Meet GROGer Todd Burleson! ~ by Patricia Toht

Todd Burleson is the GROG's fearless leader, tech trouble-shooter, and all-around great guy. Just look at that smiling face!

To know Todd is to love him, so I'm delighted to introduce him to you. 


What drew you to writing for children, Todd?

Five years ago when I started working as a library media specialist, my relationship with words changed forever. Now, I read hundreds of picture books aloud to students each year. I feel and hear the rhythm of words and see the interplay that they have with illustrations. In short, I started ‘seeing’ the world through books.  Pretty quickly I realized, as Orson Scott Card said: “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” I’m doing pretty well if I get one new idea a day, but that doesn’t stop me from looking! 

Todd hosts Jon Muth at Hubbard Woods Elementary School

Another visitor, Arun Ghandi

How do you come up with ideas to write about?

Curiosity inspires me to write; I’m never bored. I am always exploring new media, books and ideas. I have a long commute, but I look at that commuting time as idea gathering time. I find that NPR and Podcasts spark tiny ideas that frequently lead to some of my best writing projects. I keep a pad of paper in my car at all times and post it notes are omnipresent! I also love to experience new things and travel. There are amazing stories everywhere.

Todd is quite the adventurous man!

How long have you been writing?

I was an early reader, but writing didn’t come easily for me as a kid. In fact, I don’t remember a single writing project I did in school. What I do remember, felt formulaic and forced. ‘Writing’ then for me, took the form of lists and outlines. Eventually, those lists evolved and spilled into journal entries, which gave me a way to ‘think.’ Soon, poetry and song lyrics crept into my journals.  Next came sketches, photographs and ticket stubs. Mix in lots of new experiences and places and you have pretty fertile ground for ideas!

What authors have mentored you?

Whether they realize it or not, I’ve learned from the best!  I make studying my favorite authors a big part of my writing ‘workout.’  I’m constantly typing out the text of my favorite authors to feel and see their rhythm and phrasing.  I’m one of 16 authors here on the

Ann Bausum's latest book,
Stubby the War Dog

GROG and have learned so, so much from reading and working alongside them.  I am thrilled to have been selected by SCBWI WI to be mentored by award winning author Ann Bausum.  I’ll be working with her this year on a non-fiction picture book project and soaking up every ounce of knowledge I can!

(Not only are you working with mentor Ann Bausum this year, Todd, you've also recently been awarded a Highlights scholarship for nonfiction and you're working with agent, Jodell Sadler. I think 2015 is going to be a very good year for you!)

What is your current WIP?

Right now, I’ve got two that have bubbled to the top. One is a story about the first magician in America, and the other is about the last ice merchant on Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.  Both of these topics intrigued me enough to research them and when I did I found that there were stories there that I thought needed to be told.

Todd busy at research.

If you could invite any author or illustrator to dinner, who would it be?

This was a tough question. Lately I’ve been enamored with Snowflake Bentley written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian. It won the Caldeott in 1999. I like that Jacqueline is such a diverse writer; I have to imagine she’s a fascinating person. I would love to have both of them over for dinner. 

Do you have a favorite picture book?

That should be hard, but I actually really do have one:  Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Of course this Caldecott winner’s images are phenomenal, but it’s the way the words and images work together that make it my favorite. Just the first line shouts to me that it is going to be amazing: “It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling.” I have never been owling, but I sure feel like I would know what to do after reading this book. 

What are your hobbies?

Making stuff. I like to explore with different media: photography, painting, sketching, wood, etc. Someday I hope to have a barn that is my ‘creation space.’ I want to be able to sling paint on giant canvases, weld huge chunks of steel and turn all sorts of things on a lathe! Basically I want to have a place where I can make a HUGE mess! I recently restored a 1947 Tourette Teardrop Trailer and took it on an epic road trip with my son. I love fly-fishing and visiting national parks around the country.

Todd and his daughter Grace after completing a high ropes course!

What’s one thing about yourself that very few people know?

I’m color blind in one eye; but I can’t remember which eye it is!

Where can readers find about more about you?

Visit my personal blog, ToddBurlesonWrites.
Read about my work as children's librarian, A Zen Librarian, here.
Follow my restoration and travels in my 1947 Teardrop Trailer.
And, of course, follow along on the GROG!

Thanks for giving a peek into your life, Todd, and best wishes for your writing this year!

wonS? by Jan Godown Annino

            Winter white here is a shower of camilla blossoms that we saw last weekend at a resplendent public gardens. At home, stalks of candle-like peace lilies & also, Christmas cactus trying to burst out in white minty shapes & the white pom poms of mums that channel their inner-daisies, make our snowwhite showers. Lovely, lovely. But not snow.

            It’s through the gift of picture books that snow is at my fingertips.

 camellia

             Here’s a sprinkle of snowy day titles to you, with wishes this winter for your favorite kind of snows all season long or as long as you want it underfoot.  (And if you don’t like snow… FL – or AZ, CA, NM & southern TX may be in your future… Just, sayin.’)

STRANGER in the WOODS. This was the first autographed snow book that came into our Florida home. I’ve shared this gentle story of animals approaching something new with several snow-wishing folks. Our first copy featured an artistic autograph from Michigan photographer Carl R. Sams II. He staged the story & photographed it with his art teacher wife, Jean Stoick. I bought our first copy in the gift shop of the famous Cypress Gardens near Orlando (now a lovely state park) & delighted in the idea of a snow book’s popularity in a snow-less state. This modern now- classic tale is also a video & CD.

We are pleased that other flakeful titles drift into our world, either for reading at school with BookPALS or piled like an annual igloo of Christmas books that we have at the ready for young & not so young visitors to enjoy in December.

The sweet classic everyone picks up is THE SNOWY DAY. So famous there is an award named for the artist-author Ezra Jack Keats, who won the Caldecott for it (& lesser known, wasn't a person of color.) Artists & authors of color have said how that as a child, seeing a child of color enjoying the snow helped them feel normal in an otherwise white-majority world of children's books in the 1950s & 1960s & that this book, above all others, was one of the joys of their childhood reading. It is a treasure. Here are some go-withs from a mighty fine site.

THE SNOWFLAKE SISTERS. This city- set story poem, by the esteemed J. Patrick Lewis, is cleverly illustrated with collage work by artist Lisa Desimini, who is my pal. But I would pick this cleverly illustrated book even so. Although the eventual outcome of all snowflakes isn’t brushed aside, the tale works for all ages. The collage materials, such as maps, make it fun to sprinkle "Going on a Hunt" games with your family reading of it.

OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW. Children love the idea of small, hidden, spaces & this picture book, written by Kate Messner and illustrated by Chris Silas Neal, takes readers into the hush-hush under snow world – meet deer mice, shrews, voles and others that actually thrive in this in-between winter world. It's not always that I learn a new term from a picture book, but Kate introduced me to a dandy one. Hope you'll find it!

SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY.  Learn about a real quiet child obsessed with snow, or rather, each individual flake that makes a snowdrift tableau. This is an award-winning picture book biography about a boy whose parents knew to encourage his snow study. Not only is it a mighty fine look at flakes, but it’s an exciting & sweet model, for picture book bio storytelling.  Written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin & illustrated by Mary Azarian, who earned the Caldecott medal for her quite fabulous woodcut snowflake artwork.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOW TEACHER. Artist-author Lisa Passen’s character, who is a fusty schoolmarm of her other picture books, Miss Irma Birnbaum, lives & breathes school. What will she do when a snow day is called & the children don’t show up in class? This is a silly snowy romp.

And as a bonus here is a snowflake craft on video, from a site I like, Cool School.

Your turn. Be a snow angel & if you have a title to share, add a snowy picture book suggestion here.
Snowflake Bentley is non-fiction so be thinking along those lines, also. I'm off to make some paper snowflakes.