Jane Sutton's Blog, page 24
November 1, 2015
Lessons in What’s Up With this Chicken?
My husband is my number one Systems Thinking Educator. Here we are at Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Before our friend asked us to pose for a photo, we hadn’t realized we were wearing the same colors. Yes, we look like dorks. But we were happy dorks.
I’m so pleased to see What’s Up with this Chicken? featured in Literature Connects, a blog that helps “educators make connections to excellent children’s literature in order to develop children’s systems thinking capacity.” Not only did the book get a rave review, but blogger Sheri Marlin explains that it’s very useful in teaching principles of Systems Thinking in classrooms.
Read the blog post about Systems lessons in What’s Up With this Chicken?
I had my own messages in mind as I wrote the story, but now I see that stubborn Trudy the chicken and the determined protagonist Sylvia can teach readers even more than I expected!
October 25, 2015
Chickens of the Day
These fowls appear to be exchanging their news, don’t you think? They were spotted in Turkey (thanks again to my traveler-friend Judy), but they’re not turkeys–they’re chickens!
October 17, 2015
New Personalized Book from Hallmark!
I was given a challenge: to write a Hanukkah story for Hallmark’s line of personalized books. I say challenging because the main character can’t have specific personality traits or friends or relatives, and it had to rhyme, which I’d never done before, and names have different numbers of syllables!
The result is very cool, with fun illustrations by Nicola Anderson! The buyer/giver chooses the recipient’s name hair, skin & eye colors, hairstyle, eyeglasses or none, and gender. Then the book is ordered on-line or printed out at a Hallmark/Paper Store.
So I now see that the book, my 10th, is available on the Hallmark website, and what’s cool is that you can play with it by clicking on “Personalize & buy.” Then when you click on each page, you can read the whole story with the traits and names you entered.
Here’s the link: http://shop.hallmark.com/gifts/books/personalized-books/hanukkah-personalized-book-1CBK2056.html
Example of Cover for a Girl
Example of Cover for a Boy
October 11, 2015
Les Poulets Continuent
On n’a jamais trop de poulets (One never has too many chickens.) I wrote that in French for several reasons: 1) This chicken was in France. 2) I just resumed taking a wonderful French class, and 3) to show off.
In my opinion, this attractive metallic chicken outside a boutique in the French town of Gourdon had reason to strut.
October 4, 2015
Swedish Chicken
My friend Judy spotted this cute ceramic chicken in a window in Stockholm! She was moved to snap the photo of the white hen, who bears a strong resemblance to Trudy in What’s Up With this Chicken! And…cue eerie music…Judy hadn’t even seen the book yet!
September 29, 2015
Win a Free Book!
There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but you can win a free book!, specifically a copy of What’s Up with This Chicken? I have a month-long Goodreads giveaway going on. Good luck! (Check out all that alliteration!) https://www.goodreads.com/…/155767-what-s-up-with-this-chic…
September 25, 2015
Amazing Milestone!
We halt the parade of chickens to mark an amazing milestone…it’s not every day that one’s dad turns 101 years old! Yes, my adorable, cheerful, still witty daddy, Milton Sutton–who taught me important early lessons about writing–enjoyed his 101st birthday last weekend. Here are 2 photos from what he called “the best birthday party he ever had.”
My dad and well-wishers: daughters, sons-in-laws, grandchildren, grandchildren-in-laws and girlfriend, great-grandsons, and aides (who came in on their days off!)
My Daddy and I share a laugh at his 101st birthday party
September 19, 2015
The Chicken Parade Continues
The chicken parade was on temporary hiatus due to my excitement bordering on giddiness about the release of my new chicken picture book. Today it marches on…
This mother hen at the wonderful Life Monteverde coffee farm in Costa Rica was as attentive to her adorable fluff ball chicks as (spoiler alert) Trudy in What’s Up With this Chicken?
September 17, 2015
WHAT’S UP WITH THIS CHICKEN? is in My House!
…and it’s on shelves in independent bookstores, on Amazon, available from the publisher, etc. I’ll be happy to sign copies or send signed bookplate stickers to anyone who asks. Just shoot me an email via the “contact” menu on the home page.
Now for today’s photo…do I look happy that the UPS truck delivered a carton with the new book? Or do I look thrilled? Or maybe overjoyed? 
September 11, 2015
Interview with Moi on Writers Rumpus
Blogger and children’s book author Carol Gordon Ekster was kind enough to interview me on her blog, Writers’ Rumpus. Here she is with one of her own books, Where Am I Sleeping Tonight?
Carol asked me good questions that I enjoyed answering. I got to talk about 2 of my favorite topics: moi and my books 
