Why My New Web Site Animations Have Me So Excited!

If you had visited my website (www.briannacaplansayres.com) yesterday (or any day before then), you would have seen a beautiful blue sky with two lovely trees and one yellow digger busily digging away.

But if you visit my website now, you will see a beautiful blue sky with two lovely trees and one yellow digger busily digging away PLUS one fierce T-Rex putting her tiara on and off and one sweet steam train puff-puff puffing away. (Huge thanks to Jeffrey Duckworth  for these awesome new animations!)

The addition of these two new animated gifs means a lot to me. It all goes back to my initial vision for my website...

The Power of Reading Games

Happy Monday, or, as I like to call it, "Keep Reading Fun Day"! Today I want to talk about the power of reading games.

So often learning to read can feel like very serious business, and this "serious business" can lead to loads of stress for both parent and child. Of course, feeling stressed does not help good learning... or good teaching. In fact, it pretty much makes both impossible. :(

So, how can we get past this sometimes miserable situation?

The Importance of Writing Badly

I used to write very, very slowly. At the time, I thought that was the only way to write. Each word had to be perfect before I moved on.

There is nothing wrong with writing this way, if it works for you. I am a huge believer that each writer has her own writing process. But for me, it wasn't working. I was worried too much about perfection and not creating anywhere near enough writing.

Recently I was working on a first draft of a new manuscript, and I kept reminding myself...

Hippity Hop on the Children's Author Blog Hop

This week I am excited to be participating in the Children's Author Blog Hop! For the hop, participating authors answer four identical questions and then invite three more authors to join in the hop. I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the hop by children's book author, Laura Sassi.

Laura’s poems, stories, articles and crafts have appeared in many publications including Highlights for Children, Cricket, Ladybug, Spider, Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr., FamilyFun, and Pack-O-Fun. She has a passion for playing with words and rhyming. Her first (awesome!) picture book, GOODNIGHT, ARK,  is now published by Zonderkidz, a HarperCollins Company. And Laura has a second book, GOODNIGHT, MANGER, slated for publication soon. Laura is represented by Lara Perkins of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Laura writes from her century-old home in New Jersey where she lives with her awesome husband, two adorable kids, and a black cockapoo named Sophie.

Thanks so very much, Laura, for inviting me to join in the hop!  And now for my answers to those four questions:

Hooray! Nominated for a Liebster Award!

Thank you so much to Maureen Roble of Eating Kids' Media for nominating Brianna's Book Stop for a Liebster Award! The Liebster Award is for blogs that have less than 200 followers and need more love. Pass it on!

Here are the questions Maureen asked me and their answers:

Going Beyond the Book!

Building our own "Magic School Bus"
was one recent fun project around here!

Happy Monday or, as I like to call it around here, Keep Reading Fun Day! I love reading to kids and I love reading with kids. But today I want to talk about how wonderful it can be in those special times when our shared reading experiences become so powerful that we actually go beyond the book.

A simple example of this could be seeing a movie or a play of the book we just watched. This is always fun! We loved seeing the movie of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (Gene Wilder Version) and I am looking forward to taking my son to JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH at Seattle Children's Theater later on this year.

But today I wanted to share some fun examples that go even further. Ways in which we have lived the books we love:

Welcome to The Picture Book Diner!

Today I am excited to welcome everyone to the newest feature on my blog: The Picture Book Diner. This feature was inspired by Jeffrey Duckworth's awesome illustration at the top of my blog. Originally, on my website, this image was a wonderful truck stop (also drawn by Jeff) for the launch of my picture book, Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?.

When I launched this blog, I wanted to use the same wonderful image, but I asked Jeff to help me change it up a bit. Now it was transitioning from a truck stop into "Brianna's Book Stop" and all the building titles changed accordingly. The mini-mart became a library (Jeff even changed the original shelves of food behind the frosted glass to shelves of books!) and "Digger's Diner" became the Picture Book Diner.