Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

You are here: Home / Archives for Can Be… books

The Power of Water

By

November 10 marks the anniversary of the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a Great Lakes freighter that went down in a storm in Lake Superior. (You guys know how much I’m fascinated by Great Lakes freighters, right? Some good publishing news on that coming up soon!) I’m grateful for water in so many ways, […]

Tagged With: , , , , ,

Celebrating Fall Leaves!

By

Fall is my favorite favorite time of year, and fall color is one of the reasons for that. A couple of weeks ago, Randy and I tried out our inflatable kayak. We were on a small lake in St. Paul, and we got to admire a bit of fall color while a bald eagle hunted […]

Tagged With: , , , , ,

Hooray for Young Authors

By

Over the past two weeks, I did three storytimes at libraries in the East Central Region of Minnesota. It was great to meet families and celebrate kids as readers, as (mostly) preschoolers and toddlers swooped like bats, bloomed like flowers, made monkey noises, did toothpaste art, and echo read  my books and poems. But a […]

Tagged With: , , ,

Ready for Earth Day? #ClassroomConnections

By

It’s almost Earth Day! It’s a great time to pull out my Can Be… books, which all celebrate our planet. And if you want some book-related activities, go here to find links to teaching guides, activity sheets and more! The focus this year is on plastic pollution, so you might also look for Loree Griffin […]

Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Circle of Inspiration

By

One of the very best things about being an author is when your own work inspires readers to create! On Instagram over the weekend, a mom and her daughter (I think this is the relationship) shared this image: Parla wrote that she and Brighton were inspired by an Author Access event I did with the […]

Tagged With: ,

Foreign Editions and My Next Book!

By

Picture Book Foreign Editions All of my picture books with Lerner/Millbrook have had foreign editions published, and it’s always exciting to imagine kids on the other side of the world reading something I  wrote. Amazing! Here are a few of the iterations over the past few years. Here are some thoughts on foreign editions: Did […]

Tagged With: , , ,

Words Live [Slice of Life Tuesday]

By

A couple of weeks ago, I came home to a box on my doorstep from Lerner. I thought it might be my author copies of my next picture book, even though that’s still 5 months from publication. I ran into the kitchen and tore open the box. Nope. Not If You Were the Moon. Instead, […]

Tagged With: , , , ,

A Leaf Can Be… Korean!

By

I opened a box from Millbrook/Lerner a couple of weeks ago and was delighted to learn that A Leaf Can Be… has been published in Korean, in Korea! I just love the way the text looks! Whee–it’s beautiful! Hardcover and…audio? published by Neungyule Education, Inc. It’s so amazing to think of my words–well, my ideas–reaching […]

Tagged With: , ,

PreK Book List for Unit on Transformation

By

I was pleased to see Water Can Be… on this book list put out by the NYC Dept of Education for a unit on transformation. That’s one of the things that appeals to me so much about water–its ability to transform from solid to liquid to gas AND its ability to transform the landscape and […]

Tagged With: , ,

Books That Were My Mentor Texts

By

Teachers, do you use mentor texts in your classroom? So do professional writers! I’m guest posting today at ReFoReMo (Reading for Research Month) with a brief post listing some books that have served as my mentor texts for my Can Be… books, If You Were the Moon (Millbrook, 2017), and If You Want to Knit […]

Tagged With: ,