150 Best Ks Books, THE BRAVEST OF US ALL goes digital, Kansas sesquicentennial and Book Festival

Dorothy Gale, Amelia Earhart, and Marsha Diane Arnold.  What do we have in common? We're all from Kansas!  Today Kansas is celebrating some of its "children" and stories at the Kansas Book Festival in Topeka.

It's an especially wonderful festival as this is also the year Kansas is commemorating its sesquicentennial.  The Kansas State Library selected 150 "Best" Kansas Books in celebration of 150 years, so this adds a glow to the festival, especially in my eyes as two of my books made the list.  Thank you Kansas librarians.

My parents' family, grandparents' family, and great-grandparents' family spent many years farming and surviving on the Kansas plains.  They knew dust storms, tornadoes, crop failures, and tornadoes.

Both of my books were inspired by my Kansas roots. Prancing, Dancing Lily, the story of a cow who doesn't fit in with the herd, was inspired by my father's Ayrshire dairy herd.

Helping my father feed an Ayrshire calf on "the farm".

The Bravest of Us All was inspired by my Grandmother Krehbiel's storm cellar, which she and her family used not only for root vegetables and laying hens, but to seek shelter from storms and tornadoes.

Check behind my father and that chicken to see my grandmother's storm cellar.

Illustrator Brad Sneed and I are delighted The Bravest of Us All is now available in digital form.  You can find the digital storybook "app" for the iPad and the iPhone on  iTunes.  Enjoy the story, all about tornadoes, sisters, family, fear, and courage.

Find the Kansas Book Festival at: The Kansas Historical Society, 6425 SE 6th Avenue, Topeka, Ks from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., today, September 24th.

150 Best Ks Books, THE BRAVEST OF US ALL goes digital, Kansas sesquicentennial and Book Festival

What would you like to know?

So far this year, I've been booked at two conferences - as a speaker for the California Reading Association in November (http://www.californiareads.org/) and as a speaker/teacher/consultant at David Greenberg's amazing week long Oregon Coast Workshop (http://www.occbww.com/) next July.  I would love my readers input!


For CRA, I'll mostly be talking with educators.  My talk will be about the honorable and dishonorable in children's literature.  I plan to talk about my and other authors' work and about the changes in the publishing world.  What would you as an educator like to hear about?


My presentation and workshop in Oregon will be mostly for aspiring writers.  I'll be talking about writing picture books, but haven't decided on the specific themes yet.  It will be mostly nuts and bolts plus, I hope, lots of fun.  What do you as an aspiring writer want to hear about?



Thanks for taking part in my little survey!


I like to think of my first book, HEART OF A TIGER, as perhaps my most "honorable" book.

What would you like to know?

Delightful morning Skyping with Kindergarteners in South Carolina

What better way to start the morning than Skyping with happy, enthusiastic kindergarteners.  So glad you enjoy my books.  Thanks to Mrs. Bean, the other teachers at Stella Maris School, and of course, the delightful kindergarteners.  Happy Reading!  (Photos to follow soon.)

Delightful morning Skyping with Kindergarteners in South Carolina

So glad ROAR OF A SNORE makes you smile, Maya

I just received the most gracious email from the Smedley family in Tennessee.  It's mail like this that keeps me inspired to continue writing for our precious children.  Thank you Bryon, Celeste, and sweet Maya for letting me share this with my Story Magician readers.

Just wanted to let you know that my daughter Maya (just shy of 2 1/2 years old) LOVES Roar of a Snore.  I have been required to read this to her every night at bedtime for over 100 nights straight. Needless to say, I have the story memorized.  She now reads about a third of the book to me when I insert carefully placed pauses in the dialog. Thank you for making my daughter so happy.

That last sentence is glowing inside my heart.

So glad ROAR OF A SNORE makes you smile, Maya

NEW INTERACTIVE BOOK FOR THE BRAVEST OF US ALL

What happened here?

Where is everyone going?

And why are Velma Jean and Ruby Jane so scared?

Find out when you download my new interactive storybook.  THE BRAVEST OF US ALL book went out of print earlier this year, but it's nowavailable to fans in digital form.  Recently selected by the Kansas State Library as one of 150 "Best" Kansas books, I'm happy to have this available to educators and students.  I know some of are doing play of the story for the KS sesquicentennial.  Thank you!  Download at iTunes for just $2.99 or follow this link, http://www.myblackdogbooks.com/marsha-diane-arnold/bravest.

NEW INTERACTIVE BOOK FOR THE BRAVEST OF US ALL

Skyping through the summer - with Martin Luther King Family Outreach Center and more

This summer, I've been busy skyping with libraries, summer camps, and more.  It was a surprise that there were so many wanting me to skype during the summer, but I loved it.  These photos show one special day with Martin Luther King Family Outreach Center in Spokane, Washington.  Each year, the center has a Summer Youth Academy for K-6, where children learn about writing and illustrating.  Each class also writes and illustrates a book of their own.

I first open Skype, then my Keynote presentation, and finally Photo Booth on my Mac.  Photo Booth allows the children to see myself, as well as the presentation, and I can see them through Skype.  My eyes probably look as if they are rolling all over the place...because they are (ha), but it seems to work quite well.

It was a delight being with the children and both Jeani Brickner, Children's Services Director, and Brittini Allen, Program Coordinator, were lovely to work with.  Check out their great work at www.mlkspokane.org

Skyping through the summer - with Martin Luther King Family Outreach Center and more

Goodbye! We will miss you! - Love those words

As highlighted in the school district's webpage:

Sparked by training received as a result of winning a grant through the Professional School Library System at PNW BOCES, library media specialist Susan McCormack worked with the BV PTA enrichment coordinator Mrs. Andrea O’Malley to make this first virtual author visit a reality.

Throughout the month of May, students in kindergarten and first grade spent their library class listening to books by author Marsha Diane Arnold.  They learned about her life as a child growing up on a farm in Kansas and about the redwood forest that inspires her in her current home in northern California.  Students connected to the curriculum as they discussed life in rural communities as compared to urban and suburban ones.  Through the use of satellite images, students got a sense of the space and isolation between the great farms of the Midwest Great Plains states compared to the homes spread throughout the communities of Buchanan, Verplanck and the lower Hudson Valley.  Students began to make connections between how life experiences inform fiction writing.  They learned about tornadoes and bravery while listening to Mrs. Arnold’s story:  The Bravest of Us All.  They heard how stories based on farm life and animals can be fictionalized and infused with humor in:  Roar of and Snore and Prancing, Dancing Lily.  Students prepared questions for the author ranging from how she gets ideas for her stories, to how she chooses an illustrator to more personal questions such as does she have any pets?

Using web cameras and Skype, students visited with author Marsha Diane Arnold via computer screen split in three:  the author, themselves on camera and the author’s presentation.  At the end of her presentation, the kindergarten students called out, “Goodbye, we will miss you!” as the author, Ms. Arnold, signed off.  Thanks to the tremendous support of the BV PTA, we hope to make virtual author visits a regular annual occurrence.

Goodbye! We will miss you! - Love those words