Exciting news!
Jolly Fish Press has acquired my middle-grade fantasy series Monster or Die and will be publishing the first book, From the Grave, in Fall 2016. Editor TJ da Roza fell in love with my wacky and wonderful monsters with his first read—and who wouldn’t.
Frightful and fun.
Delightful and deadly.
These creatures bring a whole new meaning to monster.
Be sure to follow along the journey to publication. With monsters in charge, most anything might happen.
Summer is nearly here. School ends and fantastic summer reading begins.
Summer is the perfect time for kids to kick back with some books. Children who read during vacation will enhance their reading and educational skills—rather than backtracking and losing scholastic ground. With the incredible choices in quality children’s literature, every child can find an interesting book.
For younger readers, these diverse books are being made available through First Book, an organization which helps provide books to needy children.
Titles include:
NINO WRESTLES THE WORLD by Yuyi Morales
TANGO MAKES THREE by Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell
TIGER IN MY SOUP by Kashmira Sheth
EMMANUEL’S DREAM by Laurie Thompson
KNOCK KNOCK by Daniel Beaty
BOATS FOR PAPA by Jessixa Bagley
For older readers, visit the Suggested Summer Reading List. Most of these titles should be available through your local library or bookstore.
Don’t wait for the official start of summer. Begin your reading adventures today!
It turns out that you are never too old to have a birthday–as in a 3,000-year-old birthday!!!
That’s right. A mummy at the St. Louis Museum of Art will celebrate his birthday next month. His name is Amen-Nestawy-Nakt, and he lived in 900 B.C. He was a priest at the Temple of Karnak and must have done a good job to merit such a fancy mummy case.
Perhaps you’d like to celebrate mummies too. A great way to do it would be to explore a few books on the topic. There are a great many good ones out there at your school or public library or your local bookstore.
Here are a few I found:
SECRETS OF THE MUMMIES by Harriet Griffey
This is a Level 4 reader that presents mummies from around the world.
CREEPY EGYPTIAN MUMMIES YOU WOULDN’T WANT TO MEET by David Stewart
Ten of the creepiest mummies and information on how the whole mummification process works.
MUMMIES IN THE MORNING by Mary Pope Osborne
Another Magic Treehouse Mystery–this one finds Jack and Annie in Ancient Egypt encountering lots of adventures.
MUMMIES IN THE LIBRARY by John Perritano
Who knew mummies and math go together? Well, it seems very beneficial to know division in order to embalm a mummy. Find out how it all works with this math challenge story from iMath Readers.
Hope you find someMUMMY special to hang out with!
Happy reading 🙂
As we wait for the snow to melt
and SPRING to arrive, it’s a great time to enjoy READING!
I usually highlight story books, but today I’d like to celebrate
some fun research sites.
DK Publishing has a free online encyclopedia: FIND OUT
The site is for simple searches on a variety of science-related
topics. Results provide a colorful illustrated page with brief
explanations and related topics. Of course, if one of the topics interests you, check at your local library for a corresponding DK book on the subject.
Another free online site, available through public and school libraries, is EBSCO Kids Search. This is a more in-depth database of magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, web articles, biographies, books, newspapers, and photos. A handy tool to have at your fingertips.
Kids Info Bits from Gale/Cengage Learning is search resource available through some libraries as well. It’s a more simplified database of sources, including magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and maps. It includes advanced search capabilities and is geared toward elementary school students.
So during this month focused on READ ALOUD time, choose a topic of interest (I know my grandson would pick Monster Trucks); use one of these kid-friendly sites or a book and read together for 15 minutes.
Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter–every season is just right for READING!
Although sometimes SUMMER is a time to slow down and take a look at the wonders close by
it can also be a time for new adventures
and fond FAREWELLS.
April has been a busy, crazy, fun, busy, poetical, busy, bunny business month–and it’s not over yet.
So before it gets any crazier, I’ll share what I’ve been reading, doing, writing…
Who says libraries are just for books? Not the Lorain, Ohio children’s librarians! They are encouraging kids to explore their creative side in fashions with “Sew Lorain Kids.” A long time ago I worked in a couple of libraries in the Cleveland area. I’m so glad to see that the librarians there are continuing to be innovative. There are so many great craft how-to books in libraries, but why not give kids a chance to actually put the lessons into practice. My hats off to all of you in Lorain!!!
I’ve been working on a variety of writing projects–one of them is an easy reader narrative nonfiction book on stars. So I was delighted to see a new book by Kathleen T. Isaacs which highlights picture books dealing with nature: BUGS, BOGS, BATS, AND BOOKS. Young readers–as well as their parents–often need help in finding age-appropriate books on various nonfiction subjects. This title also including science activities relating to various topics in the book. Look for this book at the library or ask your librarian to help you find some delightful nonfiction books to share with your children.
Kuddos to another librarian–this time with the focus on poetry. Thinking totally outside of the norm, Cathy Jo Nelson, a South Carolina educator, blogs about “The Unexpected Perks of Poetry.” She and a teacher collaborated on a poetry assignment–encouraging the students to create poems from words in book titles: spine poetry. Ms. Nelson elaborates in her blog about the many bonuses of this activity for both students and faculty. Poetry always seems to expand the world for us.
I’m writing the rough draft of chapter book with a poetic ghost in it. Although the story didn’t start out with a lyrical ghost, she just appeared out of thin air–so to speak. And who am I to tell her that she doesn’t belong in this story. I might be haunted for eternity…so I continue writing.
Apparently April is also NATIONAL HUMOR MONTH. Although I was unaware of this, I have been reading some humorous picture books of late. A couple of favorites are CREEPY CARROTS by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Peter Brown. Here is a video by the illustrator explaining how he envisioned the sneaky carrots. My two-year-old grandson loves this books. We’ve read it over and over again. I’ve even made him his own creepy carrots with real carrots and a black sharpie. Beware biting into that next crispy, orange carrot! There may be many more lurking in the shadows–just waiting to pounce!!!
The other fun picture I’ve been studying of late is WHEN A DRAGON MOVES IN by Jodi Moore, illustrated by Howard McWilliam. The author uses the “what if” storyline to create an elaborate beach day fantasy complete with fire-breathing dragon. And the illustrator brings the creature to life with humor and charm, sure to entertain children of all ages. But of course, there is the dilemma–once a dragon moves in how do you get him to move out??? Rather like the moles in my backyard, I’m afraid. 🙂
So here’s hoping April is poetically humorous–and beware of carrot-eating dragons, or something like that!
This will be the seventh year in which you can choose a favorite book to win the CHILDREN’S CHOICE BOOK AWARD. The award is given by the Children’s Book Council.
You’ll find the list of books in the running for the award at the link above. The voting continues into May, so you have plenty of time to read all of the books in your age bracket. The winners will be announced during Children’s Book Week, May 12-18. When you visit the Children’s Book Week site, you’ll find cool freebies:
the official bookmark you can print out by nonfiction illustrator, Steve Jenkins
the official poster by Fancy Nancy artist, Robin Priess Glasser. You can request as many of these as you need.
You can also find out above local events that you can participate in. Most likely your school or a local library will be planning something special during Children’s Book Week–because we all know how very special both books and children are!
And books for kids are the absolute best!!!
Happy reading. 🙂
Today we had a break from the cold winter temps, so my dog Holly and I enjoyed a long walk.
But we’d barely made it back inside, when it started pouring rain.
Now if I’d been writing a story, this would have been much too easy a course for my characters. They took a nice walk and escaped the drenching rain without batting an eye. Absolutely no TENSION or CONFLICT.
In a real story, poor Holly and I would have been bent over double, battling the high winds. The thunder would have rumbled around us, lightening sparked. And of course, we would have scrambled and scraped to make it back in time–only to have been walloped with a downpour mere steps from safety.
A good story needs plenty of TENSION and CONFLICT. Here’s some examples in books I’ve been reading:
DIRTY GERT by Tedd Arnold. A young child adores dirt, so much so that she finally starts to sprout.
THE DARK by Lemony Snicket. A young boy is terribly scared of the dark, and one night it invites him into the basement.
FOG ISLAND by Tomi Ungerer. A boy and girl become lost in their boat during the fog. When they land on Fog Island, they climb the slippery stairs and meet an enchanted wizard.
Can you find examples of TENSION and CONFLICT in one of your favorite stories?
Can you write a story filled with TENSION and CONFLICT?
I think it’s quite fun to amp up wattage in a story. Give it a try. It’s nice for your characters to arrive eventually at a happy ending–but don’t make it too easy for them.
I’m in the middle of revising one of my fantasy novels. This one involves fairy tale characters, so there has to be at least one castle, right? And a giant and…yeah, lots of fun characters and settings.
When one of Rich Davis‘ drawing posts came into my mailbox last week, it reminded me how fun the illustrations will be for this story I’m working on. Too bad I’m not a super illustrator like Rich. But with his step-by-step instructions, most anyone can become an artist.
Here’s the link to his “Draw a Castle.” I hope you’ll give this picture a try–or try one of the other drawing lessons on Rich’s site.
As you can see below, I truly do have a CASTLE in my very own backyard. And a friendly GIANT lives there. He loves to go sledding with the children who drop by. 🙂
It’s fun to take a look at my 2013 through photos. Come along with me, if you’d like to take a peak.
The year had some big stuff–like circus elephants
Plus more fun– visits from the Easter Bunny
There were zebras …
There were New Mexico hummingbirds and ….
California “Hummers”–signing with Mira Reisberg at Hummingbird Literary
There were Cardinal Playoff Games
and new books...
