Besides being therapeutic for us, we hope the site proves to be a valuable resource for others who are affected by cancer.

Our first post is now live. It features audio from Andrea’s head shaving party which took place at our place on Sunday night. Twenty of our friends joined us for munchies, drinks, cake and to show support as we shaved Andrea’s head. We plan to post some video today or tomorrow.

Watch for us to blog and podcast our road-to-survivorship experiences and thoughts regularly at WeCanRebuildHer.com.

Chemo is now underway and I believe Andrea is on the upswing of the first round. It’s an odd Christmas but we’re working towards many happy Christmas seasons to come.

We miss JOMB, the stories, authors, illustrators, listeners, the conversations. If you’d like to keep in touch, we’ve set up a Flickr photo journal here where you can check in on our progress and even leave us your thoughts.

Wishing each of you a very happy holiday season and a happy, healthy 2010 full of love, warmth and great memories.

Be well and be happy,
Andrea, Mark, Lucy and Bayla
xo

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thank you to everyone for participating and to Richard for organizing this.

Front Row: Heidi Stemple, Rebecca Guay, Jane Dyer, Jeanne Birdsall, Diane deGroat, Barbara Diamond Goldin, Nonny Hogrogian, Susan Yard Harris.
Second Row: Brooke Dyer, Shelley Rotner, Norton Juster, Jane Yolen, Lesléa Newman, Brian Karas, Barry Moser, Susan Pearson, Anna Alter, Alice Schertle.
Third Row: Wendell Minor, Jeff Mack, Rich Michelson, Kathy Brown, Nancy Sippel Carpenter, Jeannine Atkins, David Kherdian.
Back Row: Carol Weiss, Mo Willems, Scott Fischer, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Mordicai Gerstein, Paul Jacobs.

The day after Andrea was diagnosed with breast cancer, Mark sent a personal email to every one of the 220 interview guests of Just One More Book!! asking each if they would leave a voice message on our hotline sending good wishes to Andrea. The plan was to create a CD of audio messages Andrea could listen to during recovery from surgery and during her chemotherapy treatments.

The messages started to pour in immediately (Henry Winkler responded first, within minutes). In all, 126 messages came from authors, illustrators, librarians and publishers from around the world (including England, Spain and Israel) and ranged from newcomers to celebrities.

Many of the messages were more than just good wishes. Some people recited poems or sang songs they wrote for Andrea. Some related their own experiences with cancer and others offered to speak on the phone anytime Andrea wanted someone to talk to. An overwhelming 75 minutes of audio! Plus, Andrea received a number of packages in the mail — handwritten cards with original artwork, t-shirts, books and other gifts. She even received two “bionic” candy apples.

In fact, we received so many messages that Mark realized he needed to create a summary audio clip for Andrea so she could get a quick hit of support and energy any time she needed it. The result is an audio collage called The Warrior Theme packaged over Sunshine and Starlight, a fantastic instrumental by Bjork Ostrom.

There are too many names to transcribe and link to from this post. Instead, listen carefully to everyone who contributed so far!

Note that before we stop production we still have two interviews and four audio essays to publish.  We also plan to do a “so long for now” show.  If you’d like to be a part of that show, please leave a short comment on our voice feedback line, 206-350-6487. We’ll include as many comments as is practical and reserve the right to edit any comments. We don’t know when we’ll publish the show so get your comments in quickly!

Just One More Book by the numbers:

• 1,362,954: total downloads in the last 18 months; an average of 2100 downloads per day (more than 2 million downloads since we launched in July 2006).
• 623: the number of regular episodes published
• 21: the number of shows in our Rock Stars of Reading documentary series
• 392: number of review episodes published
• 220: number of interview episodes published
• $0.00: the amount of money we accepted for JOMB (we self-funded the full production as well as all travel, accommodations and expenses and donated all of our time)

Thank you for being a part of our community and helping to promote great children’s books, the people behind them and a love of reading.

Best wishes and live strong!

Sincerely,
Mark and Andrea

Ingredients (books discussed):

• Odd Velvet
• The Recess Queen
• Suki’s Kimono
• Annie Bizzanni

Jump into Today’s Soup (feedback):

Join the conversation by clicking the Comments link below or sending an email to justonemorebook@gmail.com.

Second Helpings (transcript of podcast):

In a society where the media, schools and, sadly, even parents often expect us to conform to prescribed,cookie-cutter ways of being, a common challenge for adults and children alike is to understand and appreciate out-of-the-box thinking or behavior in ourselves and others. With so much emphasis on conforming, being or even befriending a person who is viewed as different can be a scary and isolating experience.It’s not surprising, then, that we sometimes go to great lengths to reject or hide our unique selves — and to avoid those who don’t.

Many children’s books and, to a greater extent, movies attempt to reduce the social stigma against being different through boisterous victory-of-the-underdog themed stories in which the independent thinker saves the day and, to the rousing cheers of once-distant peers, instantly becomes the poster child of popularity. There is no denying that such victories feel great but I believe stories which present quiet appreciation, improved understanding or simply congenial co-existence go further to help children deal with different ways of being.

Before looking at the books, let me explain that I like to read to my two daughters in clumps. That is, I like to read in one sitting several books that are completely parallel in certain ways – offering similar characters, situations, or themes – but are different enough to make the clumped reading interesting. I clump by activity (riding a bike, say), by storyline (several variations on the Frog Prince story, for example) or, as in the case today, by explorations of a similar “type” of character (a girl that is viewed as being “different”). There are many books that deal with differences in, what I believe are, very constructive ways. Today we look at a “clump” of four books about independent thinkers who, without fanfare or animosity, disregard the judgements of others and are simply happy being who they are.

Odd Velvet (Mary Whitcomb Illustrated by Tara Calahan King; 1998 Chronicle Books) tells the story of a happily independent school girl who has bypassed the consumer mentality of her peers and finds beauty and entertainment in the world around her. What I love about this story is that Violet’s unimposing enjoyment of life remains steadfast throughout: her self esteem easily withstands the taunts of her classmates and she remains true to her nature as she gradually gains the respect of her peers. Violet’s self worth is clearly not tied to her judgment by others.

The Recess Queen (Alexis O’Neill Illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith; 2002 Scholastic Press) relays, in snappy, what is it? Hip hop beat? the story of a school yard bully effortlessly felled by the teeny tiny independently minded Katie Sue, “a kid you might scare with a jump and a boo!”. Here again, the beauty of the story — for me — is in Katie Sue’s unwavering sense of self worth regardless of her noticeably different approach to life and in the fact that she takes in stride both the bullying and her offhanded deflation of the bully.

Suki’s Kimono (Chieri Uegaki Illustrated by Stephane Jorisch; 2003 Kids Can Press) is a refreshing celebration of individuality and joie de vivre. This first-day-of-school story contrasts the uninhibited and happily independent six year old Suki with her self-conscious, stiff and validation-seeking sisters – and their complete embarrassment that their little sister is wearing a kimono to school. Although I think Suki could do without the applause of her classmates, Suki’s sunny self-assurance remains constant throughout and she gains no satisfaction from the fact that her sisters’ preparation and preening brought them nothing but exasperation.

Annie Bizzanni (Frances Halle Illustrated by Fil et Julie; 2006 Bayard Canada Books) introduces us to a creative, multi-tasking and impulsive free-spirit who lives life in large slices which she feels no pressure to complete. Although her friends are obviously amused, inconvenienced and, sometimes, scared by Annie’s quirky behavior what I love about this book is that Annie’s way of being is simply portrayed as being different — not better or worse — than that of her peers, that her friends love her for who she is and that she is very happy being herself.

Although society may expect it, we’re not cookie cutouts and we all fall inside and outside various different boxes. We might as well enjoy ourselves!

Thanks for listening. I’m Andrea Ross from the Just One More Book!! Podcast and we’ve been Swimming in Literary Soup.

The Roses in my Carpets tells the story of a young boy, his mother and sister, living in a refugee camp.  The camp serves merely as a setting for this family as we experience the common reality of feeling out of place while dealing with life around us.

Author Rukhsana Khan joins Mark to talk about how books saved her, writing politics out of children’s books and her thoughts on life as a marathon and books as sprints.

Photo provided by Rukhsana Khan.

Lily was five when she submitted an illustration to our Love of Reading Gallery, making her the youngest contributor to our collection of art.  She never named her piece so I’ve called it Books and Friends.  On this edition, I speak with blogger and budding author/illustrator, Lily, about her illustration, the tools she uses and the projects she’s working on.

Listen to interviews with other members of Lily’s family:

• Author/illustrator, Aaron Zenz
• Gracie
• Isaac

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Today is Canwest Raise-a-Reader Day! CanWest newspapers across Canada have published special literacy editions of their local newspapers  and volunteers in bright orange t-shirts are standing on street corners across the country handing out free copies  in exchange for donations to local literacy initiatives. A handful of change can make a difference.

Andrea’s article, What’s in it for me? The family that reads together… is part of the special literacy coverage.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, Mark speaks with Shauntay Grant about turning a spoken word performance piece into a children’s book, the role of verse in children’s literature and sharing the experience of growing up.

Photo of Shauntay Grant by Raul Rincon.

On this edition, Mark speaks with artist, blogger and budding author, Isaac, now 10 (he was 9 when he created his illustration) about Bedtime Snack, his contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery and a book he’s creating with his father, author/illustrator Aaron Zenz.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

On this edition, Mark speaks with artist, blogger and budding author, Gracie, now 8 (she was 7 when she created her illustration) about Love for Reading, her contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery, her illustration technique and a book idea she has.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Did you notice Gracie’s reference to The HICCUPotamus (on JOMB)?

On this edition, Mark speaks with author/artist Aaron Zenz (on JOMB) about The Big One (his contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery), reading with his children and pencil technique.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

I’ve loved doing Just One More Book!! and it will be sad to turn my back on it.

While I’m reflecting on the future of what has been a huge part of our family, every single day for more than three years, I thought it was appropriate to share this era-ending poem (read by its recipient, Brent Bambury).

A Capital Lament — by Andrea Ross, May 2005.

That April day, infused by May, seemed clearly heaven sent,
The Gomery mess couldn’t bug us less — we’re listening to Brent!
Big news from Rome, then Pow! our own calamitous event,
We’d lost our man, and thus began our Capital Lament.

In two aught two, when Brent was new, our cautious ears we lent,
But soon his pace, words, voice and taste led to enravishment.
Who know his stint would be a glint? That Go! would lead to went?
And we’d be left a town bereft, despite all blandishments.

Robert Fontaine, comedien, now who will he torment?
Will Lucy sob? Or grab the job? To whom will Laurence vent?
We’re sure of this, we’ll sorely miss our host omniloquent.
You’re lane to fame is Hog Town’s gain. Best luck and Thank you, Brent.

Read Mark’s post about Just One More Book!! as a member of our family: The baby, the bathwater, or both?

This true tale of swindlers, slayers, smarts and skill will lasso listeners of all stripes.

Other biographies on JOMB:

• It’s A Snap! George Eastman’s First Photograph
• One Beetle Too Many — The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin
• Neo Leo (the Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci)
• The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
• The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur

More of the wild west on JOMB:

• Buffalo Music
• Smoky Mountain Rose (An Appalachian Cinderella)
• Sing, Sophie

More freedom reading on JOMB:

• Let Freedom Sing
• Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog
• Priscilla and the Hollyhocks
• Freedom Child of the Sea
• Follow the Drinking Gourd

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, Mark speaks with illustrator Patricia Storms about her contribution – All the Hep Cats are Reading — and how cats and books go well together, some of her favourite children’s book authors and re-illustrating a book by Maurice Sendak.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was the compact camera. This sprightly tale of curiosity and determination puts the spotlight on the inventive young man who made photographers of all of us, one improvement at a time.

On this date, September 4, in 1888, George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak. You can learn more here.

Other books mentioned:

• One Beetle Too Many — The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin
• Neo Leo (the Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci)
• The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
• The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Earth toned images of bustling Nigerian swelter contrast with the book-bound allure of a world of frost and snow in this tale of a young boy pondering the pros and cons of literacy.

More books and reading on JOMB:

• Perfect Man
• Show; Don’t Tell: Secrets of Writing
• The Story of the Search for the Story
• The Storytelling Princess
• The Story Blanket
• Give A Goat
• Too Many Books
• Silent Music (A Story of Baghdad)
• Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones
• Fire Up With Reading!
• The Incredible Book Eating Boy
• Ruby’s Wish
• No English
• Library Lion
• Max’s Words

HOTLINE VOICES: Author/Illustrator, Mark Mitchell, describes the beauty of the book Tsunami! (by Kimiko Kajikawa and Ed Young).

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, Mark speaks with designer and children’s book illustrator hopeful Candace Trew Camling about her contribution titled Bookworm, still reading children’s books at age 25 and the genius of Adam Rex.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Unrealistically scrawny pop culture ideals, issues of acceptance and fears of unhealthy body image have made fitness and healthy eating tricky issues to address. This brazenly British picture book pulls no punches about the dangers of the couch potato lifestyle.

What do you think?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

This spring, Professor Wartenberg gave us a sneak peek of his new book Big Ideas for Little Kids, an inspiring guide to teaching philosophy through children’s literature, and asked for our opinion.

If you want to know what we thought, check out the dust jacket:

We’re honoured!

The book is being released tomorrow, August 28.

Spot-on sixties-style illustrations, simple, springboard text and a soulful, sing along refrain shine a celebratory light on 18 individuals who stood tall and opened doors for generations.

More freedom reading on JOMB:

• Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog
• Priscilla and the Hollyhocks
• Freedom Child of the Sea
• Follow the Drinking Gourd

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

She is The Book Whisperer.

On this edition, Mark speaks with Donalyn Miller about safe territory, books in the classroom and her advice to parents, principals and politicians.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Interview with Francesca Simon

Cute only gets you so far in the real world. Capturing the glee of victory and the sting of defeat, this hilariously illustrated rhyming book lets us laugh at our own (and our little sibling’s) attempts to prove otherwise.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Dusan Petricic
• David Roberts

More little ones and learnings on JOMB:

• Greedyanna
• Sourpuss And Sweetie Pie
• I’m Not Cute!
• Scribble
• Do Unto Otters
• Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons
• I Am Small

Pop over to The Boy Reader for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

HOTLINE VOICES: Cathy Miller, “The Literacy Ambassador”, alerts us about Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury).

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Simple first person narrative, cheerful illustrations and charming child-like details make this task-by-task countdown to the arrival of a long awaited sibling sweet reading for any child.

More tales of family welcoming and adoption on JOMB:

• The Red Thread
• Thicker than Water on SILS
• Before You Were Here, Mi Amor
• Someday

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Ms. Gardner did an amazing job balancing the highlights and realities of our efforts to promote great children’s books and the people behind them through our blog and podcast, something we do on our own time and with our own money.

Welcome to readers of Quill & Quire.  We hope you’ll take a moment to leave a voice mail message introducing yourself and telling us about one of your favourite children’s books.  Our community hotline number is 206-350-6487.

On this edition, Mark visits the Central Experimental Farm with Ottawa author and illustrator, Crystal Beshara, to talk about growing up on a hobby farm, personification of our animal friends and her new book, When I Visit the Farm.

Other farm selections featured on Just One More Book!!

• Roar of a Snore
• Silly Tilly
• Sitting on the Farm
• Farm Flu

A huge thanks to Bianca for the invitation!

It was a true pleasure to have the opportunity to write — rather than gab — about the payoffs for parents who read aloud.

We hope you will pop over and check it out at:
The Family that Reads Together… (aka What’s in it for ME?)

Related chats on JOMB:

• How old is too old for reading-aloud?
• The Family that Reads Together

We’d love to hear how reading has benefited your family. Leave us a comment below or, better yet, leave us a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Six bark-along pooches, homey illustrations and spirited verse — what youngster could resist this slightly retro, rhyming micro-adventure?

More rhyming dog reading on JOMB:

• Fun Dog, Sun Dog
• Don’t Lick the Dog
• Stella, Unleashed!
• Biscuits in the Cupboard
• Good Dog
• My Pup
• The Pound from the Hound
• Poodlena
• Safe and Sound
• Dirty Dog Boogie

Other dogs on JOMB:

• The King’s Taster
• May I Pet Your Dog?
• How Smudge Came
• Rosie: A Visiting Dog’s Story
• Dr. White
• Heroes of Isle aux Morts
• Doggie in the Window
• Owney the Mail-Pouch Pooch
• Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog
• Little Lions, Bull Baiters & Hunting Hounds: A History of Dog Breeds
• “Let’s Get a Pup!” said Kate
• The Trouble with Tilly Trumble
• The Outside Dog
• Lady Lupin’s Book of Etiquette
• Dogs’ Night
• I Want A Dog

Pop over to A Wrung Sponge for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

A big thanks to guest host Lucy (10) for joining Andrea today to discuss this book.

Life can be challenging and fair’s got nothing to do with it. Parents are people. Friendship’s a worthwhile risk. There’s a lot to think about when you’re ten in the real world. Which is why I’m so glad Lucy (10) and I read this fun and fabulously thought provoking book.

Mentioned in this chat:

• Life Without Limbs: Nick Vujicic
• Don’t Need Friends
• Horrid Henry

More books including less-than-perfect families on JOMB:

• The Grandmother Doll
• When-I-was-a-little-girl
• My Dad’s A Birdman
• Mummy Never Told Me
• more here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

For Canadians, August 19, 1942 carries even more significance because many were led to believe the British organized battle at Dieppe was an important victory, not a bloody defeat.  As we honour the 67th anniversary of Dieppe later this month, a new children’s book will be published that explores the reasons, strategy, horror and incredible survival that are part of this Canadian tale.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, Mark speaks with author and historian Hugh Brewster about his new book Dieppe: Canada’s Darkest Day of World War II, and the importance of sharing the stories of the events and the people in war and remembrance.

Other books by Hugh Brewster:

• At Vimy Ridge: Canada’s Greatest World War I Victory
• On Juno Beach: Canada’s D-Day Heroes

More about war and remembrance on Just One More Book:

• A Bear in War
• A New Coat for Anna
• The Unknown Soldier
• The Diary of Laura’s Twin
• The Donkey of Gallipoli
• Janusz Korczak’s Children
• One Thousand Tracings
• A Poppy is to Remember
• Gleam and Glow
• The Cello of Mr. O
• What We Remember

You can hear more of Mark’s chat with Hugh Brewster on the Electric Sky podcast.

Playful, edge-to-edge illustrations and cheerily worded nuggets of history, mystery, physics, and biology paint a thrilling picture of a brilliantly curious and creative man that will tickle the scientist in all of us.

Right now, you can test out over 60 of Leonardo da Vinci’s prototypes at Leonardo da Vinci: Man Inventor Genius.

Mentioned in this chat:

• Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin
• Wind Engineering Pioneer, Alan Davenport (palm tree observations)

More intriguing lives on JOMB:

• One Beetle Too Many — The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin
• The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
• Marco Polo
• Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum
• Buffalo Music
• Priscilla and the Hollyhocks
• The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

New, crescent, quarter, gibbous and full then all the way back to new, this ingeniously illustrated poem gives us a solid understanding and new appreciation for our revolving neighbour.

UNESCO has designated 2009 as International Year of Astronomy. You can get excited and get involved in IYA2009 here.

More science on JOMB:

• Astronaut Handbook
• Animals at the EDGE (Saving the World’s Rarest Creatures)
• Nic Bishop’s Frogs
• One Beetle Too Many — The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin
• The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
• Bubble Homes and Fish Farts
• The Snow Show — with Chef Kelvin

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Gasping, gobbling, grinning, crunching and belching, seven sherbet-coloured monsters revel in outrage at their broccoli-loving readers in this rhyming enticement to eat green.

Blueberry-eating books mentioned:

• Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears
• Sleepover Larry

More food on JOMB:

• Treasure for Lunch
• The King’s Taster
• Berry Magic
• The Butter Man
• The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
• The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating
• The Tortilla Cat
• Too Many Tamales
• Chopsticks
• Mammoth Pie
• On Top of Spaghetti
• Pumpkin Soup
• A Medieval Feast
• Sanji and the Baker

Pop over to Poetry For Children for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Simple gestures, rippling kindness and true smiles are the stars of this inspiring invitation to share some brightness and chance a wave of well-being.

Other books mentioned:

• Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed

For more about spreading a ripple of kindness, you can check out

• The Pay It Forward Foundation
• The Pay It Forward Movement

or, just go ahead and do something nice….

HOTLINE VOICES: Aspiring children’s author Tara Lazar shares her enthusiasm for Perfectly Arugula (by Sarah Dillard)

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry books, joins Mark for what may be one of the most important interviews we’ve ever done on Just One More Book!! as they talk about books with universal themes, the penalty of growing old enough to read by yourself and Storybook Dads — breaking the cycle of crime through a literacy and family connection program for convicts in a high-security prison.

Mentioned in the interview:

• Simon James
• Ian Whybrow
• Tony Ross

Two of the Horrid Henry books are mentioned in our 500th episode, Chapter Book Chatter.  By the way, we’re 9 episodes away from 600, now (not including our 21 part Rock Stars of Reading series).

We encourage you to learn more about the Storybook Dads program.

Photo: Francesca Simon’s website

Lunch Lady arrived this week and our young Jarrett fans were on these books “like cheese on macaroni”. Today Lucy (10) and Bayla (8) share their thoughts on the first two books in this zany graphic novel series.

For a behind the scenes glimpse at the making of Lunch Lady , check out our video interview with author and illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka:

• Rock Stars of Reading part 9: Digital Jarrett Krosoczka

More Jarrett on JOMB:

• Rock Stars of Reading part 08: Jarrett Krosoczka
• Interview with Jarrett Krosoczka
• Rock Stars of Reading part 20: Advice for aspiring readers
• Rock Stars of Reading part 7: Creators of the Round Table

HOTLINE VOICES: An anonymous caller tells us why she loves My Friend Isabelle (by Eliza Woloson and Bryan Gough).

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Crisp salt air and sunshine breeze from airy, upbeat illustrations in this chattily shared and poignant reminder of the bliss that is forgiveness.

Rosh Hashanah is September 19-20, 2009. Will you be tossing an “I’m Sorry” list?

More forgiveness on JOMB:

• Enemy Pie
• The Worst Best Friend
• Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big
• Too Many Tamales
• Not so Rotten Ralph
• The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
• Elinor and Violet: The Story of Two Naughty Chickens
• Pumpkin Soup
• Chloë’s Birthday. . . and Me
• Do Unto Otters
• The Unknown Soldier
• The Diary of Laura’s Twin (A Holocaust Remembrance Book for Young Readers)
• Bird
• Sourpuss And Sweetie Pie
• Sleeping Dragons All Around
• Smoky Mountain Rose (An Appalachian Cinderella)
• Silly Tilly
• and more….

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Raul Colón’s illustrations together with Richard Michelson’s engaging storytelling earned the 2009 Sydney Taylor Book Award for their book As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heshcel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom.

Illustrator, Raul Colón, joins me during a quiet moment at the Association of Jewish Libraries 2009 Convention to talk about illustrating the intersection of two lives in one event, getting excited about a book project and striking the balance between fact and fantasy.

MORE RAUL COLON: Click here to listen to Raul Colón talk about arming yourself with inspiration and exercising your creative muscles.

Swapping dainty dancing for hoops and hoots, this upbeat spin on The Twelve Dancing Princesses brings rhyme, spring and spirit to the age old tale.

More fairy tales gone wild and fun with the familiar on JOMB:

• The Frog Prince Continued
• And the DISH Ran Away with the SPOON
• Badness for Beginners
• Bantam of the Opera
• Bill in a China Shop
• Cinderella Skeleton
• Falling For Rapunzel
• Monster Goose
• Oops!
• Petite Rouge, A Cajun Red Riding Hood
• Rumplestilskin’s Daughter
• Science Verse
• Such A Prince
• Swine Lake
• The Crow
• The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
• The Three Fishing Brothers Gruff
• The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
• Wait! No Paint!

Pop over to Becky’s Book Reviews for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Amidst mauve and pink Australian sunsets, this lyrically told and beautifully illustrated tale reminds us of the underrated pleasures of simply loving.

Other books mentioned:

• Elizabeti’s Doll

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, follow Mark as his audio recorder captures forgiveness, education and pop-culture, how Jewish books have evolved and become exciting for young readers.

Segment 1: April Halprin Wayland is the author New Year at the Pier, a book about forgiveness which is rooted in the the Tashlich ceremony of the Jewish New Year celebrations of Rosh Hashana.  This segment includes April reading the beginning and end of her book, New Year at the Pier.

Segment 2: Librarian Toby Rossner shares her approach to creating educational programs about universal values using picture books including Chicken Man, a book about someone who made the most out of any job he did.

Segment 3: Ann Abrams is a musical librarian who serenades us with her own songs and sings a musical parody using a popular song for which she rewrote the lyrics — both to help get children excited about Jewish children’s books.

This episode includes two brief excerpts of Mark’s session on using social media to raise awareness of great Jewish literature using social media, presented at AJL09.

Thanks to the Association of Jewish Libraries, Heidi Estrin and Cheryl Banks, Esme Raji Codell and our interview guests author April Halprin Wayland and librarians Toby Rossner and Ann Abrams.

Exuberant, edge-to-edge illustrations and simple rhyme salute a generous dairy farmer who took a chance on four kids, their dream and the prospect of peace.

You can watch Max Yasgur addressing the crowd at Woodstock, 1969, here.

August 15-17 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. How will you celebrate?

Other books mentioned:

• Barn
• Mile-High Apple Pie

More peace and tolerance on JOMB:

• And to Think That We Thought That We’d Never Be Friends
• Enemy Pie
• Silent Music (A Story of Baghdad)
• The Araboolies of Liberty Street
• Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon
• Interview with Uma Krishnaswami about her Bibliography of Peace

Pop over to Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

• Across the Alley
• Angel Girl (ok, this turned out to be fictional but it’s a beautiful book)
• Janusz Korczak’s Children
• The Diary of Laura’s Twin (A Holocaust Remembrance Book for Young Readers)
• You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

On this edition, Mark speaks with author/artist Hélène Boudreau about her contribution called Story Time, the complex art of story telling through illustration and the difference and similarities between her own childhood experiences with books and the experiences of her own daughters’.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

From skittery stalling to splendorous, sweet slumber, alphabet families do the bedtime wrestle in this fabulously illustrated preschool rhyme.

Other books mentioned:

• The Scrambled States of America Talent Show

More alphabet reading on JOMB:

• Carmine: A Little More Red
• Alphabetter
• A Isn’t for Fox (An Isn’t Alphabet)

More bedtime reading on JOMB:

• I Need My Monster
• Ocean’s Child
• Go to Bed, Monster!
• Darkness Slipped In
• But If They Do…

Pop over to Tabatha A. Yeatts for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Doey eyes, gangly legs and silent, tangible devotion make this true tale of rescue, regret and release a thought provoking look at the value of life and freedom.

Other books mentioned:

• Saving Samantha: A True Story

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Warmth and well being radiate from stylized Inuit seascapes and gently lapping prose in this soothing bedtime confirmation of safety, connectedness and parental love.

More bedtime reading on JOMB:

• I Need My Monster
• Go to Bed, Monster!
• Darkness Slipped In
• But If They Do…

Pop over to Crossover for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

This delicately illustrated tale of travel and tragedy reminds us that today’s disaster just might be a necessary step towards the ultimate attainment of our heart’s desire.

Other books mentioned:

• The Farmer’s Wife
• The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal

More middle eastern reading on JOMB:

• Silent Music (A Story of Baghdad)
• Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story
• 52 Days by Camel
• My Friend Jamal
• The Butter Man
• Lugalbanda: The Boy Who Got Caught Up In The War
• The Rich Man and the Parrot
• Sanji and the Baker
• Interview with Suzan Nadimi

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show

The conference opened with award-winning radio producer Jowi Taylor telling the incredible stories behind his Six String Nation guitar project.  6SN, as it is sometimes called, is a guitar made from 64 pieces of Canada including a piece of Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s Stanley Cup Championship ring, wood from Pierre Trudeau’s canoe paddle and a part of the Golden Spruce.  This project has become so important that the Canadian Mint has pressed 30,000 commemorative guitar-pick shaped coins.  Jowi’s Six String Nation book was released over the weekend.  By the time his session was over, the PAB community was rushing to the front of the room for the opportunity to hold the guitar, meet Jowi and participate in an impromptu, community  fundraiser.  We estimate that the community raised nearly $2000 in less than 30 minutes.  We encourage you to become familiar with this project and do what you can to support it!

The weekend was filled with incredible sessions about digital legacies, storytelling, creative workflow, audio for the blind, videography, photography, life/work balance, authority and epic awesomeness.  There was also a series of five-minute JOLT!s which challenged the community to collaborate and discover a world beyond its comfort zone.

PAB is the kind of conference that you continue to attend even after everyone has dragged out their long goodbyes and found themselves back in their normal routines.  So, there will be no show, today.

We look forward to seeing you at PAB2010 in Ottawa.

Photos: Andrea and Mark with the Six String Nation guitar taken by John Meadows, PAB09 group photo taken by Bob Goyetche.

Clean lines, comical details and snappy, generous first person narration sweep us into this suspenseful tale of strategy, solidarity and overlooked superpowers.

Other books mentioned:

• Iggy Peck, Architect
• The Mysterious Benedict Society
• Miss Nelson is Missing

More independent thinkers on JOMB:

• Willow
• Odd Velvet
• Suki’s Kimono
• Ruby’s Wish
• Getting to Know Ruben Plotnick
• Silly Tilly
• more here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Dexterous textile, text and recipe clipping collage are the pièce de résistance of this delectable adventure in talent, teamwork, travel — and sneaked treats!

More gallivanting animals on JOMB:

• Safe and Sound
• Someday When My Cat Can Talk

More food on JOMB:

• A Medieval Feast
• The Butter Man
• The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
• The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating
• The Tortilla Cat
• Too Many Tamales
• Treasure for Lunch
• Berry Magic
• Chopsticks
• Mammoth Pie
• On Top of Spaghetti
• Pumpkin Soup
• Sanji and the Baker

More kings on JOMB:

• The King of Capri
• The King’s Equal
• Rumplestilskin’s Daughter
• The Red Wolf
• Wenceslas

More dogs on JOMB here.

HOTLINE VOICES: Eden Spodek — who will be at PAB09 — has fabulous childhood and parenthood memories of Where the Wild Things Are (by Maurice Sendak)

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Incidentally, Daniele is part of the speaking program at this year’s PAB09 event, taking place in Kingston, Canada from June 19-21.

During a recent trip to Toronto, Mark spoke with Daniele about his contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery, Now This One, digital sketchbooks and the beauty of seeing eraser marks on real paper.

Related links:

• Daniele Rossi’s website
• Daniele’s Stuttering is Cool Podcast
• The Pen is Mightier than the Plug-in? interview of Daniele on On the Log
• New Yorker Cover Story: Finger Painting
• Podcasters Across Borders conference

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Catchy, four-line rhymes and an energetic animal cast aim to take the sting out of multiplication long before the onset of Times Table Torture.

More math on JOMB:

• On the Scale, a Weighty Tale
• Missing Math (A Number Mystery)
• A Very Improbable Story
• Full House: An Invitation to Fractions
• Interview with David Schwartz

Pop over to Critique de Mr. Chompchomp for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show

• Hana in the Time of the Tulips
• Up
• Enemy Pie
• Oh No, Not Ghosts!
• Ocean Wide, Ocean Deep
• The Bat Boy and his Violin
• The Outside Dog
• Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie
• Bird
• But If They Do…
• The Butter Man
• McFig & McFly (A Tale of Jealousy, Revenge, and Death — with a Happy Ending)
• Heroes of Isle aux Morts
• Mei Ming and the Dragon’s Daughter
• Before You Were Here, Mi Amor
• Dad’s Bald Head
• My Dad’s A Birdman
• The Penderwicks On Gardam Street
• The Mysterious Benedict Society
• Clementine’s Letter

Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Gilded, stylized illustrations, scads of stats and lilting, laid back narration present an inspiring tale of persistence, power, poise and prevalent potential in this intimate look at the short but striking career of one of baseball’s greats.

More sports on JOMB:

• Baseball Hour
• Across the Alley
• Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer
• The Bat Boy and His Violin
• Baseball Saved Us
• Dino-Hockey
• The Magic Hockey Stick

HOTLINE VOICES: Radio Producer and Sound Artist Paolo Pietropaolo explains why he loves Fantastic Mr. Fox (by Roald Dahl).

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show

On this edition, Mark speaks with illustrator Roberta Baird about her contribution called Book Talk, the convergence of traditional and digital illustration, and her hope to one day write and illustrate her own children’s book.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Seems I missed a great day today at BookCamp Toronto.

If you didn’t, and are a Toronto BookCamper who is stopping in for the first time, Welcome! We hope you enjoy your visit to JustOneMoreBook! and that you’ll come back often.

As promised, here are some of the specific campaigns that Mark referenced during today’s session:

• The Graveyard Book and its video tour (Neil Gaiman)
• The Best Laid Plans (Terry Fallis)
• Pow! Right Between the Eyes (Andy Nulman)
• The Softwire (P. J. Haarsma)
• 30 Poets/30 Days (Greg Pincus)
• Rock Stars of Reading documentary series (Just One More Book!!)

You’ll find a post BookCamp Toronto post on Mark’s site tomorrow.

Happy Reading!

]]> http://www.justonemorebook.com/2009/06/06/welcome-toronto-bookcampers/feed/ 0 http://www.justonemorebook.com/2009/06/06/a-family-that-reads-together/ http://www.justonemorebook.com/2009/06/06/a-family-that-reads-together/#comments Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:00:28 +0000 Just One More Book!! http://www.justonemorebook.com/?p=1191 There’s a lot of talk about the benefits of reading aloud to children. But it’s usually focused on the benefits to the children!

Today, we pause to consider how reading aloud to our children benefits us as adults, our family and our relationships with each other.

Books mentioned (and pictured to right):

• The Greatest Power (The Gecko & Sticky)

We’d love to hear how reading has benefited your family. Leave us a comment below or, better yet, leave us a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Happy Reading!

Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Sunshine, shenanigans and loads of jingly rhyme make this cheery little board book a perfect preschool pick.

Other books mentioned:

• Kid Tea

HOTLINE VOICES: Twin sisters Rosie (6) and Ronnie (6) tell us about their favourite rhyming books, One Duck Stuck (by Phyllis Root and Jane Chapman) and Hop on Pop (by Dr. Seuss).

More pooch inspired poetry on JOMB:

• Don’t Lick the Dog
• Stella, Unleashed!
• Biscuits in the Cupboard
• Good Dog
• My Pup
• The Pound from the Hound
• Poodlena
• Safe and Sound
• Dirty Dog Boogie

Pop over to Read, Write, Believe for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.