Books for children and adults
If you are a teacher and would like a virtual reading with activities related to my books for children, contact me.
Boa Constrictors Tie the Knot | The Industrious Sloth | The Scab Faerie
Is This Right?
Our daughter Conway, at four years old, was smart, active, funny, and sneaky. They kept us just as busy as every other parent chasing their child around the house. They delighted in doing things wrong, on purpose, with a big silly grin. I put all those memories together in my latest book after Conway was already at the university. Better late than never.
The daughter of a colleague visited my office and and did a little reading. She is skeptical that Conway really did all those things. I can assure you, Conway did.
The book can be ordered from Itasca Books (itascabooks.com) or write to me directly.
Harbinger
A doctor at the university hospital in Minneapolis told me once that what I was experiencing might go away completely, or it might be a harbinger of far worse to come. That describes the unpredictability of life pretty well, I think.
I modeled Harbinger, a collection of very short stories, after two authors that really resonated with me. One was Edgar Lee Masters, who published Spoon River Anthology in 1915. The poems are actually epitaphs in a fictional cemetery. As you read you make more and more connections between the lives of the deceased.The other author was Dutch, and his very short stories were published about 100 years later. A. L. Snijders wrote about everyday life, just about every day of his life! Snapshots of what it is to be human, to doubt, to dream, to regret, to anticipate.
I hope I’ve done justice to these two authors as I brought their concepts together and filled the pages with my own memories, the daily goings-on in my adopted Swiss town, and the battle of getting through each day with the little bit of dignity we have.
Notes from the Back of the Class
I have done a lot, really, a LOT, of classroom observations since I wound up living in a boarding school in Switzerland. Professional development is what I knew before I moved here, so professional development is what I slipped into, one classroom observation at a time. First just at my school. Later at many others.
For a while I was a little traditional in my thinking, but fortunately not for too long. Over the years I became less and less prescriptive and more and more open to observing all the good and amazing moments of teaching and learning. I gave myself full permission to relive my own school days from the back of class, to research whatever it was that the class made me think of.
I could never go back and do an observation any other way. The time flies by, I learn and learn, and teachers are not only happy to read about their class through my experience, they usually invite me back to observe again. I’m telling you, there is a little bit of magic here ….
Home
Around Lake Harriet, in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, there used to be (and may be still) little doors built in the spaces between the roots of the old trees along the paths. They fascinated me. In my own neighborhood, a friend’s dad, Allen, built a door for one particularly large gap, hung out a tiny welcome sign, and installed a mail box for notes. What better way could there be to spend your time and imagination?
So I embarked on my first novel, the story of a retired man who found purpose again in the doors he installed in the roots of the trees in the woods behind his secluded house, and the gnomes who moved in, who became his friends, his confidants, his stability and purpose. Only his daughter doesn’t see it that way, nor, perhaps, does anybody else …
Les Chalets de Leysin
My family and I will be starting our 18th year here in Leysin, Switzerland, this fall. From my very first week, back in 2008, ’ve been intrigued by the names of the houses. Not all chalets, but indeed most, have a name.
Le Petit Flocon de Neige, Bonanza, Chalet Soekje, India House, Gracias a la Vida, La Dakota … Where do these names come from? I trace their etymology, their connections, and what they might say about those who inhabit them, who live here in the Alps of Switzerland, hovering over the big croissant shaped water we call Lake Geneva.