A LOOK BACK… Happy 150th Birthday, Edith Wharton!

A 150th birthday is cause for celebration – and not just for one day! The Mount will be commemorating Edith Wharton’s 150th birthday throughout 2012 and you’ll want to keep an eye on events as they’re posted. While most people are impressed with Edith Wharton’s intelligence, it’s her boundless energy that continues to stun me…. [Read More]

Where’s Walrus? – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge

Where’s Walrus? Written and illustrated by Stephen Savage; Scholastic Press, 2011.32 pages; $16.99 (hardback); ages 2-5. The gates to the zoo are open but, alas, there are no visitors. While the zookeepersnoozes, walrus sneaks away. In wordless two-page spreads, walrus eludes thezookeeper (belatedly awake) by donning various hats and blending in with a statue ona… [Read More]

Preschool Day Hooray! – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge

Preschool Day Hooray! Written by Linda Leopold Strauss; illustrated by Hiroe Nakata; Cartwheel Books/Scholastic, 2010.  22 pages; $8.99 (hardback); ages 2-5. A simple, rhyming text follows a little boy through a day at preschool from the rush to get there (“Tick-tock clock/Makes Mommy scoot”), to various activities (“Painty hands and/Gooey glue”), to a tumble on… [Read More]

The John Ericsson Society Celebrating The 150th Anniversary Of The Monitor Being Launched!

If you’re a Civil War buff, you’ll remember that, 150 years ago, under the direction of Thomas Fitch Rowland (owner of Continental Works located on the East River in Brooklyn) and John Ericsson (designer of the Union Civil War Ironclad USS Monitor), skilled craftsmen laid the ship’s keel on October 25, 1861 and worked feverishly… [Read More]

Where’s My T-R-U-C-K? – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge

  Where’s My T-R-U-C-K? by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by David Catrow; Dial Books for Young Readers, 2011.  32 pages; $16.99; reading level:  ages 4-7. When Tommy loses his (don’t say the word or you’ll set him off!) t-r-u-c-k, the whole family’s day goes haywire.  Tommy refuses help from Mom, Dad, sister, brother, and Grandma:  “I… [Read More]

Mr. Mosquito Put on His Tuxedo – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge

Mr. Mosquito Put on His Tuxedo by Barbara Olenyik Morrow; illustrated by Ponder Goembel; Holiday House, 2009. $16.95; reading level: ages 6-9. When Mr. Mosquito puts on his tuxedo, arrives at a ball hosted by Queen Bee, and greets the other guests (gnats, lice, and fleas to name a few) he never suspects his particular… [Read More]

Postscript to Just Fine the Way They Are

You might think that, when a book is published, the story it tells is finished. Not true! In the final illustration for the picture book Just Fine the Way They Are, Richard Walz reaches into a mythical future to imagine what a post-automobile era might look like. He envisions a jet-pack like invention – a… [Read More]

Just For You Teachers

When I asked two educators to create lesson plans for Just Fine the Way They Are, I had no idea how far the term “lesson plan” had evolved since my days as a first grade teacher back in the 1970s. The “Social Studies/Transportation” resources they have written for home-school and classroom teachers are formatted just… [Read More]

Book Signing – Wayne County Historical Museum in Richmond, IN – Dec 10th

Please join Connie for a book signing at the Wayne County Historical Museum in Richmond, Indiana from 2pm-4pm on December 10th, 2011. Pictures from the event…

Book Signing – Indiana History Society’s 9th Annual Holiday Author Fair

What: Book Signing – Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, Indianapolis, IN Location: Indiana Historical Society’s Holiday Author Fair 9th Annual Holiday Author Fair December 3, 2011 – 12:00pm – 4:00 p.m. Connie will be one of the more than 60 authors featured at the Holiday Author Fair. She will also be a guest… [Read More]