Imagination Abounds in The Green Umbrella

I'm honored and excited today to be the last stop on the blog tour for the new picture book The Green Umbrella, written by debut author Jackie Azúa Kramer and illustrated by the talented Maral Sassouni. As a special treat, after you read this post, head over to Maria's Movers to read dance educator Maria Hanley's ideas for incorporating movement into a reading of this imaginative and heartwarming book!

We've lived in northern California for about three and a half years, and it's rained more in the past two months than it has in all the other months we've lived here combined. That's a lot of much-needed rain for California...and why I especially appreciate the timing of The Green Umbrella's publication by NorthSouth Books. Given that this is the rainy (or snowy) season in many parts of the country and even some parts of the world, I'm sure I'm not the only one who can relate to the opening scene of the book...

One rainy day an Elephant was taking a walk with his green umbrella.

Hopefully the children who read this book (or who have it read to them) will also relate to how imaginative the characters in the book are. Besides the elephant, there's a hedgehog, a cat, a bear, and an old rabbit -- and each has a different idea of what the green umbrella actually is.

Along came a Hedgehog.

"Excuse me," said the Hedgehog. "I believe you have my boat."

"Your what?" asked the Elephant.

The hedgehog thinks the umbrella's a boat, the cat says it's a tent, the bear is sure it's his flying machine, and the old rabbit is convinced it's a cane. It's not clear if the animals actually believe the umbrella is the objects they mention, or whether they are just being imaginative. But honestly, it doesn't really matter, and therein lies the beauty of this book. Children, after all, play with their stuffed animals as if they are alive, and some even have imaginary friends. Who are we to tell them what is real and what is not, when their minds are so active and their inner worlds so rich.

Through the imagination of illustrator Maral Sassouni, several little mice also appear and re-appear throughout the book, carrying warm-colored umbrellas of their own to contrast nicely with the cool green of the elephant's umbrella. Young children are so good at picking up all the artistic details in picture books, so I'm sure they'll enjoy searching for, and maybe even counting, all the mice they see.

In addition to being imaginative in its writing and illustration, The Green Umbrella is likely to spark the imaginations of its readers. You could help this process along by asking a young reader "What else could we use a green umbrella for?" Or you could brainstorm other everyday objects such as, let's say, a cooking pot. You could ask the reader to think about what else a cooking pot could be. A baseball cap? A drum? A bed for a small animal? The possibilities are endless!

This book could also be a great springboard for creating movement. I can imagine preschoolers or a class of young dancers moving as if they are boats, tents, or flying machines. I'm sure Maria Hanley from Maria's Movers has some other great ideas for movement, which you can check out here.

And even though this post focuses on imagination, The Green Umbrella also includes strong themes of friendship and generosity -- all of which you can see in this fantastic book trailer. Watch the trailer, pick up a copy of the book, and let your imagination soar along with it!

An Interview with Author Judy Cook

Last time I blogged it was related to dancing dinosaurs. And guess what? My post today is about dancing dinosaurs, too! Canadian author and dancer Judy Cook is here with me to answer some questions about her debut picture book When Dinosaurs Go Dancing, recently published by FriesenPress and a great blend of rhythm, rhyme, dance, and science!

Thanks for joining us, Judy! I'd love to hear more about your background in dance. When did your passion for dance begin and where has it taken you professionally?

I started dancing when I was a child at Sonia’s Dancing Academy in Saskatoon. I seemed to have a special talent for tap dancing, and after receiving a trophy for “the most outstanding tap performer” at a dance festival, I was hooked. A little praise goes a long way!

I kept taking jazz, tap, and ballet classes and even helped my teacher Sonia Fabian in teaching little kids. When I finished high school, I decided to continue my studies at the dance college at Ryerson University in Toronto. I had found my path in life! 

I was so happy in Toronto because I had found a group of people who loved dance as much as I did. I was dancing from morning until night. I would even come to the campus on the weekends for extra ballet classes. After graduating, I auditioned for stage shows and began dancing professionally on TV and in shows around the Toronto area.

I was in a show at the Skyline Hotel for a year and then decided to go to Winnipeg when I was accepted for an apprentice position with Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers. I danced with them as an apprentice for a year and then started a theatre company “Canadian Content Theatre” with some theatrical friends of mine. We travelled and performed all around Canada with that company for over 15 years. 

That’s when we created our show “Listen to the Bones.” It was a musical theatre show all about dinosaurs and was initially in collaboration with a touring Dinosaur Alive exhibit that was at the Manitoba Children’s Museum for a summer.  

What an interesting path that led you to dancing, theatre...and eventually dinosaurs! How did you come up with the idea for When Dinosaurs Go Dancing?

The book title is from a song in our “Listen to the Bones” musical. There is a dance I still do with the kindergarten-grade 2 students.  I have been doing this dance for years in the schools, and the students have always loved it. I kept thinking that somebody should write a book based on this song, but when I realized that I was probably the only person who would ever do it.....I started jotting down ideas for the book.   

It’s always fun to learn more about debut authors and their paths to publication. What was yours like? Did it happen quickly or was it a long road?

It was a long road for me…..12 years. I didn’t know how a person went about publishing a book. I was talking to an old school chum from Saskatoon about my idea. His kids had loved our dinosaur song “Listen to the Bones” when they were growing up. He took out a cheque book and made out a cheque to me for $5,000! He laughingly said that if I make a million I can pay him back some day. So that’s how I got the money to pay an illustrator, and that’s how I met Sonia Nadeau, who is now a dear friend of mine! I also went to a publishing workshop at Humber College in Toronto, so I went into the project with wide-open eyes, realizing that it was very difficult to sell a lot books, and even to make back your money, especially if you are trying to do it yourself.  

 Because you chose to self-publish your book through FriesenPress, you needed to find an illustrator on your own, as you have alluded to. How did you find Sonia Nadeau?

Yes….after I got the money I looked around for an illustrator from Winnipeg, and when I saw Sonia’s work I immediately knew she was perfect for the book project. 

For most traditionally published picture books, the authors and illustrators don’t interact much during the publication process. What was your relationship with Sonia Nadeau like as the book was coming together?

Because I was used to collaborating with other artists in all the previous creative work I had done and because I was so close to the dinosaur material for so-o-o many years, I just knew I needed a more hands-on approach with the illustrator. Sonia was also close to the material because she had a job in a day care and just by chance had been using our music with the kids in her classes for six years! I went to her day care….we recorded the kids dancing to the music, and she used the video for some of the inspiration for her drawings. I also knew I wanted the dinosaurs to be taken from scientific renditions, and Sonia has a friend who draws dinosaurs for encyclopedias, so every dinosaur in the book was drawn that way! We share a particular sense of humour, and we had lots of meetings and were on the same page from the start. She is a delight to work with and I hope we can do it again soon!

I read in your bio at the back of When Dinosaurs Go Dancing that you conduct workshops in schools through several different arts programs. Can you tell us more about those workshops?

I have created a theatrical dance program for schools in which the students and I choreograph together and all the classes perform for each other at the end of the week. I work with some students who have extensive dance backgrounds mixed with some others who have none. It’s my challenge to help create and guide the students to show off everybody’s talents. That’s where my theatre training comes in handy. If somebody in the class has a special talent, we just choreograph it into our piece. My objective is for everyone to have a positive experience with the art form of dance! I was also the dance specialist for a two-year research project creating a dance program focusing on children with fetal alcohol syndrome in the Norway House Cree Nation, and was part of a panel to share the research at a world arts festival (VSA) held in Washington, DC. I have had very positive experiences creating dance programs for children with disabilities.

How do you incorporate the book into your workshops for children?

I have just started to do readings in schools, and I have taken parts from the musical and adapted them to do fun scenes with the kids. The kids become newsboys in a scene that’s set to music and based on when people first began to discover dinosaur fossils.

There is also a hand dance "Back in Time” set to a music soundscape. I can use the same music with the kids for creative transformations….We theatrically change from being the wind…..to becoming a fish…..to flying like a pteranodon. It’s all great for workshop material. The kids can work together and make different dinosaurs out of their bodies while learning to be cooperative and work together as a group.

My partner Rubin Kantorovich and I recently co-wrote a new song called the "Bruce Rap." It’s all about the mosasaur I mention in my book. When I was doing a school workshop, I gave a verse to each group of four-to-six kids to work on, and they learned the words and choreographed cool moves to go along with it. Then they performed it for another class! They LOVED that activity!

The fossil skeleton of the mosasaur is on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Manitoba. FriesenPress's printing press is located in Altona -- a town close to the fossil museum. They printed 2,000 copies of the book for a big giveaway at the Altona Sunflower Festival this year. It was so fun to be able to give books away and not have to worry about making my money back. That was a fun event AND they gave me 250 free paperback copies that I can sell!   

Sonia and I also had a book launch at the fossil museum. I did the dance with the kids, Sonia gave an illustration workshop along with the reading, and we premiered the “Bruce Rap" song.

What great ways to promote the book! Through all of these activities, have you found any parts of the book that resonate the most with children and their caregivers?

I think the younger children enjoy the rhyme in the first part of the book and their older brothers and sisters like the dinosaur and fossil facts in the second part. They all love Sonia’s beautiful illustrations, and the dancers connect to all the dance-related parts. 

What other book projects might you have in the works? Any more dancing dinosaurs on the horizon? 

I would love to do another book with Sonia. I’d like to do a teacher’s guide, too. Right now I’m working on trying to find ways to distribute the book to school and public libraries. Some of my friends who are teachers have told me they have used the book in their classes and are having a lot of fun with it. 

Sonia and I just found out some more positive news. The Mom’s Choice Awards has named When Dinosaurs go Dancing among the best in family-friendly media, products, and services. I’m hoping that will help us promote the book.

Congratulations. That's fantastic news! And thanks for sharing more about your journey with us today!

Thanks so much for this opportunity. It’s fun to share with people the background of how it all came together. I have learned so much about the book business by doing this project, and maybe my story will help inspire someone else out there to keep their dreams alive and perhaps create their own book!

To learn more about Judy and When Dinosaurs Go Dancing, you can check out the book's launch page through the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. You can also follow Judy on Twitter here.

Booking Across the USA: Maryland!

About five years ago, I was at a Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) conference in Maryland and attended a breakout session on blogging, presented by local children's authors Wendie Old and Mary Bowman-Kruhm. I went into the session with a vague curiosity about blogging -- but definitely no desire to start doing it myself -- and left with the confidence to try it out, plus the specific idea of blogging about picture books and dance. So in many ways, Wendie Old and Mary Bowman-Kruhm were the impetus for the creation of Picture Books & Pirouettes!

When Jodie from Growing Book by Book asked me to join the third annual Booking Across the USA project this year -- with the theme of celebrating authors or illustrators from each state -- I knew exactly what I had to do...feature Wendie Old and Mary Bowman-Kruhm! They actually collaborated to co-write a couple picture books for very young readers, which I'll feature a little later. But first, here's a bit more about Wendie and Mary as individual authors...

About the Authors

Wendie Old has been a storyteller and children's librarian in Maryland for more than 30 years, during which time she has published numerous short stories and magazine articles, four picture books, and seven middle-grade biographies. Among her picture books are To Fly, which is a biography of the Wright brothers for elementary readers, and Stacy Had a Little Sister, which deals with the serious subject of the death of a sibling. You can read more about Wendie and her books here on her website.

Mary Bowman-Kruhm has written more than 30 books for children and teens, including many educational texts. Her latest book is The Leakeys: A Biography, which explores the lives and scientific discoveries of the famous paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey. In addition to writing, Mary works part-time at the Center for Technology in Education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. You can read more about Mary here on her website.

Picture Book Collaborations

Remember how I mentioned that Wendy and Mary collaborated on a couple picture books for very young readers? The first, called Busy Toes, has quite an interesting story behind it. It was actually a collaboration among three writers -- Wendy, Mary, and a freelance writer named Claudine C. Wirth. Rather than having all three of their names on the cover of the book, they decided to write under the pen name C.W. Bowie, and they wrote and polished much of the manuscript over email rather than in person!

The simple text, with illustrations by Fred Willingham, portrays young girls and boys using their toes in many creative ways. "Tippy toes and dancing toes" is my favorite line in the book, but there are many others, such as "BIG TOES, little toes. / Open toes and closed toes / Waving toes / Tickling toes / Doggy tummy rubbing toes."

The creative team of C.W. Bowie and Fred Willingham also went on to write a sequel -- Busy Fingers. Similar to its predecessor, the book is about all the many things that little fingers can do: "Fingers high / Fingers low. / Fingers reach to touch a toe. / Fingers say, 'I love you.' / Fingers wave good-bye, too." 

Movement Activity

Part of the Booking Across the USA project is to share an activity to go with a featured book. Not surprisingly, I chose a movement activity -- and I created it to go with Busy Fingers. The book actually contains 23 different movements that can be done by little fingers, but I picked out the eight ones that seemed easiest to incorporate into an activity.

After reading the book out loud one time, I suggest going through the following phrases from the book and doing the accompanying movements together with your little ones:

• High: Stretch your arms and fingers up high in the air. This can be done either standing up or sitting down.
• Low: Stretch your arms and fingers low to the ground. This can also be done in any position.
• Reach to touch a toe: If you are standing up, bend over and try to touch your feet with your fingertips. If you are sitting down, stretch your legs out in front of you and try to reach your toes.
• Say 'I love you': Practice saying "I love you" in sign language (see photo below). 

• Wave good-bye: Ask the children to think of different ways you can wave hello or goodbye. You can wave your fingers so that they open and close, or wave them so all the fingers move together from side to side. You can also try using big movements and small movements to wave. Feel free to explore this concept even more and get creative with how you can wave!
• Count: Practice counting to ten using one finger at a time. If this is too easy, you can practice counting by twos with your fingers, or adding numbers with sums of 10 or less.
• Shadows on the wall: Experiment with making shadow puppets with your fingers. If you need some ideas, this YouTube video by professional puppeteer Corina Bona explains how to make some simple shapes like a rabbit, a dog, and a face.
• Blow a kiss goodnight: You and the little ones can blow kisses to each other and practice catching them different ways with your fingers or whole hand. This is a good way to end the main activity.

And finally, if you want to incorporate art into your exploration of this book, there is a perfect stanza that you can re-read to set the children up for some finger painting and cleanup...

Fingers red, fingers green

Fingers soapy

Fingers clean

You can put red paint on one hand and green paint on the other and explore how different finger movements -- pressing, smearing, drawing -- can create different designs. Throughout the activity, be creative, have fun, and discover all the amazing things that your fingers can do!

Click here to access all the posts from the third annual Booking Across the USA project.

Giveaway: Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance!

When I first saw the cover of Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and Dance by Birgitta Sif, I knew it was a picture book I wanted to get my hands on. And when I finally did, I wasn't disappointed. The cover, which I loved from the start, doesn't even do justice to the illustrations inside. Created in muted tones with pencil and digital coloring, they are truly gorgeous! 

Dedicated "to all those who live with all their heart," Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and Dance is a child's journey of overcoming inhibitions to be herself and do what she loves, no matter who might be watching. 

Frances Dean loves to dance. In fact, she loves to dance AND dance (as the title of the book implies.) She especially loves to dance outside, where she can feel the wind and hear the birds around her -- as long as no one is watching, that is. But with the help of her animal friends and another little girl with a big talent, Frances slowly but surely overcomes her self-consciousness. In fact, by the end of the book, she loves to dance and dance AND dance in front of everyone!

Overcoming inhibitions to pursue your passion is an important life lesson, and one that often takes years to learn. I still remember when I was in college, covering up my computer screen any time someone came in the room, for fear that he or she might read what I was writing. Now, many years later, I'm willing to show my writing to just about anyone, eager for feedback and comfortable with criticism. But boy did it take a long time. 

Little Frances Dean, having already overcome similar fears, is well on her way to a happy and healthy life. Although Frances Dean's passion is dance, her story is universal and could be applied to other passions such as music, art, and sports. I hope she can inspire lots of other little girls and boys to follow in her footsteps!

I'm giving away a copy of Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and Dance! Simply leave a comment on this post to enter. Feel free to share your passion, or share a story about overcoming your inhibitions, in your comment. The giveaway closes at 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, September 24, 2014. 

You can learn more about author/illustrator Birgitta Sif at http://www.birgittasif.com or in a recent interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. And finally, thanks to Random House for sending me a review copy of this book. I ended up buying my own copy as well, so receiving the review copy allowed me to host this giveaway. 

An Interview with Author Marlena Zapf: Part I

Earlier this month I attended the annual summer conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), where I   so enjoyed hearing a variety of publication success stories, especially those of debut picture book authors and illustrators like Pat Zietlow Miller and Aaron Becker. Today another debut picture book author   -- Marlena Zapf -- is joining us to tell us about her own unique journey to publication. Marlena's book Underpants Dance, with exuberant illustrations by Lynne Avril, was published by Dial in April of this year. It is the story of Lily McBloom, who loves her brand-new underpants so much that she makes up a special dance to show them off. As it turns outs, she loves her underpants so much that she even takes her fancy new dance on the road -- with both hilarious and heartwarming consequences.

Congratulations on your picture book debut! Can you tell us a little bit about how Underpants Dance came to be?

Of course! When I wrote Underpants Dance and chose not to include an ending in which the protagonist “learns her lesson” in the traditional way, I knew not every editor would be jumping to publish it. So what did I do? Research -- just like SCBWI and every children’s book editor will tell you to do. And it paid off.

Here is what I did. I found out that Steve Meltzer was the Dutton editor for Walter the Farting Dog, and I figured if he likes farting dogs he might be okay with underpants, too. So I followed Dutton’s submission guidelines and sent him a query. He sent back a note asking me to email the manuscript, which I did. Then I waited…almost a whole year. Now, I’ve worked in publishing and know how busy things get. I had a good hunch that the email with my manuscript was lost for good. I also knew that Steve probably had an assistant who read all his mail. So I decided to send a hard copy with a letter politely explaining the situation. Lo and behold, the assistant did find my manuscript, and after some further editorial gymnastics, I ended up with editor Liz Waniewski at Dial and a book contract with my name on it.

Wow. That’s a great story of research and persistence paying off! If we go back in time a little further, what initially inspired you to write Underpants Dance?

I used to be a reading editor at a big school publisher. One thing you need to understand about school publishers is that they put lots of money into developing textbooks that they hope to sell all across the country. And because they need to appeal to a broad market in order to make their sales and not go bankrupt, they can’t offend anybody. So, if a state such as, oh, Texas for instance, declares it won’t acquire any textbooks that include stories about children who defy authority, well then a publisher sure as heck isn’t going to include that kind of story in its program. (Never mind that LOTS can be learned and enjoyed from stories about protagonists who misbehave and make mistakes. Luckily we have awesome librarians to direct kids to those books.) This corporate culture of self-censorship ran counter to my often contrary, somewhat rebellious, nature. And that is where the story of my story begins...

As it happened, I was in this big important publishing meeting where experts were discussing the kinds of stories we should commission. I recall something about well-behaved children who always wear their bicycle helmets and gleefully eat peas…no kidding. Two thoughts went through my mind:

1. What if a REAL child walked into this room right now? These people wouldn’t know what to do with her (especially if she were my cousin’s three-year-old daughter, who was going through her eschewing-any-and-all-clothing phase).

2. What if I jumped up onto the conference table right now and danced in my underpants?

But neither of these things happened. What happened was that I quietly nibbled a dried-up lemon danish and nodded politely while a little girl named Lily McBloom wandered into my thoughts. And she started doing everything that the children in the textbook stories weren’t supposed to do. Then, when the meeting was over, I went back to my desk and wrote the story’s first lines.

Way to go for following your heart! What was the most exciting part of the publication process for you after that?

I guess for me it was when Underpants Dance was finally released. The publication of my first book was a LOOOOOOOOONG process. It was delayed a bunch of times. I think it took about a decade from beginning to end. I’m hoping the publication of my next books won’t take quite so long.

Speaking of your next books, do you have any projects in the works that you can tell us about? I hope they will be in print soon, too!

I’ve written more stories about Lily and Lily’s sister Marigold, but my publisher is waiting to see how Underpants Dance sells before committing to something like a series. This is how publishing works now. So, if you like Underpants Dance and want to see more of Lily, please spread the word!

I’m also working on a middle grade fantasy series inspired by a quote from Joseph Campbell: “There are no models in our mythology for an individual woman’s quest.” Actually, I believe that a new mythology is being created right now, in our time, by authors, storytellers, filmmakers, and especially girls and women themselves. That’s a party I can’t help but join.

If you’d like to hear more from Marlena, stay tuned for Part II of our interview. Next week we’ll be chatting about Marlena's background in movement and how she’ll be incorporating it into her author visits for Underpants Dance!

Dream Big with Skate Dance Dream!

Photo courtesy of Sara Thellman

The U.S. figure skating team has been doing a fabulous job at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, most recently taking home the gold medal in the ice dancing competition. Not surprisingly, figure skating is one of my favorite sports to watch, probably because it has so much in common with dance. Parker Pennington, a former U.S. figure skating champion, thinks so too. “I find them both to be very artistic and athletic,” he told me during a recent interview.

The reason I was interviewing Parker is because he is the founder and executive producer of Skate Dance Dream -- a unique live performance show that fuses figure skating and dance. Parker is a huge fan of the television show So You Think You Can Dance, and two of the past performers on the show -- Sara Von Gillern and Gev Manoukian -- had backgrounds in figure skating. This gave Parker the idea of combining the two art forms into a single performance in which stars team up with young up-and-coming artists.

Skate Dance Dream is also unique in that it caters to the different locations where the performances take place. At each location, about 100 young skaters and dancers from that particular region are cast. The stars, who are finalists from So You Think You Can Dance and Olympic and World Class figure skaters, also change from show to show depending on the locations.

Photo courtesy of Allen Clark Photography

“So you could see break dancers or ballerinas, or you could see a comedy act on ice. You could catch people back flipping or sliding on their heads across the ice,” says Parker. “We are always trying to keep things fresh and innovative while serving to inspire the performance arts community as a whole.”

Skate Dance Dream is a wonderful opportunity for young dancers and skaters who are following their dreams. It actually reminds me of two recent picture books written by another figure skating champion -- Kristi Yamaguchi -- with illustrations by Tim Bowers. The first book, called Dream Big Little Pig!, is about a pig named Poppy who wants to be a star…

“Follow your dreams!” said Poppy’s mother, who loved her no matter what. “You go girl,” said Poppy’s grandparents, who were her biggest fans. “Dream big, pig!” said Poppy’s best friend, Emma, who was always there for her.

With the support of her family and friends, Poppy tries dancing, singing, and modeling before finally realizing that figure skating is where she shines the most. In the book’s sequel, It’s a BigWorld, Little Pig!, Poppy gets to travel to Paris to compete in the World Games, where she meets new friends from around the world and continues to chase her figure skating dreams.

As someone who has chased his own dreams, Parker has some important advice for others like Poppy, whether they are pursuing figure skating or dance. “Be confident yet humble, work hard, realize you will experience ups and downs in your personal journey, listen to your coaches and teachers, and push yourself to be the best you can be,” he says. “Always come back to why you do what you do…because you love it! That passion will drive all and will help you get through anything. Last but not least, don’t forget to dream big!”

The next stops on the Skate Dance Dream tour are Mentor, Ohio, on April 12, 2014; Charleston, South Carolina, on July 19, 2014; and Dayton, Ohio, on September 6, 2014. For ticket information, to learn more about the show, or to sign youth up for auditions, visit www.skatedancedream.com. And keep dreaming big!

Read & Romp Roundup -- August 2013

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend and have a little time left to read the August Read & Romp Roundup, which is tiny but tantalizing this time around. Thanks to all who contributed. I really do love hearing all the ways you use picture books and poetry to get the little ones in your life moving...

Catherine at Story Snug reviews the picture book Doing the Animal Bop by Jan Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner. The book is full of animals, bold and colorful illustrations, and -- as you might expect -- dance moves. According to Catherine, "the rhyming text flows beautifully and is very easy to read. However, to get the full Animal Bop experience, the accompanying CD is a must!"

At Omazing Kids, Angela shares one of her favorite picture books to help kids learn about feelings -- My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. In her post, Angela offers a supply list for a wonderful yoga class that incorporates music, arts and crafts, scarves for movement activities, and yoga poses for each animal in the book. Her ideas could also work in dance class, a library story time, or at home, so take a look!

Picture Book Giveaway: The Museum!

Today's a special day for me in the blogosphere. I'm organizing a monthly blog series for the Library as Incubator Project, and today's the first post! The series is called "Book to Boogie," and it's all about pairing picture books with dance and movement activities for library story time. The bloggers besides myself who are participating in the series are Jayne Gammons, Maria Hanley, Jill Homan Randall, Amy Seto Musser, and Liz Vacco. I'm so excited!!

To celebrate the launch of the series, I'm giving away a copy of the first book we're highlighting -- The Museum -- signed by debut author Susan Verde! To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post by 11:59 EST on Wednesday, June 18th, and I'll use random.org to pick a winner.

Although it's not required, I do hope you will stop by the Library as Incubator Project to learn more about The Museum and ideas for incorporating it into movement-based story time. It's a delightful book in so many ways, including its art and movement themes and its gorgeous illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds.

Good luck, and thanks for celebrating with me!

Playground Day!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Each month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use in her creative movement classes in New York, and then we share our experiences with the book. Our May book was Playground Day! by Jennifer Merz. When you're done reading about it here, stop by Maria's Movers to read what she has to say!

Stretching, swaying, 

jungle playing, 

I climb like a...

MONKEY!

For my latest collaboration with Maria, I've once again chosen a picture book that I enjoyed reading to my two girls when they were toddlers and early preschoolers. Playground Day! by Jennifer Merz weaves two child-friendly themes -- the playground and animals -- together with movement for a fun read-aloud for young children. 

In the book, a little girl carts a red wagon full of stuffed animals all the way to the playground, where she plays on different playground equipment in ways that her animals would if they were real. For instance, when she plays on the monkey bars, she moves like a monkey. And when she swings on the swing, she feels like a bird flying high in the sky. 

The book is also a bit of a guessing game, sort of along the lines of the picture book Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown. Like that book, Playground Day! is full of great page turns where the kids have to guess which animal is being featured. If you look closely, you'll notice that a different stuffed animal is actually near the girls on each page -- the perfect clue for little readers who are paying attention!

The art in this book is really fun, too. Lots of bright paper and fabric has been cut and torn in different ways to create the images on the pages. It kind of gives the book an "imperfect" quality, but in a good way. Seems just right for a trip to the playground with young children, where inevitably there will be a little dirt and chaos. My two girls finally went to our neighborhood pool yesterday for the first time this summer. Next stop -- the playground! 

Don't forget to stop by Maria's Movers to see how Maria used this book in her creative movement classes. I hope it worked well!

Few Words to Describe Flora and the Flamingo

I've actually been tweeting and posting on my Facebook page for a while about the new wordless, lift-the-flap picture book Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle. But, in case you missed all those posts, I'm going to blog about it, too. I finally got my hands on a copy of the book, courtesy of publisher Chronicle Books, and didn't want to miss this opportunity to mention it some more!

In the spirit of the wordlessness of the book, I've decided to summarize it in as few words as possible...

A little girl. A flamingo. Dance. Friendship. Fabulous!

But, if that is not enough and you must know more, I've included the book trailer (which is also wordless but set to classical music), followed by links to posts by other people about the book. So you can take their words for just how fabulous it really is!

Book Trailer

Book Reviews

A Fuse #8 Production (Betsy Bird)

Playing by the Book (Zoe Toft)

Sharpread (Colby Sharp)

There's a Book (Danielle Smith)

Interviews with Molly Idle

School Library Journal (Rick Margolis)

Watch. Connect. Read (John Schu)

Booking Across the USA: Maryland

Today is "Booking Across the USA" at Growing Book by Book, and I'm representing Maryland! Bloggers representing all 50 states are sharing picture books related to their states and sharing educational activities or projects to go along with the books. You can see the whole list of participating blogs here.

When I first volunteered to represent Maryland, I wasn't sure which picture book to highlight. Should I pick a book that features the whole state? Share a historical story from a specific region? Or choose a book written by a Maryland author? After many hours of thinking and reading, I decided to highlight a book by a Maryland artist!

One Wolf Howls, written by Scotti Cohn and illustrated by Maryland's own Susan Detwiler, was published by Sylvan Dell in 2011. Written in beautiful rhyme, One Wolf Howls goes through each month of the year (one month on each full-page spread) to help reinforce numbers and months of the year and to introduce the habitat and behavior of wolves. Here are two of my favorite spreads that include movement or dance...

Two wolves play in a February snowfall --

frisky, frosty, fairyland snow.

Two wolves play in a February snowfall

deep in the woods where the harsh winds blow.

Eight wolves dance in the August twilight --

splash feet, paddle feet, prance by the lake.

Eight wolves dance in the August twilight

deep in the woods as the owls awake. 

One Wolf Howls, like all Sylvan Dell Books, includes a "For Creative Minds" section at the back of the book, where you will find several pages of educational activities. Sylvan Dell has also put a lot of effort into creating additional "teaching activities" for One Wolf Howls that coincide with the language arts, science, math, and geography. You can access the full list of teaching activities from the top right of this wonderful page on the Sylvan Dell website, which also includes a fun and informative book trailer.

If you like to incorporate movement into the classroom or you teach creative dance or pre-ballet classes, this book would also be well suited for teaching choreography and practicing movements in unison. One idea is to make up short movement phrases to go with each of the 12 stanzas in the book. An example for the "Eight wolves dance in the August twilight" stanza would be to have the kids splash their feet, paddle their arms, or prance. The students could practice repeating the movements twice during each stanza.

I think it would then be really fun to create a dance in which one student performs the first stanza, which talks about only one wolf. Then another dancer could join the first dancer for the second stanza, which talks about two wolves, and on and on until 12 students are dancing together. The kids could even dance to the rhythm of the poetry rather than to traditional music.

If you have a small group of students, the students could just dance part of the book. And if you have a large class, you could split the kids into two groups, and one group could be the audience. Hopefully the dancers would make the audience howl!

Susan Detwiler grew up in Maryland and attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she now lives with her husband and two sons. Susan has illustrated several books for children, including four for Sylvan Dell. Her illustrations have also been published in children's magazines and in puzzles, games, and greeting cards. Visit her website here.

Have You Met Prima the Ballerina?

Nikki White and her husband Ethan White both danced professionally for ballet companies in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 10 years before embarking on a new and exciting direction in their dance careers. They're on a mission to bring contemporary ballet to wider audiences and in doing so were named one of three finalists on Paula Abdul's CBS television show Live to Dance in 2011. Interestingly, their new career direction also includes the launch of a new picture book character -- Prima the Ballerina!

If you've checked out the video above, you've gotten a little taste of who Nikki and Ethan are and what their impressive dancing and choreography are like. But just who is Prima the Ballerina? Well, I've read about Prima online and have also been in touch with Nikki to find out.

"Prima is an expressive young girl, with a wonderful imagination, a curious nature, and a big heart," says Nikki, who will be writing all the books in the Prima series. "She finds the dance in every movement, the games in everyday activities, and the joy that comes from self expression."

These days, Nikki spends a lot of time teaching, and Prima was developed partly in response to parents and fellow teachers wanting to know how she engages her students. So in some ways, the books will be an extension of Nikki, using many of the same techniques that Nikki uses to teach dance to young children.

The series will follow Prima as she learns about many different kinds of dance. But, given Nikki's background, all of the books will show how the foundation of ballet connects to these other forms of movement. Hip-hop, classical Indian dance, modern dance, tap, and ballroom dance are all on the list of possible themes for future books. 

The first book in the series -- Prima the Ballerina: In Her Backyard -- focuses on how ballet can inform creative movement. In the book, Prima meets backyard animals who each teach her a different way to move. She meets butterflies, an owl, and snakes. Ants teach her how to balance, and a bunny teaches her how to jump high, with her toes pointed, and land softly on the ground. By the end of the book, Prima realizes that she can make a whole dance out of everything she has learned from her animal friends!

If you look closely at Prima, you may be wondering how she was illustrated. Well, Nikki's husband Ethan is not only a remarkable dancer but also a talented visual artist. "Prima is made out of clay with fully articulating joints that allow her to have the same range of motion as a real dancer," says Nikki. She and Ethan took photos of Prima in proper ballet positions and blended them together with other handmade, drawn, and computer-generated characters and backgrounds to create the images in the book. Pretty neat, right?

Another thing I've learned from talking to Nikki is that more than just a series, Prima the Ballerina is a brand that was created to reach children and their caregivers with dance tools they might not otherwise have available to them. Prima is available not only as a hardcover picture book but also as an interactive flipbook. An accompanying musical CD is also available for purchase, especially if you are looking for music to go along with the games Prima plays with the animals in the book.

"We've witnessed and personally experienced the decline in arts and education funding, and we feel that it is up to us as a society to create a culture that values and celebrates the arts," Nikki says. "The launching of this brand is our attempt to make dance education affordable and available to all."

I have to give Nikki and Ethan a lot of credit for launching these products on their own. They have been busy marketing online, visiting bookstores, going on school visits, and much more. And they have a lot of dedication and enthusiasm!

If you are searching for a traditionally published book about dance to entertain young children, this may not be what you're looking for. But if you are searching for a tool to engage young children in dance and begin teaching them some of the important concepts that all good dancers must master, then Prima could be for you. I wish Nikki and Ethan lots of success in growing their brand!

Learn more about Nikki's and Ethan's artistic background and adventures at whitetreefineart.com. Read more about Prima and preview her products at primatheballerina.com.

Sing, Dance and Create with the Shape Song!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

Each month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use in her children's dance classes in New York City. This month I chose a new title from Barefoot Books called The Shape Song Swingalong. I hope you're ready for some sing-along swing-along fun!

Quite a while ago, Maria mentioned to me that she was interested in exploring shapes with her little ones, so I've been on the lookout for some good picture books about shapes. I had already discovered a few treasures at our local library and was about to recommend one when I came across The Shape Song Swingalong. 

I may still recommend the other book a little later, but for now The Shape Song Swingalong was just too much fun to pass up. Based on a song written and sung by SteveSongs, this book is all about shapes--specifically lines, circles, rectangles, and triangles--and the many fun things you can create with them.

Along with the words to the song, the bright and childlike illustrations by David Sim show how you can use the shapes to make houses, pencils, animals, sand castles, and just about anything else you’d like to make. And one of the reasons I really like this book is that it incorporates so many of the arts, including dance, into this concept.

I have a shape collection and I use it to create

Anything I want to see or be or do or make.

Is it work? Is it play? Is it music? Is it art?

With my shape collection all I need to do is start...

Many of the illustrations also show four multicultural children, each one of them representing a different shape. One of my favorite spreads shows the kids making their respective shapes with their arms. It reminds me of how fun it is to make the letters Y-M-C-A over your head to the classic Village People song of the same name. Similarly, I think kids would enjoy making lines, circles, rectangles, and triangles when they hear The Shape Song Swingalong. 

Even more fun would be making shapes to the actual shape song, which comes as a CD with the book. Wait until you hear its catchy refrain, which is so hard to get out of your head once you’ve heard it!

If you've read this far, and perhaps are bouncing in your chair or singing the refrain of the song yourself, then we have a giveaway for you! Barefoot Books is kindly giving away a copy of The Shape Song Swingalong and accompanying CD to one lucky reader of my blog or Maria's blog. 

If you win the book, Maria and I will want to know how you end up using it with the little ones in your life--be that in a dance class, in a traditional school setting, at home, or somewhere else. We really want this giveaway to help promote movement and creativity, so you'll have to write us back with the details of your book-related activities. 

So, if you're still reading this post and would love a copy of the book, there are three ways you can enter the giveaway. If you do one of them, you will be entered once. If you do two, you will be entered twice. And if you do all three, you will have three chances to win:

• Leave a comment on this post letting me know what your favorite type of creating is. Mine is creating stories with words, but I also love creating arts & crafts with my kids.
• Leave a comment on Maria's post letting her know what your favorite shape is and why. Also check out her post to see how she used the book in her classes!
• Like Barefoot Books on Facebook and then let either me or Maria know in a separate comment.

Leave your comments by 11:59 pm EST on December 7, 2011. Maria and I will then pool the responses and randomly pick a winner. If you'd like to learn more about the book in the meantime, you can check out this interview with SteveSongs via the Barefoot Books blog. Have fun!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Liz Vacco, the winner of our Shape Song Swingalong giveaway! Liz is a performer, choreographer, and dance educator in Los Angeles who will be using the book with some of her students soon. We look forward to hearing how it goes!