So now it’s time to hop. Hop on over to visit my friends Debra McArthur and Natasha Yim to see how they answer the questions! Debra McArthur grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where her high school experience included church activities, choir, drum and bugle corps, and the kind of drama and angst that make a person really glad to grow up. She …
As a child, Patricia Polacco used to take peanut butter and crackers, a flashlight, and books into a tent made of blankets and sheets and get lost in a world beyond imagination. Now she tells school children to do the same. And even better, she single-handedly provides an abundance of books for children to take …
Perhaps one of the most important speeches of the Mazza Fall Weekend, Eugene Yelchin shared a childhood that no American child could possibly understand if not for his willingness and ability to share it in words and pictures. Eugene Yelchin’s Breaking Stalin’s Nose won a Newbery Honor in 2012. The book’s emotional ties to Eugene’s Russian …
The house down the road is selling. It’s a mighty house. An old, square, brick Sears-style house that has had several generations of the same family inhabit it for many, many years. It’s a home that’s been cared for, its yard pruned, its door decorated. It has been loved. So, last Saturday when the auction …
Well, folks. Buckeye the doe has spoken. Everyone who commented on the previous blog entry was assigned a random number. And those numbers were placed on sticky notes. At first I thought, “Well, this is going to be easy!” Buckeye was instantly interested! And then just as quickly indifferent. She wandered a bit. She pooped …
It’s mid August. You know what that means. We just finished with this. And this. And that means it’s almost time for this. And, since this blog is desperately in need of something to breathe life into its poor, neglected soul, I think it’s time for this. Who doesn’t love a great giveaway? So, here’s …
All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~Pablo Picasso The Mazza Museum International Art from Picture Books not only showcases the work of the world’s finest illustrators in children’s literature, it is also committed to nurturing the artist in every young child. Every year, the walls of the …
It all started on my birthday last month. Okay, that’s not true. It started a few years ago when my in-laws purchased some neighboring farmland with a sweet, little red brick one-room schoolhouse on it. Actually, not then. It started 22 1/2 years ago when I moved to the country and into a white house just down the …
I hung clothes on the line this week. To some, this may sound like a mundane chore. But, for me, hanging clothes out on the clothesline is much more. And the reasons are as varied as the colors on the line. First, there’s that smell. That fresh, crisp, clean smell of sheets or towels or …
