Hi!  Thanks for reading today!  I am mostly writing this post to just document what a great time we had visiting MTS Elementary this week.  As part of our most recent crowdfunding campaign supporting the printing of our newest book, Isabella, Cat in the City: A Visit to the Sculpture Garden, we had an option that people could "support a live classroom."  

We raised enough to provide each classroom teacher with a class copy of the book, and we were able to give each of the third grade students their own copy.  The principal, Sue Dornfeld, and I had communicated to make a schedule for the day, and it was a full one!

Heather and I started off together in the third grade classroom - I read the book, answered a few questions, and then I was off to other classrooms while Heather stayed and did an art project.  She taught them the words backgound and foreground, and had the kids use cut paper to make a scene of a tree in the winter, with the blue sky behind and snow on the ground, and a sticker of Isabella sitting in the foreground.  Heather said it went great and the students were very engaged. 

For my part, I visited each of the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classrooms.  All of the students were quiet and respectful, with fun reactions to parts of the story and some of the artwork, especially the CherrySpoon Bridge.  Many students recognized the Cherry, and they thought that it looked like the squirrel was lifting the spoon while Isabella took a bite of the cherry.  That's exactly the effect we were looking for.  We even had a great discussion of "forced perspective" - a phrase that I hesitated to put into the book. 

The only reason I hesitated is because it's such an advanced phrase for a children's picture book, but as a reading specialist, I know darn well that peppering in those big words into an engaging story is a great way to make sure that young people have a lot of background knowledge to carry with them for the rest of their lives. 

This classroom visit was a lot of fun for me, because I taught at MTSE for four years before I moved to Chicago a year and a half ago.  It was great seeing so many familiar faces, but I am hoping that we can find more schools to have either an author or illustrator visit. If you work in a school and are interested in a visit, be sure to contact us for further details!

Thanks for reading!! Sheila

If you are looking for a fun and informative field trip that’s great for elementary students specifically in the Twin Cities metro area, Heather and I offer a great enrichment opportunity.  If your school or group plans field trips to either the Guthrie theater or the Sculpture Garden, this  would be a perfect time to consider upgrading the field trip experience by introducing your students to our fun-loving character, Isabella.  

As a part of each story, Isabella learns about the sites - within the Guthrie book, she explores the different areas of the building. The book informs children about the names of some of the important areas of the theater, such as the Endless Bridge. Strengthen the students understanding and appreciation for what they are experiencing using the questions in Isabella's Walking Tour

The Sculpture Garden book is a fictional story about Isabella’s friendship with two squirrels - it reinforces an important social-emotional lesson of facing fears, helping your friends, and of course, having fun together.  It is also informative because they play in the garden, and I have put the names of the artists and their sculptures and what materials each of the sculptures is made of.

If you are interested in learning more about our visits, please leave a comment or send an email. 

As always, keep reading and writing!
​Sheila

If you have navigated through the whole dang web to get here, thank you for visiting!  

Heather and I are so excited to have the physical copies of Isabella, Cat in the City: A Visit to the Sculpture Garden, tentatively scheduled to arrive in early December - maybe even earlier!!  It's been a fun ride getting to this point, and I thought I would document our progress on other fronts, too. 

I recently discovered that our previous website, pennywickpress dot com was swooped from under our noses when I missed the emails about updating my payment information.  I was so sad about it for a few minutes - after all, it had been my first website and I had worked hard to get it looking beautiful.  The positive is that I decided to have a website dedicated to Isabella, her books, her story, and her merch.  I also created a second website, sheilapathmcmahon.com, for myself and my solo projects.  

Getting the website going has been a learning experience, for sure.  As you can see by the huge banner across the bottom, I'm using Weebly now.  I like it for the fact that it's got an easy-to-use mobile app - I don't think that the other website builder I was using had that. It's great to be able to update the site from my phone.  

I figured out how to sell items through the website, and I'm hoping we get an order soon so that we can see how it all works.  I know there are ways to have Am*zon or someone do merchandise fulfillment, but for us it doesn't make sense to have our books at a warehouse to ship out when Heather has plenty of room & she's willing to package and send out any orders that we get. 

As I write this, I do wonder what questions anyone might have about our small business.  Please let me know, and I will answer questions in future blog posts!  

Thank you for reading!  Keep reading, and if you're a writer keep writing! 
​Sheila Path-McMahon