Media Macaroni

It’s not every day I get to have a cup of coffee with someone so lovely, so talented, and so gracious as Rosemary Wells. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Rosemary on a project recently, and it was a treat to meet her in person. Not only has she written over 60 books, with such memorable characters as Max and Ruby, but she is also an active literacy advocate, spreading the word about the benefits of reading aloud. I encourage you to read The Twenty Most Important Minutes of Your Day on Rosemary’s website, which includes the following passage: 

Reading to your little one is just like putting gold coins in the bank. It will pay you back tenfold. Your daughter will learn, and imagine, and be strong in herself. Your son will thrive and give your love back forever.

Good stuff, right?

You may remember that we’re big fans of Yoko. Today Rosemary signed a copy of Yoko Writes Her Name for Olive, which coincidentally has a character named Olive.

Only, the Olive in the story is a bit of a meanie. Well, perhaps she’s not mean, just a little closed-minded. You see, Olive and her friend Sylvia taunt Yoko. They say she won’t graduate Kindergarten because she makes baby marks and only pretends to read. In fact what’s happening is that Yoko is reading and writing in Japanese. Soon everyone wants to learn Japanese, and the tables are turned on poor Olive and Sylvia. 

As with many of Rosemary’s books, the beauty is in the details. The top corners throughout the book feature an English-Japanese picture dictionary, and Japanese characters fill the book. Olive was thrilled tonight to see her name written in Japanese. 

Thanks, Rosemary, for your beautiful work, and for a little coffee and conversation.

On Amazon: Yoko Writes Her Name, Yoko

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 3:12 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.