CURRENT ISSUE PREVIEW
FEBRUARY 2023
Our February line-up includes interviews with Derrick Jakolby Washington, Meg Medina, Lisa Boucher, Marc Remus, Nikki Grimes, and A 2 Z Press! Deedee Cummings talks about starting a book club, and Character Counts talks about the pillars of character!
Judy Newman is celebrating February and all it brings, and Nick Spake reviews Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Check out our newest book reviews and winter reading list! It's all inside!
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Story Monsters Ink® is sponsored by Once Upon a Dance and Dr. Joy Pillay
FEATURES
One to Read:
Derrick Jakolby Washington
by Lindsey Giardino
Derrick Jakolby Washington never thought of becoming a writer.
“It wasn’t until the senseless killing of George Floyd that I, like many, sat and tried to reconcile my emotions,” he shares. “I began to think about what life could potentially look like in 20 years for my nephew, who had been born six months prior, and jotted my thoughts on paper. Those thoughts turned into a poem that I ended up reading to my sister the next day, and she urged me to turn it into a book.”
The rest is history.
That book, Son, You Matter!, was published in 2020 and tells the story of 7-year-old Ahmad—a boy who idealizes his father and loves chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. The story shifts when what seems like a normal day quickly turns into one that transforms his life.
“I wrote that book in two hours and released it within 30 days,” Washington says. “I often share with people that the journey to release Son, You Matter! was not the traditional writer’s process. I feel like everything just kind of fell into place, and that the timing was exactly right. It is one of my proudest achievements to date.”
Washington’s latest book, A Special Little Girl, is one that’s especially near and dear to him.
“It’s essentially an ode to my niece, Zyion,” he shares. “At around age 4, she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Since then, I’ve watched her navigate through life as best as she can with joy and oh, so much love and laughter.”
Zyion is now 10, and on a recent trip home to visit her, Washington attended her gymnastics class. He noticed how the instructor gave praise to every student in the class except for his niece.
Meg Medina
Named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
by Lindsey Giardino
Meg Medina is, simply put, a rockstar.
The Cuban American, New York Times-bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author was recently named the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
Medina grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, where her parents first settled when they arrived to the United States in the early 1960s. She spent most of her childhood in Queens with her mom and extended family.
Medina’s career as a children’s book author took some time to come to fruition, mostly because she didn’t know how to become a writer.
“I loved words and stories, but I knew of no one in my world who did such work,” she shares. “My first job out of college was as an editorial assistant, which—ironically—I did not enjoy at all. Leaving that world, I became a teacher during New York City’s teacher shortage in the early 1980s. I thought it would be temporary while I figured out what I really wanted to do. But I fell in love with children—and with children’s books.”
Later, when Medina became a mother to three children herself, she scaled back and began writing part-time, both as a freelance journalist and as a grant writer for organizations that, in one way or another, served children, literacy, and the arts.
“By the time I was 40, I had all these scraps of experiences … a collage of sorts … that drew a picture of a woman who loved stories and who cared about children,” she says. “That’s when I turned to writing novels and picture books for young readers.”
All of Medina’s books, including the Newbery Medal-winning Merci Suárez Changes Gears, are inspired by lived experiences.
Teaching Toolbox:
Stories that Stick
by Larissa Juliano
When I share stories with my children and students, I pay attention to what makes their eyes sparkle. I want to know what makes them feel intrigued and which literature will imprint on their minds as they ride home on the school bus and talk about their day around the dinner table. What initially hooks a child as they step into a library, a bookstore, or a cozy reading nook? Illustrations, of course.
Engaging Characters: These are books that make kids smile. Witty dialogue, vulnerable and authentic emotions, relatable family dynamics. My kids and students just love stories that make us root for the characters so they can have their happy ending. My beloved fairytales and folktales living in 398.2 really target these traits, all the while promoting vulnerable conversation topics to discuss within our own connections to the story. And these feelings and emotions conjured during our story time will then be addressed during carpool hour, bedtime tuck-ins, or the next trip to the bookstore or library.
Heartwarming Theme: This is not meant to be stories with “cheese,” but rather tales that tug at the heartstrings. There are countless mentor texts that exemplify this—books which ignite our compassion for others and inspire us to put ourselves in other’s shoes. Bravery, kindness, accepting differences. A previous post that I wrote here talks about Corduroy by Don Freeman (my favorite) and how ultimately readers just want to feel connected, heard, and empathized with.
Lisa Boucher
Encourages Readers to Ride with a Looser Rein
by Lindsey Giardino
Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, Lisa Boucher faced a lot of family dysfunction due to her mother’s alcoholism and father’s lack of coping skills to deal with the upheaval in the home. She endured childhood alongside her three siblings, but it was Boucher’s horse, Sham, that was the bright spot.
Later in life, Boucher began writing when she herself got sober.
“I think it was something I always had inside of me, but it wasn’t until later that I found the discipline to flush out my gift,” she says.
Pray. Trust. Ride: Lessons on Surrender from a Cowgirl and a King is Boucher’s latest book and inspired by her observation that many people struggle to let things go. It also pulls in threads of healing, which she first found while riding horses as a child.
“Horse riding saved my sanity,” she says. “Being out in nature is cathartic, and I had several experiences while riding where I literally had to let go of the reins. It’s a great visual of how we should live life.”
In Pray. Trust. Ride., Boucher married her love for horses with the prayer of King Jehoshaphat. When he and the people of Judah were surrounded by armies, their battle plan was to let go and let God.
“Allowing ourselves to trust in something that is bigger than we are alleviates a lot of stress if you can put that concept into practice,” she explains. “It is my hope that Pray. Trust. Ride. will help teens and adults let go a little bit more in their own lives so they can find peace.”
Boucher wrote the book while taking into account the busy lives of readers.
“The chapters are short, and some pages have a paragraph or perhaps a few lines so that people can use it as a tool to help them get out of a negative mindset,” she explains.
A 2 Z Press
Is a Small Publishing House with a Big Selection
Dr. Terrie Sizemore is a veterinarian who had a vision to write, edit, and publish books about pets for families to understand basic care information for their pets. To realize this dream, she created A 2 Z Press LLC in 2016, and the company has grown tremendously since then. A 2 Z Press has published many print and electronic books. Many award-winning authors from all over the world—including England, South Africa, Brazil, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.—have joined her publishing house. Together, Terrie’s vision has expanded and she has published over 100 children’s picture books, eight novels, a memoir for 75 Black female surgeons, coloring books, and several faith-based books.
A 2 Z Press has published books in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, and is open to publishing in any language. Sizemore added well-known English author/poet Moira Andrew, who has over 100 published books to her credit and has published the zany A Thoroughly Modern Grandma that we suspect was inspired by her active life, as well as several more books with A 2 Z Press. A 2 Z Press also added 99-year-old Francesca Malloy to the author list, who is a retired educator and recently created a great book to help children learn to write in cursive style.
Many of the more than one hundred picture books that Sizemore and her team of authors and illustrators have created have a soft message to share with the young reader. Joy Outside the Box is a Purple Dragonfly Award-winning book about a young girl who may not fit the “mold” of a dancer, but she dances anyway. Her message is for young girls and boys to never give up on their dreams and hopes even if they don’t fit a certain mold. The Little White Kitten and Her Little Red Mittens is an endearing story about a kitten who loves her mittens, loses them, is very sad, but learns the valuable lessons of giving and sharing in the face of her loss and sadness. Just Right is about several multi-nationality children who meet on the playground and question Eddie’s Grandpa about different attributes they see in themselves. Jelly Baby is a heartwarming story about a jellyfish that wants to grow up too soon and must be patient as he learns the value of friendship and keeping his promises. A 2 Z Press LLC also has more books about making friends, autism and how it affects different children, playing fairly, learning that grass is not always greener on the other side, sometimes our imperfections are just what is needed, and how emotions like a temper can get us into trouble, as well as two books featuring Moose Millie teaching respect and the golden rule, seeing the value in what we already have, and more!
Thinking of Starting a Book Club?
Here’s How!
by Deedee Cummings
We love books. All kinds of books. Novels and short stories. Fiction and picture books. The only problem with books is that we don’t have enough time to read them all!
A book club is a great way to delve even deeper into the world of book lovers. It’s a lot of fun to start your own. Starting a book club doesn’t have to be intimidating, although it may feel that way.
Probably the most important step is to consider what you want your book club to be. Do you want to only read certain kinds of books? Do you want the group to be 50 percent book discussion and 50 percent social, or would you prefer it be 90/10? Do you want to meet at public spaces or in people’s homes? Will it always be in your home, or will you rotate homes? How often will you meet? Monthly? Quarterly? All fiction or all nonfiction? Having an idea about what you want will go a long way in helping ensure the book club is a success and that you are satisfied with what you create.
Once you have a firm idea of what you want your book club to be, the next step is finding people who want to be a part of it. You may already know friends from work or school who have mentioned an interest in a book club, and if you do, let them know your plans. If you run your plans by a few people and they don’t love some of your ideas, you may decide to tweak some things so that it’s easier to get others to come on board.
The next step is to hold the book club and have realistic expectations about it (and maybe the first several book club meetings you have). Every endeavor, from having a child to launching a business, has a learning curve, and this is true for book clubs too. It may take a while to get into a groove. Some people who join may decide they can’t commit to the reading schedule or life events may get in everyone’s way occasionally, but the core of the group will be there routinely and they will be grateful for the little community you have made.
Communication is important to the success of a book club, whether that is keeping everyone in the loop as to when the next meeting is and what the selected book is or deciding as a group how you want to handle how new members (and how many) can join the club.
MONTHLY COLUMNS
-
Life of a Reader
Time to Celebrate!
by Judy Newman -
Q&A
Marc Remus
by Julianne Black DiBlasi -
The Book Bug
Nikki Grimes
by Raven Howell -
Monsters at the Movies
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
by Nick Spake -
Liv On Life
My Mona Lisa …
by Olivia Amiri -
Kids Corner
Help Harry Through the Maze
Click here -
Character Counts!
Character Building with the
Six Pillars of Character
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