Bucks Co. Author's Kids Book Tackles Bullying

LANGHORNE, PA — For his children's book on bullying, Bucks County author Ted Cohen turned to something he knows a little bit about — penguins.

In "Pepe Builds a Nest," Pepe, a hard-working penguin, is building the titular nest when Otto, a big, mean penguin, starts stealing the stones he's using. According to Cohen, that's behavior he saw first-hand, when he was part of an expedition to Antarctica back in the 1960s.

"When we took breaks from the work we were doing down there, we would sit next to these rookeries with tens of thousands of penguins in them," said Cohen, of Langhorne. "And there was always one who was stealing stones from the one next door when the male went down to the shore to get more."

Cohen, who has lived in Bucks County for 13 years, started fiction writing about 10 years ago after a diverse career that saw him working as an engineer, scientist, commentator, investor and private investigator.

While most of his work has been adult fiction in the thriller and mystery vein, he has authored three books for kids. In addition to Pepe, there's "Rufus Finds a Home" and "Fuzzy Wuzzy."

For the past several years, he's regularly visited Bucks County schools, reading his books, talking about penguins and teaching older students about fiction writing.

When he set out to tackle children's fiction, he knew he wanted to use the penguins he remembered from the 1961 expedition he went on with a Chilean crew. Adding in a lesson on bullying, he said, came in part from personal experience.

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"One of our daughters was the subject of bullying, especially when she was in middle school," he said. "It was something we were very familiar with. It was something that was increasingly in social media and on the news (and) it just seemed like a natural to bring them together in a story such as this."

In the self-published book, which is written in rhyme and illustrated by Cohen himself, Pepe's friends help him stand up to the bully, Otto, and the two end up becoming friends themselves.

Whether for adults or children, Cohen said, he always tries to include a dose of realism into his fiction. With "Pepe Builds a Nest," he said, he hopes kids who read it will take its anti-bullying lesson away with them.

"These are stories that children can learn from," Cohen said. "They're not just meant to entertain. They're stories with lessons."

You can learn more about "Pepe Builds a Nest" and Cohen's other books, by visiting his website.