If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
author: Laura Joffe Numeroff
illustrator: Felicia Bond
publisher: Laura Geringer Books--an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
publishing date: 1985
The story begins with the mouse's request for a cookie. It continues as the mouse asks for something else and something else and something else. I enjoyed the author and illustrator's light touches of humour. The author doesn't supply an ending; the illustrator does--with a drawing of a clearly exhausted narrator. The repeated phrase built suspense and carried me through the story.
Gifts
author: Jo Ellen Bogart
illustrator: Barbara Reid
publisher: Scholastic Canada Ltd
www.scholastic.ca
publishing date: 1995
The poetic text began as a song.
Grandma travels to Africa to Australia to Mexico to Hawaii to the Arctic to India to Switzerland to China to England. And as she travels she sends gifts to her granddaughter. This truly is a feel good story. Through the illustrations we watch the granddaughter grow from a little girl to a young mother. Like If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, this book also continues after the ending--with Grandma promising to send gifts to her great-grandson.
This Tree Counts
author: Alison Formento
illustrator: Sarah Snow
publisher: Albert Whitman and Company
publishing date: 2010
This book was printed on recycled paper.
This clever counting book is sure to delight tree huggers young and older. Mr. Tate takes his class outside where they learn why trees are so important to our environment and the students plant trees. The ecological message is driven home by the charming illustrations.
photo by ldyck
Spend time reading picture books...But don't just read them--think about them. Take notes. Study why one works for you and another doesn't. This is good training before starting to write and should continue throughout your career.
Ann Whitford Paul
Sharing my author journey...
How do you introduce your characters to your readers. There are so many fun ways. This week I found another.
A character in the novel I'm currently writing is from Newfoundland. I found some very cool sites that educated me on (and reminded me of) the Newfoundland dialect.
Do your characters have a ethic, cultural or... background?
Use a search engine to learn more about their dialect.
Maybe I can just slip this in, at the bottom here and it won't be noticed.
Submissions
March, 2014: 8
March, 2015: 9
March, 2016: 2
Oops
Excuse: The focus of my work has changed from submitting to re-writing a novel.
