Rightfully, music becomes an underlying theme in Duet, Phillip Hoose’s newest book focusing on the mockingbird. Five states, including my home state of Mississippi, have chosen it as the official bird. Mockingbirds have their own music and also borrow from other birds, sounds in nature, and even noises that humans make.

Currently, I am in a waiting mode in the book publishing process. The next step is not up to me, nor is the date that it will occur. So, what do I do as I wait? I remember some of the fun things that have happened along the way.

Author Alda Dobbs read my review of The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna and took pity on my impatience for the sequel and sent me an advance reading copy of The Other Side of the River to cut my wait. In this sequel, twelve-year-old Petra must find a way in this world that is totally new to her, beginning with the immigrant camp with double death threats of smallpox and hunger.

A couple of garden animals and a Facebook meme took my mind back to the classroom. It never takes much. As they say, “Once a teacher, always a teacher.”

Sarah C. Campbell, with some help from her husband Richard P. Campbell, has once again taken words and photographs to bring meaning for children to a mathematical and scientific concept in her newest book Infinity: Figuring Out Forever that goes on sale tomorrow, August 30.

Al, the only living brother of the four that reached adulthood, the three remaining Butler sisters-in-law, a bunch of Butler cousins, and a few stray in-laws finally had a post-Covid gathering this past June. The oldest sister-in-law brought out family pictures, letters, and memorabilia that began a wonderful time of sharing memories. I asked about one missing item.

I have been anticipating Linda Williams Jackson’s newest book, The Lucky Ones, for some time. Thankfully, Lemuria Book Store had it in anticipation of her appearance at the Mississippi Book Festival when we made a recent trip to Jackson.

The question that popped up on Facebook with an assortment of banned books brought back a memory first and a curiosity later. The question asked, “Why was A Light in the Attic banned?”

If you have a little person in your life that needs to be introduced to books and counting, I have a great suggestion. Five Hiding Ostriches by Barbara Barbieri McGrath is just out.

Rinker Buck, in his new book Life on the Mississippi, takes his readers with him as he builds a flatboat modeled after those from the early 1800s. It takes a year, combining care for his aging mother with work on the boat, to build it before he sails the flatboat two thousand miles down the Mississippi to New Orleans.

In reading Newbery Award winners, I have come across some ideas hidden in those books that I am going to call “Newbery Nugget Notions.” I will address them periodically in this blog.

In It’s My Whole Life, Susan Wider has written a book destined to sit beside The Diary of Anne Frank on any library bookshelf. The author takes her title from words that German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon said about a series of paintings that she did while hiding from the Nazis in the south of France.

For years, I’ve used the phrase, “If I live to be a hundred,” to indicate something that is never going to happen. This weekend we celebrated the second family member to reach that milestone with Uncle Leo. I remember quite a bit of unease with his entrance into this family when Aunt Ruth selected him for membership.

Being baseball fans runs in our family from generation to generation. How and why we choose our teams varies.

When you look at the date on my first picture, I am sure I will not need to explain why the JambaLAya event was cancelled or why there has not been another scheduled in the last two years.

I couldn’t turn down an offer from Bloomsbury to send an advance reading copy of the historical fiction account of Johann Sebastian Bach’s composition of the “St Matthew Passion” in 1727. James Runcie, in The Great Passion, uses the reality of Bach’s faith and proficiency and the known people who surrounded his work and creates a story that feels true.

These steps recall a journey that began right here twenty years ago. In the early part of 2002, I climbed for my first time. I had heard about the extensive de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection in a kiddie lit class and wanted to see for myself. I had no idea as I entered the McCain Library how big it would become in my life.

I just happened up on an offer for an advance reading copy of a book that has many levels of being intriguing. The first to hit my eye was the title, Honeybee Rescue: A Backyard Drama, by Loree Griffin Burns with photography by Ellen Harasimowicz.

I first became acquainted with the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, which is not nearly as famous as the Monarch, quite by accident. I had ordered some passion flowers, aka maypops, and paid good money for them from a garden bulletin, because I loved the flowers, and the maypops reminded me of childhood.

Three generations of Hannahs rarely traveled far from their rural home in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, officially homesteaded with the deed signed by President Buchanan. There were cows to be milked morning and evening – couldn’t get too far away.