New Children’s Book

The latest book in the Dilo series by Horace Dobbs is now available in the Dolphin Shop. Dilo and the Isle of the Gods

Although written for children aged 5 - 11 the Dilo series is enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Foreword by Bernard Eaton

Dilo and the Isle of the Gods

Written by Horace Dobbs, illustrated by Rico

ISBN 0-9541721-3-2

Published by Star Books

Highly recommended for all lovers of dolphins and adventure.

A lovely full colour poster of Dilo is available from the Dolphin Shop

One of Dilo’s roles is to help us raise funds. Which is just what Charlotte Lade did. She didn’t have a Halloween Fancy Dress Party. Charlotte held a raffle and sent us this letter with a photo of herself. If you have any ideas on how Dilo can raise funds to help dolphins, please send them to: The Secretary, International Dolphin Watch. 10 Melton Road, North Ferriby, East Yorkshire HU14 3ET, England. or E-mail idw@talk21.com and head it ‘Fun(d) Raising’.

NEW FROM INTERNATIONAL DOLPHIN WATCH

Dilo’s

Dilo is a playful dolphin created by Horace Dobbs to introduce boys and girls to the joys and perils of being a dolphin

Dolphin Adoption Pack

In his Dilo’s Adopt and Watch Handbook Horace gives details of the locations of the four dolphins around the British Isles that are available for adoption, with a bonus dolphin in the Bahamas. He explains that dolphins often travel considerable distances. Thus, apart from Funghie, the chances of actually seeing an adopted dolphin is small. Nonetheless, this colourful and enticing handbook will encourage youngsters to set off on their own personal dolphin watching trails and enjoy spectacular coastal scenery and varied wildlife along the way.

CONTENTS

Each pack contains a Dilo sticker, a certificate of adoption, a photograph of the adopted dolphin plus a handbook of course. To give dolphin watchers a greater insight into the delightful sea mammals they will be looking for, a copy of the book Dilo and The Call of the Deep, value £6.49, or alternative title, that will be enjoyed by children and adults alike, and personally signed by author Horace Dobbs, is also included.

One of the aims of Dilo’s Adopt and Watch Scheme is to raise funds to support the efforts of International Dolphin Watch to save dolphins around the world. Threats being tackled are: LFAS (low frequency active sonar), pair trawling and sand eel fishing.

Give a Child a Gift to Enjoy and Cherish

The Dilo Cocoon is being used to provide a peaceful, magical space for both healing and education.

For further information please contact Dana Hegerova:
Dana.Hegerova@seznam.cz

The Different Worlds of Dilo the Dolphin

Discovery, Learning, Fantasy, Reality, Imagination

Dolphins have brains that are arguably more highly evolved than ours. So it is not unreasonable to suppose that dolphins also live in different worlds. It is difficult to interpret these in human terms but that is just what Horace is now doing with his stories of Dilo the dolphin. The idea of writing about a fictional dolphin first came to Horace after he met his first Ambassador dolphin - Donald off the Isle of Man and whose story is told in his books Follow a Wild Dolphin and Save the Dolphin (Souvenir Press).

By the time the book was published, Robin Petch and Kris Simpson, both dolphin devotees and teachers, had come into Horace’s life. With their help he produced Fascinating Facts and a Fun and Activities Book which made learning about dolphins fun.

Sally Galotti

In 1996 a brilliant young Italian artist, who was working for Walt Disney, read the Italian edition of Horace’s book Journey into Dolphin Dreamtime. Sally Galotti loved the sea and had a huge affinity with dolphins. She contacted Horace and offered to illustrate Dilo in her own way. Sally had also linked with Italian TV personality Mino Demato who was working to improve the conditions in a hospice in Romania for children with AIDS. Sally wanted to share with these children a fantasy world of dolphins, into which she could transport herself and also portray with her art. The children responded immediately to her and the joyful pictures of Dilo they painted together.

And so it was that in November 1997 Dilo appeared in full colour in Italy. Dilo was published by Editzione Punto d’in Contro. Much of the story was conveyed in Sally’s brilliantly coloured pictures. The book was in a shrink wrapped package containing a tape of dolphin sounds, which the children in Romania loved, and the Italian equivalent of Fascinating Facts.

Dilo in Hospital

Sally Galotti paints murals in children’s hospitals in Italy. It is part of an new approach to healing in which the environment in which the patient receives treatment is considered important. The joyful images of Dilo, and the friendly playfulness of all his undersea friends around him, lift the spirits of the children. It makes going into a hospital, or a clinic, a less frightening and traumatic experience. This, say the doctors, not only makes it easier to treat their patients, it also helps them get better more quickly.

An Electronic Story Book, illustrated with beautiful colour paintings by Sally Galotti and an abridged Dilo story in easy to read text is available from the Dolphin Shop

The same abridged story entitled Dilo - the tale of a young dolphin delightfully narrated by Suzette is also available on CD from the Dolphin Shop

DILO DOLPHIN FILM

Ever since he created Dilo, Horace Dobbs has wanted the mischievous dolphin to be the central character in a major film or an animated cartoon series for television.

Throwing down the gauntlet

Following in the footsteps of Nick Parkes, who used plasticine to model a silent dog called Gromet, and Peter Sallis to voice over Wenslydale cheese loving Wallace, Horace wants to be innovative and creative. He plans to take Dilo out of his books and put the dolphin onto the screen. He is throwing down the gauntlet and asking anyone interested in working with him to contact him via the IDW office, by phone (+44 (0)1482 632650), or
E-mail: horace@drdobbs.karoo.co.uk. Those with track records for producing TV programmes for children would be welcome. However, Horace does not want to discount the experience he gained when running research projects in which he found that good new ideas often came from young graduates whose minds were not encumbered with engrained established methods. He is therefore spreading his net wider in the hope that he might attract the students and staff in an art college, anywhere around the world, to produce a pilot film about Dilo as part of their course work.

Wider Applications

Images of dolphins can have a profound effect on the human psyche in many different ways. The Dilo books, for instance, have been shown to help children, especially those with learning difficulties, to learn to read more quickly.

Another potential application for the Dilo Dolphin Film is in the Dolphin Dome, a prototype of which was unveiled at the Open University, December 2003. The Dolphin Dome is a large dome, utilising the latest technology, in which it is possible for entire families to have an interactive healing experience. One feature of the Dolphin Dome is the display of dolphin images across a hemi-spherical screen as in planetariums.