The Activity Guide for THIS OLD BAND is here!

To coincide with the start of the 2015-2016 school year I'm happy to share the newly created activity guide for THIS OLD BAND. First grade teacher Ed Spicer developed the guide and I did the design work. Here it is:

I think Ed did a fantastic job with the guide and I hope educators will enjoy using this with their students.

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Thanks for stopping by!

My Final School Visit of the 2014-2015 School Year

In early June, during the last week of school, I visited Treasure Coast Elementary School.

I visited Mrs. Mulcahy's kindergarten class and we read This Old Band together.

Then students asked me a few questions.

This student's question was, "Where did you get the idea for This Old Band?"

Here is our group photo. These students were going to be moved into first grade later this very day.

They presented me with this very nice thank you note. I'm the one who is thankful to Mrs. Mulcahy, her kindergarteners, my friend Mrs. Hammler who invited me to come visit (and took these excellent classroom photos), and The Vero Beach Book Center for helping us with book sales. 

It's World Read Aloud Day 2015!

People all over the world are celebrating World Read Aloud Day today. Click on the logo for more details.This note is from Litworld.org:

"Every year on the first Wednesday of March, World Read Aloud Day calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories."

I love this concept. If you would like to hear me reading from my picture book, This Old Band, click on the book cover and the link will take you to my Soundcloud recording set to music:

Happy World Read Aloud Day 2015 - Have fun reading!

This Old Band and Gone Fishing Update

I’ve recently heard some very nice news about both GONE FISHING and THIS OLD BAND.

 THIS OLD BAND is a 2014 Southwest Book of the Year for Kids! Here is a link to the group of four selected books.

GONE FISHING is included on these state and regional reading lists:

2015-2016 Horned Toad Tales nominee, Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District, Houston, Texas

2015-2016 Indiana Library Federation Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee, Intermediate Grades

2016 Oklahoma Library Association Children's Sequoyah Book Awards Nominee

2015-2016 Virginia State Reading Association Virgina Readers' Choice Elementary List

Thank you to the readers and the librarians and reading teachers who decided to include my books! I'm thrilled to know that young readers will be reading them both.

CLEL Bell Award Nomination for THIS OLD BAND!

THIS OLD BAND has been nominated for a Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy Bell Award! It's in the category of SING. This is a neat initiative by CLEL - they seek out and nominate picture books in five categories, READ, WRITE, TALK, PLAY, and SING. Click on the logo to link to the SING list of nominations so far: 

10.11.2014