BOOK NEWS!

WHOOP!

I have news! 

I am so excited to tell you about this. 

Can you tell!?!

I might be using more exclamation points than are allowed for a few weeks

because...

TWO MORE BOOKS!!!

 Ah. I am exuberant. 

I am ecstatic. 

Thank you, Molly O'Neill and Root Literary,

thank you, Nikki Garcia and Little, Brown 

for believing in this story and in me!  

So much of this joy is thanks to my agent Molly O'Neill, 

who talked me through the finishing of my first book 

(THE STARKEEPER which comes out with Random House in June!) 

and helped me face the beginnings of another one!  

Thanks to Molly, I found out that while making book number two is HARD!, 

hard is not necessarily a bad thing. 

See, if we didn't struggle, the end result wouldn't be so victorious. 

Which is sort of how PERFECTLY IMPERFECT MIRA has made her way here!

I can't wait for you to meet MIRA. 

This story is kind of about being a work in progress, 

and learning to love the journey of becoming. 

Which is something that feels very familiar to me. 

 Another fun thing is that during the time this story was in revision,  

 I took a writing course with Jolie Stekly "MINDSET MEETS CRAFT." 

MIRA's story is so much about mindset, and revision, too. 

When I had a stroke, then heart surgery, and other life surprises   - 

each time, I felt thrown for a loop. 

That was not the direction I planned. 

That was not the way my road was supposed to go.

 Or was it? 

Because if I hadn't had the stroke and kind of lost my way into writing, 

I wouldn't have taken a WRITING WITH PICTURES course, 

which opened up my heart to illustration and stories 

in a way I'd never dreamed of being able to do.

So, here's to the journey, my friends! 

Here's to the blooms that can come out of hard things. 

- and sometimes the blooms that come because of hard things! 

And here's to the work, day and night, 

learning!

growing!

revising!

 

Hooray! 

new news

I'm so thrilled to share my news with you:

I'm now represented by Molly O'Neill at Root Literary.

Here's to all the words ahead -

The scribbles, sketches, 

 fresh pages,

new chapters,

erasers.

Here's to exuberance -

all those story seeds wishing their way into the world 

- and to hope.

If you're interested, I'd love to show you my new website:

faithpraybooks.com

I'll still tend this blog when I can, 

still share my lovely finds

 of life and books and story-making, 

wildebeest-wrangling, life-learning, and looking for joy in the daily dirt.

Thank you for supporting and encouraging and connecting with me

through the past eight years. 

Thank you.

Here's to our adventures ahead!  

Teacherly treats

I've been gussying up these tiny friends for Teacher Appreciation Week.

...because we like a good party.

Especially one with pencils.

Especially one with teachers.


And because I'm so grateful to teachers
for sparking me to be the curious person that I am,
I'm sharing a few printables for educators and their fans everywhere.

Feel free to print and share.*

{*Please keep the love vibes going. Please don't sell these for profit.
Please keep my name credited with my work. Thanks!}

Panda
Chameleon
Koala
Zoo

Thank you, Miss. B, Mrs. Walters, Mrs. Kelly, and Ms. Chu for sparking a love of words and books that still fire me up every day.

Thank you, teachers everywhere.

Books!

Chrysanthemum - Kevin Henkes

My Name is Yoon - Helen Recorvits, Gabi Swiatkowska

The Dot - Peter H. Reynolds

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse - Kevin Henkes

 

 Love That Dog - Sharon Creech
Word After Word After Word - Patricia MacLachlan
A Year Of Miss Agnes - Kirkpatrick Hill
Ramona the Pest - Beverly Cleary
Frindle - Andrew Clements
Murder is Bad Manners - Robin Stevens

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.

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

Flight of the Birdy

And now we come to our smallest wildebeest.

I remember those tiny, newborn fists curling out of a green blanket.
I made it five summers ago out of fabric so soft it felt like clouds, 
with the hope it could keep out the world's roughness as long as possible.

Ergo, in the nature of a true youngest child,
Birdy scrambles up trees and leaps from the highest branches,
tumbles headfirst into high winds,
and rakes up her knees better than all the others.
She is so ready for this.
 
Kindergarten.

Always looking to make art,
I decided to make flashcards - heaps of them. 

I think I'll do a weekly series of the collection on my art blog.
They're for learning sight words, one of the ways to catch on to reading.

I guess this is my gift to her, like the green cloud blanket.
A way to say:
"When you want me, if you want help, I'm here. I love you."
 
Maybe it's proof. 
And maybe every parent offering,
every bowl of oatmeal we cook up,
every lunch we pack, every book read aloud,
every tuck-in at night
is us, saying:
  "You precious small people, you are loved."

   "Even though we got grouchy about the muddy footprints,
     or the scrabbly big mess in your rooms,
     you are loved." 

And maybe, it is proof for us as well.
Maybe these offerings to our small ones are gifts we keep close
as our birds wing the nest,
as our hair grays and our skin weathers,
knowing that in all our human roughness,
we have loved.

Friends, may you find love all around you,
and gifts in the giving.

 Books:

I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson's Blackboard - Jennifer Mann
Orange Pear Apple Bear - Emily Gravett
Owl Babies - Martin Waddell, Patrick Benson

Bo at Iditarod Creek - Kirkpatrick Hill
The Mighty Miss Malone - Christopher Paul Curtis
The War That Saved My Life - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
A Year Down Yonder - Richard Peck