Crafty Story Times ~ by Christy Mihaly

Before my picture book came out last fall, I assumed that a writer's job description consisted more or less entirely of ... writing. 

This is me, not writing.

I was wrong.
In the months leading up to the release of Hey, Hey, Hay!, I embarked on a round of unfamiliar activities: designing bookmarks, arranging blog tours, setting up signings and school visits. Reading my book aloud to the mirror. 

"I'm reading in a frigid hay barn,
and now I need a CRAFT?"

I can do this, I told myself.
But then they said: you need crafts. 
What? 

Yes, friends. Crafts and other book-related activities are a popular element of book readings for kids--whether you're reading your own book or a favorite from the library shelves.  Librarians and educators know this. But many writers find the craft thing a little daunting. 

I have evolved from craft-skeptic to craft fan. I've created different crafts for bookstore readings, story times, classroom events, and a book festival, and learned a lot along the way. So I thought I'd share some tips and photos from my travels and from some picture-book-creator friends. 

Why crafts? 

This energetic class shows off
their drawings, or "readers' responses,"
to my reading

• Engagement: Kids get antsy when you ask them to sit and listen. You already know this. But if you haven't experienced a roomful of kids wiggling as you attempt to read to them, you may not fully appreciate it. I experimented with songs, participatory readings, etc. These are good. But, put a crayon in a kid's hand, and watch what happens.
• Fun: Kids like to create things. And you want them to have fun! One of my HAY audience favorites was a simple craft in which kids cut out tractor wheels and fastened them onto a paper tractor, then colored in the background.

  

  Displaying a completed
  craft after a reading

• Senses: Crafts use multiple senses, and the smells and feels help engage your audience. (One  feature of my HAY readings was a "sniff box" full of hay--kids loved smelling the hay.) 

  

  Jen Betton's Hedgehog Hat to go with
  Hedgehog Needs a Hug

• Skills: Crafting helps teach motor skills, problem-solving skills, and social skills. What's not to like?
• Souvenirs: A craft gives listeners a souvenir to take home and share. 

Tips for Crafts:

Sock Puppet Kipling for Love Mama

• Book Link: Link your craft to your story. Kids loved the tractors in my book, so I went with tractor crafts. Author-Illustrator Jeanette Bradley created an adorable sock puppet craft to go with Love, Mama, her picture book about a little penguin whose mama goes away on a trip. Directions and a description are here. 

  

  A Monster Drawing,
  for Maximillian Villainous

• Keep it Simple. Make it easy to explain. Margaret Greanias provided a blank frame on a coloring sheet for readings of Maximillian Villainous, her picture book about a young monster attempting to fit in. This was brilliant for the preschool set. Kids could invent and draw their own monsters--with googly eyes! Similarly, for Jen Betton's book, Hedgehog Needs a Hug, kids could cut out a hedgehog hat and color it in (photo above). See more hedgehog crafts and activities here.
  
• Allow room for creativity. Assure kids that there's no one right way to do it. Jessie Oliveros created a drawing project to go with her lovely picture book, The Remember Balloons. Children could draw their own memories.
• Make it fun, and maybe educational. Focus first on the fun. But if your craft or activity teaches something related to your book, that's a bonus. Author Hannah Holt's picture book for older readers, The Diamond and the Boy, describes how diamonds are created. She brought a crystal-growing activity to her school visits, and left it in the classroom so the students could watch the crystals grow.

Ingredients for Crystal Growing, an activity to go with
Hannah Holt's The Diamond and the Boy

Hannah Holt grew crystals on eggshells

💥Note that some books, especially those for older children, may be less conducive to crafts. In those cases, consider an art activity, allowing your audience free rein to draw or paint reactions to your reading. Or, try a readers' theater or skit or song or science experiment or other interactive activity. 

Are you a writer, educator, or librarian with craft ideas? Please share them in the comments! Thanks to all.

Let's Play! ~ Christy Mihaly

By Jlbirman1 (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Writing is my job—it's how I make a living. I love it, but sometimes it's a tough slog: a deadline looms, a beloved manuscript isn’t selling, and words bog down and refuse to sing. Ugh.

As the weather warms, it's a good time to remember an important part of the work of writing that we don't always honor: PLAY. 

Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of hanging out with a bunch of artists for a week. Watching the visual artists at work was a powerful reminder that play is central to the creative process.

The lucky participants in Vermont Artists Week,
Vermont Studio Center, May 2017

View from my studio window:
the VSC's Red Mill, on the Gihon River,
Johnson, Vermont

The event was a week-long residency at the Vermont Studio Center, on the Gihon River in Johnson, Vermont. VSC offers full-month residencies to artists and writers from around the world . . . but each spring they reserve one week for Vermont artists and writers. What a gift!

I'd submitted my work in January and then held my breath for a month. I was thrilled to hear in February that I was accepted for Vermont Artists Week. Finally, at the beginning of May, from the far corners of this small state, we assembled: eighteen writers (poets, novelists, memoirists, nonfiction writers) and 30+ visual artists (painters, sculptors, printers, photographers). Among these were several who writer and/or illustrate kids' books! The very air was abuzz with creativity.

But—my point about the playing: 

Artist at easel, by the river -- plein air painting

As I visited the artists' studios and admired the art that these folks had created, I was struck to hear them all describe what they'd done at VSC as “playing.” A woman who usually works with metal had used the week to play with cloth. A sculptor who works in wood or stone was playing with clay. Someone else was experimenting with a new way to compose her collages. Another was trying out new materials and playing with new combinations of colors.

They all were having tons of fun. 

My writing studio for the week.
(Yes, it has a view of the river)

Over in the writers' studios, we writers were soaking up the atmosphere, taking advantage of all that VSC offers . . . and working hard. Among the writers, I sensed higher levels of angst than I'd seen in the art studios. Like many of the writers, I'd  arrived with a long “To Do” list, and didn't want to waste a moment of precious writing time. 

Halfway through a week of intense work, though, my brain seized up. I was stuck on a balky manuscript. Of course, stops and starts can all be part of the writing process, but . . . I could see that those playful artists were on to something good. I started thinking about ways I could bring more play into my writing life. 

Here are a few ideas I collected:

Write a poem. It could be a little ditty about anything, just for fun. A silly rhyme! A haiku! Or, you could try a poem focused on a work in progress, perhaps free verse from your main character's point of view. 

The writers' version of playing:
a manual typewriter in the common area was
an invitation to type out random thoughts and notes

Write in a new genre. If you're a nonfiction writer, experiment with a short story. If you're a novel writer, try a first-person magazine article. Play around with it!

Play with point of view. 
Consider writing a page or a chapter of your story from a different POV. 

Sculpture of branches and feathers,
by Sabine Likhite 

Appreciate art. Just breathing the air of the art studios was enough to get some creative juices flowing. Try closing your eyes, and picture what you're writing about. How would you re-create your subject with paints or clay or wax or fabric? Does that give you new inspiration to paint with your words?

Eve at Journey's End

Of course sometimes, the working writer needs to get up out of the chair and find some fun elsewhere! How about these options?

Walk! Walking is an important part of the writing process for me. In Johnson, I enjoyed a woodsy walk to Journey's End falls with artist friend Eve Jacobs-Carnahan. 

Fairy House

We admired the waterfall, and then, thanks to Eve and her artist's eye, we also appreciated some unexpected creations left by prior hikers: fairy houses and gnome homes hidden in the underbrush. Some artistic souls had engaged in play that elves could be thankful for.

Ebenezer Book is awesome
(and not just because they carry my books!)

Visit your local bookstore, and read something fun! I visited (several times) the town of Johnson's outstanding local shop, Ebenezer Books. Along with a reference work for a nonfiction work-in-progress, I bought volumes of poetry and funny picture books -- that's some great play for a kids' writer!

Buy an artist (or a writer) a drink, and share some stories. Writers don't often get opportunities to compare notes with one another, and with artists, so if the chance presents itself, say yes! One of the joys of Vermont Artists’ Week was meeting so many neighbors (of both the writerly and artistic persuasions) and sharing stories of our work and our lives (and all the people we knew in common), and expanding our circles of creative colleagues. If that's not fun, what is?

So, if the grind gets you down, remember to play with your work! Try new things, notice the unexpected, and enjoy the journey.  Happy writing!

Covered bridge in the rain, Johnson.
Because, Vermont.

In Her Book Store With Annie B. Jones

by J.G. Annino

This is my first interview here at our Group Blog with

a bookstore owner. I am excited to introduce

Annie B. Jones, of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Ga.

 I met Annie when she helped her area's public library

put on its annual author extravaganza. I have enjoyed

getting to know her even more, ever since as she's
traveled down the road into Florida for book events here.

Prediction: this young woman is likely to become famous 
within her field. How many bookstore entrepreneurs have
 invited everyone who could fit, to a sit-down dinner 
among the books, eating fine food on family china?
Annie has. The picture is at her store blog.

Q

What are some of your more popular categories of

children's books? Animal topics? Sports? Nature?

Children's picture books of all kinds are our most popular,

perhaps because they're not quite the same when read 

electronically (their beautiful illustrations look best in print!).

Books with imaginative protagonists, animals, and fairy tales

seem to attract the most little hands. 

Annie B. Jones, The Bookshelf, Thomasville, Ga. (Left.)
Irene Latham, visiting children's author (Right.)

Q
Can you share a few specific titles of The Bookshelf's

most-selling children's books? 

The Adventures of Beetle

The Princess and the Giant

I Want My Hat Back

This Is Not My Hat

The Book with No Pictures  

+ any book we use for story time

often does really well.

Q

How do you decide which children's books to order?

 Our children's manager Rebekah creates draft orders

for all of our children's picture books, middle reader titles

 and YA selections. She's got great taste, and I follow

along behind her and add any titles I think we'll need.

We base our orders on our own personal tastes (Rebekah

leans more toward fantasy, and I lean toward more

realistic fiction) and on customer feedback -- including

 feedback from children and teenagers who love

The Bookshelf as much as we do. 

Our sales reps for different publishing companies

are also great at recommending new titles. 

Q

 Have you ever missed a title & then realized, due to

customer requests or other indications, you needed that

children's title in the shop?  Which ones?

Absolutely! This happens mostly with older titles

 (The Paper Bag Princess

 Each Peach, Pear, Plum)

 We're pretty good about stocking new, fun, current

 titles, but sometimes we forget about the classics!

Our customers are great about telling us their favorite

 older titles, and those often become bestsellers for us. 

People still love classics for baby showers and gifts, and

we're happy to accept and order customer suggestions!

 Q

What are three favorite non-book items, that are bought

for children at the bookshelf? (Candy counts!)

We try to stock imaginative, educational toys at

The Bookshelf, and they do really well for us. 

Magnetic play sets and colorful flashcards by Eeboo are great,

 and we carry these awesome super hero capes, 
masks, and tutus from Everfan -- an imaginative play 
company based in Thomasville. It's so fun to watch kids 
try on the capes and roam around the store.

Puzzles are also big!

Q

 Spooky season is here, so can you share any 

popular store titles for pumpkin & fun-scary times?

 The Old Woman Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything

Big Pumpkin

Eek! Halloween

Owl Babies (more fall than Halloween)

Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin.

Q

Care to share some favorite titles from your child days?

Children's books really do have the power to create

lifelong readers. I remember my favorite chapter books more than

I remember my favorite books: Caddie Woodlawn,

The Boxcar Children, Harriet the Spy, Bloomability,

Grandpa's Mountain, Emily of New Moon,

An Old-Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins,

Anne of Green Gables... honestly,

 I could go on for days. 

That's a great closing line, Annie B. Jones, because 

fortunately you do go on for days and days in your very 

own lovely bookshop of new & recommended volumes. 

Brava! for being where you shine.

.....................................................

To visit The Bookshelf from afar-

Dip into a lively blog there, in which Annie discusses books on screens.

Or see some of their events

See their national honor nomination (Of course, I voted for Annie & The Bookshelf!-Jan)

Appreciations to Annie B. Jones who is living her very own Kathleen Kelly-inspired dream as the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in downtown Thomasville, Georgia. An avid reader since childhood, Annie loves matching her customers with the perfect book.