Sarah’s Shadow is a simple story of a girl who wishes away her shadow after her classmates say mean things about it. Feeling that those mean comments reflected poorly on her, Sarah wished her shadow away.

But she never really considered that it was a part of herself. So, when her shadow up and walked away after Sarah wishes it away, she only thought she was safe from the judgement of others. Because, as it turns out, not having a shadow could expose Sarah to just as much disapproval from others.

The high point in this story is where Sarah, desperate and crying, flees from a situation that needed her shadow, only to find her shadow, also alone and crying. It turns out, a shadow without a girl is missing a part of itself just as much as a girl without a shadow.

I love that about this story. The allegory is that if you wish away part of yourself, then you are wishing away your Self. By making Sara’s shadow a sentient character in the story, children are confronted with the not only do certain “things” make up their identity, and that perhaps these “things” deserve the same type of compassion as do people. It’s a unique way to introduce and explain the concept of self-acceptance from the point of the things that need be accepted.

@Baker_Andrews_ The Haiku Review

Art by Si Clark

The post Sarah’s Shadow Saves the Day: a Haiku Review appeared first on Baker Andrews.

I’m taking the 10% challenge at FAITHSTL.ORG. I’ve been told that no one has ever asked for their money back. I could be the first.

Here’s the thing, I’m not going to lower the bar for God because I desperately need some sort of salvation. Turns out, I’m already saved and there’s nothing more I need to do to maintain my saved seat in Heaven.

I still have this life to manage, and intuitively I want to say that having less money will make day-to-day living more difficult.

So, from my perspective, God’s already starting out in a hole on this one. Not only should this challenge make my life less manageable, I’m turning over part of that management to Him. It’s like when you show up for your afternoon shift and there’s a huge mess and the guy from the morning shift says, “Well, I’m clocking out,” and leaves you with his mess to clean up.

Well, in that analogy, I will be playing the role of the morning shift employee. I’ve made a pretty good sized mess. And now I’m clocking out and giving it over to God to fix it.

And I guess that’s probably the point. We will see what happens. I actually think that I won’t be asking for a refund. And if that is the case, It won’t happen because I’m too embarrassed to ask FAITHSTL.ORG for my money back, I can assure you that.

The post I’ll Take You Up On That Challenge, God appeared first on Baker Andrews.

The post Doctrine: UPWavers, Book 1 – the Autobiography of Existence appeared first on Baker Andrews.

I have a business article I’d like to develop for a publication like Forbes. I want to establish private land rights for Antarctica, establish a profitable geodesic distribution facility, where companies like Amazon, Fedex, and ConAgra can improve logistics.

The harsh conditions in Antartica would also serve as as an R&D Skunkworks to develop sustainable housing and mining operations on the moon and Mars. I sounds pretty far out there, but if you graph rising population levels along with rising sea levels, we’re going to have to either start relocating people or wait for an event where a lot of people die. I have design and architectural ideas for a facility in Antarctica.

I’m also a real estate developer, property attorney, and I have an MBA from a top 20 program. Something like this will eventually happen, and it will raise many legal questions.

Can someone own property on the Moon or Mars? If someone establishes a robotic mining operation on Mars, do they own the land if they use and control the land? Would they be their own independent country under maritime laws, or would they be bound Earth-centric national identities? Can we privatize land sales in Antarctica, and if so, under what nationality? Apple has about $250B in cash reserves. What else are they going to spend it on; and where can their technology establish the next big market advantage? A joint operation between Tesla, Amazon, Apple, and Google would have enough cash to fund this and the skill set to advance it. So, is there anyone who cares and how do I get this idea in front of them.

And NASA is already working on it.  I say we test out their idea through private development in Antarctica.

http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-might-build-ice-homes-on-mars

The post First Antartica, Then Mars appeared first on Baker Andrews.

Hi, kids! I’m glad you’re here. I love hearing from you. But, before we start a conversation (con-ver-sa-tion), we should set some rules for talking with each other on the internet (in-ter-net). Not only are these the rules for contacting (con-tac-ting) me, it is a good idea to use them any time you use the internet (in-ter-net).

RULE 1: If you post to my Facebook page, “name-check” an adult you know and trust.

To name-check someone, just type their name as part of your post. Facebook will send them a notification (no-ti-fi-ca-tion) that someone used their name. Then, they can go to the post to see who you are talking to and what was said. It’s a good idea to include (in-clude) an adult in any internet (in-ter-net) conversation (con-ver-sa-tion), so they can help keep you safe.

RULE 2: CC an adult you know and trust in emails.          

The phrase CC is from the olden days, even before I was your age. It stands for carbon (car-bon) copy.

Before we did everything on the internet (in-ter-net), people used paper records. To make copies, they would put carbon paper under their letters. When they pressed their pen really hard, the carbon would make marks on paper underneath (un-der-neath) and create a copy.

We don’t use carbon paper much anymore, but we still use the initials CC when we give people a copy of a message. So, if you email me, you should CC an adult by putting their email address (add-ress) in the space at the top of your email that says CC. Then, they will get a copy of the email you send to me.

RULE 3:  If you send me a message (mess-age) on Facebook, include an adult you know and trust.

You can add a parent, your teacher, your school, or any other adult, as long as they have to have their own Facebook account (a-ccount). That way, they will be part of the message too.

BakerAndrews.com as a Teaching Tool:

I don’t want to be a well known author.  Instead, I want to be an author who knows his audience (au-di-ence) well.  I want to break down barriers (ba-rri-ers) between author and audience (au-di-ence). This is possible (poss-i-ble) with the internet.  If your kiddos send me a message (mess-age), they will get a response (re-sponse).  Guaranteed (guar-an-teed)!  My hope is that if kids develop (de-vel-op) a personal (per-son-al) connection (con-nec-tion) to a writer they will  (de-vel-op) a personal (per-son-al) connection (con-nec-tion) to writing.

If knowledge (know-ledge) is power, then writing is empowerment (em-pow-er-ment).  Soon, my website will have interactive (in-ter-act-ive) writing contests (con-tests), complete (com-ple-te) with lesson plans.  Kids will even be able to print out their work to take home.  It will be an easy tool for teachers and a fun activity (ac-tiv-ity) for kids.

But we have to start safe.  I would like my website to be a place where teachers can put (di-gi-tal) citizenship (cit-i-zen-ship) into practice (prac-tice).

Parents and guardians (guar-di-ans), you can help keep the young people in your life safe with the resources available through Common Sense Media.

If you are a teacher looking to teach digital (di-gi-tal) citizenship (cit-i-zen-ship) to your kids, check out these resources and lesson plans from Common Sense Media, which is a great resource for teachers and parents alike.

The post The Internet Rules! – keeping kids safe online appeared first on Baker Andrews.

First they are affraid.

Curiosity forms friends.

Teaching and learning.

Margot Gets an Unexpected Visit takes the traditional picture book experience and transforms it by replacing illustrations with the author’s own nature photography from Quebec.

The story follows the chance meeting between the main character, Margot the Groundhog, and a young girl on vacation from Belgium.  At first, both are scared of each other, and the photograph on page 9 of a scared groundhog will make children laugh out loud.

As Margot and her new human friend get to know each other, the reader learns more about groundhogs, as well as the other animals in Margot’s neighborhood.  As a hair dresser, Margot shows off her best work through the hair dos of other animals – and I imagine that these photos are some of the author’s best work too.

Just as Margot explains the relationship between herself and other animals in the forest, so to does her human visitor educate Margot about human relationships.  And here was the real gem for me.  This little girl explains to Margot that some people have a mom and a dad, and others either have two moms or two dads, or sometimes they just have one mom or one dad.

This probably isn’t a revelation to people from Belgium or Quebec, but here in middle America, it’s rare to see such a casual inclusion of same-sex couples in children’s picture books.  You hardly ever see reference to gay couples unless the picture book is expressly about gay couples.  And here is the real power of the author’s casual inclusion.

For the reader, it’s presented as a simple matter-of-fact, neither something especially noteworthy nor something that could be excluded from an explanation of human pair-bonding.  This book totally stands on it’s own as a fun, funny picture book that teaches kids about wildlife in Quebec.  But it was the unobtrusive inclusion of same-sex relationships that makes this a great addition for the classroom.  It’s one thing to write a picture book that teaches kids why they should embrace diversity, it’s something entirely different to see a picture book that just embraces LGTBQ, point-blank, without any justification or explanation.  That’s real acceptance, and young readers may not notice it as something noticeable, but they will certainly feel it through the way that it’s presented.

The post Margot Gets an Unexpected Visit: a haiku review appeared first on Baker Andrews.

What is this?

Your recyclable Bag of Booger Books contains three signed copies of my new children’s book, Where a Booger Goes. It is the result of one booger family giving another booger family an opportunity to share in some kindness, fun, and proper hygiene.

What should I do with it?

Upon receiving the Bag of Booger Books, you should take one book for yourself and then give the entire bag of remaining books to someone else. It’s called Boogering-up someone, and the concept is simple.

Your Bag of Booger Books gives you the chance to share random acts of kindness. You received your bag because someone wanted to do something nice for you. My hope is that you will choose to pay it forward and do the same for someone else.

Maybe you give it to the person you sit next to on the bus, a favorite teacher, a neighbor, or, if you want to be really specific, give it to Anshul, that guy who works on the other side of the room in project management. When you get down to it, everyone and anyone could enjoy a good Boogering-up.

What’s the point?

Sharing your Bag of Booger Books gives you an opportunity to spread kindness to someone who may be in need of it. Plus, there’s that handy hygiene message, which some people could really use. In the end, it costs you nothing and could make a positive impact on someone’s life.

What if I don’t care about that?

Then to Hell with boogering-up. Give each book out to your best friends. Why not? If you happen to know of enough people to fill a bag of boogers with, and those people like things like books about boogers, just give them away.

Or, do you not like the book at all?

Does the idea of boogering-up a stranger offend you? OK. I hereby validate your objections. But before you pitch the entire bag of books in the trash, which is just short of participating in a book burning, I have something for you to consider. What if you gave it to that family you don’t really like. It could be a real snide, cutting backhanded slap, if you’re into those sorts of things. And people who would throw books in the trash usually are. It’s just math.

Why did I get this?

Well that depends on who you are. Let’s consider the options.

You received this because a teacher responded to a promotion just for teachers on Facebook.

That teacher received a Bag of Booger Books, and now they are giving it to you. You should take a book for yourself and pass the bag along to the next person in this chain of random kindness. 

You received this because someone bought a Bag of Booger Books and sent it to you.

Who sent it? Well, if they didn’t tell you, neither will I. The fact that you don’t know who sent it to you is part of the magic. You don’t need to know who is thinking about you. The important thing that someone is thinking about you. They spent their money on something kind for you, just so you could share in the fun and spread the word about “Where A Booger Goes.”

You are involved with the management of an improv theater.

An improv theater is a magical place because it brings together wildly diverse people. In the bestselling book, “The Tipping Point,” Malcom Gladwell discusses a certain group of people he calls “connectors.” These are people who have contacts and acquaintances with an unusually large and diverse group of people. If you own or operate an improv theater, you’re a connector. You may have no interest in a Bag of Booger Books, but I’m willing to bet you know someone who does. True to your nature as a connector, I trust that you will pass this gift along to those who will most appreciate it. If nothing else, I’ve done some of your holiday shopping for you. And who knows, if this type of marketing catches on, people might start sending you all sorts of cool stuff.

You are Malcolm Gladwell. 

I sent this to you to show how I’ve relied almost exclusively on your book, The Tipping Point, to develop my marketing plan.  The idea for a Bag of Booger Books came from the need to cut through digital noise.  And, I wanted to introduce a new concept, “the hub”.  Hubs fit into the Tipping Point’s framework as a physical place where sticky ideas and information are shared.  It’s the geographic equivalent of human “connectors”.  For example, the hubs I’m relying on for this book release are improv acting theaters (see paragraph above).

You’re an independent bookstore.  

You received this Bag of Booger Books for free because I want to establish proof of concept. I don’t want you to give these books away. I want you to put them on your shelves and see if they sell.

There’s already a barcode, so you’re good to go. Commit to an endcap display for one day. If they sell, you can order more directly through my website at BakerAndrews.com and get significant discounts for buying in bulk.

But wait, there’s more! If you are one of the stores who receives a Bag of Booger Books, and if you place a bulk order through my website, I’ll  give you exclusive distribution within your metropolitan area. That’s right, I won’t take orders from other bookstores in your city, so you will be the only brick-and-mortar retailer in your market that has copies of these books to sell.

But you need to place your bulk order before another brick-and-mortar retailer in your city catches on. If they beat you to ordering in bulk, I’m afraid that I’ll have to fulfill their order, and that will prevent you from establishing exclusive distribution. So, my advice is to establish proof of concept as soon as possible; and if it works, go to BakerAndrews.com and place your bulk order.

If you buy too many, don’t worry – Black Swan Publishing has an easy return policy. They will give you all your money back and even pay for return shipping. Basically, you have received this Bag of Booger Books so you can establish whether they are a viable addition to your shelves without bearing any of the risk of adding new products to your inventory. If they sell, great. If they don’t, throw them in the pulper. You’ve got nothing to lose, and exclusive distribution to gain.

You are President Barack Obama.

Not only are you a Nobel laureate and two-time president of the United States of America, you’re also a two-time Grammy winner for narrating your audiobooks. Most people don’t know that about you. Now, if I won a Grammy, everyone would know it. I’d put it on a necklace, like Flavor Flav, so that everyone I interacted with would be sure to notice. But you’re so cool, you never even bring it up.

I have good news and bad news for you, Mr. President. Here’s the bad news. In 500 years from now, some historians who chronicle human existence will likely comb through the uncharted quantity of digital information and conclude that you were the first African President of a country called America that existed back on Earth. That is to say that while your legacy may be eternal, it will only be as accurate to the facts as the people who write it. Given the discrepancies in the information already available, our interstellar historians might get it right, or they might get it wrong.

But God doesn’t close a door without opening a window. While the accuracy of your legacy in 500 years might morph into something unexpected, the people reading it (or having it beamed into a cybernetic implant) will still have to do something with their boogers. History is fickle, but boogers are forever.

This is your chance to solidify your legacy as the audiobook narrator of Where a Booger Goes. I’ll even donate all of the proceeds to the Obama Foundation, whose mission is, “to inspire and empower people to change their world.”  You can be the voice that children throughout the galaxy will hear when learning what to do with the stuff that comes out of their nose. You may not win another Grammy for it, but you will bring a Grammy-level performance to the narration, making this audiobook a permanent, immutable relic of your legacy put forth in your own words. Who knows, in 500 years Obamanex may become standard issue for every space-ration packet.

Even if you don’t believe in my science fiction future of America, you do recognize that you could probably record this book in a day, and in that day’s work you would produce a piece of intellectual property that would pay dividends to the Obama Foundation for decades. It would make more money than I will in actual book sales. It’s an easy, obvious win.

Your first address to the nation was in a school. While some feared you inculcating American’s children with political rhetoric, you message boiled down to be kind, cover your mouth when you cough, and wash your hands. An audio recording of Where a Booger Goes would be a perfect bookend to your legacy as America’s 44th President. You can begin and end with a message to children that no rational person could object to.

You’re that cute barista at Kaldi’s in Kirkwood who can do amazing designs with foamed milk.

Look, I recognize that I’m a marginally employed author with high-functioning autism who spent four years getting a rhyming book about boogers into iambic pentameter. This probably doesn’t reflect the “Ideal Match” section of your Match.com profile. I get that. But if you give me a chance, I just might be able to introduce you to Barack Obama.

Or, you may not be that barista at Kaldi’s in Kirkwood, but you may be a barista at one of the Kaldi’s in St. Louis. I’m flexible. But I’m sticking to my guns on Kaldi’s.  In either case, you see lots of people with kids every day, so there are plenty of chances for you to booger-up a customer with your  Bag of Booger Books.

You’re a young mom living in Canberra Australia.  

Australians spend more per capita on picture books than any other country.  And it just so happens I know a new mom who lives in Canberra, Australia.  She agreed to distribute copies of my book to her friends.  So, this Bag of Booger Books ultimately came from her.  And to thank her, her son Dante now appears in two places in my book.  Do you want to have someone be part of my next book?  See my blog for a contest to make your pet (and that includes children) a character in my next book.

Where do the Bags of Booger Books go?

Regardless of how you got this far, I’d love to hear from you. I’m genuinely curious about where these Bag of Booger Books will go.

When I was in grade school, the students had an annual tradition of tying letters to helium balloons and releasing them into the wind. Our hope was that the people who found our letters would respond and tell us how far our balloons had made it. We got letters back from some crazy places. My return letter was from Kansas, which to a first grader in St. Louis may as well have been Cambodia.

So, think of these bags as my environmentally friendly way of sending out balloons with letters. That farmer in Kansas had to write a letter with an actual pen and get a stamp in order to send his reply. You’re already thisclose to the comments section below, and no postage is needed. Tell me who you are and where you’re from. I can’t wait to see where and with whom the Bag of Booger Books land.

And if you enjoy the experience of being Boogered-up and Boogering-up someone else, you can do it again. Bag of Booger Books are for sale in the shop here on this website. The books are sold at a tremendous discount because you need to buy at least three to get a bag. It might actually be a bigger discount than what I give to bookstores. I don’t know because I’m not good at math.

Is that it?

No. I’m prepared to do you another solid. If you send me an email at [email protected] with your order, I can write custom dedications before I send the bags out. For example, perhaps you want them all to say, “From one mom with a pocket full of tissue to the next.” or, “For the stay-at-home Dad who’s man enough to endure his imaginative daughter’s endless stuffed animal tea parties.”

Or, you can give me a general topic, and I’ll surprise you. Perhaps you want to give the Bag of Booger Books to members of the PTA party-planning sub committee. Great! I can write unique personalized dedications for the common bond you share with other members of that group.

But I can only do fun stuff like this while I still have time. As the holiday season grows near, I’m going to get real busy. Marketing stuff takes a lot of work. So, if you want a special dedication, you need to get in early on this. I can’t guarantee that I’ll have time to write personalized dedications for orders placed after December 1. So, if you want your Bag of Booger Books to come with personalized dedications, you should probably order soon.

NOTE:  All images used were assumed to be in the public domain.  I’ve linked all the images to your website because I like your company.  If you do not want me to use your picture, please email me at [email protected] and I’ll remove it.  And then I’ll replace it with one of your competitors photos and link to their website.  It’s your call.

The post Bag of Booger Books: paying it forward with literacy! appeared first on Baker Andrews.

I’ve included the link to donate to the IEA because my books are written with gifted students in mind (although kiddos at any acheivement level can enjoy them).  I’d encourage you to consider making a donation this holiday season.

If you are an educator, I’d highly recommend the IEA’s blog, now at a new web address:

http://educationaladvancement.org/blog/

THE GIFT OF GIVING

By Louise Hindle, IEA Program Manager

It’s that time of year when we rack our minds to recall, imagine, or anticipate the ‘perfect’ gift. Whether that perfect gift is for a holiday party, for Christmas, for Hanukkah – it just is, unrelentingly, ‘that’ time of year.

Trying to answer why we give is perhaps more complicated. We may give because there is an expectation, arguably enforced upon us by the commercial world in which we live and struggle to escape or hide from; we may give because we feel obliged to do so; but most of all, I’d like to think most of us give because we want to demonstrate our love and appreciation towards our family and our community.

Gift giving does not, of course, have to be a physical or monetary gesture. A gift can be an act of altruism and at IEA, there are many acts of altruism performed daily. My fabulous co-workers help each other with everything and anything daily; Academy teachers give their time and energy in so many ways beyond anything written in an IEA Letter of Agreement; our volunteers turn in to the office regularly and assist us with all manner of tasks; and our parents act with enormous help and initiative during class and in between sessions by recommending us and keeping us growing. These manifold acts are both similar to and different from what we might understand as philanthropy but they are, nonetheless, real gifts upon which a small not-for-profit organization depends.

And recent evidence suggests that here in the U.S., despite the near recent global downturn, we are even more compelled to give than ever before; as exemplified by the significant growth in educational not-for-profit organizations. A 2012 report from the Urban Institute states that, ‘over the past 10 years, the number of non-profits registered with the IRS has grown 24%, with educational organizations standing second highest’ in growth, controlling 18% of the market (Blackwood et al 2012: 3). Education’s assets increased from $145.4 billion in 2000 to $300.8 billion by 2010. Add in the 35% in grant-making foundations since 2000, and these all signal significant demand (Blackwood et al 2012: 5).

American society wants to give, American families want educational choice, and mixed together, we are seeing a rapid expansion in what has become known by educational commentators as ‘New Philanthropy’ (Ball 2010) and a concurrent shift in the ways in which society now thinks about education. Within this emerging landscape of ‘giving’, Ball argues that what is now is a more ‘direct relation of “giving” to policy and a more “hands-on” approach to the use of donations.’ This ‘New Philanthropy’, assumes a more proactive role in policy, as well as an expectation to demonstrate, through evidence that ‘good’ work is effective in remedying educational problems. In sum, ‘giving’ in this context is altruistic on a grand scale; it may be politically driven but it is still bound by the drive to improve life chances, because of and sustained by philanthropy’s historical relationship to ‘goodness’ and ‘benevolence’ (Srivastava and Oh, 2010).

With so many choices for whom we may give to – why give to the gifted? Aren’t they already advantaged by their intellectual predispositions? Well, as you may know, gifted children are severely lacking in any direct allocation of resources in our public schools. In the United States, gifted students comprise approximately 6-10% of the total student population, or about three to five million students (National Association of Gifted Children). Extrapolating from the most conservative of these estimates and the most recent census data, this means that there are more than 100,000 high-ability students ages 6 to 17 in Los Angeles County alone.

Like all young people, these children deserve and require nourishment through education, as well as through relationships with accepting peers. To flourish, gifted children often require extra support such as an advanced, intensified, accelerated education (Fosters & Matthews, 2005); access to mentors willing to help grow talents and depth of creativity (Gallagher, 1985); and a learning community comprised of other gifted individuals with whom they can connect (Delisle, 2014).

Gifted youth who do not have access to these forms of support are vulnerable to depression, anxiety, alienation, boredom, frustration, and social-emotional developmental problems (Davidson, 2004). As a result, gifted children are at risk for poor life outcomes. Research demonstrates, for example, that boredom is among the top reasons that young people drop out of school (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2006), while depression is a leading cause of failure in school and in life (Weinberg, Harper et al, Secondary Education and Beyond). Meanwhile, current educational policies focus resources for special needs almost exclusively on remediation for students who are falling behind — failing to support the needs of gifted students (Finn and Sousa, 2014). In the absence of a federal mandate to support highly able young people, it is left up to each state — and often each local school district — to set policy regarding funding for gifted education. However, California is one of 15 states that does not mandate gifted educational services (Davidson Institute). As a result, a growing number of high-ability students in our region and beyond lack access to the support they need to achieve their potential.

Clearly, gifted children need resources and so do their parents: Parents, it is argued, are increasingly appalled by the impact of policy and its by-products of ‘rote learning and teaching to the test’ (Baltodano 2012: 490). Cooper and Sureau (2007) see ‘dissatisfaction’. The latter’s formative study of the home-schooling movement analyzed why more than 1.35 million children in the U.S are now home-schooled, and they identified dissatisfaction with ‘the poor academic performance of students’ as a significant driving force for the significant growth in home-schooling of children (2007:113). But, to make choices and find an alternative as a parent, one depends on resources – human and financial. Parents who are able to provide assistance by themselves in the early years need more once their gifted child’s ‘rage to master’ (Winner, 1996) sets in.

Resources are necessary to nurture the gifts of our children with high potential. Without help, these gifts will remain undeveloped. As Amanda Ripley pointed out in her book, The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got that Way, intellectual ‘boredom is the specter that haunts children from kindergarten to graduation…engaged kids don’t notice you; bored kids do.’ In addition, if you are a gifted, low-income child, the future landscape is even more bleak: Despite scholarships, the differential economic resources available to parents over time forge a divide between the assistance children of middle-upper parents receive as opposed to the less financially privileged.

Long term trends do suggest that gift-giving, ‘New Philanthropy’, is here to stay (Hentschke 2007: 298); but the act of giving to the gifted remains undernourished. IEA, like many other not-for-profit organizations, strives to equitably improve life chances of under-served populations. We know that being gifted is, and should be recognized as, a gift, but gifted children also need gifts to support their future and our country’s future. I’ll be making my donation to IEA as a gift to this future – and I hope you will join me.

The post The Gift of Giving: a guest blog post for parents, teachers of gifted kids appeared first on Baker Andrews.

The following is re-posted with permission of the author.  I think she adds really good perspective to the controversy surrounding the greatest picture book author to ever set his pen to paper.

Cathy Jo Nelson is a teacher-librarian in South Carolina.  If you’re an educator, I’d highly recommend following her blog at:   http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/

Put a positive spin on it

Sep 29th, 2017 by Cathy Jo Nelson

The post Put a positive spin on it: guest post by educational blogger Cathy Jo Nelson appeared first on Baker Andrews.

My next children’s book, “Lola Gets a Little Boy” will come out in 2018, and your pet could have a part in the story!

This story is about Lola, her mother, Chase, and their search for Lola’s little boy. In the course of their adventures, they meet another housepet. Could this pet be yours?

This contest gives you the opportunity to memorialize your favorite pet as a character and illustration in a collectible children’s book.

All you have to do is post pictures of your pet on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or in the comments section below, and include BakerAndrews.com, #contest and #WABG in your post. Whoever has the most qualifying posts by 12:00 a.m. CST on December 18 will win.

That’s right, the cuteness of your favorite animal doesn’t matter.  It could even be something really ugly. Or something offbeat, like a snake, or a bat, or a goat. The pet doesn’t even need to be alive to win.

So, now that this contest has been unleashed, the only thing standing between you and your pet becoming local library heroes is your willingness to post pictures of them on social media. (And honestly, isn’t that what social media is for?)

The winner will be announced here and via social media, and receive a special award letter, just in time for the holidays. (Psst, that means you could submit a loved one’s pet as a fantastic holiday gift idea.)

What are you waiting for? Start posting your pet with BakerAndrews.com, #contest and #WABG now.

The post Put Your Pet in My Next Book: post the most and WIN!!! appeared first on Baker Andrews.