Participating in the Poetry Rodeo is something I look forward to for months. You’ll see the joy on the faces of the poets taking part. Not only did we have fun, but we shared inspiration and important information about poetry with educators and librarians, encouraging them to use poetry in their work every day. Some…

Imagine standing next to a stack of 427 books. Imagine reading them one at a time, begin in January and end in December. Now choose the twenty-five best from all these different books—picture books, novels for young readers and older readers, fiction and nonfiction, and poetry. How would you choose the best? As a member…

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from Percy Piestewa to tell me that her husband, Terry, a Vietnam veteran, had passed on. Percy’s phone call meant so much to me.  Terry and Percy welcomed me into their home when I was writing Soldier Sister, Fly Home, a middle-grade novel dedicated to…

Arizona State Library has chosen Soldier Sister to become one of their audio selections for the Arizona Talking Book Library. They asked if I would do the reading because patrons prefer listening to the author. We started last week, and so far, it has been a very positive experience. I sure was nervous! The audio…

Recently, I visited Utah schools to talk about Water Runs Through This Book and the live-giving water cycle. It was a wonderful week! A favorite moment: I was talking about why we need glaciers and ice caps at the poles (getting to the discussion about powering the water cycle) and I asked the second graders…

Veterans Day. Everyone has a part, helping or riding. Families prepare all week. Veterans groom their horses so even the hooves shine. Soldiers from any war or conflict—both women and men—clean and polish tack, get uniforms out, and prepare to ride. Before sunrise I fed the horses that would stay behind, old Chaco and Bandit.…

“I believe that although cultures differ, the human heart does not.” I hope you’ll enjoy this interview with my editor, Yolanda Scott, published by CBC Diversity. Thank you, Yolanda, for the opportunity to share how I came to write Soldier Sister, Fly Home, and why I think books like this are essential for our young readers.

I agree with Tim Tingle that even if one does not “know” another culture, sharing one’s perspective is important and valid. The most important research is the experience of participating. Someone once said you don’t begin to know a culture until you hold their babies. I agree.

We Americans, not they or us, but all Americans, we grieve. Every life matters.

“The cure for anything is salt water. Sweat, tears, or the sea.” —Isak Dinesen

Not bullets.

Have you read A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park? It’s been on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for 40 weeks as people around the world take to heart the lives of people in the Sudan who must walk for hours each day to get the water that sustains their live

Here’s a good video, from Chance of Science, to show when your class reads Water Runs Through This Book. “Incredible close-up photography features dozens of these amazing life forms, including amoeba, paramecia, euglena, rotifers, water bears, and many more.

In the middle of Iowa, in the middle of corn fields newly plowed,
is a wondrous roller-coaster.
A mysterious structure made for us to terrify ourselves.
Like life. Like the writing life.

Imagine, you turn on the faucet in the bathroom. No water. Same in the kitchen, no water. You ask your neighbor, what’s happening? No one has running water. Now you need to go to the bathroom. No water in the toilet to flush. You want to wash your hands. You are thirsty.

To begin a conversation between children and water, I presented my Water-Write-Workshop to teachers and parents at The Leonardo Museum, Salt Lake City. The workshop was held right in the middle of the museum’s amazing, inspiring water exhibit. We were surrounded with images, sounds, and words about water.

“…the body of the earth [h]as its ocean, which also rises and falls every six hours with the breathing of the worlds.” —from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

In No-Name Baby, Sophie’s family depends on lye soap they make themselves. What was it like to create such a staple before store-sold soap became so common?

In my book Cowboy Up! Ride the Navajo Rodeo, I salute Bill Pickett, the fearless cowboy of Cherokee and African American descent.

I had a lovely experience again this year at the Tucson Festival of Books. So well organized and so many people to talk with about BOOKS!

I first met Rose when she was a student in a graduate level children’s literature class I was teaching for Northern Arizona University on the Navajo Nation. I wondered why Rose was seeking special certification in reading when she already had her master’s degree and probably was near retirement age.

I had a wonderful time visiting with librarians, the vitality of the book world, and presenting about poetry with Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. And then there were the other authors I met, the rock stars!

Rodeo entrants choose steel-toed cowboy boots for maximum protection against large-hoofed animals. That’s just the start of the many differences in cowboy boots. Different boots are made for different cowboy jobs. Or, those boots are made for different fashion statements.  

Ever since writing Cowboy Up! Ride the Navajo Rodeo, I’ve been amazed at discovering so many rodeo hotspots I had never imagined. The 24th  Panaewa Stampede Rodeo graced Hawaii’s Big Island in Feburary.  The second annual Molokai Ranch Heritage Rodeo is a budding tradition, too. Someday, we’ll be asking where rodeo is NOT.  

Oglala Sioux Tribal member Jordan “Slick” Phelps is a two-time bull riding world champion. All this by age 19? This competitor started at age FOUR. Cowboy up!  

With Sylvia Vardell, Janet Wong and librarians Ally Garcia and Marianne Follis, I was part of the “Cultural Connections: Celebrating Diversity with Picture Books and Poetry” presentation at the Public Library Association conference in Denver in April 2016. Sylvia and Janet are poetic wonders I’m proud to team with.