The Poetry of Printed Words and Images
For mixed media artist’s like me, there’s a liminal space where words and images intertwine, inform and enhance each other to become something entirely new and necessary, a hybrid kind of poetry. Children’s illustrated storybooks are just that, exploring and expressing the intersection between imagination, truth and reality in a whimsical way.
Storybooks can and do so much more as an introduction to reading and literacy, an addition to curriculum based learning, to pass on traditions and beliefs and as a source of social emotional learning, to name just a few.
Best of all, they have the potential to create a liminal space full of wonder and pull us into it. Haven’t we all basked there a time or two, reading a children’s book that sheds light in a new way? How wonder full that is!
Would love to know how storybooks have helped shape you and the young peeps in your life. If you feel like sharing or want to give feedback on my latest books, message me. Interested in more of my thoughts, Sign Up for My Latest, rare, random thoughts on creativity and storytelling below. Happy reading!
Illustrated Stories for Learning with Heart
Snow, Snow, SNOW!
Take a delightful romp through the memories and moments that capture the Spirit of Christmas, especially when that first holiday snowflake falls. Starting ever so gently, it soon grows into snow, snow, SNOW! Yippeeee! Where to go? What to do? Sledding, snow angels, hot chocolate, of course. When it continues to snow and threatens that joyous holiday glow a new tact is needed.
Snow, Snow, SNOW! explores themes of generosity, selflessness, interconnectedness and actions that exemplify the reason for the season today.
Illustrated Stories for Learning with Heart
The Wild Little Donkey
The Wild Little Donkey brings to life the Nativity journey of Joseph and Mary through the eyes of an endearing and determined little donkey. "Convinced that "Donkeys were born to do what donkeys do best!" Little Donkey is left on Joseph and Mary’s doorstep shortly before they depart for Bethlehem. The answer to a prayer perhaps, but whose? Together, through dangers and hardships, courage and caring, the wonder of that first Christmas unfolds one step at a time.
Atzi's Flowers
The Legend of the Poinsettia had been a part of Christmas in rural Mexico 200 years before the Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Robert Poinsett was introduced to it and the flowers in 1826. Taken with both, the story and flower, he returned to South Carolina to cultivate the flowers and grow the story.
Could the legend be a conversion story of some sort? What of those early years in rural Mexico when the traditions of indigenous, Spanish and Mexico cultures were being woven together?
Atzi’s flower is the result of re-imagining Christmas before Poinsett and after the upheaval of Cortez. It is influenced by one of the earlier recounting, in which the main character is noted as Aztec.
Who can say if the miracle of the weeds turning into poinsettias really happened? What is true is that we all come from somewhere to be who we are today. For this legend to continue these many years later, something about it just might be true after all. You decide! Merry Christmas
The Ugly Butterfly
An imaginative story about the life cycle of a caterpillar, a quest to fit in and discovering that difference are important!
A storm scours a teen tiny egg from it’s sting place and carries it tumbling across the countryside. Dropped into a milk weed patch at the edge of the woods, a little caterpillar eventually emerges and goes through the last stage of metamorphosis amidst beautiful Monarch butterflies. It doesn’t take long to realize there are somvery big differences and and ever bigger question…
“Why don’t I fit in???”
All books are available on Amazon as a Kindle, Print and Kindle Unlimited book. Just click the 'SHOP' button below each book. After reading it, please consider writing an honest review on Amazon. Reviews help me be a better writer and illustrator while helping to push the book up in the cue for others to find. Perhaps the young at heart in your world would find this a warm Christmas addition? Thanks for visiting and Merry Christmas!