Welcome to this week’s Brave Wednesday! Above you will see the sketch I’m sharing with you today. It is somewhat cropped by WordPress to fit the space allotted, so here is a link to the complete image. I believe I’ve spoken in the past about my propensity for sketching my right hand (I’m left handed,…
“I’m looking for something for my daughter about character development.” This is the kind of open ended reference request that can lead you all sorts of places. As I learned during the ensuing conversation, this mother wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for, but wanted to start conversations with her daughter, age 5, about…
Books written for early readers are built with simple characters. This is good for emerging readers. They can come to appreciate running gags, as a character does the same thing in different scenes. The simple character can be described with few words, and takes does not take long to feel that the character is a…
For your enjoyment and edification, I offer you a lightning round of one sentence reviews of the children’s novels I’ve read so far this summer: The Amaranth Enchantment, by Julie Berry Fun fantasy arranged in a standard evil stepmother and girl-finds-a-prince format. The Leaving, by Tara Altebrando YA suspense novel fails to deliver on its promised intrigue….
It’s August, and the last week of the summer reading programming we run here at the library. Soon I’ll change all of our displays for back to school season. I’m a bit sad about the summer slipping away. Mostly, though, I’m proud of the kids. The children here in our community read terrifically this summer!…
This week, my toddler asked me to “go to the grocery store and buy my baby orange sandals.” She was pretty disappointed to hear that I would have to do some research about baby doll sandals, and they were’t a thing I could easily swing by the grocery store to get for her. Subsequent research…
In June of 2014, I wrote a song. I’ve written a couple of songs over the course of my life, although I can’t remember most of them. I remembered this one. A couple days later, I wrote it down. A week or so after that, I added a bridge to my three verses. I left…
I jumped back into it with a very brave act- I got up I front of people with my questions. I taught and I learned. It was electrifying and incredible and really everything that Brave Wednesdays are all about. Allow me to back up and explain:
Enjoy today’s edition of Library Moments! Child: One, two. I have two. Can I take another book? Adult: Two sounds like a good amount. Child: What about two more, because what about my brother? Adult: Can you share? Child: No, he needs his own. Adult: [gives child The Look.] Child: Ok, I can share mine…
In addition to blogging here, I post book reviews on GoodReads.com from time to time. Here is one I just wrote, after reading an eARC (eBook Advanced Reading Copy) provided to me by NetGalley. Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is surrealism defined. It’s like reading a Dali…