Reviews

Woo Hoo! You're Doing Great! by Sandra Boynton (Picture Book)

Are you in need of a chicken friend who enjoys uplifting and encouraging others? Look no further! This chicken does a wonderful job uplifting and encouraging others, but even this chicken has a rough moment and makes a mistake. That’s when mouse steps in and lets chicken know it’s ok to make a mistake. Chicken takes a nap and mouse finishes the story by saying, “…I think the best WOO HOO…is the one you say each day to you.” So, as wonderful as it is to be surrounded by others who uplift and encourage you, it’s just as important that you do the same thing for yourself.

Books Aren't for Eating by Carlie Sorosiak and illustrated by Manu Montoya (Picture Book)

A love letter to those working in a bookstore or library who love connecting readers with the right books. Leopold, a goat who owns a bookstore, is thrilled when a goat customer visits his bookstore. But the goat customer keeps eating the books Leopold recommends! Will Leopold find the perfect book for his new goat friend and help him discover a love of reading?

Grow Your Own Way by Helen Dardik (Board Book)

A gorgeous board book about being the best and brightest flower you can be. Just like flowers, we bring our own unique color and beauty to the world.

This is My Body - I Get To Choose: An Introduction to Consent by Brook Sitgraves and pictures by Kati Douglas Turner (Nonfiction Picture Book)

This was a simple and easy-to-understand introduction to consent. I appreciated how consent was represented not just verbally but also through body language and American Sign Language. Included at the end are consent discussion opportunities based on different age groups.

Snail-Snaily-Snails by Bonnie Bader (Early Reader)

Beautiful photography and fascinating snail facts (hairy snails, tiny snails that fit in the eye of a needle, baby snails eating their own eggs), and easy-to-read text make this nonfiction early reader a winner for me.

Watch Out, Snail! by Gay Hay and illustrated by Margaret Tolland (Nonfiction Picture Book)

I love when I stumble across a word I don't know. It doesn't happen often with picture books, not even nonfiction gems like this book. I guess you can say I fossick for unusual words like possum fossicks for snail treasure in this story. Thankfully the snail was just out of reach of possum's sharp claws! Snail thwarts several predators and enjoys a tasty worm, but will the snail get eaten too? A nonfiction picture book that's a little bit of a thriller with intense and beautiful illustrations, including the snail's glossy shell and its lovely trails of flashy snail snot you won't be able to resist touching.

The Penguin of Ilha Grande by Shannon Earle and illustrated by Renato Alarcao (Nonfiction Picture Book)

It's tough to decide what I love more - the illustrations, which are phenomenal and elicit so much emotion, or how, for seven years, Dindim the penguin would disappear for four months but always return to his beloved Seu João.

Mrs. Peanuckle's Ocean Alphabet by Mrs. Peanuckle and illustrated by Jessie Ford (Board Book)

I love this series, because I always learn something new and the information is presented with fun font and wildly colorful illustrations. Did you know seals have no visible ear flaps and sand is parrotfish poop? There are many more fun facts about the ocean in this board book!

humming with serenity

 I have three finished pieces to share.  

This birdy collage is a combination of various recycled papers.  I used shopping bags for the quilted background, and the bird is made with tea papers, tags, and boxes.  Allegro tea used to have the prettiest leaf tags, which I saved for a couple years.  It's tough to figure out what a rare paper should be used for, but I think the branch was the right home for these leaf tags.

This next collage was created with painted papers.  For a few of the papers (mostly using the cantaloupe color), I saturated the paper, wadded it up, and then hung the wrinkled paper up to dry.  I used both a handmade, wispy paper and a thick paper that I peeled so it would look layered.  It's tough to see all the texture in the picture, but it's there and I think it radiates warmth and serenity.

This last piece is my latest zen embroidery piece, and I used many colors and varying amounts of embroidery floss.  I also used a little bit of just about every bead I own, all different shapes and sizes.  I tucked into this piece while listening to All Creatures Great and Small, and it was a journey of total joy.

All three items are available on Etsy and are for sale.

poem palooza

Thanks to Poetry Super Highway for publishing three of my poems: Cyclops, Lunch Break, and Sunday Drive.  These poems are definitely on the lighter end of the spectrum of my poetry.  Two were written while driving!  Poems are everywhere!

If you haven't had the opportunity, please take some time to explore Poetry Super Highway.  It is bursting with treasure.

Reviews!

We Don't Lose Our Class Goldfish by Ryan T. Higgins (Picture Book)

Penelope is back! She has a list of reasons why she fears her class goldfish, Walter, so when it’s her turn to take him home for the weekend, she's a nervous wreck! If you need a laugh, this is the book for you. Though it’s funny that Penelope is terrified of Walter, her fear is handled gracefully. You’ll spend the whole book teetering between the humor of the situation and empathy for dear Penelope. I nearly tumbled out of my chair with laughter when Penelope fell asleep that first night alone with Walter, heard all those frightening fish sounds, and woke up to see his bowl closer to her than when she fell asleep. Absolutely dynamite! That’s not even the best part though. The best part happens toward the end when the reader sees Penelope’s updated list of reasons why she fears Walter. What a great lesson for looking at situations from all angles. Maybe those “menacing fins” we’re so scared of are really “graceful” fins.

Very Good Hats by Emma Straub and illustrated by Blanca Gómez (Picture Book)

This imaginative, silly, and thought-provoking look at hats is delightful and so much fun to read. It doesn’t matter if you love pretend hats, finger hats, professional hats, or all of the above. You’ll find a hat in here you love! My favorite hat mentioned is the cloud hat we wear when flying on a plane.

My First Book of Fruit by Fred Wolter (Board Book)

Colorful and simple with extra information about each type of fruit in case you want to take a deeper dive. This is also an excellent opportunity to talk about colors, favorite fruits, the shape of each fruit etc.

The Flamingo by Guojing (Juvenile Graphic)

An imaginative, nearly wordless story about a girl’s visit to her Lao Lao and the mysterious flamingo interwoven throughout. I love how the book comes full circle at the end. After leaving her Lao Lao, the girl creates a flamingo story and mails it to her Lao Lao. The illustrations of Lao Lao having adventures with the flamingo during her childhood are ridiculously adorable.

Gossip & Trash Receptacle at Waldo Library

Thanks to Neologism Poetry Journal for publishing my poem, Gossip, which I wrote while hiking at Clinton Lake - one of my favorite nearby hiking places.

And thanks to The Lake for publishing my poem, Trash Receptacle at Waldo Library, quite possibly my grossest and most profound poem to date.

Everything from goats to Frozen but no Frozen goats I promise

The past two weeks have been spectacular, nearly every day packed with family - enjoying each other's company, celebrating big moments, and having as much fun as we could squeeze into every minute.  

First, my brother, James AKA Rusty and his family visited.  They moved from Arizona to Florida and stopped by for a few days during their drive across the country.  It was one of the best family visits.  Prior to them visiting, my niece, Harper and I created a list of things we wanted to do while they were visiting, and we did just about everything on the list and then some.  We walked the dogs, visited parks, bookstores, the Overland Park Arboretum, Deanna Rose, Wonderscope, Crown Center/Union Station, and played games, practiced the ukulele together, and even popped into my favorite cat cafe.

The first thing Harper wanted to do was visit my favorite cat cafe, Whiskers, which is in Westport.  My brother, no surprise since he is not a cat lover, was the most popular with the cats.  Harper was chosen by this sweet kitten. Unfortunately they already have four dogs and a bunny, and I have a Robert, so none of us went home with a cat.

The Overland Park Arboretum was ridiculously beautiful and they had a really fun storytime too.

Harper treated us to a few stories when we visited the library where I work.

The whole family showed up to enjoy the stellar Strang Park while I helped set up a Walk and Read.  And then Harper and I walked both ways and she read me the two books.  She was a Walk and Read expert after that so she walked the family around and read the two books to everyone again.  It was really special to enjoy the Walk and Read experience as a patron with my family.

We pet lots of animals and fed the goats at Deanna Rose, which was a hit.

Just two days after I said goodbye to James AKA Rusty and his crew, I hopped on a plane to Tucson to see my niece, Autumn in her first of six performances of the Frozen musical.  It was a dream come true for me, and a lot of people helped make it happen - coworkers, my boss, my family, and most importantly, Robert.  In a perfect world, I would be at all my nieces and nephews' major events, but because I do not live close to them, it's just not possible.  Getting to be in the audience at Autumn's musical was one of the best moments of my life thus far. She did such a beautiful job, and as her grandma Debbie put it, she was such a ham.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

Though I spent less than 48 hours in Tucson, we made every minute count.  I went to Tohono Chul, one of my favorite places, a whopping three times in those 48 hours. I got a tour of where my brother, Scott works and even got to meet people he works with and see Scott in action.  Though Autumn was busy preparing for another performance on Friday, I still got to spend some of Friday with her.  It was another wonderful visit.

Savannah and I were very excited to see her big sister on stage!

I sat with mom, Scott, and Savannah during the performance.  As you can see, we were clearly out of our minds with excitement in this picture.

But Savannah soon fell asleep.  The excitement was too much!

We don't have any of the pictures from the performance yet, but after it was over, we all crowded the stage and anxiously waited for Autumn to appear.  She was pretty much mobbed by her adoring fans.

Look at all of Autumn's fans!  

The following morning, as soon as Autumn woke up, I asked her a question I've been dying to ask all these months of facetiming and watching her play with all her slime.  I asked her to bring out the slime.  All of it!  And we had a nice little slime party.  She has about as much slime as I have books, so I can't tell you what my favorite one was.  But I finally got to touch the slime after hearing her talk for months about how squishy, crunchy, and farty it all was.  It was another dream come true.

After a hearty breakfast, Autumn, my mom, and I decided it was the perfect time to jump on the trampoline in the blazing heat.  And no one died or threw up.  Autumn encouraged my mom and I to practice all kinds of silly faces, so we not only did human popcorn kernel exercises, we also exercised our faces too.  I believe Autumn was doing one of the faces in this picture. Or was she thinking about the hearty breakfast she just had?  Who knows!

We explored Tohono Chul and the children's museum, which was adorable and a lot of fun.  Because I had extra time on my hands when I flew in on Thursday I visited Tohono Chul the day before too!

After exploring the children's museum at Tohono Chul, Autumn went to rehearsal and Savannah settled in for a nap.  My mom suggested just the right thing.  A visit to Seven Cups for tea.  It was incredible!

We picked three teas to try and a few treats including a tea egg and a red bean cake.  All of it was delicious.

We walked around 4th Ave before picking up Savannah and heading back to Tohono Chul for live music and dancing.

Savannah fell asleep mid-dance pose.  So much excitement!

On Saturday morning Scott drove me to the airport where I flew to Dallas to spend the weekend with Robert, his sister, Abby, her boyfriend, Joseph, and Robert's mom, Audrey.  After visiting Abby and Joseph last November, we made a plan to go to the Canton Flea Market together, and we had a great time enjoying each other's company, eating stellar food, and wearing our shoes out walking the flea market.

We came home yesterday evening, and though I'm thoroughly pooped, I am flying high with all these wonderful memories.