HOLIDAY season is upon us once more and author Andrew Stevenson has the perfect gift for children with his new book The Adventures of Bermuda's Toad With One Eye. The book, which comes with its own audio CD, is written by author, film maker and Humpback Whale researcher Mr. Stevenson and is illustrated by artist and Royal Gazette cartoonist Peter Woolcock.

This is the second environmentally-themed book for young people the duo have worked on, the first being The Turtle Who Ate A Balloon which was published in 2007.

Speaking with the Mid-Ocean News about the genesis of his latest project, Mr. Stevenson said: "Peter and I had great fun working on The Turtle Who Ate A Balloon and we decided to do another one.

"We wanted to do another book with an environmental message and, in scientific circles worldwide, 2008 was the Year of the Frog. And the toad.

"One day I was talking with Dr. Jamie Bacon who some people call 'The Toad Lady'.

"She has been doing research on Bermuda's frogs and toads for several years now. She goes around to schools and talks to kids about pesticides, chemicals and fertilisers and how ithey are polluting our waters. The sad fact is that the majority of toads in Bermuda now have deformities. From there the idea developed and the story is a cautionary tale about pollution of our fresh waters here in Bermuda.

"The toads are Bermuda's proverbial canary in the mine. The canaries warned the miners of gas leaks and these toads are warning us that our fresh water is not healthy."

Mr. Stevenson said the object is to educate the children about the fragile Bermuda environment in a sotto voce manner.

"The book doesn't hammer kids over the head with the environmental message," he said. "It is a fantasy story about the Toad With One Eye waking up in Pitman's Pond in Somerset. He decides to find out why all these funny things are happening to all the toads and frogs.

"I wanted to educate the kids about what was going on but at the same time I wanted them to be able to do something about it.

"The whole point of the story is that in their own backyards they can have their own safe environments for the toads.

"By learning some simple environmental lessons and then carrying them out in their own backyards as kids, when they are grown ups they will be able to demonstrate environmental sensitivity on a larger scale."

Mr. Stevenson said there are a number of memorable characters in the book - including some who were also featured in The Turtle Who Ate A Balloon.

"The Bermuda Underwater Terrifying Troll, Umbriago El Dragon and a sea monster who played a role in the previous book will all be in this book," he said. "The sea monster in particular has a big role in this book and plays a hero. They are nice subtle character developments.

There are also some new characters such as Floppy Ears the dinosaur."

Mr. Stevenson said his five-and-a-half-year-old daughter Elsa and Mr. Woolcock played big parts in shaping the plot of the book.

"A lot of the twists and turns in the book come about from the input from my daughter Elsa who also provides the voice of the little girl on the audio CD," he said.

"Some parts of the story came about as a result of having dinners with Peter Woolcock. We would sit down and have these dinners and work out chapter by chapter what was going to happen next.

"Peter also supplies the voice of El Dragon on the audio CD."

Mr. Stevenson said he enjoys working with veteran cartoonist Mr. Woolcock, saying neither his creativity nor his energy ever flags during their collaborations.

"Peter is probably my best friend in Bermuda," he said. " We've been working together on my Family Man articles which run in RG Magazine for around seven years now. Two years ago we started work on the first book and now we have this one."

Mr. Stevenson noted that the audio books included with both The Adventures of Bermuda's Toad with One Eye and The Turtle Who Ate A Balloon came about as an afterthought thanks to Mr. Woolcock's terrific performance while reading the book out loud one day.

"The CD came about for the first book by happenstance," he said.

"We were doing a public reading of the first chapter of The Turtle who ate a Balloon at the Northrock Tank at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo.

"Peter read all the parts except for the turtle and the narrator and he had all these different voices and was so good at it. Afterwards I said to him that I had some editing equipment and that we should make an audio CD to accompany the book."

Mr. Stevenson said the new story was first serialised in the RG Magazine.

"We started in January and I had to have a new chapter every two months," he said. "After each chapter was published Peter and I would have dinner and work out what was going to happen next.

"By summertime all the chapters had been done. It takes a lot more time than you realise. Writing the book is .01 per cent of the work. It's re-writing the book that is the 99.9 per cent of the work.

"When we start we have a vague outline and it works itself out as we go along."

The Bermuda Audubon Society helped to fund the book's publication. Mr. Stevenson The book was also sponsored by the Bank of Bermuda, and international insurance companies ACE Limited and Partner Re.

"The cost of the top quality hardback book which is printed in Canada is very high," said Mr. Stevenson who was swift to praise his sponsors. "The contributions cover about half the cost of the book.

"Otherwise the whole thing would have come out of pocket and there is no way I'd ever recoup it.

"Through the Audobon Society we can get the environmental message out to kids and they have another Bermuda-specific book they can read. I distribute the books free of charge to all the Government schools and to the libraries."

Mr. Stevenson had some final words for children out there about the ecological responsibilities they would grow up to inherit.

"The future is in their hands and so hopefully books like this will give them a better sense of the issues that they are going to have to face when they grow up," he said.

The Adventures of Bermuda's Toad with One Eye is available now wherever books are sold in Bermuda.