Blubert Strut
Who Am I? Story of a Lost Blue Footed Booby Bird
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
BLUBERT STRUT is a fictional children’s story based on a real event It is a “Who Am I”, nature mystery, displaying good values, like, helpfulness, kindness and friendship.
The Story
A helicopter flew over a crystal Lake carrying Dr. Rhinehart. She was delivering eggs of the Blue Footed Booby Bird from the Galapagos Islands, to an Animal Park, for a scientific study. A gust of wind tipped it, and one of the eggs from the Blue Footed Booby Birds rolled out and fell towards the lake.
The Story
MOLLY DICKERSON, 8, has red hair, ponytail and freckles like GRANNY PAT did, when she was her age. Molly loves spending the summer visiting Granny, who is a lot of fun, a great cook, and spoils her. Molly’s self-appointed job for the summer is a ‘lookout’, for duck lake patrol detectives CAPTAIN QUACK and SERGEANT WACK. To make her job easier, Granny Pat gave Molly these cool, binoculars.
Granny Pat’s home on the north shore, has been a gathering spot for feeding the birds, for the last 35 years, including the black swans, PENELOPE who is fascinated by her beautiful reflection in the dark water and her mate MAXWELL.Molly’s lookout perch is on the upper porch that overlooks the whole lake, with her buddy RUDY; neighbor Margie’s golden retriever dog. Rudy called The Cool, Wise One, protector of all the kids and critters. They spend a lot of time together, since Margie has coffee with Granny Pat daily and brings Rudy along. Several months ago, a helicopter flew over the Lake, carrying DR. STACEY RHINEHART, a scientist, transporting some of the BLUE FOOTED BOOBY BIRD eggs, to a Wild Animal Park. The helicopter tipped, in a big gust of wind, and one of the eggs rolled out and fell toward the lake.
Luckily, it landed in the nest of MELODIE and MALCOLM Mocking Bird, at the top of a leaning palm tree, over the lake. Melodie had just laid 6 eggs and flew off to catch a horsefly. Upon return there was a giant, speckled blue egg in the nest, making 7 eggs. She was so confused and thought she had miscounted. The first eggs hatch and blind, featherless, hatchlings fill the nest. Then the giant egg bursts open and out comes a fuzzy white, fully feathered, eyes open hatchling, with bright blue feet and black beak wide open, demanding to be fed. He grows to be 10 times the size of the other 6 fledglings and eats most of the food. After several weeks, Malcolm and Melodie decided to give up their Baby Blue and carry him off to Cousin Connie’s empty nest in Mission Viejo.
Melodie and Malcolm had to carry Blue, since he didn’t fly yet. On the way, Malcolm’s heart stops from exhaustion. He and Blue both fall into the lake. Melodie searches and is deeply saddened when she can’t find them. Blue bumps his head, on a large, white buoy in the middle of the lake; but manages to crawl up on top of it. He sits on it, for days, thinking, the ‘buoy’ is an egg that needs hatching. A week later, he is still trying to hatch the giant egg. MYSTERY, his temporary name, given by Captain Quack, has lost some of his memory. He doesn’t know who he is; if he can fly or swim and why does he have such big, blue feet?
In the meantime, a curious crowd gathered around; some to help the Mystery Bird and some, unfriendly. Captain Quack and SERGEANT WACK, stop some delinquent teenagers on a sailboat, ramming the buoy; trying to knock the Mystery Bird off the buoy. They use their best detective skills to try and find out, who this Mystery Bird is. First, they try to come up with a name for him. Mystery Bird recalls that his Mom always named her babies after the first thing she saw, when the bird hatched; a Native American, Mocking Bird custom. Sergeant Wack spotted something shiny blue on the bottom of the lake and dives down to get it, causing a giant, tsunami, size splash-wave, where everyone gets wet. Wack comes up holding a shiny, blue bottle cap. Rudy the Wise one says, “Let’s call him Blue”. It is fitting for a great, blue footed bird.Rudy says, “No, not special enough for such a noble, looking bird, with bright blue feet. “How about BLUBERT”? That was the name of a character, he read in a book”. They all agreed, Blubert was a good, strong name for Mystery Bird. Now that they had named him, they needed to find out who he is. Detective Wack remembered a memo that was posted at the gazebo, by the lake, several months ago, from a scientist, Dr. Stacy Rhinehart. She had lost an egg of the Blue Footed Booby Bird, flying over the Lake in a helicopter. He must have hatched in Melodie’s nest then fell into the lake, while moving him to Cousin Connie’s nest”.
Blubert, who was stuck to the buoy, heard this and was so excited, that they were close to finding out who he was. They all pitched-in, to help him to get unstuck from the buoy. Blubert spotted movement in the water. He flew up, about 300 feet, and dove like a torpedo, into the water, at about 80 miles per hour. He came up with a mouthful of catfish; surprising everyone, including himself. He didn’t even know he could fly or swim.
Rudy researched Blue Footed Booby Bird and declared Mystery Bird, now Blubert, has to be a BLUE FOOTED BOOBY BIRD. Mystery Solved! Great job, everybody! Plans were made to have a Celebrate Blubert Party”. Blubert jumped up on the buoy and started to high-step his feet, sky pointing his beak, shaking his head, causing everyone to laugh and join in on the fun. Everyone cheered and clapped and started to dance the Blue Footed Booby Bird Strut, “BLUBERT STRUT”!
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Book Details
About the Book
Blubert Strut is a Who Am I, nature mystery, about a lost blue footed bird and the search to find out who he is. The story begins with the loss of an egg, falling from a helicopter, over a small lake in Ca. Luckily, it lands in a comfy, large nest on the top of a palm tree, leaning over, a blue lake. The giant egg lands in the nest of Melodie and Malcolm Mockingbird, who are very bewildered by the large, blue speckled egg. Her 6 hatchlings are born; then a giant, fully feathered, white bird, with a black beak, and giant blue feet, explodes out of his shell. Blue is 10 times bigger than his fellow hatchlings and eats most of the food.
Later, Malcolm declares that Blue should move to cousin Connie’s empty nest. They try to carry him, since Blue doesn’t fly yet, but Malcolm’s heart gives out and they both fall toward the lake. Blue hits his head on a buoy in the lake and passes out, but he is able to climb up, on, what he thinks, is a very large egg, that he tries to hatch. He suffers from memory loss, not knowing who he is. A crowd gathers around trying to help him, till they figure it out. Time to celebrate and dance the high stepping, Blubert Strut.
About the Author
Having worked in the film industry, as a literary manager; Karen decided it was time to pursue publishing her latest children’s book,”Blubert Strut”. She has written most of her life; from short stories, screenplays, children’s books, to poetry. Spiritual Fitness for kids was her goal for this book, portraying good values, such as love, helpfulness, kindness, friendship and honesty. The story idea was inspired by Margie Padavan after observing a large bird sitting on a buoy, on the lake where she lived.