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Write the World Organization

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Looking for a writing resource for ages 13-19? I’ve got a great one for you! Since September 2024, I have been volunteering for this amazing organization called Write the World as an expert reviewer and as a shortlisting judge for their monthly writing competitions. I love this opportunity to help young writers and also to read their creative pieces! I love how some sentences or entire pieces stay with me for some time. I’m grateful to play a small part here.  Write the World is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization, founded in 2012 at Harvard University. The organization’s mission is “To equip teenagers with the confidence and competence to change the world, one word at a time. By developing teenagers’ writing and critical thinking skills, we empower young writers to become global citizens and succeed in school, career, and life.” The organization offers free monthly writing competitions, but also has writing camps, college essay reviews, teaching resources, and much more. If you know anyone ages 13-19 or know any educators for this age, please share this great resource!  Watch this short video or visit their website to find out more information or to get involved. I highly recommend this great resource and organization!    

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Kids Ask Authors Answer YouTube Appearance and Resources

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Exciting news! 2026 started off with a super fun live YouTube appearance all about Polar Post hosted by two amazing authors, co-hosts of Kids Ask Authors Answer. I had the great opportunity to answer a number of questions from children and even participated in a rapid fire quiz! I had a blast! Click here to watch this super fun episode. Please give it a watch and let me know your favorite question submitted by a kid.  In addition to the interview, you can find a number of goodies related to Polar Post on their website such as activities, lesson plans, and the read aloud. In particular, I love the secret treasure map hunt activity. Enjoy a cute video example of it here.   Kids Ask Authors Answer is a super fun and interactive YouTube series where real kids get to ask real authors their most curious questions about children’s books! Each episode features a new children’s book read aloud followed by kid-submitted questions that the author answers on camera with no scripts, no prep, just genuine reactions and fun. Click this link for more information and resources on their website. Click this link to view all the awesome videos!  If you know a parent, teacher, librarian, or homeschool family looking for quality chapter book read-alouds, lesson plans, and other resources, please help us spread the word.

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National Park Week – Community Connections

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The theme for today in this year’s national park week focuses on community connections. The national park service works not just within the park boundaries. The national park service works with communities in a variety of ways. Enjoy this short video explaining the involvement of NPS at the local community level. Click here for a short video. What can you do to ensure historic preservation, recreation, natural resource conservation, and education projects in your own community? Happy National Park Week! 

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National Park Week – Workforce Wednesday

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Today’s theme is Workforce Wednesday. It focuses on all the many, many great individuals who make these parks run daily. These employees, interns, fellows, volunteers, contractors, partners and more all spend their valuable time and energy making these places great for us all! I am so grateful for these many people who each play an important role for national parks! These two photos show two different park rangers – one giving a park ranger presentation at Yellowstone National Park and the other showing us a sled dog puppy at Denali National Park. What’s your favorite memory with a park ranger ? Happy National Park Week!

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Books for Maui

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Books for Maui is a bookish auction to raise funds for the Maui wildfire relief efforts. On Tuesday, August 8th, a wildfire swept through Lāhainā on the Island of Maui, Hawaiʻi. It quickly consumed hundreds of structures and destroyed families. The full impact, devastation, and loss of life are yet to be understood. To help, the book community has organized an auction. This book auction will benefit: 💛 Hawaii Community Foundation – Maui Strong: @HawaiiCommunityFoundation💛 Kamehameha – Ho’ōla Maui: @kamehamehamaui💛 Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement – Kāko’o Maui: @HawaiianCouncil💛 Maui Food Bank: @mauifoodbank Please check out this auction. You can even bid to win a signed copy of TURTLE TUBE: AN ERUTUF NATIONAL PARK, plus a bookmark and sticker! The auction begins at 6 AM HST/Noon EST Monday, 8/21, and ends at midnight HST on Friday, 8/25. There are tons of great books to bid on. And there are not only books—even manuscript critiques from award-winning authors. With so many options, surely there is something to bid on while supporting a great cause. Link to bid on TURTLE TUBE: https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/111641/auctions/148492/auction_items/4734495 Link to check out over 950 items: https://www.32auctions.com/BooksforMaui

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Luna and Fortuna’s Summer 2023 Book Club

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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!

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National Park Week – Discovery

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Today’s theme encourages people to find something new by visiting a national park – to discover. I love to learn and discover something new while visiting national parks. The Junior Ranger programs provide great opportunities for both children and adults to learn in greater detail about the park and its’ unique details. The visitor centers also provide a great resource for discovering something new. Stop in and enjoy some fun facts there! Talk to the Park Rangers and ask them some questions. If you can’t get to a national park today in person, visit one virtually online. Explore it virtually! Whether you go in person or online, what might you discover? “Learning never exhausts the mind,” ~Leonardo da Vinci

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National Park Fan Goodies

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National parks visitor numbers continue to rise as more people discover our nation’s great treasures.  Since National Park Week starts on Saturday, I wanted to share some unique gifts for all the national parks fans in your lives for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, or even for yourself. Enjoy some unique ideas for your friends and families who love the national parks suited for a variety of ages and at reasonable prices:   1. Yahtzee: National Parks Edition game It’s just like the original Yahtzee game, but has unique, colorful dice and a barrel-themed cup. A portion of the proceeds for this game benefit the National Parks Foundation. 2.  Uncommon Ground’s Redwood & Saguaro Crystal Growing Kit Kids will love this science fun of crystals forming on paper in this cool kit. 3. Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel by Kathy Arnold Cherry In this first children’s book in the series, siblings Reese and Dean’s wild adventure at Erutuf National Park is sure to expand the reader’s imagination and, likely, a curiosity about animals and the world through a magical national park. 4. Rumpl National Parks Blankets Instead of giving boring blanket, add some splash with one of these awesome national parks blankets. I have the Yellowstone one and love it! 5. Park Project’s National Parks Candles Why not bring the scent of a certain national park to someone’s home? Give the unique scents of redwoods or lodgepole pines to a friend or family to enjoy. Enjoy some national park goodies for yourself or a loved one! Happy early National Park Week!

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Virtual Tours

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A couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail thanking me for my information about national parks virtual tours as it helped out Amanda and Grace for their “Exploring the World from Home” workshop at the Rutland County Library in Vermont. In their research, Amanda found a couple of great online resources that I wanted to share: Take a virtual trip and see some amazing architecture throughout the world through by clicking here. I really like how you can scroll to a particular place and click to check it out. Take a virtual reality trip by clicking here. On this page, you can time travel through virtual reality. For example, you can step onto the Titanic as it looked like when it left Great Britain. Thank you to Amanda and Grace for sharing these really interesting online resources! Good luck with your workshop! I also just received an e-mail from the Harrison Park Community and Recreation Center in Illinois. Brendan found another great website that I wanted to add here and share. Check out this website by clicking here. I appreciate all the environmental education and conversation links in it. For example, you can go to Paris and visit the gardens of Versailles! Thank you so much, Brendan! I’m going to take a virtual tour now to check out Claude Monet’s gardens! Happy online traveling!

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