Needles and Pens

The room shifting project continues. This week, we've been working on sorting and organizing the toys in Tim's (my youngest) old bedroom, moving only the ones he still wants into his new room. Being the youngest of four kids is a mixed blessing -- for me, if not for him. For this child, there has never been a shortage of toys. In fact, almost every toy and book that ever belonged to the three older kids has eventually come to rest in his bedroom. Obviously, there's no one else around to take on the overflow, so it's time to do some decluttering! We decided first to tackle the hundreds of children's books (this picture shows just a small portion of the whole collection): Of all those books, these are the only ones he really wanted in his room: There was a much larger portion that I couldn't part with, so they went on a shelf in the basement. Some have special meaning, others will be good research material for my own children's writing. Notice, there's s...

Holes By Louis Sachar © 1998 Published by Scholastic, Inc. 1999 Newbery Medal winner Holes is the story of young Stanley Yelnats and a generations-old family curse. As the story opens, things look grim for Stanley. Convicted of a crime he did not commit, Stanley is sentenced to serve time at Camp Green Lake, a camp for bad boys. “Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. “It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather! “He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather…” Camp Green Lake didn’t sound so bad. After all, Stanley had never been to camp before. But Stanley soon finds that, “there is no lake at Camp Green Lake.” Instead, there are endless stretches of desert, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and deadly yellow-spotted lizards. The Warden and camp staff a...

Bridge to Terabithia By Katherine Paterson © 1977 Published by HarperCollins 1978 Newbery Medal winner As one of the few who had never read the book OR seen the movie, reading Bridge to Terabithia , by Katherine Paterson, was not what I had expected. I had seen the movie trailers with the fantasy monsters and the children in historical garb, so I assumed it was a fantasy story. Actually, it’s a real-life story about two kids with fantastic imaginations. Jess Aarons has a hard time fitting in. He’s the only boy in his family, stuck between four sisters. He desperately wants his parents’ acceptance, but never quite seems to measure up. He has a talent for art, which is considered a waste of time by his rural farm family. Deep down, he’d really like to make his father proud, and as the story begins, Jess has big plans to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He spends his whole summer training for the race on that first day back at school, imagining all the while how it would feel whe...

The other day I was blogging about how I plan to start marketing my children's writing, once the new year rolls around. Well... Recently I had a call from my parents, telling me of a news story they had seen about a local publisher of a glossy, regional magazine, branching out into publishing children's books. Why didn't I submit "our book?" "Our book" is One to Ten and Home Again: A Counting Book of Sounds , a children's picture book that I wrote, my mother illustrated, and we published as an e-book in 2002. I marketed the e-book for some time through my own website, but that eventually became cost prohibitive. And, well... I guess I got discouraged. Since the closing of the site, the book has basically languished in the file cabinet. Likewise, I filed this new publishing opportunity in the back of my mind, where it likely would have languished -- until a few days ago, when my dad called again. He had spoken with the publisher and told them about ...

Children’s book author, Barbara O’Connor, recently interviewed author/illustrator Brian Lies at her blog, " Greetings from Nowhere .” I found this quote from Brian particularly inspiring, as I’ve been hedging, once again, about whether or not to pursue my children’s writing dream. “I think getting published is a lot like golf (which I don't play)--if you perfect your swing, the ball should go more or less where you want it to. Likewise, if you learn to tell stories in an original and compelling way, either in words or pictures, and hone your skills so that they're truly professional. . . you're going to get published. It may take a while, but you'll get published.” ~ Brian Lies, children’s book author/illustrator I guess I just needed to hear that from someone who has been where I am now. I feel constantly pulled away from my children’s writing. I tell myself I can make a better income writing for adult markets, magazines, newspapers, websites, where I’ve experien...

Walk Two Moons By Sharon Creech © 1994 Published by Scholastic Inc. 1995 Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons is the story of 13-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle (most people call her “Sal”) and her trip across the country, from Ohio to Idaho, with her Gram and Gramps. But this is no ordinary vacation. Sal’s mother has gone to “find herself,” and Sal hopes to bring her back home. Her biggest worry is that they won’t get there in time for her mother’s birthday. Somehow, she feels that will make a difference. Along the way, Gram asks Sal to tell a story. “Salamanca, why don’t you entertain us?” “What sort of thing did you have in mind?” Gramps said, “How about a story? Spin us a yarn.” I certainly do know heaps of stories, but I learned most of them from Gramps. Gram suggested I tell one about my mother. That I could not do. I had just reached the point where I could stop thinking about her every minute of every day. Gramps said, “Well then, what about your friends? You got any tales to te...

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread By Kate DiCamillo Illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering First edition 2003 published by Candlewick Press 2004 Newbery Medal Thanks to a wonderful fourth grade teacher who reads this book aloud to her class each year, The Tale of Despereaux is a favorite of my two youngest children. It made my daughter’s birthday wish list three years ago, and recently my son joined in the chorus of, “Mom, you HAVE to read Despereaux!” Finally, I have. Despereaux is the youngest in the Tilling family, a disappointingly small, weak, sickly mouse, born – much to his family’s dismay – with his eyes open. “This is the last,” proclaimed Antoinette from her bed. “I will have no more mice babies. They are hard on my beauty. They ruin, for me, my looks. This is the last one. No more.” “The last one,” said the father. “And he’ll be dead soon. He can’t live. Not with his eyes open like that.” But reader, he did live. Thi...