The Priceless Hogg Penny

The book centers around the “sleepy” island of Bermuda, which is turned upside-down when a gang of pirates arrive on its shores with their magical hogg pennies.
Animal characters include the ‘wall-sitters’ – Kiskadee and Cardinal – who act as social commentators, observing the changes the pirates, and money, have brought.
The hogg pennies have magical element where if they are traded honestly they ‘smile’ and good things happen, but if they are traded dishonestly they bring a curse and families are torn apart and violence breaks out.
Mrs. Burgess said:
“The creatures try to accessorise in a way that shows how many pennies they have in their purse.
“They are all dressing the same and it begins to look like a kind of uniform – everyone needs their Blackberry and their Louis Vuitton shades.
“I hope that when the kids that read this book grow up they make good choices and realize it’s better to get off the wall and help others.
“I really want to change the whole mindset of things.”
The book pays tribute to the Talbot Brothers who are immortalised in the ­story as the three whistling tree frogs.
Mrs. Burgess came up with inspiration for her second book after chatting to a friend about “money, charity and humanity” one afternoon.
“Certain newspaper articles I had been reading really caught my attention,” she explained. “There was this story about a single father whose wife had passed away and he was left looking after his special-needs son on his own, and a mother with three hungry children that she couldn’t afford to feed, and another about a little boy who needed money to help him with a physical disability.
“So I took those stories from the newspaper and made them come to life in my book.”
Mrs. Burgess, who describes herself as “a mommy, teacher, author and singer” hopes her book can be used as a teaching aid in schools as it touches on life skills, local biology, history and geography.

Joanne M. Ball, Burgess, Author

Lamelle D. Paynter, Illustrator