Announcing (last minute as is tradition) the beginning of HoHoDooDa 2014 (or Holiday Doodle A Day!)

As nutty as November was, what with PiBoIdMo (thank you so much Tara Lazar!) and SkADaMo 2014, it was just what the doctor ordered as far as a shot of creative, mojo-inducing stress.

A few Decembers ago, to keep the momentum going, my fellow illustrator pals, the talented Marion Eldridge and Laura Jacobson along with myself, engaged in yet another month-long sketch-a-thin which we dubbed HoHoDooDa, short for Holiday Doodle a Day (hmmm, not really that much shorter. Is it?) We did our best to create a holiday-themed doodle a day… or even every other day… or as often as humanly possible, throughout December.

What with the holidays and all, I admit it’s a little crazy and there may be some gnashing of teeth and tears shed, but overall, I’m sure it will be a blast and very rewarding, as it was last year. So, doin’ it again this year!

Just like SkADaMo, anyone who wants to join in is more than welcome! Regardless of what winter holiday you celebrate!

Rules for HoHoDooDa:

“What are the rules for HoHoDooDa?” You may ask.

1. THERE ARE NO RULES! NO SIGN UP! NO REGISTRATION! NO GIVEAWAYS OR GUEST POSTERS!  No regulations, themes, daily words, Facebook pages or anything else resembling organization. Just lots of holidaydoodling, commenting back and forth and hopefully lots of inspiration and craft honing!
HoHoDooDa Doodlers are scoff-laws and Mavricks! (Really, I’m just not that organized.) The only code we live by this month is Doodle! Doodle! Doodle! Doodle everyday from December 1 to December 31, or at least try to.
You may not Doodle every single day, but by golly you will have tried and you’ll have more doodles in your sketchbook at the end of December than you might have otherwise.
So, there’s that!

2. If you send me a link to your blog, (or wherever you are posting your HoHoDooDa doodles) I will keep a running list of all the participants and their links on my blog. This way we can all keep in touch and root each other on and enjoy the sugarplum fruits of each other’s doodle labors.

If you post to your blog it helps if you tag your illustrations HoHoDooDa or create a HoHoDooDa category. If you are posting to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram it helps to add a hashtag (#HohoDooDa.)

It has been my experience that Facebook’s hashtags are not all that reliable, which is why I decided to go back to listing any link you give me.

If there are any broken links, bad links, I forgot anyone, misspelled anyone’s name or any other heinous act was performed, please let me know and I’ll do my best to correct it.

3. Smile, this is fun!

Doodle on my fellow HoHoDooDa Doodlers, (should there be any!)

DROP EVERYTHING (YOU’RE DOING) AND READ,

D. E. A. R.

Today is Drop Everything And Read Day celebrating children’s books and reading. The folks at the official website have this to say, “Our assertion around here is that reading, whether you’re on your own or cozied up on the couch with your kids, is so much more fun and rewarding than just about anything else . . .”

So, stop what you are doing and go read with a kid or by yourself. Read and then come right back here . . . you still have this review to read. OR, BETTER YET! Read this review and then go read a book. Reading is reading, right?!

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Don’t Turn the Page!

by Rachelle Burk & Julie Downing, illustrator

Creston Books               6/10/2014

978-1-939547-06-4

Age 4 to 8              32 pages

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“Like most children, Sami puts off going to bed for as long as possible. But reading a story about Little Bear’s bedtime ritual inspires Sami, just as the young reader will be inspired by this soothing story and clever book-within-a-book conceit. A bedtime book that both parent and child will relish reading one more time, Don’t Turn the Page! features a surprise ending that reinforces the sense that it’s bedtime for everyone.”

Opening

“’How about a bedtime story?” Mama asked. Sami shook her head. “I don’t want to go to bed. I’m not tired yet.’”

The Story

Sami is not tired and not ready for bed. Mama reads her a story, but Sami only wants her to read one page. In the story, the Little Bear is yawning and getting ready for bed. After the first page, Sami said, “Don’t turn the page.” Mama places a bookmarker between the pages and closes the book. Then Sami asks a question about how bears get ready for bed, but Mama doesn’t know. They must read one more page, but only one more. Sami continues to ask questions and Mama reads the bedtime book slowly, page-by-page, and question-by-question. Soon, Sami becomes interested and allows Mama to read one more page, but only one more “don’t turn the page,” while Sami brushes her teeth. In the story, Little Bear gets a goodnight kiss from his mama.  Sami is ready and says, “Don’t turn the page.” Will Sami ever go to sleep?

Review

Don’t Turn the Page! It’s time for the review, so please do not turn the page. Sami and the bear stories are both bedtime stories about going to bed. Sami is not ready, or so she says. Her body language is saying something different. Mama is patient and seems to be letting Sami make the decisions. The story of Sami the hedgehog is simply adorable as is that of Little Bear. The two stories mirror one another. As Little Bear puts on his jammies and fuzzy slippers Sami puts on her jammies and fuzzy slippers.

It is difficult enough to write one publishable story but the author wrote two for this picture book. The story of Little Bear could be a solo book kids would love. I suppose the question to ask is which story do you like best? That of Little Bear or of Sami Hedgehog? Kids and parents might differ but I choose them both. The illustrator did a fantastic job on both stories. Each are different in style and color. I really like the turned up page corner on Little Bear’s right side page. It is just waiting for Sami to tell her Mama to turn that page. The ending is quite a surprise and may have you thinking about reality. At the very least it will give you a huge smile, as will the back of the book.

Young children and parents will love this dual bedtime story. The story of Sami going to bed and the story of Little Bear going to bed, flow well together as you read from one story to the next. For those kids not ready for bed, not yet tired, or simply determined to stay awake, Don’t Turn the Page will send them off to where sweet dreams lay waiting. Mama, or Daddy, will enjoy ready this story in a story. The title, Don’t Turn the Page, is possibly not the best title because all you will want to do is turn the page. I’m betting your little one will want these pages turned as well. However, don’t be surprised if the new stalling tactic in your house is “Don’t Turn the Page!”

DON’T TURN THE PAGE! Text copyright © 2014 by Rachelle Burk. Illustrations copyright C) 2014 by Julie Downing. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Creston Books, Berkeley, CA.

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Learn more about Don’t Turn the Page HERE.

Buy your copy of Don’t Turn the Page at Amazon—B&N—Creston Books—your local bookstore.

Meet the author Rachelle Burk at her website:   http://www.rachelleburk.blogspot.com/ 

Meet the illustrator, Julie Downing at her website:    http://www.juliedowning.com/

Find more Creston Books at the publisher’s website:    http://www.crestonbooks.co/

.Also by Rachelle Burk

Tree House in a Storm

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Also by Julie Downing

Mozart Tonight.

No Hugs Till Saturday

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.NEW at Creston Books

Mini and Moo: Hooves of Fire

Blood Diaries

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Both reviewed here soon!

Anyone who knows me will know I have a passion for British wildlife and one species in particular, the hedgehog. When I'm not teaching, writing, walking the dog, doing the housework etc. I work as part of a small voluntary group called Herts Hogline. This group rescues sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs. It also aims to educate anyone who wishes to help support their local hedgehog population.

• Write up-dates for our Facebook page
• Create posts for our blog: The Hedgehog Shed 
• Craft tweets for our twitter account: follow us @hertshogline 
• Draft features for magazines and local parish newsletters

Woo hoo! Since writing my last post it has snowed properly! The kids are thrilled, the sledge is getting daily use and the delight in the snow hasn’t yet worn off

M and J have also had their first Christmas presents of the season – the evening of December the 5th is traditionally when (“good”) Dutch children get presents from Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) and so the festive season really has begun here. To add to the Christmassy feel we’ve been reading Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett.

Somewhere in snow-covered Scandinavia it’s almost Christmas and Treva and her family are decorating their house – the tree, the mistletoe and ornaments are all in place. But one morning things mysteriously begin to go missing. An even stranger turn of events is taken when the Christmas pudding appears to scuttle across the snow.

Treva ventures out to investigate and ends up (in a scene reminiscent of Lucie stumbling upon Mrs Tiggy Winkle’s home) discovering the home of two naughty trolls who in their eagerness for Christmas to arrive have been stealing Treva’s Christmas ornaments and more.

Photo: quinet

Rather than being cross Treva enters in to the spirit of things and helps them to get ready for Christmas, first encouraging them to tidy their treehouse, then helping them to decorate it.

“Now if you really want Christmas, you must be generous with each other. If you do that, you will have Christmas right here in your troll house.”
The trolls cocked their heads and squinted. They were trying hard to understand. “How?” they pleaded.

Treva teaches by doing rather than telling, and gives the trolls her most treasured possession – an ornament in the shape of a little red horse. But have the trolls really learned what it means to give selflessly? You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out, but I can assure you a happy, generous ending completes this fun, seasonal story.

At the heart of this story there is a very clear moral message and yet it is explored with a lightness of touch and humour, without once feeling preachy – one of the hardest things to do in children’s books I think. The message – of the importance of generosity and kindness and the importance of living out these values – is also one that works well whatever your beliefs around Christmas. Like Night Tree, Christmas Trolls is a great Christmas book if you’re of a faith other than Christianity, or indeed no faith at all, or simply want a great seasonal story that doesn’t focus on Father Christmas and getting stuff.

Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

As my son waited for the bus this morning, he asked when the snow was going to come.  Here in Wisconsin in mid-November that is a very good question and the answer is “very soon.” 

In this charmer of a picture book, Squirrel is told by Deer that it is going to snow.  Squirrel hasn’t seen snow before, so he decides to wait for it.  Deer explains that snow is “White and wet and cold and soft.”  But it is very hard to stay awake, so Squirrel runs up and down the tree trunk.  The noise wakes Hedgehog who agrees that he wants to see snow too.  The two of them stay awake by singing – sea shanties.  This wakes up Bear who waits with them for the snow.  But what is snow has already arrived and they haven’t recognized it?  So the three look around for items that match Deer’s description of snow with very funny results.  In the end, they learn exactly what snow looks like.

Meschenmoser excels at telling a story through few words and wonderfully evocative illustrations.  Just the appearance of the animals themselves shows how very tired they are.  The close-up of Bear’s face after he is woken up perfectly captures the grumpiness and bleariness of that moment.  All of the animals are wonderfully scruffy and real.  Hedgehog always has leaves and other objects stuck in his spines, and Squirrels wild fur carries a lot of his frantic pace even when still. 

The voice of the book is also right on the mark.  Told with great excitement and delight, the tone conveys their wonder at being able to see snow even before they have caught a single glimpse of it.  Meschenmoser’s pacing also works very well, filled with just enough tension but also forward movement.

A perfect choice for this time of year when snow would be met with cheers and joy by all of us who are waiting for winter.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Fuse #8 and Through the Looking Glass.

from an article on nomenclature in New Scientist (via Bookforum):

"We had particular problems with fruit-fly researchers," says Sue Povey of University College London, who chaired the committee approving names for human genes from 1996 to 2007. "They were always giving their genes names like hedgehog."

I'm not feeling bloggy today.  I think it's because I've been busy reading the storm of fantastic interviews that have blown through this week with the Winter Blog Blast Tour.   M.T. Anderson! Ellen Klages!  Tony DiTerlizzi! Mitali Perkins! John Green! (I want to read Paper Towns again after that juicy interview.  I missed some metaphorical stuff. Perhaps because I was laughing at pee in bottles.)