I can’t quite recall how I came across this blog, but I am loving the heck out of just how much first time author (and Gluten Free Girl) Shauna James Ahern is enjoying her book touring.
Archives for October, 2007
Getting Colonial?
Posted on 2007 under books, colonial america, curriculum, history, publishing, stuff to make | 3 Comments31 Oct
Robin recently mentioned that she’s going to be using my book, Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself to supplement her upcoming unit on colonial America. I just thought I’d mention that the book is available as a FREE download, here. Seriously. Free. What are you waiting for?
I’m not big on coloring books, and have even kind of turned up my nose at some of those anti-coloring books that claim to be more creative. But I have to admit that Squiggles is pretty cool. I don’t think it’s a replacement for doing creative artwork, but for those times when my youngest used to moan, “I don’t know what to draw!” this would have been perfect. The drawings are very chunky, and the lines are big and bold so coloring within the lines is really not the focus. Each page has a prompt of sorts, for instance a picture of a big bowl with the statement, “This can be eaten with a spoon.” Presumably, little artists will fill in the bowl with a food item of their choice. Of course (you knew this was coming), I like that there isn’t one correct “answer”, but instead kids can get creative with their coloring.
My young niece will be getting this for her birthday!
Thanks to those of you who have visited me over at my other blog, Great Solutions to Team Challenges, for What Else Wednesdays and other stuff.
Cool, yes?
I picked up a copy of High School Confidential at the library the other day. I won’t give it a thumbs up or down yet, but one point the author makes is that he envisions life as being a Track. Works well with phrases like “being on track” and “on the right track”. By following the Track, he found that each year during college, his life improved. Got better. Was more pleasant. He got the notion into his head that as each life year passes, our lives should move toward improvement upon the past year.
Then he went to a college career day, where hundreds of corporations were vying for the best of the best, and the students were clamoring for jobs that would require them to work 60-80 hours a week in cubicles. NOT an improvement, he thought. And yet it’s what was expected of ALL of the graduating students; finish college and go work at a job that says, “success”. Never mind that you might not really LIKE the job you’re applying for; it’s what you do. Instead, the author opted to fold his resumes into paper airplanes and then jump in a fountain (at which point I said a silent Right On).
As a parent of kids who are being educated in a non-traditional manner, I have to wonder if they will ever feel that pressure to choose the route that takes them to “success”. I’ve talked about this before, but I do hope that both of my kids see their lives as enjoyable, as something that can be improved upon each year, rather than jumping on the Track.
STICKY: Prizes from Robert’s Snow illustrators
Posted on 2007 under Uncategorized, kidlit | 9 Comments29 Oct
STICKY (Thanks, Andrea!) – scroll down for newer posts. This post will stay at the top of the page until the Robert’s Snow blogging event is over. Go see what you can win (there are some really cool prizes out there!). Also, I’m NOT taking the time to remove contests if they are over; I’ll leave that sleuth work up to you. I just don’t have the time to keep up with every giveaway – there are so many!
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NEW! Gail Maki Wilson is featuring illustrator/author Chris Gall (you HAVE to check out his dino flake!) and offering visitors the chance to win a copy of Chris’s book, Dear Fish.
NEW! Win a signed copy of one of Amy Young’s books from the Belinda series over at Kate’s book blog.
NEW! Jama Rattigan hosts R.W. Alley today (Nov. 10). Some of you may recognize him as the guy who brought Paddington Bear to life in the stories by Michael Bond. Hop on over to check out his wonderful snowflake and enter to win a signed copy of PADDINGTON.
NEW! Daniel J. Mahoney, featured at Paradise Found, is giving away three autographed books to three different visitors.
NEW! Cynthia Lord is giving away Jeannie Brett’s “Fishing for Numbers” on Nov. 10.
Leave a comment over at Check it Out, where MsMac is featuring illustrator Annette Simon today (Nov. 9). Your name will be entered in a drawing for a copy Annette’s book, Mocking Birdies.
To be entered to win a signed copy of Denise’s Ortakales beautiful Good Morning, Garden, leave a comment on author Cynthia Lord’s feature by midnight this coming Wednesday. I love the snowflake that Denise designed – go have a look!
Illustrator Sara Kahn is being featured at Kate’s book blog today (Nov. 2). Sara has donated a signed print of an illustration from one of her books.
On November 4th, Nancy Wallace is the featured illustrator on In The Pages and will be giving away a copy of the book “Snow”.
Kate Messner features illustrator Shawna Tenney on Halloween. To enter the drawing, folks should leave a comment about one of their favorite Robert’s Snow snowflakes. A winner drawn after the auction will receive a copy of AMY’S BIKE and a print signed by Shawna.
On Halloween, Booktopia and Welcome to my Tweendom will proudly show-case Adam Rex! Adam has graciously agreed to answer some burning questions, and you can win a brand spanking new hardcover copy of The True Meaning of Smekday to a lucky reader!
Matt Phelan has donated a “raffle doodle” — a sketch that we’ll give away by putting all the names of the folks who comment on his feature (Oct. 30, A Year of Reading) into a hat and picking one. A plain, old-fashioned drawing…for a drawing!
Leave a comment on this post over at In the Pages and you will be entered into a drawing for a signed copy of Grace Lin’s book, Lissy’s Friends, AS WELL AS an accompanying Lissy Doll!
Enter to win a signed copy of one of Judy Schachner’s books AND a Skippyjon Jones doll over at Kate Messner’s book blog. (Kate, by the way, is the author of the newly released historical fiction novel Spitfire which sits high atop my wish list.)
Win a book from author/illustrator Linas Alsenas over at A Wrung Sponge, where TWO lucky winners will each win one of his books.
Gail Maki Wilson at Through the Studio Door features Jennifer Thermes who has graciously offered an autographed book for you to win.
Wild Rose Reader is offering a limited edition Robert’s Snow giclee print by Grace Lin.
Riddleburger will be offering is giving away an original sketch by Erin Eitter Kono (details and illustrator feature up tomorrow now).
It’s easy to enter and might I add that these prizes would make for some wonderful holiday gifts! Many thanks to the illustrators who graciously donated their work and to Jules and Eisha at 7-Imp for organizing this event.
It’s a new week, which means new illustrator features all around in honor of Robert’s Snow.
As you know if you’ve been visiting any children’s book blogs for the past few weeks, Robert’s Snow is an online auction that benefits Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 200 children’s book illustrators have created art on individual snowflake-shaped wooden templates. The snowflakes will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to cancer research. You can view all of the 2007 snowflakes here. Jules and Eisha from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have found a way for bloggers to help with this effort, by blogging about individual illustrators and their snowflakes. The idea is to drive traffic to the Robert’s Snow site so that many snowflakes will be sold, and much money raised to fight cancer. The illustrator profiles have been wonderful so far – diverse and creative and colorful. And there are lots more to go.
Here’s the schedule for Week 3, which starts Monday. As previously, this early schedule links to the participating blogs, instead of to the individual posts. You can find links to the posts themselves, and any last-minute updates, each morning at 7-Imp. Jules and Eisha have also set up a special page at 7-Imp containing a comprehensive list of links to the profiles posted so far. Also remember to check this post summarizing snowflake-related contests to date.
Monday, October 29
- Dan Santat at Writing and Ruminating
- Joanne Friar at The Longstockings
- Alissa Imre Geis at Wild Rose Reader
- Diane Greenseid at Just One More Book!!
- Sean Qualls at Brooklyn Arden
Tuesday, October 30
- Ann Koffsky at Book Buds
- Bill Carman at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
- Gretel Parker at Finding Wonderland
- Matt Phelan at A Year of Reading
- Stephanie Roth at Writing with a broken tusk
Wednesday, October 31
- Shawna Tenney at Kate’s Book Blog
- Adam Rex at Booktopia and Welcome to my Tweendom
- Mo Willems at MotherReader
- Rolandas Kiaulevicius at a wrung sponge
Thursday, November 1
- Karen Lee at sruble’s world
- Diana Magnuson at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
- Melissa Iwai at Brooklyn Arden
- Victoria Jamieson at AmoXcalli and Cuentecitos
- Molly Idle at The Shady Glade
- Meghan McCarthy at A Fuse #8 Production
Friday, November 2
- Tracy McGuinness-Kelly at Sam Riddleburger’s blog
- Sarah Kahn at Kate’s Book Blog
- Sylvia Long at Whimsy Books
- Jeremy Tankard at the excelsior file
- Holli Conger at Please Come Flying
Saturday, November 3
- Susan Miller at Your Neighborhood Librarian
- Ellen Beier at What Adrienne Thinks About That
- Hideko Takahashi at The Silver Lining
- Judith Moffat at Jo’s Journal
- Wendell Minor at Wild Rose Reader
Sunday, November 4
- Joy Allen at Check It Out
- Robin Brickman at Greetings from Nowhere
- Lauren Stringer at laurasalas
- Nancy Wallace at In the Pages . . .
See also the following note from Elaine Magliaro of Wild Rose Reader:
Note to Blog Readers about Blogging for a Cure: When Jules of 7-Imp put out her call in September for bloggers to interview/feature artists who had created snowflakes for Robert’s Snow 2007 at their blogs, a number of artists had not yet sent in their snowflakes to Dana-Farber. As time was of the essence to get Blogging for a Cure underway, we worked with the list of artists whose snowflakes were already in possession of Dana-Farber. Therefore, not all the participating artists will be featured. This in no way diminishes our appreciation for their contributions to this worthy cause. We hope everyone will understand that once the list of artists was emailed to bloggers and it was determined which bloggers would feature which artists at their blogs, a schedule was organized and sent out so we could get to work on Blogging for a Cure ASAP. Our aim is to raise people’s awareness about Robert’s Snow and to promote the three auctions. We hope our efforts will help to make Robert’s Snow 2007 a resounding success.
Many, many thanks to Jen Robinson for the previous post, complete with html.
The University of Hawaii Warriors are reawakening my love of football. They have a Heisman award worthy quarterback who is the classiest, most humble player I’ve seen in the spotlight in a good long while and the team does the Haka before each game. What’s not to love? We even listened to the untelevised game on the radio last night. It was like the 70s all over again.
“Please. Put down the book for awhile and get some fresh air!”
I’ve said that to each of my boys more times than I can possibly recall. So, I was happy to read this over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if BN and Borders would let an ipod or iphone give you an audio first chapter of any book while wandering through the store.
She points out that Starbucks is doing something similar by offering customers instant gratification via their ipods.
Sharing the first chapter of an audiobook at no charge seems like a great way introduce potential listeners to a variety of audio stories (for instance, I have to really like the reader before I’ll commit to listening!). But it also seems like it would be a great way for readers of actual books to get a sample of a novel without thumbing through the pages and leaving scone smudges. Of course, a bookstore full of plugged in people might be a little disconcerting…
On the same topic, if you have an MP3 player that works beautifully to play your audio books, please share details. I’d like to be able to use my library’s free Overdrive service to download stories, but it’s really hard to tell what’s compatible! Suggestions would be most welcome.
