The Pura Belpré Award is presented by REFORMA and the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC). This annual award recognizes excellence in the areas of literary merit and outstanding illustration in books for children and young adults by authors and illustrators who identify themselves as Latino. The Heartland Chapter of REFORMA recently gathered their [...]
Archive for November, 2010
Mock Pura Belpré Award-2010
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing information and tips, tagged Grandma's Chocolate, Jennifer Cervantes, Mara Price, Pura Belpré Award, REFORMA Heartland Chapter, Tortilla Sun on November 30, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Gifts That Do Good
Posted in A million and two reasons to procrastinate, tagged gift-giving idea, gifts that do good, helping homeless women, women's bean project on November 29, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Some people have already started their holiday shopping. I suppose some people may have already finished too. For other, more-like-me-people, let me suggest you check out The Women’s Bean Project for some different and special gift ideas. I can totally vouch for their soups and rubs – mmmm yummy. These are gifts that are not [...]
I May Not Make Oprah’s List But I’ve Got a Moonbeam Award I Think That’s Just Fine
Posted in A million and two reasons to procrastinate, tagged merit badger, Moonbeam Award, Oprah's Book List on November 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The other day I received an email from my Super Blog Buddy Sarah asking me how many merit badges I had earned. Since my boys are involved in scouting I assumed it was related, boy was I wrong. Sarah’s link led me to a very fun site: Merit Badger. This fun site has merit badges [...]
Finding Your Own Leo: Why We Write- Kelly Milner Halls
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing information and tips, tagged Kelly Milner Halls, Mysteries of the Mummy Kids, Saving the Bagdhad Zoo, Tales of the Cryptids, Wild Dogs on November 22, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Recently our local SCBWI chapter meeting featured author Kelly Milner Halls. Kelly spoke about the “Wonders of Weird” and her career as a non-fiction author. Kelly had great tips and stories to tell and while I don’t write non-fiction her presentation gave me a lot to think about. Kelly shared her life story; the quirky [...]
It’s Here!
Posted in Uncategorized on November 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other’s chest; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction. -Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by [...]
The 10% Rule
Posted in Writing information and tips, tagged 10 %rule, 2010 national book award, kathryn erskine, mockingbird, tricycle press on November 18, 2010 | 4 Comments »
During my teacher training for Special Education I learned a rule: Every sound educational program will work for 90% of the population. 10% will struggle. The reasons behind the struggle – the not-fitting in will vary, which makes helping them a real challenge. A class of 30? Three students will have a hard time. It’s [...]
What to Read…
Posted in A million and two reasons to procrastinate, tagged alsc, book suggestions, horn book magazine, snow day, YALSA on November 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Woven throughout the latest issue of the Horn Book Magazine are answers to the question, Given the gift of a snow day, what would you read? If a snow day happened in San Diego, it’s pretty much guaranteed there would be no reading going on at all… there would be way too much frolicking and [...]
Story Time With Taylor Swift
Posted in Writing information and tips, tagged music muse, taylor swift, writing prompts on November 15, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The girl-child and I headed up to Los Angeles for a dive meet this past weekend – two hours there and almost four to get back, so it goes in Southern California. She brought her I-pod, of course. She has a pretty eclectic taste in music – and I do too, but I decided listening [...]
Got Story? A Place to Meet and Greet Illustrators
Posted in Writing information and tips, tagged Got Story Countdown, Got Story?, Joy Chu on November 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We talk a lot about writing and the writing process here at WOTS but what about the illustrator? For a picture book the illustrations are just as, if not more important that the story. If the pictures are not engaging a beautiful story will fall flat and a ho hum story can come alive with [...]
