As a boy clambering over the hills in Southern California, Russ used to catch lizards using a loop snare made from a fishing pole with twine strung through its eyelets. He kept his lizards in a terrarium and fed them bugs. He thought lizards were descended from dinosaurs, and he really liked dinos. His sweet aunt, an artist, painted dinos on cardboard for him, and his loving mom carefully cut them out and taped them onto the walls of his room. Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Dimetrodon, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus. They were his rock stars.
Russel Hirst is a retired English professor. Now with no department boss looking over his shoulder, he's begun publishing his poems for kids. I Heard Two Hippopotami was first off the press; he now presents Larry Lizard. He'll share more poems and stories about animals, but really about humans, when the fishing is slow.
