How to Participate in Save Everything! (and the Picture Book) in January

Picture books are imagination factories. And with imagination, anything is possible.

How to Save the World! (and the Picture Book) in 6 Easy Steps

1. Choose One (or More):

□ Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: a Compost Story by Linda Glaser, photos by Shelley Rotner



□ The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

□ Here Comes the Garbage Barge by Jonah Winter and Red Nose Studio

□ Redwoods by Jason Chin

□ One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss, ill. by Rosemary Woods

□ How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz



□ Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm

□ One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley

□ All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Marla Frazee




□ When It’s Six O’Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu and Randy DuBurke



□ Did you know that larvae were the original recyclers—by digesting waste and enriching the soil? That’s why What to Expect When You’re Expecting Larvae: a Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Children) by Bridget Heos, ill. by Stéphane Jorisch, completes our Save the World! List. Watch for it this Spring from Lerner/Millbrook!



2. Check the picture book out from the library, or buy it.

3. Read it to kids (or have them read it.)

4. Have them write a review. Little kids can draw a picture and a smiley face if they like it. Big kids can write a couple paragraphs, complete a book review worksheet, or do something creative. For ideas, see the next post.

5. Send the reviews to authorbheos@gmail.com or 7443 Walnut, K.C., MO 64114. Include the child's first name and age, and the parent's or teacher's email address (which won’t be shared.) If you are a teacher sending in reviews, please send them in together. Watch for select reviews to appear here.

6. Give yourself a gold star. You have saved the world! (and the picture book.) You may also have won a prize.

Teacher Prizes! The first teacher to send in 20 book reviews will win Guinness World Records 2011, a 60-piece sphere world puzzle, and one of our featured picture books: When It’s Six O’Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu and Randy DuBurke.

Kid Prizes! One book reviewer’s name will be drawn to win a U.S.A./Canada map puzzle and a picture book.

Be sure to check back in February for a sweet book list and some sweet prizes!

A Tall Picture Book Prize

This tall tale is our latest Save Everything! (and the Picture Book) prize. It was beautifully illustrated Laura Huliska-Beith, who also donated it. I heard Laura speak at the Kansas City Plaza Library, and she told how she would add to the collage illustrations, scan them, and then add more. You will be amazed at the details in this book--she even used peanut brittle!

The author is Kimberly Willis Holt whose also written several award-winning YA novels.

We now have more than 20 books ready to give away to classrooms and kids who read picture books and write reviews!

Check the post: "Save Everything! (and the Picture Book)...January edition" for information on how to participate.

The Best Picture Book Year of All

Happy New Year!

The Best Pet of All, by David LaRochelle, ill. by Hanako Wakiyama, is now one of our Save Everything! (and the Picture Book) prizes. Not to drop names but (yes! to drop names!)...Reese Witherspoon read this at the White House Easter Egg Hunt!

I love when people highlight new picture books at events like this. If given the chance, today's picture books will be tomorrow's classics. Thanks to author David LaRochelle for this fun new prize.

Remember, if you are a teacher looking for a fun back to school activity on Monday or Tuesday, check out Save Everything! (and the Picture Book)...January edition. Choose one of the books on the list, check it out from the school or public library, read it aloud, and have your class write reviews.

Or email me at authorbheos@gmail.com, and I'd be happy to send you a very user friendly Save Everything! (and the Picture Book) flyer, which includes the book list and picture book review worksheets for little or big kids.

The first teacher to send in 20 student reviews wins Guinness World Records 2011, a world map puzzle, and one of our featured picture books: When It's Six O'Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones, by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu, ill. by Randy DuBurke. All classes that participate will be recognized for their efforts to Save the World! (and the Picture Book.) And students will be entered to win an individual prize.

Together we can make 2011 the best Picture Book Year of All.

The Hitch

Every plan has a hitch. Sitting at my desk this morning, in my cloud jammies, I realized mine:

Day One: A third grade class (I hope) sends in 20 picture book reviews. They win the prize.

Day Two: A second grade class sends in 20 picture book reviews. No prize. Unless you call salt from your tears a prize. Some do. I don't.

Un uh. Not on my watch. Sooo...if any class sends in 20 reviews, they will at least get recognition for saving the world! (and the picture book.) Some sort of official, yet silly, letter. It's not much. But I hope it will show that picture books care. (They do.)

It's Story Time Somewhere!

Things I love about time zones:

1. Our today is somebody else's tomorrow. And I mean that literally, not in a sappy, quote.com-y way.

2. If you have a bad morning in America, but instead lived in Australia, you wouldn't even be awake yet (and yet it would already be tomorrow.)

3. Antarctica and the North Pole. Uh oh. T...he time zones are converging. What time will it be? It's mind blowing.

4. When It's Six O'Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones, which allows kids to see how time zones work in everyday life, is one of our classroom prizes for Save Everything! (and the Picture Book.) A big thanks to author Cynthia Jaynes Omololu for the donation!

Save Everything! (and the Picture Book)...January Edition

Picture books are imagination factories. And with imagination, anything is possible.

How to Save the World! (and the Picture Book) in 6 Easy Steps

1. Choose One (or More):

□ Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: a Compost Story by Linda Glaser, photos by Shelley Rotner

□ The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

□ Here Comes the Garbage Barge by Jonah Winter and Red Nose Studio

□ Redwoods by Jason Chin

□ One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss, ill. by Rosemary Woods

□ How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz

□ Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm

□ One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley

□ All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Marla Frazee

□ When It’s Six O’Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu and Randy DuBurke

□ Did you know that larvae were the original recyclers—by digesting waste and enriching the soil? That’s why What to Expect When You’re Expecting Larvae: a Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Children) by Bridget Heos, ill. by Stéphane Jorisch, completes our Save the World! List. Watch for it this Spring from Lerner/Millbrook!

2. Check the picture book out from the library, or buy it.

3. Read it to kids (or have them read it.)

4. Have them write a review. Little kids can draw a picture and a smiley face if they like it. Big kids can write a couple paragraphs, complete a book review worksheet, or do something creative. For ideas, see the next post.

5. Send the reviews to authorbheos@gmail.com or 7443 Walnut, K.C., MO 64114. Include the child's first name and age, and the parent's or teacher's email address (which won’t be shared.) If you are a teacher sending in reviews, please send them in together. Watch for select reviews to appear here.

6. Give yourself a gold star. You have saved the world! (and the picture book.) You may also have won a prize.

Teacher Prizes! The first teacher to send in 20 book reviews will win Guinness World Records 2011, a 60-piece sphere world puzzle, and one of our featured picture books: When It’s Six O’Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu and Randy DuBurke.

Kid Prizes! One book reviewer’s name will be drawn to win a U.S.A./Canada map puzzle and a picture book.

Be sure to check back in February for a sweet book list and some sweet prizes!

Book Review Worksheets, Pointers, and Creative Ideas

Teacher Tools: Book Review Worksheets

I would be happy to email you a January Save Everything! (and the Picture Book) printable flyer, which includes the list of books and the six easy steps to participating in Save the World! (and the Picture Book.) I can also send you a printable book review worksheet for very young or older kids. Please email me at authorbheos@gmail.com.

Traditional Book Review Pointers

To write a basic book review, follow these steps:

1. Include the title, author's and illustrator's names, publisher, and publication date.

2. Write a brief summary.

3. Write what, specifically you like about the book. Did it teach you something new? Make you think about something in a new way? Make you feel a certain way?

4. Add what, if anything, you would have liked to be different about the book. Additional information? Something explained more clearly? A different cover?

5. Say who you think would enjoy this book the most.

6. Try to set aside personal biases. For instance, you might prefer serious stories. Funny stories aren't your thing. Or maybe the reverse it true. You think any story worth its salt should make you lolrofl. You are certainly entitled to your likes and dislikes! But try to decide not just whether you like the book, but whether it is a good book. (And whether other kids would like it.)

Creative Book Review Ideas

1. Make a book trailer. This is like a movie preview, only it's about a book.

2. Write your review comic book style, which book reviewer Travis Jonker sometimes does at 100 Scope Notes.


3. Write your review as a letter to the author.

4. Write your review picking up themes from the book. For example, for Here Comes the Garbage Barge, by Jonah Winter and Red Nose Studio, write the review on something recycled, like a cereal box. Or for When It's Six O'Clock in San Francisco: a Trip Through Time Zones, by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu and Randy DuBurke, write the review in a circle, making a clock.