Happy 112th Birthday

McMullin triplets: Willie May, Tillie Day and Dillie Fay. Born February 20, 1897.

On February 20, 1897, my grandmother and her two sisters arrived into the world. Their births were a home delivery in the Ozarks in St. Clair County, Missouri, and they were named Dillie Fay, Tillie Day and Willie May McMullin. Their names were not unusual for the time, but having triplets born alive certainly was rare. The family history says that they averaged 6 pounds each (!) and that my grandmother, Willie, was the smallest. Since it was feared she would not survive, they tucked her into bed with her own grandmother, who was suffering from tuberculosis, so she could pass away comforted. Tillie died from an auto accident in 1965 at age 68, Dillie died five years later at 73, and my grandmother, who was thought to be too weak to survive, lived to be 88. 

Happy Birthday!

Splashin' Around the Pond

Pre-school Story Time at Baxter Memorial Library, Gorham, Maine

March 10th, 9:30 am

We'll gather around the pond for stories, puppets and fun!

Keeping Track

We're having quite a winter here in Maine. Although the turtles are sleeping beneath the ice at the bottom of Frog Song Pond, other critters are keeping busy. Wild turkey and deer tracks festoon the snow. . .

. . .and some venture out to skate on the ice.

Scoot on the Screen

The librarians at the Arapahoe Library District (Colorado)  made this delightful video review of Scoot!

Happy New Year!

Celebrate!

A wonderful little nonprofit, Youth & Family Outreach (the folks who put on Mugglefest--the largest Harry Potter event in the country), is hosting a New Year's Eve Gala to ring in 2009. 

Fly Me to the Moon, held at the Clarion Hotel in Portland, Maine, will feature the live dance band, BIG CHIEF.  Champagne, decadent desserts, raffles and door prizes. Tickets are limited, so call 874-2370, or go to www.yfoutreach.org. All profits will help provide quality early education and care for children from low-income families.

Scooting onto lists

I'm delighted to discover that Scoot! appears on several mock Caldecott lists. I know that this has no bearing on the actual Caldecott awards, but it's a real honor to have my book enjoyed by readers in libraries around the country. Here are some that we have heard about:

Fort Wayne, IN

Bergen County, NJ

Wichita, KS

Evansville, IN

Arapahoe District, CO

Cranston, RI 

Butler County, OH

Glendale, AZ

Chicago Public Library

And HERE are some fun projects from Scoot! and Turtle Splash! for kids, placed online by Greenwillow Books.

        At a recent Scoot! book signing event at L.L.Bean in Freeport, Maine, I brought along art supplies so children could create bookmarks and cards. Here is a young artist who stopped by.

Scoot! is also a 2008 Wilde Award book:

"Active language and vibrant collages bring a pond 

and its inhabitants alive in this captivating book to get you over life's little bumps."

Time to Gather

Happy Thanksgiving!

A couple of ideas:

* In addition to the contributions that your family and guests bring to your feast, ask them to also bring a contribution for your local food bank. Bag up the non-perishables and can goods, and drop them off next week to help replenish supplies.

* Feast on reading! To settle down after the holiday festivities, gather the young and young-at-heart for story time. Drag out old favorites and new additions and take turns reading picture books aloud.

Enjoy the season of Hope and Peace.

Cover: Feast For 10, Clarion Books, 1993