First Book Holiday Donation--One More Day!

Our comment count is up to 146--hooray! We'll donate at least $146 to First Book. If you haven't added your comment yet, you still have time--but hurry! See the details below.
Happy New Year!

First Book Holiday Donation Update: 11 Days Left!

Since the start of our First Book Holiday Donation series on December 5, all six Teaching Authors have posted about our own first books. (You can read all six posts below.) Many generous readers have commented on their first books, too. We've enjoyed hearing from so many enthusiastic book lovers!

For every comment we receive on our blog before the end of the year (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book, which  provides new books to children in need. If you haven't added your comment yet, you can help increase our donation. You can tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why you believe children should have their own books, or your own First Book donation.

We’ll keep track of comments from now until the end of the year, we'll post periodic updates, and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

So far, we've received 137 comments, so we'll donate $137 to First Book. That amount equals 54.8 books plus 137 more from Disney Publishing Worldwide for a total of 191.8 books. Thank you!

We still have 11 days to go, so please help us spread the word!

JoAnn Early Macken

What Was Your First Book? Post a Comment So Kids Can Have One Without Spending A Penny ~

x
Howdy Campers!  YES!  TeachingAuthors are singing and dancing the praises of FirstBook.org, which gives books to kids.  In fact, for every comment on our blog until December 31st, we'll donate $1 to FirstBook (up to $225).  Tell us about your memories of your own first book and read the wonderful responses we've gotten so far on JoAnn's first post, Esther's post, Jeanne Marie's post, Mary Ann's post, JoAnn's update, and Carmela's post.
x
Some of you have asked about how to make your own donation to FirstBook. Simply head over to the First Book "Get Involved" page and click on "donate now".

I laughed when I read that Ellen Reagan read Little Red Riding Hood, crossing out the word "hood" on each page and writing in her own name.

Little Red Riding Hood and a friend discussing their favorite books...

The comments you've posted have brought back memories of Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (which I count among my favorite books to this day), the fairy tales my father read in the dim light of our bedroom each night, The Birthday and Pitschi, both by Hans Fischer, poetry Mom read aloud, and Dorothy Parker stories, too--which kept all of us laughing, laughing, laughing.  Ahh...memories.  They're truly locked in our DNA...

FIRST BOOK
by April Halprin Wayland

First, book.
Then, lap.
Then skin-to-skin.x

The story settles deep within,
the horse and both enchanted twins
stay in you as you age.

Then one day velvet wings on stage
will part and you'll perform the page.
And in that hall will be a child 
and she'll be hooked.x

But first? 
Of course.
But first a book.x
poem and drawing (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

And speaking of books and giving--consider giving one or all in the Poetry Tag Time series.  Just released: Gift Tag, the third eBook anthology of children's poetry by fabulous author, poet, and anthologist Janet Wong and equally fabulous author, professor, and anthologist Dr. Sylvia Vardell.  Gift Tag is the first eBook of new holiday poems by top poets for children and teens...including, ahem, yours truly...as well as Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis, and more...all for the bargain price of $2.99 each.  And you don't even need an eReader...you can download these to your computer!

Happy Poetry Friday! And check out how
New York is incorporating haiku into street safety signs ~

Thank you, Kate Coombs at Book Aunt for hosting today!

(Ya gotta love Book Aunt's tag line: "Because other people give you clothes and video games for your birthday!")

This is the last TeachingAuthors post until the new year (as Carmela says, we're taking a blogging break).  Come back on January 2, 2012 (!) when we'll tell you how much you helped raise for FirstBooks!

drawing (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland

Remembering First Books, and How You Can Donate a Book without Paying a Penny

Wow, it's been marvelous to read my co-bloggers' posts and all our wonderful readers' comments about their first books. Before I share my thoughts on the topic, I want to remind you that you can help donate books to children in need via First Book without paying a penny! See details at the end of this post.

Like Jeanne Marie, I grew up in a book-less home. I've blogged before about how the first books I can recall in our house were a set of World Book Encyclopedia, which my parents purchased from a door-to-door salesman. So I smiled at the comment Patrica Nesbitt shared on JoAnn's kick-off post. Patricia's first books, a set of Childcraft books, also arrived in her home thanks to a door-to-door salesman! And I have to say that I'm especially grateful to Sherry York for her comment on Monday confessing that she read the encyclopedia "from A to Z." Now I don't feel so geeky for doing the same thing. :-)

But I think my favorite comment came from our friend Professor Roxanne Owens of DePaul University who wrote in response to Esther's post: "I couldn't get enough Pat the Bunny, Put Me in the Zoo, Go Dogs Go, and a Fish Out of Water . . . ." Roxanne's comment reminded me how much my son loved Pat the Bunny, one of his first books. She motivated me to dig out his well-worn (or I should say, well-loved) copy:

But I'd forgotten all about the companion book he had, which I discovered while looking for Pat the Bunny:

Judging from the condition of Pat the Cat, my son must have loved it even more than Pat the Bunny!

Can you see the tape holding the edges of the right-hand page together?

He lost the "pencil" that was attached to the string, and the last page is completely separated.
But Teddy still squeaks!

We were fortunate to be able to provide our son with books from his infancy on. Along with Pat the Bunny and Pat the Cat, he had bathtub books, board books, little Golden Books (I still have his Runaway Bunny and Color Kittens) and a children's Bible that he received from his godfather. It makes me sad to think there are many children who have never had a book of their own. That's why I was thrilled when JoAnn suggested that the TeachingAuthors not only make a donation to First Book, but that we use our blog to get the word out about this terrific organization. With your help, we can provide over 300 new books to children in need. And it won't cost you a penny, as you can see below. However, some of you have asked about how to make your own donation to First Book. You can do that easily by heading over to the First Book "Get Involved" page and clicking on the "donate now" button.

Now, to add to our TeachingAuthors' First Book donation (for free!), you need only post a comment on our blog. For every comment we receive (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book. We’ll keep track of comments posted from December 1-31 and we'll post periodic updates, like this one JoAnn shared Monday. We’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book. We're hoping to send 315 books to children in need!

So help our donation add up! Post one comment on any of our posts from now through December 31. Tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why you believe children should have their own books, or how you made your own First Book donation. Then help us spread the word by inviting all your friends to comment, too. Our special thanks to Lee Wind for doing just that on the official SCBWI blog, and also for his kind words about our blog. If you don't know about the SCBWI blog, be sure to check it out!

Wishing all of you a blessed holiday season.
Happy writing!
Carmela

First Books Donation Update

Help the Teaching Authors make a Holiday Donation to First Book by posting a comment on our blog. For every comment we receive from now through December 31, 2011 (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book. We’ll count comments from now through the end of the year, we'll post periodic updates, and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

As of this moment (8:30 a.m. Monday), counting one comment each from two Teaching Authors and one from my cousin who tried to post but couldn't (thanks, Maureen!), we're up to 33 comments so far. At $1/comment, that means a $33 donation to First Book--a good start but still a good distance from our maximum donation of $225.

At $2.50/book, our donation so far equals 13.2 books plus 33 more from Disney Publishing Worldwide for a total of 46.2 books. A $225 donation would mean 90 books for children who need them plus 225 more from Disney Publishing Worldwide. Let's try to send 315 books to children in need! Please add your own comment if you haven't yet, help us spread the word, and encourage your friends to comment, too!

Desperately Seeking Books!

  I taught myself to read (from televison commercials) when I was three.  No big deal. I thought everyone taught themself how to read, like learning to ride a bike or brush your teeth.  What was a big deal was finding something to read.  I read street signs, TV commercials, medicine bottles, cereal boxes, but what I wanted was books.

  Books were not so easy to come by in the late 50's early 60's if you were a middle class kid living a middle class suburb. Hard to believe...but if unless you lived in a big city, or were just really lucky, there were no book stores. No Amazon.  No chain stores. Not even libraries.

   OK, I had some Golden Books (the grocery cash register impulse buy before there were People, US and The National Enquirer.) Just to weigh in, my favorite Golden Book was Richard Scarry's Bunny Book. My aunt gave us her set of Childcraft.  I didn't stop with the poems, fairytales and novel excerpts. I was so book hungry, I read all the child psychology and child rearing volumes as well.  I was probably the only kid in first grade who could use the term "sibling rivalry" in a sentence. My eldest cousin gave me a beautiful anthology of children's literature that I still have (along with the Childcraft, 1948 edition). By first grade I had discovered the "book department" at E.J. Korvette's and Zayre's, which consisted entirely of the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.

  That was it. That was all there was. I got desperate enough to buy "antique" editions of the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and Honey Bunch when my mom took fou antiquing with her.

   So where were the books?  A very good question. The only bookstore I knew was the Scribner bookstore in the Chicago Loop, where I saw my allergist four times a year. (My mother told me it was a museum of books...you could look but you couldn't buy.  She said the same thing about Marshall Field's toy department.) Our 'burbs did not have libraries. The elementary schools did not have libraries. They had a shelf in the back of the room with maybe twenty books, that was designated "the classroom library."  When my teeny tiny town finally opened a library, it was a closet-sized space, wedged between a pizza parlor and a dry-cleaners. (The smell of mozzarella and dry-cleaning fluid can still make me misty-eyed.) Because the children's section consisted of one book case, I was only allowed to check out two books at a time. I often finished the first book on the ride home in the car. Then we moved to another town that literally had no library. However, for some reason, in the summer, you could check books out of the junior high school library. Which I did.

    The only things that kept me sane were the book clubs. The Scholastic Book Club flyers that were passed out in class were the high point of any school week.  I spent hours selecting and reselecting the two dollars worth of books I was allowed each time. (Considering the top price for a book was 45 cents, I made the most of those two bucks!) I still have those brittle paperback copies of the Lee Wyndham Susie ballet books (beginning a life-long love of dance), and assorted Newbery titles (my favorite was Blue Willow by Doris Gates.)  The Weekly Reader also had a book club that sent hard covers, one a month (no choice allowed; they just sent "appropriate grade level reading.") I saved those as well--Ruth Gannett's My Father's Dragon, C.W. Anderson's Whitey and Josie books, Miska Miles' Dusty and the Fiddlers and Parsifal Rides the Time Wave by Nell Chenault. Some of these were not books I would have chosen myself, but they were books and I read and re-read and cherished them.

    Every now and then I stumbled across a sympathetic soul. My father was tracking down the complete set of Will Durant's History of Civilization in Chicago's used bookstores. He would sneak me in whatever he found in the children's section...mostly biographies. (And what do I read today, besides children's books?  Biographies and memoirs.) One of my aunt's had fallen heir to a large collection of children's books from the 1920's that she passed along to me.  My grandmother had an odd copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn floating around her house that she gave me. (My first real adult book...and one of my all time favorites.) And as I have mentioned in other blogs, for Chirstmas my dad gave me hardcovers of Charlotte's Web and Mary Calhoun's Depend on Katie John.

   We moved to Jackson, Mississippi when I was ten. Since all the adults in my life acted as if we were moving to The End of the Earth, I figured there would be no libraries. Wrong!

   Not only was there a library, but there were branch libraries, although I always preferred the spacious children's room of the main library downtown.  Not only that, but you could check out as many books as you could carry.  I learned to stagger out the door with enormous stacks of books (thus preparing me for my future career as a librarian).  Just for a bonus, all my schools had excellent libraries as well.

   Still, the only bookstores around where used paperback trade-in places, which I visited on my way home from the library.  They were heavy on Harlequin and Grace Livingston Hill romances, but I managed to find some classics and the books that were made into movies. The first real bookstore I encountered was Lemuria Books, which opened while I was in high school.  True heaven!  Lemuria has changed locations three times since that first visit, but it is still alive and thriving, and I visit (and pillage) every time I visit my dad. (I also had my first book signing there, too.)  Sometimes I go there to think...kind of like church.  Sometimes I sit in the same chair that my hometown idol, Eudora Welty, also sat in.

   Given my book "deprived" childhood, it is no surprise that I now own more books than some branch libraries. I took them with me when we moved to Bangkok in 1997, because I knew there was no English language library, and only one Japanese-owned, English language bookstore. Movers pale whenever we relocate. ("Books are heavy," someone always comments in a glum sort of way.) I can't help it. I am a compulsive reader, and life doesn't seem worth living if I don't have a book (or two or three) that I am currently reading.

   So let's hear it for First Book!!! There are still children out there with no ready access to books, let alone the opportunity to own one. I like to think that your responses to our blog, will ease the pain of another frustrated bookworm out there.  So get on board with our Holiday Donation!  For every blog comment we receive (one per person, please and span doesn't count), we will donate $1 to First Book, which provides books to low-income children.  We all love books here, right?  Remember the thrill of the very first book you owned?  Share that thrill with the rest of us on the blog, and help make another reading child's wish come true.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

First Books, First Pets, First Memories

As JoAnn and Esther have posted this week, we are celebrating the holidays with memories of first books and a tribute to FirstBook.
My mom grew up in a bookless home.  She told me that one day her father did some janitorial work at a school and splurged on a steeply discounted set of Dick and Jane.  These were then the only books in her house.  No wonder she did not grow up a reader!  My dad, on the other hand, was raised in a family of voracious readers.  My grandmother always had a thick book in hand -- Maeve Binchy, Rosamunde Pilcher, Danielle Steele.  For my grandfather, it was Max Brand and Louis L'Amour.  [When he got Alzheimer's, he could reread the complete set and be surprised every time.] My dad reads widely -- right now he is on a Stephen Hunter and Lee Child kick, but he can do a book a day, so he's pretty much read it all. 

Pop fiction is our thing (clearly), and I was initially going to blog about the first book I remember reading -- it was a Bobbsey Twins book and it was a Christmas gift from my grandparents (dad's side, of course) the year I was six.  My mom discovered the joy of reading when she read me that book aloud, so I think it was a momentous experience for us both.

I honestly don't think I was read to as a toddler. I don't remember being exposed to picture books at all until I got to school.  But as I think about it, there was one in our house.  The year I was five, my mom and I read it over, and over, and over.  It was called Peppermint, about a kitten that lived in a candy store.  All of Peppermint's candy-named siblings were quickly adopted, but nobody wanted poor, skinny, dusty Peppermint.  Of course Peppermint found a home in the end.  I just had to google the author of the book and discovered many threads of grown-ups looking for a copy of the book that they read so many times and loved so fondly.  Copies are retailing in the area of $50/apiece. 

My first pet was thus a black molly fish named (you guessed it) Peppermint.  However, after reading Peppermint, I desperately wanted a pet that I could actually pet.  When I was in sixth grade, we finally put the fish behind us and became a dog family.  This weekend, we Fords will do the same as we welcome a pup named Molly to our family.  This Christmas my daughter is the same age that I was when I unwrapped that fateful Bobbsey Twins book.  Together we have just begun discovering the joys of Ramona.   

Our house is overrun by books.    However, millions of children live in homes without books.


But FirstBook is trying to change that by providing books to children in need.

How can you help us help these millions of children eager to own their very own books?

Easy!

Simply post one comment on our blog from now through December 31. Tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why books are important, why children should own their own books.

You can help us spread the word.

You can even make your own FirstBook Donation.

For every comment we receive (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book.

We’ll keep track of comments from now until the end of the year; we’ll post periodic updates; and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the wonderful memories you have already shared this week!

Reading, First Book(s) and our Holiday Donation

As JoAnn posted Monday, we TeachingAuthors chose to celebrate the holidays by sharing something important to all of us: first books/First Book!

Like JoAnn, who shared her remembrances of The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, one of my very first owned-by-only-me books was a Little Golden Book too: Little Red Riding Hood, beautifully, indeed memorably, told and illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones.

     “Once upon a time there was a little girl
who was dearly loved by all – most of all by
her grandmother.
     Wherever she went she always wore a little
red cape with a hood which her grandmother made 
 for her. So people called her Little Red Riding Hood.”

I treasure my well-worn copy, a 50th Birthday gift from my sister. The Adopted Chicagoan in me can’t help but smile each time I read the introduction noting Miss Jones’ Highland Park, IL and University of Chicago and Chicago Art Institute connections.

I selected the book myself at our local West Philadelphia A and P, turning the Little Golden Books rack round and round ‘til I was satisfied with that week’s choice.
I knew it would be at home with my Three Little Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Puss and Boots and Saggy Baggy Elephant, just to name a few.
It turns out I was one of millions who, thanks to these twenty-five-cent books, grew up reading (!), keeping company with such ground-breaking and talented artists and writers as Margaret Wise Brown, Alice and Marin Provensen, Richard Scarry and Feodor Rojankovsky.

Leonard S. Marcus shares the history of Little Golden Books in his 2007 Random House book, Golden Legacy – How Golden Books Won Children’s Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way.

Baby Boomers especially will delight in the stories behind these shiny gold-foil-spined books, ooh-ing and ah-ing with each remembered cover.

The book’s front flap copy says it all:

“The year 1942 was marked by a bold experiment that, even in the thick of World War II, would galvanize consumer culture: the launch of the twenty-five-cent Little Golden Books. At a time when the literacy rate was not as high as it is now – and privation was felt by nearly all – high-quality books for children would be available at a price that nearly everyone could afford, and sold where ordinary people shopped every day.”

Today not every child is so lucky. The truth is: millions of children live in book-less homes.
But First Book is trying to change that by providing books to children in need.
How can you help us help these millions of children eager to own their very own books?
Easy!
Simply post one comment on our blog from now through December 31. Tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why books are important, why children should own their own books.
You can help us spread the word.
You can even make your own First Book Donation.

For every comment we receive (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book.
We’ll keep track of comments from now until the end of the year; we’ll post periodic updates; and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

Happy commenting!

And, thanks for your Support!

Esther Hershenhorn

Reading, First Book, and Our Holiday Donation

We Teaching Authors are celebrating the holidays by sharing something important to all of us: books! And you can help!

My sisters and I all learned to read before we started school. We grew up with books. One of the earliest I can remember is a gem called The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, best known for the classic Goodnight, Moon.

Two kittens named Brush and Hush “liked to mix and make colors by splashing one color into another.” Timeless illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen show the kittens, dressed in striped overalls and matching hats, with their “buckets and buckets of color.” They mix red with white, yellow with red, red with blue, and finally blue with yellow.

“O wonderful kittens! O Brush! O Hush!” This line stuck with me through the years, and when I found a scribbled-up copy of the book at a rummage sale several years ago, I was delighted to read it again.

Overjoyed with the colors they make, the kittens paint everything around them. At night, they dream

“A wonderful dream
Of a rose red tree
That turned all white

When you counted three. . . .
Of a purple land
In a pale pink sea
Where apples fell
From a golden tree”

Yes, my sisters and I grew up with The Color Kittens and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Madeline and Pippi Longstocking, Angelo the Naughty One and Caps for Sale.

But not every child is so lucky.

Millions of kids have no books in their homes. First Book is trying to change that by providing books to children in need. We believe, as Bookmark, the First Book Blog says, that “a solid, comprehensive education is the best chance many of those kids have at succeeding in life.” Reading is the vital first step.

How can you help? By posting a comment on our blog. For every comment we receive (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book. We’ll keep track of comments from now until the end of the year, we'll post periodic updates, and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

So help our donation add up! Post one comment on any of our posts from now through December 31. Tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why you believe children should have their own books, or your own First Book donation. Then help us spread the word!

Happy holidays!

JoAnn Early Macken

Ten Days of Thanks-Giving Wrap-Up...and Poetry Friday!

Howdy Campers!

Carmela did a fine job of wrapping up our First Annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving this week.  Yay, Carmela!

Today was my monthly hike with the women I've fallen in love with as we leaped from rock to rock to cross creeks, dripped sweat up impossible hills, walked quietly under arched tree ceilings, and been photographed with in front of waterfalls, oceans and boulders.  So today I write a thanku to the universe for giving me my hiking buds:

THANK YOU...
...for hard trails up to

egg-blue skies, for red leaves, for

six sweaty friends.

~ April Halprin Wayland

Here the last few thankus or simple thank yous:

From Joyce Ray:
I'm pretty late, but want to share my Thanku to my granddaughter Lindsay for terrific help in revising a poem recently.~
you oiled mired wheels
pushed my poem from its rut
your words, my words - WOW  

BEAUTIFUL, Joyce.

And Jan Godown Annino is the last in with this fitting contribution to our First Annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving:
~
Grateful to the 10 Days (catching it at the tail end. was in a cave of 

thesis-writing.)
Grateful to be able to try to learn to say Thank You in many languages.
This includes some of the 560 ways of Thank You in First Languages of Peoples here before arrival of the Spanish, French & other beautiful languages that came from over the big water. Often, thanks were so extensively prayed that it was a challenge to isolate one or two words to represent the concept.

And so I thank all of you, but especially the brave young creative writing students mentioned. 

photo credit: Chris Gregory

Fellow TeachingAuthor blogger Esther Hershenhorn (not the inventor of thankus, but the one who brought them so lovingly to our attention) writes:

I'm thinking our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving offering proved the Kent State University social scientists I referenced in my original October 20 Thanku post right: people who compose short letters of gratitude do indeed experience a significant increase in their overall happiness! I followed every link, I read each and every Thanku, I can't wait to share with my Young Writers the 465 ways to say Thanks that Jan shared this morning. ThankU, TeachingAuthors readers. for taking and making the time to put some Good back in our World.  

Amen, Esther ~

Some pretty amazing Poetry Friday poems are at Carol's Corner today!

And speaking of amazing poetry,  Poet Janet Wong and Professor Sylvia Vardell have teamed up to create a whole new way to read and write poetry: www.PoetryTagTime.com ~featuring three amazing poetry anthologies. The third book in the series, Gift Tag, is out just in time for the holidays, and is already one of the best-selling children’s poetry eBooks on Amazon.com.

Check it out!

Happy trails, Campers...and remember to write with joy ~
photo credit: Chris Gregory
hiking thanku (c)2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved