Mom's Choice Award!!

This month, 1 Zany Zoo received a Gold Level Mom's Choice Award for Picture Book 
Humor! The Mom's Choice Awards® Evaluates products and services created for children and families.  

Thanks so much, Mom's Choice Awards®!!!

Here's info about their esteemed panel of judges (I swiped it from their website - why re-

invent the wheel!).

	Dr. Twila C. Liggett Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of PBS’s Reading Rainbow
	Julie Aigner-Clark Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project
	Jodee Blanco New York Times best-selling author
	LeAnn Thieman Motivational speaker and co-author of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books
	Priscilla Dunstan Creator of the Dunstan Baby Language. See Priscilla on Oprah.
	Patricia RossiEtiquette expert and host of NBC’s Manners Minute
	Dr. Letitia S. Wright, D.C.Author, movie producer and host of the Wright Place TV ShowDr. Wright is ranked in the top 50 Most Influential Women in Social Media.
	Catherine Whitcher, M.Ed.Special needs expert and founder of Precision Education, Inc.
	Bettie B. Youngs, Ph.D., Ed.D.Pulitzer Prize nominated author of 34 books and director of Professional Development, Inc.
	Carley Knobloch  Certified Life Coach and founder of Mothercraft: Coaching the Modern Mom

Comedy of Errors # 5

I was at the deli counter of the grocery store today, waiting for my number to be called.  While  waiting, I remembered an embarrassing thing I said years ago at another deli counter.  I had been waiting to be helped then too and, while I waited, I read the labels on the different deli meats.  I saw one that said Red Sod Turkey Breast.  I was intrigued - what kind of turkey breast was it?  Had the turkeys been fed red grass?  Russian grass?  Boston grass?  The deli clerk finally called my number and I asked, "What's that Red Sod turkey breast?  I've never seen it before."  The woman was really polite and said, "Um . . . that's short for "reduced sodium".  Talk about RED!!

Liebster Blog Award!

Jennifer Young gave me, and four other bloggers, the Liebster Award.  What is that, you ask?  The Liebster award is an award designed to bring traffic to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Thanks, Jennifer!

This award is a pay-it-forward kind of thing meant to help others get blog followers - what a great idea!  Please check out the following five bloggers that I am passing this award on to:

Heather Ayris Burnell

Rachel Hamby

Natalia Ortega-Brown

Jayne Gammons
Laura Erzen

Winners are supposed to say five things about themselves so, here's my five:

• I have a twin sister (we're fraternal).
• I love to untangle jewelry chains - weird, I know!
• I'm very political.
• I used to climb trees and buildings when I was a kid.
• I'm tri-lingual - I speak English, Sign Language and Pig Latin.

Rate Your Story

I found this awesome blog called Rate Your Story, and I thought it was such a wonderful idea, I submitted three stories.  What I really like about Rate Your story is, you get general feedback to let you know if you're on the right track, if you've been derailed somewhere or your train never left the station (not sure why I'm using train analogies)!  Because I appreciated the feedback they gave me and because I LOVE helping writers with rhyming stories, I asked if I could be one of their judges - and they said YES!  

Here's how it works:
1 - Submit a story you've written.
2 - One or more judges (maybe me) will read your story.
3 - You'll receive a rating from 1: "Great story - you should consider submitting this" to 10: "Consider this story as practice and write a new one."
4 - You can visit the Professional Critiques page if you'd like an in depth critique of your story. 


So, if you've written a story and you're not sure whether it's ready to submit, close to being ready, or needs a lot more work - this is the blog for you!  Check it out!

Perfect Picture Book Friday - Thomas' Snowsuit

My writer friend, Susanna Leonard Hill has a feature on her blog called Perfect Picture Book Friday.  In her post, she reviews a book she loves.  There's also a running list of books loved and reviewed by other bloggers.  She posts it every Friday - bet you figured that out :-)  

Since we got about 4 inches of snow yesterday, I thought I'd choose Thomas' Snowsuit for my first review.

Thomas' Snowsuit

Written by: Robert Munsch

Illustrated by: Michael Martchenko 

Published by: Annick Press, 1989

(Snow)Suitable for: ages 4 and up

Theme/Topic: Common Childhood Experiences; 

Emotion; Humor; Mischief; Seasons

Brief Synopsis: Thomas refuses to wear the new brown snowsuit his mother bought for him. "If you think I am going to wear that ugly snowsuit, you are crazy!" Every time his mother, or teacher, or principal tries to make him put it on, Thomas says "NNNNNNO" - which kids love saying along with him!  After several hilarious attempts to get him in his snowsuit, Thomas' friend calls him out to play and he jumps in his snowsuit and runs out.

Resources: Winter Coloring Page; Lesson Plan; Reading Activity Kit

Why I like this book: Anyone who has ever had to get a child in a snowsuit, boots, hat, mittens, scarf . . . to go play in the snow will appreciate this book.  My kids and I laughed out loud reading this book and they loved joining Thomas' in his "NNNNNNNO" refrain!