Children still like to argue with Bermudian author Joanne Ball-Burgess about the ending of her book A Lizard and the Rock: A Fable of Bermuda’s Discovery, and it’s been eight years since she published it.

Now she is reaching out today’s crowd of more tech savvy little ones with an updated electronic version of The Lizard and the Rock.

Mrs Ball-Burgess, who is currently living in Kenya with her family, is on the Island this week to launch the e-book tonight at the Bermuda National Library on Queen Street, in Hamilton.

“The print version sold wonderfully,” said Mrs Ball-Burgess. “In 2008, when it came out, Brown and Company said they had never sold that many books for that genre in such a short period of time.

“I think Bermuda really fell in love with my lizard character. Kids would come up to me and say how they felt about the book. It really did become a phenomenon.”

But she said she held off releasing an e-version for several years.

“I waited,” she said. “In that time span, I took suggestions from kids and parents and incorporated that into the new e-book edition.

“The new version will be quite different from the print copy. All the illustrations have been redone. The storyline has been tweaked a bit.

“One thing my readers asked was why there wasn’t a happy ending.

“Now I have gone in and changed the ending to make it happier. Although the storyline is still Bermuda specific, I have made it more global, so that people in other countries can embrace it. It is like the story has been marinating.”

She has done the e-book conversion through a publishing company in Kenya called Cando Publishing. The printed edition was self published.

“Cando Publishing only do e-books,” she said. “I will be getting royalties from this and I keep the rights to the images, so it was a good deal for me.”

She said in her personal life, she was still new to e-reading.

“The national language in Kenya is English,” she said. “So, I don’t have trouble finding print books to read in English.

“For me, getting into e-books is the next step. It is easier for me than printing a physical book.

“I am used to having a bunch of inventory around, but now everyone can just go online to get a copy.”

is already available for download on the internet on popular sites such as www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

The launch will be tonight (Thursday) at 6pm at the Bermuda National Library on Queen Street in Hamilton.

“There will be food for everyone,” she said. “There will be music and I will sing a song I wrote for Lizard and the Rock.”