My son went to an elementary school where they enjoyed a week of "farm" school camping, or outdoor education, every year. Each week featured hiking, sitting outside, and taking a close look (using other senses, too) at nature. As part of the program, kids wrote poems about what they observed through their senses, how it … Continue reading Animals in Surprising Shades – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Amy Novesky has no interest in writing a standard biography. I'm thinking specifically of her books, Cloth Lullaby: the Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois; Mi, Frida; and Imogen: The Mother of Modernism and Three Boys. I imagine her focusing a wide angle lens on her subject, then combing through every wavelength of light until it … Continue reading Girl on a Motorcycle – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
Going back 15 years, today, because I just read a beautiful autobiographical story told by an amazing writer you may have heard of: Jacqueline Woodson. And yes, it won a Newbery Honor. The cover's die cut diamond with patchwork border, reveals a child with a lantern. And that lantern illuminates a quilt, a "show way" … Continue reading Show Way – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
At 9:30pm last night, as I was sitting down to write my Perfect Picture Book Friday post, the movers arrived—with furniture from my husband's office. His company is going virtual, so what to do with all that stuff? Well, some was sold, some was given away to employees, and some was supposed to come to … Continue reading Twists & Turns – A Writing Life
Frankenstein was not a "must read" for those of us becoming engineers in the early 1980s. I'd heard of the monster, but had no idea of the story behind it. Now, it appears to be required reading for those capable of creating any sort of biological or technological monster, intentional or otherwise. Many consider this … Continue reading She Made a Monster – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Litquake San Francisco, an annual literary festival comprising 850+ authors and hundreds of events in the span of 10 days, can be exhausting and daunting, but it can also be exhilarating and inspirational. I'm a co-producer of Kidquake, an event that draws 1,000 elementary school kids, their teachers, and chaperones to four assemblies and 10 … Continue reading Kidquake – Dream Big!
As a fan of writing, including punctuation and puns, I got the biggest kick out of: When we first encounter our hero, Period, that little piece of punctuation is inspired: Period asks Paper and Pencil for a little help, but then realizes: Enter Question Mark, who decides to—what do you think Question Mark does? I'll … Continue reading Where Are the Words – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Grant Faulkner, Founder and Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month, recently spoke at a fundraiser for one of my writing groups, the Write On Mamas. Correct that. He didn't "speak" so much as inspire us to challenge our personal narratives. Faulkner drew a series of concentric circles and described the center as someone who … Continue reading Are You a Writer? – NaNoWriMo
Have you ever had an Amy Krouse Rosenthal (AKR) moment? Yesterday, I casually bought Terry Tempest Williams' book, "When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice." I read the title and decided to buy it. I didn't look inside. It just seemed like something I needed to read. When I opened it this morning, I … Continue reading Serendipity Strikes (AKR Moment)
There's an ongoing discussion in the kid lit world about why boys don't want to read "girl books," meaning books that star female protagonists or feature fairies or princesses on the cover or in the title. Is this "preference" intrinsic, or are they steered away from such interests, starting at a very young age? Shannon … Continue reading Reading Gender Into It – Children’s Books and Beyond
Jilanne Hoffmann 