Challenges

Holiday Writing Contest

Teresa Traver/Anne Rollins

If you’re part of the picture book world, you may already know that it’s seasonal contest time again! Here’s my entry for Susanna Leonard Hill’s Holiday Writing Contest.

The Snack Before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Santa Claus needs a snack break. Frosted sugar cookies and a table for one, please!

Look who’s chirping at the door—an Arctic Warbler. How about a snack for two with caterpillars and cookies?

Another guest already? Hello, Ground Squirrel! Table for three, please, with grass seeds, caterpillars, and cookies.

How you doin’, Arctic Hare? The four of us will feast on fresh berries, seeds, caterpillars, and cookies. Yum!

Ah, Mr. Fox is right on time! We’ll have a festive snack for five, with birds’ eggs, berries, seeds, caterpillars, and cookies.

So glad you could join us, Captain Caribou. Six is the perfect number for a meal of lichens, eggs, berries, seeds, caterpillars, and cookies.

Come in, come in, Polar Bear! Just for you, we’ll add a seventh chair. Blubbery seals, lichens, eggs, berries, seeds, caterpillars, and cookies are on the menu.

Mr. Walrus was running late, but our party’s getting lively, ‘cause now we have eight! Please enjoy clams, seals, lichens, eggs, berries, seeds, caterpillars, and cookies.

Oh boy, Beluga, things are getting crowded. But we’ll find room for all nine guests. We’re dining on cod, clams, seals, lichens, eggs, berries, seeds, caterpillars, and cookies.

Another guest? We’ll have a party of ten. Hello, Mr. . . . Abominable Snowman?! Oh no, he looks hungry! We gotta get out of here! Run!

Abominable Snowman, party of one?

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pexels.com
Challenges, Picture Book Journey

Halloweensie 2023!

Teresa Traver/Anne Rollins

It’s almost Halloween, and in the kidlit world, that means it’s time for Susanna Leonard Hill’s annual kidlit writing contest, Halloweensie. Rules here!

This year’s prompt words were perfect, because I’ve got werewolves on the brain. My current adult work-in-progress features a werewolf. But Luna, the wolf you’ll meet today, is much younger!

“The Silver Chain”

“Full moon tonight! Don’t forget your bracelet!”

“Aw, Mom! That’s just superstition.” But Luna snapped the silver chain around her wrist before grabbing her bucket.

Luna and Sadie trick-or-treated along both sides of the street until they reached the old Foley house.

“Dare ya to ring the doorbell,” Sadie whispered.

Luna shook her head.

“Frightened?”

“Nuh uh!” Luna marched up to the door, dragging Sadie along.

Ding dong! The door creaked open— and Mr. Foley bared his fangs. Vampire?!

“Take off my bracelet!” Luna cried.

When the bracelet fell, Luna shifted. “Grrrr!”

The door slammed shut.

Werewolf 1, Vampire 0!

Photo by Dids, from Pexels.com
Book Announcements

A IS FOR ANTHONY: Now on ebay

Teresa Traver/Anne Rollins

This adorable little picture book has been difficult to find in the wild, unless you want to buy it in bulk. That’s great if you want to distibute it to religious ed classes, but not so great if all you want is a single copy to share with a child.

I’m happy to report that it’s now available on ebay! And if you’ve read it and enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads!

Picture Book Journey

St. Gertrude and her cats

Teresa Traver/Anne Rollins

Five years ago, I came across this St. Patrick’s Day meme, commemorating Gertrude of Nivelles, who is popularly considered to be the patron saint of cats. Her feast day also being March 17, she is always overshadowed by the more famous patron saint of Ireland.

I had never heard of St. Gertrude of Nivelles before, but the meme got me thinking about all the saints who had close connections to animals: St. Jerome, who lived with a lion; St. Anthony, who preached to the fishes; St. John Bosco and his dog, and so on.

“I bet I could write a picture book about saints who loved animals!” I thought. And that’s how A is for Anthony was born. Originally, I simply intended to write a collection of a few stories about saints who had animal friends or famous encounters with animals. As I struggled to figure out how best to organize the stories, I had the idea of arranging them alphabetically and making an alphabet of saints. That made my task harder (it’s not easy to find 26 stories about saints and animals!), but the result was worth the work.

At the time, believe it or not, I could find no alphabet books about saints, apart from a very old one by Robert Hugh Benson. Since then, more than one Catholic small press has come out with an ABC of saints, so readers today have more choices. But so far as I know, A is for Anthony is the only alphabet book focused on both saints and animals!

The funny thing about this origin story is that you won’t find Gertrude of Nivelles in my book. It turns out her connection to cats is actually very tenuous, so she was replaced by other saints who had stronger connections to animals.