 study for Wild Honey from the Moon A star from Kirkus:
Divided into seven heavily illustrated chapters, the story is one that will captivate contemplative and creative young readers. Caregivers may find this to be their next weeklong bedtime story and one that fanciful children will want to hear again and again. click here to read the full review and a nice review from Publishers Weekly: Reassuring and warmhearted, the story celebrates a brave and loving guardian who will do anything for her child. click here to read the full review  color study from Wild Honey from the Moon A few dates to put on your calendar:
Oct 2 I'll be signing books for the intrepid independent booksellers, 5PM at the Heartland Fall Forum in Cleveland, OH. Nov. 5 Wild Honey from the Moon hits the bookshelves! Nov 9 Wild Honey from the Moon book launch, 11 AM at Schuler Books (28th Street) in Grand Rapids, MI. Nov 13 Book talk, reading and signing, 4:30 PM at The Book Stall, in Winnetka, IL. Nov 16 Book talk, reading and signing, 11 AM at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, IL. 
Earlier this year I had the privilege to work with a local non-profit, Next Step of West Michigan, to create a story-page, coloring sheets, and coloring post-cards for the nifty Log House Bird Feeder Kit that they invented. The feeder is made from scraps of cedar from other products that they make. The kit goes together without any nails or glue and makes for a nice project to do with a child. In one small box, there are quite a few activities for kids to work on - assembling the feeder, coloring the pages, coloring the postcard, and writing and mailing the postcard. At this point it is available locally, but they hope to find a nationwide outlet soon. Nice work Next Step!
 Study for Wild Honey from the Moon November 5th is when the fourth book is released. More to come!
 tree study I read the Wind in the Willows every Winter and it never gets old. I have been trying to write something in praise of the book, but all of my writing seems meager and shallow or like a bad copy after I read a passage from the Willows. So I'll just put a few quotes below and let the strength of Kenneth Grahame's writing convey what I am struggling to say. One of the joys of the book are the little side observations Kenneth Grahame makes here and there throughout the book. Here are a few of my favorites: The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had never seen so far and so intimately into the inside of things as on that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty a while, till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceptions. Chapter 3 - The Wild Wood We others who have long lost the more subtle of the physical sense, have not even proper term to express an animal’s intercommunications with his surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word “smell,” for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. Chapter 5 - Dulce Domum Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture - the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. Chapter 5 - Dulce Domum Happy Winter!  Study for Wild Honey from the Moon A couple weeks ago I finished my last school visit for this year. School visits are always a high point for me. Every school is a little different, each has its own look and feel and way of doing things. It is a lot of fun and an honor to be able to be a part of a school's day and it is inspiring to meet the fine teachers and librarians doing such great work every day.
Here's to all the great students, teachers and librarians that I had the privilege of meeting this year. May 2019 be a good year for all of you! |
