Peggy Archer
Children's Author

My husband and I like to walk. One of our favorite places to go walking is at Quail Ridge Park in Wentzville, Missouri. It sports a beautiful paved walking trail which is about three miles long if you go from the parking lot to the end of the loop. You can make it longer or shorter depending on how you do it.

Our walks take us through sunny and shady areas, past several playgrounds (one featuring a sculpture of two children and a rabbit), a dog park, and one fairly challenging uphill climb. But one of the most beautiful and serene areas is over a bridge and around a small lake. We’ve seen turtles, ducks and squirrels, a snake, fish, and once a deer that crossed our path. It’s peaceful and inspiring, and good exercise.

But there was an added dimension this summer with the posting of the pages from Peter Brown’s picture book, The Curious Garden. On the first board was the title page from the book, along with the following message:

“Welcome to the Picture Book Walk at Quail Ridge Park, a partnership between the St. Charles county Parks Department and the St. Charles City-County Library District. You’re about to read The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, a Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator and author of books for children. While you walk around the trail, enjoy the story of Liam, a young boy who turns a dreary industrial area into a beautiful garden. Savor the story and its lovely illustrations as you enjoy being in the beauty of nature.”

For a children’s author, what could be better than combining a picture book about a garden with nature itself!

"The picture book walk begins at the paved trail below the Quail Ridge Lodge and wraps around the picturesque lake. The nearly one-mile-long walk features 17 numbered signs which encompass all 32 colorful pages of Brown's popular children's book. The walk was designed for families with young children in mind, and is convenient for strollers and bicycles to easily maneuver around the lakeside path." --from the St. Charles County Parks department website

"The picture book walk promotes the love of reading with the enjoyment of the outdoors," says Parks Director Bettie Yahn-Kramer. "It's a free, festive, educational program that appeals to all ages."

If you live in the Wentzville area, west of St. Louis, you can still enjoy this outdoor experience which will be in place at the park through August 31. Quail Ridge Park opens daily at 7 a.m. and closes a half hour after dusk.

The Curious Garden, written and illustrated by Peter Brown, is a NY Times bestseller, an ALA Notable Children’s Book (2010), and received the E.B. White Read-Aloud Picture Book Award (2010) and the Children’s Choice Illustrator of the Year Award (2010). Visit Peter Brown’s website for more information about the author/illustrator and his books.

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 2009,
ISBN 9780316015479  Read More 

Do you remember playing frozen tag when you were a kid? If you were ‘IT’ anyone that you tagged would have to stand ‘frozen' in the position that they were in when you tagged them until someone else tagged them again.

Sometimes I play ‘frozen tag’ in my writing. I ‘freeze’ words or sentences, or even whole paragraphs. I do this by changing the color of those words or sentences to white or a light gray. It essentially removes them from my view, so that I can see how the story would read without them.

Then I ask myself: “Do I really need those extra words? Will the story make sense without them, or are they absolutely necessary? Do they add something to the story, like humor, emotion, or some detail that helps the reader see the character, setting, or something else, in his mind?

Or do those extra words take the reader away from the story, even for a moment?

Remember, I write picture books! If you’re a novel writer, your frozen sections will probably be much longer!

Picture book authors usually have a ‘picture’ in their minds of what the scenes in their book will look like, which can make it hard to leave those details out. But we need to remember to leave space for the illustrator’s creativity as well. If we do that, we’re often delightfully surprised!

If you’re sure that the ‘frozen’ words in your manuscript need to be left in the story, then you can un-freeze them by changing the color back to black. You might also want to consider if there’s a way to ‘show’ the same thing in fewer words.

But if you’re satisfied that your story holds up without those frozen sections, just highlight them and hit the ‘delete’ key!  Read More 

At the end of June I was excited to be able to attend the American Library Association (ALA) convention in Chicago. I was not a featured author, and I didn’t attend any of the ticketed events. But $35 will get you a one-day floor pass to the exhibits with 692 exhibitors, and 487 Meet the Author opportunities!

ALA is geared mostly to librarians and teachers, but if you’re in any way connected to children’s books, there are other perks to being there. So with ‘Author’ on our identification badges, my friend Karen and I walked the halls of McCormick’s Place on Saturday, June 29th. Here are some things that an author can get from the ALA experience, even if you’re not one of the many authors there signing books.

Connecting with your publishers. Top on my list was to stop at Candlewick’s booth, and Penguin and Dial Books for Young Readers. At Candlewick’s booth I enjoyed re-connecting and talking with Anne, who encouraged me to submit one of my manuscripts to my editor there. (It’s on its way, Anne!). Although I wasn’t able to find a familiar face at Dial this time, I stopped by to say hello.

Connecting with other publishers. I made stops at a number of other booths that publish different kinds of materials for children and picked up some flyers and websites to look at later. Some were children’s magazines, which had sample magazines to take home and read to see what types of material that they publish. Another was the name and e-mail of an editor at a publishing company that publishes non-fiction.

Free books and samplers. Some publishers have advanced reading copies (ARCs) or uncorrected proofs to hand out to visitors. Some are autographed by the authors. There are also audio and dvd samplers. I had to keep reminding myself to be selective, and not to take more than I could carry! Among the several that I did bring home were an uncorrected sampler of IF YOU WERE A CHOCOLATE MUSTACHE by J. Patrick Lewis, and a chapter sampler from the book, STUBBY THE WAR DOG, autographed by the author Ann Bausum. Publishers Weekly and Book Links also had free copies of their publications to hand out.

Books to purchase and have personally autographed by the authors. This is something that’s hard for me to pass up, and I did get a couple books for my collection—WOOBY & PEEP BY Cynthea Liu, and STEAM TRAIN, DREAM TRAIN by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld, a follow up to GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE.

Connecting and re-connecting with other authors. Though I live in Missouri now, I keep the ties to good friends from Indiana and Illinois. Karen Kulinski and I have been writing buddies for many years, and it was great to spend the day together traveling through the aisles. We met up with another member of our Indiana skype critique group, Sharon Waller Biggs, and had lunch with two wonderful authors from Illinois, Esther Hershenhorn and Carmella Martino. I got a peek at Esther’s new book coming out soon, TXTNG MAMA, TXTNG BABY at the Sleeping Bear booth. I was sorry to have missed Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s book signing later in the day, but did see Tracy Richardson from Indiana and got a signed copy of the ARC for her new book, THE FIELD.

…and more. Getting a taste of what’s coming in children’s books by browsing the books showcased by different publishers. Making new friends by asking questions at the booths, and standing in lines to have books autographed. New ideas that come from being around children’s books. Drawings for books and more. And always, bookmarks, catalogs, and promotional items like train whistles, and stress balls that look like apples, available for taking. And books for sale.

And I learned that Book Expo America (BEA) is schedule to return to Chicago in 2016. See you then, Chicago!  Read More 

Happy Independence Day to everyone! May we continue to enjoy the freedoms that God granted us.

Check out the Blog Hop interviews this week!

July 3rd -- Lori Galaske

July 5th – Sue Bradford Edwards: One Writer's Journey
 Read More 

I was invited by my friend, Cynthia Reeg, to participate in a “blog hop interview.” Cynthia sent me some interview questions, which I answer here on my blog. Following my answers, I tag 3 other writers who will, in turn, answer questions on their blogs next week. It’s been fun checking out the Blog Hops to see what other children’s authors have posted!

Cynthia posted her answers to the questions at her blog, What’s New With Cynthia Reeg on June 26th. If you like, you can leave a comment on her blog and tell her that you connected to her through my link here!

Here are my answers to the questions that I chose from the list:

1. What are you working on right now?
I have several projects going on that I switch between when I need to put one down for awhile. One is a picture book with ogres in it, another is a non-fiction picture book about animals with some unusual things about their teeth.

2. How does it differ from other works in its genre?
Most picture books that I have seen about ogres show them turning out to be cuddly and friendly. In my book, humor keeps the ogres from being too scary, and the child in the story uses his wits to save the day. My animal teeth book is a combination of poems and facts—and the teeth facts are such fun!

3. Why do you write what you do?
I love being a part of a young child’s world. Maybe I just don’t want to grow up! I’ve always worked with kids, as a nurse and now as a writer. It seems the perfect place to be.

I love interesting facts, rhyming poetry, and humor. I try to make my readers smile. Things don’t usually come out of my mouth as funny, but I love it when something I write comes out that way.

4. How does your writing process work?
When I started writing, I had five (then six) young children who kept me on my toes. For lack of time, I did a lot of thinking about the characters and the plot in my head before putting anything down on paper. I still do that. I kind of need to have that first line or two in my head before I can move forward, even though it may change later. I don’t outline, but I do have an idea of where the story is going before I start. I also re-write a lot, and listen to suggestions from other children’s writers in my critique groups.

Finding time to write can still be a challenge. My kids are grown, but now I have grandkids who are fun to be around. My day includes time to write, no excuses! Although some days I have more time than others.

Thank you for the blog-tag, Cindy! Please check out Cindy’s answers to her questions at What’s New With Cynthia Reeg .

In addition, I am tagging the following three children's authors. Make sure to check out their blog posts on the following dates:

Posting Monday, July 8th—Jeanie Franz Ransom

Posting Monday, July 8th—Diana Jenkins: DJ’s Thoughts

Posting Wednesday, July 10th—Margo Dill's Read These Books and Use Them!

Tag! You’re It! I can’t wait to see who’s next!  Read More 

Check out my friend, Cynthia Reeg's blog celebrating Blog Hop!

While you're there, look around her site for some great posts for children's authors and for young readers.

My husband is on a mission! It’s called ‘de-cluttering.’ Lately he’s been pulling out boxes of old photos from the shelves with a plan to divide them up and give them to the kids. That’s about seven shelves, and it doesn’t even count the dvd’s since photos went digital!

So far we have six small piles of photos to give away. Mostly we look through the boxes and ‘remember when.’

‘Back then’ kids liked hide and seek, sand boxes, and bikes. They liked playing games of all kinds and reading stories. Kids still like the same things, but what’s different in today’s world is the many ways that kids can do those things.

They still count to ten out loud when they play hide and seek. They still dig and build roads in sand boxes, and they still ride bikes. But when it comes to games and stories, it’s a brand new world.

Today some games can be played on a board at the table, and some can be played outdoors. They can also be played on a video screen, hand-held or desk-top, or with many different game systems. Electronic games have their place, but just as ‘back then,’ kids still enjoy the interaction of having someone who will sit down and play a game with them.

When my kids were young, books-on-tape was something new. I remember them listening to a tape of BEDTIME FOR FRANCES. They would listen to the part that says “U is for underwear, down in the dryer,” giggle, and re-wind the tape and play that part over and over. The thing is that they had the book in front of them and turned the page when the ‘beep’ sounded. They were reading along with the tape. Just as today kids can read along on an e-reader. I think that our kids still enjoyed the stories best when we all sat close together on the sofa and read them out loud.

Today books can be listened to on cds and on all kinds of e-book readers. Have you ever watched a baby swipe his hand across a book page, waiting for it to change the picture? Some of these babies know more about electronics than I do! E-books can be interactive, read-only or with someone reading it as you go along. It can show the spelling of a word in the story, make a dog bark when you click on it, and more.

Electronic books or the board and paper kind—it’s all reading. The difference is the format. What electronic games and books doesn't change is the personal interaction, bonding, and closeness of playing together or reading together. No matter what the format, we can still read books together out loud, sitting close together on the sofa.

Hoping that this summer all kids have someone to play games and read books with them, no matter what the format. Happy summertime!  Read More 

Just saw this link to a u-tube video where the dads at Scholastic talk about what books they like to read to their kids.
Scholastic Dads Talk Books.

This week-end is Father’s Day, a great time to share some picture books about dads or books with dads in them. Here are some that I especially enjoyed.

SAY DADDY! by Michael Shoulders, illustrated by Teri Weidner, Sleeping Bear Press 2008.
This book begins with the day that Baby Bear was born. Mother and Daddy, brother, Aunt Grace, Uncle Roy, and Grandma all welcome Baby Bear into the world, and read books to him. Each one hopes their name will be the first word that Baby Bear says. His first word is a surprise to everyone, but Daddy doesn’t give up on teaching Baby to say his name. A very sweet book about babies, family and the power of books in a young child’s life.

BERTIE: JUST LIKE DADDY by Marcus Pfister, NorthSouth Publishing 2009.
Bertie wants to do everything just like Daddy. “When you’re older,” Daddy tells him. This is a fun book with Bertie and Daddy interacting in each scene. Even though Bertie can’t do the things that Daddy does, there is always a good alternative. And in the end Bertie has the right answer when Daddy is the one who wants to be just like Bertie. I picked up another ‘Bertie’ book featuring him and his dad, and found it to be just as much fun.

DADDY ALL DAY LONG by Francesca Rusackas, illustrated by Priscilla Burris, HarperCollins Publishers 2004.
In this book Owen and his Dad keep trying to one-up each other in how many ways they love each other. This counting book shows every-day ways that kids and dads show their love—“…more than six monster tickles!...more than seven scoops of ooey-gooey chocolate caramel ice cream!” and so on.

PIGGY AND DAD GO FISHING by David Martin, illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz, Candlewick Press 2005.
Piggy is excited about his very first fishing trip with Dad, but there are things about fishing that Piggy is not fond of. In the end of the book Piggy invents his own way of fishing. It’s a compromise between Dad’s way and Piggy’s way, and shows fun times with father and son.

A LION AT BEDTIME by Debi Gliori, Barron’s Educational Series 1994.
Dad doesn’t show a huge presence in this book, but Ben knows he can count on him when he needs him. When Ben sees a lion in his bedroom at night, his father “bumped about in the dark, banging doors and saying, ‘Listen lion. Back to the jungle. Scat, big cat!’” In the end, Ben solves the problem on his own.

HUNTING THE DADDYOSAURUS by Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Benrei Huang, Albert Whitman & Company 2002.
The rhyming text in this book is such fun, and is easy to read. Brother and Sister dinosaurs follow clues to find ‘the marvelous Daddyosaurus,’ chanting along the way “Hunka-cha, hunka-cha, rooba.”

DADDIES DO IT DIFFERENT by Alan Lawrence Sitomer, illustrated by Abby Carter, Disney-Hyperion Books 2012.
In this book, Daddy doesn’t do anything like Mommy does. At breakfast he makes forts out of waffles and when bathtime is over, Daddy is just as wet as his daughter. But in the end, she knows that Mommy and Daddy both love her exactly the same. A fun book that gives a different spin on everyday things, depending on who is doing them.

GRANDDAD’S FISHING BUDDY by Mary Quigley, illustrated by Stephane Jorisch, Dial Books for Young Readers 2007.
I just couldn’t leave out the Granddads out! In this book when Sara stays with Grandma and Granddad, she discovers Granddad up and about “…while the sky was still blue-black and the stars shone like night-lights.” She tags along when he goes out to meet his fishing buddy. The beautiful language makes you feel that you are in that quiet early morning with Sara and Granddad, out on the lake, waiting for his fishing buddy to show up. Sarah learns about fishing, what quiet means, and about spending time with Granddad, ‘the best catch of all.’

This is only a small taste of all the picture books out there that feature dads. When I looked on our local library branch website, I found 128 titles with the word ‘daddy’ in the title!

Wishing all the dads out there a wonderful Father’s Day! May you be blessed with time to spend with your children, eat well, and have time to relax at the end of the day.  Read More 

Author, editor, book reviewer, writing instructor, blogger—all of these are among the many hats that children’s author, Margo Dill, wears. Her middle grade novel, FINDING MY PLACE, published by White Mane Kids, is an American Civil War adventure about One Girl’s Strength at Vicksburg. It’s a piece of history told in such a way that makes learning about the Civil War exciting and interesting for kids.

I met Margo long ago when I was a new SCBWI member in Indiana and she was a member in Illinois. We reconnected again last year here in Missouri where we both now live.

This past Saturday I attended a wonderful program for SCBWI members at the Kirkwood Public Library where Margo talked to us about “Show vs Tell, and Overwriting,” then wrapped up the afternoon sharing her insight about “Social Media and Marketing.” We left with lots to think about and do.

Among the many points that she made regarding Show vs Tell are:
--use strong verbs
--don’t use too many adjectives and adverbs
--use sensory details, action and characterization to help ‘show’ instead of ‘tell’

In regards to Social Media and Marketing, the #1 question to ask yourself is:
What are your goals for your career?
She went over the different ways for writers to network, both in person and online, and gave the benefits of each. She said that every writer should have a blog and a website, even if you’re not published yet.

Margo also recommended Stephen King’s book, ON WRITING, which offers good advice and is interspersed with humor. And check out books that are Mark Twain Award winners for examples of good writing.

Margo has two picture books which will be released at a future date from Guardian Angel Publishing and High Hill Press. Some places to find out more about Margo Dill are:

Margo's Author Website
Margo's Blog
Women-On-Writing
Editor 911
Finding My Place

FINDING MY PLACE by Margo Dill: ISBN-10: 1572494085, ISBN-13: 978-1572494084  Read More