Today begins the first day of Storystorm! January is a month for new beginnings. That includes brainstorming ideas and making lists for future writing projects: picture books, chapter books, poems, early readers, blog posts…
Let’s do this, my friends. Follow the link below to read the post of the day. Be sure to sign up and comment to be entered to win writerly prizes. 🙂
Ready, set, go! First idea. Check.
Children’s author Julie Hedlund, challenged participants of her 12 Days of Christmas for Writers series to post SUCCESSES (rather than resolutions) on our blogs this year. She believes the way New Year’s resolutions are traditionally made come from a place of negativity – what DIDN’T get done or achieved in the previous year. Instead, she suggests we set goals for the New Year that BUILD on our achievements from the previous one. I decided to participate in this Anti-Resolution Revolution! Here is my list for 2017.
My 2017 writing successes:
You can learn more about the 12 Days of Christmas for Writers here.
What is STORYSTORM?
31 days of inspiring posts to help writers brainstorm story ideas. Picture book ideas will be my main focus, but I bet many others end up with ideas for poems, chapter books, articles, stories, blog posts, and all sorts of other writing projects. STORYSTORM is worth every second!
Let the STORYSTORM rage on!
A great big thanks to Tara Lazar for all of the hard work, planning, and organizing for us! You can find her at here..
By Angie Quantrell
WITH YOU ALWAYS, ORPHAN TRAIN BOOK 1
By Jody Hedlund
Bethany House, 2017
I was gifted a copy of WITH YOU ALWAYS, ORPHAN TRAIN BOOK 1Â from Jody Hedlund.
Set in New York City, 1857, Elise found herself an orphan with younger siblings. Befriended and helped out by Miss Pendleton, Elise and her remaining family took a room in a renovation-in-progress future home (instead of living on the streets). As circumstances changed and the need arose, Elise took a seat on an orphan train and headed out to work far from the city.
Danger, disaster, determination, foreboding, friendship, and romance fill the pages of WITH YOU ALWAYS. Before reading this book, I had not heard of orphan trains, but was fascinated to learn how they were used to gather orphans from the city and send them out into surrounding areas to work and become a part of new families. Some orphans had good experiences, but not all.
I loved the writing and setting. Hedlund did a fantastic job of building up characters and tensions between those characters. The events felt very realistic, both in the feeling of New York during that time period and the new situation and location Elise lived and worked. Hard work and a growing spark between Elise and Thornton fill the pages of this book.
WITH YOU ALWAYSÂ is a very good read. Well done, Jody Hedlund. Thank you!
by Angie Quantrell
dead stuff
every. single. day.
dead stuff is delivered.
fur. teeth. tails. tiny feet.
feathers. skulls. wings asunder.
the odd beak.
legless bugs. drips of blood.
eerie green body parts.
dead stuff. in life. in dreams.
felines hard at work.
freeze. winter. come soon.
put to ground the endless corpses
delivered as gifts.
pause the need for caution
when opening the door or
placing feet along the body strewn gravel,
blending in, creating traps for thoughtless tread.
drop. temperature. ice-over.
to sleep. to fly south. to hibernate.
what happened to lumps of fur nested
in front of roaring fires?
rest, kitties, rest.
TRAINS DON’T SLEEP
By Andria Rosenbaum
Illustrated by Deirdre Gill
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017
I won a beautiful autographed copy of TRAINS DON’T SLEEP from KIDLIT411.com. After our family success last November with my birthday trip to The Polar Express train ride (it was my birthday, after all – I love books and Christmas!), I knew this train book was sure to please my train-loving grands! I was right.
TRAINS DON’T SLEEP tells the tale of many different working trains. Trains don’t rest, but chug and pull to carry people, goods, and animals. The story begins while families sleep and trains wake the day with their bustling work. As the day goes on, the trains continue their work in all sorts of environments like big cities, plains, mountains, and forests. Tucked into bed, families go back to sleep while the trains keep racing towards the next brand new day. This picture book makes a great bedtime read-together.
What I loved about this rhyming story is the train vocabulary! Readers will enjoy the rhythm of the words and hear language specific to trains. Fluid gorgeous illustrations perfectly compliment the tale of trains. A picture glossary identifies different trains and train-related fixtures.
If you know a train lover, share TRAINS DON’T SLEEP and see how quickly it becomes a favorite.
KID KANDY
Here are some fun train activities you can do with your family.
*Visit a train museum.
*Play with train toys and cover the floor with tracks and make-believe adventures.
*Stand in a line. Show each person how to hold a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him or her. Use the other arm, hand, and feet to shuffle and move like a train. Make sure to chug-chug-choo-choo!
*Dig out the markers, crayons, and paper. Draw train tracks, engines, and rail cars. Add your favorite scenery.
*Flatten play dough and use toy trains to make train tracks across the dough.
*Take a ride on a train!
Source: How to Use Goodreads
I love Goodreads, but I have only the barest understanding of how it works. And, according to this post, I know just a sprinkling of things that one can do while visiting Goodreads! Now there is no excuse.
Thank you, Marcia Strykowski, from Writers’ Rumpus! http://Www.writersrumpuus.com
By Angie Quantrell
Caramel apples
Leaves poised to drift and rest
Golf course cowboy in full roping regalia
Kites of black crow
Squabbling magpies dropping nuts
Blaring country western music serenading golf athletes
Fruity wafts of fallen apples
Crisp air floating watchful hawks
Horseshoes traded for clubs and pixellated balls
Scrambling squirrels pursuing future feasts
V’s of noise and harsh wing beats
Cowboy hats capturing sun-touched heads
Hollow seed pods knocking one another
Waving grass kissing heat and drought good-bye
Wheeled-steeds rolling into the tees of sunset
Familiar autumn memories prance and greet
A lifetime of fall memories merging together welcomes interlopers
Cowboys and golf marry, valley mysteries
Source: Behind the Scene with FAMOUSLY PHOEBE, a Storystorm Success Story (plus a giveaway!)
I love how the author gives lessons she learned along her road to publication! Congratulations, FAMOUSLY PHOEBE!
A painting of the eclipse (red because it’s darker) – Art by Khloe
Our tiny view of the eclipse through a pin-hole camera
Boxes, foil and tape,
wondering children marvel
as sky lights shake hands.
Pin-hole cameras
Hayden and Khloe peeking at the solar eclipse
The daytime and night
heavenly bodies dance past,
a peek-a-boo tryst.
Gage trying to see the eclipse…he’s only 2, so was not impressed
Stacking rocks was more enticing than solar and lunar escapades
The waiting is long
Look, play, work, gaze, pinhole view;
Light sliver eclipse.
The PacMan stage (coined by Hayden) of the solar eclipse
Taking a solar break – by hauling bricks
But how? Why? We gasp.
Fleeting, amazing, we stop.
Cooler, darker day.
Mabel was definitely more exciting to Gage than the sun and moon
Putting down bricks, mid-eclipse
Solar Eclipse, by Khloe
