Author – Page 15 – Unleashing Readers

Author Guest Post: “Big Ideas: Ways of Making Abstract Concepts More Tangible for Students” by Laura Wippell, Author of Feeling Hopeful

June 11, 2023 by Kellee

“Big Ideas: Ways of Making Abstract Concepts More Tangible for Students”

One of my favourite things about picture books is their ability to communicate BIG IDEAS, BIG EMOTIONS and BIG ISSUES on their relatively small pages.

In an age of book bans it’s extremely encouraging to see authors continuing to tackle these big subjects within picture books, but is it something we are doing enough of in our classrooms?

I’m an Australian teacher who has been teaching English to students in Chile for almost a decade. It can be challenging to explore BIG ideas with my ESL primary school students, who often need extra support when it comes to vocabulary or finding ways to describe these non-tangible concepts. So, what I try to do is find ways to help them visualise these abstract concepts, or make them more tangible.

Here are three examples of how I’ve done that:

Show, don’t tell

When it comes to ESL classes, students have sometimes shown anxiety when I introduce a new concept, because while they might know what it is, they haven’t heard the term before in English, and it sounds big and scary. When starting a new unit, I’ve learned that it’s best to retain a bit of mystery, and rather than telling students what our new unit will be about, I use inquiry activities such as the Question Formulation Technique, or Project Zero’s Thinking Routines from Harvard. One example is their Name, Describe, Act activity.

Here’s how I’ve adapted that activity for my class:

I wanted to talk about fear as an emotion (a fairly abstract concept), so I displayed an emoji on the board and the students had to try to name it, describe it, and explain what sort of actions that emoji might produce.

The great thing about inquiry activities is that the students’ answers can give you a good indication about their prior knowledge on the subject, and how much support you might need to give them in the upcoming classes.

Food is a love language!

I’ve come across quite a few language and cultural barriers since living in Chile, but one sure way of breaking them down is through food. Gosh, Chile has some incredible food! From its soft, spongy marraqueta bread, to its creamy ‘manjar’ or ‘dulce de leche’ as it’s often referred to in other countries, to its colourful rainbow of seasonal berries and fruits, there’s something here for every appetite. Food is a fantastic way to find common ground when meeting someone new, both in and out of the classroom.

Since food is so universal, I find it to be a great tool for making connections to more abstract ideas or concepts with students. When I tutored students one-on-one, I was able to bring a few snacks for us to smell and nibble on and then compare each snack to something abstract, like an emotion or even a character from a book.

If the visual aspect of food wasn’t enough for them to make connections, the students could use their sense of touch, smell and taste to make surprising connections to those intangible concepts. I once heard that watermelon was chosen to represent fear, because of all of those scary dark seeds that are hidden within. Who would have thought?

For bigger classes at school where food sharing can sometimes be tricky or not allowed, you can always show high resolution pictures or videos. The Hiho Kids channel on YouTube has a lot of cute videos of children trying food from around the world.

Differentiation is key

If food isn’t your thing, you might like to get your students to choose how they would like to describe a concept in a more tangible way.

For example, if you are exploring ‘fear’, they could choose between one of the following options:

If they had to write a letter to their fear, what would they say to it? Here you can always use vocabulary lists for extra support.
How would they represent fear in a dance? What music genre would they dance to?
What about a meme? If they had to sum up what their fear looks like in one meme or gif, what would it be?
How would they draw their fear? What does fear look like to them?

If you’re wondering why I’ve used fear as an example in my activities, it’s because it’s something that I feel we need to talk more about. As teachers we often have a lot of social-emotional check-ins with our students about how they are feeling, but sometimes we need to dig deeper and look at their current fears in order to understand why someone might be feeling a certain way.

Fear can be tough to explore, so I wrote a picture book about it.

Published

About the Book: In my picture book, Feeling Hopeful, Hope takes on the form of a happy, somersaulting dragon, who is hunting Fear. Fear appears as a creature that likes to climb on children so they feel its full weight and presence. Don’t worry though, there is a happy ending!

Far above the world, Hope the dragon somersaults through the sky, protecting those below. But he encounters a formidable opponent in Fear. Fear proves no match for Hope, until he meets a curious character, The Reader. And it’s inside The Reader’s vast library that Hope finds what he’s looking for, plus much more…

This lyrical story has an uplifting SEL message and contains themes of hope, fear, the importance of reading and friendship. While this book is marketed at a younger audience of up to six years old, I’ve used it with students up to 11 years old, and all of them have been able to make surprising, honest and beautiful connections.

That’s the beauty of working with BIG ideas, emotions and issues – they really have no age limit.

You can find a free teaching resource for Feeling Hopeful on my website at https://www.laurawippell.com/resources, which contains activities aimed at helping students visualise hope and fear. Please feel free to reach out with comments or questions via my contact page.

About the Author: Laura is a children’s author. In 2022, she won the Bee Ethicool author contest, which received over five thousand entries. Laura’s debut picture book, Feeling Hopeful, is out now with Ethicool Books. As an Australian living in Chile, Laura loves writing imaginative children’s books that make you feel local, and think global. Laura has a background in Education, and is passionate about sharing her books with children and educators around the world. Visit her at https://www.laurawippell.com/

Thank you, Laura, for these activities for the classroom!

Author Guest Post: “Using Fiction to Tell Your Truth” by Kaz Windness, Author of Bitsy Bat, School Star

June 4, 2023 by Kellee

“Using Fiction to Tell Your Truth”

“Write what you know.” We’ve all heard this advice, and likely your earliest writing assignments were personal narratives. Mine were. Now as a more experienced author, how can you write stories that are still authentic to you but utilize fictional characters and worlds? The answer is metaphor.

Since I discovered I was autistic six years ago, I’ve wanted to write a children’s book that captured my experience of trying to fit in a world not designed for me. I’ve always known I was different and struggled, but it took my child getting diagnosed through school to realize I fit the criteria, too. Finding out was life-changing and healing, but it also led me to discover how much work we still have to do to help the world understand autism. As a children’s book author, illustrator, teacher, and mom, I knew I needed to use my platform to help spread awareness. But how?

One day as I was chatting with an autistic illustration student and drawing bats in my sketchbook, I compared being autistic to being a bat in a classroom full of mice. The second I said it, I knew this was the book idea I’d been waiting for. “What if a bat tried to fit in at a school for mice?” I went straight to work writing Bitsy Bat, School Star.

Bats may look like mice, but their physiology and needs differ greatly. Additionally, they have traits common to autistics. For example, a bat’s eyes are sensitive to light and their ears are sensitive to sound. They flap when happy and prefer to eat a few specific foods. Moreover, they are misunderstood and need more love and understanding.

As I began working with my editor, Bitsy’s story evolved to include all sorts of nocturnal animals besides mice—a bunny, a porcupine, a fox, a mole, a raccoon, and a possum. Besides being a story about a little bat finding acceptance, we saw the potential for all children to feel seen. When Bitsy learns to share what makes her unique, she invites her classmates to do the same. The book ends with each child participating in a “Shine and Share” activity to celebrate everyone in the class.

Take a moment now to think about something that makes you uniquely you. This could be something about your background, your life experience, a disability, a unique talent, or any other aspect that is specific to you. Write a few sentences to describe what this is. Now brainstorm characters or circumstances that could mirror this story of your uniqueness.

During quarantine, many picture book authors wrote stories about a big storm. The storm was a metaphor for dangerous circumstances outside of our control. Forced to stay inside and shelter while the destruction was happening everywhere, we experienced fear and loss but grew closer as families and remained hopeful for brighter days ahead.

Metaphors offer safe places to experience big feelings in ways that are both more gentle and more impactful. We can go to extremes within the expanse and safety of fiction. Imagine if Max had moped around in his room for thirty pages instead of sailing to the island of monsters and living out a fantasy of being king of the Wild Things.

Don’t shy away from talking about your unique identity or struggles. Every time I’ve faced my fears and exposed a vulnerable part of myself, rather than being shamed or ridiculed, I’ve helped people who are like me in some way, just waiting for someone to break the silence so they knew they weren’t alone. Writing your truth will always resonate with readers. It helps heal others and yourself, too.

Try your hand at metaphor and tell stories that bring your authentic self to fiction.

Published January 1st, 2023 by Simon & Schuster

About the Book: A little bat struggles to fit in only to learn to celebrate differences in this heartfelt picture book from an autistic perspective about starting school, making friends, and seeing what makes each person special.

About the Author: Kaz Windness is an author-illustrator who loves to make her readers laugh. When she’s not writing or illustrating books, Kaz teaches illustration at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design and enjoys making deep-dish pizza. Kaz lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, two children, and Boston terrier. She’s the author of picture books Swim, Jim! and Bitsy Bat, School Star. She also created the Level 1 Ready-to-Read Graphics Worm and Caterpillar Are Friends and the Level 1 Ready-to-Read Cat vs. Vac. Visit her at WindnessBooks.com.

Thank you, Kaz, for sharing your truth and pushing writers to share theirs too!

Author Guest Post: “Building Empathy” by Kim Taylor, Author of A Flag for Juneteenth

May 28, 2023 by Kellee

“Building Empathy”

When I was a young girl, I was an avid reader. I did not have the distractions that are seemingly everywhere today. I picked up anything I could get my hands on, but I was most attracted to stories with a main character that was trying to find their place in the world. If the writing was very good, I was drawn into the story and felt deeply connected to the protagonist. I had the best of two worlds. I spent my formative years living in an apartment building in Brooklyn, and every summer I would go to sleep away camp in the Catskills. I loved the excitement of playing outdoor games with friends in our building’s courtyard, but always looked forward to the calming peace of the woods and lake at camp. It’s no wonder that I would seek out books with these familiar themes.

When I was doing research to prepare for writing my debut book A Flag for Juneteenth, I googled, listened to podcasts, and read books about slavery in America. I also looked at pictures of enslaved people which helped me to imagine their personalities and lives. One picture of a little girl that I found on the Library of Congress website seemed to embody the spirit of my heroine, and I kept her image in mind as I developed the character.

I wanted my main character’s name to be unusual, one that would be new to my readers. I envisioned this character to be a prophet, one who could bear witness to the announcement of the end of slavery as a legal institution in America and could also foretell a future free of bondage. I googled biblical female prophets and an image of a beautiful Black woman appeared on my screen. Her name was Huldah. As soon as I saw her, I knew that this would be the name of my main character. Eve, the name of Huldah’s baby sister, is also biblical. It is derived from a Hebrew word meaning “to breathe”, or “to live”. In my story Eve is an infant. She will have the opportunity to live her life without the burden of enslavement. One other character in my story has a name. Mr. Menard is the oldest man on the plantation. He has the last name of Michel B. Menard, the first plantation owner in Galveston Texas where my story takes place. I thought that it was important to demonstrate that enslaved people were often given the last name of their enslavers to erase any connection to their own family lineage.

I thought about ways to help young readers to be interested in an event in history that is rarely taught in schools, and to feel connected to a reality so far removed from their own. I knew that I would need to draw them in early in the story and decided to start with my main character feeling excited about her upcoming birthday celebration. Huldah is a mature, curious, insightful little girl. She has the very ‘grown up’ responsibility of caring for her baby sister during the day while her parents labor on the plantation. The reader meets Huldah for the first time on the day before her 10^th birthday, which fell on a Sunday that year. Sundays were a day for rest and reconnecting with family and community. Huldah’s mom baked Huldah’s favorite tea cakes for her upcoming birthday, a luxury she may not have had time for when the long work hours started again the next day. The characters in my book are purposefully faceless. I am hoping that my readers will see themselves in the story and connect with the characters on a deeper level.

I am incredibly proud to have illustrated this book with quilting, an art form that was used by my ancestors to tell their own stories. When planning the illustrations, I tried to keep the text in mind, and made decisions about what aspects of the text I thought needed to be enhanced. For example, the first page describes tea cakes, a type of traditional cookie that enslaved people made using simple pantry ingredients. I thought that it was important to help my readers visualize a teacake, so I set out to create them using one of the brown fabrics from my stash that had some color variations. Teacakes were not fancy back then, but they were delicious and smelled amazing, so I used hand embroidered lettering to show the movement of the scent wafting through the air. The illustrations took a little over a year to create. It was an enormous undertaking and a very emotional journey. Because the people in this book have no faces, I had to figure out how to give Huldah depth and to showcase her personality in other ways. I also needed to make her consistent and recognizable in every illustration. That is no easy task when working with fabric on such a small scale! I remember telling a friend that I felt as though Huldah had become like a daughter to me. I felt a deep connection to the character.

When teaching about this troubling time in American history, I feel that is critical to highlight the beauty and resilience of African and African American people during their enslavement, as well as to showcase how important strong family and community ties was to them then and continues to be today. As educators we should not leave out what life was like for enslaved people when they were not laboring. Although difficult, these were people who did all that they could to connect with their immediate and extended families, and to build a sense of community despite such oppressive circumstances. By humanizing them we build empathy and help our young readers to see their commonalities rather than their differences. Hopefully this will encourage them to want to learn more about this significant time in American history.

Published

About the Book: This powerful title shares a unique story of the celebration of the first Juneteenth, from the perspective of a young girl.

A Flag for Juneteenth depicts a close-knit community of enslaved African Americans on a plantation in Texas, the day before the announcement is to be made that all enslaved people are free. Young Huldah, who is preparing to celebrate her tenth birthday, can’t possibly anticipate how much her life will change that Juneteenth morning. The story follows Huldah and her community as they process the news of their freedom and celebrate together by creating a community freedom flag.

Kim Taylor sets A Flag for Juneteenth apart from other Juneteenth books by applying her skills as an expert quilter. Each of the illustrations has been lovingly hand sewn and quilted, giving the book a homespun, tactile quality that will appeal to readers young and old.

Educators’ Guide:

About the Author: Kim Taylor is a speech language pathologist and Department Supervisor at a large school for deaf children. She is also an expert quilter whose works have been exhibited at several venues throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Kim’s quilts reflect African American life, and she tells stories through her materials. After researching the origins of the Juneteenth celebration, she created a Juneteenth story quilt which she has exhibited and presented in dozens of local schools. Realizing that many teachers and students were unaware of the holiday, she was moved to write this book. She lives in Baldwin, New York.

To see more of Kim’s quilts, visit her website at MaterialGirlStoryQuilts.com or visit her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/comfortzne1.

Thank you, Kim, for this beautiful post about empathy!

Author Guest Post: “Small Things Lead to Social Emotional Learning” by Marsha Diane Arnold, Author of One Small Thing

May 7, 2023 by Kellee

“Small Things Lead to Social Emotional Learning”

In 2017, my husband and I survived Hurricane Irma in Lee County, Florida. 130 mph gusts right over our house! That same year, the Tubbs wildfire roared through Napa, Sonoma, and Lake County in California. My husband and I had moved from Sonoma county, where we’d lived 35 years, to Florida just a few years before. The fire destroyed the homes of a number of friends, including our goddaughter’s. Disasters seemed to surround us.

When Raccoon’s home is destroyed by lightning in One Small Thing, Mouse says, “It’s such a BIG catastrophe! And we’re so small.” Catastrophes can paralyze. Children can feel overwhelmed with concern and helplessness when they experience a natural disaster or when a calamity happens to someone in their community. One Small Thing offers examples of how each of us, child or adult, can use our energy and talent to spread kindness.

It’s especially important to spread kindness during difficult times, but it’s also important to spread kindness on a daily basis. Doing “one small thing” daily will help children understand their feelings, understand others’ feelings, and assist them in making empathetic decisions. Small actions daily will help them be ready to communicate and act when a “big catastrophe” happens.

After reading One Small Thing, you may wish to discuss a few of the questions found in the One Small Thing Activity Guide: https://marshadianearnold.com/activities-one-small-thing/.

*How did each animal feel when they learned about what happened to Raccoon
*Squirrel felt so sad, he couldn’t move. Do you ever feel there is too much to be fixed? Do you ever feel things are so hard or sad you may as well give up?
*Which animal felt they didn’t have anything to offer, that there was nothing they could do? (Mouse)
*How do you feel when something scary or bad happens?
*What makes you feel better when you are scared or sad?

After the discussion, have the children talk about “one small thing” they could do as a class.

Lead the children to try a couple of activities for others. Perhaps start with “one small thing” for animal friends.

My educator friend is planning to read One Small Thing to a class and then work with them to make Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders. There are several slightly different “recipes” online; she plans to try this one. She hasn’t tried this yet, but folks who have say this will make several cookie cutter bird feeders.

Materials Needed

2 cups small birdseed (Have extra in case you need to thicken the mixture more.)
2 packets unflavored gelatin (8 gram packets)
2/3 cup water
Spoon
Twine or Ribbon
(Plastic Straws, if using straws to poke the holes)
Cookie cutters – (Stars and acorns are fun.)
Baking sheets
Parchment paper

What to do

Place parchment paper on baking sheets.
Place cookie cutters on baking sheets. Set these to the side.
In a mixing bowl place 2/3 cup boiled water and 2 packet of gelatin. You can also do this on a stove in a pan.
Stir until the gelatin is dissolved, a minute or two.
Stir in 2 cups birdseed until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Tie a piece of twine or ribbon into a loop. (Some prefer to place a straw in the birdseed cookies to make a hole. After the cookies dry, the twine or ribbon can be pulled through and tied.)
Fill a cookie cutter halfway with birdseed, using a spoon. Press the birdseed down with the back of the spoon.
Push the tied part of string into the birdseed.
Fill the cookie cutter with the rest of the birdseed mixture.
Some place the cookie cutters in the refrigerator for a few hours to set. Others simply move on to drying.
Dry the birdseed cookies overnight.
Turn the birdseed cookies over and let the other side dry overnight.
Carefully push the bird seed feeder out of the cookie cutter.
Hang the birdseed cookies from tree branches or a bird feeding station.

Now you might have the children brainstorm “one small thing” they could do as a class for a person. Is there an Assisted Living Residence or Retirement Community nearby that would appreciate colorful cards? You might choose a holiday like May Day and have the children draw colorful flowers on folded paper with a brief message like “Happy May Day!” or “May Basket” and their name.

These two activities seem like small things to do…but that is the point. They are small, but lots of small things add up to something wonderful. May the gentle, cozy message of One Small Thing add to the social emotional learning canon and to kindness, all around.

Educators and parents can find more activities in the One Small Thing Activity Guide on my website, here: https://marshadianearnold.com/activities-one-small-thing/.

Published May 9th, 2023 by Beaming Books

About the Book: After Raccoon’s home burns down in a lightning storm, his friends don’t know what they can do to help. Squirrel, Beaver, Mouse, Badger, and Rabbit all go back to their own homes, trying to focus on something other than Raccoon’s tragedy. But each animal discovers one small thing they can do for Raccoon–and it turns out that each small act may not be so small after all.

One Small Thing is a gentle and powerful look at how small actions can make a big impact.

About the Author: Called a “born storyteller” by the media, Marsha Diane Arnold is a picture book author of 24 books, with over one million books sold. Her books have garnered honors like Best First Book by a New Author (Heart of a Tiger), Smithsonian Notable (The Pumpkin Runner), and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (Roar of a Snore). Her bilingual Galápagos Girl won the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. Lights Out, about light pollution, has been praised by the Dark Sky community as well as the children’s lit community and was a finalist for the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text.

Marsha enjoys sharing her love of story through school visits, manuscript consultations, her Writing Wonderful Character-Driven Picture Books e-course, and especially by reading to her four grandchildren.

Growing up on the Kansas prairies, Marsha lived in Northern California for most of her life. Now she lives with her husband in southwest Florida, near the Caloosahatchee River and her daughter’s family and only a short flight from her son’s family. Besides creating stories, her favorite activities are scuba diving and snorkeling, hiking, traveling, gardening, and climbing trees.

You may learn more about Marsha, her books, and her world, at www.marshadianearnold.com.

Thank you, Marsha, for these activities and the focus on kindness!

Student Voices: Christina Diaz Gonzalez’s Visit to Kellee’s Middle School

June 7, 2023March 28, 2023 by Kellee

I am so lucky because my principal began an initiative at my school where we get to have an author visit our school yearly (2022: Nathan Hale, 2020: Neal Shusterman, 2019: Jennifer A. Nielsen). The author sees all students in the school, so it is a great community literacy event for my school, and I love being able to bring this experience to all 1200+ students each year!

This year, we hosted Christina Diaz Gonzalez!
The visit was phenomenal and included 5 presentations for approximately 240 kids, book signings, and a small presentation in Spanish for our emerging bilingual students who have been in the US for a year or less. It was all such an amazing experience!

Here are some reflections from my students from after the visit. I asked them to think about what they learned, what they enjoyed, how they were impacted, or anything else they wanted to share:

The Christina Diaz Gonzalez visit was something I will cherish forever. I learned to normalize authors and realize how authors are real people and how they’re not magical beings with neverending ideas. I enjoyed how she managed to keep the presentation light and sweet but as well as interactive, she made me interested in so many more of her books!…I love how she reminds us how important Hispanic Representation is. These author trips are something I will forever cherish when I go to High School. Thank you for putting the effort and time into doing this Mrs. Moye! I really appreciate it!
[The visit] impacted me because it showed me that I could accomplish my dreams.
I learned that you can pursue whatever you like and you should be passionate about what you want to do.
I learned a lot from her visit to our school, and it was really cool! I learned about how it could be a struggle to write a book, and how 1 book or author can inspire someone. I really liked how she got to answer my question, and how a lot of people cared to ask many questions which made it even more detailed and fun to listen to stories. I feel like it impacted me, and some other people, to encourage them to be an author. I am currently writing a book, and her amazing books are encouraging me to finish my book. I am so glad she came because it was really cool to see an author explain and show about writing books.
I’m glad she came because her whole presentation was just amazing, I liked that I had the opportunity to meet her and I liked the tips she gave us and of course, the stories that she told us.
I am glad she came because in my other school we never got a visit like this one.

Well, I really enjoyed how much Christina Diaz Gonzalez was like an everyday person. You see famous people on the back of book covers, and their names on movie posters, and things like that. You expect them to be a different way. You expect them to be different from everybody else. But that’s obviously not the case seeing as many actors, authors, and directors all act just as normal as everyday people. Christina Diaz Gonzalez seemed just as normal as me and I respect her a lot for this.
I very much enjoyed how she let us ask questions, and I liked the questions that the kids asks.
This visit also made me think differently about books like how you can relate to a story really easily or learn something new every day.
From the Christina Diaz Gonzalez visit, I learned that being an author is harder than people may think. I enjoyed that she was fun. She spoke in a way where you can’t really get too bored or bored at all and she showed us those cool trailers of her books. This impacted me by meeting someone who’s Cuban. I don’t ever meet any others that are Cuban.
I learned that she has a similar childhood to some of the people at the school that don’t know how to speak English or understand it. I’m glad she came because the whole school knew about her books and to be able to see those students that were so excited to meet her happy and to get to know her more.
What I learned from yesterday was that Christiana Diaz Gonzalez is an inspiring author that uses her family to help write her books, which I enjoyed. It inspired me to try to write my own stories about my family. I am glad she came to HCMS because she has a difficult past, and I have had one too.
During the part where she was talking about her very first story that she had written, it made me think about how creativity really does come from anything. A little thought can slowly grow and grow, it just needs a little bit of effort added into it, so that impacted me to open my eyes and “see beyond” generic ideas.

As you can see, Christina’s visit was highly engaging and inspiring. I would highly recommend her for a school visit!

Author Guest Post: “Every Child Needs Space to Play” by Mark Angelo, Author of Can We Play Baseball, Mr. DeMille?

April 22, 2023March 26, 2023 by Kellee

“Every Child Needs Space to Play”

A few years ago, I was visiting my brother Chris in Los Angeles, where we spent several days recalling memorable stories from our youth. We shared lots of laughs, but one story in particular that we fondly remembered took place in 1958 and centered around our search for a nearby place to play ball. As kids, my brother and I were passionate about the game of baseball. We loved the Dodgers, who had just moved to L.A. from Brooklyn, New York.

Chris suggested I write the story down and that eventually led to the publishing of my most recent illustrated children’s book, Can We Play Baseball, Mr. DeMille?

Writing the story brought back many great memories, not the least of which was an unforgettable encounter with perhaps the greatest and most legendary person in film. But going through the process of producing the book also made me even more cognizant of how my childhood search for a field to play ball influenced my later work as an environmental advocate and a proponent of outdoor spaces for all to enjoy.

The neighborhood I lived in as a boy was beautiful, but it was also located in the hills. There were very few appropriate and accessible places to play ball. In addition, public parks were too far away for young kids like us to get to on our own.

It was those circumstances that ultimately led us to Mr. DeMille’s backyard which, rightly or wrongly, became the “the field of our dreams.”

Fast forwarding to current day, I’ve long believed that from a city planning perspective, we should do everything possible to ensure that residents— especially kids— have nearby access to sports fields and places to play ball. In addition, ensuring that more natural parks are readily accessible to all is a key issue. Many youngsters don’t get exposed to nature and the outdoors as much as we’d like, particularly in cities. The alternative often becomes screen-time for children. If not used thoughtfully and moderately, we know from research this can have detrimental effects on both mental and physical health. After all, how can a kid get excited to play outside if they don’t have the space?

For those that read Can We Play Baseball Mr. DeMille, my hope is that the story of a young boy’s love for a game and his dogged determination to find a place where he and his friends can play, will make you smile and inspire young ones. To this day, while watching my own grandchildren play ball, I still find myself thinking back on occasion to those early days and the field of my youth that had such an impression.

The book has several elements to it, including a sense of nostalgia along with a slice of classic Hollywood history. But just as importantly, it has an environmental message that highlights the fact that accessible outdoor spaces are good for all of us, both young and old. From parks to sports fields, they provide active and passive recreational opportunities, contribute to our improved health and well-being, and make our communities better places to live!

Illustrated by Patricia & Robin DeWitt
Published January 30, 2023

About the Book: Set in 1958, a young boy and his friends want to be baseball players just like their Dodger idols. There’s just one problem: they don’t have a field to play in.

Luckily, the kids know a secret. There’s a mansion around the corner with a yard big enough for an entire ball field and the hedge surrounding it has a gap just big enough to crawl through. Apparently, the owner is a big-time Hollywood mogul. He won’t mind a few ball games, right?

This sensational true story of a young boy’s encounter with a Hollywood legend is rich with youthful determination and summer fun, highlighting how every child needs space to play.

About the Author: Mark Angelo has been a baseball fan since he was a little boy! He is also a globally renowned river conservationist and the founder of World Rivers Day, now celebrated by millions of people in over one hundred countries. Among his many accolades, Mark is a recipient of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor. His acclaimed best-selling debut picture book, The Little Creek that Could, is the true story of a stream that came back to life. Through his work with groups such as the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, Mark has been a long-time advocate for outdoor spaces for all to enjoy. Can We Play Baseball, Mr. DeMille?, about a young boy’s search for a place to play ball, recounts an actual experience from his childhood. Mark lives in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada with his wife, Kathie.

For more information on Mark, please visit: https://www.canweplaybaseballmrdemille.com/

Thank you, Mark, for this focus on play and its importance!

Blog Tour, Giveaway, and Author Guest Post!: Let Nonfiction Sing by Margarita Engle, Author of Destiny Finds Her Way: How a Rescued Baby Sloth Learned to be Wild

April 22, 2023March 9, 2023 by Kellee

Welcome to the

Destiny Finds Her Way

Blog Tour & Giveaway!

To celebrate the release of Destiny Finds Her Way by Newbery Honor winner Margarita Engle, blogs across the web are hosting guest posts from Margarita as well as the book’s photographer, Sam Trull, who is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Sloth Institute — a sloth rescue organization based in Costa Rica. Join us for a journey behind the scenes of how these two amazingly talented women teamed up to bring this inspiring, true story to readers everywhere and learn more about sloths and the work being done to protect them.

Let Nonfiction Sing!

by Margarita Engle

Destiny Finds Her Way is a book I feel honored to have written. When I saw Sam Trull’s beautiful photos of Destiny the sloth, I decided to visit the Sloth Institute in Costa Rica. There, I had the chance to witness Sam in action, rescuing baby sloths and teaching them how to live in the wild. The experience was inspiring.

I wanted to write Destiny’s story in a way that might inspire young readers to learn more about wildlife conservation. The tropical rain forest has its own rhythm, and poetry is musical language. However, nonfiction is usually presented in a more detailed prose style. I decided to combine poetic devices with facts. The first device I used is onomatopoeia, where words resemble their real-life sources. Examples are the eee, eee, eee of darting squirrel monkeys, and ah, ah of a frightened baby sloth. Instead of rhymes at the ends of lines, I included words with vowels that rhyme. In ‘macaws squawking,’ all the “a “sounds rhyme. I’m sure readers will be able to find many other parts of the story that sound musical.

Readers will also discover the other senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, as well as sound. In addition, movement is an important aspect of the story’s musical nature. I hope words like scratched, swayed, and climbed will help make Destiny’s journey come to life in a joyful, dancelike way. There is nothing more celebratory than knowing she is now healthy and free in the wild!

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About Destiny Finds Her Way

(ages 4-8, Hardcover Picture Book, National Geographic Kids Books)

Newbery Honor winner Margarita Engle and photographer and Sloth Institute Executive Director Sam Trull team up to bring the inspiring and true story to life of how Destiny, a motherless baby sloth, sightless in one eye and rescued by Sam in the Costa Rican rain forest, defies the odds, overcomes her obstacles of limited sight and learns the skills she will need to return to her wild, forest home.

Without her mother to protect her or teach her, Destiny is found and taken to a rescue center in Costa Rica. The little sloth soon befriends other orphaned sloths. Her poor eyesight, however, makes it hard for her to keep her balance. Eventually Destiny begins to use all of her senses to explore the world around her. But can she learn to climb? Can she master the other skills she needs to survive on her own? And will Destiny be brave enough to return to her wild, forest home?

In addition to learning about Destiny and her journey, readers are immersed in the world of sloths and sloth rescue in this uplifting story about overcoming obstacles and believing in yourself.

About the Author:

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, Golden Kite, Walter, Jane Addams, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate. She is a three-time U.S. nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Book Award. Her most recent books are Rima’s Rebellion, Singing With Elephants, and Destiny Finds Her Way. Her next young adult verse novel is Wings in the Wild, and her next picture book is Water Day.
Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her husband.

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About the Photographer:

Sam Trull has been a photographer and a wildlife biologist for decades. After many expeditions to Madagascar, West Africa, and Central America, in January 2013, she settled in Costa Rica, where she co-founded and is the executive director of the Sloth Institute. Her first photo book, Slothlove, was published in April 2016.

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About the Sloth Institute:

The Sloth Institute (TSI) is a nonprofit organization located in Costa Rica with the mission to enhance and expand the welfare and conservation of sloths through rescue, rehabilitation, release, research, and education. In addition, TSI works on targeted conservation projects to improve the safety and quality of sloth habitats and teaches other rescue centers how to better care for and release their sloths. TSI believes that all sloths were born to be wild and deserve that second chance at freedom.

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