Sneed B. Collard III: Hello. My name is Sneed, or as it says on my books, Sneed B. Collard III, and I am the author of the new picture book, Border Crossings, published by Charlesbridge Publishing and illustrated by Howard Gray. This book takes a look at the marvelous ecosystems that the United States and Mexico share along our border, as well as the problems faced by wildlife when we construct walls, bridges, highways, and other human barriers. Border Crossings was inspired by a trip that my then, oh, I think he was about 14-year-old son and I took to Arizona in 2016. We had become avid birders about two years before that, and in 2016, we wanted to start exploring areas of the country outside our home state of Montana. Our first trip that we decided to go on was to Southern Arizona, and when we got to the border area of Arizona, we just fell in love. Not only was it full of friendly people and great food, but the ecosystems were fabulous down there. We could see deserts stretching from Arizona, unimpeded all the way into the mountains of Mexico, and we just loved it. And of course, the birds were fantastic when we went down there.

Not a year later though there was huge discussion in the United States about throwing up a giant border wall from one end of the United States-Mexico border to the other. And my first thought when I heard this was, well, what kind of message does that send to our friends and neighbors living down in Mexico, people that we benefit greatly from and have had good relations with in the past? My next thought is, what is a giant steel border wall going to do to the many, many animals that move back and forth across the border? And so that gave me the idea to write a book about this issue, and I especially chose the ocelot because ocelots live in Mexico, but small populations also live in southern Texas and in Arizona, and in fact, it looks like they might have been spreading up into Arizona on a larger basis. Something I was very excited about because ocelots are just one of the coolest creatures ever. So I decided to choose an ocelot to portray the problems that might be presented by a large border wall.

Well, the first thing I'd like readers to know is that the border, the politics, the ecology of the border is a very complicated issue, and I hope that the book compels or inspires people to think more deeply about anyone who comes along with a supposedly simple solution to all of this. The simple solution of building a wall obviously has had all kinds of negative issues with it for wildlife, but it also isn't necessarily helping the problems that it was intended to, and that is to slow immigration to the United States. In fact, I just heard yesterday that there were record levels of people trying to reach the United States, and these issues are complicated, and they're not as simple as throwing up a wall. You have to look at what are this conditions where these people are running from, are they afraid for their lives? Why are they coming to the United States in such large numbers, and how are we making the situation worse a lot of times instead of looking for solutions to improve it? So I'd just like people to think more deeply about these issues and think twice about anyone who comes up with a simple solution like throwing up a wall.

The other thing though I'd like people to think about is just appreciate the incredible biodiversity that runs along the US-Mexico border. Very few people, unfortunately, have ever been to the border. We see it in the headlines. We hear this about it, and that, but you go down there for yourself and you think, wow, this is a really special part of the world and we need to protect it. And so I hope that this book just raises the awareness and the interest in this border region for both cultural and environmental topics.

I would just like to read a few pages of my new picture book, Border Crossings, illustrated by Howard Gray, and published by Charlesbridge Publishing.

On a moonless night, padded paws silently step across pebbled ground. They make their way past thorn trees, through brush, and around a muddy marsh. They halt, alert, intense, then they continue walking.

The paws belonged to a young ocelot, one of the rarest animals in the United States. It is springtime and the beautifully spotted male cat is heading south toward Mexico, looking for a mate and a territory he can call his own.

The ocelots movements are cloaked by thick brush in the cover of darkness, but suddenly he encounters something unexpected, something frightening. Where protective plants once stood an ugly scar now stretches.

Running in both directions as far as the ocelot can see looms a wall.