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Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope you all had lovely weekends and happy celebrations of Father's Day!

I am happy because I get to start off the week by giving out prizes to some of my favorite people :)

You will recall that on Friday, we celebrated the 100th posting of Perfect Picture Books, and by way of a little thank you, I had 9 highly acclaimed picture books to give away randomly to 9 lucky staunch supporters.

And here they are!!!

I will list their names, their fabulous blogs where they have faithfully posted tons of wonderful picture books, and the picture book they won:

Barbara Gruener at The Corner On Character wins: On A Beam Of Light: A Story Of Albert Einstein

Joanna Marple at Miss Marple's Musings wins: Warning: Do Not Open This Book

Julie Rowan-Zoch at Julie Rowan-Zoch - Writing Illustrating Reading Children's Books wins: Mitchell Goes Bowling

Stacy Jensen at Stacy S. Jensen - Writer & Designer wins: Gaston

Vivian Kirkfield at Picture Books Help Kids Soar wins: Mr. Wuffles

Joanne Roberts at Bookish Ambition wins: The Dark

Beth Stilborn at By Word Of Beth wins: Journey

Carrie Finison at Story Patch wins: This Is The Rope: A Story Of The Great Migration

Laura Miller at Laura Miller - Children's Book Writer/Illustrator wins: The Watermelon Seed

Winners, please email me with your snail mail addresses so I can get the books mailed out!  And if any of you want to exchange what you won for any reason, let me know and we'll see if we can work it out :)

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to the winners and to everyone else who has faithfully posted Perfect Picture Books, visited the many wonderful blogs each week to read and comment, and generally supported the whole Perfect Picture Book project!  You guys are what makes it all work! :)  Like I said on Friday, I wish I could give everyone a prize!

Alrighty!

Now that we have completed the happy task of giving out prizes, let's talk summer plans a bit, shall we?

I've got a busy summer ahead.

Full classes in Making Picture Book Magic for June, July, and August (for which I am exceedingly grateful!)

A full queue of picture book critiques to do through mid-July (for which I am also exceedingly grateful!)

A house full of family - my kids for the whole summer, my sister and her family for about 4 weeks (again - so happy :))

Another summer of college visits (tons of fun, but on the road again... :)  Ohio, Maine, etc... lots of driving and time away from home)

Life in general, and, oh yes, my own writing which I'm supposed to get around to from time to time :)

I am not one to take blog breaks lightly.  I like consistency, and I so value all of you and appreciate that you make time in your day for me and my blog.  I worry (a LOT) that if I drop off the grid for a while, you'll all find someone else's blog to go hang out at and I will miss you terribly!

But I think it's unrealistic of me to pretend that I'm going to manage blogging with any kind of regularity this summer.

So here's my plan (such as it is and subject to change because you know me and plans :)):

Would You Read It Wednesdays will continue uninterrupted through the end of July, because they are all already scheduled.  I do so hope that you'll continue to stop by and help our brave pitchers!

Perfect Picture Book Fridays are on hiatus until September 5 or 12 (depends when all my kids go back to school :))

I may post on sporadic Mondays if and when I have something to share.

But I will be completely on a blog break for the whole month of August.

I know.  Hard to imagine me shutting up for a whole month, but there you have it :)

I hope you guys won't mind.  I figured you all might actually like a break too - we all have things to do in the summer that involve being away from our computers, and I know a lot of people do step away from blogging.   I think a little break will help us all feel refreshed come September.

I had all kinds of plans... another season of Summer Short & Sweets (but Tracey Cox is running Summer Sparks which is kind of the same thing)... a writing contest in August... something new and different which I haven't thought up yet... but I think I've reached my limit for a bit and my family is going to disown me if I don't pay a little attention to them :)

So I hope you'll all continue to visit on Wednesdays through July, as well as on whatever other random days I happen to post, and I hope you'll forgive me for the sparse posting, and I hope you'll all have wonderful summers full of fun, family, time outdoors, productive writing, and enjoyable reading!

Please feel free to voice your thoughts on the matter below :)

Have a magnificent Monday, everyone! :)

I have thought about how important it is to live a purposeful life each day!  I am always busy, but I want to be busy doing the right things each day.  I don’t want to waste a moment! Think of December.  Will you carry out any major goals before then?  Do you have a goal?  Your chances of accomplishing goals are better if you keep them in front of you! Write them down and then look at them each day. It’s okay to change your mind about a goal too.  We are complex beings. We can change our minds!  It only means we are growing!

Look at this website I found for girls in Dallas.

http://gllopinc.org/about_ourorg.html

To empower girls from the inside-out. We envision girls celebrating their femininity. We envision girls at the conclusion of each program level possessing the understanding, wisdom and knowledge to live life on purpose.

We envision girls better equipped to make good, sound decisions to do all that they purpose to do. We envision girls developing a plan and taking action, not allowing their race, gender, community, or financial status to limit their potential.

Our Mission

Our mission is to inspire girls from all walks of life to discover who they are, to connect with other like minded girls and to pursue their purpose with passion

After reading this I found myself wanting to attend!   We did not have anything like this when I was growing up.  Empowered with wisdom, knowledge and understanding, making sound decisions, taking actions, no limits due to race or finances. (those are excuses) inspired! discovered!

What are your first steps in the right direction this year?  Mine is to make the MASTER LIST!  Then I can fill in times and plans to carry out the things on my list! Perhaps I will even share my list with you in another blog.  For now, I leave you with this.

Image via Wikipedia

What’s the one wrench that got in the way of your latest plan?

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Anastasia Suen answers the question, "What Do Editors Want to See?" in Chapter Three of Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Kids and Teens. On page 72 she says: When it comes to nonfiction, editors want to see logic. For a nonfiction book to work, it needs to be well organized. Simply gathering lots of information is not enough. To share information with your readers, you must

I have the most lovely book chosen for today's book review. It is a favorite of the short set, parents think it's totally cute, and teachers adore it. However...

I get a thrill when YA and children’s books are made into movies. There are so many wonderful YA and children’s books that will, hopefully, reach a wider audience, what with all the effort that’s put into promoting movies.

The thrill becomes excitement for me when the movie turns out to be good, or close enough to the book, as I’m hoping Nim’s Island and Inkheart will be–and now, Mary Pearson’s YA novel The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which will soon be released as a movie.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
based on the YA novel by Mary Pearson
Director: Brad Silberling
release date: release on April 29, 2008

Lara M. Zeises, author of Contents Under Pressure, Anyone but You, and Bringing up the Bones, is having one of her YA books being made into a movie.

Lara Zeises also writes under the pen name Lola Douglas, and as Lola Douglas she’s written True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, which is going to be made into a Lifetime TV Movie. Shooting for the movie begins next month in Toronto, and will feature pop singer and actress JoJo as Morgan Carter. Tim Matheson will direct.

You can check out Lola Douglas’ blog, and Lara Zeises’ site and main blog. Wow, is this woman ever productive! And talented, too. Congratulations, Lara.