Valentine's Day (A time to love)

Book Suggestions

1. The Hunger Games Trilogy- These three books are wonderful fanatsy stories for Young adults. Imgine a world divided into 13 Distracts that are run by a place called The Capital. In these three books by Suzanne Collins, the author brings this world to life. She combines love, Action, survival and fantasy together. The Three books are called "The Hunger Games.", "Catching Fire." and "Mocking Jay." The books are written so well that your teen will not put them down.
2. Knuffle Bunny Free- This is the last picture book in a trilogy by Mo Williams. Trixie loves her stuffed bunny, but she always seems to lose him somewhere. The other two books are called "Knuffle Bunny" and "Knuffle Bunny Too." They both got Caldecott Honers. The illustratuions combine drawings with photos. I bet your children will want you read these books over and over again. I bet you remember the stuffed animal that you loved as child. I had a large yellow duck who I gave lots of love too. These books will not only touch that child hidden deep inside us all, but it will also touch our children. I highly recommend that you sit in front of your fireplace with that special child on your lap and read these books together.
3. The Giver- A Newbery Medal winner in 1994, this book by Lois Lowry is a true classic for your child to read and is required reading in many schools. Mrs. Lowry wrote about a perfect world where everything is under control and each person is assigned a role in this communuty. Every kind of pain, fear and plessure of life is held by one person. Jonas a 12 year old boy is asigned to train with the giver. His whole life as he knows is about to fall apart. I think that this book has many layers to it. It is a great read for everyone. It  can cause a deep discussion with your child. So please take a moment to get your children off the TV, computer or Video game system start a family book club instead. Your children will thank you.  

Valentine's day (A time to Love)

    This is a tough topic to write about but I will try my best. We are all humans and connected under the circle of life. It is very important to love everyone. Valetine's day celebrates the love of each other. It takes place everyday. I will connect this love to our children book writing. We write because we love it.
     Writing is a very tough business and not many authors make it. It is this love and spark inside us that keeps us going. We love to create worlds and characters. We love to have control of what we are doing. We love to make children happy and engulfed inside a great book. Yet we have competetion from society. We are against Video games, computers and the digital age. It is a hard job to get our children's attention. What can we do? We must write the best book we can. It must be so good that they will open it once and never put it down until it ends.
    How can we do this? We must have a first line that catches their attentiion right away. The book must have a realistic charecter and fresh idea. I strongly believe that we write books because we love it. In most cases it is not about the money, but about the child. Keep on writing, never give up. I want end this post with a story of love between a boy and a stuffed duck.
   I was eight years old when a friend of the family's was in hospital very sick. Before she went in she brought a yellow stuffed duck with these wonderful large blue eyes. She got it for me, and did not have time to give him. It was only on the hospital bed that she got a chance to give me this gift. I fell in love with him right away. I called him ducky. I gave him food, he slept in my bed at night and when I went away to camp I told my mom "Please take care of him while I am gone." I was attached to this stuffed animal like he was my own son. It was years later I put him away.
    This is great example of what we think of our books. I am quoting an editor "Manuscripts are like your babies but it our job is to tare them apart." Thank you all and Happy Valentine's day.