Beneath the surface of Joanne Burgess' new children's book about a group of cute lizards, lurks biting social commentary on our times.

Officially released tomorrow 'The Lizard & The Rock' is a fable that describes Bermuda's discovery, and a pervasive attitude of resistance to change.

"It is set in a time when Bermuda was not yet discovered," said Mrs. Burgess. "There are lizards and tree frogs on the Island and things we are familiar with. The lizards operate the same as how we Bermudians operate."

Although the lizards' lives appear idyllic, they have one hang up – a ball and chain around their ankles that prevents them from climbing the palm trees.

In the book, a lizard called Sam is the main character and Mrs Burgess added: "In Sam's world it is 'Quo fata ferunt' or 'Where ever the fates may lead. I don't really believe in fate, myself. I believe in more of a purpose driven world. But in Sam's world they don't know why they are there, or why they do things a certain way. They just do them.

"Anyone who breaches that is seen as the outsider. Sam is the main character. He is different from the other lizards. He daydreams a lot."

When Sam decides to defy convention and climb a palm tree, he is scolded by his mother and his community.

He goes to sleep with the tree frogs singing 'Change, change will never come. Life on the rock is how it has always been done'.

Mrs. Burgess added: "We Bermudians are very pragmatic. If it isn't broke don't fix it. Everything is fine. If you do something slightly different from the norm you are looked at strangely."

She said that in some ways, she can emphasise with her main character's desire to go against the grain.

"I never thought about it when I wrote the story five years ago, but looking back, I am actually Sam," she said. "I got married young, at 22-years-old. I am 27-years-old now. Usually you go to school first, get a job, buy a house and then think about getting married. My husband Quincy and I did it backwards."

When she was six months pregnant with her first son, she and her husband picked up and moved to the Holy Land.

"We went to Jerusalem to do further studies," said Mrs. Burgess. "We had two children while I was out there which is also very different from what most Bermudians do. I studied Hebrew. I did creative dance workshops in Cyprus and Egypt."

In college she decided to study Hebrew because it sounded a bit different. Until she started to study it, she had never heard it spoken. The interest led to an undergraduate degree in theological and historical studies. "I studied biblical Hebrew and also the spoken language," she said. "I wanted to further my studies in learning Hebrew, so since they spoke it in Jerusalem it was an easy choice. Some people think it is a hard language to learn, but I found it easier than speaking French." She said before she went to Israel she had idealistic visions of the Holy Land, but what she found was quite different. "I am a Christian," she said. "A lot of times as a Christian we idolise Jerusalem and Israel because it is the Holy Land, but when you arrive it is more like the 'unholy land'." The differences between Israel and Bermuda were brought home to her when she gave birth to her son in Jerusalem hospital.

"The hospitals over there are very up-to-date," she said. "Possibly more so than in Bermuda.

"The midwives are nurses. They attend to you and the doctors come if there is a problem. For me it was traumatic because my son's heart rate started to drop and they had to do an emergency C-section. I know Hebrew, but not under stress. Everyone was speaking around me. You could tell the doctors and nurses were very upset. I said, 'what is going on?', and they said, 'we're not talking to you'.

"In Israel they are very straight up and hostile. They don't ease you into anything. They are not very diplomatic at all. It is quite the opposite from Bermuda. Here you get ahead by using manners and pleasantries. Even if you don't really mean it you still do that to get what you need from the business.

"In Israel you get it from force and demanding. It was very stressful at first. Walking down the street you get bumped around a lot. You go to do a couple of errands and you are exhausted afterward."

But she said many things in the Bible became easier to understand after living there.

"Actually, Jesus' words became clearer," she said. "There is a lot of legalism in the Bible that is easier to understand when you are there. And you see things and wonder if it was like that 2,000 years ago."

She and her husband and two children Yeshai, three, and Zahari, 19 months, returned to Bermuda last January. But Mrs. Burgess said the book had absolutely nothing to do with her undergraduate degree. "I have always liked to write as a hobby," she said. "The book was already written by the time we went to Jerusalem. I wrote it when I was in college at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was before I had any children."

She wrote it for an English assignment and the professor was so impressed he urged her to try and publish it.

"The fun part was writing it," she added. "The hard part was getting it published. This is my first commercial work so I didn't know anything about how to get a publisher. I asked local author Darren Lowe, and he helped me out with whatever I needed to know. I went through Maven Publishers. The real challenge has been trying to find funding for the book in this economy."

She received some financial support for the book through The Bermuda Arts Council, but she would eventually like to take her book to a mainstream publisher in New York City.

"It is a Bermuda story, but it is something that everyone would like," she said. "It is for anyone who wants to live fully and authentically. If you are an adult and want to make a change in life, in a cute sort of way, this story encourages that."

She is in the process of writing another book using some of the same characters, but is finding it more of a challenge now that she has two children.

"For awhile I didn't do anything at all," she said. "But I find I am a better person when I make that sort of time for myself."

Mrs. Burgess said she enjoys the company of her children a little but more, after she has taken the time out for herself to write.

Currently, she is working as a substitute teacher, and a Master's degree in education and organisational management from Endicott College. "It is a cohort programme," she said. "I go to class once a week. A lot of the work is done in groups. There are lots of papers to write. This year the classes are being held at Berkeley Institute. Endicott College sends professors to the Island for six weeks at a time, or they use professors from Bermuda College."

Mrs. Burgess will launch her book, which is illustrated by Bermudian Lamelle Paynter, tomorrow at the BookMart, at Brown and Company, on Reid Street. She will be signing books from 12 noon to 2 p.m. and then the official launch will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.