Mom’s Choice Awards Interviews Holly Niner

Blog Post taken from Mom’s Choice Awards
Originally Published April 20, 2017

Today we’re sharing the second post in our new interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.

We were fortunate enough to speak with Holly L. Niner, author of the Mom’s Choice Award-winning children’ book, The Day I Ran Way. We loved hearing her perspective on writing, reading, and parenting. The full interview is published below.

MCA: The Day I Ran Away is about a little girl who throws a tantrum, gets banished to her room, and runs away. Why write a children’s book about this? What was your inspiration?

Holly L. Niner, author of The Day I Ran Away

The idea for The Day I Ran Away came from an America’s Funniest Home Video I saw on TV in the early 2000s. A little boy was outside his house with his back pack asking, “how can I run away when I’m not allowed to cross the street?” For me, that captured a dilemma of childhood. You want to be grown up, but you can’t. It captured a feeling that’s not just relegated to children; haven’t we all wished we could run away at some point? But maybe what we really need­­—as both children and adults—is just a “timeout” from our real or perceived troubles.Holly Niner: Story ideas come from many places. A little snippet of something seems to stick in the “what if” side of my brain and sometimes turns into a story.  I try to write those snippets down as they come to me or else the day-to-day of life may push it out of my brain forever.

Obscure Children’s Books By Celebrated Authors of Adult Fiction

Written by Simon Van Booy
Illustrated by Wendy Edelson

Simon Van Booy – a contemporary, award-winning author of adult literature (The Secret Lives of People in Love, Everything Beautiful Began After) – is also the author of the children’s picture book, Pobble’s Way.

Here are some other little-known children’s books by beloved authors of adult literature.

Donna Earnhardt’s post on PiBoIdMo!

PiBoIdMo= Picture Book Idea Month

Thirty ideas in thirty days wrapped in unlimited potential!

http://taralazar.com/2012/10/26/pre-pibo-day-2-donna-w-earnhardt/

Grandparents Down Under

Silly Frilly Grandma Tillie is written by Laurie Jacobs and illustrated by Anne Jewett.

We are thrilled to announce that our five current titles about grandmas, grandpas, and grandkids, are on page three of www.grandparentsdaymagazine.com, an Australian publication. The Autumn 2012 Issue is now viewable in pdf.

There’s a Dragon in Best Kids’ Books for Easy Gifting

&

When a Dragon Moves In, written by Jodi Moore, illustrated by Howard McWilliam

When a Dragon Moves In is included in Barnes & Noble’s Best Kids’ Books for Easy Gifting online store, as well as in their Picture Book Favorites online store.

Starting to look for holiday gifts?

The Colorado Parent magazine’s Bookmarkable blog highly recommends Pobble’s Way (Simon Van Booy & Wendy Edelson):

We imagine with Pobble, Daddy, and the forest animals; we believe that something simple is more than it appears; and we know that nature is full of possibilities. I highly recommend this beautifully illustrated and narrated book and think it would make a great holiday gift.

(Read the rest of the Colorado Parent review here)

Winter is about holidays and family and of course gift-giving. But it is also about quit walks together in the snow, the warmth of home, and the light of imagination.  A gift of Pobble’s Way is all of these great winter things wrapped in one.

Veterans Day: A Soldier and Children’s Author Celebrates

In honor of Veterans Day, we asked Flashlight author and US Army Major Thad Krasnesky to share some of his thoughts on being a children’s author and on serving in the military. This is the first in a series of posts from our authors, illustrators, and other Flashlight folk on the holidays.

"Some people find it odd to reconcile the image of a children’s writer with the image that they have of a soldier. I love being able to create that conflict in people’s minds."

by: Thad Krasnesky

Veterans Day is a wonderful time here at West Point.  Although any holiday celebrating the soldier cannot be far removed from the more serious side of the occupation, it is a much less solemn occasion than Memorial Day.  Veterans Day is a celebration of life and a remembrance of victory.  More importantly for the soldier, it commemorates the end of war.  Although some people think that soldiers long for war, this is simply not the case.  There are violent people in any occupation.  Certainly there are some among the ranks of the soldier.  The true soldier however, the one who practices the profession of arms and is not simply a hired gun, longs for peace.  Douglas Macarthur, a West Point graduate and a leader of character once said, “The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”  Dwight Eisenhower, another West Point graduate and distinguished leader said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.”  Veterans Day remembers that moment in time, when soldiers on both sides of the line in WWI were able to lay down their weapons.  The day that they said, “This many deaths, but no more.”

That Cat Can’t Stay gets CWA Certificate of Excellence

That Cat Can’t Stay (Thad Krasnesky & David Parkins) was awarded a Certificate of Excellence in the Books for Children category by the Cat Writers’ Association, Inc (CWA). All Certificate of Excellence winners are also finalists for the CWA Muse Medallion, to be announced at the Awards Banquet on November 20^th, part of the CWA Annual Conference. Author Thad Krasnesky will be attending the Awards Banquet. We’re thrilled to share this award with Jane Yolen’s book How Do Dinosaurs Love Their Cats.