Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Bucket List

Things to do on your third stroke-aversary:
Sketch. 
Read.
Write.
Dig for treasure. 
My treasure might be hiding in the mountain of dirty laundry downstairs.
Or maybe in shuttling wildebeests to lessons, or practice.
Or maybe the treasure is in every speck of this beautiful daily dirt.
The sun is shining,
the flowers are out.
It's beautiful.

Being alive is good, my friends.
It's so good.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Lucky?

 SCBWI's drawing prompt for March is LUCKY.
I got to thinking about luck,
and what it means to me. 
With or without four-leaf clovers, book contracts, 
double-rainbows or pots of gold,
I am wishing-wells full of the best kind of luck.

I have beauty all around me -
in sky and earth, 
in people with all their glorious quirks,
in a roof over my head, clean water,
in laughter and forgiveness.

And I am free - 
free to write, to make art, to learn,
dream, wish, pray,
to hope.

I believe thankfulness and hope can fill the darkest sky with stars.
That's my kind of lucky.

Books:

The Wishing of Biddy Malone by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Christopher Denise
The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies by Heather Forest, illustrated by Susan Gaber
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Turtles, Caldecotts, and Blackberry Fools

I'd rather have a turtle, and I'd rather wear a mock turtle.
I'd rather cook with crockery than be a mockery. 
I'd rather party with Mock Caldecotts than with mock halibuts. 
And party we did!
- complete with book toothpicks and book inspired snacks:
sunflower seeds (If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson), 
honey and bread (Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall)
tiny sandwiches (The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone Roach), 
pretzel sticks and grape "stones" (Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld), 
dried mangoes (Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina and Angela Dominguez).
Voters designed medals for the winning books.
Kids announced both the ALA winners, and our Mock Caldecott winners.
Our committee results:

Our Mock Caldecott Gold Medal :  Out of the Woods by Rebecca Bond.

And then, honor awards for all eight of our runners up:

The Bear Ate Your Sandwich - by Julia Sarcone Roach
Mango, Abuela, and Me - by Meg Medina and Angela Dominguez
A Fine Dessert - by Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall
Thank You and Good Night - by Patrick McDonnell
If You Plant a Seed - by Kadir Nelson
The Whisper - by Pamela Zagarenski
In a Village by the Sea - Muon Van and April Chu

And then, the entire library voted on the People's Choice Award. 
The winner was Sonya's Chickens by Phoebe Wahl. 



In the book "A Fine Dessert," blackberry fool is made by four families, over four centuries, with different implements.
Our children's librarian Martha Ashenfelter had a brilliant idea.
Why not have our committee make the same dessert
using the same implements?
They loved it! 
Delicious!
They ate it up. Every speck. Every lick.  

What a sweet finish to a wonderful party.
Thank you, Martha.
Thank you, Mock Caldecott committee.
I hope we can talk and mock Caldecotts again soon.

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