Martha and ann Driscoll - Bitly

Martha and ann DriscollShare their Love of Learning with LittLe readerS

Jason tharp encourageS KidS to Be the unicorn

sharon langley anD aMy nathanteLL a Story we’LL never forget

one to read:Justine avery

anna pignataroPenS a heartwarming Story of KindneSS and emPathy

one to watch:eliza pryor

Michael J. arMstrongdeButS hiS BeSt BooK ever

nathan haleBringS hiStory to Life in

graPhic noveL SerieS

JuDy newManSPring BreaK

teaching toolboxthe Seed of a Story

March 2020

The Literary Resource for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents

rob harrellwriteS an inSPiring Story of middLe SchooL SurvivaL

2 Story Monsters Ink | March 2020 | StoryMonsters.com

PROMOTE YOUR BOOK IN OUR NEXT ISSUE!

Would you like to promote your book, product, or business? Contact Cristy Bertini at [email protected] or call 413-687-0733 to reserve your space! Discounts available.

BRINg STORY MONSTERS INK INTO YOUR ClaSSROOM!

Visit our website at StoryMonsters.com to download free classroom question sheets to aid in learning comprehension and encourage your students to discuss what they’ve read in each issue!

StoryMonsters.com

MEET THE STaFFPUBLISHER

Linda F. [email protected]

EdItoR-In-CHIEfCristy Bertini

[email protected]

WRItERSMelissa Fales, Nick Spake,

Olivia Amiri, Julianne Black DiBlasi

SPECIaL ContRIBUtoRSJudy Newman

Larissa Juliano Joe Michael K.

dESIGnJeff Yesh

SCIEnCE & natURE EdItoRConrad J. Storad

PRoofREadERDeb Greenberg

WEB ManaGEMEntPatti Crane

advERtISInGLinda F. Radke

[email protected]

Cristy [email protected]

Book REvIEWERSDarleen Wohlfeil, Diana Perry, Christine Irvin,

Sherry Hoffman, Diana Fisher, Dawn Menge, Denise Bloomfield, Neha Praveen

cover photo courtesy of Susan Andra Lion

Story Monsters Ink magazine and www.StoryMonsters.com are trademarks of Story Monsters, LLC.

Copyright ©2020 Story Monsters LLC, ISSN 2374-4413, All rights reserved. Contents may not be published in whole or in part without the express written consent of the bylined author and publisher. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual writers and are not necessarily those of Story Monsters Ink or its advertisers. Story Monsters Ink is published by Story Monsters LLC Postal mail may be sent to Story Monsters Ink 4696 W. Tyson St., Chandler, AZ 85226 Phone: 480-940-8182

Subscribe online or through digital subscription services for schools and libraries.

“Like” us on Facebook! Facebook.com/StoryMonsters

Follow us on Twitter! @StoryMonsters

Follow us on Instagram! instagram.com/storymonsters

HONOR ROllgold award Recipient, Mom’s Choice awards.

2018 Irwin award winner for “Best Magazine Writer of the Year.”

2016 Irwin award winner for “Best Publisher of a literary Magazine” and “Best Editorial Director.”

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MCJR5ZJ

https://www.storymonsters.com/teaching-tools/



https://www.storymonsters.com/subscribe/

https://www.facebook.com/StoryMonsters

https://twitter.com/storymonsters

https://www.facebook.com/StoryMonsters



https://www.instagram.com/storymonsters/



StoryMonsters.com | March 2020 | Story Monsters Ink 3

in this issue ...

Tell us what you think of this issue! Email your comments to [email protected].

MaRCH 2020

24 NaTHaN HalEBrings History to Life in Graphic Novel Series

28 One to Watch:ElIza PRYOR

32 One to Read:JUSTINE avERY

60 MICHaEl J. aRMSTRONgDebuts His Best Book Ever

36 JUDY NEWMaNSpring Break

40 TEaCHINg TOOlBOXThe Seed of a Story

50 MY FavORITE TEaCHERMrs. Legler

52 MONSTERS aT THE MOvIESEmma

59 lIv ON lIFEMarch for a Cause

44 SPRINg REaDINg lIST

54 BOOK REvIEWS

WaNT TO REaD EvEN MORE?Check out our Book Briefs page at storymonsters.com to keep up with the latest news, interviews, and happenings at Story Monsters!

FeatureS CoLuMnS

reSourCeS

04 MaRTHa aND aNN DRISCOllShare Their Love of Learning with Little Readers

08 JaSON THaRPEncourages Kids to Be the Unicorn

12 SHaRON laNglEY aND aMY NaTHaNTell a Story We’ll Never Forget

16 ROB HaRREllWrites an Inspiring Story of Middle School Survival

20 aNNa PIgNaTaROPens a Heartwarming Story of Kindness and Empathy

Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle OF Louisville

Martha DriscollIllustrated by Susan Andra Lion

S E C O N D E D I T I O N

https://www.storymonsters.com/book-briefs-home/

https://www.storymonsters.com/book-briefs-home/


Martha and ann DriscollShare Their Love of Learning with Little Readers

by Melissa Fales

Collaboration can be a challenge for any writers, but when you add family dynamics to the mix, things can become especially complicated. The mother/daughter team of Martha and Ann Driscoll acknowledge that it took some time to sort out their individual roles and learn how to work together, but the result has been two award-winning books: Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville and Sammy the Seahorse. “Even though I’m an adult, we still have a parent/child relationship,” says Ann. “That had to evolve into a relationship as creative peers. We had to learn to work together and to respect each other’s difference of opinion.”


COvER FEaTUREMaRTHa aND aNN DRISCOLL

Martha and her husband raised Ann and their other three daughters with a steady stream of books. “Our house had floor-to-ceiling bookcases in the family room and every week we’d go to the public library and take out as many books as we could carry,” recalls Ann. “Reading was incredibly important in our home. We were taught to love books.”

According to Martha, who taught in elementary schools for 10 years, ran a reading clinic for at-risk kids, and taught Reading and Language Arts at Spalding University for 27 years, she never made a special effort to get her children reading. “Books were just a part of our life,” she says. “Reading was just one of those things we did without question.” Ann grew up to be an educator just like her mother, and is currently the assistant provost at Keene State College. For her, it was about choosing a job that would help her make the world a better place. “I just love helping people be their best selves and be successful at life,” she says. “The classroom is one very powerful way to do that.”

The two began working on books together when Ann’s father became ill. That’s when Martha showed Ann a rough draft of a story she had recently begun working on again after starting it more than 50 years ago. “She had put it aside while she raised her

family,” says Ann. It was about the Belle of Louisville, a beautiful steamboat Martha had admired her whole life.

Martha is visually impaired and can’t see a computer screen well enough to use one, so she writes her stories out in long hand. “She has a particular black pen she uses,” says Ann. “She writes on every other line of a white legal pad. Then she hands it to me. I can’t even describe the stacks of pages I’ve transcribed.” The act of transcription gave Ann the opportunity to suggest edits.

Having a project to work on gave them something positive to focus on. “We’d spend as much time with my dad as possible,” says Ann. “Then during the evenings and on the weekends, we’d take the phone off the hook and sit down and work on the book.” The result was Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville. It earned the Story Monsters Approved seal and Mom’s Choice Gold Award in 2016, and the Literary Classics Gold Award and Creative Child Magazine Seal of Excellence Award in 2017.

Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville was published in 2014, just in time for Louisville’s 100th birthday celebration for the Belle. “It seemed like there ought to be something for kids to take home after they’d been on the Belle,” says Martha. “It’s a historical treasure, but there were no children’s books about it. I thought it would be fun to write one.” “That’s my mother,” adds Ann. “Forever the teacher.”

The pair was in disagreement about the book’s storyline. “Did we want it to be an inventory of every nut and bolt of the Belle?” says Ann. “Or, did we want to tell a story

about a steamboat and the Belle happens to be it?” Feedback from others was overwhelmingly in favor of the book telling a story. “Of course, they said the same thing I’d been saying but she had to hear it from other people,” Ann jokes. Martha came up with the idea to have a cat onboard the Belle for children to chase around, providing the opportunity to show readers the steamboat’s many features.

The two took regular, reconnaissance trips on the Belle. “We wanted to make sure we had the facts just right,” says Martha. “Accuracy is very important to us.” They were there so frequently, they got to know the Belle’s resident historian and even met her sister, award-winning illustrator, Susan Andra Lion, who went on to illustrate Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville.

Lion also illustrated the Driscolls’ second book, Sammy the Seahorse. “Adults seem to love it as much as kids do,” says Ann. Martha and Ann believe that some of the book’s appeal lies in the high expectations they set for the children who read it. “Sammy the Seahorse doesn’t

Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle OF Louisville

Martha DriscollIllustrated by Susan Andra Lion

S E C O N D E D I T I O N


COvER FEaTURE MaRTHa aND aNN DRISCOLL

“The only things I’ve ever published have been with my mom. This experience is something I really treasure. To have created these books with her has been an extraordinary gift. We’ve learned so much together. And we’re still learning.”

speak to children in a childish way,” says Ann. “We respect children enough to know that they can handle some big words….We don’t talk down to them or present the information in a diminished way.”

The inspiration for Sammy the Seahorse came from Martha’s lifelong interest in the creature. After the pair published Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville, they felt a void in their lives. Martha, in particular, was eager to dive into another book, with Ann’s help. “After she worked all day, I thought she could come home and work some more,” says Martha. “I’ve been crazy about seahorses forever but once I began to think about how much I didn’t know about them, I had to learn. And I thought it would be fun to write a story about them.”

Again, the two began painstaking research. Sammy the Seahorse is filled with fascinating facts about seahorses, and, like Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville, includes a glossary at the end. Sammy the Seahorse earned the Mom’s Choice Gold Award in 2017 and the Literary Classics Gold Award, Purple Dragonfly First Place Award, Story Monsters Approved seal, and Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year in the Educational Storybooks Category in 2018.

The duo is currently at work on their third book, Rosa’s Monarch

Is he a horse or is he a fish?Sammy the Seahorse

Martha Driscoll & Ann Driscoll, Ed.D Illustrated by Susan Andra Lion

Butterfly. “There really was a Rosa,” says Martha. “She wasn’t accepted by the other students in her class because she was different.” But then, during a unit on butterflies, Rosa brought in a monarch butterfly chrysalis. “Suddenly, everyone wanted to be her friend,” says Martha. “Overnight, she went from the girl with no friends to the most popular child in her class. I’ve often wished I could see her as a woman and see what she remembers about it. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced.” The pair wants the book to teach the life cycle of the butterfly and they’re exploring ideas on how to include the true story of Rosa and her own transformation.

At 94 years old, Martha is delighted to be pursuing a lifelong interest. “When I was in college, I thought I

wanted to be a writer until I got an offer to teach that was too good to turn down,” she says. “But writing was always in the background for me. I’m glad I have the chance to do it now and it’s just the greatest thing to be able to do something like this with one of my children.”

By her own account, Ann has hundreds of journals of her own writing, mostly poetry. “But the only things I’ve ever published have been with my mom,” she says. “This experience is something I really treasure. To have created these books with her has been an extraordinary gift. We’ve learned so much together. And we’re still learning.”

For more information about Ann and Martha Driscoll and their books, visit driscollpublishing.com. •

https://driscollpublishing.com


Antony Barone Kolenc

The Harwood Mysteries Book 1

The Harwood Mysteries Book 1

Paperback | 978-0-8294-4810-8 | $14.95

Embark on an adventure with young Alexander as he tries to recover his memory and, with his new friends, uncover the mystery of the shadowy figure in the dark.

AvailableSummer

2020

preorder today!

www.loyolapress.com | 800-621-1008

https://www.loyolapress.com


Jason TharpEncourages Kids to be the Unicorn

by Melissa Fales

Jason Tharp knows how it feels to not fit in. Over the years, his struggle with feeling different manifested itself in harmful ways, including crippling personal debt, deep depression, and overeating to the point where he weighed nearly 400 pounds. In Tharp’s brand new children’s book, It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn, he encourages kids to let their true selves shine through in everything they do. “There’s no shame in not being the same,” says Tharp. “I want kids to know that their life is their story. I want them to tell it the way they want to, not how someone else says they should tell it.”

Tharp says It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn is the book he wishes his fourth-grade self could have read. “Back then, I was the chubby kid without a lot of friends,” he says. “I went to a school where kids had everything. I never went without, but I didn’t have the things they had.”

What Tharp did have was a vision for his future career. “I’ve known since I was six years old that I wanted to be storyteller,” he says. “When I watched Saturday morning cartoons I would pause the shows, hold paper up to the TV screen and trace the characters over and over. I loved the idea of coming up with stories and making pictures to go with them.” But Tharp grew up in rural Ohio, where men worked as farmers and factory workers. The idea that he could someday have a job telling stories seemed like a fairy tale in itself. It was one more way Tharp felt that he didn’t fit in.

As a teenager, Tharp morphed from plump to muscular. “I was the captain of the football team and on the outside I looked confident, but inside, I still never felt

that I fit in,” he says. After high school, still grappling with his feelings, Tharp turned to food for comfort and became obese. Even after he lost the extra weight, he still felt down. “I got my weight under control, but I never dealt with all of the emotional stuff,” he says. “That was too hard for me to handle.”

After spending some time in the corporate world, Tharp went out on his own as a businessman. “I made huge mistakes,” he says. “At 41, I was a massive failure. I was broke. The bank was foreclosing on my house.” Feeling like he had hit rock bottom, Tharp thought he had nothing left to lose. “I thought, Look, I’ve tried all of this stuff I didn’t really want to do in the first place. How about trying what I actually want to do with my life? And that was telling stories. And once I decided to do that, I’ve never looked back.”

So Tharp started drawing again. From there, he progressed to writing and illustrating children’s books. Then he got published with series such as the Super

FEaTURE JaSON THaRP


FEaTURE JaSON THaRP


Monsta Friends, Peachy and Keen, and Big and Bunny. Finally, he felt like he belonged. “It’s a great feeling knowing that I’m finally doing what I was meant to do,” he says. “I always tell publishers that I write for ‘the weird kid.’ When a child is hurting, we tell them that it doesn’t matter. We say that years from now, this won’t be an issue. But kids live in the present moment. Right now is all they can imagine.”

Tharp says one of his favorite aspects of his “new” job as a children’s author is visiting schools and getting the chance to talk to kids in person. He spoke to 23,000 kids at schools last year alone. “I try to talk to kids, not at them,” he says. “I’m honest with them. I tell them that feeling like they don’t belong is normal and it sucks and there will be times when people won’t like you. Maybe it’s because you’re different, or it’s because of the clothes you’re wearing. It’s not a reflection of you; it’s a reflection of them.” For Tharp, having the opportunity to help kids feel better about themselves is cathartic. “When I’m at a school, I try to talk to all of the kids, but I make an effort to be sure to talk to the kid I would guess is the ‘weird’ kid,” he says. “If I’m being honest, I’m talking to fourth-grade me. I wish someone had just

told me, it’s okay to feel different. I know it’s hard but everything you’re feeling is completely normal. You’re okay and you’re going to be okay....”

That’s the message of It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn. “This book in particular, this is what I’ve been working towards the whole time,” says Tharp. “This is the story that I was too afraid to put out there because it’s so personal.” It’s about Cornelius J. Sparklesteed, a unicorn

“There’s no shame in not being the same. I want kids to know that their life is their story. I want them to tell it the way they want to, not how someone else says they should tell it.”

FEaTUREJaSON THaRP


living among horses in a town where no unicorns are allowed. In order to fit in, he pretends to be a horse, hiding his horn under a collection of tall, pointy hats. Eventually, Cornelius tires of living a lie and decides to reveal his true identity while performing at an upcoming festival. “He thinks he’s going to lose a lot of friends, but he knows he has to do it,” says Tharp.

When the time comes, Cornelius takes the stage. “He does this whole dance he’s rehearsed,” says Tharp. “He shows everyone who he really is. There’s this great spread in the book that shows the shock on a bunch of horse faces during his big reveal, but he doesn’t care. He’s dancing away.” Tharp says that’s the most important part of the book. “What I’m trying to drive home to kids is that while Cornelius is dancing, he realizes that he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks about him being a unicorn,” he says. “He likes himself. That’s how I want everyone who reads this book to feel.”

For more information about Jason Tharp and his books, visit wondervillestudios.com. •

https://www.wondervillestudios.com

https://icepinepalace.wordpress.com


Sharon langley and amy NathanTell a Story We’ll Never Forget

by Melissa Fales

Amusement parks aren’t typically thought of as places where history happens, but on August 28, 1963, Sharon Langley and her family made history at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore, Maryland. They were the first African-American family to visit the park on its first day of being desegregated. Only 11 months old at the time, Sharon doesn’t remember her father placing her on a carousel horse, but history does. The occasion was recorded by national newspapers in articles and photographs and Langley’s parents were careful to ensure that the moment, and its significance, would never be forgotten. “In my family’s oral history, I’ve heard the story over and over and over again,” Langley says. Now, she’s made her story into a picture book, A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story, written with co-author Amy Nathan and released in January.

Today big kids, little kids, young kids, old kids—no matter the color of their skin—can ride on any carousel, going round and round on horses painted all the colors of the rainbow.

Nobody first and nobody last, everyone equal, having fun together.

FEaTURESHaRON LaNGLEy aND aMy NaTHaN


The Gwynn Oak Amusement Park opened in 1894. Its “whites-only” policy began to be challenged regularly in the 1950s and protests grew more intense as the Civil Rights Movement began to spread nationwide. On July 4, 1963, hundreds of people, black and white, converged on the park to demand desegregation. Nearly 300 protestors were arrested, but that didn’t deter the hundreds who showed up for another protest on July 7.

As it happened, the day the park opened its doors to African-Americans, allowing Langley to ride that carousel, was the very same day Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. “The 28th of August has come to be a significant date in African-American history, for both good and bad reasons,” says Langley. August 28th was the day in 1955 when 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman. In 2008, Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on August 28th.

Amy Nathan also grew up in Baltimore, but didn’t meet Langley until 2013, when Langley was the featured speaker at the city’s 50th anniversary celebration of her historic carousel ride. Nathan first learned about Langley’s story while reading Here Lies Jim Crow: Civil Rights in Maryland by C. Fraser Smith. “At the end, there’s a mention of the ride Sharon took,” says Nathan. “I thought, Wow, that’s a cool story. Sharon’s story would make a good book for young people.”

After some research, Nathan learned that the carousel Langley rode had been relocated to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. after the amusement park closed. With the carousel so close to where King gave his historic speech, Nathan thought a book about Langley’s historic ride would have even broader appeal. She tracked Langley down and the two women spoke on the phone. Langley was receptive to the idea of Nathan writing a book about her special role in the Civil Rights Movement. “I thought it would be a great way to share my story with young readers and their families,” she says. In 2011, Nathan published a middle grade book about Langley’s story, Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride into the Civil Rights Movement.

When the two women finally met in 2013, they immediately connected. They both felt the topic naturally lent itself to a book for younger children and they began discussing the idea of adapting Langley’s story into a picture book. “Taking something that children like, such as a merry-go-round, and explaining how some children couldn’t ride it because of the

color of their skin seemed like a way for children to grasp how unfair segregation was,” says Nathan. “Children can all relate to unfairness and it’s something they tend to react to strongly.” Langley was game to try her hand at writing a book for the first time. “As a teacher, I’d written skits and songs for my students to perform,” she says. “Why not a book, too?”

Nathan says the idea of a carousel is a perfect metaphor for the topic of fairness. In fact, it’s how she and Langley chose to open their picture book, A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story. “I love carousels,” the book reads. “The horses come in so many colors … but no matter their colors, the horses all go around at the same speed as they circle round and round. They start together. They finish together, too. Nobody is first and nobody is last. Everyone is equal when you ride a carousel.”

A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story is told in the first person, with Langley narrating how her parents shared with her what happened that fateful day at the park. “In the book, I’m recounting the conversation I had with my parents when I was five or six years old,” explains Langley. “I knew something special had happened but I didn’t understand the significance. There’s a spread in the book that shows me looking at the newspaper clippings from that day with my parents.”

FEaTURE SHaRON LaNGLEy aND aMy NaTHaN


“Taking something that children like, such as a merry-go-round, and explaining how some children couldn’t ride it because of the color of their skin seemed like a way for children to grasp how unfair segregation was. Children can all relate to unfairness and it’s something they tend to react to strongly.”

The illustrations in A Ride to Remember are by Coretta Scott King Award-winner Floyd Cooper. One spread shows Reverend King, described in the book as “a man who was trying to end unfair rules everywhere,” giving his moving speech about his dream. “My carousel ride showed that Dr. King’s dream was starting to come true,” writes Langley.

Langley says she hopes A Ride to Remember will encourage young readers to get involved when they witness injustice in the world. “Everyone can make a difference in their community.” she says. “Look around. Even today, there are important issues that need people who will help make a change. Ordinary people, even children, can play a part.”

For more information about Sharon Langley, Amy Nathan, and A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story, visit sharonlangley.com and amynathanbooks.com. •

August 28 was also an important day for a man who

was trying to end unfair rules everywhere—Reverend Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr. On that very day Dr. King was at

a huge protest in Washington—the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Hundreds of thousands of people joined him to call for an end to segregation everywhere. Dr. King told the crowd about his hopes and dreams that one day black children and white children would live together peacefully in this country, treating each other as brothers and sisters. My carousel ride showed that Dr. King’s dream was starting to come true.

photo courtesy amy Nathan

https://www.sharonlangley.com

http://www.amynathanbooks.com

schifferpublishing schifferpublishing schifferbooks schifferpublishing

www.schifferbooks.com

978-0-7643-5904-0 | $12.99graphic novel | February 2020

978-0-7643-5895-1| $9.99 activity book | February 2020

978-0-7643-5896-8 | $9.99 activity book | February 2020

978-0-7643-5974-3 | $14.99 picture book | April 2020

Geraldine and the Most Spectacular Science Project

NEW THIS SPRING FROM

#learningwithAmelia

978-0-7643-5898-2 | $16.99 picture book | February 2020

Rally behind this ambitious second-grade girl who, with only her dreams and gizmos, has the

power to change the world.


https://www.schifferbooks.com


Rob HarrellWrites an Inspiring Story of Middle School Survival

by Melissa Fales

It’s tough to be in middle school, with its daily struggles of popularity, pimples, and progress reports. In Rob Harrell’s new book, Wink, the main character, Ross Maloney, not only has to deal with all of the usual middle school nonsense, he’s also battling ocular cancer. While Wink isn’t an autobiography, Harrell was diagnosed with a rare form of ocular cancer himself in 2005, which robbed his sight in one eye. It was something Harrell knew he wanted to write about, but he wasn’t sure how.

photo by Linda Striggo, courtesy DePauw Magazine

FEaTUREROB HaRRELL


“I kicked around how to best tell that story,” he says. “Instead of writing about having cancer at age 35, I felt like it could have more of an impact as a middle school story. And after the success of my books, Monster on the Hill and the Life of Zarf series, I had new confidence I could write for that age group.”

Harrell earned a degree from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana as an art major and a creative writing minor, then attended Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida where he studied illustration. After graduation, he did illustrations for ad agencies and magazines, and package design. “I was happy to be drawing, but since the fourth grade, my goal had always been to do a comic strip,” he says. Harrell had drawn a weekly comic strip for his high school newspaper and one at DePauw which he tried unsuccessfully to get syndicated. “Looking back, I’m glad they didn’t choose it,” he says. “It was about animals on a cross country tour. It wasn’t great.”

In 2001, Harrell came up with the idea for Big Top, a cartoon about a circus run by animals. “They were very sarcastic animals,” he says. “I think Opus from Bloom County was probably my biggest inspiration.” When the strip was syndicated, Harrell was thrilled. It ran for five years, from 2002 to 2007. “It did ok, but it never really caught fire,” he says. Harrell currently draws Adam@home, a strip he took over in 2009, which appears in papers all over the world.

Harrell made the jump to graphic novels in 2013 with Monster on the Hill. “It’s set in a world where every town has its own monster,” says Harrell. “Every once in a while the monster comes down, scares everybody, knocks some stuff over, and goes back up on the hill. But everybody roots for them. In a way, it’s sort of like following a sports team or riding a roller coaster for the residents.” But something goes wrong for one town. “They have a depressed monster,” says Harrell. “They have to call in a doctor to help their monster rediscover how to be scary.” Monster on the Hill is set to be made into an animated movie within the next year. “It’s based on my book, but it will be wildly different,” he says.

After Monster on the Hill was published, Harrell caught the writing bug. “I really liked the whole idea of building worlds,” he says. Next, he created his Life of Zarf series, about a troll in middle school in a fairy-tale world, first released in 2014. “Unfortunately, trolls are at the bottom of the social ladder,” says Harrell. The Life of Zarf books are filled with adventures that include run-ins with pirates, kidnappers and even a big bad wolf.

Shortly after the third Life of Zarf book, Harrell learned some troubling news. His best friend’s daughter, a freshman in high school, was also diagnosed with cancer. For Harrell, everything started to stack up. “The combination of just finishing the Life of Zarf series, having gone through cancer treatments, seeing my friend’s daughter battling cancer … it all hit me,” he says. Harrell says he’d battled depression in the past

“I hope Wink isn’t just for kids who are going through a horrible situation, but that it also shows kids how to be a good friend to someone when they’re having serious problems. It’s not a heavy book. There are parts that are light and fun, but there are also some really emotional moments. In that way, it’s a lot like life.”

FEaTURE ROB HaRRELL


and he could feel it inching back. “Wink was mostly a way to write my way out of that,” he says. “I started to write a memoir, but it slowly morphed into what became Wink.”

According to Harrell, the book took on a life of its own with Ross’s story evolving into one that parallels his own more than he anticipated it would. “Yes, there’s a lot of me

in there,” he says. “It’s definitely the most personal work I’ve ever produced. In Wink, working on his comic strip, Batpig, is very much a type of therapy for Ross. “Drawing was my therapy, too,” says Harrell. “Having a comic strip to write every day while going through cancer gave me something to lean on.” Harrell admits he doesn’t play the guitar quite as well in real life as Ross does.

“I based that more on my love of music than my ability to play it,” he says. “I can play in a room by myself just fine.”

Wink, says Harrell, is about more than just a kid with cancer. It’s about relationships, some that thrive and some that fade away in the shadow of illness. Ross grows close with his radiation technician, who teaches him how to play guitar, but his good friend, Isaac, starts avoiding him. Losing friends was one of the hardest parts of having cancer, says Harrell. “I’m not sure why some of my friends vanished,” he says. “I think they just didn’t know how to handle it or what to say and it’s easier just to not deal with it.”

The book is set to be released March 31 and Harrell hopes it will have a wide audience. “I hope Wink isn’t just for kids who are going through a horrible situation, but that it also shows kids how to be a good friend to someone when they’re having serious problems,” he says. “It’s not a heavy book. There are parts that are light and fun, but there are also some really emotional moments. In that way, it’s a lot like life.”

The message of Wink, says Harrell, is that no one can get through life all alone. “We all need support at one time or another,” he says. “Ross gets support in a whole bunch of different ways. He gets comfort from his music and his artwork. The staff at the radiation center becomes a family. Once he learns how to play guitar, his band becomes a family. When you’ve been handed a big burden, let other people help you carry it.”

For more about Rob Harrell and his work, visit robharrell.com. •

https://robharrell.com


http://justineavery.com

anna PignataroPens a Heartwarming Tale of Kindness and Empathy

by Melissa Fales

In her latest picture book, Australian author/illustrator Anna Pignataro uses the world’s largest mammal to amplify her message to young children about how deceiving outward appearances can be. In The Heart of a Whale, she plays up the contrast between our exterior, which the world sees, and the emotions we’re experiencing inside. “I wanted to write about a big creature, gentle and kind, who fills all sea life with joy but whose own heart remains empty with longing,” Pignataro says.


Fans of Pignataro’s work often describe it as “dreamlike,” a representation Pignataro concedes is spot-on. “I have always been a bit of a dreamer,” she says. “As a child, one of my favorite things was to go into the garden and look under plants and flowers for fairies and to imagine whole villages living there and in our trees. Our almond tree was filled with families sleeping nestled in the soft green beds.”

Several of Pignataro’s favorite books from childhood made a lasting impression on her, especially Grimm’s Fairy Tales and The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. “I love the feeling of wonder, fantasy, and magic these books left in me,” she says. “I remember clearly a very old fairytale book my mum used to read to me. It was a good way for her to learn English, as we are Italian. It had wonderful illustrations by Arthur Rackham. I would look at the pictures over and over again … I decided from then on that when I grew up, I would write stories and illustrate children’s books. To this day Arthur Rackham remains my greatest influence and inspiration.”

Pignataro received a scholarship to study fine art, design, and art history in college in Melbourne and spent over six years there studying. The first book she illustrated, I’m in the Sky and I Can’t Come Back by Holly Young Huth, was released in 1997 and earned her the coveted Crichton Award for Book Illustration.

The Heart of a Whale didn’t start out as a picture book. “The story started as a poem inspired by how I thought music would sound under the sea,” Pignataro says. “My house is always filled with music and I grew up with music. My father was a musician, so melody in all its forms was the ultimate inspiration for the book.” In fact, she employed music to help her create the book’s ethereal illustrations. “While I painted, I listened to whale sounds and my daughter singing and playing the cello,” she says.

When creating a book, Pignataro typically starts with the illustrations, but that wasn’t the case with The Heart of a Whale. “For the first time my words came quicker than my illustrations,” she says. “There were so many visual challenges. Painting music wasn’t easy, and what does a wish look like?”

Pignataro’s choice of medium for the illustrations helped to shape the feel of the book. “I decided that I would use watercolor in a very free and expressive way,” she says. “Pencil lines, brush strokes, and colors create emotions along with the words. The words are sparse so that the illustrations can create the visual seascape. In creating

the illustrations, I realized that the great sea, terrifying, quiet, echoey, strange, and mysterious, was not unlike outer space. I gave the sea a surreal and haunting quality like a ghost, a dream, or memory. It is lonely but also magical and unique.”

The Heart of a Whale touches on some serious topics for children, such as managing feelings of loneliness and sadness. “Everyone feels lonely from time to time, especially children,” Pignataro says. “It’s important that they know that out there somewhere … there’s someone or something that cares about them. My hope is that my stories show that we are all responsible for each other and for taking care of one another and the world.”

Pignataro says she wasn’t daunted by the idea of broaching deeper topics within The Heart of a Whale, which include mental health and wellness, along with hope, kindness, sharing, selflessness, and ultimately, unconditional love. She’s delved into helping children manage their emotions in previous works. “Take a look at my Agatha books,” she says, calling upon her half-pig, half-bear character. “They’re about feelings like childhood fears and jealousies and accepting and believing in yourself … I approached this as I approach all the stories and pictures I do. I ask myself, How might a child see this? In this case, how might a child understand how the whale feels, how the whale and everything around it is connected?”

With over 60 books published to date, Pignataro has settled into a writing process. “Usually the character comes first and then I make a world for that character;

photo by Sim

on G

uthl

eben

FEaTUREaNNa PIGNaTaRO

FEaTURE aNNa PIGNaTaRO


their unique personality, an endearing quality, their colors, their clothes, the place they live in,” she says. “In my mind, the characters have a very detailed back story that others might not ever really know about. Often the characters will eventually tell me what they want to look like and where they would like to live. Yes, they talk to me!”

Other notable books by Pignataro include her Butterfly Girls series, It’s Hard to Love a Tiger, and the illustrations for Clare’s Goodbye by Libby Gleason. Pignataro is currently working on two more books. “They are both very different and quite funny,” she

says. “One is about a witch and a bat. It’s mostly in black and white and has a gothic feel. The other is collaboration with a fellow author and friend and is about the relationship between a fox and a crocodile. The world I am creating for them is completely unreal.”

One of Pignataro’s goals when writing is to make children feel as though the book was written for them. “I strive to be inclusive and without barriers,” she says. “That is why I enjoy using animals as characters. Everyone can relate to animals. It’s important to me that I create characters that the reader can find a connection with and feel empathy for.” Pignataro also

“I see everything through new eyes each time I pick up a pencil or a paintbrush. It really is a dream come true. It’s wonderful to meet, talk, and read with children. I hope to teach them to follow their dreams and that anything is possible if you use your imagination.”


makes a special effort to include elements of love and magic in all of her work. “I always sprinkle these two ingredients in all my books,” she says.

Pignataro says she’s lucky to be able to create books for children in her own way. “I absolutely love being transported to my own little world each day and being allowed to remain a child,” she says. “That’s important … staying a child inside.” She says it helps to adopt the mindset of a child by being eager and willing to learn. “I see everything through new eyes each time I pick up a pencil or a paintbrush,” she says. “It really is a dream come true. It’s wonderful to meet, talk, and read with children. I hope to teach them to follow their dreams and that anything is possible if you use your imagination.”

For more information about Anna Pignataro and her books, visit annapignataro.com. •

FEaTUREaNNa PIGNaTaRO

http://annapignataro.com

https://www.amazon.com/Mikey-Me-William-Andrews/dp/1480919705/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mikey+and+me+william+andrews&qid=1579184221&sr=8-1


Nathan HaleBrings History to Life in Graphic Novel Series

by Melissa Fales

The ninth and newest book in Nathan Hale’s New York Times best-selling Hazardous Tales series is Major Impossible. It’s about John Wesley Powell, a man who didn’t let the fact that he lost an arm during his service in the Civil War stop him from leading an exploration of the Grand Canyon a few years later. “He’s far down on the list of known American heroes and explorers,” says Hale. “I’ve always wanted to do a book about him. He’s this great romantic figure and the first non-Native American to explore the Grand Canyon by river.”


As a kid, Hale remembers being fascinated with the Caldecott Medal gracing the cover of his copy of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. “I set my career path early on,” he says. “I wanted to get my hands on one of those gold medals.” Growing up, Hale drew all the time. His family didn’t own a TV. Instead, his father read aloud and Hale would draw pictures, “usually of the TV shows I wished I was watching,” he says.

During his senior year of high school, Hale created a choose-your-own-adventure book for a class project. “They took everyone’s project to the district bindery and turned them into little bound books,” says Hale. After hearing over and over again that he should submit his for publication, Hale sent it off to HarperCollins and promptly forgot all about it. A year later, Hale was attending Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle when he got a phone call from an intern at HarperCollins. “The message said, ‘Don’t get excited,’” says Hale. “’Your book is completely unpublishable. But in your cover letter you said you were in high school and I just wanted to say, keep it up.’ I’ll always be grateful for that phone call. It kept me going.”

While in college, Hale painted scenery for theater productions. “I got good at painting big things,” he says. Shortly after graduation, he drove by the site where a dinosaur museum was being built. He stopped in to see whether they had already hired someone to paint murals, thinking it might be a job opportunity. “The entire interior of the museum had been painted stark white,” he says. “Somebody must have put the paleontologists in charge of that. It was terrible.”

Hale went home and made mockettes demonstrating how his murals could enhance different spaces within the museum. He was hired on a trial basis. “By the end of the year, I had painted every room in their museum,” he says. A company installing dioramas at the museum was so impressed with Hale’s work, they offered him a job. Today his artwork appears in museums all over the world. Hale worked under the scrutiny of scientists who made sure his paintings were accurate. “It taught me the importance of getting the details right,” says Hale. “That’s something I carry with me.”

Still, Hale was writing at night and on the weekends. “I paid SCBWI dues occasionally, when I could afford it,” he says. A full decade passed between when Hale submitted that high school project to HarperCollins and when his first book, The Devil You Know, was published in 2005. Other books followed, but Hale hadn’t met great success. Then he lost the mural painting job. “Everything changed because the big recession hit in 2008,” says Hale. “The first things to shut down in state government are museum projects. The museum design place I worked for closed its doors.” He did freelance illustration jobs, including regular work with Cricket magazine.

Hale was at a writing conference when he ran into author Shannon Hale (no relation) who asked if he would consider illustrating a graphic novel she and her husband, Dean, had written. Rapunzel’s Revenge was the classic, hairy fairy tale, but set in the Old West. “She had never written a graphic novel before,” says Hale. “I had never illustrated a graphic novel before. The publisher had never published

FEaTURENaTHaN HaLE


a graphic novel, and the editor had never read a graphic novel before. It was kind of a miracle that it actually worked out.”

Rapunzel’s Revenge was one of the first graphic novels to catch on. Hale found he especially enjoyed doing the research required to make Rapunzel’s Revenge and its sequel, Calamity Jack, accurate. “I got excited about making the hats and the guns and the boots just right,” he says.

Hale started infusing history into the mini-comics he created for his blog. One about Lewis and Clark generated interest from publishers looking for graphic novels with a history component, and his Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series was born. “It took a lot of lucky coincidences from putting my work out there,” Hale says. Other topics in the Hazardous Tales series include the Alamo, both World Wars, and the Underground Railroad.

The newest in the series, Major Impossible takes readers along with Powell on his 1869 journey along the Colorado River with a team

FEaTURE NaTHaN HaLE

of nine other men in four boats. “They had no idea what they were going to encounter,” says Hale. “They were going to head down the river and cross their fingers that they wouldn’t come across Niagara Falls.” Powell actually made two

journeys to explore the canyon. “Nobody that went with him on the first trip went on the second trip,” says Hale. “They didn’t all make it. One guy left early and three of them disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to them.”

Hale is already at work on the tenth book in the series, which will be about the Louisiana Purchase. “All I was ever taught about it in school was that Thomas Jefferson got it for a good deal,” says Hale. “Not from whom. Not why it was a good deal. And yes, Thomas Jefferson will appear on a few pages. But it’s really about the second big revolution in the New World. The first was America vs. Britain. The

“People always say, ‘You make history funny and cool.’ I don’t do anything. I put it in cartoon form. That’s it. History is fascinating and funny and cool all on its own.”

second was Haiti vs. France.” The book will address Napoleon’s role in the deal. “He had big plans to develop it as the French base in the New World, but he sold it out of desperation after a major military defeat in Haiti,” says Hale. “The

people in Haiti, using machetes and gardening tools take down this massive army, with a little help from yellow fever-infected mosquitoes. It’s completely insane and so interesting. I thought to myself, Why didn’t I hear this story in school?!”

Hale has no shortage of riveting topics for future books. “People always say, ‘You make history funny and cool,’” says Hale. “I don’t do anything. I put it in cartoon form. That’s it. History is fascinating and funny and cool all on its own.”

For more information about Nathan Hale and his books, visit nathanhaleauthor.com. •

https://www.nathanhaleauthor.com


LINDA HARKEY'SBOOK READING

AND CRAFTPROGRAM

Learn more about the series and local author, Linda Harkey at www.harkeybooks.comContact for more information: [email protected]

NEW!

Taking her hit children's book series to the classroom, authorLinda Harkey has extensive experience visiting young students

and inspiring them to fall in love with reading!

Through Linda's funand engaging craftlessons, students

learn what it takes towrite and illustrate a

storybook of theirown. Visiting 1-3rd

grade students in theNew Mexico area has

given Linda theexperience to help

encourage studentsto embrace their

creativity and abilityto bring their

imagination to life!

https://www.harkeybooks.com

Thirteen-year-old Eliza Pryor plays teen witch Valeria on the popular Netflix series, Team Kaylie. The series showcases what happens when a wealthy, pampered celebrity leads a middle school club full of misfits on outdoor adventures. According to Pryor, Team Kaylie may be over the top, but it has a deeper message. “The show is hilarious and at times, completely outrageous,” she says. “However, it is really about friendship, teamwork, and learning to put others before yourself.”

One to Watch

Eliza Pryorby Melissa Fales

Pryor grew up in Dallas, Texas where she began taking singing lessons as a little girl. She was gifted vocally, but suffered from crippling stage fright when singing in front of others. “When I did more gigs and got more experience, I realized how much I loved entertaining people,” she says. “From there, I started training for guitar and piano, and then coaches and friends suggested I try acting. Once I started acting, I loved it and knew I wanted to move to L.A. to give it a try.” Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was ten.

Acting has always come naturally to Pryor. “I love getting new scripts because to me, it’s not just words on paper,” she says. “I really imagine and get caught up in a story. I love creating and being able to be someone that I’m not. Acting allows me to do that and bring the character to life for others.”

Pryor was drawn to audition for Team Kaylie because of its unusual premise. “Kaylie Konrad is a reality-TV star who gets in trouble with the law,” explains Pryor. “She is court-ordered to be the leader of a school wilderness club for inner city tweens. I play one of those tweens.” The jokes are largely based on the incongruity of Kaylie with her perfect hair, heels, and designer clothes with

the great outdoors. “Kaylie really has to go outside her comfort zone because she is very high-maintenance,” says Pryor. “There are some really funny, crazy moments that happen along the way, and she ends up forming a close bond with all of the kids. The kids are all very different but they really care about each other and their Wilderness Club.”

Valeria, the character played by Pryor, is cool but complex. “Valeria is kind of dark and intense, but at the same time is very sarcastic and funny,” says Pryor. “She is considered a ‘wannabe witch’ because her spells don’t always go according to plan. However, Valeria is still very lovable and makes a great part of the Wilderness Club team.”

In real life, Pryor says she’s nothing like Valeria. “I think that’s what makes her so fun to play,” says Pryor. “I love getting to dress up in clothes and makeup totally different from mine. There might be some similarities in our personalities, but overall, we are very different. I actually look up to Valeria in a way. She is so confident and doesn’t always care what people say. People call her a weirdo and she loves it!”

photo by Birdie Thompson, hair and makeup Lisa Truong

“As teenagers we all get nervous or insecure sometimes. Whatever it is that you want to do or accomplish, just take that first step. Don’t let others or your fears stop you from trying.”

ONE TO WaTCH: ELIza PRyORFEaTURE


For Pryor, the best part of working on Team Kaylie is the opportunity to work with such a strong group of fellow actors and actresses. “The entire cast is so talented and amazing,” she says. “I feel like I grew a lot as an actress from being around and learning from everyone else. Everyone is professional and works hard but we also had a lot of fun on set! We are like one big family.”

Before she was selected for Team Kaylie, Pryor appeared on Alexa & Katie on Netflix and Raven’s Home on the Disney Channel. But her very first onscreen role was on the big screen, appearing as Zelda in a movie called Spinning Man. “I played the daughter of Minnie Driver and Guy Pearce,” she says. “Being in Spinning Man was a huge moment in my life. It’s the first big project I had ever done and it really helped me grow as an actress. Getting to work with all of the amazing cast and crew really showed me what being in a movie and acting was all about. I learned so much from that experience.” Next, look for Pryor co-starring on Truth Be Told on Apple TV+ with Lizzy Caplan.

When she’s not acting, Pryor still likes to sing. She was recently selected to perform with Acapop!KIDS, a new musical act formed by the creators of the extremely popular group Pentatonix. “It’s an all-kids a cappella group,” Pryor says. “We are 100 percent a cappella and we have kid-friendly music. All of the kids in it are majorly talented and amazing. We have released many music videos and songs and have more coming in the future.” Pryor is featured in the video

for the Acapop!KIDS version of Into the Unknown from Frozen 2.

Pryor has an innate appreciation for music and the way it makes her feel. “I love to connect to lyrics and feel the emotion in a song,” she says. “I also love to have other people feel that emotion when I sing. There are so many genres and different styles in singing, so I love singing certain types of songs depending on my mood. For instance, if I’m excited, I can sing an exciting song and if I’m having a chill day, I’ll sing a chill song.”

Pryor is constantly trying to improve in all of her areas of talent. “I am continuously auditioning and working towards that next role,” she says. She enjoys watching and learning from other young actresses, notably Zendaya and Millie Bobby Brown. “They are both extremely talented actresses who work hard,” she says. One of her favorite new films is Little Women and in particular, Emma Watson. “She would have to be another one of my role models,” says Pryor.

As talented and successful as she is, and as hard as she’s worked to get where she is today, Pryor acknowledges that she feels unsure of herself from time to time. She wants her fans to aim high, and reassures them that experiencing the occasional bout of self-doubt is completely normal. “As teenagers we all get nervous or insecure sometimes,” she says. “Whatever it is that you want to do or accomplish, just take that first step. Don’t let others or your fears stop you from trying.” •


A hair-raising history of women’s hairstyles in 18th-century London

Written by Gail Skroback Hennessey Illustrated by Steve Cox

Mrs. Paddingtonand the

Silver Mousetraps

Represented by Lerner Publisher Services 800-328-4929

www.lernerbooks.com

Preview at www.redchairpress.com

History has never been so hair-raisingly fun!

• 40 pages 11” x 9”• Ages 8 to 12• Interest Level: Gr 2 to 5• RL: 3• $18.99 List/ $14.24 S&L

Written by former NY State and NCSS Teacher of the Year, Gail Skroback Hennessey

978-1-63440-900-1

if you dare…Follett School Solutions and Baker & Taylor

ILLUSTRATED SHORT CLASSICS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS?

ALLURING • ENTRANCING • BEWITCHINGSOUNDS GOOD !!

Illustrated Literaturefor Youngsters(and Oldsters)

www.adaptedclassics.com

http://www.redchairpress.com/

https://cathyringler.com

https://adaptedclassics.com

Justine Avery is the epitome of someone living life to the fullest. She’s traveled and lived all around the world. She’s been sky diving, scuba diving, and bungee jumping. Her zest for life and her unrelenting enthusiasm for it comes through in all of the books she writes, both for adults and children. This Book is Alive!, the first book in her new Living Books children’s series, will be released in March. “It’s interesting how much of a writer is always in their work, even if it’s completely fiction with not a single actual experience or character placed from real life,” Avery says. “All my stories exemplify how mysterious the ordinary is, or vice versa, and how each of us has the ability to reach that inner, childlike joy and make the most of our life.”

One to Read

Justine averyby Melissa Fales

FEaTURE ONE TO REaD: JUSTINE avERy

Avery was never the sedentary type. While she was born in the Midwest, she attended kindergarten in Germany, lived in the Republic of Panama as a teen, and moved over 30 times before she turned 20 years old. At age 28, Avery quit a corporate life that never quite suited her and took on freelance work as a way to free-up her time to do the things that were most important to her. Avery said it was the best decision she ever made, one that came after a lot of soul-searching.

“It was a combination of the common situation of feeling underappreciated and unfulfilled at the day job and a growing urge to go do and see all the things that I hoped to do ‘one day,’” she says. “There was the nagging realization that ‘one day’ may never come, or it might not be so easy to do or enjoy those things when it finally did.” Since then, she’s increased her travel tally to include living in or visiting more than 36 countries, setting foot on all but one continent, and seeing all 50 American states.

In 2015, Avery published her first book for adults, The End, about a mountain bike rider who uses a helmet-mounted camera to capture his daring tricks and feats on video. The book has a stunning twist. “When he plays back the video one weekend, he finds himself watching the scene of his own tragic death by a stunt gone wrong,” says Avery. “The story takes place over just one week and he struggles to uncover how the video is possible, what it means, and what the future holds for him.”

Avery released her first children’s book, What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream? in 2019, the first in her Wonders series. “The Wonders series is all about how wonderful the world, life, and everything around us is, if you take the time to notice,” says Avery. “It’s good to be reminded to stop and smell the roses.” Avery says she created What Wonders Do You See... specifically as a book to be read at bedtime. “It’s all about looking forward to the wonderful adventure that sleep actually is,” she says. In perfect harmony with the text of the book,



“I love the process of writing, discovering the characters and ideas that come from nothing. And then, hearing how those stories and ideas touch the lives of others in tremendous—and often surprising—ways.”

says Avery, are the dreamlike watercolor illustrations by Liuba Syrotiuk. An enhanced eBook version is also in the works. “While the standard eBook is the usual digital replica of the paperback format, the enhanced version brings the book to life in animation, narration, and an original music score, making bedtime all the more wonderful,” says Avery.

The second book in the series—What Wonders Await Outdoors— is due out in the spring. “It’s written to help remind children about all the exciting reasons to get outside to play and exchange those tech devices for the deeper draw of nature itself—an idea that’s very near and dear to me,” Avery says. “My fondest childhood memories are of playing outside and discovering all the interesting things that you have to search for and that can hold your fascination for hours on end.”

Avery’s Baby Trolls Get a Bad Rap was released in January. “It’s a really fun, interactive story in which

three baby trolls have a lot to say directly to the readers, with a lot of pluck and humor, about being included and respected,” she says. Avery has also had continued success with her 2019 picture book, Everybody Poops! “It’s flying off the shelves and being heralded as the book for toilet-training or toilet-intrigued little ones,” she says. “As an author, you can never guess which book you create will really strike a chord with readers.”

This Book Is Alive! is a new kind of book and the first in her Living Book series. “It exists because of the very idea that books are living things,” says Avery. “They’re not just static objects—they hold stories, meaning, ideas that are different to everyone who reads them and every time they’re read. It’s about the joy of reading and the importance of books, while opening up young imaginations to the idea that even the object they hold in their hands might be a fantastically living thing, that life itself, in fact, is so full of amazing concepts.”

Avery says she’s excited about the books to come in the Living Book series. “I had so much fun writing a book into life that I wondered about the personalities, wishes, and dreams of other books,” Avery says. “Each book in the series has its own individual personality and something very specific it wants to share with those who choose to get to know it. They’re books that children can think of as friends, that help set the tone for a lifetime of reading and respecting books.”

According to Avery, her approach changes very little when she writes for children compared to when she writes for adults. “Writing for adults is only different in the language I use or how much is detailed or left unsaid,” she says. “The themes are the same, the personal enjoyment is the same, and I still start with a tiny grain of an idea that excites me. Then, I write to uncover what the story is.”

FEaTURE ONE TO REaD: JUSTINE avERy


For Avery, the most enjoyable and most rewarding part of being an author is being a storyteller. “I love uncovering all the stories waiting to be told,” she says. “I love the process of writing, discovering the characters and ideas that come from nothing. And then, hearing

how those stories and ideas touch the lives of others in tremendous—and often surprising—ways.”

For more information about Justine Avery and her books, visit justineavery.com. •

FEaTUREONE TO REaD: JUSTINE avERy

https://www.justineavery.com

https://www.storyofluna.com


Growing up in Newton, Massachusetts, we spent most of the time between New Year’s and Easter or Passover bundled up in mittens, snow pants, ski jackets, ugly hats, and uglier boots.

My lips were instantly chapped when I went outside. And when I took that ugly hat off my head, my hair stood straight out from static electricity. Plus every-thing outside was cold and gray and usually slushy. It was bleak.

So to me, against that backdrop of a Massachusetts winter, Florida seemed like the most magical, unique place on the planet.

For reasons I won’t explore here, my parents didn’t really like Florida, so after a lot of strategic negotiating, one year they actually let me fly down by myself to visit my grandparents during spring break. Airplane trips for us were rare and special, a big deal in those days, so I got dressed up and was very nervous. I remember having a window seat and a hand-me-down PanAm carry-on bag packed with a change of clothes and the book I was reading. My actual suitcase, in which I had

Spring Break

LIFe oF a reaDerJUDY NEWMAN

I am sure my grandparents met me at the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood airport, but mostly what I remember from that plane trip was the tremendous sense of freedom of traveling by myself and being able to stash my winter jacket first in the plane’s overhead compartment and then in the back of the closet in my grandparents’ condo. I did not want to look at it—a chilly reminder of winter—while I was enjoying the sunshine.

To this day, when I am flying to a warmer climate, I wonder if I should take my bulky winter jacket with me or leave it at home. I often see vacationers in airports coming home to the Northeast still wearing shorts and flip-flops. They’ll be freezing when they head to their car or their taxi ride home, but I understand that desire to hold on to the warm weather vacation feeling.

My grandparents, Minnie and Barney; their daughter, Linda; my great-aunts, Gertrude and Doris; and

packed my shorts, bathing suit, and nice dress for going out to dinner, had been swallowed up in the plane, and I was vaguely worried I wouldn’t see it again and would have to wear my regular cold-weather clothes all week.


lIFE OF a REaDERJUDy NEWMaN

The Flamingo Gardens—one of many aspects of Florida that was exotic to a girl from Massachusetts. © Jillian Cain Photography/Shutterstock

Life in Florida felt so free and easy to me—not nearly as uptight—and definitely not as bundled up—as we were back in Massachusetts. My one week visiting my grandparents and my extended family was filled with sun, Shirley Temples with extra cherries, bagels, baby oil, reflectors, and a snow jacket–free lifestyle.

Back home, when we went out for a special family dinner (in the winter months, it was usually to celebrate my dad’s birthday in January or Valentine’s Day as a family) we parked on Commonwealth Avenue and had to squeeze out of the passenger-side door and climb over a massive snowbank, holding on to the parking meter to reach the hopefully shoveled sidewalk in front of one of my parents’ favorite spots, the subterranean Casa Barbi with Chianti bottles on every table.

But in Florida, we didn’t have to climb over snowbanks or clutch parking meters to get to eat. For dinner, we often hopped on my Uncle Barry’s boat and drove

up the Intracoastal Waterway to a restaurant where we parked at a dock and then ate at a table outside! For breakfast or lunch (and sometimes both), my grandfather Barney would pick up my aunt Linda and me in his huge brown Cadillac and take us to Rascal House, where he was a “real regular” who was ushered with his party—namely Aunt Linda and me—right to the front of the very long line.

After dinner we would go to the beach and walk on the boardwalk and see flashy cars with their tops down (no one I knew in Newton had a convertible!) blaring music and cruising like a scene out of Happy Days. It felt wild.

So many things seemed outsized and exciting in Florida—from the NASA space center at Cape Canaveral, to the Daytona 500, to the Diplomat Hotel and the Fontainebleau, and, of course, Disney World. There was SeaWorld and Flamingo Gardens. And Alligator World! We had none of this back home. Plus it was so warm … no winter jacket necessary.

Today, I travel to Florida often for all kinds of reasons: education conferences (often held in the summer when the convention rates are cheaper since it’s so hot); friends’ and family weddings, including one at the beautiful Ringling Museum in Sarasota; family trips with my in-laws to Jupiter; with my own family to Disney World and Epcot; and business meetings to Lake Mary, near Orlando, which is where our Scholastic Book Fairs division is headquartered.

And if I don’t actually get on a plane, I can visit Florida through some of my favorite children’s books set in the Sunshine State.

assorted other family members were in those years “snowbirds”: New Englanders who summered in Brookline, Massachusetts, and wintered in various towns in South Florida. My grandmother and her sisters lived in places with exotic warm-weather names like Delray Beach, Pembroke Pines, and Hollywood, in what seemed to me, ultra-snazzy condo buildings with mirrored lobbies and guards at the front desks—and pools! The inside of these condos had light-colored wall-to-wall carpeting, air conditioning, and living rooms decorated with massive glass coffee tables offering silver candy dishes filled with actual candy. (I inherited a lot of those silver candy dishes, which today I have no idea what to do with). We had none of this back home.


lIFE OF a REaDER JUDy NEWMaN

Kate DiCamillo says of Florida: “Florida haunts me. It’s where I grew up. Telling stories of childhood there always makes emotional sense to me.”

All this writing about Florida is making me realize I need to get down there again soon. In the meantime, please send me any suggestions you have for good Florida restaurants, attractions, or great kids’ books.

Happy reading!

XX,

Judy •

Judy Newman is President and Reader-in-Chief of Scholastic Book Clubs. For more information, visit judynewmanatscholastic.com.

http://www.judynewmanatscholastic.com

http://jessicareino.me


http://www.christinemilesya.com

https://www.ydaniel-ayoade.com

https://www.juliameschterbooks.com

http://www.caroleproman.com


I absolutely love modelling with my students how I make personal connections to a situation or story. I share my connection almost as if I have a secret I’m letting my students in on ... a little piece of Mrs. Juliano’s personal life that fascinates them and makes them feeling that much more ... well, connected! If we are talking about sharing toys, I may tell them a story about my daughters fighting over something. They think this is hilarious! And it almost takes a bit of pressure off of them because it shows that I am living a similar life. Or perhaps it’s about table manners? I will

As readers, writers, and lovers of all things literacy, it is important to think about our own reading and writing practices and if there are things we do in our “real life” that can be translated into something authentic and meaningful for classroom instruction.

With my three children and my students, I strive for real authenticity in my personal connections to texts we share, books I love, my family’s hobbies, social-emotional scenarios that can tie into a classroom situation, and things that are generally important to me.

TEaCHINg TOOlBOX

The Seed of a Story

by Larissa Juliano

TEaCHINg TOOlBOX


tell my class that my dad—Mr. Beeba—always reminds us about having clean hands. Often times, they stare at me in wonder ... almost as if asking themselves, “Wait...Mrs. Juliano has a dad?” Anecdotes, memories, funny inside jokes about lighthearted moments or meaningful memories from your own family/past makes you feel human to your students.

The Patricia Polacco classic, Thundercake, comes to mind as it reminds me of my parents’ garden and lakeside living. It is about sweet traditions of staying at Nana’s, gathering special ingredients around the farm, counting in between thunderclaps, and creating something special to commemorate the rainy season. This story evokes so many emotions and connections that I love sharing with my students!

I mention my father’s garden and that he grows vegetables and herbs by the bucketful! We talk about how these sweet, and also ordinary moments in our lives—enjoying a juicy tomato or apple with a loved one, clipping some flowers for the dinner table, gazing out a window, or starting a new sport can translate into a story!

Many teachers call this the “seed of a story” and I think that is the perfect metaphor! Moments and connections with our families can be perfect seeds that can sprout and grow into some version of writing ... whether it is a journal entry, short story, longer piece of fiction, or a poem (a personal favorite).

In fact, as my writing style has evolved, I have learned to take these seeds of moments in my life and turn them into stories. Sharing this enthusiasm and modelling is imperative to watering and nurturing and tending to those young readers’ and writers’ hearts in your classroom.

Like all educators, our life experiences shape and mold us as parents, teachers, and people. I think a lot of students can appreciate us unpeeling a few layers of our lives to inspire them to do the same ... specifically in their critical thinking, responses to literature, and writing. When families and students find out that I write children’s books, usually the first few questions I get are, “How are books made?” and “Where do you get your ideas?”

I tell them that my brain often feels like it is just filing away ideas for future stories ... and because of the busy lifestyle I (and all of us) lead, having my journal close

by, just to jot down these little seed moments, is perfect to satisfy creative sparks, and also so special to re-visit as I plan future books to write. Many of the ideas that I scribble quickly, or the connections I share with my students, might simply just be a moment to share aloud, and then once in a while ... it will develop into something else.

Connect with your students, show them a different side of you, share your writing process, talk about your interests, and believe me, this enthusiasm is contagious. One of my most-used teacher sayings to my students (and I have a lot!) is “This is my favorite part of the day!” and “Your thinking and writing makes me so happy I want to cry!” They think this is hilarious. And laughing always brings people together ... just like stories.

What stories do you have personal connections with? Are you a writer in real life? How does being a teacher and parent translate into your own writing inspiration? Do you have favorite teacher sayings?

Tweet us at @storymonsters and @larissasjuliano using #teachingtoolbox. Your ideas could be featured on our social media or a feature article! •

Larissa Juliano is an elementary school teacher, reading specialist, and children’s book author. Follow her on Twitter @larissasjuliano or visit larissajuliano.com.

grab your hat and read with the cat on March 2!

http://www.larissajuliano.com


https://www.haleysworldbooks.com

https://mystories1.com

https://ctwalsh.fun


http://pamsaxelby.com

http://www.susancount.com

https://www.amazon.com/Frank-BSC-Wood/e/B073XZ3T1J?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1573841725&sr=1-1


Thank You, Mister Rogers: Music & Memoriesby various artists (Cd)A new collection of music welcomes listeners back into Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with fresh takes on some classic songs penned by Fred Rogers himself. Thank You, Mister

Rogers: Music & Memories features performances by award-winning artists Kellie Pickler, Rita Wilson, Lee Greenwood, Sandi Patty, Vanessa Williams, Jim Brickman, Jaci Velasquez, Micky Dolenz (of The Monkees), Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. (of The Fifth Dimension), The Cowsills, Tom Bergeron, and Jon Secada. No wonder he’s still “America’s favorite neighbor.”

Have You Thanked a KidVentor Today? by Patrice McLaurinHave You Thanked a KidVentor Today? is an engaging STEM picture book that highlights some of the wondrous creations invented by kids! This fosters an important text to self-connection that will encourage children to consider

how they, too, can contribute to the world as innovators! Additionally, the book comes complete with a glossary and fun science experiments that are sure to spark excitement in young readers! Stimulate a child’s inner genius with this book today!

Achoo! Why Pollen Countsby Shennen BersaniSpring has arrived and pollen is in the air. Baby Bear does not like the pollen—it sticks to his fur and makes him itchy and sneezy. He’s allergic! Achoo! He just wishes the pollen was gone. When his friends gather to tell him why they need pollen, Baby Bear

learns that pollen is good for the forest and provides food for many animals, including him! Pollen might be something we all love to hate, but can we really live without it? Arbordale Publishing.

Something Lost Something Foundby natalia Paruzel-GibsonElla feels like she is stuck in a pile of gloomy mud. She misses her mom so much. So, Ella embarks on a quest to find happiness, searching for it in all the places her heart leads her.

And bit by bit ... Ella begins to find solace in memories of her mom. Intended for young readers, Something Lost Something Found is about the profound bonds we share with our loved ones, and the importance of childhood memories.

READING

LIST

Kind Soupby Jean PetersenKate and Mommy are busy in the kitchen making soup full of...fruit! Wait a minute, isn’t soup usually made of vegetables? Well, not this soup! Kind Soup is a balanced blend

of the Fruits of the Spirit wrapped in prayer and ladled out with love. Follow along with the recipe page by page to recreate the same soup at home! Enjoy sharing this delicious soup with someone you love. Soup made with fruit? Yes, please!

A Blueberry Day by Etaine RaphaelA Blueberry Day is inspired by the author’s relaxing and utopic summers in Maine: picking blueberries, hiking, exploring, and baking delicious blueberry pie. Told in lyrical verse, A Blueberry Day celebrates slow, reflective, and rejuvenating days—

days spent with family, outside in nature, just appreciating the simple joys that life has to offer. The colorful, whimsical pictures help convey the beauty and love that such family quality time together brings, no matter where you live!

https://www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Mister-Rogers-Memories/dp/B07WLBRD7H/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Thank+You%2C+Mister+Rogers%3A+Music+%26+Memories+by+Various+artists+%28CD%29&qid=1581866186&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Achoo-Pollen-Counts-Arbordale-Collection/dp/1628555599/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Achoo%21+Why+Pollen+Counts+by+Shennen+Bersani&qid=1581866208&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Have-You-Thanked-Kidventor-Today/dp/0997315245/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Have+You+Thanked+a+KidVentor+Today%3F+by+Patrice&qid=1581866237&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Something-Lost-Found-Natalia-Paruzel-Gibson-ebook/dp/B08463CZDF/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Something+Lost+Something+Found+by+Natalia&qid=1581866260&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Kind-Soup-Jean-Petersen/dp/1733282882/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Kind+Soup+by+Jean+Petersen&qid=1581866280&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Blueberry-Day-Etaine-Raphael/dp/1645431630/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Blueberry+Day+by+Etaine+Raphael&qid=1581866305&sr=8-1

SPRINg REaDINg lIST


Baxter Meets His Monsterby Jennifer HartBaxter the Dog is no stranger to fantastic creatures. In his first adventure, Baxter Goes to Imagination Land, he met a cast of colorful characters. However, on a dark, stormy night, he is surprised and unsure when something strange and

wild shows up at his door. Will Baxter judge a creature by their size, their color and by the shape of their paws, or will he learn that monsters aren’t always monsters after all?

My Sister’s Super Skillsby Lauren MosbackDavid is having a rough day ... but his emotions are no match for his older sister Lily, who swoops in to save the day with some super skills! When Lily observes her brother experiencing big emotions, she shares empowering tips and tricks to feel better. Will

Lily’s super skills be enough to save the day? In My Sister’s Super Skills, licensed children’s counselor Lauren Mosback introduces kid-friendly coping mechanisms that promote positive social and emotional growth!

Astaire’s Warm Dayby Stephen LukMeet Astaire penguin—a little penguin that fears the cold. Tired of constantly shivering, Astaire decides to take matters into his own flippers. Astaire’s Warm Day is a children’s book for kids just learning to read.

This surprising and heartfelt tale teaches children to be kind to others, to achieve big dreams through hard work and to never forget where you come from.

Ella’s Umbrellaby Courtney Shannon StrandElla listens to the rain drip, dribble, drop. While others stay indoors, Ella hustles outside with her new umbrella and listens to the rain fall a cappella. Join Ella on her jazzy journey through the rain as she explores all the interesting sounds a puddle-filled rainstorm has to offer. Winner of

the PNWA.org picture book award. Reader’s Favorite 5-star review said: “Ella’s Umbrella reminds me of a less wacky version of a Dr. Seuss story.”

Super Satya Saves the Dayby Raakhee MirchandaniSuper Satya is ready to have a super day, including finally conquering the tallest slide in Hoboken. But her day takes a not-so-super turn when she realizes her superhero cape is stuck at the dry cleaner. Will she be able to face her fears, help her friends and

be the true hero everyone knows she is? Super Satya Saves The Day introduces Satya, a precocious Indian-American superhero.

My Sister’s S

uper Skills

Written by Lauren Mosback, MA, LPC, NCCIllustrated by Chiara Savarese

Super SkillsMy Sister s̓

Super SkillsIntroducing Kid-Friendly Coping Skills

The Gift of Haley by terri Bene’ and Rosemary LynHow do you heal a broken heart? Meet Haley, a lovable Labrador puppy ... and an unstoppable thief! Laugh along with her as she steals her way into Emily’s heart, while also stealing anything else she can get her paws on along the way! Readers will enjoy the wild escapades of Haley as she brings

love and laughter back into the life of her young best friend Emily. Get ready to hang on to your belongings and your heart while reading The Gift of Haley!

Nathan and Nana Cassandra Take the Lead by karen GorbackWhen the library cancels story time, Nathan and Nana Cassandra take the lead to solve the problem by finding a new reader. They ask a juggler, a police officer on a dancing horse, and a French baker all to be readers. But the juggler is

doing a show, the horse needs new shoes, and the baker is busy teaching kids to decorate cupcakes. Read Nathan and Nana Cassandra Take the Lead to find out what happens to story time!

Positive Me! A Kids’ Guide to Self-Compassionby Madelyn HornsteinWould you like to give the ultimate gift to a child? Positive Me! helps establish positive self-talk through repeating simple and effective sentences on colorful, inclusive and engaging illustrated pages.

Positive Me! can immediately redirect kids’ negative thinking by completing for them, in positive terms, sentences that begin with “I am.” When combined with positive, self-affirming words, “I am” can be two of the most powerful words in a child’s vocabulary, words that can have a major developmental impact on a child’s life.

https://www.amazon.com/Baxter-Meets-His-Monster-Adventures-ebook/dp/B083F72PVX/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Baxter+Meets+His+Monster+by+Jennifer+Hart&qid=1581866446&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Super-Skills-Choice-Winner/dp/1643074881/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=My+Sister%E2%80%99s+Super+Skills+by+Lauren+Mosback&qid=1581866412&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Astaires-Warm-Day-Stephen-Luk/dp/1734285419/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Astaire%E2%80%99s+Warm+Day+by+Stephen+Luk&qid=1581866494&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Ellas-Umbrella-Courtney-Shannon-Strand/dp/1734278919/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Ella%E2%80%99s+Umbrella+by+Courtney+Shannon+Strand&qid=1581866469&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Super-Satya-Saves-Raakhee-Mirchandani/dp/1643071173/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Super+Satya+Saves+the+Day+by+Raakhee+Mirchandani&qid=1581866519&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Haley-Terri-Bene/dp/194744400X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Gift+of+Haley+by+Terri+Bene%E2%80%99+and+Rosemary+Lyn&qid=1581866557&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Nathan-Nana-Cassandra-Take-Lead/dp/1643700030/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Nathan+and+Nana+Cassandra+Take+the+Lead&qid=1581866537&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Positive-Me-Kids-Guide-Self-compassion/dp/1684713331/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Positive+Me%21+A+Kids%E2%80%99+Guide+to+Self-Compassion+by+Madelyn+Hornstein&qid=1581866575&sr=8-1


SPRINg REaDINg lIST

USA Destinations that Spark Our Fascinations (Kids Books for Young Explorers)by Gene LipenArthur is all set to start his exiting journey around United States. Will he succeed in his quest of discovering amazing destinations

and what will he learn along the way? Join Arthur on this incredible adventure, as he explores the best USA has to offer from coast to coast. Learn what makes each destination worth visiting. Have a great time as you jump from one part of the country to the next just by turning the pages of the book. Don’t delay! Adventure awaits!

When Jackie Saved Grand Central: The True Story of Jacqueline Kennedy’s Fight for an American Iconby natasha WingA little-known story about a First Lady who fought against all odds to save Grand Central. The case went all the way to the Supreme

Court and was a victory for preservation. Appropriate for Women’s History Month and studies of First Ladies, historic preservation, and landmarks. An inspiring example of social activism—in this case standing up for history and an iconic symbol of NYC. Ages 6-10. Skype with author: [email protected]. More books at natashawing.com.

No Fish for Charlesby tracy detzMeet Charles, a big croc who loves chilling on rocks and fishing from the back of his canoe. With dreams of fried fish for dinner, he decides to skip school one day to try his luck and cast his reel. But when Charles encounters a school of clever fish and his outing

suddenly becomes anything but chill, he realizes that going to school is always the smartest option.

Brayden’s Magical Pirate Ship Adventureanita a. CarusoBrayden is happily playing pirate in an old boat in his great-nana’s backyard one day, when he puts on his magical green sunglasses and decides to see if he can become a real pirate! Yaar! In Brayden’s Magical Pirate Ship Adventure, readers join Brayden

as they take a fantastic, high-flying journey to find buried treasure with real pirates, like him, and have a swashbuckling good time!

The Very Bad Thingby Elizabeth Mary Cummings and Melissa SalvariniThe Very Bad Thing happened on a bright sunny day. In this picture with the sea as a metaphor., young boy navigates through a terrible storm as he deals with this trauma. Feeling alone and cut off from everyone he keeps going trying to get through. He

can see there is a place of safety where the Very Bad Thing can not touch him but he struggles to go on and he can’t go back. He finds the strength to call for help and help appears, steady and strong, providing the support he needs to face the trauma and move to a life of safety and peace beyond it.

Woulda Beenby Penny LedbetterWhen Paw, the hardworking farmer and patriarch, passes away, Jess and his family struggle to move on. They keep thinking about how Paw woulda been

tending the fields and gardens, how he woulda been at Jess’s 10th birthday party to help him blow out the candles, and how he woulda been readying the farm’s newest Jersey calf for the county fair. In this heartfelt and inspiring story, Jess learns how to overcome his grief through community, remembrance, and giving back.

Samson’s Tailby Mercy Hansen MizeAs a puppy, Samson spent time on the streets and in shelters when all he ever wanted was a forever family. His life changes in a big way when he enters a prison dog training program and meets his handler, Trevor. Will Trevor help Samson find the love

he has always wanted? A portion of the proceeds from each book sold goes to support the DAWGS Prison Program, which helped give Samson and Trevor their second chances.

https://www.amazon.com/Destinations-Spark-Fascinations-Books-Explorers/dp/1950904040/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=USA+Destinations+that+Spark+Our+Fascinations+%28Kids+Books+for+Young+Explorers%29+by+Gene+Lipen&qid=1581866601&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/When-Jackie-Saved-Grand-Central/dp/0547449216/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=When+Jackie+Saved+Grand+Central%3A+The+True+Story+of+Jacqueline+Kennedy%E2%80%99s+Fight+for+an+American+Icon+by+Natasha+Wing&qid=1581866642&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/No-Fish-Charles-Tracy-Detz/dp/1733897313/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=No+Fish+for+Charles+by+Tracy+Detz&qid=1576364866&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Braydens-Magical-Pirate-Ship-Adventure-ebook/dp/B081W8WP9H/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Brayden%E2%80%99s+Magical+Pirate+Ship+Adventure+Anita+A.+Caruso&qid=1581866717&sr=8-1

https://elizabethmarycummings.com/books/

https://www.amazon.com/Woulda-Been-Penny-Ledbetter/dp/173380420X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Woulda+Been+by+Penny+Ledbetter&qid=1581866662&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Samsons-Tail-Mercy-Hansen-Mize/dp/1643074830/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Samson%E2%80%99s+Tail+by+Mercy+Hansen+Mize&qid=1581866621&sr=8-1

SPRINg REaDINg lIST


Family Time: Who Do You Loveby Brandon fosterWhat lengths would you go to in order to recover what was taken from you? Meet Ashlon, a smart young lady with a very active imagination. When she returns home from school she quickly discovers that her most prized possession has been….stolen? Who could have done this, and most of all, why? Join her on a day she will never

forget. Enjoy Ashlon’s journey as she learns a valuable lesson about life, and how we treat others.

I See the Sun seriesby Satya HouseExplore the world! Life in different countries seen from a child’s point of view. Each bilingual picture book in this award-winning series focuses on one country and one day in the life of one child with a story told from the

child’s perspective. Learn about different cultures, family life, and language in a way that is sensitive to each culture. Age-appropriate (5+) country facts and a glossary for extended learning are included in each book. NEW in 2019: I See the Sun in India. Other titles are I See the Sun in … USA, Mexico, China, Nepal, Afghanistan, Russia, Turkey, and Myanmar (Burma). satyahouse.com

Bailey Brings Her Friends Together with Musicby kali BateSeven-year old Bailey finds herself in the middle of a fight over the last pair of ice skates while visiting Rockefeller Center in NYC. It seems like a perfect

holiday will be ruined. But then, Bailey discovers a group of musicians playing beautiful melodies nearby. Will she be able to use the power of music to bring holiday cheer to all? 100% of proceeds are donated to Kidznotes. Winner, 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards.

Gracie Louby Larissa JulianoGracie Lou is bored. And lonely. What is a little girl to do when there’s nowhere to go and no one to play with? Wish upon a star! As Gracie Lou travels through the starry sky to magical lands, she experiences exciting and whimsical

adventures that ignite all her five senses. Readers will delight in the vivacity of Gracie Lou’s imagination (or is it?) as they anticipate where the curly-haired cutie will head to next.

Sophie and Scottie’s Adventures of the Monarch Mysteryby Cindy C. MurrayJoin Sophie and Scottie on their journey to solve an epic mystery in the 5-star rated chapter book Sophie and Scottie’s Adventures of the Monarch Mystery. The monarchs have vanished in Mexico and the sisters are up to the task of finding the butterflies. Full

of action, adventure, a touch of science, and a bit of magic! Perfect for kids ages 7 to 12 and is available on Amazon and where books are sold. cindycmurray.com

Jazzy and Kettleby Rick QuinnJazzy and Kettle, two curious children in a new neighborhood, meet, become friends, and decide to go on an adventure into the woods. They find flowers, birds, and other wildlife, all with their own springtime jobs. Their adventure gets them in a tough situation, but that’s where they make

their most important discoveries: about themselves! They come to understand friendship, the fun of exploration, and how to overcome their fears. They triumph!

The Heath Cousins seriesby Eileen HobbsIn The Heath Cousins and the Moonstone Cave, Addie B. and her cousins Jack, Beanie, and Bodie enter a secret and magical garden and embark on an adventure of a lifetime. Addie B. and her cousins are back in The Heath Cousins and the Kingsgate Bridge and this time, it’s to help their friend Gemma.

During the adventures, they learn the most important lesson of all—they must work together if they want to find their way back home.

https://allegorypublishing.com/

https://satyahouse.com

https://www.amazon.com/Bailey-Brings-Friends-Together-Music/dp/1093648848/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=bailey+rings+her+friends+together+with+music+by+kari+base&qid=1579128435&sr=8-1-fkmr0

https://www.amazon.com/Gracie-Lou-Larissa-Juliano/dp/1480833207/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Gracie+Lou+by+Larissa+Juliano&qid=1576364967&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Scotties-Adventures-Monarch-Mystery-Scottie-ebook/dp/B015HR1NCE/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Sophie+and+Scottie%E2%80%99s+Adventures+of+the+Monarch+Mystery&qid=1573844304&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Jazzy-Kettle-Rick-Quinn/dp/1480869368/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Jazzy+and+Kettle+by+Rick+Quinn&qid=1571236062&s=books&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Eileen-Hobbs/e/B07KYZ1BFX?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_fkmr1_1&qid=1579128457&sr=8-1-fkmr1


You See Meby dev friedlanderLike all teenagers, Ella Heart has it all figured out. But when Ella is severely injured in an accident caused by her brother, she must go through the hellish years of high school with a disability and resentment. During her senior year, Ella meets a drop-dead gorgeous stable hand, and her perspective on who she thought she could love begins to change. Then a

legal case is brought against her brother for wrongful death, and Ella must decide if she can forgive the person who stole her dreams—and if it’s still possible to create new ones.

Careering: The Pocket Guide to Exploring Your Future Career by tamara S. Raymond The award-winning Careering pocket guide offers a seamless step-by-step process to help teens avoid career traps. Topics include exploring career options; networking effectively; applying for jobs; developing interview skills; and transitioning at a new job. Engaging workbook

format lets students write plans, interests, and aspirations. Also offers advice on college immersion programs; summer camps; competitions; seasonal/entry-level jobs; internships; and even social media use—so it won’t hurt their chances of finding work. TheCareeringBook.com.

Click on the book cover to purchase any of the above titles. To advertise your book in our Reading List, contact Cristy Bertini at [email protected] for rate information.

SPRINg REaDINg lIST

Adventures in Boogielandby a.R. BeyA Purple Dragonfly Book Award Winner! Arcadia seemed to be an ordinary town for Simon X, who wanted nothing more than to become the best trumpeter ever. After auditioning for the prestigious Bartholomew Performing Arts Academy, he and his classmates: Lulu DeBarge, the harpist, Krupa Patel,

the violinist and Maxwell Winehouse, the saxophonist, find themselves in Boogieland. Led by the eccentric Madame Charisma Divine. Will the children overcome their fears to unleash the music within?

https://www.amazon.com/YOU-SEE-ME-Dev-Friedlander-ebook/dp/B07YF5R3PZ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=You+See+Me+by+Dev+Friedlander&qid=1579128694&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Careering-Pocket-Exploring-Future-Career/dp/168350402X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Careering%3A+The+Pocket+Guide+to+Exploring+Your+Future+Career+by+Tamara+S.+Raymond&qid=1579128789&s=books&sr=1-1

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Ledford/e/B07Q9J8NQW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1571253901&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Boogieland-R-Bey-ebook/dp/B0793VGDD6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Adventures+in+Boogieland+by+A.R.+Bey&qid=1579128539&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

2019 MIDWEST BOOK AWARDSWINNER - Children’s Non-Fiction

AWARD-WINNING EDUCATORS AGREE:Sammy’s Digestive System Deserves Attention!

Anyone who has ever had a stomachache after eating too much junk food will enjoy reading this ingeniously told story about a young boy’s eating adventures at a fair and the process by which the food is digested. Sammy’s Day at the Fair makes the complicated process of digesting food simple to understand even for a young reader. The reader will gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the digestive process while enjoying the escapades of Sammy as he eats every possible type of junk food at the fair. The short chapters, bolded scientific terms, and superb illustrations in Sammy’s Day at the Fair make the complicated process of digesting food simple to understand. Both children and adults will enjoy reading this story without realizing how much they are learning. I read the story many times and each time I found myself smiling and enjoying it more. With every reading I learned something new and chuckled at some minute detail that I had missed previously.—Beverly Plein, Milken National Educator Award

The story line is most creative and reinforces the science concepts and processes of digestion. I wish I had the book when I taught exactly the same content. It is enjoyable and easy to follow as well as to teach.

—David O’ Shields, Milken National Educator Award

Sammy’s Day at the Fair is not only informative but fun to read as well. The information is accurate and presented in such a way as to be relevant to all readers. In addition, the phonetic glossary is extremely well done. Bravo!—Natalie Rasmussen, Milken National Educator Award

I applaud the author’s novel approach to presenting scientific information. I think students aged ten through twelve would like this method of learning about the digestive system. Instead of a fact filled textbook, they would learn the same information through a story that many can identify with. —Mike Barondeau, Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching

I like this book. What is really entertaining is how the artwork is used to enhance many difficult scientific processes. This, along with the humor of the piece, will engage students and enhance their understanding of the information.—Pascale Pinner, Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching

The book has tremendous appeal to children, who find nothing more interesting than bodily functions, junk food, and carnivals. I read “Sammy” to my 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl. When we got to the parts about burping, vomiting, and flatulence, they giggled until they couldn’t breathe.

Sammy’s Day at the Fair will capture the imagination of children and then ground them in solid biology and physiology. And since an understanding of his digestive system transforms Sammy from a corn dog craver into a healthy eater, it will also appeal to the reader’s sense of good health. Thus, it is not only a tremendously informative book; it is a book that will make you want to take action. —Jon Roland, Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching

What a great book! A great job of blending humor with a very clear and understandable description of the digestive system. Back in 2004 when it was first published, my ten-year-old son and daughter loved it!—Joan Baltezore, National Board Certified - Biology, Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, Milken National Educator Award

Available from: Follett School Solutions and Baker & Taylor6"x 9" Softcover • 52 Pages • $17.95 • ISBN: 9780977769391

6"x 9" FollettBound • ISBN: 9781544419428

Softcover also available at Amazon.com eBooks—Amazon & Apple Books

MINNEAPOLIS

www.artwriteproductions.com amazon.com applebooks.comwww.adaptedclassics.com


https://www.amazon.com/Sammys-Day-Fair-Digestive-Featuring-ebook/dp/B07SB64QGS/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sammy%27s+day+at+the+fair&qid=1581866885&sr=8-1


Mrs. Legler by Mackenzie Ewing, age 16

I was a new kid again. an outsider ... an alien. this had already happened three times in my life before I moved to Wisconsin when I was 11.

Going through multiple schools with multiple ways of teaching left me confused and unmotivated. I could not speak, write, or read well, and I despised school for reminding me every day how incompetent I was.

there was one person, however, who would set me on a path to better myself. one teacher who loved to teach, and in return, only asked for cooperation. She was my sixth grade english teacher, Mrs. Legler.

reading was something I hated. She set aside time for the class to read individually, and persuaded me to try reading the first Percy Jackson book. not only did I love the book, but I also loved the series and continued to explore Mrs. Legler’s bookshelves. Before I knew it, I was eagerly waiting for time to read in the dimmed lights of her classroom.

Speaking (in general) was something I struggled with. She implored me to ask questions. to speak up and let my voice be heard. towards the end of the year, I was a citizen of Camazotz in A Wrinkle in Time, and I was the most vocal member, defending it with all I had. It boosted my confidence.

and finally, she taught me how to write. I remember in one assignment, I had to write about a “bad guy” and I had to change him into a “good guy” by making him fall in love with something unexpected. She wrote about a bear, I wrote about a pirate. I think about this assignment whenever I get praise on my newest poem or short story.

the assignment I feel culminated all of the things I learned from her was the final project of the year—a project on Greek columns. I read articles and papers, wrote a paper, and completed my presentation by speaking in front of the class.

the clearest memory I have of her is when she pulled me aside and asked if I had written it. I told her I had. Whether she believed me or not, I never knew. I just hoped she knew she was the one who taught me so well.

But now, five years later, I hope she reads this and knows what impact she has had on my life. I love reading more than anything now, I love writing, fiction mostly, and I have made so many friends from joining literacy clubs and classes. and now I speak up in class, ask questions, and don’t shake whenever I have to present.

Mrs. Legler, although I haven’t seen you in forever, I hope you read this someday and know that one of your students remembers you as the hero you are.

Hey Kids! Visit StoryMonsters.com for instructions on how to submit your work!

MY FavORITE TEaCHER


https://www.meetthepops.com

https://www.jazzyandkettle.com

http://dianenighswongerauthor.com/

MONSTERS aT THE MOvIES


In an age where audiences are hungry for original content, it’s easy to roll one’s eyes at yet another adaptation of Emma. Between the big and small screens, Jane Austen’s classic novel has already been told several times. Perhaps the best-known version is the 1996 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the titular character. Of course, arguably the best interpretation was Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, which people often forget was a modern retelling of Emma. Like Greta Gerwig’s recent take on Little Women, though, it’s hard to deny that this new Emma is a genuine charmer. There are some books you can read over and over again without ever growing tired of them. Likewise, truly timeless source material can inspire multiple adaptations without ever losing its appeal.

The invaluable Anya Taylor-Joy branches out from her horror movie roots with something a bit more lighthearted. Taylor-Joy shines as Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy young woman who would rather play matchmaker than focus on her own love life. Emma’s dearest friend is the lowly yet lovable Harriet (Mia Goth), who she tries to fix up with the vicar Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor). This means that Harriet will have to reject a proposal from the farmer Robert Martin (Connor Swindells), who would arguably be a better fit for her. Nevertheless, Emma believes that she knows what’s

Emmareviewed by Nick Spake

Grade: B

best. That is until she realizes Mr. Elton has eyes for another.

Emma soon finds herself in the middle of a love triangle and matters only grow more complicated as Harriet falls into the arms of the hunky Frank Churchhill (Callum Turner). Meanwhile, Emma realizes she is unexpectedly growing fond of George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), who can be quite warmhearted behind his cynical exterior. Emma is so busy wielding Cupid’s bow and arrow, however, that she may miss her shot at romance. By the final act, Emma’s love triangle is more like a love octagon spiraling out of control. In a web of miscommunication, the audience can occasionally lose track of who’s infatuated with whom. Of course, that’s part of the fun and Emma hasn’t lost any

Nick Spake has been working as a film critic for ten years reviewing movies on his website: nickpicksflicks.com.

relevance in an era where romantic feelings still get lost in translation. If anything, the story’s themes are even more relevant given how much we read into relationship statuses and Instagram photos.

Autumn de Wilde turns in an impressive directorial debut with subtle comedy and sweeping romance. De Wilde’s film is never dull to look at thanks to the eye- popping costume design and picturesque art direction. It’s all set to a whimsical musical score by Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzer. The most crucial element in any Emma adaptation, however, is the leading lady and this version lucked out with Taylor-Joy.

Austen described Emma as “handsome, clever, and rich,” all of which is true. To call Emma a manipulative character, though, isn’t exactly accurate. Although Emma does have a habit of meddling in other people’s lives, it’s never for her own selfish gain. Emma simply wants to see everybody happy and her good intentions make it all the more humorous when things don’t go according to plan. It’s like watching a confident puppet master get tangled in the strings. All the while, we can’t help but adore Taylor-Joy in the role. •

http://www.nickpicksflicks.com


https://www.petkindnesspress.com

https://www.amazon.com/Ricky-Grim-Wrapper-Allen-Pier/dp/169904161X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MF0BS9D1A2B3&keywords=ricky+and+the+grim+wrapper&qid=1581866950&sprefix=ricky+and+the+grim+%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-1


KOB OREVIEWS

Oh No! Look What the Cat Dragged Inby Joy H. davidson, Jenny Cooper (Sterling Children’s Books) Reviewer: Christine IrvinGrandma’s kitty sneaks out of the house every night, and every morning she finds what the cat

dragged in the night before. It could be a snake or a weasel or even a pile of dirty laundry. When the grandkids spend a week with Grandma, the cat drags in an increasingly zany array of things. It’s driving Grandma crazy. What can she do to stop the cat? The repetitive phrasing will delight young audiences as they chant along and try to guess what the cat dragged in! (Ages 3-6)

How About a Night Out? by Sam Williams, Matt Hunt (Sterling Publishing) Reviewer: Christine IrvinThis delightful picture book by author Sam Williams stars an adventurous kitty that invites his friends to go with him for a walk about the city at

night. Readers can go along as the friends walk and creep and sneak and prowl around town under streetlights, through the moon light, down the streets, and up the walls. Matt Hunt’s illustrations are the perfect backdrop for the fun, rollicking, rhyming text. (Ages 3-6)

Stretchy McHandsomeby Judy Schachner (dial Books) Reviewer: Christine IrvinStretchy McHandsome is a street cat that shares a box with a number of other street cats. He considers himself a handsome fellow. One day,

he decides to wander away from the other cats and set out on his own. A young girl finds him and the two hit it off right from the start. Stretchy McHandsome finds himself a new home, but what will happen to his companions if he goes off to a new life? (Ages 3-5)

Paci Boy and the Ooey Gooey Slime Monsterby frank Johns, Spike Macquire (Warren Publishing) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil Most parents have faced that dreaded removal of the pacifier. The battles our children fight are

as big and overwhelming to them as our own. Only, they don’t have history behind them to comfort them that all will be well. Their greatest comfort besides us in this big new world, is that pacifier they clutch in their mouths! And, trying to rid it quickly becomes our uncomfortable battle. Paci Boy finds his inner strength and is able to conquer his first battle of life, preparing him for greater feats yet to come! (Ages 1-8)

Sunny’s Tow Truck Saves the Day!by anne Marie Pace, Christopher Lee (Harry n. abrams) Reviewer: Larissa JulianoOh, how I love books about things that go! And this one checks off all the criteria for a fabulous and

fresh transportation book. Short and sweet rhyming text, bright illustrations, a big problem that needs a big solution, and a sweet and hard-working character named Sunny. I love sharing career kinds of stories with my students that highlight hands-on jobs that are so important for everyday life. Sunny comes to a family’s rescue and her crew quickly gets to work on patching a flat tire. Sunny even has a sweet surprise for the grateful family that will make readers smile. (Ages 3-6)

Naughty Ninja Takes a Bathby todd tarpley, vin vogel (two Lions) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil What happens when imagination clashes headlong into reality? A mess is sure to ensue! This stealth little ninja is entrapped by daily routine, and hold your hats folks, it’s about to get messy. (Ages 3-7)

BOOK REvIEWS


Astro Girl by ken Wilson-Max (Candlewick) Reviewer: Larissa JulianoAstrid loves space and stars! She has a telescope that she peers through and has lots of questions and intrigue about what lies above in the starry sky. This sweet story highlights the wonders of space, the

curiosity of a little girl, and the sweet relief when a family is reunited. Illustrations are painted in acrylic with bold lines and fun details of space-related objects. Bonus: Cool facts about space and extraordinary women astronauts on the last few pages of the book are fascinating! A perfect book for little readers with big dreams. (Ages 4-8)

Musical Mac by Brendan kearney (Sterling Children’s Books) Reviewer: Christine IrvinPoor Mac! He’s a millipede with an abundance of arms and legs and an abundance of talent when it comes to making music. He can play the violin

and the trumpet and the guitar and the drums and the flute. He wants to join a band so he can play music with others, but he’s too big for one group, and too small for another. He just can’t seem to fit in anywhere. How will he be able to make music if he can’t join a band? (Ages 4-7)

Roly Poly by Mem fox, Jane dyer, Jeanne Birdsall (Beach Lane Books) Reviewer: Christine IrvinRoly Poly is a polar bear. He had no sister and no brother, and he liked it that way. He liked having his parents’ undivided attention and a bed all to

himself. But, one day, he wakes up to find another little bear, Monty, sharing his bed. Roly Poly is not happy that he now has a brother. He didn’t want one and he doesn’t want one. But, when Monty gets into trouble, will Roly Poly just turn his back on him, or will he come to the rescue? Illustrator Jane Dyer uses photographs of hand-made stuffed, felted bears (that she created) to make this sweet story come alive. (Ages 4-8)

Teddy Bear of the Yearby vikki vanSickle, Sydney Hanson (tundra Books) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil This story is sure to delight every child’s heart who secretly believes as the night quiets and the house is motionless, our favorite toys

magically have the very best time of their day. On just such an occasion, Ollie, a loving and kind little teddy bear, experiences his greatest wonder of all when he attends The Teddy Bear Picnic! Oh what joys await him in this exciting adventure! (Ages 3-7)

The Case of the Growing Bird Feeder: A Gumboot Kids Nature Mysteryby Eric Hogan, tara Hungerford (firefly Books) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil The Gumboot Kids are at it again. Grab your notebooks and join these

incredible detectives as they teach us to discover the mysteries of nature. The perfect union of systematic knowledge of our material world through observation, and the excitement of discovery that makes science fun! Truly a fun way to educate and stimulate learning beyond a formal classroom. Each book encourages research and productivity with facts and projects. Another great Gumboot adventure to discover is The Case of the Vanishing Caterpillar! Your kids will want to collect them all. Whether as a family time adventure with your young ones or as a peer-based experience among older children, these are great books to have on hand! (Ages 4-7)

C Jumped over Three Pots and a Pan and Landed Smack in the Garbage Canby Pamela Jane, Hina Imtiaz (Schiffer) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil This fun alphabet book is a great way to bring each letter to life, as

well as teach needful lessons on teamwork, friendship, and ingenuity. These friendly characters think quick when A, B, and C are out playing and C lands himself smack into trouble. The whole alphabet gets involved to help their friend. I loved the order. Not so rote. The liveliness of the letters makes memory easy through association, which I believe is a great way to learn. (Ages 5-6)

BOOK REvIEWS


A Field Guide to Getting Lostby Joy McCullough (atheneum Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: diana fisherSutton loves logic, science, and robots. Luis lives in his imagination creating stories of heroic protagonists on courageous adventures. Both kids are missing a parent—Sutton’s mother is off working in Antarctica, and Luis’s

father died when Luis was very young. They both have their challenges, and they deal with life in very different ways. When their families appear to be merging, Sutton and Luis must learn to open up to unforeseen possibilities, and experience the adventure of life in new ways. (Ages 8+)

Arthur Garber: The Harbor Barberby Joe frank (firefly Books) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil Arthur Garber was the hit of the harbor! His barber skills he honed to perfection, and long lines awaited his masterful dedication. This fun,

rhyming tale is sure to delight its readers. Arthur’s masterful talent led him to a challenge that led him to his greatest reward: friendship! (Ages 5-7)

Sammy’s Day at the Fair: The Digestive Systemby Jerome tiller, Paul tiller (Beaver’s Pond Press) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil Who doesn’t look forward to a day at the fair? Count me in with Sammy, as we hit the corn dog booth. This is a clever way to engage and educate. We come face-to-face with our gut

reactions to all those heavenly, greasy delights we look forward to. In this entertaining introduction to the human digestive system, we follow that corn dog as it passes through Sammy’s digestive track. (Ages 6-12)

How I Made A Friend (My Crazy Stories)by daniel Georges (Independently Published) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil We often hear that there is someone for everyone. Whether it’s love or just friendship, it is always true. Will likes

being alone, and is often irritated when others intrude on his space. That is until a tiny kid moves into the neighborhood. No matter how different we may feel, it’s great when we find a special friend that actually shares the same interests with us. Will and Oliver soon discover a very special friendship. (Ages 5-8)

If You Played Hide-and-Seek with a Chameleonby Bill Wise, Rebecca Evans (dawn Publications) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil What a fun way to learn about animals! Picture a day filled

with carnival activities. Games set to prove the best in 12 outrageous competitions. Among you and some pretty amazing contestants, who do you think would win? You’ll chuckle and laugh while you learn who’s best at what, and why. More helpful tips are also provided to explore, making it the best possible learning experience. (Ages 5-11)

Kate the Chemist: The Big Book of Experiments by kate Biberdorf (Philomel Books) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil Dr. Kate makes learning fun in her 25 full-color, step-by-step experiments. Each exciting challenge comes with a full list of supplies and a handy messiness level for mom and dad. Kate

explains how each experiment works, and provides questions to discover what each reader and aspiring young scientist thinks. Pick your favorites, or systematically work your way through the pages. You’re sure to have fun! (Ages 8-12)

Blue Skiesby anne Bustard (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: diana fisherGlory Bea’s father has not come home from the war. Miracles happen, and Glory Bea knows her daddy is still out there—in spite of what she has been told. Glory Bea lives in a small town in Texas, and while the whole town is anticipating the arrival of the Merci

Train, she is trying to thwart her mother’s relationship with a new man. This beautiful story of family, love, and acceptance, is told around a true event—an exchange of friendly gifts with France post WWII. The author captures the charm and nostalgic detail of a small town circa 1949, and cleverly sprinkles in simple French lessons that fit perfectly into the narrative. Coming to terms with hard truths in a setting of kindness and community is engagingly woven into this touching tale. (Ages 8-12)

BOOK REvIEWS


The 47 People You’ll Meet in Middle School by kristin Mahoney (knopf Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: diana PerryGetting ready to start middle school? Well, you’ll need to know what to expect. Get to know every person you’ll meet and how they can help (and who to stay away from!). Discover the ins and outs of middle school in this guide

from an older sister to her younger sister. From tackling a new building to meeting new people like the assistant principal, the class pet, the Huggers, the renegade, the tomato kid, your old best friend’s new best friend, this is a must-read for everyone starting middle school. I have never read a more suited book for middle-schoolers. (Ages 8-12)

The Hero Next Door by olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Crown Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: Christine IrvinHeroes come in all shapes and sizes, in all colors and ethnicities, and in all ages. Most of them don’t wear capes or have lots of money. They exhibit their own brand of heroism by helping those who need help. Even the smallest good deed can pay huge dividends for the

recipients. This anthology of 13 stories, each by a different acclaimed author (William Alexander, Hena Khan, and Linda Sue Park, to name a few), highlights the actions of everyday heroes who helped their neighbors in little ways that meant a lot. (Ages 8-12)

The Humiliations of Pipi McGee by Beth vrabel (Running Press kids) Reviewer: diana PerryThe first eight years of Penelope McGee’s education have been a curriculum in humiliation. Now she is on a quest for redemption, and a little bit of revenge. From her kindergarten self-portrait as a bacon with boobs, to fourth grade when she peed her pants in the library thanks to a stuck zipper,

to seventh grade where ... well, she doesn’t talk about seventh grade. Ever. After hearing the guidance counselor lecturing them on how high school will be a clean slate for everyone, Pipi decides to use her last year in middle school to right the wrongs of her early education and save other innocents from the same picked-on, laughed-at fate. Young readers will relate to this story which also teaches the dangers of revenge. There are many teens with lives similar to Pipi and they will bond to her and relate to her circumstances. (Ages 8-12)

The Wonder of Wildflowersby anna Staniszewski (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: diana fisherMira has immigrated with her parents to a new town with something magical. She desperately wants to fit in and be accepted by her classmates, but Mira faces the challenges of being from “somewhere else,” and she consequently struggles with her own

identity. Her status as an outsider is complicated by the community struggle over its coveted magical resource. Torn between family and peers, community politics and standing up for what is right, Mira eventually learns who she is in spite of the pressure to conform. The Wonder of Wildflowers mirrors the very real struggles and joys of school-age children in a fictional setting. This coming-of-age story will entertain as well as raise important questions for young minds—without being preachy or one-sided. (Ages 8-12)

Hooray for Women!by Marcia Williams (Candlewick) Reviewer: darleen Wohlfeil This fresh and fun format will capture even the reluctant reader. In a matter of moments, we pass through time and history. Visiting the lives of more than 70 amazing women, we travel the world over and gather their historic

accomplishments without long, tedious reading. I must tip my hat to the talent who can make learning fun! (Ages 8-12)

Rose Coffin by M.P. kozlowsky (Scholastic) Reviewer: diana PerryRose Coffin can’t win. She’s teased all the time, especially for slipping into song at inopportune moments, though that’s the only thing that keeps her panic at bay. After a particularly mortifying incident, Rose escapes to the woods where she’s captured by a group of otherworldly creatures. They

take her to Eppersett—a magical, eerily beautiful place, and tell her that she’s “the one who’s going to save them.” An evil force called the Abomination is on the loose, and there’s only one thing powerful enough to stop it: her voice. There’s just one catch. Rose hasn’t been brought to Eppersett to fight the Abomination. She’s going to be sacrificed to it. This is a well-written story that sucks you in and, just like Rose, you can’t seem to escape. Well done! (Ages 8-12)

BOOK REvIEWS


The Word Dancer by Maxine Rose Schur (White Bird Publications) Reviewer: diana PerryWhen the Ugsome traitors take over the kingdom of Wisland, the orphan, Wynnfrith must flee the court with Oliver, the 5-year-old crown prince. Their flight becomes a treacherous journey that pits Wynnfrith against the cruel, grotesque Ugsome family. To win against her enemies, Wynnfrith

is aided by both the love and secret incantations of Mistress Plummety Peache. But perhaps above all, it is the presence of the magical Word Dancer who inspires her to use not just her head, but also her heart to ignite the full power of words. Can Wynnfrith find within herself the way to unleash this power? If she can, she will not only realize her true bravery, she might also crush the enemies of Wisland. A terrific book filled with delightful and unique characters and visual settings. This is a real fairy tale and I feel the best character is the Word Dancer himself! (Ages 8-12)

Legends of the Sky by Liz flanagan (david fickling Books) Reviewer: diana PerryOn the island of Arcosi, dragons and their riders used to rule the skies. But now they are only legends, found in bedtime stories, and on beautiful murals and ancient jewelry. When servant girl Milla witnesses a murder and finds herself caring for the last four dragon eggs, she is forced to keep

them secret amidst the growing tensions in the city. But how can Milla and her friends keep the eggs safe when it means endangering everything she’s ever loved? Fiery friendships, forgotten family, and the struggle for power collide as Milla’s fight to save the dragons leads her to discover her own hidden past. I found this story to be a magical fairy tale that young readers will really love. (Ages 8-12)

Awesome Dog 5000 by Justin dean (Random House Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: diana PerryMarty, Ralph, and Skyler might make the ultimate secret combo when battling alien-slime ninjas in their favorite video game, but in real life they’re just regular kids. That is, until the three best friends discover Awesome Dog 5000, a robotic dog

with very real power-ups. Awesome Dog can “bark” a sonic boom, “walk” at speeds over three hundred miles per hour, and “fetch” with an atomic cannon. Life for Marty, Ralph, and Skyler just got a major turbo-boost! Youngsters will practice their reading while being entertained by this exciting and funny story. The ending leads brilliantly into the next book in this series and it also includes some awesome activity pages. (Ages 8-12)

To submit your book for review, email Cristy Bertini at [email protected] for submission guidelines.

Miss Communication (Babymouse Tales from the Locker) by Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm (Random House Books for Young Readers) Reviewer: diana PerryPing! Ping! The sound of texting is in the air. Everyone at middle school has a cell phone. Babymouse just has to get one, too. But having a phone is a lot of work! Building up a

following on SoFamous, learning text lingo, keeping up with all the important koala videos ... Babymouse is ready to tear her whiskers out. Why does it suddenly feel like she has no friends? Somehow, Babymouse needs to figure out how to stop worrying and love her smartphone ... if Locker doesn’t eat it first. #Typical. Early readers will love this book. (Ages 8-12)

The Whispering Wars by Jaclyn Moriarty (arthur a. Levine Books) Reviewer: diana PerryThe town of Spindrift is also home to the Orphanage School, where Finlay lives with Glim, Taya, and Eli. Just outside town is the painfully posh Brathelthwaite Boarding School, home to Honey Bee, Hamish, and Victor, Duke of Ainsley. When the two schools

compete at the Spindrift Tournament, the stakes are high, tensions are higher, and some people are out to win at any cost. And then the Whispering Wars break out, and Spindrift is thrust onto the front lines. Children are being stolen; witches, sirens, and a deadly magical flu invade the town; and all attempts to fight back are met with defeat. The kids must join forces to rescue the stolen children and turn the tide of the war. But how can one bickering troupe outwit the insidious power of the Whisperers? A great read! (Ages 8-12)

mailto:[email protected]

LivLife

on

A few issues ago, I wrote about climate change. I couldn’t just write once about it because it’s one of the most important things to me. Making a difference isn’t just a one-time thing. An activist has to have perseverance and keep doing whatever they can no matter the forces that are trying to stop them. It takes courage to keep going when people, family, and even friends might be saying it’s nonsense.

I don’t really learn about climate change in school and it makes me upset because how are we supposed to use math or geometry in a world we may never have? I often wonder what I can do as an individual to help. I did the School Climate Strike with my neighbor’s kids and we marched downtown in Los Angeles and missed school. We got to hear speeches from people, real people who have been directly affected by climate change. I’m inspired by Greta Thunberg, who I saw at the march. There were people of all ages who wanted to make a difference.

March for a Causeby Olivia amiri

Protesting isn’t to make you look good or to make yourself feel like you have done enough. Marches actually can make a difference. If enough people stand together and fight, it will gain more press and publicity. Once a lot of people start to show interest, the hope is that leaders start to notice and listen. I educate myself by reading reliable sources and checking it out with some of my teachers during snack and/or lunch. Find out where and when in your area there are marches and spare a few hours of your time for our planet. •

Olivia Amiri 12-year-old Olivia Amiri is a little girl with big advice! Sharing insights and observations on the world around us, her message is clear: kids are still the best teachers to remind grown-ups of the simple joys in life. livonlife.com



JUlIaNNE’S Q&a

Michael J. armstrongGives Little Readers the Best Book Ever

by Julianne Black DiBlasi

Ever have that ONE day that needs to be PERFECT? I’m not talking about a milestone birthday, or even a wedding—I’m talking about the absolute most important day ever: the last day of summer vacation! We can plan, cram, coupon, Groupon, frequent-flier mile, and out-of-the-office-reply every moment of our vacations, but how do we add the FUN? How do we make it the BEST?

I came across an amazing pre-order announcement for a book that gives us all the answers—well, at least the answers according to William and Anna. Complete with “to-do” lists and diagrams, William and Anna show the world how an EPIC last vacation day is done in Best Day Ever by Michael J. Armstrong. And, of course, I simply can’t wait for the release date in May to get the answers. I had to track down Michael at home and bother him for details. I’m just like that.

Q: Hi Michael! It’s so awesome that we get a chance to talk with you before the book hits shelves! Best Day Ever will be released by Sterling Children’s Books in May! Can you tell us a little about the book?

A: Thanks for having me! And I’d love nothing more than to talk about Best Day Ever—just ask anyone who has the misfortune of knowing me. So, it’s the last day of summer vacation and ever-so-ambitious William has one goal left on his list: have the most fun ever. And being the type-A kid that he is, William attacks his “problem” with meticulous precision. Unfortunately, his next-door neighbor, Anna, keeps interrupting him with her outlandish ideas. William dismisses her each time. But as he struggles to accomplish his goal with time running out, William begins to wonder if maybe Anna knows

MICHaEL J. aRMSTRONG


something he doesn’t. Basically, Best Day Ever is about letting go of control and finding joy in the chaos. To a lesser extent, it’s also about being open to new ideas—especially ones that are outside our comfort zones.

And while it’s William’s story, I think Anna is the star of the book. I completely fell in love with her character, and I hope I get the chance to write more Anna and Will stories. In fact, I have already written one and expect to write more—even if it’s just for my family to read—but who knows if they will get published.

Q: This is your very first published title, is that correct? My favorite question to ask new authors is about that moment you first held a copy in your hands—can you give us a little bit on where you were and what went through your mind when you got your advanced copies?

A: It is my first, but I haven’t received my advance copies yet. Is that bad? Why am I suddenly sweating? Do you know something that I don’t know?!

Anyway, I am dying to get my mitts on them. Since my manuscript was acquired a little over two years ago, I’ve gone through four different editors. Each time I wondered if Best Day Ever might get dropped or put on a shelf (and not in a good way). It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride. So, holding an actual hard copy will probably be the first time it feels real to me. Then my wife and I will probably play a game of, “I’m not crying, you’re crying!” as my daughter laughs and films us on her iPad.

Q: I love the story you tell on your website about the connection between which books you liked to read to your daughter and which books she asked you to read … can you let our story monsters in on that revelation and share how it influenced your writing?

A: Of course. When my daughter picked out books for us to read at bedtime, she always seemed to gravitate toward the ones that we enjoyed as well. And it makes sense since kids tend to be finely tuned into their parents’ emotions. They like to see us laugh and experience joy, just as they don’t like to see us get upset (obviously, I have no experience with teenagers yet). Therefore, I think it stands to reason that when they see us enjoy a book, it makes them want to read all the more. And, of course, more books = more better.

So, my wife and I specifically sought out authors and titles that we would enjoy together with our daughter. Fortunately, there are a lot of authors who do this extremely well, like Drew Daywalt, Ashley Spires, Ryan T. Higgins, and Jon Klassen, to name a few.

When I started writing picture books about five years ago, that became my primary goal. Now when I’m working on something and am unsure about a line or phrase, I imagine that moment when a parent is reading it for the third, 10th, or 50th (I should be so lucky) time. Does it hold up, or is it just annoying now? It’s been a helpful exercise for me.

Anyway, I hope that in at least some small way I succeeded in making Best Day Ever a book that parents and kids will enjoy together.

Q: I imagine you included your daughter on the trial-and-error of Best Day Ever’s storyline? What was her response to the finished book?

A: You are right. In fact, she is always the first person to hear a new manuscript. And the older she gets, the more involved she wants to become in the process, and the more helpful she actually is.

Speaking of which, she had a lot of input on my second Anna and Will manuscript which will hopefully get picked up by my publisher (they have until late summer to exercise their option). Unlike me, she loves to draw. So, for Christmas, she gave me a hand-illustrated copy of the manuscript. She worked on it for nearly

JUlIaNNE’S Q&aMICHaEL J. aRMSTRONG


three months. If our house ever catches fire, that’s the possession I will grab first. She might have even inspired a third Anna and Will book: Best Gift Ever.

And yes, she’s VERY excited about getting a hard copy of the book. She keeps asking me if she can have the first copy, and if I’ll sign it for her. But the funny thing is that she wants to come to a book signing and be the first person in line (I haven’t the heart to tell her that there probably won’t be any line). Always keeps me smiling, that kid.

Q: The concept behind Best Day Ever is such a timeless reminder for all of us. The idea that trying to measure, list, quantify, and track something like fun happens to us as adults, yet the real essence of the fun lies in the unplanned, silly, messy, and (if I can borrow from Anna) the tiny bit dangerous adventures we can’t micromanage. Was there a specific event or situation that brought this order vs. play conundrum to mind for you to begin writing about it or was it always a concept you’ve been inspired by?

A: As a parent, this was actually a concept that I struggled with personally. When my daughter was born, I gave up my career to become a stay-at-home

dad. My mindset at the time was that I should approach parenting like a job. I was always trying to find things to do that I thought were developmentally important. I did research, I made lists, and I planned out our days. I would overschedule and pull her away from her creative play—even though I knew it was good for her—to go do something “important” I had planned. To make matters worse, I would get very stressed out about it. I simply wasn’t enjoying the ride. I was like William.

One day I remember watching her play in the backyard. She had this stick—actually it was a dowel rod she swiped from my workshop—and she was talking and laughing and spinning and dancing and having the time of her life with this simple little piece of wood. That’s when I realized the error of my ways. Nothing I had planned for that day would’ve made her as happy—or could be more important—than what she was imagining with that stick.

It’s one of the great things about having kids. If you watch them closely, they will show you how to find the best parts of life.

By the way, she still swipes my dowel rods. We built a playhouse a few summers ago, and that’s the first place I look if I ever need one.

Q: William’s Summer Goals list is just epic and perfectly pins down his character’s personality while your illustrator Églantine Ceulemans completely seals the deal with the illustrations. How much input did you have with the illustrator on how you wanted William’s character to look and how much does William look like the little boy you were envisioning while writing the story?

A: With a dialogue-only book, sometimes it’s necessary to have a lot of illustration notes to tell the story. But I had heard from peers that art notes were often frowned upon, so I did my best to limit them to instructions that were essential to drive the story forward.

That said, I offered absolutely no input on what the characters should look like or any descriptive features. In fact, and I might be an outlier in this way, I never really see my characters’ faces. I just see their personalities. So, I really didn’t have anything to offer in the first place. And I’m glad I didn’t, because Églantine absolutely nailed it. I’m EXTREMELY lucky she agreed to illustrate this book.

JUlIaNNE’S Q&a MICHaEL J. aRMSTRONG


Q: Just a quick peek at the “look inside” feature from Best Day Ever’s Amazon listing was enough to completely sell me on the story and be completely certain that it will end up by my daughter’s bedside table for many, many reads and rereads in our future. Knowing this, I have to ask: What can we expect from you next and how fast can we get it?

A: That’s very kind of you to say. As I mentioned earlier, my next Anna and Will book is in my publisher’s hands right now. It’s more of a stand-alone book than a sequel, but I’m very excited about it. My wife and my critique partners all think it is better

Julianne Black DiBlasi • Mom, indie author, illustrator, fine artist, graphic designer, SCBWI member • krakensky.com.

than Best Day Ever and who am I to argue? The theme is confirmation bias, and it plays out as Anna drags Will into a search for a missing penguin that she is convinced is hiding in her house. I REALLY hope it sees the light of day. And who knows, maybe the stars will align and Églantine will illustrate again.

I’m also working on several other picture book manuscripts, and I’ve got a chapter book character that will not stop pestering me to write her story. Now I just need a few more hours in the day, and a few more days in the week. Do you know anyone who can help me with that?

You can learn more about Michael J. Armstrong and Best Day Ever at michaeljarmstrongbooks.com. •

“It’s one of the great things about having kids. If you watch them closely, they will show you how to find the best parts of life.”

JUlIaNNE’S Q&aMICHaEL J. aRMSTRONG

http://krakensky.com

https://driscollpublishing.com

Martha and ann Driscoll - Bitly

Documents