Sandy Hook Bay at dawn. An osprey and a gull on pilings, a plover on the wet sand, a striped bass finning in the channel, a terrapin and a horseshoe crab at the waterline, a red fox in the beach plum, and the Twin Lights on the ridge across the water.

Ollie sees it first.

Eight animals live on Sandy Hook Bay, and one of them is always watching. Tap one to say hello.

Eight neighbors. One bay.

Every character is a real animal that lives on Sandy Hook, named for a real piece of Highlands history. The personalities are made up. The facts are not.

The books

Picture books for ages 4 to 8, 8.5 inches square, full-bleed illustrations. Written and made in Highlands, New Jersey.

Watch

The Hook Lookout is becoming a series. Each book becomes an episode, with the characters' voices and the bay in motion.

Ollie's first episode is in production

Episode one, Something's Coming, is on its way. Subscribe and Ollie will let you know first. He always does.

Channel link coming soon

For parents and teachers

These books are about a real place. A child who reads them can walk out to Sandy Hook and find Ollie's channel marker, Hartshorne's beach, and the rocks where Trudy sleeps.

Ages 4 to 8. Read aloud for the younger end, and on their own by seven.
What they learn: eight local animals, the four seasons on the bay, and a handful of moments of Highlands history a child can hold onto.
What is real and what is storybook is spelled out in the back of every book, and the characters hold the same line when you talk to them.
The chat is closed to the books' own facts. No accounts, no saved conversations, nothing collected from a child.
Classroom sets and author visits for Monmouth County schools and PTOs.

To learn more or to help, look up the Sandy Hook Foundation, Save Coastal Wildlife's horseshoe crab monitoring, and the Monmouth County Audubon Society.