Dear John B.,
I’ve been challenged by a reader (what fun!) who read my letter to you below and stated that lobsters are really scavengers, meaning, they eat whatever they find on the ocean floor – kind of like leftovers for dinner. However, I checked and according to Wikipedia (and other sources), lobsters are omnivores.This means they typically eat live prey such as fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life. They scavenge if necessary, and are known to resort to cannibalism in captivity.
Cannibalism is rather nasty – you might want to look up that one in Wikipedia on your own.
Happy reading,
Jessica
Dear John B.,
You’ve drawn an interesting lobster alongside its next meal. Well done! I’d like to answer your question about what my favorite book was as a child. I had many favorites, but right now I am recalling one titled Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman, which I must have read a hundred times.
In it, a baby bird hatches in a nest while his mom is out searching for food. The baby bird doesn’t know what she looks like, but he goes to look for her anyway. Because he can’t yet fly, he as to walk and in his search, he asks a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a cow if they are his mother. They each tell him, “No”.
Growing more puzzled, the baby bird then asks an old car, a boat, a plane and lastly, a backhoe. None of these respond. Desperate, the baby bird begins to shout. But at this climactic moment, the backhoe gently deposits him back in his nest, nicely timed with his mother’s arrival with food.
I like stories that end well. It is one of the reasons I like to write.
Happy reading,
Jessica
