Diving In...

Have you ever heard the old saying, "Dive Right In"? It means to start doing something with enthusiasm. This is pretty much my motto. Each week I dive into Farmers' Market. I post pictures of my vendors and their products like this one of my card vendor Linda's prizes from the fair. I dive into my baking. And I dive into taking care of my customers and vendors alike.

I also dive into my week, scratching each accomplishment off of my to-do list as I finish up.

And I certainly dive into reading picture books for review. So when I went to the library this week to change out the children's display case, you can imagine my delight when the librarian told me the book I was waiting for had arrived. Not long ago I ran into Jess Keating at Nerd Camp MI where we were both presenting and where I learned all about her latest book Shark Lady - The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist.

I always want to support fellow authors, but I can't afford to buy every book by every person I know. So, I did the next best thing. I asked my librarian if she would order it. You can do that you know!

And when I began to read, I was really glad I did. Not only do I love biographical picture books, but Jess is a really, really splendid story teller. I adore the way she uses swimming or water related words like "diving" to convey Eugenie's excitement about the ocean, science,and sharks. Now it's your turn to dive into helping a great kidlit author__ go ask your librarian to order a copy too. You won't be sorry.

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.

Lost and Found

This past week started in March and ended in April. It started out warm and spring like and ended on a cold note. While it was sunny and pleasant I found myself snapping more pictures of our resident cardinals and helping Emily with her Japanese project for school.

When it turned colder, I made a pot of vegetable beef soup, sat in front of the fire my husband made, and hoped my beautiful spring flowers would survive the unusual April snow that found us when spring seemed to be lost.

And speaking of Lost and Found, I found some beautiful books in my library stack this week. One by author friend Marsha Diane Arnold aptly named Lost. Found. One by author friend Tammi Sauer called Nugget and Fang. And one by an author/illustrator that I am unfamiliar with but would love to get to know called Love From A Star.

Marsha's Lost. Found. is a deliciously simple book that pretty much uses only the words lost and found to tell the story of a bear who has lost his scarf, the subsequent animals that find it and then lose it along the way, and bears eventual reuniting with said scarf. In addition, the beautiful illustrations by Matthew Cordell pull the story gently along.

Tammi's Nugget and Fang is a story of unlikely friendship, the friendship between a toothy shark and a mini minnow. They are the best of friends until Nugget has to go to school and is continually told that minnows and sharks can not be friends. Fang is heartbroken over this and does everything in his power to show Nugget they can and should be friends. Nothing works until the entire class of minnows finds themselves in trouble__ trouble that only Fang can help them out of.
 

And finally, Love From a Star by Katherine Cutchin Gazzetta which is a wonderful story reminding the reader of each star's infinite beauty and God's love for each of us. The illustrations are beyond cute and almost make me a little jealous of Miss Katherines's dual talent.

 
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.