Something For The Younger Readers #children's_book #melissa_keir #RB4U

Something For The Younger Readers

Do you have a child or grandchild who loves to read? My favorite part of being a guest teacher is sharing my love of books with students. This past year, I read George's Marvelous Medicine with a first grade class. They asked about it even when I wasn't in their room. 

After eight years as a romance writer and twenty years as a teacher, I combined my love of children with my love of books and wrote two children's books. 

Huzzah-A Pool Mouse came about last year when my husband and I visited historic Williamsburg, Virginia. We stayed at a hotel and while I was swimming in the pool, the idea for the story came to me. I shared it with my husband and then asked my daughter to illustrate the story for me. 

Amazon

My other book, Maple's Colors, came from a talk my husband and I had one night about a tree who didn't want to go to sleep for the winter. We talked through the idea many times until I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and write the book. With Maple, I reached out to a wonderful design company and set about selecting an illustrator to bring the story to fruition. Amazon

Both stories are filled with meaningful messages of "being yourself" and "accepting differences". The illustrations are colorful and evoke the emotions of the stories. The books are penned under my childhood nickname and maiden name- Missy Watling and feature a childhood photo of myself on the author page. 

During this past year, I have been able to share with Country Elementary School, the path I took, the illustrator's journey and the final products, which now sit on display in their library. I hope I provided motivation to those young writers to reach for their dreams. 

Enjoy your summer and Keep Reading,

Melissa Keir

www.melissakeir.com

Sometimes We Grow Up and Still Fall for Children's Books!

Sometimes We Grow Up and Still Fall for Children's Books!

Sadly, I'm an adult. Old enough to vote, drink and know better. I've learned things the hard way and there's even photos out there somewhere (thankfully we didn't have the internet when I was younger) to prove it.

1980's Day when when I taught 4/5th grade

As a teacher, I get to read and enjoy a lot of different children's books. Children's books that made me weep and children's books that made me laugh. And most of which, I've fallen in love with...even going so far as to buy books for presents for my students, my nieces and nephews and... okay... myself! A girl can NEVER have too many books!

Three of my favorite children's picture books are one's I've bought myself. Each for very unique reasons. 

Bad Day at Riverbend is a hilarious by Chris Van Allsburg. He's written Jumanji and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, but it's Bad Day that always gets the kids thinking. The story tells the tale of a mysterious problem that comes upon a town one day. The sheriff sets out to try to stop it. I won't spoil the ending for you... but it will leave you smiling!

 Bigfoot Cinderella is also a funny tale but more importantly, it is one that you must read aloud. The words have their own unique sounds to them as we see a fun twist on the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. In this case, Cinderella is a bigfoot who wants to protect the forest, rather than harm it like her evil stepsisters. *Hint...if you love twisted fairy tales, there's so many from Dinorella to The Rough Faced Girl.**

My all time favorite book has to be this one......and I dare you to read it without crying.

In Faithful Elephants we learn about the other losses from war. In this case, three elephants from a Japanese zoo teach us about what true friendship is and how there are two sides to every piece of history. You will never think about war in the same way.

I'd love to hope that throughout my years teaching, I've inspired a few students to fall in love with a book. I'd also love to know that I shared my own love of reading with my students and encouraged them to find laughter, sadness or learning in a book... and that even picture books are to be treasured as an adult. 

Do you have any picture books that you still love or read? Do you have a book that you've shared with your children and/or grandchildren? I'd love to hear about it and add them to my TBR pile!

Thank you for sharing a piece of your day with me. If you want to know more about the books I've written or about myself, please check out my blog at www.melissakeir.com. Until next month... Keep reading!!