Social Emotional Learning (SEL) helps children and adults build social skills. After the pandemic, it has become more difficult to improve social skills among students. SEL books for children are more important now than ever! What exactly is SEL? Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for … Read more
You have written your picture book manuscript. It has been revised and it has been through several edits. You are ready to submit your manuscript to an agent or publisher, but there’s one more step. You need to write a query letter. A query letter is a letter written for literary agents or editors asking if … Read more
Picture book activities add fun to the reading experience. We know how to read a picture book, starting with the book cover. Children can tell you the title, author and identify the main character. After taking a picture walk they can predict what the story might be about. Then you are ready to read the … Read more
One of my favorite things to do is reading aloud to children. As a former classroom teacher I read stories aloud several times a week to my class. My love of reading aloud comes from my parents reading stories to me and from my 6th grade teacher. My teacher read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, … Read more
This week I attended two meeting with picture book authors. The topic of conversation was picture book writing with AI. Several authors were impressed by its ability to quickly produce large amounts of content. That is, content that is mostly accurate and mostly grammatically correct. I want to understand AI before deciding if it is … Read more
Tell a Story Day is a day to share our stories. Do you know someone who is a good storyteller? Maybe it was a grandparent, aunt, uncle, a friend or neighbor. The art of telling stories has been passed down through time and we learn how to be a good storyteller by listening to our … Read more
An author’s year in review is an opportunity for authors to look back at their writing life for the past year. Reviews can help you plan next steps for the new year. It is important to focus on what you were able to do rather than the rejections, less than shining critiques or contracts not … Read more
Author school visits build relationships between children and the written word. Meeting authors can inspire children to write and make connections with lessons they are learning in their classrooms. School visits encourage reading and writing for fun and often motivate reluctant or struggling readers and writers. After an author visit, children often see themselves as … Read more
If you love picture books as much as I do then you are going to love the month of November. Picture Book Month is an International Literacy Initiative that celebrates picture books during the month of November. In prior posts I have shared how picture books help develop early literacy skills and several reasons to … Read more
Launching our book, Two Wins for Wiley, this week was an awesome experience. It is also a little scary when you put your book out in the world. We naturally want everyone to love our book, but realistically we know that not everyone will. Reviews are essential, but when you receive 8 requests to review … Read more
