Spring Fling Writing Contest -- April Snow! Oh, No!

I love writing stories for these writing contests. They are a great way to practice writing to make every word important. They help focus the mind and the story and allow a person to play with ideas and strengthen imagination.

Spring Snow

https://media.giphy.com/media/Xik4r2GSVoVva/giphy.gif

April Snow. Oh, No!

(150 words)

The weatherman said, “Snow.” Sophie moaned, “It can’t be so.

Today has been warm and sunny. To tease about snow, is not funny!

Tomorrow, I’ll take a stand.” Sophie would wear shorts and T as planned.

The day dawned bright just as Sophie hoped. Her mother begged, “Please take your coat!”

School went as usual, language arts, math, then gym.

Outside the winds blew and snow clouds moved in.

Snow fluttered and fell, then the recess bell.

With gusto, Sophie went to play. She’ll never admit to shivering that day.

After recess and lunch, lessons to learn. Science and reading, everyone taking a turn.

Students packed up, their boots strewn on the floor.

Ding!

Sophie stood tall as she marched out the door.

She smiled in awe. The snow had all thawed.

“I never believed what that weatherman said.”

Once home, 

she slipped on warm jammies and crawled into bed.

Thank you to Kaitlyn and Ciara for creating this one. To read more spring giphy stories, click here.

So proud to be winner in this contest.  Thank you Melissa Stoller for copies of your wonderful books. A lovely reward! 

Perfect Picture Book Friday: Flowers Talk

You probably know that milkweed is very important to monarch butterflies because that's where they lay their eggs and then the caterpillars eat the leaves to grow big and strong so they can become butterflies. When it comes to quenching a butterflies thirst, they enjoy the nectar of many different types of flowers.

Flower Talk: How Plants Use Color to Communicate

Author: Sara Levine (www.saralevinebooks.com)
Illustrated by: Masha D'Yans (www.masha.com)

Published by: Millbrook Press, 2019

Themes: STEM,  Flowers, Nature, pollination

Ages: 6 - 11

Synopsis: A grouchy cantankerous cactus (prickly pear variety) tells the audience about how flowers use their colors, shapes, and scents to attract insects, birds, and and even mammals to help them make their seeds.

First Lines: "Hey, you! Pssst! Down Here! That's right -- I'm a plant, and I'm talking to you! But don't get too used to it. We don't make a habit of talking to humans."

Why I love this book: Pollinators are all the rage these days. We do need to save the bees and butterflies so it's a good thing we are talking about it! This books looks at the ecosystem and food web from the point of view of the flower and the symbiotic relationship between flowers and pollinators. It helps us understand the role that flowers and plants play in in the food web. This non-fiction story that will make you look at flowers in a new way.

Masha's watercolor illustrations are bright and exciting. The cactus narrator's prickly personality comes through on each page.

Excellent backmatter about flower pollination.

And really, talking to plants is fun. We should do it more often. You never know what you will discover.

A Q&A with Sara Levine

The blog post where I learned about this book.

Activities:

Create your own flower or nature scavenger hunt. Use the same one each season and see what things are the same and what things are different.

Take a hike in your local parks or forest preserves.

Start a Nature Journal

Play with watercolors. I found this little Nature Sketchbook that is easy to take with me and works well with all types of art mediums. Great for making art on the go or as a nature journal. I love this little watercolor set because it's easy to take with you and has lots of colors. A watercolor brush that holds water makes painting on the go super easy.

Make your own pollinator garden or participate in a local community garden.
A pollinator garden can be as small as a pot of native plants on your balcony or front porch. Make sure that you choose flowers that are native to where you live. Those flowers will provide the best food sources for native insects and birds.

And . . . If you want to find more cool picture books check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes.

Perfect Picture Book Friday -- Rube Goldberg

It has felt like a crazy route to finally getting this post completed. I had planned to post it last Friday, but we got a new dog from a shelter who is just beginning to adjust to life in a real home.

Ginger our new family member

Last Friday, I went into my office to finish this post, but got distracted by some emails. Then a call from my husband suggesting we take the dog to the dog park so she could run free for a while provided another distraction. I figured I would come back and finish after our trip to the park. Instead, at the dog park I was running with Ginger and took a slow-motion flight through the air landing with my arm smashing into my rib cage. (The good news is that I did not fall into the dog poop that had been left by other dog owners and I did not fall on my dog.) Breath knocked from me, searing pain, and great embarrassment. I tried to shake it off just like my other past clumsy experiences. A couple hours later, the pain was getting worse so we spent a couple more hours in the ER to find that I had managed to crack a rib in my spectacular fall.  Suffice it to say that between the pain medication and the day turning to night, my blog post was abandoned but not forgotten.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Just Like Rube Goldberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Behind the Machine

Written by: Sarah Aronson

Illustrated by: Robert Neubecker

Published by: Beach Lane Books an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division

Ages: 6 - 11 

Themes: STEAM, simple machines, cartooning, biography, persistence

Synopsis: From Amazon: Discover how Rube Goldberg followed his dreams to become an award-winning cartoonist, inventor, and even an adjective in the dictionary in this inspiring and funny biographical picture book. 

First Line:"Question: How do you become a successful award-winning artist and famous inventor without ever inventing anything at all? (This is not a trick question.)"

Why I love this book:

Beginning with the cover of the book, you see Rube Goldberg machine designs in action. Even if you have never heard the phrase, Rube Goldberg Machine, you have most likely seen a drawing of one or even created one of your own. But, this book is not really about the machine, it is about the man. 

His name is Rube Goldberg. He loved drawing and cartooning from a young age. When his parents discouraged him from becoming an artist and cartoonist, he persisted. Sarah Aronson takes you on a journey with Goldberg and makes you a part of the story.

The illustrations are filled with wonderful details and lots of humor. The style is bright with details yet hearkens to the half-tone dot printing of newspapers.

This book has three hooks: It's a biography of a cool person, it's about following your dreams, and it's a story that encourages artistic endeavors. 

I am also excited to share this book because I get to highlight an Illinois author. Check out her website.

Activities to go with this book:

A Simple Starting Point to Creating a Rube Goldberg Machine

Design and Build a Rube Goldberg Machine

Another post of building a Rube Goldberg Machine

How to Draw Funny Cartoons

Tips for writing comics

More on writing comics

If you want to find more cool picture books check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book title and by themes.

World Water Day -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Today is World Water Day. 2019 Leaving no one behind.

This is a perfect picture book for World Water Day, environmentalists, farming, sustainability, and caring for our earth.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40899042-i-am-farmer

I Am Farmer: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon by Baptiste and Miranda Paul is a book about clean water, gardening, and making the world a better place. It is a book about a man who took what was considered a derogatory nickname, "Farmer", and turned it into a life changing grassroots effort sowing the seeds of a better world. 

As I sit at my computer in my home, a glass of clean water at the ready, I think about why people in the United States should care about reading this book. We have drinking water, we have farms, and food is readily available. Yet, this is not the full truth.

Water testing in local schools showed high levels of lead in many of the sinks and drinking fountains. Thankfully, the facilities and operations department took steps to keep children safe and remove access to the faucets and fountains that were a problem.

Flint Michigan suffered a horrible water crisis that is still not fully resolved. Even if the water is safe, there are trust issues that leave the residents fearful and hesitant to drink the water.

Droughts in the US impact millions of people every day. 

We can learn how we can improve the world from one man's grassroots efforts in Cameroon.

Farmer Tantoh always loved working in the dirt. He wanted to be a farmer. After he recovered from Typhoid fever which he contracted from drinking unclean water, his mission expanded to ensure that others would not suffer as he did. 

This book takes a child into the dirt, offers a broader understanding of the world beyond their neighborhood, and offers actions that children and adults can take here and abroad. If that's not enough, there are more lessons in this story. When you know who you are and what is important to you, you don't care about being teased and given a silly nickname. You make it work for you. You follow your dreams and do what you believe in.

This poetically written biography/call to action makes a wonderful read-aloud. Liz Zunon's collage illustrations are bright and beautiful using photographs, cut paper, watercolors, and hand lettering. Zunon also illustrated Miranda Paul's One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia Both of these books would be great to share any day of the week.

In 2005 Farmer Tantoh, started the Save Your Future Foundation. Check it out. You can help locally and globally.

Want to learn more about gardening with kids? https://kidsgardening.org/gardening-basics/

Planting Trees: https://www.usgs.gov/science-support/osqi/yes/resources-teachers/

Spring tree and flower crafts: https://handsonaswegrow.com/spring-art-projects-for-kids/

Become and Environmentalist now: https://lookforlittlehelpers.com/2018/04/16/environmental-service-learning-projects/

And if you want more perfect picture books check out Susanna Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday post.

Happy Pi Day -- Story, Drawings, Books, and a Recipe

Hooray for Pi Day! 3.14159 . . .I admit it took me a long time to understand the very basics of Pi. But I can now use it to figure out the circumference of a circle and the radius or diameter of a circle of any size.

If you want to know the diameter of a Maple tree to figure out if it's large enough for tapping for Maple Syrup, Pi will help. Just measure the circumference of the tree and divide by pi. (3.14159 . . .)

Not sure of  the circumference of your hoola-hoop? Measure the diameter and multiply by pi.

What I like the most about Pi Day is that it uses math and strives to make it fun. . . and tasty.

This year, I am wearing my Einstein shirt not because he invented Pi, he didn't, but today would have been his birthday and he did some pretty cool stuff and had some wonderfully creative thoughts and ideas.

He said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." He believed that we need to go beyond our collection of knowledge and come up with new ideas, thoughts, and possibilities.

So I took these two ideas and used my imagination to write a 50 word short story for a writing contest called 50 Precious Words, put on by Vivian Kirkfield.

Here's my story:

The Pi(e) Problem: an ala mODE to Pi Day

By Sarah Tobias, 50 precious words

My mathematician parents fill their office with equations. They mutter, “Could pi be the solution?” Aha! I've got it! I measure, mix, roll and stuff then wait by the oven. Ding! It’s done. I cut. I plate. I carry it to their office. “I hope this pie solves your problem.”

And I created three little Pi Cartoons.

If you would like to read and learn more about Pi check out this blog post of Science Books for Kids for a list of books.

If you are in the mood to do a little Pie baking, I can recommend this yummy Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. It's almost pie, just no crust. I have swapped out the fruit and used apples too. Delicious!

Well, there you have it. Happy Pi(e) Day!

Valentine's Day: A Tiny story and Some Book Recommendations Too

Take heart, Valentine's Day is only a day away. This post offers loads of valentine stories to read and share. 

First, it's time for Susanna Hill's Valentiny Story Contest. For the full details check out her blog post. There you will also find links to all the 214 word or less stories submitted for the contest. Take note that each story includes someone feeling guilty since that's one of the rules of the contest. 

Here's my story:

A Valentine for Mom

When things don’t go right, mom fixes it by saying, “I’m sorry, honey.”  

I used my savings to buy her a box of Valentine candy. I remove the plastic wrapper to show off the flowers and ruffles. Mmmmm, the chocolates smell so good.

Just a peek. There are so many. I shouldn’t. . . Just one taste. I’ll move them around, so she won’t notice. Leave the heart shaped one. This one's small. 

Chomp. Ew! Coconut. 

Mom hates coconut. What if they're all coconut?  I’ll just check one more to see. Creamy pink. A little lick.  Raspberry! Heavenly. Push, shift, move. You can hardly tell that I took two. I'll hide it my desk.

Shift, shift. Oops, let me fix them again. She’ll love the one with the little flower. But what if it’s coconut? I better check. Maple. Yummy. It would be wrong to leave it with a hole. Better eat it.  I MUST LEAVE THEM ALONE! . . . I can’t. I break them all open. What am I going to do?

I sit at my desk and write. 

To Mommy, 

This heart is pink. 

I spent my money. 

I ate the candy. 

I’m sorry, honey.

I put the poem in the box and take it down to dinner.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And now for a few books you can read for Valentine's Day or any day. They are full of heart.

The Visitor by Antje Damm

Elise is afraid of everything. One day a paper airplane flies in through her open window. A boy comes to retrieve it, and Elise's life begins to change. There is no pushing or prodding to develop a friendship. It all happens naturally. I just love the illustrations with childlike drawings in a one room diorama. Another book that would pair well with this is Mem Fox's, Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge.

Perfect by Max Amato

The eraser likes to make sure the pages stay clean and white. Pencil has a different idea. 

I think I like this book so much because it reminds me of my childhood with my sister. She was the eraser and I was the pencil. Yes, I messed with her and I liked having of stuff around. One time after a snow, I wanted to play in it, she wanted to shovel it all away. I got in the way of the shovel and had to have stitches. Eraser gets a bit dirty, but no stitches in this book. Another reason I like this book . . . the illustrations. They are simple, but unique and would encourage playing with art.

Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

Julian and his grandma go swimming every Saturday. On the bus, Julian sees three mermaids. He loves mermaids. In the pool, he imagines becoming a mermaid. At home, he gets creative. When his abuela sees him, she knows just what to do. This story of acceptance and love is beautifully illustrated from cover to cover.

Love, Z by Jessie Sima

A little robot named Z discovers a bottle with a note inside. All that he can read are the words, Love, Beatrice. Little Z goes on a journey to find Beatrice and learn what Love is. Sima's soft and bright illustrations really bring this sweet story to life and give Little Z the real meaning of the word Love. She is also the author of Not Quite Narwhal and more. 

Happy Reading and Happy Valentine's Day!

Do you have favorite stories you love to read at Valentine's Day. I'd love to hear about them in the comments.

The End and The Beginning

I have been preparing and moving toward a lot of change this past year. I began the year participating in Julie Hedlund's 12 Day of Christmas for Writers. It begins the day after Christmas and goes for . . . 12 Days. I am ending the year preparing for 2019 with the same program. (You can too, just follow the link) Last year, I decided my quote or theme for the year would be: Does it Move Your Story Forward?

This theme had a double meaning for me. In writing it meant, do the words and images move the one important thing about the story forward? In life, Am I doing the things that help me to move my life forward toward my writing and art dreams and goals?

By holding to my theme, I gave myself permission to say no or to delay doing things that didnt move my story forward.

It also made it easy for me to join and participate in new classes and activities. I joined the 12x12 Challenge. I began attending SCBWI Illustrator's Group in Illinois. I participated in Tara Lazar's Storystorm and created a long list of story ideas, and then participated in ReFoReMo which helped me get into the "reading lot of picture books" habit. These activities took a lot of time and focus. They really helped me stick to my theme for the year.

I had decided with my husband that I would retire from Library work at the end of 2018. (You can retire from the work, but you are always a librarian.) When the end of last school year was approaching, my husband said, "I reviewed the numbers and I think you should retire now." That was too fast for me. There were only a couple weeks of school left, I wasn't 100% sure I was ready and I needed more time to think about it. So I didn't retire. The school year came to an end, I was writing and beginning to make more art, I took a drawing class and a watercolor class. I was feeling the contentment and bliss of making art. I also felt the stress and pain of not being perfect at my art. But, the bliss was winning over. I was ready to move forward full-time into my new career. I decided that I would go back to work for a couple weeks in August so that I could have closure and say goodbye to all the students before entering this new phase.

It's funny, I was scared. I was afraid that no one would care that I was leaving. The people who cared the most were the students. There were some adults who lamented that I was leaving, but they don't react the same way that kids did. The last day was SOOOOOO hard. I cried over and over again. I received so many hugs, and many sweet notes. One girl brought me a small gift. The day ended, the kids went home (I did a cartwheel for the kids waiting for their rides.) And then it was over. Just like that boom, the end.

Thankfully, I had a plan to keep moving forward. I was already working on my writing, I signed up for two consecutive watercolor classes, and took a 4 week poetry writing class. And . . . I had my theme.

I had an amazing year. I wrote 13 picture book drafts. A lot of garbage that will never see light of day, but also a few that I think are gems in need of polishing. I wrote a middle grade scary story that I love and shared with a former student whose mom told me he was in love with scary stories. (A goal is to figure out where this story might go in the publishing world). I received an honorable mention for a 100 word scary story I wrote for Susanna Hill's Halloweensie writing contest. I wrote a whole bunch of poems during my poetry class and actually had 10 that were worthy of submitting for publication.

Then I joined the Storyteller Academ and took Arree Chung's Making Picture Book Stories and Dummies. I loved the class and weekly meetings and discussions. I am still working on revisions to my story for that class and am enjoying making dummies. I can't wait to get started with more classes at the end of January.

As I was writing this post, I was thinking that my theme for 2019 would be: Less is More. I'm not sure that will fit at the beginning of this year as I plan to participate in the 12x12 challenge again, I have signed up for Storystorm, and then there's Storyteller Academy. We shall see. There's a few more days in 2018 and no rule that I have to decide before 2019 begins.

How was your 2018? Can you remember the good stuff that happened? I'd love to hear about your life progress. Do you have a theme for 2019?

Please know that my year was not perfect, and there were many things that slowed down my process requiring me to change focus for a while. What I am most proud of is that I was able to re-focus and keep moving forward.

Happy End of 2018! Cheers to 2019!