Harriet Hamsterbone is a brave, intelligent princess who excels in “traditional hamster princess skills, like checkers and fractions” but who is not very good at other princess tasks like “trailing around the palace looking ethereal and sighing a lot.” She loves her quail “steed,” Mumphrey. Together, they ride all over the countryside, pretending to slay monsters.
Unfortunately for Harriet and her parents – the king and queen – a dark cloud looms over the kingdom. On the occasion of Harriet’s christening at twelve days old, the wicked fairy, Ratshade, cast a spell. The curse? Harriet will prick her finger on a hamster wheel on her 12th birthday and fall into a death-like sleep.
Though three fairy god-mice are called in to change young Harriet’s fate, the best they can do is slightly alter the consequences. As far as the king and queen are concerned, this is not the best news. Harriet thinks differently. She’s invincible and plans to take full advantage! “Until I’m twelve, nothing can touch me!”
Eventually, the fateful day finally arrives. Ratshade appears to make sure all goes according to plan. But Harriet has other ideas and… Hyaaaaaah! She grabs the wicked fairy, whips her around, and charges the hamster wheel. Ratshade pricks herself and falls into a deep sleep, along with all the others in the palace. Harriet and Mumphrey are left to break the spell and save the kingdom.
A wonderful reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon is a new hybrid graphic novel, with belly laughs and serious fun. Young readers will not want to miss this first book of the series by the author of the very popular Dragonbreath!
Check back in with ReaderKidZ on Thursday for an interview with author, Ursula Vernon.
Water Moves. A simple idea, but the enormous importance of the water cycle is often not appreciated.
We learn about the water cycle – rain falls, puddles form, mud oozes down into the earth, surface water evaporates, condenses into rain, sleet or snow, is blown over mountains or oceans, and falls again. But that is only the beginning, the “tip of the iceberg!”
Because water is such a shape-shifter and can change into different forms – a gas, a liquid, a solid – water can move from ocean to desert, from frozen glacier to tropical sea, from your garden hose to my thirsty tomatoes. And because it can change and move, water can travel to where it is needed, above or below the ground. The water we have on our planet Earth, folks, is the only water we have. Since before the time of the dinosaurs, our supply of water has remained the same.
Several delightful picture books present this information in lyrical, visual ways. Laura Purdie Salas’s WATER CAN BE illustrated by Violeta Dabija begins with a winter scene: “Water is water – it’s puddle, pond, sea, When springtime comes splashing, the water flows free.”
The magic of the water cycle nearly splashes off the pages of WATER ROLLS, WATER RISES, EL AGUARUEDA, EL AGUA SUBE written by Pat Mora and illustrated by Meilo So: “Blown by the wind, water sails high. Tumbling cloud plumes curl through the air. Slow into rivers, water slithers and snakes, through silent canyons at twilight and dawn.”
Don’t miss the tumbling, rolling picture book, ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD, written by George Ella Lyon and illustrated by Katherine Tillotson or the wonderful water-cycle book, WATER IS WATER, by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin, which shows the many forms water can take from summer puddles to autumn’s “Slosh in galoshes, Splash to your knees!” From winter’s “Glide, slide, put on the brakes! Ice is ice unless ….” to spring’s, “Creep. Seep. Squish in your boots.”
For more “water” information, visit my website (www.nancyboflood) where you will also find discussion questions, activity guides, a reader’s theater, and further reading suggestions – nonfiction, poetry, and novels. Become water fluent about this life-sustaining resource.
RKZ: Water Runs Through This Book covers a lot of territory in 64 pages. From the first chapter, “You Are Water” to the final, “Going, Going… STOP!” you remind readers that not only is water necessary to keep our bodies “alive, fueled, and healthy,” but that each one of us must take the job of water conservation seriously. It’s as a timely a message now as ever. Can you talk about the genesis of the book and how you’d like to see teachers using it in classrooms?
NBF:“Will this rain storm end the drought?” I stood on a sandstone cliff watching rain pour down a thousand feet, forming instant waterfalls that crashed into nearly empty pools below. Rain was finally falling after many dry months of nothing.
“No” was the simple reply of the hydrologist.
I stared at her, not quite believing her answer. “But we’ve gotten three inches of rain in the last 24 hours.”
“This sandstone will soak up every drop. Almost nothing will trickle down past shrub roots. It’s been a long drought. Even the rocks are thirsty.”
That image of our earth, the high desert of the southwest – where even the rocks were thirsty – kept haunting me. A couple of years ago I was talking to teachers about the cycle of sandstone (Sand to Stone and Back Again) and the continued interconnections between earth, sky, sea. The teachers asked, what about water? How can we teach about water? When iUtah asked me to write a book about water, I thought about the thirsty rocks, the need to conserve and protect water, and said “Yes.”
RKZ: One of the most powerful chapters for me was “Making Supper and Shoes.” Statistics such as the fact that manufacturing a shirt uses about 700 gallons of water and that it takes about 4,000 to 18,000 gallons to “grow the cow” that will eventually become a thick, juicy hamburger lunch puts things in perspective in a way that kids can relate to. I can imagine the book inspiring all sorts of additional classroom research and projects. What are your 3 favorite water-saving tips that young readers can implement starting today? What’s one additional tip that readers may not have considered?
NBF: Turn off the faucet – when brushing teeth, washing your face, or in the kitchen, fixing a snack or cleaning up. In the past ten years kids and families in the U.S. significantly reduced water usage. Let’s continue that!
Here is a fun challenge: have a “faucet” day. Most Americans use over 100 gallons of water daily.
Fill up 20 empty plastic milk gallons with water. Use an outside hose and carry the water jugs to the bathroom. How long did that take? Stack up the jugs in the bathtub or shower. Each time you turn on the faucet, figure out how much water you use. Put a pan or basin under the faucet. Keep a tally. See if you can use less than 20 gallons. Remember to count washing clothes, washing you, using the dishwasher, and flushing the toilet (2-7 gallons!).
It would be interesting for a classroom of kids to compute their one-day water usage. How long did it take to carry that much water one block (from “well” to school?). Share ideas about how to use less water. Use your collective,creative brain – it’s 90% water!
RKZ:Thanks, Nancy, for sharing your latest book and reminding us all of the many small ways we can make a difference conserving one of our most important resources – water.
Cowboy Up! author Nancy Bo Flood and photographer Jan Sonnenmair have partnered together once again to craft another incredible book. Their latest, Water Runs Through This Book (Fulcrum) is an active, vibrant, and poetic celebration of an element that is essential to all of life – WATER! Young readers will learn that water molecules are on the move. That the molecules evaporating from a mud puddle on the sidewalk very may have been a dinosaur’s drink. And, that molecules in a drip from an icicle and a bead of sweat may have originated from a water fountain spraying from the other side of the planet. Oh, the wonders of the water cycle – evaporation, precipitation, accumulation and condensation.
Bo Flood’s prose paired with Sonnenmair’s photographs make Water Runs Through This Book a heartfelt message of gratitude for all of life. Dry scientific aspects of this book are softened by their intent to present this message on a personal level, one that will inspire young people to become caretakers of our watery and wonderful planet.
Nancy Bo Flood is offering a free, downloadable educational activity guide. In it is a game that will have students moving about like raindrops dancing on a roof top, as well other writing prompts and engaging activities.
Leave a comment below and be entered for chance to win a copy of Water Runs Through This Book.
RKZ:POET marks an important milestone in your children’s book career. It’s the first book you both wrote and illustrated. Congratulations! Were there challenges that were unique to this project? How did you approach the work? Words first? Illustrations first? Or a mix of the two?
DT: I begin with words. I do my research so I’ll know what I’m writing about, but I need a narrative to guide the visuals. That said, I’m always aware of what the visuals might be—because the visuals also guide the narrative. Therein lies my challenge, finding the right balance between words and pictures, knowing when to let one or the other lead the story or stand alone. Once I have a fairly concrete draft, I’ll do some sketching, which then throws everything out of whack. That balancing act again.
RKZ:Teachers often ask their students to revise their writing, but I don’t think a lot of kids realize that illustrators revise their work at least as often as writers do. In an interview with Julie Danielson of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast you talk about the revision of the art for POET. Can you talk more about that process? Did you find yourself going back to your research as you worked on illustrations? Or revising the text once the images were blocked out? How did the process work for you?
DT: I constantly revise my sketches. I work very loosely so that re-sketching is a bit less painless. But I won’t hesitate to revise a tightened sketch that isn’t working. With Poet, I sketched out the book with pencil on paper. Halfway through the process, I got a new tool: a Cintiq, a computer monitor that allows me to draw directly on the display surface. This makes revision even more painless—and, heck, fun! As far as research, it never stops until the book goes to print. For instance, with Poet, my research revealed George’s love for singing lively songs while he tagged along behind his mother as she worked in the hot tobacco fields. So I opened with a scene like that, with George about 6 to10-years-old. It was my and my art director’s favorite scene in the book—in fact, they wanted to use it on the cover. Later, while double-checking my timeline and looking closer at my research, I came to realize the scene was all wrong. George’s family got out of the tobacco farm business when he was a toddler. I had to do a new scene.
At a certain point, however, the images need to be finalized. After that, I still continue to polish my word and phrase choices, careful not to let those changes affect the content of the art.
RKZ:In the fall of 2014, you won the SCBWI Book Launch Award for POET and have joined with two other authors whose books you’ve illustrated (THE AMAZING AGE OF JOHN ROY LYNCH, by Chris Barton and HOPE’S GIFT by Kelly Starling Lyons) to create THE FREEDOM TOUR. Tell us about the tour. How’s it going?
DT: Having written and/or illustrated three books with inspirational historical figures who were once enslaved, I decided to take these books on the road and promote them together. Chris Barton and I spoke earlier this year at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival in Mississippi. Kelly Starling Lyons and I toured DC schools where we spoke to children about our book. We also did a live taping with RIF. Last week, I toured North Carolina schools. The Freedom Tour has been a huge success. I’m looking forward to the next stop, which will take place in Austin next month, as we launch Poet and Amazing Age. On the tour, we celebrate wonderful stories of survival, resilience, and overcoming tremendous obstacles in the face of adversity.
RKZ:The Author’s Note at the end of POET gives readers a peek at your journey as a writer and illustrator of books for children. What’s next? Can readers expect more stories about the remarkable lives and times of historical people?
DT:Definitely. Next up, another collaboration between Chris Barton and I. WHOOSH! LONNIE JOHNSON’S SUPER STREAM OF IDEAS will publish next May, 2016. In my future, I have books that I’ve written and/or illustrated about a famous muscleman, a freedom fighter, the inventor of Black History Month, and the originators of jazz music!
RKZ: Thanks, Don, for offering readers a wonderful peek into your process and work.
Be sure to check out other ReaderKidZ reviews of Don’s books:
Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton is the story of a man who was born with words inside of him – words full of life and love and wonder. Poetic words. Musical words. Profound and philosophical words. Thoughts and perceptions that had to be expressed. However, young George Moses Horton was enslaved. There would be no formal education for this brilliant boy. And, yet, he was driven to find a way to express the poetry he had composed in his mind.
At first, he learned the alphabet by listening to the white children’s lessons. Then he taught himself how to read his mother’s hymnal. Eventually, after a series of remarkable events and opportunities, George Moses Horton grew to become the first southern African-American man to be published.
Written and illustrated by Don Tate, Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton is an inspirational account of man’s determination to become the person he was intended to be, despite the oppression he endured. To deepen understanding and appreciation for George Moses Horton’s life and accomplishments, Peachtree Publishers is offering a free, downloadable Teacher’s Guide consisting of discussion questions, an author spotlight, a historical timeline project, and other activities.
Bear was good at all sorts of things. Smart and helpful, he wasn’t just brainy and nice. Bear could balance on a beam and do a backward pike somersault. But Bear had a BIG problem. He wanted to ride a two-wheel bike, just like his friends.
Everyone tried to help. No amount of encouragement or assistance did the trick. Finally, Bear’s mom suggested trying the library. “You can learn anything there.”
With book in hand (Learn to Ride a Bike in 4 Days), Bear made a list. He studied his bike, ran scientific calculations, and practiced his balance. CRASH! It was no use. Every time Bear got on his bike, he fell over. He lost confidence. He was ready to give up. And then… “Help!!! My kid is getting carried away!” Bear ran some quick calculations, jumped on his bike, and – without thinking about it too much – blasted off and saved the day.
“Bear could do practically anything.” Next on his list? Learning to… gulp!… swim.
With a most gorgeous palette of aqua blues and pale oranges and illustrations rendered in pencil, crayon, and digitally, BIKE ON, BEAR is for anyone looking for a confidence boost and a reminder that some things come naturally, others, not so much, but if you stick with it, keep believing in yourself, and – sometimes – don’t think about it too much, you’ll get there. Bike on!!
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
thirsty tomatoes. And because it can change and move, water can travel to where it is needed, above or below the ground. The water we have on our planet Earth, folks, is the only water we have. Since before the time of the dinosaurs, our supply of water has remained the same.
The magic of the water cycle nearly splashes off the pages of 
summer puddles to autumn’s “Slosh in galoshes, Splash to your knees!” From winter’s “Glide, slide, put on the brakes! Ice is ice unless ….” to spring’s, “Creep. Seep. Squish in your boots.”
