In 2006 I watched British chef Jamie Oliver’s 4-part BBC documentary, “Jamie’s School Dinners,” in which he interviewed children and found that many didn’t know the names of vegetables. As a girl who grew up picking vegetables on her grandparent’s farm, that shocked me. I had to do something.

Read more »

If You’re Hoppy has been hopping into libraries, book stores, arms. SLJ said “Sure to be a storytime staple, with many repeat performances.” For storytime fun, check out my article and photos of hopping animals, plus links to hopping animal video and a craft on the Under the Green Willow blog. There’s a recent roundup of early reader bunny books on the Cleveland.com site. I also found a cool librarian  who has a biblobop party plan for libraries. Huge list of hopping, bouncing books, too. http://storytiming.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/nobody-puts-baby-in-the-corner/

Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! was named to the Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2011!  It’s also on the New York State Reading Association’s 2012 Charlotte Award Nominees, so lots of kids in NY State will be reading it next year!

With the launch of If You’re Hoppy, I’ve been keeping my eye on bunny news. Check this out…the world’s largest rabbit was 26.4 pounds. It lived 3-5 million years ago and did NOT hop!

On page 21 of Indiana Libraries, Vol 29, Number 2, 2010, librarian Catherine Trinkle did a great job of covering my interests, books, and career in her article, “What a Wonderful World: Indiana Author April Pulley Sayre Leads Children to Explore the World in their Backyards and . . . Beyond!”

Read more »

I’m watching the live streaming at whitehouse.gov of the signing of this important bill. Hurray for all those working to reform school lunches and make them healthier. I’m so glad that Michelle Obama has taken on childhood obesity as a major issue for her work as first lady. As many of you know, I’ve been concerned about this issue for years.

Read more »

Author Dorothy Hinshaw Patent and I are speaking Tuesday, November 16th at 4 pm Eastern Time at the Global Education Conference. It’s all free and online on the Elluminate platform. You click on the session you want to attend and there’s a click through to quickly download the free software to your computer. You can participate, ask questions, chat, and so on. The bandwidth needed is minimal. A microphone is needed if you want to verbally ask a question but you can type them, instead. The Elluminate software works for both IBM and Mac. Look for Dorothy’s name on our session. The topic is CONNECTION. We will be talking about connecting kids to nature and writing along with brief coverage of some intricate ecological connections that will fascinate your students.

The conference runs Nov 15-19th. 397 sessions from 62 countries!

Check it out! Just select your time zone to see what’s happening.

Sessions are recorded for viewing later, too.

August 30th I’ll be speaking at the yearly conference of the Children’s and Young People’s Division of the Indiana Library Federation. I  am looking forward to meeting folks as well as catching up with many wonderful children’s librarians I’ve crossed paths with during my Indiana travels. Psst… I’ve got some great book news to share, too.  Hint: many of you have had a “taste” of this work in progress.

Just back from speaking at the wonderful Picture Perfect Science workshop in Ohio.

Recently got a peek at my new book, Feb 2011 release: IF YOU’RE HOPPY, illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic, published by Greenwillow. It’s humorous fiction, a read aloud for the very youngest and fun for preschool/K story hour.  Jackie and Greenwillow did an amazing job producing this book; it just feels yummy in some essential way. I’m thrilled.