clarissa’s mom, came to take photos. Lastly, Rick, my male human came to do the video. Wow, that was a lot of us. I was a bit worried that there were going to be more of us then them.

We got to the library and almost immediately ran into some people who had come for the book reading. That was a good sign. We got set up in our room off to the side of the main library. The floor in there was slick but my owner brought one of my beds for me to lie on and they pulled a couple of mats in from outside so I could walk more easily. Still, I felt uncomfortable in there so I dragged my owner back outside where we ran into more and more people coming to see me. I put on my best face. The sun sparkled off the sequins in my harness about which I got many, many compliments. Thanks to Mansy OLeary who decorated my harness for me I really feel like a star when I wear it.

Some of my fans at the book reading

The official capybara encountered started when we went back inside. My owner gave all of the kids blueberries and let them come up to pet and feed me. That was a good part because I love blueberries. Then she told them all about me, capybaras, and rodents in general. Mostly that part went well. The kids and adults asked a lot of good questions and I think my owner answered them all truthfully.

I listened carefully and I don't think she messed up much

For the reading, my owner started at the part when Celeste the Cat meets up with little calico Ruby and ended where Tiger gets knocked off the back of the capybara. Doesn’t that just make you want it to figure out what happened in between? I think most of the kids were pretty interested too but a lot of them were really too young for the book. And the room was PACKED, spilling out the back door and into the library proper. I have to say, there was some childish restlessness. Being a little restless myself, I stood up and put my paws on my owner’s lap and then I licked her face. People loved that.

I look bigger when I stand up

Me giving my owner a kiss during the book reading

At the end the library people served lemonaid and brownies and everyone poured outside where there was more room. A long line formed of people who wanted to pet me or get their photo taken with me. I would only stand still for a treat. I think everyone got to pet me and feed me and I am sure everyone came away thinking that we capybaras are wonderful animals.

If you would like me to appear at your school or library and you live in the Austin/Buda area, use the contact button to send me an email. I had a great time and I’m sure I can drag my owner to at least a couple more of these things.

Animals of the Rain Forest: Capybaras by Alexandria Manera
Steadwell Books
This is one of a series of Animals of the Rain Forest books.

Book Type: Non-fiction, quick overview
Ages: 6-8

The range map in this book is probably its best feature.

Synopsis:

This book has 32 pages of large type that include the following chapters:

• Range Map of Capybaras
• Quick Look at Capybaras
• Capybaras in teh Rain Forest
• What Do Capybaras Eat
• A Capybara’s Life Cycle
• The Future of Capybaras

Each section is a quick overview of 1-2 pages including a photo or diagram.

Owner’s Review:

The cover photograph is quite nice but most of the interior photos are not high quality.

The good thing about this book is that it doesn’t present any information that is wrong. The bad thing is that is that it is boring. I think it’s boring even for a young kid. For example, “A capybara’s habitat has a lot of water. A habitat is an area where a plant or animal usually lives.” Sure that’s informative and I understand that you have to explain the vocabulary to young children but couldn’t it be done in a more interesting way? There are numerous instances of this type of explanation.

Caplin’s Review:

I was too bored to listen to most of this book but I did find this sentence amusing: Some people believe that their [capybaras'] careful grazing helps to preserve their habitat. Those wild capys must be way different than me because I am not a careful grazer! Unless by “careful” you mean I only eat things that taste good and only as close to the roots as my big snout will allow.  I do make a decent lawnmower according to my owner.