The End

I recently published my first edited book,  Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology ,  with  Small Harbor Publishing . It's an anthology of writing from  Literary Mama  staff over the past 20 years. It's a beautiful collection and I am proud of the writers and proud to share the book.  It seems a fitting moment, as I pondered sharing about the book here on the blog, to reflect on my life as a blogger, and acknowledge that it is time to officially end this blog.   I started blogging in about 2007, when my baby was learning to toddle, when I was learning how to be a mother and stepmother, when I was just starting to see my way as a writer. I needed it back then. I craved it. I had a variety of blog iterations--family, art, creativity, writing things I delved into. There's a freedom in blogging, a casualness, an easy familiarity that's lacking (for me anyway) in other kinds of writing. I loved blogging and the words came pouring out.  Ove...
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Nobiah's Well

For my Earth Champs group, I get lots of good books out of the library.  The most recent book I would put into the "good" category is called Nobiah's Well, by Donna W. Guthrie, illustrated by Rob Roth.  It's the story of a young boy in Africa who lives in a very water poor area.  His mother has to walk far each day to get water for the family, and for their meager garden.

 One day Nobiah goes to get the water.  On his way home he encounters several animals who also are parched and dried out from the heat.  The boy generously shares his water with the animals, because he too knows what it is like to be thirsty.  He is reprimanded when he arrives back home however, because there is only a small amount of water left for the family, and they fear their small garden will die.  

 The resolution of the story is one of folktales.  However it's fabled ending passes on the truth that when you believe in abundance and share like their is enough for all, then you are often repaid with more than you could have imagined to begin with. 

 The book is a bit older, and thus each page has more words than any publisher would print these days.  But it was easy to read aloud, and the pictures carried it along with vibrancy.  My Earth Champs kids sat entranced by the story of a world with little water and a boy with lots of generosity.  I looked out at them several times and each one sat staring up at me, spellbound and enthralled throughout my reading of the tale.  And later that day my son told me he very much enjoyed the story.  Like I said, this book fits easily into the "good" category, and I am quite pleased to have discovered it.

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