My Grandma Would Love These New Books For Our Youngest Digital Citizens

When I was a little girl I loved making books.  

It was one of my favorite things to do....all of it. I loved writing the story, drawing the illustrations, reading, and sharing them with others.    

I would have my mom staple pages of paper together, gather my crayons, pencil, and markers, and set off to find a place to create and write.  I always had ideas that I wanted to write about.  I wanted to draw them out on the paper.  

A lot of times my younger sister Heather would have a empty book with her also and together we would write great adventures.  

I loved writing books for others too.  This is a book that I wrote for my Grandma Hazel.  And just as the page below says...."My Grandma is the best grandma in the whole wide world'....she so was. 

She always loved getting books, cards, and pictures of our adventures that we would take together.  I wrote about the simple things like going to the creek, climbing in the hay, and staying overnight at her house.  

                                

It is so special to read this book and hear the story through the young "me".  

I also wanted to be a teacher....and many times Heather and I played library where we pretended to be librarians of the most awesome library ever.  When we played schooled....we made books, read books, and took care of books.  

As I got older, my love for drawing and writing grew.  I wanted to be an illustrator when I grew up....drawing children's books and greeting cards (my dream job would have been working at Hallmark :).  

I went to Iowa State University to the College of Design first.  I then went to the University of Northern Iowa to the College of Education.  

                                          
                                     

I had a lot of favorite projects during college...most of them were the projects I drew or painted at ISU but another was the children's book we created in one of my children's literature courses at UNI.  

It was due right before Christmas break.  I was so excited that we were given this project because it was a chance that I could use my art in one of my education courses.  It was titled Five Little Dinosaurs Playing Hide & Seek.  

I created water-colored illustrations and made sure the words were perfect.  

And the best part....sharing with the students at my teaching practicum that semester and with lots of students over the years.  They always think it is so much fun seeing something wrote and illustrated by someone they know.  

We do a lot of sharing of books they create too in the library....this is always fun for everyone.  By creating digital books we share them online with the world too. 

                             

Last week I brought a few new books to share with the little ones in our library.  

These six books make up a series called "Internet Do's & Don'ts" that I wrote last year with Rosen Publishing.

After seeing a need for books for our youngest readers about digital citizenship, I brainstormed with a group from Rosen to come up with these six titles and set off to make them something everyone would find a wonderful, helpful, needed addition to any library, school, or home.

It has been so much fun sharing these new books with the students at Van Meter.....they fit right in with our digital citizenship curriculum and are the perfect way to kick off the year.

The topics of each book are simple and important messages we must share with all of our little ones. They are also available as an eBook. I can't wait to add those to our collection so all of our families can access them at home as well.

My Grandma would love to see that I wrote books that are now on the library shelves and in the hands of others.  She would love that they are going to be shared and helpful to so many too.

This is one adventure I have always wanted to take.....The next one will include a picture book I hope.

And perhaps a story with railroad tracks, a creek in the country, and two little friends being connected and safe online and in the world.