Author Jeni Leidenfrost and I had a blast during Story Time at Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane on Saturday. Our time started off with Jeni reading Little Mouse Finds a Friend to a wide age range of readers. Jeni also introduced the Braille versions* of Little Mouse and some of the young readers got a chance to touch and see what Braille feels like under their fingers.

After the reading, we passed out paper, crayons, and clipboards provided by Auntie’s. Then I began to demonstrate how to draw Little Mouse with several easy shapes, like a lemon (for his head) and a moon (for his mouth). The finished drawing went to one of the readers and I drew another one for a little pre-reader who came to Story Time for her birthday treat.

It was such a delightful morning. Auntie’s is a wonderful place for children to learn to love reading!

*The full Braille version, with descriptions of the illustrations, are now available on Amazon!

Jeni reads at Story Time

A little fan with Little Mouse.

Drawing another Little Mouse for this little pre-reader.

“First, draw a lemon… “

The more children that can enjoy picture books the better. Right?

I’m so pleased to have illustrated two books that are involved in making picture books accessible to more children.

Little Mouse Finds A Friend is a mix of story and science and follows the life cycle of the Atlas moth. The author, Jeni Leidenfrost, has created audio descriptive readings for the visually impaired to be able to enjoy the illustrations. There are also Braille books available with the descriptive reading text. There are over 1.3 million visually impaired people in the U.S. This is perhaps the first time this resource has been made available to parents and children with this special need.

Solar The Polar is a story about the friendship between a snowboarding polar bear and a paraplegic adaptive sit-skier. This story is about snow safety and enjoying life with a disability. Author, Kim Constantinesco, is the Editor-in-Cheif of Purpose 2 Play, telling inspiring sports stories of athletes overcoming obstacles. The publisher, MacLaren Cochrane Publishing, is making Solar The Polar available in both a regular font and a special dyslexic font making it easier to read for children with dyslexia.

If you haven’t got all your Christmas shopping done, make sure you pick up one of the books by these fantastic authors!

My friend Ryan goes to Haiti on a regular basis to an island that does not have electricity or running water and helps the children and animals there. She travels down and gives the children and livestock immunization shots and has been instrumental in helping build a school on the island. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The Haitians rely heavily on their livestock to accomplish daily tasks. A 90 lb. donkey will carry 120 lbs. of water up hill from the river to the village. The saddles used on these donkeys are very primitive and most of the donkeys have terrible saddle sores that often get infected. Ryan treats the wounds and helps to guard the animals against infection. She is an incredible lady!

She always takes down care packages to the children donated by local philanthropists. And this year she also took copies of Little Mouse Finds A Friend to share with the children. So Little Mouse has gone international and I couldn’t be happier about where he’s landed. Thank you Ryan for all you do.

And Little Mouse thanks you too!

I’ve made some of my favorite inktober 2017 drawings available as prints on my Etsy page. Or vote for a chance to win your favorite print for free here.

This is the road home. I am thankful. It’s Thanksgiving after all.

As we drive home, we are nearly there and I take in the Palouse hills, now almost black with fertile soil. They tell the story of harvest, brought in during summer months. I notice the subtle green of the winter wheat beginning to sprout. The blue of the sky. The epic clouds. And, off in the distance, my beloved Moscow Mountain.

There was a time I would guffaw at that nomenclature. My Portland, Oregon family and friends would agree with my original observation: “What mountain? Those are foothills!” But that ridge is the backdrop for the town that has been my home over half my life.

And in that half of my life, I have more to be thankful for than I can ever write down or illustrate in a million books. I am grateful. Not just for the winter wheat, blue for the sky, and the color green (as one sage once pointed out), which is glory enough. But I’m thankful for the man that I met here and married, the extended family I inherited from him, the children God blessed me with, the friendships formed and cultivated in the fertile soil of the Palouse, the music sung, the prayers offered, and the laughter. So much laughter.

I can look back at the first half of my life with thankfulness too. That half had the backdrop of a “real” mountain, Mt. Hood. That is the ground where I was planted. The subtleties of the soil in the green Willamette Valley are still in me, body and soul, like a wine that has taken on all the flavors of it’s environment: the hospitality of my mother during holidays, my family’s love for one another, a whole day dedicated to processing the corn we harvested, making clam chowder and sharing it with dozens of friends, eating fresh vegetables out of the garden, and playing with my best friend all summer in bare feet (despite the gravel road).

The soil I’ve grown in has not been without large stones to deal with. And I know there will be drought and frost, and other adversity to face in the future. But the vines with the most hardship to overcome make the best wine.

So I am grapes from the Willamette and I am wheat from the Palouse. I am thankful, so thankful, for these things that have potential for wine and bread. I have been blessed. And I know it. I have been drenched with the early and the latter rain of grace.

It is all very good. And I am thankful.

I loved illustrating, Little Mouse Finds A Friend. My favorite thing about the book is the subtle mix of science and story. There are fun bits of scientific facts throughout, without overwhelming the narrative that focuses on friendship and family relationships. But at the end, the hunger for more science, brought on by the appealing aroma through the story, is satisfied with a bullet list of interesting facts and anatomically correct paintings of the Atlas moth and it’s caterpillar.

Jeni Leidenfrost cleverly combines story and science together in an enticing blend that is delighting elementary children of all ages. Find out more about this charming tale, and the characters in it, at LittleMouseFamily.com.

We had a simply lovely time at book launch party for Little Mouse Finds A Friend. Author Jeni Leidenfrost and I visited with friends, new and old, and signed many books near the delightful childrens’ book section at BookPeople of Moscow. We had samples of the braille-only version of the book as well as the original illustrated version with braille added. There were balloons and t-shirts, lemonade and cookies, laughing and story-telling. It was the best kind of party. Many thanks to our publisher Jason Farley of Jovial Press for being a good sport and modeling the Little Mouse T-shirt. (Photo credit: L. Leidenfrost and H. L. Wilson).