Beautiful Boy and Beautiful Girl are two concise picture books for children. Simple, fun, and rhythmic, these books are great as goodnight stories or quick reads for your little ones. Incorporating everything a child enjoys, colors, pictures, and rhyme, will encourage them tolook at their world in a positive light.
The Author, Jenita, has always had a heart for children and writing. She has worked several years caring for children as a Professional Nanny and has been honing her writing craft over the years.
After around four years of teaching creative writing as a part of Louisiana’s In-Home School program, I helped operate a research and fellowship center in Shreveport for another five years while also working with children and teaching. Having spent time around children and working with them, I appreciated taking a break from reading novels to focus on something straightforward. I found these books to be a breath of fresh air. I realized I was grinning as I read each of them. In the future, I’d like to see more work by J.L. Hunt.
As a reminder, I am closed to Book Review Submissions at this time for a chance to catch up on my TBR pile. I will let everyone know when I am open again.
So what’s going on people? It’s been awhile since we talked together so I thought we’d do that today. So…
OK, I’ll go first.
So my husband is doing well. His leg is strong and we’re getting back in the swing of things. Though I do hate he’d have to go back to work soon…boo. Oh, and I do have an exciting new update. I’ve been on baby duty lately. No, I’m not pregnant (yet lol) but I am baby sitting and I must say he’s the absolute cutest. So yea, he’s the culprit taking up my blogging time. You cutie you!
Nephew BJ, Age: 1
BJ has been waking me at 7am with sweet kisses and lots of love. I mean, just look at him. Who can resist that face?
Hmm, what else? I went to Houston recently so that was pretty cool. Got to spend some much needed family time and all that good stuff. I mean, I had to do some work too but I enjoyed seeing the fam while we were there. It’s been raining a lot lately too, which of course is inspiration to write more. I’m pretty sure everyone reading this blog know how much I love the rain by now. I love the calmness of the air and listening to the wind.
That’s it for me, for now. So, what’s up with you all? How is life?
This was definitely not my first choice for Writer’s Quote Wednesday but it carries with it a memory that I found exciting to share. Matilda was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid and I loved most that Matilda loved to read like I did. She was a magical kid with supernatural abilities but reading seemed to me to be her most powerful ability; it seemed to me her foundation. It didn’t just give her knowledge but it opened her mind.
Of course, Matilda is a fictional character, but reading this quote brought me back to that innocence of childhood while simultaneously becoming inspirational writing advice. That is: you never know who your writing helps. The people who silently depend on the comfort of your words, hanging onto them like little pieces of salvation scribbled in ink. A breath of fresh air to whatever stifled reality they may find themselves in. Matilda was all alone in the emotional sense of not having a family who loved her but her mind was nurtured by the words of all those authors who knew nothing of it. Sometimes we are saviors to readers we will never know exist. If that ain’t inspiration, I don’t know what is.
About The Author:
Roald Dahl is a children’s author who wrote many of the most famous children’s books turned movies of our childhood (well, some of our childhoods. I was born in ’87 so the 90s was kinda my time lol): Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach to name a few. Dahl wrote his first story for children, The Gremlins, in 1942, for Walt Disney but it wasn’t very successful at the time. It wasn’t until 1961 that Dahl first established himself as a children’s book writer with the publication of James and the Giant Peach which was adopted into a movie in 1996. Three years later (’64) Dahl published Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was also made into a popular movie. A film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in 1971.
In addition to James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl’s most popular kids’ books include Fantastic Fox (1970), and Matilda (1988).
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And that’s it for this week’s installment of Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Don’t forget to click the pic and join the fun….you know you want to!
Our family survived off welfare and from that end I know it to be helpful. It was however, a possessive lover. In Robert Taylor, no one’s father was present since their mother’s couldn’t receive welfare with them. But not that men weren’t present; their existence was obvious since the projects themselves overflowed with innocence. Thousands of children the byproduct of casual sex, and drive by love pieced together somehow between the cracks of the doors left open by the ladies from the welfare office, who searched everywhere but the crack of your buttocks to ensure it wasn’t present. So the men were around, fathers of children who knew them as nothing more than the Ray Ray’s and Big Mikes of the block. Men who sort of hung out on the corners or underneath the beds of open women, too filled with desire and dreams to deny a no-good-man a place between her legs. So the kids kept coming, the men kept leaving, and the welfare office remained packed. And if it, the Welfare, sensed anything positive had taken place, even if it was a new hairstyle, they needed to know from where the money had come, how much was it and how often was it around so they may deduct that amount from the meager rations they were already giving out. It didn’t matter if it was a jar of peanut butter or a new hat, if it was expected to come from an additional money source, it would be calculated and deducted from the monthly government assistance.
If she was found to have a man living with her, whether he worked or not, she could lose her money altogether. Not only was my father not around, but my Uncle had to make a covenant with the closet when the social worker came by. You see, a man’s presence was a threat to the relationship between a woman and her government. Thus the poor were required to remain so in the buildings if they desired to receive the little nothings they were receiving from Welfare. If they showed any sense of pride that required a level of discretion at what we commonly referred to as, “The Aid-Office”, it was as if the clerk had been instructed to repeat their business louder than the person obviously desired over the intercom so that the entire room could hear it; this made it extremely embarrassing to visit the office.
If by any chance the women wanted a divorce by acquiring some fancy job, the government made sure to snatch away all its benefits so that she is better off to remain part of the relationship than to do away with it. What use is a “good job” when she can’t afford to pay the rent if it increases because of her salary? Or what use is a “good job” when she can no longer receive Medicaid for children who are constantly bleeding from the violence of their environment? This is a place where children used garbage dumps as a playground. What use is it, of a “good job”, when she can no longer receive food stamps as a means to feed her children? It is thus better for her to stay married, financially, to the system than to get a “good job” that leaves her just over broke and in the same situation as she started out as. Marriage? Out the question, she can lose her benefits by daring to marry her children’s father—she wasn’t allowed to have one in the home, let alone marry him. Needless to say, the system divided more than it brought together, and was quite jealous and possessive of its lover, the Black Woman.
– Concrete Children: Life Inside the Robert Taylor Projects
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I would like to publish a memoir one day. While I am still in the infancy stages of understanding memoir writing, I have taken to writing down bits and pieces of my life story and publishing excerpts to this blog for practice.
This is so cool. I really enjoyed watching this video and meant to upload it to my page about a week ago after coming across it on another blog. Today, children are constantly being told, inadvertently, to grow up faster. From being introduced to sex in kindergarten to being allowed to wear make-up and fake fingernails, we are not giving innocence and naiveté a fair chance. When I was growing up, for instance, Barbie dolls had no private parts, now Ken has a penis. It was not to shy children away from the reality that real men have private parts, but it was done so, at least in my mind, to preserve the child’s innocence. But anyway, the point is that I think what this woman is doing is very noble. Even though she wasn’t intentionally trying to do it, by re-applying the make-up to these dolls she’s making them look more innocent and child-like than they did before. It would be great if she started a store, I would definitely order dolls for my daughter from her.
Today, I am proud to announce the introduction of my brother’s youth program, A.L.L. Athletic League of Leaders is a Non-Profit Youth Program based in Miami Florida dedicated to creating leaders of our young people by highlighting, through sports, a broad range of careers and skills needed to acheive their very best:
“The extremely unique non profit youth empowerment program launches its pilot today (6-17-15) at Williams Park in Overtown Miami. Over the next 7 weeks young Leaders will be exposed to over 20 sports career concepts. Teaching them the many ways they can go pro beyond the courts and fields. They will engage in hands on activities and unparalleled mentor-ship from current industry professionals. After a successful pilot we plan to launch after school programs in both Miami and Broward counties.
Upon proof of concept we plan to grow to 12 locations globally. Please spread the word and make any donations at http://www.athleticleagueofleaders.com (click on the donations tab) to help the future leaders of tomorrow.”
– Rio Infinity
“The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to.”
In 1988, a demonic entity named Charles Lee Ray, nicknamed Chucky, possessed a doll. It was the first time many of us saw a real example of spirits using children to their advantage. The mother gave her son the popular sought after toy and Chucky worked through him to commit his crimes. The spirit of murder that was on the man Charles had come to inhabit the doll. We became obsessed with the “cute devil” and still we cannot get enough of Chucky. I believe there are like five parts out now, one released just recently. However, truth is stranger than fiction. Is it any coincidence that this spirit has come back to us? Only this time, it is more than animation and make-up.
They say it’s like the Ouija board but the truth is its worse. The “Charlie Charlie Game” is a game that is being played by children, not just in classrooms, but in general. It is considered a combination of the Ouija board and bloody Mary, but this game is physically injuring its participants.
“Brian White, from Biloxi Mississippi, reports he was attacked by Charlie the demon after he taunted the spirit saying, “You’re not real, you’re a fake, come get me if you are who you say you are! Show me you’re here!” That’s when White said he was thrown facedown and violently attacked. He said it felt like somebody was slicing him with razor blades. When the attack stopped, his friends saw that his back was covered in scratch marks…”
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Jon Santa Cruz / Rex Features (582062k) Ouija board with pointer VARIOUS – 2006
The reason it’s physically injuring its participants is this: you give more energy to demonic entities, fallen angels etc. when you call them by name. According to history and the experience of those who’ve played it, the Ouija Board conjures up demonic spirits by those who participate. It is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words “yes”, “no”, etc. along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic as a movable indicator to indicate a spirit’s message by spelling it out on the board during a séance, so forth and so on. As a result, this game creates a portal for demonic entities that are given permission to enter. Which demon accepts the invitation varies but we do know something happens to alert the players to its presence. However, while this is bad enough, the Charlie game is worse than the Ouija Board because it is conjuring a specific spirit; creating a portal for this demon named Charlie.
Contrary to popular belief this is not a game, this is a séance, and this is the part where parents are supposed to wield their authority and take away this stumbling block from the minds of their children. We sit back and we laugh at horror movies and pretend they have no bearing on reality. We sit back and laugh at violent movies and yet make children cover their eyes when a man and woman embrace in a warm kiss. I am not promoting soft porn, but what I mean is a simple engagement of husband and wife is shielded from them, but the slicing off of a man’s head is not. We have taken away what is natural and subjected our children instead to the unnatural. If your child does not know not to participate in this game, if he or she does not understand the dangers involved, if he or she does not understand why this is not a good idea, then it is your fault as parent. You see it is time for parents to start taking responsibility for the mental, spiritual, and physical upbringing of their children. It’s not just about bad kids running around, it is about raising up a child in the way they should go. And if we are not doing this, then Charlie will become a permanent fixture in your child’s life and you will wonder how he or she became so wayward. It is because you allowed them to conjure up demons and wicked spirits and they have followed them around from childhood to adulthood. Yes, it’s this serious.
I’m not going to give the details of this portal opening experience because you really can just Google it. But whatever you do, please teach your children to just say no to Charlie.They do this by not giving energy to it. Do not mock it, and do not play around with it. Just stay away from it.
The PBS Blog 