There’s a lovely sculpture by Victor Issa in the Frederic Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s called “Grandpa, the Storyteller” and it captures for me the essence of story: Story connects, it communicates across time and generations. As the novelist Graham Smith put it, “As long as there’s a story, it’s all right.” For… [Read More]
Shakespeare
August 29, 2011 By
I’m just home from the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, reading through the “Twelfth Night,” and trying to pick up anything I might have missed when I saw it on stage. Shakespeare is a challenge and there’s no getting to the bottom of any of his plays. There’s no last word on what the bard… [Read More]
New Release: Just Fine The Way They Are
August 23, 2011 By
In this new historical non-fiction picture book children’s author Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge and artist Richard Walz worked closely with experts and firsthand accounts to tell a “just fine and accurate” illustrated story about how dirt roads of the 1800s turned into the U.S. highway system of today. >> Official Press Release Just Fine The Way… [Read More]
Ship Ahoy!
August 22, 2011 By
A good illustrator will go to great lengths to make sure what s/he draws is accurate and matches the words in the text. Andrew Glass, who illustrated Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson! (my picture book about the inventor of the Civil War ironclad ship the Monitor) had a particular problem: the Monitor was at… [Read More]
Come For a Ride?
August 16, 2011 By
As the third set of lesson plans for Just Fine the Way They Are (“Writer’s Craft”) is posted and ready for you teachers out there to download, I realize how much I like the illustration my graphic designer chose for the “button” that clicks you to those lesson plans: A car in motion…a car obviously… [Read More]
Celebrate!
August 1, 2011 By
I started thinking about The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton in 2001. It was published in 2010. It seemed to me that, when it officially hit the bookstores, a celebration was called for. First, I alerted my “staff” (a.k.a., the special events committee of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra from whom Carl and I had purchased… [Read More]
Connie Wooldridge To Appear On ‘The Sounds of the Symphony’
August 1, 2011 By
Show: ‘The Sounds of the Symphony’ with Host Marci Asher-Whalen on Whitewater Community Television – Trailer Description: A new ‘The Sounds of the Symphony’ with Host Marci Asher-Whalen will air Monday, August 1 at 8:30PM on WETV, channel 20. This month’s guest will be Amy Noe & Connie Wooldridge. Start Time: 8:30pm Date: 2011-08-01 We… [Read More]
If Kids Can’t Read
July 25, 2011 By
If kids can’t read, this writer is out of a job. Which is why this writer was up bright and early last Friday morning to greet 100 students who, at the end of their third grade year, were not reading at grade level. If kids can’t read by the end of their third grade year,… [Read More]
Serious Research
July 14, 2011 By
Writing for children often means doing serious research. I brought my husband along on a research trip just last weekend. I carefully observed two little boys, one aged two, the other aged four. I observed as they woke from their naps, the older boy dapper and ready to meet the world, the younger temporarily speechless… [Read More]