My writing group gave my baby-to-be a great gift–a library full of their favorite picture and board books. I am thrilled–it is such a generous gift and great idea. Two of the books that I received were Little Golden Books, which of course brought back fond memories of my own Little Golden Books. I used [...]

Once again, it’s time for the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. Yes, it’s sad that we even have to have a week like this each year; but at least, enough people are outraged by banning books that we have a week to recognize them. Pictured here, And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and [...]

I finally bought Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and read it and loved it! I am going to give my copy away to a lucky winner. If you already own it or read it, please enter anyway and donate it to a local school or library! To enter, all you have to do is leave a [...]

If any of you have started a blog for your children’s books, your classroom, your homeschool, or your mommy world, then you may be interested in the following REPRINTED interview on blogging and blogging tips I did with WOW! Women On Writing. It appeared on their blog, The Muffin, in July. I am teaching a [...]

Through my job with WOW! Women On Writing, I get to interview many interesting writers. One writer I recently interviewed, Caleb Collier, won 2nd place in WOW!’s flash fiction contest. (To see the interview, click here.) But I’m not writing about him today because he placed in a flash fiction contest. I am writing about [...]

I Want Your Moo: A Story for Children About Self-Esteem By Marcella Bakur Weiner and Jill Neimark Illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi Magination Press, 2010 I Want Your Moo is a great book about a very important, and sometimes difficult, topic for kids. It talks about the importance of developing self-esteem from a very early age [...]

For those of you who are parents and writers or teachers and writers, here’s a contest run by some great folks at the Missouri Writers’ Guild. There’s still plenty of time to enter and win! MISSOURI WRITERS’ GUILD – FLASH FICTION CONTEST 1. Flash Fiction – Get to the point in 500 words or less. [...]

Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli with illustrations by Caldecott Honor Winner, Kadir Nelson, is about the great Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Muta Maathai, from Kenya. I have written about her on my blog before because this is one woman that I just REALLY admire, and I think her story is important to share [...]

*Picture book, fiction, for preschoolers through 2nd graders *Two superhero boys as main characters *Rating: Boys will L-O-V-E Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug, which teaches the importance of recycling without preaching. Great idea! Short, short summary: A clean, little town has a big problem–Litterbug Doug, his rotten trash, and his rat friends. Litterbug Doug doesn’t [...]

My good cyber-buddy, Clara Gillow Clark, has an amazing opportunity on her blog today from author/illustrator Lindsay Barrett George. And some of us bloggers are working together to get the word out. Lindsay is offering a FREE school visit to anywhere as long as the school can pay her travel expenses! To check out details [...]