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Published Again!
Hello Friends!
Today I received a nice surprise in the mail! I wrote this article called “Turtle Troubles” a couple of years ago for a children’s magazine writing class. And now it has been published! The first article I wrote for the same class was called “Dragons Down Under” about Leafy Sea Dragons which was published in 2019 for this same magazine. I was also able to provide an ink drawing of one to be included in the article.
After that was published, I told the editor I had written a second article about some of the dangers that sea turtles face every day. So she asked me to send it, and also accepted my drawing of a diving sea turtle which is included in the article as well.
I had forgotten about this since she had approved it to be published in the Spring issue this year. But then the pandemic hit, so everything was delayed. I haven’t heard from the editor since February, so I had no idea they were up and running again. That’s what made receiving it in the mail today so fun!
Have a wonderful day! đ
Jane Yolen, Picture Book Author
Hello Friends,
I have not posted in a while because I honestly have not had the energy! Â My daughter left to go visit a friend in Missouri for Spring Break! Â I hope she has a wonderful time.
In the meantime, I am doing a lot of reading. Â I began reading “Animal Farm” which is pretty great. Both of my kids read it for school, and my husband read it years ago. Â I think it is amazing and insightful already, and I am only 28 pages in!
I also began painting my drawings for my picture book, Larry the Lonely Leatherback Sea Turtle. Â I am going to try to take pictures of them and put the text with them, then upload it on WordPress and try to make a “book” that can be looked through like it would appear if it was printed on paper.
In the meantime, here are some encouraging words from Jane Yolen. Â I have yet to check out any of her books from the library, though, because I just learned about her the other day. Â Enjoy!
Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug! Â đ
Counting Book Idea
Hello Friends,
A while back I wrote out this little counting book idea (to teach toddlers/preschoolers about femal sea turtles, but the one I did first was much too difficult to illustrate.  I re-did it and thought this one might be easier, but I haven’t really done any doodles for it yet.  The problem with this I think is that the counting is really more for rhyming instead of actually giving a child something to count! HA, HA!!  These things just come to me sometimes…another idea that needs lots of work!
So here it is!
1, 2, swimming in the blue. (Picture of mama sea turtle swimming alone in the ocean.)
3, 4, paddling up to shore. (Picture of mama sea turtle paddling to shore.)
5, 6, splashing water with her kicks. (Picture of all of her fins splashing water.)
7, 8, reaching shore where her eggs sheâll lay. (Picture of her digging the sand and making the hole for her eggs.)
9, 10, swimming out to sea again. (Picture of her swimming back out to the ocean.)
I think the rhythm gets off on the 7, 8 line and the grammar would be weird for kids! Â Oh well, back to the writing board!
Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug! Â đ
Ezra Jack Keats – Barrier Breaker
Hello Friends,
Two days ago I went to the library and browsed the children’s picture books. Â I stumbled onto “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats.
This picture book was one of my favorites when I was a kid. However, I had not realized the many books he wrote that I had never heard of. Â Another favorite of mine that he wrote and I used to read to kids when I was a preschool teacher is “Whistle for Willie” about a little boy named Peter who is trying to learn to whistle so his dog, Willie, will come to him.
I love the simplicity of the story about Peter and his dog, Willie. Â I also never realized when I was younger that Ezra Jack Keats had illustrated his own stories as well. Â When I worked with preschoolers, I was not learning any art so sadly did not pay much attention to illustrators like I do now. Â However, I have always loved most picture book art I have encountered.
The reason I wanted to post about Ezra Jack Keats is to bring up the issue of diversity in children’s literature.  Back in the early 1990’s when I was working with preschoolers, I took a multi-cultural class in the child development field of study.  It was one of my favorite classes.  The instructor covered the issues of racial and sexual identity in children’s literature using Ezra Jack Keats as one example and the book “Heather Has Two Mommies” as another.  She brought up the point with “Heather Has Two Mommies” that all types of families need to be given recognition in children’s literature.  Back then gay parents were beginning to raise the controversial issue of having children. LeslĂ©a Newman {the author} related:
â | The idea for Heather came about one day when I was walking down Main Street in Northampton, Mass., a town known for its liberalism, tolerance of difference, and large lesbian population. On this particular day I ran into a woman who, along with her female partner, had recently welcomed a child into their home. “We have no books to read our daughter that show our type of family,” the woman said. “Somebody should write one.” |
Here is a link to the article about her: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Has_Two_Mommies
Back when I was taking child development classes I could not believe how much my eyes were opened to the fact that generally, most characters in children’s literature are predominantly Caucasian. Â And to be completely honest I was not the more open-minded person back then that I am now either. Â I was not open to reading anything to children that had to do with having two moms or two dads. Â I gave no consideration to the LBGTN+ community at all.
Thinking over my past brings me to the question: Does the depiction of predominantly Caucasian people in children’s literature even today mean we still don’t have enough people writing children’s books about other races or sexual orientation? Â Perhaps, but I sure hope not! Many people of color are writing about their own cultures more and more, but the percentage of these writers compared to Caucasian writers is still very low.
Now. Â Getting back to Ezra Jack Keats. Â What I found most interesting about him is that he was Caucasian and Jewish. Â Yet he proved to be instrumental in beginning to break the color barrier in picture books when he created his African American character Peter back in the 1960’s. Â If you would like to learn much more about him, you can read a short biography about him here: Â http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/ezras-life/.
I suppose right now I am struggling with a strong desire to pursue my old dream of writing children’s stories but finding I have little energy to work as hard at it as I should! Â I have always loved stories about people from all over the world. Â After all I believe the United States is a very culturally diverse nation which is where I live; if only racism and sexism did not exist! Â However, that most likely will never be the case which is sad. Â (So why am I writing about sea turtles anyway? Â Ha, ha!)
I really think, though, that it is high time we all over the world begin looking outside of ourselves and our own culture, race and sexual orientation and accepting others who live and believe differently than we do. Â It doesn’t mean we have to give up our spiritual beliefs if we have any. Â It doesn’t mean we have to give up any preferences for how we choose to live. Â So why should anyone of any other race than Caucasian or anyone in the Lesbian/Gay/Bi-sexual/Transgender+ lifestyle be expected to give up the way they want to live just because others might be a little uncomfortable with it?
I believe there is just one thing we all need to give up: Our own pride. Â Maybe then we can all live the ideal ending to every old storybook I ever read: Â happily ever after.
Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug!  đÂ
Lenny the Laughing Leatherback – Revision #1
Hello Friends! Â I’m still playing around with this story! Â This time I put in parentheses what kind of pictures I would want to do since it would potentially be a picture book. Â I would still like to hear what you think!
Lenny the Laughing Leatherback
Lenny laughs. He laughs when jellyfish sting other fish. He snickers when octopuses get tangled up in seaweed. He howls when abalone get snatched off the rocks by divers.
The fish who get stung by jellyfish do not like Lenny. Â (Picture of jellyfish stinging fish and Lenny laughing)
The octopuses who get tangled up in seaweed hate Lenny. Â (Picture of octopuses tangled in seaweed and Lenny laughing.)
The abalone who get snatched up by divers loathe Lenny! Â (Picture of diver’s huge hand capturing an abalone and Lenny laughing.)
When Lenny swims by them…
the fish frown. Â (Picture of frowning fish.)
the octopuses ogle their eyes. Â (Picture of octopuses with their eyes rolled up and angry looks.)
the abalone stamp their sticky feet! Â (Picture of abalone with their ‘feet’ stamping on rocks.)
(Picture of Lenny swimming right up to the others with an angry look on his face and his chest puffed out at them.)
(Next picture is of all those creatures running away and hiding from Lenny.)
Lenny laughs and begins swimming away but is not looking where he is going. He runs right into a huge wall of coral!  (Picture of him hitting the wall and saying ‘ouch!’ Then he holds his head with a pained expression and stops to rest on the bottom of the ocean but looking very angry!)
The fish hiding in the seaweed are laughing. (Picture of the fish scattering and hiding in the seaweed as Lenny is glaring at them.)
The octopuses camouflaged in the coral are whispering, âPâŠpâŠpoor LâŠLâŠLenny bâŠbâŠbumped his big fat head!â  (Picture of coral that looks like the octopuses.)
Lenny yells at them, âSâŠsâŠstop it!â They laugh loudly and swim away quickly before he can catch them.
The abalone stick themselves to rocks so Lenny wonât see them shaking in their shells. They feel sorry for him a little, but have been too afraid to try to be his friends. (Picture of shaking abalone on the rocks and Lenny shakes to show heâs making fun of them with a mean smirk on his face.)
When all is quiet around him, Lenny suddenly hears a faint clicking sound coming from under a seashell. Â He grabs the shell and shakes it swiftly. Â (A picture showing him angrily shaking the shell but not knowing there is a hermit crab inside – readers see it but Lenny doesn’t.)
Plop! Â (A picture of Lenny with a surprised look on his face and an angry look on the hermit crabâs face.)
Just when the hermit crab is getting ready to yell at Lenny for shaking him out of his home, his eyes grow wide with fear! He is so scared he pees right there in the sand.
(A picture of Lenny laughing hysterically and pointing at the tiny puddle under the hermit crab. Â The crab’s face is dark red.)
âHey! Iâve heard about you! Youâre that giant Leatherback sea turtle who keeps swimming all over the sea laughing at others who get hurt or embarrassed easily. Why are you such a big bully?â
Lenny was stunned into silence. His face reddened and he hung his head low.  Then he cleared his throat and said, âOthers lâŠlâŠlaugh at mâŠmâŠme all the tâŠtâŠtime!â
The hermit crab was surprised. He said, âHey, youâre stuttering! Is that why they laugh at you?â
Lenny nodded and a huge tear came sailing down on the hermit crabâs head with a mighty splash. He fell down at the weight of it. Then he walked back over to his house and crawled inside. Sticking out his head he said, âI guess it feels embarrassing to stutter, huh?â
Lenny nodded again. He said, âEveryone mâŠmâŠmakes fâŠfâŠfâŠ.FUN of me all the tâŠtâŠtime! I hate it! SâŠsâŠso I sâŠsâŠstarted laughing at them when they gâŠgâŠgot hurt or embâŠbâŠbarrased! Then when they were sâŠsâŠscared of me, I lâŠlâŠliked it!â
The little hermit crab said, âI donât think that was nice of you, but I understand how you feel. Sometimes other sea creatures donât understand why I like to crawl inside of shells and carry them around on my back, so they make fun of me, too. It used to hurt my feelings, but I just tell them I do it to protect myself from predators who want to eat me!â
Lenny said, âThat makes sense.â
Ed asked, âDo you have any friends at all?â
âNope. NâŠnâŠnot one. No one lâŠlâŠlikes me! No one ever lâŠlâŠlistens to mâŠmâŠme lâŠlâŠlong enough for me to tâŠtâŠtell them how much it hurts to be made fun of. Iâm glad you did. Whatâs your nâŠnâŠname?â
âEd.â
Lenny started to laugh but caught himself and stopped. He just grinned instead.  (His smile will look so goofy, it will make Ed laugh hysterically!)
Ed broke out into a fit of giggles.  He said, âI bet you were expecting me to tell you my name is Harry or Herman the hermit crab, huh? I know everyone has a name that starts with the same letter as what they are, like Josh, the jellyfish, and Grace, the green sea turtle. They are a couple of my friends.â
Lenny nodded his head and began laughing loudly. âI’m sorry, but Ed? Why are you n…n…named Ed?â he said.
âMy parents thought it would be different to name me something that rhymes with my color! You know, Ed rhymes with red? Get it?â He rolled his eyes.
When Ed locked eyes with Lenny, they both began laughing. (Picture of Ed laughing so hard he falls out of his shell!) The more they stared at one another, the harder they laughed. Then Lenny gently picked up Edâs shell and handed it to him.
âThank you, Lenny.â Ed said.
âYouâre welcome, Ed. Hey, will you be my friend?â
âI already am!â exclaimed Ed.
So Lenny and Ed became great buddies, and Lenny made many more friends in the sea.
The End
 © Patsy H. Parker
I was thinking about a softball coach I had when I was a kid who stuttered. Â I loved him so much! Â I don’t know if he was ever made fun of when he was a kid, though. Â Anyway, this is for Ed Organ. Â I love you Ed and still remember the sound of your voice! Â R.I.P.
It is still rough, I know, but I am too tired to keep working on it today! Â Ha, ha!
Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug! Â đ Â
And…critique away!