Monday, February 19, 2018

In The Wild

This week Emily and I attended our monthly meeting of Cook Book Club. The theme was breakfast, one of my favorite themes, and it was delicious. Emily prepared a tasty Blueberry Breakfast Cake.


I planned on taking a breakfast pizza, but I forgot to turn the timer on and the crescent roll crust became a tad over cooked. Thankfully, I am a quick thinker and whipped up a batch of biscuits to go with the sausage gravy that was supposed to go on the pizza.


I also made cheesy hash browns. I just adore cheesy hash browns!


I also made a trip to the library to drop off my entry form for the upcoming Chocolate Lovers Bake Off. Since I was there, I thought I'd run back to the children's department and grab a few books as my pile at home was down to one slim volume. And much to my surprise and joy I found two books by friends of mine.

When an author or illustrator finds books in public, be it at the library or a book store, it's called finding it in the wild. Once you find a book in the wild, pictures of said book inevitably must be taken and shared. The books I found this time around were Duncan The Story Dragon  by Amanda Driscoll and Rock Away Granny by Dandi Daley Mackall. Not having read either of these books yet, I became terribly excited. My excitement doubled in size like yeast laden dough when I further realized that Dandi's book was illustrated by none other than Mike DeSantis The Regional Advisor for SCBWI Ohio North branch.

I met Amanda a few years ago at the Southern Kentucky Book Festival which we will both be attending again this April, and Duncan The Story Dragon was her debut picture book about a dragon who wanted to finish a book, any book, ever so badly. Unfortunately for Duncan, he accidentally burned each book before he could reach the end. The way Duncan managed to solve his dilemma was a fun end to this fun tale, so grab a copy of your own and find out just what he did.


I met Dandi about six years ago at the Kentucky Book Festival and she regaled me with the back story behind her beautiful book There's A Baby in There. I also learned that she was a fellow Ohioan and actually doesn't live all that far away from Shelby. Having loved There's A Baby in There, I pretty much knew I'd love Rock Away Granny, and I was right.


The Granny in Dandi's book is a bee boppin, sock hoppin, wonderful dancing granny who shows he granddaughter how to rock the night away. Mike's illustrations give the book that extra oomph. I especially love the pet cat portrayed through out. When you grab a copy for yourself, be sure to check out the last illustration to see what the cat is dreaming about. And be sure to stop by Mike's site to see his other great works.


Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter  @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

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