3.14.2017

Priscilla Pack Rat has LAUNCHED!



Wooohooo! Priscilla Pack Rat released this week! 

You can find out more on the Magination site... please consider supporting your local bookstore by asking for Priscilla (or Woolfred!) - any bookstore can easily order if they don't have it in stock! 



Alternatively, Amazon also carries both titles ;) 

Please note - Priscilla, unlike Woolfred, is not a book about food intolerance. In fact - no food is even mentioned. As such, the book is completely gluten free ;)


3.03.2017

Woolfred out in the World...

It's been a VERY long time since I posted on this blog... I've been knee deep in a new kids book project (more soon!). 

Today, I wanted to share a round up of reviews that Woolfred has received - in part to put a couple of my faves in one place, and in part to boost me up in the week leading up to a new book launch (which can be exhilarating - but also a bit scary!). This has been such a rewarding experience - I've been honoured to touch the lives of many children in the last couple of years with this little story. 

Detail from Woolfred Cannot Eat Dandelions


Portland Book Review
5 Stars! Childhood Allergies Have a Hero
In recent years, the number of childhood allergies has become an increasing alert for parents, teachers, schools, and anyone working in childcare. Teachers have to be more aware of what is in their classroom, and parents fear what their child could consume when they are out of eyesight. Woolfred Cannot Eat Dandelions is the perfect book to put  into perspective that everyone has issues with something, whether it’s a food allergy or sensitivity.
This book hits home with an issue not everyone deals with personally, but everyone knows someone who is affected. Claudine Crangle has done a wonderful job of stating a grown up issue in a manner that is easy for a child to understand. A cute story, with simple language and examples of the desire to “throw caution to the wind” and eat whatever you want no matter how it makes you feel, this book belongs in the hands of every parent of a child with an allergy, every doctor’s office, every school nurse, and teacher’s classroom.
Midwest Book Review

"Woolfred Cannot Eat Dandelions" is a story to help children understand food intolerance, and learning to accept and live with it. The gentle limited palette illustrations in shades of gray, yellow, green, and white, present a young sheep's experience testing the limits of a dandelion intolerance. Because Woolfred loves dandelions so much, at first he cannot accept that whenever he eats them, he gets very sick in his tummy. But after trying several different ways to eat them with the same, tummy-gurgling results, Woolfred learns to accept his dandelion intolerance, and ventures out to enjoy as many other life experiences as he can while honoring this limitation. A handy Note to Parents and Caregivers give additional suggestions for ways to help children cope with food intolerances.


Booklist Review

Here's a slightly disguised episode designed for sharing with children who have food intolerances (as opposed to allergies). All the other sheep eat dandelions. Woolfred can't . . . but they look so good and (as it turns out) taste so good, too. And when Woolfred rebelliously chows down on a clump, his belly inevitably swells with a Gwaaaaglewaaaglewush, down he falls, and out came the dandelions. What if he just eats the flowers? Or just the leaves? Same explosive result. Though Crangle declines to specify or show from which end of Woolfred the plants come out, repeated scenes of hooves dangling in the air on pages bedewed with yellow and green spatters adequately convey the idea. Woolfred at last just shakes himself off and rejoins his flock each member of which, as it turns out, has a similar quirk: Lana sneezes when she's near clover. Bert likes to scratch his bottom on the ground. A closing spread of advice from a psychologist for parents and caregivers adds definitions as well as techniques for support and discussion.