Would You Read It Wednesday #286 – Sadie’s Tail (PB)

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Happy Wednesday, my friends!

I can’t believe it.  This guy

Scan 28

is getting married!

Where does the time go?!

So I’m running around like a lunatic and will not take up your time with amusing anecdotes from my childhood or unnecessary ramblings about nature on Blueberry Hill.  Let’s get right to Something Chocolate, shall we?  I’m thinking Chocolate Wedding Cake… 🙂

choc wedding 2

What could be more delicious?! 🙂

Now then, onto today’s pitch which comes to us from Patricia who is a wife, mother to Two Orange Pups and 3 grown kids, & a pre-published author. I’ve wandered much of my adult life, logging over 20 moves in the past 30 years – there’s a “how to” story lurking somewhere!  I review Perfect Picture Books, primarily international ones, at Wander, Ponder, Write.

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Sadie’s Tail

Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 4-8)

The Pitch: Ryan and his rescue-pup Sadie are the perfect pair, except for one thing. Whenever Ryan tries to brush her fluffy tail, Sadie growls, howls and otherwise avoids the brushing. As Sadie’s tail changes from fluffy to puffy and household items go missing, Ryan must discover a solution to tame that tail.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Patricia improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)

Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on Would You Read it in the dropdown under For Writers in the bar above.  There are openings in July, so you have time to polish your pitch before putting it up for helpful feedback and a chance to have it read and commented on by editor Erin Molta!

Patricia is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!  I am looking forward to going to the wedding!!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!!! 🙂

(And I’m forewarning you, I don’t think I’m going to manage Perfect Picture Books this week because I’ll be in sunny Brazil, good lord willing and the creek don’t rise! 🙂 )

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Flap Your Wings

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

My house has a little roofed porch over the front door.

We never use the front door, mind you, but the little porch is excellent for hanging Christmas lights on, and it provides two lovely little sheltered spots for bird nests.  For years, every spring, we had bird families raising their babies.

But along came a year when the porch had to be cleaned and painted in August, and the painter removed the empty nests and cleaned the little sheltered spots thoroughly…

…and the birds didn’t come back 😦

For 3 years, there have been no nests in the little porch and I have missed them.

But lo and behold, look who showed up this week 🙂

bird nest

Maybe it’s silly, but it makes me happy to see them again.

So today, for my Perfect Picture Book, I chose a book about a nest 🙂

It’s an older book – one I read as a child so that will give you a hint as to just how old! 🙂 – and is one of my All Time Favorites!

Flap Your Wings

Written & Illustrated By: P.D. Eastman

Random House, 1969, Fiction

Suitable For: ages 3-8

Themes/Topics: assumptions, non-traditional family, unconditional love, responsibility

Opening: (this is actually the first three pages.)

“An egg lay in the path.

A boy came down the path.  He saw the egg.  “Someone might step on that egg and break it,” he said.

He looked around.

He saw flamingos and frogs, and turtles and alligators.  “Whose egg is this?” he called.  But no one answered.”

Brief Synopsis:  A little boy finds an egg.  He doesn’t want it to get damaged, so he looks around until he finds the nest and carefully puts it back.  When Mr. and Mrs. Bird come home, they are surprised to find an egg in their nest… it wasn’t there when they left!  But Mr. Bird says that if an egg is in their nest it must be their egg, so they must take care of it.  So they do… with very surprising results!

Links To Resources:  Ideas And Activities For Guided Reading, Incubation & Embryology Activities, use with An Egg Is Quiet (from PPBF link list), talk about what kind of animals, insects and reptiles lay eggs and how the eggs are the same and different.

Why I Like This Book:  This book is fun to read as a picture book, but is also an I Can Read type book that is very accessible to new readers.  The pictures are delightful – Mr. and Mrs. Bird’s expressions are very entertaining.  But I really love the story because it doesn’t go where you would expect.  It’s funny.  And it’s a great example of what agents, editors and reviewers mean when they talk about re-readability.  This book delighted me as a child, and delighted my children in their turn.  I’ve read it so many times that even now, years since I last read it to my kids, I can recite almost the whole book.  It’s fun every time 🙂

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

(And if you’re in the Millbrook area, come visit the me and all my fabulous author and illustrator friends at the Millbrook Literary Festival! 🙂 )

Would You Read It Wednesday #285 – The Day Without Y (PB)

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Howdy, Folks!

I would like to announce that at long last the apple tree in my yard has blossomed!

IMG_5576

Aren’t apple blossoms just so beautiful?!

And… while we’re totally not on the subject… 🙂 I know it’s early and you might not have shaken off the cobwebs yet, but I have a question for you.

(And this is an actual question, not a riddle, because I don’t know the answer, which is why I’m asking 🙂 )

What’s red like a fox but shaped like a groundhog?

Because I spotted a critter fitting this description and I have no idea what it might be!

I’d guess a red panda, but I’m pretty sure they don’t hang out in the wilds of Blueberry Hill 🙂

The only other hints I have to offer are that it looked like it might be nibbling on leaves… but it may have just bumped them in its hurry to escape my prying eyes… and it disappeared into an opening in some rocks.

Maybe it was a rotund little baby fox… 🙂

A mini mystery for the day… and maybe a good spark for a story 🙂

While we mull over the identity of my mysterious visitor, let’s have Something Chocolate, shall we?  How about some Salted Caramel Brownie Ice Cream Cake!

Salted Caramel Brownie Ice Cream Cake

Mmm mmm good!  If that doesn’t say “breakfast”, I don’t know what does! 🙂

Now then, onto today’s pitch which comes to us from Jennifer who is a part time nurse, full time mom of three (four if you count the dog), wife, avid reader, blogger and picture book writer of the pre-published variety. She’s dreamed of seeing her words in print for as long as she can remember (and feels blessed to have made it this far.) You can find her at her blog, Magnolias & Manuscripts (http://magnoliasandmanuscripts.wordpress.com/blog) where she’s capturing her writing journey and asking questions to authors far more successful than she. If she’s not there, she’s probably somewhere jotting down ideas, playing with her kids or chasing the big goofy dog, always with a cup of coffee in hand.

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: The Day Without Y

Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 4-8)

The Pitch: As the youngest of a big family, Y struggles to find her place: the Consonants are crowded and the Vowels only let her hang around sometimes. Tired of being ignored, she decides to pretend she’s like the other Letters, but chaos and confusion set in as Y’s family tries to make sense without her.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Jennifer improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)

Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on Would You Read it in the dropdown under For Writers in the bar above.  There are openings in July, so you have time to polish your pitch before putting it up for helpful feedback and a chance to have it read and commented on by editor Erin Molta!

Jennifer is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!  I am looking forward to The Millbrook Literary Festival this Saturday!  Iza Trapani, Karen Orloff, Nancy Furstinger, Tania Guarino, Michael Garland, Jenna Grodzicki, Steven Petruccio, and many others will be there too, so you should all come!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!!! 🙂

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Hello Lighthouse

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It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday and not a moment too soon!

Although at first glance this book may appear to have nothing to do with Mother’s Day (coming up the day after tomorrow), if you read it you’ll see that is does indeed have a connection… 🙂

lighthouse

Title: Hello Lighthouse

Written & Illustrated By: Sophie Blackall

Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, April 2018, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: lighthouses, history, family

Opening: “On the highest rock of a tiny island
at the edge of the world stands a lighthouse.
It is built to last forever.
Sending its light out to sea,
guiding the ships on their way.

From dusk to dawn the lighthouse beams.
Hello!
…Hello!
…Hello!
Hello, Lighthouse!”

Brief Synopsis: The daily life of a lighthouse keeper and his family unfolds as he cares for a lighthouse that stands on the edge of the world, beaming its light across the waves to keep ships safe through dark, storms, and fog.

Links To Resources: the back of the book is full of interesting additional information about lighthouses and their keepers; read along with The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge by Hildegard Swift and see how the lighthouses are the same and how they are different; make your own lighthouse;

lighthouse1

text and illustration copyright Sophie Blackall 2018

Why I Like This Book: Any of you who have hung around this blog for any length of time know that I love Nantucket and have visited many times since I was a year old.  I learned to walk there, as a matter of fact 🙂  So it’s probably not much of a surprise that I have a fondness for lighthouses, especially Brant Point, Great Point, and Sankaty 🙂  I love this book because it gives the feel of the courage and loneliness of the lighthouse and its keeper as well as a glimpse of a job that had such historical significance but is now obsolete.  The art is gorgeous and takes you right to the beach and the ocean and the wide open sky, the wind and fog, the sunshine and storms.  I love all the little extras – the undersides of the clouds that look like flying birds, the little seaside knickknacks, the play lighthouse lantern in the child’s hand at the end that is a replica of the real lighthouse in the story.  The text has a lovely cadence to it that is a delight to read aloud.  All around a wonderful book!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!


Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

 

Would You Read It Wednesday #284 – One Smart Cookie: The Story of Ruth Wakefield and the Invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie (NF PB)

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Darlings, life is a whirlwind!

Thank you all for your enthusiastic WYRI submissions last week – we’ve got a bunch of good ones lined up!

And in honor of the whirlwind just mentioned, for our Something Chocolate today let’s have a good old-fashioned tornado… otherwise known as a Chocolate Milkshake! 🙂

choc milkshake

Recipe HERE at BBCGoodFood

 

Now that we’re all wound up, let’s jump right into today’s pitch (which seems like it fits right in with our chocolate theme here 🙂 ) which comes to us from Jackie who is a picture book author and regional advisor of the SCBWI North Texas chapter.

Find her on the web at https://www.jaclynkruzie.com/blog

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: One Smart Cookie: The Story of Ruth Wakefield and the Invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie

Age/Genre: Non Fiction Picture Book (ages 4-8)

The Pitch: For years the invention of the chocolate chip cookie has been hailed a happy accident. Perhaps it was, or perhaps it was the clever invention of a clever lady. Devour every morsel of this mystery and decide if it was a lucky mistake or the creation of one smart cookie.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Jackie improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)

Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on Would You Read it in the dropdown under For Writers in the bar above.  There are openings in July, so you have time to polish your pitch before putting it up for helpful feedback and a chance to have it read and commented on by editor Erin Molta!

Jackie is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!  I am looking forward to the whirlwind mellowing just a bit… maybe by the 3rd week of June or so 🙂

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!!! 🙂

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Busy Life of Ernestine Buckmeister

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Hurray!  It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday!

And not a moment too soon! 🙂

Today’s choice is as much for parents and teachers as it is for kids!

And busy, busy life is how I feel this week!, so, the perfect picture book 🙂

ernestine

Title: The Busy Life Of Ernestine Buckmeister
Written By: Linda Ravin Lodding
Illustrated By: Suzanne Beaky
Flashlight Press, October 2011, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 5 and up
Themes/Topics: the importance of play, over-scheduling
Opening: “Each morning, while Ernestine ate breakfast and Nanny O’Dear prepared lunch, Ernestine’s father zoomed out to work and called, ‘Live life to the fullest, Ern!’  And each morning Ernestine’s mother zipped out to catch the bus and said, ‘Make every moment count, E!‘”

Brief synopsis: Ernestine’s parents want her to have every experience she can, so they pack her days with sculpting and tuba,  yoga and yodeling.  It takes Ernestine to show them that one thing she absolutely shouldn’t miss is having time to just play.

Links to resources:  What I really should say here is, “No resources!  Just go play!”  But here are some resources that are also playing 🙂  Coloring Page, and for activities, try making a daisy crown (or any kind of outdoorsy crown), or make clouds out of cotton or shaving cream and see what shapes you see in them, or build a fort out of sticks, or blocks, or an empty cardboard box.  Use you imagination!

ernestine 2

text copyright Linda Ravin Lodding 2011, illustration copyright Suzanne Beaky 2011

Why I Like This Book:  Kids will enjoy Ernestine’s ridiculous schedule, her amusing list of lessons, her teachers’ funny names, the bold bright colors of the pictures, and Ernestine’s inspired solution to her problem.  As a grown-up, I appreciate Ernestine’s message that while organized activities arranged and taught by adults have their place, so too does the unstructured time to be a child and simply play.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

Would If You Could Read It Wednesday

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Good morning, my friends!

Guess what?

You get today off!

Due to life situations I will not bore you with, I ran out of Would You Read It submissions and didn’t realize it until the wee hours last night when I went to write today’s post!

(That is a totally undisguised plea for submissions!  If you’d like to submit a pitch, please do so and you can go next week or soon after – first come, first served!)

Meanwhile, just because we don’t have a pitch and you don’t have to give your expert opinions doesn’t mean we can’t have Something Chocolate!   Put your feet up!  Indulge and enjoy! 🙂

RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE!!!

And now that you’ve had a healthy serving of fruit to fuel you… 🙂 … go forth and write something awesome! 🙂

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!  🙂

(And PLEASE SEND PITCHES!!! 🙂 )

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Baby Animals

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We made it, folks!  TGIF!

So guess what?

It turns out I have actual psychic powers!

Remember that baby horse I said could be born on April 25?

Well, just minutes after midnight (around 12:23 AM) it actually was!

Look how beautiful! – a brand new filly (and for those of you who weren’t raised in a barn, that means a girl 🙂 )

Isn’t she just the cutest thing ever???!!! 🙂

Also big, strong, healthy, and full of beans! – a regular little firecracker sure to keep us (and her mama) on our toes! 🙂

Just wanted to let you know, since I promised I would 🙂

Now then, onto my Perfect Picture Book!  In light of springtime and the new baby in our barn, I thought what better than a book about baby animals?

baby animals

Title: Baby Animals (Explore My World Series)

Written By: Marfe Ferguson Delano

Photography Editor: Lori Epstein

National Geographic Children’s Books, July 2015, nonfiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-7

Themes/Topics: baby animals, nonfiction

Opening: “Look, a baby!
Some babies snuggle on snowy sheets of ice.”

Screen Shot 2018-04-26 at 9.54.39 PM

copyright National Geographic 2015

Brief Synopsis:  A look at a day in the life of lots of baby animals – how they move, eat, bathe and sleep, what they’re called, and where they live.

Links To Resources: The book itself is a resource, full of information and gorgeous photographs; make a list of baby animals who live near you (in your yard, or a nearby park); draw a picture of a baby animal; discuss how baby people are like baby animals and how they’re different.

Screen Shot 2018-04-26 at 9.11.48 PM

copyright National Geographic 2015

Why I Like This Book: The text is simple, interesting, and informative, sure to engage young animal lovers, but it’s the photographs that really sell the book to me 🙂  What’s not to love about gorgeous pictures of adorable baby animals? 🙂

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

 

Would You Read It Wednesday #283 – Willamina The Super-Mom Wolf Spider (PB)

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Hiya, Peeps!

Hope you’re all having a lovely week so far!

I am having a school visit kind of week – teaching 4th graders about writing – tons of fun!  (But I confess to being away from my desk and absent from social media!)

Remember that baby horse I mentioned a while back?

(Don’t get excited…!)

We’re still waiting!

Such anticipation!!! 🙂

I’ll keep you posted!

Meanwhile, there’s nothing like Something Chocolate to help the waiting time go by… 🙂  Can I interest you in some Dark Chocolate Cream Pie?

Dark Chocolate Cream Pie

I know I can interest myself in some 🙂  YUM!

Now then, onto today’s pitch which comes to us from Corine.  An encounter on a dusty road in southwest Spain between a boar piglet, an abandoned hunting dog, and Corine, inspired her to write and self -publish her first children’s story. Nature is a constant inspiration and this new story idea is no exception. While sweeping the outside terrace of their holiday shack ( on a beach somewhere in Portugal), Corine stumbled upon a wolf spider with hundreds of babies on her back. EEEK! An incident that inspired this story.

Find her on the web at:
website https://www.bicadeideias.com
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ctbicadeideias
Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/corineaddis

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Willamina the Super -Mom Wolf Spider

Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 6-9)

The Pitch:  Willamina the Wolf spider wants more than anything to keep her spiderlings safe until they are ready to explore the world on their own. But when her tummy starts grumbling, she knows it’s time to leave the den to *hunt. Not an easy task with three hundred spiderlings on her back! To make matters worse, it is full moon and she is not the only one who is hungry. Willamina has to hide from an owl, run away from a shrew, and, in the end, outsmart a lady with a broom—an incident that forces her to release her spiderlings, but not without telling them they are going on an adventure.

*Wolf spiders hunt for prey. Females are single parents and carry their offspring
(hundreds) on their abdomen for about one week— until the spiderlings disperse— at times via ballooning.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Corine improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)

Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on Would You Read it in the dropdown under For Writers in the bar above.  There are openings in May, so you could get your pitch up pretty soon for helpful feedback and a chance to have it read and commented on by editor Erin Molta!

Corine is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!  I am looking forward to that baby horse!  Maybe we should take bets on what day it will arrive! 🙂  I shall cast my vote for April 25 because that’s today… and it could happen… 🙂

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!!! 🙂

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Be Quiet!

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Woo hoo!  It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday!

And in my continuing quest for laughs this week, I’ve got a fun one to share! 🙂

be quiet

Title: Be Quiet

Written & Illustrated By: Ryan T. Higgins

Disney-Hyperion, April 2017, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 5-6

Themes/Topics: humor

Opening: “FINALLY!  I get my very own book to star in.  This is going to be great!
I’m going to make it a wordless book.  They are very artistic.
This book will have NO WORDS at all.  Starting…NOW.”

Brief Synopsis: Rupert the mouse is thrilled at the prospect of creating his very own book!  It will be wordless, because wordless books are so artistic.  But his chatty little friends, Thistle and Nibbs, show up and suddenly a wordless picture book seems way more difficult…and Rupert ends up just as guilty as his friends!

Links To Resources: draw your own wordless picture book; play Cat ‘n’ Mouse (hide ‘n’ seek) and practice being as quiet as a mouse so the cat doesn’t find you!

Screen Shot 2018-04-19 at 9.09.42 PM

text and illustration copyright Ryan T. Higgins 2017

Why I Like This Book: I like this book because it’s just flat out funny 🙂 and sometimes that’s just what young readers (and grown-up ones 🙂 ) need!  Poor Rupert has a plan (which even he has a little trouble with 🙂 ) to star in a wordless picture book… but his friends,Thistle and Nibbs, intending only to be helpful, foil him at every turn and send Rupert into a frenzy until he’s hopping up and down, anything but wordless!  Thistle and Nibbs are delightfully oblivious in their wish to help out, and young readers will get a kick out of watching the steam of outrage build and build in Rupert until the inevitable explosion.  Like all of Ryan T. Higgins’s books, this one is sure to make you laugh out loud!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂