Author-illustrator Annette Simon

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope this blog entry finds you having a magnificent winter break. As you know, every Friday a children's literature advocate visits Watch. Connect. Read. to finish my sentences. This week's special guest is author-illustrator Annette Simon. She finished most of my sentences by creating brilliant spine poems. I am excited to share them with my students during National Poetry Month. 

I wrote the words in red, and Annette wrote the words in black (plus took the photographs). Thank you, Annette! 

Robot and Robot are back...

Affirmative. The mechanical friends from

return in February in one loud read-aloud:

Gulp!

The book trailer for Robot Zombie Frankenstein!...

is here. 

The book trailer for

is not, please stay tuned. Meantime, download a free ROBOT ZOMBIE FRANKENSTEIN! fun kit here, and/or let me continue to distract you with some book-spine sentence-endings. Okay, Mr. Schu?

Picture books are...

...where...

Reading is for...

*****

*****

*****

*****

 *****

*****

...and...

Especially, & me.

The best thing about...

...reading? Sometimes, it's solving mysteries, like: 

 *****

 *****

 *****

 *****

But it's also sniffing out facts, such as:

*****

...and...

It's even glimpsing the future with looks to the past:

But probably the best thing about reading is getting to

Anywhere, everywhere, every when.

Books are...

*****

*****

...a book can be...

School libraries are...

*****

No doubt, where to find that cool friend.

Mr. Schu, you should have asked me...

So I could have said: That's easy.

*****

But you already knew that. Right?

p.s. I get to spend a lot of time with books, including as a bookseller at a lovely indie in Neptune Beach, Florida (where I took most of these photos). One day there last year, I talked with a woman visiting from Nashville, Ms. Melonnie Klein. Turns out, Ms. Klein teaches fifth grade at Christ Presbyterian Academy, and she so enjoyed a book I'd recommended, May B. by Caroline Starr Rose, that she convinced her principal to purchase copies for all the kids in her class. These students then wrote poems and life lessons, drawing from the book, and Ms. Klein sent this photo to our local newspaper. 

 Of course, I had to share it with Caroline Starr Rose (via social media, I don't know her personally). Ms. Rose, then, full-circle, connected with Ms. Klein and her class. See? A book + some sharing = magic. And readers get to practice it, every day.

p.p.s. Mr. Schu, thanks again!

I am giving away one copy of Robot Burp Head Smartypants! 

Rules for the Giveaway 

1. It will run from 12/27 to 11:59. p.m. on 12/29. 

2. You must be at least 13. 

3. Please pay it forward.