Laughing Pizza!

When you take a break from reading with your little ones and it is time to dance and sing, we have a suggestion: Laughing Pizza! They are a talented family that makes great family music. We were lucky enough to be invited to their show at the GPB Studios, and it was a blast! Lisa, Billy, and Emily put on a great show, and if you have a chance to see them near you, don’t miss it. Visit their website to hear some of their songs, and order a CD or DVD. You and your kids will love it.

The Pink Pig is GREY?

All of the books from Set ONE are now available in grey! We’ve created Amazon Kindle versions of our books, and you can read them on your Kindle (in greyscale) or on your PC and iPhone (in full color!) using Amazon’s Kindle Reader software. They are only 99¢ each. Interested? Visit Amazon by clicking here.

Set TWO is Done!!!!!!

We’ve finished the press checks, and we have copies of Set TWO now!

The Oprah Winfrey Show

Last evening, the Oprah Winfrey Show called us!  And we’ve been walking on air ever since.  We sent them some books last week thinking, who better to share a good book (or eight little good books) with other than Oprah, a queen among readers?  Well, they got them and they just called to say that they liked them… a lot.

After taking several deep breaths and closing our mouths which hung open like fish for a minute, we said “Thank you”.  Then they told us that they don’t have any place where we could fit in the show, but maybe something in the future would open up.

Of course, we hope something DOES open up, but in the meantime, a “not yet” from Oprah sounds pretty good.

It’s the Great Pumpkin Ben, Mark or Pam!

Do we call it an affliction or an affection? Whichever it is, the desire to plant a garden and especially, to plant pumpkins strikes us every year. Rhonda is our resident garden expert and Heidi is close behind. She actually built a raised bed and loaded it with seeds…that grew! The cucumbers took off, the tomatoes exploded and our favorite, the pumpkins are in full bloom. The harvest has Heidi and everyone in her family very busy doing some old fashioned canning and jarring. I’ve managed to grow two tomatoes myself, but I’m waiting for Heidi’s coup for fall…all natural pumpkin butter. It should arrive around the time our pumpkin book from Set TWO is ready for review. After seeing the gardens, our pumpkin drawings are done, but we’re stumped on a name. Who’s pumpkin is it? Ben’s? Mark’s? Pam’s? Our children do not have phonetic names so we can’t borrow from them. Send us your ideas. We’ll figure it out about the time we’re jarring our 100th batch of pumpkin butter.

School again, School again, Jiggedy Jig

We’re all in the throws of it. Rhonda is back in the classroom. Heidi and Jen are back at school volunteering and running carpool and the kids are all settling into new grades, new jobs and new lessons. It’s busy, but probably our favorite time of year. It’s the time for new beginnings.

In that spirit, we’re excited and proud to announce the continuation of our School Promo. Please check this out. Enroll your school on our site and for every purchase that mentions your school, we send the school $4.00. That money adds up for something great for your school.

Click here for more info.

Panda Cake Fig Cake

Do you remember the first book you ever read? I remember it clear as day. I sat down on a loveseat with my dad in our living room. I handed him my favorite book, Panda Cake, and asked him to read it to me again. He said, “I’d like you to read it to me.” I told him I couldn’t, the book was too long and too grown up. He assured me that I could read it and that he’d help me if I needed it. So we dove in.

The story riveted me. A panda mom tells her panda children to go out and buy ingredients to make a panda cake. The oldest squanders his time and money. The youngest doesn’t. In the end, the Panda Cake is made and lessons are learned about sharing and kindness and responsibility. I don’t know what I liked best about this book: the fact that there was baking involved… I seriously wanted to make one of those cakes or the fact that the panda child learned a loving lesson. (I was one of those rule-following children who faked being well in order to not miss school when I was sick).

I still have the book and everytime I see it, I recall that it was the first book I ever read by myself and I read it to my dad. Mostly, I still remember the pride I felt that day. I still want to make that Panda Cake too and my dream may be answered by Heidi. She’s been canning and jarring and figs are in abundance right now. Low and behold she found a fig cake recipe with ingredients closely resembling the Panda Cake. I hear it is divine and have a clue as to what the panda children enjoyed after their adventure. I will be making it soon and enjoying a slice with my dad.

We wrote Miss Rhonda’s Readers for your kids…so that they could enjoy the magic of reading their own story. When the saddle up next to you with books, ask them to read to you. Help when they need it, but sit back and let them work through it. They will beam for their whole life. Trust me.

Shine A Light

Please visit our page on the Shine A Light website, and click on the Endorse Now button (registration required). It could help us win $100,000 in grants and marketing endorsements!

Click here!

**UPDATE**

We didn’t get selected, but over 100 of our fans endorsed us, and we appreciate it more than you could ever know. Thank you.

Pixie the Hamster

Did we ever tell you that Jen’s Hamster is based on a true story? The names have been changed to protect the phonetics because “Rhonda” is not easily read by a beginner reader, but other than that, the story is 100% true. When Miss Rhonda was little (see picture), her hamster, Pixie, escaped from the cage. If you’ve ever owned a hamster before, you know they can pick any lock and blend into any environment – be it couch, pantry or carpet. But they have an Achilles heel: fresh vegetables. So she didn’t know it then, but when Miss Rhonda set a trap with a pot, a ramp and fresh vegetables that lured Pixie into a safe place and then back into Rhonda’s hands, she was laying down the plot for one of our most popular stories, Jen’s Hamster. It works on hamsters, but we can’t guarantee it for guinea pigs and gerbils; plus, those aren’t phonetic words so our expertise ends there.

Our Evening Taking Pictures

We finally decided we needed to have an official photo taken of us. In the middle of waiting for proper light and for the Chinese food to be delivered, we got some amazingly cute shots of Rhonda and Violet (Heidi’s youngest) reading together. We can’t say it was officially Violet’s first book, but it was so cute we had to document it. If you have pictures of your kids reading their first story, please share them with us; it’s a moment for the memory books.

Another Sneak Peek – Set TWO

More on Set TWO—this time, raccoons. After researching them, we found a relative super-power of theirs that is not at all related to their ability to break into any trashcan on the planet. Raccoons can shape their body into almost any position. You look at them one way, and they’re a big ball of fur. You look at them another way and they’re long and skinny, almost weasel like. Then they move and they’ve morphed again with their top thin and their heiney huge and round. It’s all pretty funny. Just goes to show you that raccoons are wiley and trashcans are just the beginning of it.

Have to Like Mo Willems

While reading Mo Willems’ blog, I discovered that he had an animated series a few years ago called Sheep in the Big City. He also has chalkboard dining room walls. I think we should collaborate on a project.

Sneak Peek – Set TWO

Set TWO is in development and anytime we start to draw, we look through nature images to get a good idea of exactly how a bunny hops or exactly how a pig naps. Sometimes our research leads us to reputable places like Audubon or National Geographic for knowledge and inspiration and sometimes we wander a bit on places like youtube. Such a thing just happened when working on the new otter book. If you search “otters” you get some pretty cute stuff, namely, a popular video where two otters in an aquarium hold hands while napping. (YouTube link) We had to ooh and ahh over them for a long time to really get the idea of what otters look like in the water. Alas, our book will not feature any hand-holding, but we recommend the link above the next time you have some free time; you will not be disappointed. After that, tell us what you think of our newest otter drawing—did we capture their spirit?

Mention in Southern Living!

Well – in just the Georgia edition… The April issue of Southern Living has a very nice mention of Miss Rhonda’s Readers with an appearance by one of our Robins! Hopefully this will help us reach a larger audience. Speaking of larger audiences, we now have our books available on Amazon. If you have a chance, do a search for Miss Rhonda on Amazon and write a review or just put a rating in. We appreciate it!

Award Winning!

Well – an award for print excellence… We were just notified by our printer that Miss Rhonda’s Readers Set ONE won a PIAG award for print excellence in the books division. PIAG is the Printing & Imaging Association of Georgia. We are extremely proud of the print quality of our books, but we think that the books have much more to offer than just good looks!

From the classroom…

We have had a wonderfully busy holidays and are getting back into the swing of things. This is Heidi; I’m going to try my hand at a little writing on the blog.

Rhonda has been sharing stories of her first time readers with me, and they are quite cute. It appears several children are concerned with our pig’s red cheeks…

“Ms. Rhonda, he’s forgot his sunscreen!”

And “he needs some salve.” Salve! That word is barely in my vocabulary.

One student showed her wisdom by reassuring Ms. Rhonda that the pig will be pink again – after his bath of course. 

NAEYC in Dallas!

We’ll be showing off our books next week at the NAEYC Conference in Dallas. NAEYC is the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and once a year they hold a 4-day event that typically has attendance over 20,000. We are so excited to be able to be part of such a huge event, and we can’t wait to see what kind of feedback and interest our books generate. If you want to know more about NAEYC, visit their site here. For information about their conference, visit here.

We’ll let you know how it went when we get back!

September 17, 2008

Our big plan was to have a blog posted every week, but we all know what happens to best laid plans, they go awry. This one is late because my youngest daughter greeted the school year with a playground injury requiring four stitches. Who knew I’d run into a thoroughly literate and rhyming doctor at the hospital? He came up with “the blue goo will help your boo-boo” while numbing my daughter’s skull so I’m pretty sure we have the subject for Set Three’s “oo” focused book.

We’re off to Mobile, AL for the Southeastern Booksellers Conference soon. Two weeks ago we were in Decatur for the Book Festival which was exciting on many levels (getting to meet Tony DiTerlizzi from the Spiderwick Chronicles is one example).

We also got featured on coolmompicks.com which was fab-u-lous! Check them out for great products with lots of style and snap!

Decatur Book Festival Booth #108

If you are near Atlanta this weekend, we’d love to meet you at the Decatur Book Festival. We’ll be at booth #108, just north of the Children’s Stage. It looks like it will be a great festival. To find out more, visit www.decaturbookfestival.com. Highlights include:

• The world premier of the first Madeline book in 50 years
• Chris Raschka, author/illustrator of The Hello, Goodbye Window
• Cheryl Klein, the continuity editor for the Harry Potter books
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type author Doreen Cronin

And you can meet us! Don’t be shy. Come look at the books, ask us questions, or tell us your secrets to teaching kids to read. See you there.

You Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up!

The Lives of the Teacher-Mom-Illustrator-Designer-Author-Marketer People Behind Miss Rhondaʼs Readers

Weʼre Miss Rhondaʼs Readers which officially means that we are Rhonda Lucadamo, Heidi Weathersby and me, Jen Willhoite. Rhonda is Miss Rhonda, virtually and literally. She had the idea for the books and wrote them all … first for the kids in her classroom over the years, and now for everyone. Take away the curry-colored hair, make it more blond and round out the pointy glasses and youʼll get how the real Miss Rhonda inspired the logo Miss Rhonda. Rhonda still teaches primary Montessori students (sheʼs been doing it for over 15 years) which means that sheʼs taught a lot of kids how to read. Sheʼs also taught a lot of kids that while their mothers miss them when theyʼre at school, they manage to pass the time by singing into the vacuum handle or (heaven forfend) seeing friends of their own!… thatʼs another story altogether though.

Heidi and I have known each other a long while and while weʼre moms (like Rhonda), our kids are younger so weʼre still doing the carpool, ferrying kids to activities kind of thing along with our Miss Rhondaʼs work. So our days are fairly normal in that they start out well-planned and well-managed and then quickly dissolve into an array of unexpected doctorʼs visits, rushed birthday present buying, and scouting troop schedule conflicts. Weʼre the pair that illustrate and design the books, build the website and then work with Rhonda on marketing. On more than one occasion, weʼve found a weekend day to work a solid 8 hours and then–surprise!–told the kids that we were having a spend the night because 8 hours wasnʼt enough. In these instances, Thai food is our dear friend.