Next Monday, February 22, we will be celebrating George Washington’s birthday as a federal holiday.  To celebrate, I wanted to share my favorite books about the first president of the United States.

George Washington’s Teeth 

By Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora and Illustrated by Brock Cole

Published by Square Fish

George Washington suffered most of his life with bad teeth. By the time he was 24 years-old, he had lost at least one tooth a year. When he was elected president, he had only two teeth left. This humorous tale is one of my favorite books about Washington. It is written in verse and based on Washington’s letters, dairies, and historical records. (By the way, contrary to common belief, Washington never had a set of wooden teeth.)

George Washington and the General’s Dog

By Frank Murphy and Illustrated by Richard Walz

Published by Random House Books for Young Readers

This easy reader is a delightful story about George Washington and his love of animals. Children will be amused to learn Washington named his dog “Sweetlips” and maybe surprised to learn how kind he was to one of his enemies.

Farmer George Plants a Nation 

By Peggy Thomas and Illustrated by Layne Johnson

Published by Calkins Creek

This well written book focuses on George Washington as a farmer, inventor, and scientist. On his farm, Washington sought to improve farming methods and share his knowledge with others. This aspect of Washington’s life has often been overlooked. With Johnson’s exquisite oil paintings and Thomas’s detailed text, this is an excellent book for older readers.

Interesting Trivia – George Washington was born in Virginia on February 11, 1731, according to the then-used Julian calendar. In 1752, however, Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar which moved Washington’s birthday a year and 11 days to February 22, 1732.

Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and these are my favorite biographies about him.

Abe Lincoln’s Hat

By Martha Brenner and Illustrated by Donald Cook

Published by Random House Books for Young Readers

Abraham Lincoln was absent-minded.  To stay on top of things, he kept his letters, court notes, contracts and his checkbook in his top hat.  Colorful watercolor drawings illustrate this delightful book.

Lincoln: A Photobiography

By Russell Freedman

Published by Clarion Books

I have read this well illustrated biography of Abraham Lincoln many times.  Freedman skillfully covers Lincoln’s life and gives a moving account of his death shortly after he was elected to his second term in office.  This book won many honors: the Newbery Medal, the Jefferson Cup Award and the Golden Kite Honor Book Award.

Commander in Chief: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 

By Albert Marrin

Published by Dutton Juvenile

The theme of Marrin’s book is Lincoln the war leader.  Marrin portrays Lincoln as a cautious and principled man who by meeting the challenge of our national crisis, the Civil War, became our greatest president.  This well-researched and fascinating biography was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Booklist Editors’ Choice.  It holds a special place in my Civil War library.

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.   It is an educational movement to help children become better prepared to enter the workforce and solve problems that exist in the real world. The movement is gaining momentum and as a children’s writer I wanted to understand its implications. I looked up the definitions of the four components of STEM in Webster’s dictionary:

Science – systematized knowledge derived from observation, study, and experimentation carried on in order to determine the nature or principles of what is being studied.

Technology – applied science; a method, process: etc. for handling a specific technical problem.

Engineering – the science concerned with putting scientific knowledge to practical use; the planning, designing, construction or management of machinery, roads, bridges, buildings, etc.

Math – the group of sciences (including arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus, etc.) dealing with quantities, magnitudes, and forms, and their relationships, attributes, etc.

I was surprised by the definition of technology. Previously, I had a limited view of the word.  Now I realized technology encompassed more than computers and programing.

Not totally satisfied, I began to search the internet for more clues to help me understand what STEM meant.  When I discovered Anne Jolly’s article “Six Characteristics of a Great STEM Lesson” things began to fall in place. Jolly defines science as the study of our world, math as the language of numbers, shapes, and quantities, and engineering as the process used to solve problems. She feels that any product created to solve a problem or meet a need is technology.

I also discovered the following websites:

California STEM Learning Network

http://www.cslnet.org/our-agenda/what-is-stem/

This site has an excellent video entitled “STEM Integration in K-12 Education.” After watching the video I realized that the pillars of the STEM movement are Math and Science.

Engineer Your Life

http://www.engineeryourlife.org/

This colorful and fun site is a guide to engineering for high school girls. The sections on why engineering, meet inspiring women, and find your dream job gave me a lot to think about.

NASA for Educators

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html

This impressive site provided a tremendous amount of information. I watched with amazement the video of astronaut Scott Kelly playing “Liquid Ping-Pong in Space” and was inspired by Kate McCourty, the branch Chief of Operations and Engineering at NASA, talk about STEM.

When I finished searching the web, I felt I had a better understanding of what STEM stood for and began to think about what stories I might undercover using STEM as criteria for researching people I might write about.

What ideas do you have for applying your writing talents to STEM?

Radioactive!

By Winifred Conkling

Published by Algonquin Young Readers

This is a little known story about how two female physicists groundbreaking discoveries led to the creation of the atomic bomb.  Their names were Irène Curie (Marie Curie’s daughter) and Lise Meitner.

Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass

By Dean Robbins and Illustrated by Selina Alko

Published by Orchard Books

In Two Friends, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, are having tea together and talking about their fight for women’s and African American’s rights. The concept for this story is based on a statue in their hometown of Rochester, New York.

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor

By Emily Arnold McCully

Published by Square Fish

With her sketch book and her father’s toolbox Mattie could made many things.  When she grew up she invented a machine that made square-bottom paper bags that we still use today.  A man sued Mattie and claimed he invented it.  He said Mattie, a woman, was not smart enough to have designed it.  In court, Mattie proved him wrong.

To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space

By Carmella Van Vleet and Dr. Kathy Sullivan; Illustrated by Nicole Wong

Published by Charlesbridge

Young Kathy Sullivan wanted to go everywhere an explore things, but there was one problem.  Only men were supposed to do those things. Kathy didn’t care.  She followed her heart and did what she wanted to do.  She became a NASA astronaut and was the first women to walk in space.

This annual handbook for Writing Success by Writer’s Digest is filled with timely information particularly for children’s writers.

Jane Friedman in her article “2015 The Year in Review” points out the juvenile market stayed strong during the year. She also talks about other key developments in the market place.

In “Pitch Perfect” Zachary Petit talks about aiming and shaping queries. He gives you some game rules and breaks down a query into six components to help you stand out from the pack.

My favorite article “Top 10 Publishing Insiders (and Outsiders) to Follow Online” is once again written by Jan Friedman.  Through reading her article, I discovered Kristen McLean’s free database WriterCube. It contains over 20,000 vetted listings of book marketing resources for writers.  I also learned about Victoria Strauss’s website Writer Beware.

Hannah Haney in her article “The Top 100 Markets for Book and Magazine Writers” has picked out 50 book publishers who accept simultaneous submissions, are open to working with new authors (with our without agents), and pay advances.  Nine of them publish books for children.  She has also picked out fifty magazines that are currently open for submissions, pay a fair rate, and 50% of their content comes from freelance writers.  Three of the magazines are published for children.

Once again, the editors at Writer’s Digest have hit a home run with the bases loaded.

The Story of Martin Luther King Jr.

 By Johnny Ray Moore and Illustrated by Amy Wummer

Published by Ideals Children Books

This board book with only 200 words tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr. This simple account begins with King’s childhood, which will make it easier of little ones to relate to his story.

We March

By Shane W. Evans (Author and Illustrator)

Published by Square Fish

We March takes place on August 28, 1963, when over 250,000 people gathered in Washington D. C., to march for jobs and freedom. The march began at the Washington Monument and ended with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Doreen Rappapoort  and Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Published by Hyperion Book CH

This award winning picture is my favorite book about Martin Luther King, Jr.  The book interlaces Dr. King’s words with his life story.  It is a memorable portrait of the man whose dream changed American.

HAPPY READING! 

Instead of coming up with New Year’s resolutions for my writing in 2016, I decided to take a friend’s advice and try a new approach. I wrote down what worked and what didn’t for me in 2015.

Worked

1. Blogging
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. Seeking Reviews

Didn’t Work

1. Blog tour
2. Pinterest
3. Goodreads
4. Reviewing Books

Due to blogging, the activity on my website increased steadily over the year. My most successful blogs were about pitching your manuscripts to agents and editors and writing in general.  Blogs about historical trivia and book reviews were the least popular.  Setting up a blog tour took a great deal of time and was only minimally successful.

Joining Facebook groups dedicated to writing and sharing my blogs and other interesting information about writing resulted in a lot of activity on my website.  I joined Twitter in November and began sharing writing tidbits and my blogs. Creating a Tweet is short and quick and fits into my life style.  Goodreads was time consuming and sometimes confusing.  Although I like Pinterest, more of my pens about drawing and painting were repined than anything about biographies.

I was successful in obtaining reviews for my books simply by asking for them.  It was a time consuming process, but I received six 5 star reviews from Amazon reviewers and Debbie Alvarez, The Styling Librarian highly praised my biography of George Eastman on her blog.

So do I have a New Year’s Resolution? No!  But I do have goals.  What are they?  Keep doing what worked.  So I will continue blogging, making friends on Facebook, Tweeting regularly, and seeking more reviews.  Plus, I have two new goals for 2016.  I want to carve out more time to work on new projects and develop a workshop for writers on pitching their work.

What are your goals for 2016?

Alice Roosevelt without her snake

While researching different kinds of pets, I came across the Presidential Pet Museum website. I couldn’t stop laughing when I read the museum’s blog about Alice Roosevelt and her pet garter snake. Alice, the oldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt, liked to carry her pet garter snake in her purse and pull it out at unexpected times to startle people. She named her snake Emily Spinach. Why? Because the snake was green like spinach and thin like her Aunt Emily.

Evidently, Alice was not the only one of Roosevelt’s children who liked snakes. Her younger brother Quentin bought four snakes at a pet shop in Washington, D.C. Instead of waiting to share them with his father when he wasn’t busy, he busted into a cabinet meeting. He sat the four snakes on his father’s desk and the cabinet members ran for cover. President Roosevelt was not amused. After the snakes were recovered they were returned to the pet shop.

Teddy Roosevelt, Jr., and Eli Yale a blue macaw

Roosevelt’s children had many pets. So, many they almost had a zoo. They also had funny names.

* Jonathan Edwards – a small bear
* Bill -a lizard
* Eli Yale -a blue macaw
* Baron Spreckle – a hen
* Josiah – a badger
* Rollo – a Saint Bernard
* Peter – a rabbit
* Admiral Dewey,  Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O’Grady – guinea pigs.
* Sailor Boy – a Chesapeake Bay dog
* Tom Quartz – a cat
* Skip – a black-and-tan Rat Terrier

For more fun reading about White House Pets, check out Presidential Pet Museum website.

(Photographs from the Library of Congress)

In 1890, just in time for the Christmas season, Harper & Brothers published Nast’s book of Christmas drawings entitled Christmas Drawings for the Human Race. The booked featured drawings that had previously appeared in Harper’s Weekly from 1863 to 1886 and new drawings Nast created just for the book.

Nast used holly, mistletoe, and evergreen boughs to enhance his drawings.  His five children modeled for him and he used the rooms in his house as a stage for many of his drawings.

Christmas Flirtation

In a drawing entitled Christmas Flirtation, Nast drew his daughter Julia standing in front of the fireplace mantel below a sprig of mistletoe covered with berries. In England, it was a custom for boys to pluck a berry from the mistletoe every time they kissed a girl. When all the berries were gone, the privilege of kissing ended. Evidently, Nast was implying that Julia did not want the privilege of kissing to end too soon.

Another Stocking to Fill

Christmas Eve was a joyous occasion in the Nast home. Nast arranged presents around the candle-lit family Christmas tree.  Intermixed with the presents were big elaborate paper dolls that Nast created for his children.

Thomas Nast loved Christmas and was inspired by Clement Moore’s poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Moore, a biblical scholar at the Episcopal seminary in New York City, wrote the poem for his children as a Christmas gift in 1822. The poem was first published a year later in the Troy Sentinel and began with the famous words, “’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;”

Santa Claus and His Magical Reindeer

In his drawings, Nast portrayed Santa Claus as Moore described him in his poem as a round-bellied white bearded man of “good cheer.” Nast also drew Santa riding around on Christmas Eve, distributing toys to good little girls and boys in a sleigh pulled by eight magical reindeer—Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen.

Naughty or Nice

To Moore’s Santa Claus, Nast added a red suit trimmed in white fur and a workshop at the North Pole. The North Pole was an isolated place where Santa Claus could work without interruption. From the North Pole, Nast drew Santa Claus watching children through his telescope to see if they were being naughty or nice.

Letters for Santa Claus

Then he showed Santa Claus documenting their behaviors in his account book. Nast also originated the idea that children could send Santa Claus mail at the North Pole and he read all their letters.