Hello and welcome back for part two of Cecilia’s story. Remember in part one, Cecilia wants to make River dance again. So, her momo gives her magic dust to help. Will that be enough? Let’s find out: Wheareas some horses danced out of fear, Cecilia had seen River dance and knew that he did so…
I hope you enjoyed my review of Cramm This Book: So You Know WTF Is Going On In the World Today , but now, it’s back to middle grade fiction. Granted by John David Anderson, published by Walden Pond Press (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) in 2018 is a middle-grade fairy story about wishes. The…
Hello to you wherever you’re reading this short story for kids. I think you’ll enjoy this if you like horses and magic. Why not grab a little snack and settle back for a bit as you read: How to Make a River Dance “But I want to make River dance again,” Cecilia said, watching as…
There’s a book that just came on the market, and its title says it all: Cramm This Book: So You Know WTF Is Going On In the World Today by Olivia Seltzer and published by Philomel Books. Seltzer, now 18, started the Cramm newsletter when she was just 13 to help explain to other kids…
Imagine you’re the main character in a story and someone has given you some advice. If you’ve noticed, main characters tend not to follow advice (makes for a better story, don’t you think?). Imagine the problems that would start to pile up if you didn’t pay any attention to their words of wisdom. Then go…
Did you ever make a paper chain? How do you start a chain? Construction paper in multi-colors cut in strips and linked together, one by one by one. One little strip of paper, glued into a circle—a link—looks like nothing. But it is the biggest and most important link of the chain. Without it, well,…
I wonder if you or your children grew up watching Full House. My kids did. If it came on three times a day—and sometimes it did—they’d watch three times a day. Just to recap, Full House was a show about a widower and his three kids, living in a house in San Francisco with the…
There is an expert who can explain to you how to write a children’s book. This morning, I interviewed the librarian at a local elementary school. Kellie Lowe from Rio Del Mar Elementary was so gracious, inviting me into her library. I haven’t been inside a library since before the pandemic. Kellie had a gleam…
I mentioned Robert Louis Stevenson in my post Imagination & Creation. He is best known for books like Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But also for A Child’s Garden of Verses. First published in 1885, it contains 64 poems. Stevenson was a sickly child in Scotland and dedicated the book to his…
I remember just how I felt when I was a kid and had an assignment to begin a project. Do you remember that feeling? Excited to create something but scared to death that it won’t come out as planned and won’t be any good. This blog is that project: A combination of imagination and creation….
