Monday, September 14, 2015

Love Learning

One of my greatest joys right now is watching my one year old grand daughter with books.  She LOVES books already.  She enjoys learning new words and putting them with pictures, but she truly takes joy in a story.  She will search the pictures thoroughly while listening to the nuances of voice as the story is read.  She wants to hear it again and again.  There is such eagerness and passion for learning and life.  I see that also in a different way in my college aged daughter, full of joy and eagerness to learn and meet new faces.  I realize, that  joy of discovering is something that you must determine to have as you get older.  It may not come as naturally.  It has to be intentional. I'm thankful to write and illustrate for children because it keeps me in tune with that love of learning and joy of discovering life in new ways. I think E. B. White said it best,  "Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."

Friday, September 4, 2015

Stories That Need To Be Told

I am in the process of rearranging my office/studio and came across several papers containing research I have done for projects yet not tackled.  There are two that strike me as stories that NEED to be told--stories about real life characters that people need to hear about and children need to learn about.  They are now in full view so I don't forget; so I can hear them asking, loud and clear, for their stories to be told.