When Turtle Grew Feathers

By Tim Tingle

We have all heard about the race between the turtle and the rabbit, and how the turtle’s steady pace and determination won the day. There is another version according to Choctaw legend, one involving a turkey and a group of ants.

I found this zany children’s novel, When Turtle Grew Feathers, last October at the International Story Telling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It was a fabulous experience by the way. More of that later, perhaps.

Tim Tingle, the author, has done a superb job in creating this tale from three sources: Myths of the Louisiana Choctaws 1909, Charley Jones's oral interview with Choctaw Indians in 1992, and Jay McAlvain’s taped interview in 1992.

The illustrator, Stacey Schuett, helps carry the story with fabulous pictures capturing rabbit’s feelings ranging from mean and challenging to surprised, to fear, and finally humiliation and defeat.

When Turtle Grew Feathers is published by August House Little Folk ISBN – 13: 978-0-87483-777-3 This is a book I will pass on to our granddaughter. I can almost hear her giggling now.

Matt the Rat Fights Back

by Lorenzo Liberto and Illustrated by Irving Torres

Matt the Rat Fights Back is a neat story featuring Matt and how he gets himself into a jam during summer vacation. When school starts in the fall, Matt is surprised that he loses the traditional Back to School Race. It is a race he has always won. Thanks to his coach and loyal friends, Matt fights his way back to fitness and wins the Thanksgiving Race.

After winning the battle for fitness, Matt is a changed rat and plans to keep on winning, not just for a few weeks or months, but for the rest of his life.

Matt the Rat Fights Back is an ideal book for students learning English or Spanish. Each paragraph is written in both languages. Even a novice can match up many of the English and Spanish words. This novel is thirty-one pages long and has large colorful pictures, a perfect book for a shared reading time.

Matt the Rat Fights Back was published by Harvest Sun Press and is one of four in a series, all bilingual. Other titles are: Save the Planet, Matt the Rat’s Incredible Creations and Matt the Rat and his Sister Maggie. These books can be purchased from Target stores as well as Amazon.

The Ant That Wouldn't Work

The Ant that Wouldn’t Work

By George A. Allen

George Allen entertained his grandchildren with the story of an ant that wouldn’t work. His oldest granddaughter, Brittany Clark, begged him to write it down. He wrote the story, then she, now an adult, illustrated it, creating the pictures she visualized as a child. She used simple map colors, the same ones we all used in elementary, Jr. high, and high school.

When Mr. Allen shares his story with young listeners, he tells them, “I’ve only met one ant that wouldn’t work. I had to write a story about him.”

Pete, the lazy main character, feels his family is working him too hard. He leaves home to explore the world promising to be back in the spring. Sure enough, Pete returns in the spring, but he is not the same ant that left the previous fall.

The Ant That Wouldn’t Work is a story children will request to be read over and over and over again. There are thirty-eight pages, half of which are full page pictures of Pete and his adventures in the wide, wide world he is exploring.

The Ant That Wouldn’t Work was published by Fame’s Eternal Books, LLC. Books can be ordered from Amazon or Autographed copies can be ordered from the author george.allen@classicnet.net .

City of Petra - New 7 Wonders of the World

My sister-in-law forwarded this amazing clip about the City of Petra once thought to be legendary like Atlantis. I was in awe as I studied the detailed carvings creating this city carved out of, or into, the canyon walls. It is mind boggling to think of the years it took to finish this amazing work. No wonder it is billed as one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World"
The stone work and colors of the carved rock are breath-taking. How can something this big and this beautiful remain hidden from the world for so long?

Petraunadelas7maravillasdelmundo.pps (3048KB)

There are so many fascinating things in this world. I wonder what will be found in the next twenty years.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Trockle Book Review

Trockle is a book worthy of a place in your child's library. Illustrator, Jordan M. Vinyard, created pictures that are more or less realistic, sometime more and sometimes less. Author, Holly Jahangin, spins a night time story guaranteed to capture a child's imagination and make them search under thier bed hoping to find Trockle or a friend of his.

Trockle is published by 4RV PublishingLLC and can be purchased from your neighborhood book store or ordered on line from www.4rvpublishingllc.com/bookstore. Trockle is 22 pages in length with large colorful pictures that pull the reader and listener into the story.