Tag Archives: Shopping

International Book Giving Day… on Valentine’s Day!

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What day is February 14th? It’s International Book Giving Day, silly!

Actually, this was news to me and probably is to you, too, but hey, what better way to honor your little Valentine than to give them a book?

“International Book Giving Day is a day dedicated to getting new, used and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible.”

Roses are red, violets are blue, chocolate makes you hyper but this book is for you!

Three simple ways to celebrate International Book Giving Day:

1. Give a Book to a Friend or Relative.  Celebrate International Book Giving Day by giving a child a new, used or borrowed book.
2. Leave a Book in a Waiting Room or Lobby.  Choose a waiting room where kids are stuck waiting and there are few to no good books available. Purchase a good book, and deposit your book covertly or overtly in your waiting room of choice.

3. Donate a Book.  Wrap up a box of children’s books that your kids have outgrown and get them in the hands of children who could really use a book or two. Donate your books to your local second hand store, library, children’s hospital, or shelter. Alternatively, donate your books to an organization working internationally to get books in the hands of kids, such as Books for Africa.

Click here to gift a copy of Long Live Earth  –  have a happy Valentine’s/International Book Giving Day!

 

 

 

 

 

Continued thanks to Amazon reviewers of Long Live Earth…

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*****5.0 out of 5 stars   See all reviews here.
“Wonderful Book for Earth Day or any day!”
January 10, 2014 by mbscott “mbs” (Buffalo, NY)
“I read this for Eath Day every year to the K kids–great book about taking care of the planet. Good for budding Evolutionists, too, as it references the earth being way older than 6000 years–and prehistoric man! The illustrations are actually quilt squares–beautiful.”
Thank you Amazon reviewers for continuing to send in your kind thoughts!

Spend more – it’ll cost less. Watch this groovy little animated short. Say goodbye to Walmart, Costco and Target…

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“Go Local” from EcologyAction

I am a jellyfish. That explains a lot.

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I went to the aquarium yesterday because my niece is in town.  I am not huge on aquariums.  I know that is a terrible thing to say because nobody likes an aquarium hater.Northeast-Pacific-sea-nettles-Monterey-Bay-Aquarium-631

After all, the fish are obviously well cared for in their huge, gleaming, impressively realistic tank homes. I guess it’s just a bit hard to believe that they are actually buying that whole set up.

Or maybe it’s the funky lighting.  Regardless, it never takes long before my lower back starts to ache, I am famished, parched, I have to go to the bathroom, my feet hurt and I am wondering why our tickets should have to cost more than the average health insurance co-pay.

But then I get to the jellyfish tank.  And here, at the jellyfish tank, I am mesmerized.  I am literally glued to the glass.  I don’t ever want to leave this place.

All those bobbing, dangling blobs seem almost cultish.  And I’m pretty sure they are beckoning to me. I don’t just watch the jellyfish at the aquarium.  I actually feel that I am a jellyfish at the aquarium.  Jeez, are they brainwashing me?  Am I actually turning into a jellyfish?

I mean, if left for two minutes in their silent but echoing company I become a weightless, worryless, goalless, harmless, timeless coagulation of flotsam and jetsam (or whatever) effortlessly drifting and dipping though the portals of time and space.  I can actually feel my blood pressure dropping.  In fact, I don’t think I have any blood pressure at the jellyfish tank.

This morning I googled “jellyfish” in anticipation of writing a little ditty on what I  used to think of as a weird, aquatic anomaly of mine… only to discover this breaking news:  I am a jelly fish. Which kind of explains everything.

Or at least I was.  In fact, scientists are now placing bets that all life descended from the jelly fish.  Albeit we’ve advanced a bit.  Jellyfish still don’t don’t have brains, lungs, hearts or plenty of other things that tend to cause humans a fair amount of angst.  But boy do those guys know how to relax.

So before you head out for the aquarium take your over-evolved brain along to National Geographic and read the whole facsinating story:  “Was Your Ancestor a Ball of Jelly? Evolution Study Surprises Experts”.

That’s it. No more shopping. No more Amazon. Time’s up!

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Go home. Slow down. Shut off the computer (myself included). May your Christmas be simple and bright.Miniskirts_in_snow_storm

Image from Agathos

I can’t watch this without crying. 100 Good Wishes Quilt – The Virtue to Sustain Love and Environment.

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I decided to illustrate Long Live Earth with fabric scraps because quilting is an age old form of recycling.  For whatever reason I tended to think of quilting as mainly an American labor with images coming to mind of bonneted pioneer women, log cabins and Pa Ingalls in his red long johns. In reality this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The earliest known quilt dates back to the Pharaoh of the Egyptian First Dynasty, about 3400 B.C.

The other day I stumbled upon this little movie short called 100 Good Wishes Quilt – The Virtue to Sustain Love and Environment which I can’t seem to watch without crying.

In northern China there is a centuries old tradition of creating a “Bai-Jia-Bei”, otherwise known as a “100 Good Wishes Quilt”.  One hundred family and friends donate a piece of fabric along with a written wish. The wish can be anything: a quote, a poem, a saying or a simple wish from the heart.  The fabric scraps are then stitched into a quilt by the child’s mother or another elder and given to the child along with the wishes.  The quilt literally wraps the child in good wishes and represents the virtue to sustain love and environment.  The Bai-Jia-Bei is then passed down through the generations.  Isn’t that beautiful?

 

EVOLUTION AS HISTORICAL FICTION?

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Here’s a good one.  Amazon just categorized Long Live Earth as historical fiction:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:  #54 in Books > Children’s Books > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Prehistory

I guess it was presumptuous of me but I assumed that an evolution theme would be lumped in somewhere (anywhere) amongst the non-fiction.  Read the first first few pages of Long Live Earth below…  pretty straightforward stuff.

Who is pulling those levers over there anyway?  Is the Great Oz of Amazon a Creationist?  Or is just his algorithm a Creationist?

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Oh well. If Long Live Earth (and evolution) have to be categorized as prehistorical fiction I should at least be grateful that it has made the top 100 in that list.  I think.  :-/

 

Just saying… thank you.

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Most of the give-away winners have received their copies of Long Live Earth (yeah!) but some are still waiting (boo!).  A sincere apology to those still waiting… you have not been forgotten and I sincerely thank you for your continued patience.

Also, a big thank you to give-away winner JC for his hat’s off to the stitched illustrations and to fellow Goodreads author Kat Ward for her thoughtful review of Long Live Earth:

Kat Ward  Amy's Own

“Long Live Earth not only has a most pertinent message, but the artistic work in the quilts made by the author are impressive. Her rhyming is sweet, funny, silly, and potent, yet easy enough for toddlers and young kids to understand. It should be in every elementary school library and classroom and on every home bookshelf. It’s a feel good book encouraging kids to care and take action without being preachy. Its bright colors and wonderful quilt pictures made it a must read for my girl when she was young (and now she’s a committed environmentalist at 15 years old; just saying).”
Thanks, Kat!  If you haven’t got a copy of Kat’s book Amy’s Own yet, I hope you’ll join me and grab one.