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A Costume Post for Halloween
How do you dress a mouse? Well, if the mouse isn’t a real one, that’s actually not difficult. Personally, I wouldn’t want to try dressing a real one. What is a trickier question is how do you dress a person to look like a mouse? Tony Walton faces just such a challenge in doing the…
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No One But You — Perfect Picture Book Friday
I am concluding my month-long celebration of nature and of looking closely at the natural world around us with a book that explores the way each of us sees things differently. We are both the same and unique at once, and that itself is something to celebrate! Title: No One But You Author: Douglas Wood…
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A Mousical Master Class in Theatre Basics
I’m continuing my series about the upcoming stage musical The Great American Mousical today with a look at the book the musical is based on, and how much one can learn about theatre simply by reading (and re-reading!) the book by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, also entitled The Great American Mousical. As Julie…
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Singing and Acting — Lessons for Life (and for Writing)
This post could be subtitled “Words of Wisdom from Bruce Coville (with embellishments by Beth).” I first encountered Bruce Coville, author of middle grade fantasy novels and other such wondrous things, at the Summer 2011 conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in Los Angeles, SCBWI LA ’11. Not only did he…
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From the archives — The Fine Art of Reading Aloud, 5, Older Adults and Isolated People
This was first posted on elizabethannewrites on June 26, 2011. Interestingly, it received by far the most hits from search engine queries than any other post on that blog. In the over ten years (!) since I wrote this series of blog posts under the umbrella heading of “reading aloud to the elderly,” there have…
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From the archives — The Fine Art of Reading Aloud, 4, Older Kids
This was first posted on elizabethannewrites on June 23, 2011. One of my favorite memories of sixth grade is of the half-hour or so after lunch time, when our teacher read aloud to us. For the most part, all the students were able to read for themselves, but this was different. This wasn’t work. This…
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The Gift of the Tree — Perfect Picture Book Friday
Title: The Gift of a Tree Author: Alvin Tresselt Illustrator: Henri Sorensen Publisher: New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1972, 1992
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Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton on The Great American Mousical — Interview
I am honored and delighted to present this interview with both Emma Walton Hamilton and her mother, Julie Andrews. What a gift they have given us all in agreeing to this interview! As those of you who are regular readers of my blog know, my Wednesday focus this fall is the upcoming musical production, The…
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The North Star…
The North Star has meant many things to many people over the years. Most often, it has meant guidance, a beacon, something to count on, something that can lead, that can be trusted. It’s something that helps us get our bearings, that tells us where we are and shows us where we’re heading. In life,…
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From the archives — The Fine Art of Reading Aloud, 3c, Chapter Books for Emerging Readers
This was first posted on elizabethannewrites on June 13, 2011. From picture books we move into the exciting, vast realm of chapter books with our emerging readers. This post continues my series about reading aloud to emerging readers. As I have done in previous posts, I want to recommend not just the listing of suggested…
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From the archives — The Fine Art of Reading Aloud, 3b, Picture Books for Emerging Readers
This was first posted on elizabethannewrites on June 8, 2011. As I said in my initial post on reading aloud to emerging readers, not only should being read aloud to still be an important part of an emerging reader’s life, but there is definitely still a place for picture books in the reading choices for…