Last fall, I became a college professor. That’s part of the reason this blog was rather quiet for a while. From September to December, I was fully immersed in studying required texts, drafting lectures, making tests, and reading papers. I’ll never know which lessons stuck with my students. But I do know one thing for sure. I learned a TON!
A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to discover A Mighty Girl blog had listed one of my early readers, Robot, Go Bot!, among its 25 Books Starring Science-Loving Mighty Girls. I love that readers are finding this book an inspiration to curious, science-minded girls. But it’s funny, too, because Robot, Go Bot! was not conceived as a science book.
Tinkering with Words Read More »
One of the perks of being a writer is that you can coin new phrases, put them out in the world, and hope they catch on…
humpback moment: (noun) an unexpected wave of emotion
Here’s how the phrase originated. My family often visits friends in Cape Cod. For years, we had been considering going on a whale watch, but we always worried that we’d shell out a lot of money and not see too many whales.
When we last left the canvas in my dining room, it was still blank, but I had made a pile of colorful textured paper, too. You’d think I’d be ready and eager to make art!
Nope. I didn’t have a plan, and that scared me.
Art and fear go hand in hand, at least for me.
The Blank Canvas: Part 2 Read More »
Almost ten years ago, I went to a workshop at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. The class was geared toward teachers to model Carle’s process of collage. I wasn’t a teacher. I just went for fun.
I had a plan for the perfect picture—a landscape with clouds, hills, and maybe a little brook running through. But when we sat down at a table with an array of paints and tools, the instructor told us not to think about the final product. She told us to just make pretty paper.
The Blank Canvas: Part 1 Read More »