I’m really worried about this next generation of children. In response to serious abuse from some nefarious teachers (that absolutely had to be dealt with!) we’ve really undermined the whole system. As an author/storyteller, when I go into a school I’m fully aware that most of the children have no intention of following my line […]

This is something Dr. Phil would always say on his show and I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant. Thing about getting older though is that you have a chance to see perceptions change. What was acceptable at one time can change over the ages and I guess I was a weird kid because I […]

There’s a wonderful hadith that I’m reminded of. It might even be one of my favorites, and I want to share it with you. Ibn Abbas reported that the Prophet (pbuh) said: Take advantage of five (things) before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your riches before your poverty, […]

This is a strange thing for me to write and even to admit to, but there have been times, over the twenty year course of my school presentations, where I’ve been ambushed by teachers, educators or other professionals who’ve taken umbrage to something I’ve said. I’ve actually written about it before, unfortunately when I was […]

Had a hard time sleeping last night. Today I was doing a custom made presentation for a school that likes to call me back every year and I always get nervous when I have to do a presentation outside my tried and true. I was supposed to address the idea of reconciliation with grade ones […]

Isn’t it ironic that my last post was about the risk of burn out and here, in the new year, I’m already feeling burned out? I keep hearing that Bee Gee’s song Words in my head: It’s only words And words are all I have To take your heart away… If you think about it, that’s […]

We seem to be living in an age of outrage. An age of activism, an age of resistance. It’s about time. My goodness, I’ve been an activist for going on 30 years! I’ve been resisting for about that long too. I’ve made no secret of the fact that yes, in addition to trying to tell […]

On the tenth of November I conducted a workshop for Packaging Your Imagination, a one day conference for children’s writers and illustrators. It’s part of CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors Illustrators and Performers an organization I joined at the very beginning, to learn the craft of writing. Oh what a journey it’s been! […]

What possessed me to embark on three trips in six weeks? Towards the end of September I visited Sharjah UAE for about three days. Yup. I traveled on a plane for 13+ hours to stay at a hotel in Sharjah for three days and come back. It was for an international storytelling festival. But the […]

I remember hearing, as a child, some boys talking about an incident they’d witnessed where a girl was being sexually assaulted. The boys were talking about how she was laughing nervously through the experience and they were confused, thinking that she was enjoying it. The conversation was so vivid, so gruesome, so appalling, and they […]