CURRENT ISSUE PREVIEW

JANUARY 2023

Our January lineup includes interviews with Neil Goldberg, Andi Diehn, Mona K, Cynthia Kern OBrien, Barbara Krasner, and Peter Brown. Deedee Cummings talks about making connections, and we welcome our new contributor, Character Counts!

Judy Newman finds a perfect reading spot, and Nick Spake reviews Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Check out our newest book reviews and winter reading list! It's all inside!

Plus, find great activities on our Kids Corner page.

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Story Monsters Ink® is sponsored by Once Upon a Dance and Dr. Joy Pillay

 

 FEATURES

Neil Goldberg

From the Page to the Stage

by Lindsey Giardino

“My life has been like a colorful kaleidoscope: changing, unexpected, and distinct,” says Neil Goldberg. The Broadway director, theater producer, and creative visionary can now add children’s book author to his long list of descriptors.

POMP, SNOW & CIRQUEumstance, co-written with Niko Nickolaou and illustrated by John Kelly, is Goldberg’s first book. It shares the holiday adventures of three unique characters as they study and learn special music, magic, and circus skills at a secret university before sharing their gifts with the world and learning a valuable lesson in humility and service to others.

Andi Diehn

Life Lends to Storytelling

by Lindsey Giardino

“Perhaps the most relevant fact about my early years is that I was an only child growing up in a large, haunted country house with my parents and grandparents, and I spent a lot of time either reading in trees or listening to conversations not meant for children because I was very good at being quiet and unnoticed by adults,” says children’s book author Andi Diehn. 

“Pretty much the ideal childhood,” she jokes. 

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We are All Connected

by Deedee Cummings

Recently I had lunch with a friend. She was being really hard on herself because she has been feeling sad and depressed. Her mind tells her that she is being a baby and needs to toughen up. She owns her home, she is financially stable, she has friends and family. What does she have to be down about?

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Mona K

Educates and Entertains Little Ones with Whimsical Tales

by Lindsey Giardino

Mona K grew up in the central India town of Bhopal, where she attended an all-girls Catholic school and was exposed to an array of literature forms. Her favorite of those was poetry. So, she started writing her own.
A few of her poems even got published in local newspapers.

When it came time to pursue a career, though, Mona chose to follow her analytical calling and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in applied statistics from Rutgers University. “During my initial years, I had the opportunity to work with researchers and was intrigued by the application of statistics in healthcare,” she explains.

Cynthia Kern OBrien

Pens a Picture Book with a Magnificent Message

by Lindsey Giardino


Cynthia Kern OBrien, a California native, grew up during a time when you never wanted to be inside and were thrilled to play outside until the streetlights came on. 

“The neighborhood yards were always scattered with bikes, skates, and skateboards as we traveled in packs house to house,” she recalls. “As kids there were no computers, and not much was available on TV, so we used our imaginations to create games. And no day was complete without a round of neighborhood hide-and-seek!”

MONTHLY COLUMNS

  • Story Monsters Ink - Judy Newman -  Life of a Reader

    Life of a Reader

    Pull Up a Chair …
    by Judy Newman

  • Q&A

    Peter Brown
    by Julianne Black DiBlasi

  • The Book Bug

    Barbara Krasner
    by Raven Howell

  • Story Monsters Ink Movie Review: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

    Monsters at the Movies

    Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
    by Nick Spake

  • Liv On Life

    What would you do?
    by Olivia Amiri

  • KIDS CORNER

    Questions That Matter
    Click here

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