HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Every year at holiday time I get out our collection of creches, or nativity scenes, that we have accumulated over the years.  They come from all over the world and often have memories of travels associated with them. This year we have a new nativity to add to our collection, charming tiny ceramic figures made by Thun, in Borzano, Italy. It was brought to us by a friend from Italy and is a reminder of two special trips we made to Italy in the past year. 

I am looking forward to celebrating the holidays with family and friends. With very best wishes to you for a

HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON!

40th FOCAL AWARD LUNCHEON, honoring the book Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix

Illustrator Man One, and authors Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee of Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix, winner of the 2019 FOCAL Award

Saturday, December 14th was the 40th FOCAL award luncheon, a gala event which, each year, honors a children’s book celebrating California. FOCAL (Friends of Children and Literature) is the support group of the Los Angeles Public Library Children’s Book Department. I enjoy attending every year and this was no exception.

Caroline Gill, President of FOCAL

The 2019 FOCAL award went to the wonderful picture book Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee and illustrated by Man One. Both authors and the illustrator came to the luncheon and told how they worked together to create the book in an entertaining and informative presentation. It was great to see how they had captured the look and feel of LA’s diverse communities and the life and personality of Chef Roy Choi.

Art teacher Ray Moszkowics and his students from Noble Middle School

The luncheon was held at the Border Grill in downtown Los Angeles, a restaurant conveniently located just one block from the Central Library. Tables were decorated with creative centerpieces made the students of art teacher Ray Moszkowicz at Nobel Middle School. They depicted tiny replicas of Roy Choi’s famous food trucks amid the towering skyscrapers of Los Angeles.

Essay winner Elizabeth Bijleveld and one of the centerpieces

Also on display were the puppets made by Jesse Kingsley and Moira Lael Macdonald. This year there were four puppets–one each for the authors and illustrator, and another for the library collection. During the beginning of the luncheon a review of all the previous FOCAL winners and accompanying puppets played on a screen behind the podium.

Jesse Kingsley, creator of the Chef Roy Choi puppets

Highlights of the program included the welcome by FOCAL President Caroline Gill, the election of new officers, recognition of three founding members of FOCAL, Sandy Schuckett, Lara Clardy and Renny Day, who are still actively involved in the FOCAL programs, a delicious lunch, the reading of the essays by contest winners Antonio Chow, Elizabeth M.C. Bijleveld and Ariana Perez, the introduction of the award winning authors and illustrator by Meredith McGowan, the FOCAL Award Committee chair, the puppet presentation, and of course the presentations by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, June Jo Lee and Man One.

Student essay winners Ariana Perez, grade 8, Elizabeth Bijleveld, grade 5, and Antonio Chow, grade 4

Unfortunately, the restaurant was unusually busy and noisy, which often made it difficult to hear, especially when the contest winners were reading their essays. The essays will be published in the next issue of FOCAL Points, providing another chance to appreciate the excellent work done by the students and their teachers.

June Jo Lee

In order to be awarded the FOCAL book award, the book must be of the highest literary and artistic quality, and must have California content. I know how hard it is to choose a winner–I served on the committee for four years. This year’s choice is excellent and a fitting book to celebrate FOCAL’s 40th anniversary.

Founding FOCAL members Renny Day, Lara Clardy and Sandy Schuckett

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE: Where Do Book Ideas Come From?

I never know where the idea for my next book is going to come from. In this case, it was a chance encounter as I browsed a volume of my encyclopedia.

I saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco for the first time more than fifty years ago, when I helped my parents move from their home in Minneapolis to Marin County in Northern California. The bridge's enormous orange towers and soaring cables suspended over the deep water of the channel below made a big impression on me–it was both a thing of beauty and a triumph of engineering. My fascination with the bridge grew as I made regular visits to my parents.
In 1985, nearly twenty-five years after my first acquaintance with the bridge I was at home in Los Angeles working on a new book. While I was looking up a fact for that book in the “G” volume of the encyclopedia, I happened upon an article about the Golden Gate Bridge. I started reading and discovered that the construction of the bridge had been completed in 1937. I realized that in two years the bridge would be turning fifty, and most likely there would be a big celebration. It was the perfect time to write a book about the bridge. So I did. That book, THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, was published by Franklin Watts in 1986, just in time to go into school and public libraries so kids could learn about the famous bridge that connects San Francisco to Marin County and northern California.The book is now long out of print, but may be in some libraries.

The Golden Gate Bridge celebrated another milestone, its 75th birthday, in 2012. You can read about it at my travel blog, The Intrepid Tourist. In just eighteen more years, the bridge will be 100!

TRAPPED IN TAR: Fossils from the Ice Age–the Perfect Holiday Gift for Your Young Fossil Lover

Ice Age fossils of mammoths, sabertooth cats, dire wolves and more, discovered in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and displayed in the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries. TRAPPED IN TAR: Fossils from the Ice Age tells the story behind the fossils and about life in the Ice Age when these animals were alive and examines the work of the paleontologists who excavate and study them. During the Ice Age, over 400 different kinds of animals lived on the grassy plain that is now Los Angeles. Then, as now, pools of tar sometimes seeped to the surface of the earth. Unwary animals stepped into the sticky tar and were trapped. There they died. Gradually their bones sank to the bottom of the tar seep. In time, the tar penetrated the bones and preserved them. This book tells the story of the Rancho La Brea fossils and examines the work of the paleontologists who excavate and study them at the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles, California.

TRAPPED IN TAR is available at Amazon for $9.95 (paperback.) It is the perfect introduction to a trip to the La Brea Tar Pits or as a vicarious visit from afar. It is also available as an e-book.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Hope you will have a fun and yummy Turkey Day!
The illustration is from one of my first cut-paper art books Who Has More? Who Has Fewer? On one side of this folding book for tots, children count the eggs of seven kinds of birds. On the reverse side, the chicks have hatched!

ANIMAL PRINTS AND CARDS--Perfect for Holiday Giving

My prints and cards are still available from my Etsy site (www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt) and make an ideal gift for the holiday season. Each image is a high-quality giclee print of one of the cut-paper art illustrations from my Day and Night books or my Animal World series.
Take a look and check it out!

AAAS/SUBARU Children's Science Picture Book Award--Short List

I am happy to learn that BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6 is on the short list for the AAAS/Subaru Children's Science Picture Book Award short list.

AAAS and Subaru are proud to announce the finalists for the 2020 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Children’s Science Picture Book category. The Prize celebrates outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults and is meant to encourage the writing and publishing of high-quality science books for all ages. Longlists for all four categories were announced in October.

The 2020 winner will be selected from among the following finalists.

• Butterflies in Room 6: See How They Grow, by Caroline Arnold. Charlesbridge, 2019.
  Follow a classroom of real kindergartners as they participate in a popular activity: raising butterflies. Astonishing photographs show the life cycle of the painted lady butterfly, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to adult. Engaging text captures the children’s wonder and explains the science behind metamorphosis.
• Follow That Bee! A First Book of Bees in the City, by Scot Ritchie. Kids Can Press, 2019.
  This playful book mixes narration, facts and appealing illustrations to introduce young children to why the world needs bees, and how people can help them thrive. The book encourages children to look closer at the natural world around them, including in cities, and raises their awareness about how each person can do something to help the environment.
• Moth: An Evolution Story, by Isabel Thomas. Illustrated by Daniel Egnéus. Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2019.
  A clever picture book text about the extraordinary way in which animals have evolved, intertwined with the complication of human intervention. This remarkable retelling of the story of the peppered moth is the perfect introduction to natural selection and evolution for children.
• When Sue Found Sue: Sue Hendrickson Discovers Her T. Rex, by Toni Buzzeo. Illustrated by Diana Sudyka. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2019.
  From a very young age, Sue Hendrickson was meant to find things: lost coins, perfume bottles, even hidden treasure. Her endless curiosity eventually led to her career in diving and paleontology, where she would continue to find things big and small. In 1990, at a dig in South Dakota, Sue made her biggest discovery to date: Sue the T. rex, the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever unearthed.

AAAS will provide resources based the 2020 finalists, and once again the books will be offered to schools across the country as part of the Subaru Loves Learning initiative. Through this partnership between AAAS and Subaru, more than 91,000 books were donated in 2019.

Winners will be announced in January and awarded at the 2020 AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle, W.A., February 13-16, 2020.

WRITING and ART PROJECTS REINFORCE READING: Preparing for an Author Visit

Cut-paper sloths and penguins circled the space for my slide presentation.

I am always impressed by the wonderful activities teachers and librarians do with their students as they prepare for an author visit. By the time the children come to my presentation they are excited to meet me and love hearing me talk about books they have already become familiar with.

Children listed their favorite penguin facts from my book A Penguin's World. Cotton balls decorate their cut out penguins.

On my recent trip to northern California for the Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival, I visited Arcata Christian School (K-8.) Every wall in the room where I presented was covered with projects the children had done after reading my books. From poems and reports to drawings and cut-paper art, the children’s creativity was evident everywhere.

Teacher Vicki Childress and her butterfly cake. Colored festival posters decorate the walls.

I thank all their teachers, especially Vicki Childress, for doing such a great job preparing the students. Vicki coordinated my visit and made a special cake decorated with a beautiful image of a painted lady butterfly. She told me that she looked at the photographs in my book, Butterflies in Room 6, to make sure every part of the butterfly was accurate. After lunch, I cut the first slice and the cake was just as delicious as it looked. Later in the day, the students all received a piece as well. I know that the children will have fond memories of “Author Day” not only because of the cake, but because of all the projects they did in connection with my books. Here are a few samples:

First and Second graders read Wiggle and Waggle and wrote about their favorite part.

The children read and illustrated all four of my Habitat books, using my cut-paper technique. These are some of their pictures inspired by A Day and Night in the Forest.

Mountain lion. Older students made drawings of their favorite animals and wrote pyramid poems (directions are on my website.)

Jaguar. Younger students wrote haikus about their favorite animal.

Transparent butterflies decorated the sliding door.

A coloring page with theme art from the festival helped to build excitement for the bi-annual event.

AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books

I have just learned that Butterflies in Room 6 has made it to the longlist for the 2020 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Children’s Science Picture Book category! The book is one of eight books that were selected. Out of this list, the judges will chose four finalists. 

The Prize celebrates outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults and is meant to encourage the writing and publishing of high-quality science books for all ages. I am so pleased and honored to have my book on this list.

DIVE INTO BOOKS: Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival 2019

The theme this year at the Humboldt County Children's Author Festival, Eureka, CA, was Dive Into Books

I am just home from the bi-annual Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival in Eureka, California, and it was as fabulous as ever. This was my seventh time to participate, and each time it gets better and better. The theme this year was Dive into Books. A giant octopus welcomed people to the library on the day of the book signing.

With my cut-paper illustrations  at the Morris Graves Museum of Art

The four day festival (October 16-19)  included author visits to schools, a gala banquet, book signing at the library, and an exhibition of children’s book art at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. I had two pieces of original art from my book A Day and Night in the Rain Forest in the exhibit.

The Morris Graves Museum of Art is located in the beautifully restored Carnegie Library building

On the opening day of the festival there is always a welcome reception for the authors and volunteers at the museum--a chance to see the art exhibit, to meet the wonderful volunteers who organize the festival and to mingle with the other authors. This year there were 25 of us!

Display of my books at Jacoby Creek School

Thursday and Friday are devoted to author visits in the schools and I had two wonderful school visits. The first was to Jacoby Creek School (grades K-8.) Librarian Marci Barker had done a great job preparing the students. I spoke to two groups of students in the morning, then had a delicious lunch from the restaurant across the street from the school, and then two presentations after lunch.

Joan Williams, Festival volunteer; Marci Barker, Librarian at Jacoby Creek School; Evelyn Bertell, my driver to the schools.

My driver for both days was Evelyn Bertell, an enthusiastic supporter of the Author Festival and whose children attend Jacoby Creek. On Friday afternoon, after we finished, she took me for a lovely walk at the bird sanctuary in Arcata.

Student performers and Alexis O'Neill, whose book The Recess Queen was one of the stories performed.

Thursday evening at the festival is always a potluck dinner (yummy food provided by the many festival volunteers) followed by a Readers Theater performance by students from the arts high school in Arcata, who did a brilliant presentation, weaving together stories by three of the Festival Authors and a book by Festival Committee member Byrd Lochtie, based on a story her mother told her when she was a child.

With Vicki Childress, teacher at Arcata Christian School

On Friday morning I went to Arcata Christian School where I did three presentations, one to the kindergarteners in their room, one to grades 1-4, and another to grades 5-8. Teacher Vicki Childress coordinated my visit and did a great job, including making a most impressive cake decorated with a large painted lady butterfly. The children in all the classes did artwork and writing projects that filled the walls in the room where I was presenting.

The Ingomar Club where the banquet was held

On Friday evening everyone gathered at the Ingomar Club (the historic Carson mansion) for a gala dinner. Entertainment was from the authors–each of us got three minutes at the podium--a challenge to decide what to say, but everyone always manages to be entertaining and different. Our timekeeper was Shirley Santino--dressed in keeping with the undersea theme.

Shirley Santino with her undersea props

The final event of the Authors Festival is a book signing on Saturday at the beautiful county library. Many thanks to Eureka Books for ordering and supplying all the books! We all wear our festival t-shirts as we chat with visitors and autograph books.

With author Mary Nethery at the book signing at the library

I do many author events but nothing is quite like the Humboldt County Children's Author festival. I can’t give enough thanks to all the people who put so many hours into planning and coordinating all the different moving parts. (The Festival website has a complete list of these amazing people and much more.) You all do a fantastic job! Thank you for making me a part of this unique and wonderful festival!

Theme poster for the festival.

GLENDALE ASSISTANCE LEAGUE, Author Visit to Monte Vista Elementary, Glendale, CA

Signing books at Monte Vista Elementary School, Glendale, CA

On Monday, a week ago, I was one of five authors visiting classrooms at Monte Vista Elementary School in Glendale, California. The day was sponsored and organized by the wonderful hard working volunteers of the Glendale Assistance League, a service organization that arranges four such events in the Glendale schools every year. My fellow authors at Monte Vista were Carter Higgins, Tim Egan, Vincent X. Kirsch, and Julie Berry, each of us assigned to a different grades. It is so nice for the authors to have the support of all the volunteers--from guiding us to the classrooms, doing introductions, providing us with a delicious lunch and organizing the book sale after school.
I spoke to students in first and second grade, going to four classrooms during the day. I was pleased that the children in the classrooms I visited were so responsive. They were excited to hear about my new book Butterflies in Room 6 and were amazed to see how tiny the butterfly eggs are. I also read part of my book Wiggle and Waggle and we all sang the Wiggle and Waggle song together. I also shared my book A Day and Night in the Rain Forest and demonstrated how I create my cut paper art illustrations. At the end of the day I joined all of the authors in the auditorium for the book sale and signing.

Monte Vista has received the Gold Ribbon School award

I thank all the members of the Glendale Assistance League that make this program possible for the children of Glendale. I especially thank Karen Saunders for inviting me to be part of the visit to Monte Vista and Linelle Vincenti for organizing the schedule of the day, and Maureen Palacios of Once Upon a Time bookstore for providing the books for the book sale.

Monte Vista Elementary School

I do many author days, but usually speak to large groups of children. It was a treat to be in the classroom with smaller groups and have the opportunity for a more personal interaction with the children. Not only does the Assistance League provide the children of Glendale with the opportunity to meet authors and illustrators, but it also gives funds to the schools to purchase books for the library and classrooms. Thank you Glendale Assistance League for a wonderful Authors and Illustrators Day and for your support of books and reading in the Glendale community. I know it takes a lot of preparation! The schools of Glendale are very lucky to have you!

SCBWI BOOKSTOP Promotion Now Live!

I have created a page for my book Butterflies in Room 6 on the SCBWI BookStop site. BookStop features new titles in 2019 by SCBWI members.
BookStop will go live to the book-buying public on Tuesday, October 8 through Cyber Monday on November 25. The goal is to give new books by SCBWI members the exposure they deserve during peak holiday buying season.
Check it out and leave a comment!
 

Los Angeles Times Guide to READING BY 9

Each time a child picks up a book, he or she enters a world of learning. It doesn’t matter if the main character is a boy wizard, a famished caterpillar or a fancy young girl who dreams of Paris. The key to building a strong foundation in literacy is allowing children to pick up the books they love. When children read, they discover new places and new ideas and develop literacy skills they will continue to use as they make their way through high school and beyond. 

Check out the 2019 Los Angeles Times Guide to Reading by 9, a bilingual guide for parents to developing reading habits and skills with their children. It it includes a short list of recommended books, links to articles about reading, and more. And, you'll find connections to Los Angeles libraries--the best source to find all the books you want to read!

BEDTIME STORY JAM: Author Visit at Westwood Elementary School, Los Angeles, CA

Banner displaying participating authors' books welcomed families to the Bedtime Story Jam

Last Friday evening the children of Westwood Charter Elementary in Los Angeles, California, came to school dressed in their pajamas ready to listen to stories from me and nine other children’s book authors as part of the school's annual Bedtime Story Jam. The goal of the event is promoting literacy and inspiring young story tellers and writers. In between sessions the children ate milk and cookies and browsed for books at the book fair in the library.

My presentation of Butterflies in Room 6 was in Room 4

This was my third time to participate in this fun celebration of reading. I had two groups of very enthusiastic children and their parents in my room. I showed slides, read my book Butterflies in Room 6, shared my butterfly growing supplies and samples of butterfly eggs and chrysalises, and signed books.

My butterfly habitat, caterpillar container, and samples showing butterfly development

I thank Shelby, my volunteer room host, for helping me to set up, introducing me, and for making sure that everything ran smoothly. Shelby’s aunt, who I have known for many years at the library at Palms Middle School, was also there and it was great to catch up on library news.

A young helper is demonstrating my Monarch Butterfly hand puppet.

I also thank Angie Rowe and Patricia Maynard and the Bedtime Story Jam committee for inviting me and organizing this festive event. Afterward they sponsored a reception on the library patio for the authors-- a wonderful chance to relax, chat with other authors and enjoy delicious food. And I thank Mrs. Nelson’s Book Fair Company for supplying my books for the event. I was pleased to see that so many had already been purchased by the night of the Story Jam.

Bedtime Story Jam banner

During the course of the evening I saw several families I knew and enjoyed meeting many other students and parents. Westwood Charter is one of my neighborhood schools and it is always a pleasure to be part of a local event.

SHADOWS ON A WALL: The Autobiographical Writings of Lester Lewis Scheaffer (edited by Caroline Arnold) now an ebook at Amazon

My father's memoir, SHADOWS ON A WALL: The Autobiographical Writings of Lester Lewis Scheaffer, is finally up at Amazon as an ebook. (I am the editor.) These are poems and essays about his family, growing up in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s, and a few stories about his life as a settlement house worker. If you enjoyed reading his story, Celebration at Tea Lake (about the memorable family celebration of my parents' 13th wedding anniversary) that I recently posted at my travel blog (The Intrepid Tourist), you may enjoy reading his other stories too.
The title of the book comes from a quote by Wallace Stegner, saved by my father in a folder he called "food for thought."
I was reminded of a remark of Willa Cather's, that you can't paint sunlight, you can only paint what it does with shadows on a wall. If you examine a life, as Socrates has been so tediously advising us to do for so many centuries, do you really examine the life, or do you examine the shadows it casts on other lives? Entity or relationships? Objective reality or the vanishing point of a multiple perspective exercise? Prism or the rainbows it refracts? And what if you're the wall? What if you never cast a shadow or a rainbow of your own, but have only caught those cast by others?
Wallace Stegner, THE SPECTATOR BIRD, p. 162

My father passed away in 1994. Here is the editor's note I wrote when I published a paper copy of the book in 1996:

            My father, Les Scheaffer, began this project in the late 1980's after the completion of his book Lutie and Mercy Ann, A Story of the Lockridge-Gibson Family 1875-1918, an historical account of the lives of his maternal grandparents.  The new book was to be a collection of his writings about his own life--poems, essays and stories--that focused on his family, childhood, school and early social work experiences.  Some of the pieces had been written as part of a creative writing class at the College of Marin, others were occasional pieces and some were created specifically for this project.  Two of the stories are about Camp Bovey, perhaps the greatest achievement of his life.  He once wrote, “But if there was a contest I think I would win: Camp Bovey, seventeen summers!  That was my great luck and my great love.” 

            From the earliest years of his life my father was a saver and keeper of records.  Many of his writings include excerpts from diaries, letters and notebooks or were inspired by them.  In all the pieces in this book as well as his other creative writing he always had the support and encouragement of my mother who was his “in house” editor and critic.  Some of the later stories are about experiences they shared.

            Born in 1914 at the beginning of World War I, my father’s life encompassed the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and tumult of the 1960s, moving from the Midwest, to the East Coast, back to the Midwest and finally to California.

            When my father died on May 1, 1994, he had made the final corrections on most entries but he had not yet begun assembling the book.  That job has fallen to me.  Not knowing exactly how he planned to organize the book, I have chosen to arrange the pieces chronologically and by theme.  Although I have listed myself as editor, I have changed as little as possible.  I have made a few spelling and punctuation corrections and, in a few cases, I’ve changed some words for clarity.  As far as I could tell he had not yet selected a title for the book, so I borrowed Shadows on the Wall from the Wallace Stegner quotation that he had chosen to be part of the book under a category he called “Food for Thought.”  The “shadows” in this book are vivid and multifaceted and tell us a great deal about the man that was my father.  We are fortunate that my father had the desire to tell the stories of his life and that he had the gift of telling them so well.  This book is a portrait of what it was like to grow up in a small Midwestern city in the 1920's and 30's and a glimpse into the lives of settlement workers just before and during World War II.  But that is not why he wrote it.  He wrote this book “for the kids” so that we might know a little of what made him the person he was.  For that I am glad.

                                                            Caroline Scheaffer Arnold

                                                            October 1996

 

LIVING FOSSILS now available in Paperback!

LIVING FOSSILS: Clues to the Past (Charlesbridge, 2016) is now available in paperback! Hurray! I'm glad to have a paperback edition that will help expand the audience for this book. The book is still available in hardcover and as a digital book (Kindle) as well.

Meet the coelacanth, horseshoe crab, dragonfly, tuatara, nautilus, and Hula painted frog. All are living fossils, or modern-day animals that very closely resemble their ancient relatives. Why have they changed so little over time, while other animals evolved or went extinct? Using contrasting "then" and "now" illustrations, veteran nonfiction writer Caroline Arnold alternates between a prehistoric creature in its native environment and its contemporary living-fossil counterpart.

Prizes and Awards

NYPL Recommends: New Nonfiction for Kids Bibliofile July 15, 2016 CRA Eureka Silver Award, 2016

ARTS ALIVE! Children's Book Illustrations at the MORRIS GRAVES MUSEUM OF ART, Eureka, CA

Illustration from A Day and Night in the Rain Forest, pp. 6-7

Illustration from A Day and Night in the Rain Forest, pp. 8-9

I am pleased to have two of my cut paper illustrations from my book A Day and Night in the Rain Forest currently on exhibit at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California, as part of the bi-annual Humboldt County Author Festival. 

Select works from participating illustrators, along with copies of their books, demonstrate the processes of illustration in children’s literature.  The art exhibit will be on view from September 7 through October 27, Wednesday–Sunday, 12:00–5:00. School groups can book tours for a personal look with one of the museum docents. Many thanks to Lucy Quinby on the Author Festival Committee and Jemima Harr, Executive Director-Curator of the Humboldt Arts Council, for organizing the exhibit. I am glad to have my work included in this exhibit. If you are going to be in Eureka during this time, please stop by and see the show! 

Along with 25 other authors and illustrators, I will be participating in the Author Festival, October 16-19, 2019, visiting schools, signing books at the library, and enjoying being with friends and book lovers in beautiful Humboldt County.  I always look forward to it!  For more information about the festival click here.