Small Reads for Brighters Days
Children’s author and illustrator (and free coloring page creator) Elizabeth O. Dulemba has done a fantastic TED talk on a topic close to my heart: not letting possessions rule your life. It’s wonderful and magical and true. So true. The quote about having two lives, which I had not heard before, completely captures a change […]
Welcome to 2016! This year on my blog, I’m hoping to share more behind-the-scenes/inside-my-head posts about my own writing process and my life as a book-lover. I hope you’ll join me. Isn’t this a beautiful Rilke quote? I love its calm but celebratory feel. It inspires me to want to try new things with my […]
Yesterday, I was sharing the opening poem of BookSpeak! and how it came to be the opening poem. Well, last week was my birthday, and Randy, my husband, and I were spending a few days up on the North Shore of Lake Superior–one of my favorite places in the whole world! We had just parked […]
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about working on the opening to my next picture book. I still haven’t heard if the opening I submitted will fly or not, but I thought I’d follow up here and share a couple of openings written after the fact. A lot of times, the meat of the […]
It’s World Teacher’s Day! I spent Friday with fantastic educators at the Minnesota ITEM conference (#mnitem), reminded all over again how thankful I am for our passionate educators here in Minnesota, the U.S., the entire world. My memories of my own teachers, from Mrs. Gracey reading us Where the Red Fern Grows to Mr. Rom […]
I’m Secretary for the Children’s Literature Assembly–are you a member? It’s an awesome organization within NCTE, and this year is our 40th Anniversary! To celebrate and raise money, we’ve created a very cool book bag featuring art graciously donated by Jon Klassen and CLA’s Chrysanthemum logo (likewise, the use of Chrysanthemum was graciously donated by […]
I wanted to share some pictures from the process of my family putting together my Little Free Library birthday present:>) It’s one of the best presents I’ve ever gotten! Thank you to my thoughtful and talented family:>)
Rise of the Balloon Goonsby Troy CummingsScholastic, 2013 5 things I love about this early chapter book: It’s neatly plotted–the mystery is all tied up with no loose ends. I love the pages out of the monster notebook–the forkupine is my favorite! I’m not a big reader of graphic novels,?but this novel has just a […]
The Meanest Birthday Girlby Josh SchneiderClarion, 2013? 5 Reasons You Need This Easy Reader It’s not your average “friendship stories” book. Dana, the main character, is not very nice. Usually, I hate books with unlikable main characters. But this one moves so fast, and is so engaging, that I like it a lot! Plus, Dana […]
Hi, writer/teacher/librarian friends! I’m?officially declaring myself on summer hiatus. I have tons of events and some major freelance deadlines. And, I’m rethinking all my various ways of connecting–what?to share, which platforms to use?to connect with which people, what those people are actually interested in, and what (if anything) I can offer that’s different, etc. And–how […]
