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Turning PURPLE for Purple Day
The sunrise may not be purple tomorrow, but all over the world, people will be wearing purple, turning the world purple to remember and support those with epilepsy in all its forms and variants. Purple Day got its start in 2008 when a then nine-year-old girl in Nova Scotia, Cassidy Megan, wanted to do something…
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Thursdays with Emma Walton Hamilton — Interview Excerpt, part EIGHT
We have come to the last excerpt of my interview with Emma Walton Hamilton for the Children’s Book Hub. I have appreciated the opportunity to share it with you, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it. You may not know that Emma independently published her book Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment,…
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Dad’s nature photography
No tribute to my dad would be complete without some mention of his love of photography. Since I didn’t say a word about it in my post yesterday, I decided to continue the remembrance of Dad with a look at a few of his photos. I had to restrain myself in my selections for this…
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One hundred years ago today…
One hundred years ago today, March 16, 1913, my dad, Raymond, was born. He was the second of seven brothers (although the seventh boy died in infancy) born to John Willie and Jeanie in their farmhouse near where John Willie had come at the age of 4 with his homesteading parents, in 1882. Our family’s…
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Thursdays with Emma Walton Hamilton — Interview Excerpt, Part SEVEN
Thank you for joining me for this seventh excerpt from the interview I did with Emma Walton Hamilton back in January, for the Children’s Book Hub. Besides the myriad other things Emma does, which we have talked about in previous excerpts, she also is director of the Stony Brook Southampton Children’s Literature Conference (which I…
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This Day in the Arts — March 13 in Broadway Musicals History
Today, not only am I celebrating the anniversary of the opening of a delightfully whimsical Broadway musical, I’m also (stealthily) celebrating the birthday of a writer friend. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who went on to write such classics of the Broadway stage as Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot, brought a…
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For an AWESOME Jedi…
This is a special post for a special boy. Just-about-six year old Renn, whom you’ve met on my blog before, is back in hospital having more tests so that the doctor and all the amazing team who are working hard to help him can find a way to deal with his seizures. A whole galaxy…
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Susan Verde, Debut Author — Interview
I met Susan Verde last summer, on the first day of the Stony Brook Southampton Children’s Literature Conference, when Pat Tilton eagerly introduced us to each other as fellow Children’s Book Hub members and picture book writers. I soon learned that Susan was looking forward to the publication of her first picture book, and I…
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And then… there was Max — Max Ferguson, 1924 – 2013.
The title of my blog post today is a riff on a phrase that is likely familiar to people who were regular listeners to CBC Radio in the years between 1950 and 1998, “And now… here’s Max.” That phrase, voiced by the inimitable Allan McFee, referred to radio personality Max Ferguson, who spent fifty-two years…
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Thursdays with Emma Walton Hamilton — Interview Excerpt, Part SIX
Thank you for joining me for this excerpt from my interview with Emma Walton Hamilton for the Children’s Book Hub. Emma is the founder and administrator of the online “salon for writers and illustrators” that is the Children’s Book Hub. She started it just over two years ago, and in this excerpt of the interview,…
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Mom and Mum are Getting Married! — Perfect Picture Book Friday
As 2013’s Freedom to Read Week in Canada draws to a close, I want to include a book that speaks gently to an issue that is contentious for some. I believe it is of vital importance to show children that families come in all varieties, and that this is something to rejoice in and celebrate,…
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Thursdays with Emma Walton Hamilton — Interview Excerpts, Part FIVE
Thank you for joining me for this fifth excerpt in my serialization of the webinar interview I did with Emma Walton Hamilton for the Children’s Book Hub in January. Today, Emma will be musing about some of the discoveries she’s made about herself on the writing journey, and she’ll also tell us how and why…