Posts by Beth
How to Make a Picture Book: Part 5
5 Tips for Sharing Your Picture Book Dummy Sharing your work when it’s not quite finished is a difficult thing to do. But at some point, you will have to do this. Agents and editors are used to seeing works-in-progress. Their goal is to make stories better. If you don’t have an agent or editor,…
Read MoreVictoria Day
“The twenty-fourth of May is the Queen’s birthday — If you don’t give us a holiday we’ll all run away!” My dad (who was born in 1913, and attended a 2-room school in rural Saskatchewan) chanted a version of that poem along with his schoolmates, and, as it turns out, with many other school children…
Read MoreWalking Home by Eric Walters — Book Recommendation
Title: Walking Home Author: Eric Walters Publisher: Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2014 Genre: Middle grade/early YA fiction based on real life Audience Age: 9 to 14 Themes/Topics: Determination, hope, unrest in Kenya, dealing with tragedy Opening Sentences: My father led the way through the dark, my mother behind him, my sister in her arms, and I…
Read MoreA Word with Beth — I Can Really Get INTO This Grammar Problem!
The Owl heard something on the radio the other day that got his feathers in a twist. To straighten them out again, I said I’d do a post about it. He thought it would be best if I used my own example, though. So, here’s my example. A notice appeared on the school bulletin board:…
Read MoreWhat’s on YOUR Bucket List? Here’s Mine (Part Two)
Last Friday I posted the first several items in my alphabetical bucket list. Today, I’ll share the rest of the list with you. First, here’s an excellent post from a site called Raptitude: getting better at being human about how to create a bucket list filled with things that you really have the intention of…
Read MoreWhat’s on YOUR Bucket List? Here’s Mine (Part One)
I’ve been doing some dreaming about things I’d like to do some day — thinking about my Bucket List, if you will. Most people have encountered the term, which simply means a list of the things you’d like to do or accomplish at some point in your life. Full disclosure — I’ve never seen the…
Read MoreWhat I’ve Read in April
Books were read this month, some good, some very good, and a couple that were just amazing. (And yes, there were a few that were not as good as I’d hoped, and a few I didn’t finish reading.) I’m also doing research for a new writing project (a book that has been impatiently waiting for…
Read MoreSupport Independent Bookstores — Books, Bytes and Beyond in Glen Rock, New Jersey
How can you not love a bookstore that has this as a tagline on their website: Fine Literature for Young People? I can tell just from those words that this is a store that cares about kids and cares about sharing the best in children’s books with them. I haven’t (yet) been to Books, Bytes…
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