I think I’ve basically become a bit of an arts educator. It’s not a role I thought would come with the territory of published author and storyteller, but it’s kind of morphed that way and I think I’m good at it. I had developed a program I called Universality in Folktales years ago. I first […]

I think it’s a good idea to do the organizing first. It might seem counter intuitive. You might think, no, but I need to get the creativity out! But actually the mundane act of organizing and cleaning up  your environment is an excellent way to prepare you for the writing process. It’s as simple as […]

…or is it? I know I need to stop watching the news so much. I know it isn’t good for my health. And yet the urge to tune in to the next bit of craziness, the next bit of ‘Oh no, what’s he doing now?’ is often too strong to resist. Last weekend a guy […]

Propaganda is the dissemination of information that is politically charged to promote a certain viewpoint. It’s usually state-sponsored. I have long felt that a lot of children’s literature consists of different, albeit at times benign, forms of propaganda. One thing I’m still processing from the international storytelling festival in Iran is an offhand comment someone […]

It is always such an honor to be invited to judge a storytelling festival! This was my second stint as judge at the Kanoon festival and I can’t believe how different an experience it was from the first time! One person came up to me, I think it was an Iranian administrator or something, and […]

A few days ago I went to one of my daughter’s houses for dinner and the grandkids ran up to me and asked me, of course, to read them stories. It’s always been what we do. So we went up to their rooms, and they each chose a book. The oldest chose Rosie Revere Engineer, […]

I wonder if anyone else is finding that the tumult of our current political times is messing with their creativity. With the political shenanigans going on south of the border, it’s almost like, ‘How can I ever write a story that can compete with that!?’ Honestly, who’d have thought! Truth really is stranger than fiction. […]

Recently I was approached by a thoughtful teacher librarian who questioned the addition of this book on my Muslim booklist: The teacher librarian wrote: “I am a public school librarian in a diverse, growing community. We have recently seen an increase in our immigrant/refugee population, particularly of students whose families are from Arab or Middle […]

A couple of weeks ago I went on a road trip with my son and daughter to view the fall colors. What an amazing experience! A real rejuvenation! We drove up the Bruce peninsula to Tobermory! Tobermory! Doesn’t the name just conjure up images of Jack Pine, golden birches, brilliant blue fall sky and rugged […]

It’s so weird to be tangentially part of a little controversy. Recently first lady Melania Trump sent out packages of books to libraries around America and she picked, of all books to send, a bunch of Dr. Seuss books. As if all libraries don’t already carry them! Well Liz Phipps Soeiro wrote a public post […]