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Luna and Fortuna’s Summer 2023 Book Club

If you’re looking for a great way for your children (7-13 years old) to keep reading this summer and meet some other bookish friends from around the United States and other countries, check out the Luna and Fortuna’s Summer 2023 Book Club!

The book club will meet virtually four times this summer and discuss three different middle grade books. Attend when you can! It’s free and hosted by children’s author Katy Roberts. It sounds like a fun club to enjoy this summer! 🙂

For more information and to sign up for this fun book club, click here. Happy reading!

Turtle Tube Video

Check out this awesome video about Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel made by author and illustrator, Carli Valentine:

Carli has authored and illustrated some sweet children’s books that you can find online. You can find other great reviews and videos by Carli by clicking here.

Thank you so much to Carli for her creative video about Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel and sweet review of it!

Mother’s Day

“It is the custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.”
― J. M. Barrie, The Adventures of Peter Pan

Mothers exist all over children’s literature as well quotes about them. Enjoy this one particular quote above from The Adventures of Peter Pan to celebrate this Scottish author’s birthday on Tuesday.

Cheers to all the moms out there today! Hopefully you get some time to read a great book today! 🙂 Happy Mother’s Day!

Star Wars Day

Happy Star Wars Day!

Say “Star Wars” and most people will think about the amazing movies, but many novels have been written about all these creative characters and stories. In fact, there are around 380 books (not including all the comics)! George Lucas created this magical franchise with the first film back in 1977 and it operates now as a huge enterprise!

Happy reading on Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you!

National Park Week Thanks

As National Park Week wrapped up yesterday, I thought a lot about our national parks this past week. I thought about all the memories of our visits there.

Yellowstone National Park, 2019

I also thought about the stories of connection, discovery, accomplishment, tradition, gratitude, ingenuity, inspiration, fun, and love!

I smiled a lot during all these thoughts and memories. National parks bring us great joy in addition to many other benefits. National Park Week provided us with a daily reminder of all the goodness within this great and unique system.

Thank you for coming along with me on this year’s National Park Week.

National Park Week – Love

Happy National Park Week!

To end this fun week, today’s theme focuses on love. National parks provide families and friends with so many wonderful and lasting memories filled with love.

I have lots of moments of love from our national parks. I fell in love, got engaged, and even got married in our national parks. Enjoy two photos from my own amazing moments of love from the same area in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming 15 years apart.

What’s your favorite moment of love from one of the national parks?

Time to start planning the next national park trip to create more memories!

National Park Week – Fun

Today’s National Park Week theme is fun! How fun! 😉 It’s really hard to not have fun when visiting our national parks!

Yellowstone National Park Fun 🙂

What’s a fun memory from a national park from you?

Happy National Park Week!

National Park Week – Inspiration

The theme for today in this year’s national park week focuses on inspiration. The national park system definitely contains a lot of sources for inspiration from the people to the landscapes to the wildlife to the history and so on!

Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

The national parks can also inspire creativity. National parks have inspired artistic expression and creativity for many, many years. The national parks have definitely inspired me! Our national parks inspired me to write children’s book set in a national park. I created a magical national park, Erutuf National Park, as the setting for my children’s book series. The first book in the series is Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel. It’s not a real national park, but an idealistic and magical one.

How have the national parks inspired you?

Happy National Park Week!

National Park Week – Ingenuity

Today’s national park week theme focuses on ingenuity. Ingenuity means “the quality of being clever, original, and inventive.”

How you seen any wildlife do something ingenious? Or have you learned about someone in history using their ingenuity to make an impact? Or have you had to use your own ingenuity while visiting a park place?

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Happy National Park Week!

 

National Park Week – Gratitude

I love this theme for today’s national park week of gratitude!

Yellowstone National Park, 2019

I feel a huge sense of gratitude when thinking about the national parks. I am grateful for the creation of this system to preserve something so special in our country. I am grateful for the many people who play a role in these national parks from the park rangers to the support staff. I am grateful for all parks, monuments, lakeshores, parkways, battlefields, military sites, memorials, scenic trails, seashores, and other designations.

I am just really grateful for this system! What about the national parks makes you grateful?

Happy National Park Week!