I received a message on Twitter saying Half A Chance has been nominated for its first kids' choice award--and it's the Sakura Medal for schools in Japan. So I went looking to see if loons are important in Japan and found this:

"Arctic and Red-throated loons were made national monuments in Japan because of their importance to Japanese fishermen of the Inland Sea. Fishermen use loons to guide them to lance, a small bait fish, which they net in great numbers (Austin and Kuroda 1953). If a loon is killed by being entangled in fishing nets, it is put in the bottom of the boat so as not to disturb other loons, and later is taken to shore where it is gently placed at a shrine."

Wow. As an author I do a lot of research into my book's own small world, but then when it's published, so many new things come back to me that open up *my* world.