Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Had a great day reading at Jefferson Village School on Friday. When I get to select schools, this is my first choice-could be because my nephew's the principal. But, I'm greeted by such great staff, eager to have me pull my 'tricks' out of the bag and read.  I started out with second grade, then ventured to kindergarten, lunch with the principal and a select group of honored students, and lastly over to fourth grade. I'm lucky to have a pretty big collection of books, many written by my friends, but I went to the library and picked a few extras this year because I wasn't sure about reading to the second graders. This is the stash I pulled out of my bag. We talked about authors and how the illustrators work with the author's words to create pictures for a book. They were quiet while I read Little Horse on His Own then got excited looking for the hidden numbers in Jen Ward's books. (2nd grade)

   Kindergarteners enjoyed the hidden numbers too. We talked about and wondered why David Slonim chose to feature the grumpy farmer instead of 10 turkeys in Brenda Reeves Sturgis' 10 Turkey's in the Road. 

 There was conversation about animals, and giggles when I read Spider Storch. When I finished These Bees Count, written by one of my critique partners, Alison Formento, there was lots of discussion. The teacher had lots to offer in this one because her family had an apple orchard when she was young and they 'employed' the bees.  It was all good!
          A not so great note was the rejection letter awaiting in the mail. Oh my, a lovely, complimentary note about my fun and well written manuscripts - yep there were two that I really thought fit the particular book publisher-oh well, the compliments surely beat the form letters, but it's still the 'almost'! But, on a brighter note, a really, really, really great new idea popped into my head and I've got the rough draft on paper. All my ideas are really, really, really great!!!!! So I keep writing. Ya never know. One day the well written won't have the "but" included in the letter!

      If you happened to see my Face Book page in the last week, you may have seen this.

While she was napping, I ran upstairs and whipped up a "dancing" skirt. Writer's are creative and this was from
     hazel and company
Erin Shakespeare is an amazing online writer friend who manages to do it all! Her Hazel blog is full of crafty ideas and this circular skirt is just one of them. I think this week, Erin's turned on to writing mode-but stay tuned!
        I've got to leave here and write on that super duper fantastic picture book story! Have a great week  or two. Enjoy every second of every day.