Tag: reading

Wrapped In Love

Barbara Gruener

Today I’m grateful for readers like Tanya, a school counselor in Montana, for her touching post on IG earlier this week.

It makes my heart soar to see our book in the hands and on the heart of readers like her. And just look at the connection that she made with the book; her daughter’s handiwork (without needles!) is an incredible work of heart.

I had the blessing of gathering online with a panel of teacher authors; click {here} to listen in. It was so much fun to hear their stories and learn more about how their books came about. Special thanks to Josh Tovar and Dr. Moreno for including me in this group of educators.

My cousin texted a photo of Owen’s color sheet after my visit to his school. I just love how he connected back to the story by finishing off his slippers with a pom of a different color.

On this journey through life, I’m learning that love comes in all shapes and sizes, through a chance to connect in person or by receiving a phone call or text following up after the fact.

It might be coming by with a plate of cookies for my husband who just had knee surgery …

or posting a review of a book you liked, just to increase visibility or engagement with the product.

Mine heart happiness has always been sparked by baking, so this week, I baked our Halloween pumpkin, then made six batches of pumpkin bread. I posted on Facebook for anyone local to come pick some up. The Principal of a neighboring school took me up on it, so she could treat her front-office staff to some kindness from my kitchen.

It wrapped my heart in love to get this picture that afternoon. A couple of people I’ve never met came by to get one, too; one of the new friends is making pork egg rolls for us tomorrow. Talk about your win-win.

What’s your go-to way to wrap someone in love?

Young Minds Focus Group

Barbara Gruener

Hello August; can I ask you where June and July went?

I know for me, a lot of hours were spent playing around … and playing with words as I put the finishing edits on the text for my new picture book. Just yesterday, I met with the last of my Young Minds Focus Groups; what a great experience, to read my book aloud and get first-hand feedback from the actual audience that I’m writing this book for.

Their mom posted this lovely reflection after our time together:

I was blessed to work with their older brother, Even, when they first moved to town a decade ago; as a bonus, he was there visiting as I read to the girls to get their thoughts and feelings. I wanted to ask him how it felt to have storytime with Mrs. Gruener after all of these years, but I chickened out. He was in the fifth grade back then and I didn’t want to embarrass either of us.

So the book is coming along beautifully; any day now, the editor will start working on adding fonts and editing any errors or issues. We are hopeful for a September release.

For fun, I’m sharing my favorite illustration from our uber-talented Art Educator and Artist, McKenna Giamfortone. Just look at how brilliant her black-line watercolor pictures are.

Can you feel the warmth on this page, even without the context or the words?

I’ve also used coloring.app to create a coloring sheet to complement our story.

I am so very grateful to the Road To Awesome publishing team and excited about putting this story out into the world and onto the hearts of its potential readers. To create intrigue, I will share that the traits it tackles include loss, grief, friendship, joy and love while it revolves around the healing powers of knitting.

Stay tuned for more details; do reach out if you’ve got a budding author or artist who would like to be a part of my Young Minds Focus Group. It’s a great chance to get inside the heart and mind of an author while possibly providing key changes that could make our story even better.

Appreciating Teachers

Barbara Gruener

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week 2025; how are you celebrating?

My Monday started out at Bales Intermediate, previewing my new book with Mrs. Dixon’s and Mrs. Thurman’s fifth-grade learners. I asked them to be my Focus Group, for feedback and input. Their former Art teacher is our illustrator, so that was a fun connection for them. More details to come; we hope to put it on the market this August.

When I was leaving, Mrs. Conn from across the hall asked if I could read to her class. So on Wednesday, I headed back to Bales to read Birdie & Mipps as we celebrate its one-year book birthday. When I get these amazing opportunities, I’m reminded how much I miss read-aloud time.

I left a copy for the class after our read-aloud; here we are, looking for Mipps’ given name, hidden within the text.

These curious learners had a lot of questions and connections, but my favorite reflection was a compliment: “Your voice is so good that you could actually read books on YouTube.” Is that not the sweetest thing? I thanked her and told her that back in 1979, when I won a State Forensics Storytelling competition, that one of the judges wrote, “You could make money with that voice,” and she agreed. “You could!”

Tomorrow my appreciation continues, when I Zoom to a classroom in PA, to read Mr. Quigley’s Keys. I sent them ’empa-KEYS ahead of time, so it’ll be fun to give those out from deep in the heart of Texas.

In the meantime, I’ve been sending these magnets to some energizing educators to remind them that they matter; this one made its way to Joe Beckman in Minnesota.

Dear Teachers,

YOU are appreciated. YOU are valued. YOU are loved, not only this week, but always, because YOU are showing up and doing the holy work, holding the hearts of our REAL national treasure, the children, our future.

Thank you, thank you.

Barbara

Meaningful Author Connections

Barbara Gruener

Today I’m feeling called to talk about connections, sparked by this Amazon review.

Just a few days into the new year, while I was at my childhood home caring for my Stepmom as she was dying, I received an email from a reader. Here’s a part of it.

Hello, how are you? My name is Michelle … I am a teacher in NJ. I have been teaching in the same town & school for 22 years … I absolutely love Mr. Quigley’s Keys … I am currently teaching 3rd grade and I LOVE reading to my class. We read 1-2 stories a day and I feel they are picking up a stronger passion for reading. Every month the students pick their favorite read aloud that I have read over the entire month to find the winner for our classroom. We call it “Bookflix” of the month.  Every March, I do the same thing but we make it like a tournament of books and each book battles another to make it through to the next bracket. We do this to celebrate March Madness with the NCAA basketball.

Well, being a relatively new basketball fan because of Caitlin Clark‘s days at Iowa, I think it’s soooooo cool to imagine Mr. Quigley’s Keys in a March Madness bracket. As you might imagine, it gave me great pleasure to send her class family a signed copy of Keys. I’ve also offered a virtual author visit, so, who knows? I might even get to meet them. Eeeeeeeek!

Michelle ended her letter with this: I look forward to hearing  from you if you have any time. I love telling my class I spoke to a REAL author. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Now here’s the thing: I will never forget the day that Phillip Hoose of Hey, Little Ant fame first emailed me. He’d enjoyed a blog post that I wrote about his rhyming “to squish or not to squish” treasure, and he invited me to write an article and submit it to Teaching Tolerance Magazine. I did, and it was not only accepted, but it was my first payment for a piece I’d scribed. My first author gig, if you will. Oh sure, I’d been writing for as long as I can remember, but getting paid for my words felt like next level, for sure.

Our friends Tricycle Press decided to put an excerpt from that article on the back of the hardback books 8th edition and beyond, and it felt so dreamy. Download a teachers’ guide from the publisher {here}.

Then when we invited Phil to come to Friendswood from the East Coast and lead a Family Character Night we hoped to call “Picnic With The Author Of Ant,” we were over-the-moon with delight that he agreed. Families brought their dinners to our gym, spread out their picnic blankets, and ate dinner while Phil lead a good old-fashioned Sing Along and then a read aloud of his blockbuster book.

So, Michelle, I can still feel what it feels like to hear back from an author, and I, for one, am grateful that you followed your heart and made this meaningful connection with me. Oh, and not that I’m uber competitive or anything, but I do so hope that Keys does well in your 3rd-grade March Madness bracket. 🔑💜🗝️