Welcome to my new blog, which now includes content from many of the blogs I’ve created over the years. You can now also access content via category from this one page instead of having to search for my individual blogs, which were scattered over various platforms and websites.
Thanks to my friend Peter Alway for posting a link to this IFLScience! article on my Squirrels Are Evil And Are Taking Over The World FB Page earlier this month. According to legend, the squirrel have attacked and killed deer to eat its innards! “A disemboweled deer or domestic chicken with none of its . . .
June 5, 2017 Update: Christina Farley now has a wonderful middle grade novel out from Scholastic! See her website for more info about THE PRINCESS AND THE PAGE as well as her GILDED trilogy. I met Christina Farley through my critique group, the MiG Writers. Christy’s one of the most productive writers . . .
A while back, I read Donalyn Miller’s READING IN THE WILD: The Book Whisperer’s Keys To Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits. I enjoyed it so much that I just bought THE BOOK WHISPERER. The books are geared toward educators, but there is so much great info and inspiration for those who help create . . .
When I especially enjoy reading a book or fall in love with a particular illustration, it’s usually because the author or illustrator manages to convey an emotion, scene or story in an unusual way, that spurs me to look at the world a little differently. I try to remember this . . .
Years from now, historians will surely attribute this deceptive perky songdance to the early signs of the Squirrelpocalypse that so many humans foolishly ignored. Didn’t someone say that “Ring Around The Rosie” originated with a description of the plague? If anyone’s curious, here are the original lyrics to S.I.M.P. (Squirrels In . . .
I’ve fallen a bit behind in my #BookADay posts because of my work schedule, but plan to catch up soon. Perfect for a relaxing Canada Day #BookADay: MISS MAPLE’S SEEDS by my friend Eliza Wheeler (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2013). Eliza and I met when we were both picked for the 2010 SCBWI Illustration Mentorship . . .
Thanks SOOOOO MUCH to Judy Blume and my editor Justin Chanda for this wonderful photo taken yesterday at the annual American Library Association conference (ALA). This photo makes me VERY VERY HAPPY FOR MANY REASONS. Here’s more info about the revamped books from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, how I became a Judy . . .
Just finished reading SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE by Morgan Matson(Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2014). Loved this book, especially the main character, Emily. How I wish this book had been published years ago! I was very much like Emily when I was a teen: timid and insecure on my own, plus . . .
HOORAY FOR HAT is Brian Won‘s debut picture book, and was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt earlier this year. Synopsis: “Elephant wakes up grumpy—until ding, dong! What’s in the surprise box at the front door? A hat! HOORAY FOR HAT! Elephant marches off to show Zebra, but Zebra is having a grumpy . . .
Today’s #BookADay: ONE WORD PEARL written by Nicole Groeneweg and illustrated by Hazel Mitchell (Charlesbridge, 2013). Synopsis: Pearl loves words. All kinds of words. Words make up songs, stories, poems . . . and what does a lover of words do? She collects them, of course! But one day, most of Pearl’s words are . . .