Authors Are People Too!

This week was Emily's and My first week back to school, and it went beautifully. There was no arguing over doing math. There was no complaining about various subjects. There wasn't even a peep when I told her we had to work a half an hour longer per day to get everything accomplished. It was a wonderful, beautiful, miracle!

One of her assignments this week was to write a letter to author Lois Sepahban. Back in April when I attended the Southern Kentucky Book Festival, Emily was told she could purchase one book, and she chose Lois's Paper Wishes. She happily read it over the summer, and wanted to let the author know how much she enjoyed it. I felt this was important for several reasons, one being that authors are people too. And by that, I mean that everyone, no matter who they are, likes to be complimented, likes to be told when they do a good job, and likes to know that what they do matters to some other person in this large and very populated world.
 

Paper Wishes is a historical fiction work that tells the story of ten year old Manami after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Manami and her family, being of Japanese descent, were summarily rousted from their homes and sent to internment camps. Forced to leave behind all that was familiar and all that she held dear including her small dog, Manami tries to make sense of her frightening new world. Emily loved many things about this story but what she loved most was that it was told from Manami's ten year old point of view. Although a horrific part of our American history, this story shares the truly courageous and enduring spirit of a people wrongly accused.

Recently, author Shana Gorian showed me a great kindness by hosting me for a question and answer session on her website. These paying it forward moments, fellow author support, or just plain kindnesses are a huge part in keeping an author on the literary track. You can only imagine how many times an author feels like throwing in the towel. And in honor of the pay it forward spirit, I am happy to be able to do the same for her.

Shana is the author of The Roscoe The Rascal Series, but she recently updated, Rosco the Rascal Visits the Pumpkin Patch, by giving it a fresh and inviting cover. Apparently there are also fresh new illustrations by Josh Addessi as well. Rosco the Rascal series for kids, consist of chapter books in which a sometimes rascally German shepherd uses his true heroic nature to help his pals, James and Mandy, find adventure and overcome obstacles. Although I have not yet read any of Shana's works, they do look and sound appealing!

Shana wanted me to let all my readers know that she is offering a free giveaway of the first two chapters of this book in PDF format to all new subscribers. You can join her at www.shanagorian.com where you can subscribe to her VIP email list. Or if you are a Kindle Unlimited Subscriber, you can download the Kindle version for free or for a mere $1.99 for a regular Kindle copy. It is also available in paperback for those "I love to hold the book" people!

I was interested to learn that Shana grew up in Western Pennsylvania and currently lives in California. The opposite is true for  me. I was born in Oakland, California and now reside in Ohio. It seems she is a jack-of-all trades as well. She has worked as a part-time nanny, a reporter, a camp counselor, a web designer, a waitress, a newspaper and pizza delivery gal, and a mother of two. She has gathered her wealth of material for fun and unusual stories by watching her real life German shepherd, but admits that most of the trouble that Roscoe and his gang get into is entirely fictitious.

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 and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or 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.
 

What's Your Job?

I remember when Emily graduated from pre-k many years ago and the teachers had asked all the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were the usual responses like fireman, mom, dad, police man, veterinarian, etc...  All the parents laughed because we knew that the dreams of children, although sweet, frequently change from week to week, month to month, and year to year.

So when I read a book this week simply titled, Mary Smith, I started thinking about jobs again. Mary's job as a knocker-up was to wake people up on time each morning before their were affordable and reliable alarm clocks. Mary went about doing this by blowing dried peas through her pea shooter at the windows of sleeping customers until they awoke. I guess we don't think much about jobs that people in days gone by might have held. Jobs like lamplighter, or whipping boy (a job I would not have wished to hold had I been a young boy). Of course, as good reading material is apt to do, it made me think about many other things.

It made me think about some of the jobs I do both paid and unpaid. Jobs like being a mom and wife, being a children's author, volunteering at my library, and running my local farmers market. And thinking about my job as the market manager made me think of the tasks of the job like taking pictures of vendors and products for our face book page. And as you have probably guessed by now I do love to take pictures, especially of food.

 

 

 

It also reminded me of my dad, who while he was still alive always told me, "You are only a failure if you don't try." The idea of trying new and possibly scary things was also the theme of the second book I read which was called, You Can Do It Bert. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't tell you what Bert, a cute little bird, was being encouraged to do, but I will say I was surprised when I reached the last page. 

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 and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

Hooray for Fathers!

When summer arrives, quite a bit of my week is spent in preparation for farmers' market and this past week was no exception. I spent last Thursday and Friday baking brownies, scotchies, and mini quick breads. It was another great market day and we had lots of great vendors. I came home with peaches, tomatoes, fresh garden lettuce, and some green onions to go with the soup beans Bobby asked me to make.

With the weekly market day out of the way, I set my mind to Fathers' Day which is just around the corner. Emily will be making a card for Bobby, I will wrap the dark chocolate candy I've been hiding, and I will plan dinner for him which will probably include a trip to the Rib King's tent. All these thoughts of Fathers' Day made me think of a gift Emily made several years ago. It was made using an envelope and was pretty easy, so I thought I would share it. First, you cut the very end off of a letter size envelope and then seal the back. Next, cut a small slit in the center of the top piece (about 1/2 inch) and fold down the ends to form a collar.

To make this envelope look like a man's outfit, you need some construction paper. Emily used a hole punch to make shirt buttons and a square to make pants. An alternate color of paper cut into a thin belt the width of the envelope creates a separation between shirt and pants. When they are all done, your child can slip their father's favorite candy bar inside!

In honor of fathers everywhere, I also read some great books where dads were the theme. The first book I read and probably my favorite of the three was Bertie: Just Like Daddy. As we all know, children try to emulate moms and dads and this adorable book has Bertie trying to be just like his father.

The next book I read was called Hunting The Daddyosaurus. It is a cute tale of a brother and sister in search of the huge and mysterious Dadyosaurus. The follow clues all over the house just steps behind the elusive creature, but in the end, they finally catch him.

And last but not least, I read Papa's Mark which is a beautifully written piece of historical fiction. Taking place at the time when colored men had just received the right to vote, Simms's  father eagerly awaits voting day. However, he can only write an x where his name should go. Simms, who isn't old enough to vote but who shares Papa's excitement, sets about to help Papa learn to write his own name. Night after night Papa practice, and on voting day, he proudly writes his name. I think this book would be a great addition to any American History lessons for both home school and traditional classrooms. It is a bit older having published in 2004, but worth finding a copy if you can.

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 and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

A Tale of Two Books...

A few weeks ago I was speaking with our children's librarian, Miss Robin, about a plagiarism issue a friend of mine from the UK is having. This apparently made her think of two very similar books she had read that were published only a year apart. She became very excited about the matter, found both books, and requested that I read them to see what I thought. The first book was entitled Where the Ground Meets the Sky and the second The Green Glass Sea.

Since I was in-between books I took them home and decided to compare the two. Both books were set in the 1940's during World War II and happened to be about the secret facility in Los Almos where scientists and mathematicians from around the world were working to create the atomic bomb. After reading both books, I came to the conclusion that no plagiarism was involved, but I did understand why Miss Robin might have thought there was. Each book used a young girl who was above average intelligence for the main character, each book had a cat and a dog mentioned, each book had a group of boys with a secret club house,  each book had a second young girl totally opposite the first girl as a second main character, and each book used similar terminology. The terminology similarities make sense to me since each author was clearly using words and terms from the nineteen forties, but there were enough differences in the writing and style of  each book to rule out plagiarism.

In case you are wondering what I thought about the books in general, I will give a short review for each. I read Where the Ground Meets the Sky first, so I will begin with it. I love Jacqueline Davies very descriptive style of writing which pulled me in from the beginning. It was a superbly well written book about a horrific true life event, but I was saddened that the main character's mother seemed to be either an atheist or one of those people who simply can't decide what to believe. As a Christian, I would have preferred to see a character who believed in something, but that aside it was still a well written story. The ending is quite sad and has the mother unable to cope with what her husband had helped to create, but that is probably a realistic outcome for this chapter in mankind's history.

Despite its award winning status, I didn't enjoy The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages nearly as well. This was not because it was poorly written, but because it was written in what I believe was second person instead of the traditional third person. The unusual use of person kept throwing me when I read. I did keep reading, however, and found that this book also had a sad ending with the main character's father being killed in an automobile accident.

Although both these books seemed historically accurate for fictional stories and both portray sad situations that were probably accurate to the time period, I personally tend to like happier endings. But if you don't mind sad endings, then perhaps you might want to check these books out for yourselves.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!