NANCY CHURNIN has a new non-fiction Picture book, VALENTINES FOR ALL, illustrated by MONIKA RÓŻA WIŚNIEWSKA, and published by Kar-Ben Publishing is available today in Bookstores. They have agreed to send a copy to the one lucky winner in the US. Just leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link […]
Book Giveaway: VALENTINES FOR ALL by Nancy Churnin
Whether you dress up or make it a pajama party, New Years Eve offers a
festive occasion for families with young children to celebrate the arrival of
the new year, following the centuries-old tradition of looking forward to the
possibilities of becoming happier and healthier in the coming twelve
months.
Party preparations can begin by taping a flat map of the world to a wall in
the room where the party will be held. Then mark the different time zones.
That’s so you can begin celebrating as early as possible, creating
excitement for the younger kids, who might surrender to sleep before the
ball drops in Times Square. For example, at 7 p.m on New Year’s Eve in
New York, the clock will strike midnight in London.
You might want to involve the entire family in creating a special meal you
can enjoy together.
To amp up the excitement, make some DIY noisemakers. 
https://www.kixcereal.com/kix-cereal-paper-plate-noise-
maker/
Toast the New Year with wassail. My family likes this simple one I make:
– Simmer a quart of apple juice and a pint of cranberry juice in a pot with a few of cinnamon sticks for at least cube or two for the little ones.
Among the children’s books that highlight New Year’s festivities:
A Smoky Mountain New Year’s Eve Adventure by Kimberly Mahfouz is a
whimsical tale of a bear who resides at a lodge in the Great Smoky
Mountains and decides to take guests on a midnight hike to the highest
peak.
The Lucky Grapes: A New Year’s Eve Story by Tracey Kyle and Marina
Astudillo is a read-aloud picture book with rhyming text. It introduces a New Year’s Eve tradition in Spain of eating a small grape with each of the twelve
midnight chimes for luck. Suitable for three- to five-year olds.
Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Miller and Kathi Ember
introduces five- to six-year olds to the concept of what it means to make a
resolution.
After reading that one, give the kids an opportunity to talk about what they
might like to do differently in 2024. Their answers might surprise you.
Marilyn Ostermiller is a journalist who enjoys writing for children.
Sparkle
Twinkle
A light in darkness
Radiating hope and peace
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Today I am pleased to announce the winner to this month’s featured book.
Drumroll please…
Janet Smart wins the signed copy of PHARMACY GIRL by Kate Szegda.
Congratulations! Please send me your address so I can get the book to you.
Baking cookies is a special part of our holiday tradition . I know it’s the same for many families. So, while you’re making those bite-sized treats for the holiday, how about making and extra batch for a good cause. COOKIES FOR KIDS’ CANCER bake sales have raised nearly 15 million dollars for pediatric cancer research. They’ve also funded 100 research grants through grassroots events nationwide. http://www.cookiesforcancer.org
HAPPY BAKING!
Anyone who has read my blog knows I love historical fiction. Both my books fall into that genre and when I come across a good middle grade book of historical fiction, I want to share it with readers. PHARMACY GIRL by Kate Szegda is one of those books. I recently caught up to Kate as we were both signing books at the Collingswood Book Festival in October, and grabbed a copy of her book. I was glad I did. I asked Kate some questions about how it came about. Here’s that interview.
PHARMACY GIRL is set in 1918 during WWI and the Pandemic that also occurred during that time. What drew you to this era? How did the story come about?
For years during flu season, my mother would tell me about how she had Spanish influenza as a child. Both she and her sister, along with their cousin, had the flu at the same time and were nursed together in the front room over her father’s drug store. My mother said her father kept the drug store open day and night during the epidemic (as she called it). She also told me how there were not enough coffins in Philadelphia to bury the dead. That got my attention. I didn’t know much about viruses back then, so I wondered: What if the germ was still around? Could it come back? And I wondered why my grandfather apparently did not get the flu. But family members who had Spanish influenza survived when so many other families did not. Why?
Originally a cautionary tale, Pharmacy Girl was published a year before COVID. After retiring from teaching, several things led me to writing the book. Writing for children was a bucket list item, and I enrolled in a writing course with the Institute for Children’s Literature. Around the same time, Alfred Crosby’s book about Spanish influenza, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, came out. Crosby’s book started answering some of my questions. The details of the pandemic were fascinating. Pharmacy Girl became a story I just had to tell.
You did a great job grounding us into the time period with the details of small-town life and life in a pharmacy family. What were some of the challenges of the research process?
The greatest challenge is getting the facts right.
Reading newspaper articles from 1918 was a challenge. Copies of the Daily Home News, the local newspaper that my grandparents would have read, were not yet digitized. I had to drive two hours to the library in New Brunswick (NJ) to read and photocopy microfilm of the local newspaper.
Challenges were not always literary; some were just logistical. The library parking lot in New Brunswick is small, and on-the-street parking meant parallel parking—something I avoid at all costs. Thankfully, whatever muses were rooting for me always provided a space for my car in the lot.
Isn’t it great how that worked out? What surprised you during your research?
Two things are noteworthy. First, I found an advertisement in the Daily Home News (see above) that my grandparents placed in the paper to collect linens for the Red Cross Linen Drive. Because of the War (World War I), the Red Cross was collecting linens to send to France. People in Highland Park could leave their donations at the drug store and my grandparents would take them over to the Red Cross room in New Brunswick. That was a delightful surprise.
The biggest surprise was learning that President Wilson came down with Spanish influenza during the Paris Peace Talks in 1919. He was so ill he could not participate fully in the peace negotiations. The Versailles Treaty ending World War I is notorious for being overly harsh on the Germans and setting the stage for World War II. I can’t help but wonder if things would have been different if Wilson had been able to negotiate for a more moderate treaty.
That’s an interesting point to contemplate. Looking back on history, there are so many things we wish we might have had a chance to do over in a better way. How much of your family history is embedded into PHARMACY GIRL?
It’s hard to quantify this. However, I can tell you family stories sparked scenes like the Labor Day parade. Apparently, my firefighter grandfather tried to jump onto the back of a moving firetruck and got dragged along the street until he was able to let go. The runaway fire horse in the same chapter is based on a story about an uncle who lost part of an ear when the retired fire horse he was using to plow a field heard a fire bell and took off.
The main character, Josie, is modeled after my Aunt Juanita. She used to deliver prescriptions on her scooter. That made it into the book. Both my mother and my aunt helped in the drug store: dishing ice cream at the soda fountain and washing medicine bottles for reuse. That was easy to work into the narrative. The scene with Tiny waving the gun around the drug store came from a story my brother told me.
Those personal anecdotes really added to your narrative. What would you like readers to take away from this story? What themes from the past still resonate today?
As I said earlier, Pharmacy Girl was published before COVID and was meant to be a cautionary tale. I had this nagging feeling that a pandemic could strike again. If readers knew what to expect, it just might help people cope. It certainly helped me weather COVID.
There are three main themes in Pharmacy Girl that I think still resonate with readers: war on the home front, surviving a pandemic, and facing up to a bully. Interestingly, in your book, Wishes, Dares, How to Stand Up to a Bully, the main character, Jack, deals with a bully in much the same way that my main character, Josie, does in Pharmacy Girl: kindness and acceptance.
Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Interestingly, people did not know much about Spanish influenza when I started writing. Crosby’s title, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, was spot on. People in 2017 may have heard of it, but they did not get the significance of how deadly and frightening it was. Crosby attributes this in part to war and pandemic fatigue. One hundred years ago, people just wanted to get on in their lives. I think today we can relate to that.
Thank you Kate. 
A Jersey girl by birth, former Delaware middle-school language arts teacher, Kate Szegda credits her mother with engendering a love of history. Family stories about her grandfather’s drug store in
Highland Park, NJ during the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 sparked Szegda’s curiosity and led to
writing her debut, award-winning novel, Pharmacy Girl.
I have a signed copy of PHARMACY GIRL that I would like to give away to one lucky reader. If you are interested, please leave a comment below. I will draw one name at random from all who enter. USA only please.
Books for BIG Feelings Book ReviewsLearning Mindsets Written By Kendra Bell What do you do with a feeling you can’t put into words? As adults, BIG feelings can be difficult — and for children who don’t have the years of experience we do managing our feelings — it can be overwhelming. This time of year […]
Book Reviews Learning Mindsets By Kendra Bell
What do you do with a feeling you can’t put into words? As adults, BIG feelings can be difficult — and for children who don’t have the years of experience we do managing our feelings — it can be overwhelming.
This time of year during the holidays, BIG feelings can be even bigger than usual. Whether missing family members and friends due to moving or loss, when favorite traditions are upended, or normal life stresses rise to the surface… sometimes the best response is to take a deep breath and turn to a book.
Picture books create a safe space for children and adults to come together to learn about difficult emotions — and healthy ways to process them.
You’ll find a list of some of my favorite books below on topics including problem solving, grief & loss, how to be a good friend when others are hurting, fear, anger, and praying through different emotions,
A boy trudges uphill with an inside-out umbrella in the rain.
“This is the story of a persistent problem and the child who isn’t so sure what to make of it. The longer he avoids the problem, the bigger it seems to get. But when the child finally musters up the courage to face it, the problem turns out to be something quite different indeed.”
My 2nd graders adored this book. Kids can relate any problem to this story, and find comfort in how the hero eventually faces his and learns something new.
An adult and two children stand together, observing a paper heart dangling from a string.
This story is dear to my heart, as our classroom read it during the time a student’s mother passed away unexpectedly.
“Parents, educators, therapists, and social workers alike have declared The Invisible String the perfect tool for coping with all kinds of separation anxiety, loss, and grief. In this relatable and reassuring contemporary classic, a mother tells her two children that they’re all connected by an invisible string. “That’s impossible!” the children insist, but still they want to know more: “What kind of string?” The answer is the simple truth that binds us all: An Invisible String made of love. Even though you can’t see it with your eyes, you can feel it deep in your heart, and know that you are always connected to the ones you love. Does everybody have an Invisible String? How far does it reach? Does it ever go away? This heartwarming picture book for all ages explores questions about the intangible yet unbreakable connections between us, and opens up deeper conversations about love.” – Amazon reviews
A boy and rabbit hug
A boy’s incredible block tower gets knocked down, and different animals try to help by telling him how to respond. But only the rabbit knows what the boy needs to heal.
A mother and baby giraffe touch noses while the sun sets over the savanna
“Debut author Kerry Docherty reminds us that even when we are having a bad day, just imagining that somewhere, right now, something beautiful is happening can bring a feeling of calm.” – Amazon.
A family processes fear, anger, grief, and exhaustion together through imagining a peaceful, happy scene.
A happy lion, tiger, and snake peak out from between the bushes and flowers
A simple first book of praying through different emotions along with a related verse — loneliness, guilt, fear, joy, love, etc.
“This site is a place for grownups to find picture books that offer support through life’s ups and downs, covering subjects that include family separations, illness, grief, anxiety, well-being, moving house and more. This is also an opportunity to celebrate a carefully curated list of outstanding picture books and the teams behind them.”
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Neurodivergent ADHD Girl (she/her/hers) Kidlit Writer, Blogger & Librarian
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“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.” - Arnold Lobel
Aspiring to be the best at writing. Poetry lover, haiku and free verse to be precise, I hope to one day master
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Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue is a lesfic author at amzn.to/36DFT2x. Sign-up for her newsletter at higginbothampublications.com
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