More about Me:

What other talents do you have?
Answer: I like to sing, paint, and dance. Pretty much a lot of artsy things! :)

What is one your pet peeves?
Answer: Bullies!

Do you have any pets?
Answer: I have two cats that I adopted from the humane society. I don't believe in pet stores. There's too many pets at the shelters that need homes. I would rather support those things.

What is one of your favorite animals?
Answer: The Great White Shark. I know, scary, right?  It started in grade 8.  I had to do a report on an animal and it was worth quite a bit of our mark.  The teacher had mentioned a student getting 100% on their project the year before.  I so desperately wanted to receive a 100% on my project!  Anywho, I dived right in (mind the pun, because honestly, I wouldn't dive in anywhere with sharks. ha ha).  I picked the Great White because of a fear I had of them.  I wanted to learn more about them in hopes that I wouldn't be so scared.  To make a long story short, I received 98% on my project, which I was very proud of, and I did manage to learn a lot about this type of shark.  In learning more about them, I became intrigued and not as afraid.  However, their looks are still a bit of a shocker, especially when they are surfacing from the dark water with their razor sharp teeth exposed...ok, I'm done with this question. ;)

What was the last thing that you ate that was considered a treat? 
Answer:  I had a cinnamon and chocolate chip muffin! It was delicious!

Tea or Coffee?
Lately I have been drinking coffee, but to tell you the truth I prefer tea.  Especially Ceylon Green Tea!

Jellybeans or Swedish Berries?
Answer: Candy is tasty (when you limit your intake...I'm talking to you, kids! I guess some of you adults too, that like to indulge too many times).  I would most likely choose the Swedish berries, in fact, I am sure of it.  Gummy candies of any kind are usually really good!  Although...I am not a fan of peppermint or cinnamon tasting gummys.

How to write funny poetry:

http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/lessons/how-to-write-funny-poetry-chapter-1/

This is lesson 1 of the many lessons on how to write funny poetry for kids! If you find your child has a talent at writing, then this might be for them! You can take time with them reading the lesson and practicing! Enjoy!

Facts about Roald Dahl, because frankly...who doesn't love his work?!

Roald Dahl's birthplace was Llandaff in Wales. He was born on September 13, 1916.

Roald Dahl could speak three languages - English, Norwegian and Swahili.

He was really tall. His height was 6 foot 5 inches and he was really good at sport. At school he played football and rugby. I bet he would have been good at basketball too!

Roald Dahl was a fighter pilot and he fought in World War Two.

His favourite colour in the whole world was yellow.

Roald Dahl went to several boarding schools. He was often homesick and, as a result, he didn't really enjoy school.

Sophie was the name of Roald Dahl's mother.

Roald Dahl had bluey grey eyes. When he was younger, he had brown hair, but it went grey as he got older.

Roald Dahl died in 1990.

Roald Dahl was the author of lots of fantastic children's books. Here are some of his most popular stories: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Esio Trot, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny the Champion of the World, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile and The Witches (to name just a few).

Roald Dahl interests me quite a bit.  His stories are funny and great to read.  Be warned, if you do read one of his books to yourself, you may laugh out loud at times. Some of your friends or bystanders may think your a little crazy.  Hey, who cares though, because you are on an adventure my friend! Indeed, you are!



10 interesting facts about Butterflies!

1. Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
2. Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
3. Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
4. The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
5. Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
6. Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
7. Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
8. Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.
9. There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
10. The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.



Some good tips on illustrating children's books

So you're an illustrator, trained in the fine art of interpreting text into one dynamic eye-catching illustration, one that says–– read this text! Perhaps then, you've thought about illustrating a kids' book. Perhaps you've even thought about writing one!


First consider this: As much as you'd like to write the next Velveteen Rabbit or perhaps tell the true life story of Ella Fitzgerald, remember that a longer text means an older audience. Who do you want to be reading your book? A toddler?A kindergartner? Or a kid who's going into the third grade?


There are picture books for the older audience, but from my bookseller experience, most kids who are 7 and up are reading chapter books and novels––the next Junie B. Jones or for the more advanced, delving into the next Harry Potter.


Shoppers are generally looking to buy picture books for the younger group. Most three year olds cannot sit through a picture book that consists of 3,000 plus words! So try to keep your story under 1,000 words and edit, edit, edit!


Now you have the perfect text and it's just right for your target audience. Now what? Well, you're an illustrator, right? So I'm sure you want to get illustrating! But wait just a minute. Are you sure you know HOW to illustrate a picture book? Do you know how many pages to make it? Do you know where to place the text? You're not thinking of illustrating the whole book in full color before you submit, are you?


First things first... research!


Go to your local library. Look at all the books. What catches your eye? What doesn't?


Go to the bookstore. What's on display? What isn't?


Go to a local story time. See what books are read. What age kids are listening? Are they paying attention? What books do they respond best to?


Once you've discovered some of your favorites, take them home, look at them... study them! Who published what? How many pages do the books have? How many words?

Sketches

Many new illustrators wonder just how detailed their sketches should be. Do they have to be exact B&W replicas of the final product? No. Some illustrators do very detailed, neat sketches while others do not.


Work in a way that's best for you.


DO make sure, however, that your sketches clearly convey the characters, action, and setting. They can't be so rough that the editor and art director don't know what's going on.


It's best to make sure that the action (characters running, cars zooming and so on) goes from left to right, encouraging the reader to turn the page. This is not a rule but it's good to do so whenever possible.

Getting down to 'Buzz'ness

In celebration of Summer coming up and my book, Bug Crazy, Here are some interesting facts about bees:

There are three kinds of bees in a hive: Queen, Worker and Drone.

Only the Queen in the hive lays eggs. She communicates with her hive with her own special scent called pheromones. The queen will lay around 1,500 eggs per day.

The worker bees are all female and they do all the work for the hive. Workers perform the following tasks inside the hive as a House Bee: Cleaning, feeding the baby bees, feeding and taking care of the queen, packing pollen and nectar into cells, capping cells, building and repairing honeycombs, fanning to cool the hive and guarding the hive.

Workers perform the following tasks outside the hive as Field Bees: Gathering nectar and pollen from flowers, collecting water and a collecting a sticky substance called propolis.

Bees have two stomachs - one stomach for eating and the other special stomach is for storing nectar collected from flowers or water so that they can carry it back to their hive.

The male bees in the hive are called drones. Their job in the hive is to find a queen to mate with. Male bees fly out and meet in special drone congregation areas where they hope to meet a queen. Male drone bees don't have a stinger.

If a worker bee uses her stinger, she will die.

Bees are classified as insects and they have six legs.

Bees have five eyes - two compound eyes and three tiny ocelli eyes.

Bees go through four stages of development: Egg, Larvae, Pupae and Adult Bee.

The bees use their honeycomb cells to raise their babies in, and to store nectar, honey, pollen and water.

Nectar is a sweet watery substance that the bees gather. After they process the nectar in their stomach they regurgitate it into the honeycomb cells. Then they fan with their wings to remove excess moisture. The final result is honey.

Bees are the only insect in the world that make food for humans.

Honey has natural preservatives and bacteria can't grow in it.

Remember kids (and adults too), it is always good to expand your learning.  Pick a topic you really enjoy and research it till you become a little pro.  It's fun and you can wow people with your new found knowledge!  Bee happy!



Like a Rock Star!

It was really nice to be at Duclos School on Tuesday.  I had the privilege of reading to a whole gym of kids!  300+ kids to be exact!  What a rush!  We had sooo much fun, and I was encouraged by the children.  I am so glad I pushed myself to follow a goal!  Sometimes we think on our goals all the time, we long for them to be reached, but there's something that holds us back.  Fear...maybe?  I'm not entirely sure. 
Just doing it, taking that leap of faith...best decision ever!  Thank you to all kids who motivate me day in and day out to do what I love.  You help confirm in my heart that I will be doing this for as long as I can!  I appreciate your support.  You make me feel like a rock Star!

The Joy of Summer

The buds of green are peeking their heads
To catch a closer look at the sun.
The grass is stretching it's skinny arms
out towards everyone.

The cyclists are cycling
The motorists are motoring
Legs are getting excercise.

The bees are buzzing
The wind is singing
All we see is bright, blue skies!

Kids laughter is in the air
The ants are building their hill
The joy of Summer is spreading
Say goodbye to Winter's chill!

written by: Mandy Hunter