Tag: Rebecca J. Gomez

Posted in Book Review, Picture Books, Read-Aloud

Four Fantastic Picture Book Read-Alouds

Posted on by beckylevine

I have a lot of picture books on my shelf–possibly too many! They’re all great, and they all bring something to the table for my learning & craft. And, obviously, every picture book is a read-aloud.

But there are some books that just sing to me as a reader–I can hear the rhythm or voice in my head, and I can see myself reading it happily and easily to a crowd of children (well, maybe a small group!).

Federico and the Wolf – Written by Rebecca J. Gomez, Illustrated by Elisa Chavarri (2020).


I’ve never been a huge fan of the original Red Riding Hood story, but this is one of the most delightful fairy-tale retellings I’ve seen. The rhyming and rhythm work so well together, and the prose and dialogue has an energy that transfers itself into the reading. And on top of that, it’s funny! This is a must-have to share with kids.

Nobody Hugs a Cactus – Written & Illustrated by Carter Goodrich (2019)


I laughed out loud in the bookstore when I opened this one. The text is spare and tight, with a lot of dialogue. And that dialogue is absolutely filled with attitude, especially Frank’s. It is SO much fun to read a rude character. And the art! On every page, after I read the text to the kids, I’d be pointing to Frank and saying, “Look at his face!” Pretty soon, they’d probably be saying it before me.

Kadooboo! A Silly South Indian Folktale – Written by Shruthi Rao, Illustrated by Darshika Varma (2024).


Full transparency: I know Shruthi, but that doesn’t change how I feel about this book. It’s a lovely, simple story. Kabir has to get the kadooboo home to his Amma before it rains. But the harder challenge is telling everyone what he’s carrying…and remembering how to say the word. The mistake words are fun & funny, and the artist has brought them out of the main text in a large, bold font that would make it easy for a child to find. And the gaps in Kabir’s teeth–such a small thing, but it adds so much to the illustrations. I love the idea of reading this to a classroom of kids who have all been losing their baby teeth.

Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It) – Written by Carrie Finison, Drawings by Daniel Wiseman (2021)


The confidence and energy this book exudes is amazing. The rhyming is great, and the word choices will make you laugh. And at the end of each scene comes a matter-of-fact reminder not to hug Doug, plus a chance for Doug to reiterate, offer alternatives, and move the story forward in a new way. The illustration of Doug with the megaphone, shouting, “Who here likes hugs?” and giving everyone on the next page (and listening to the story) a chance to answer is a powerful, joyous moment of self-positivity.

Posted in Conference Report

Highlights & Thoughts from the 2016 SCBWI Golden Gate Conference at Asilomar

Posted on by beckylevine

I’ve been watching this conference for a decade. I have heard wonderful things about it, but–since it’s not cheap (well, staying at Asilomar isn’t cheap; the conference itself is more than reasonably priced), I felt like I needed to have some work to show before I went. So this year is it. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend. And, although so many things are still circling around in my head, in no particular order yet, I wanted to get a few randomy thoughts done before I forget them.

  • I wasn’t sure what I needed this weekend to be. Turns out I needed it to be about rejuvenation, recharging, and–most of all–recommitment. And it was. Obviously, I need to sustain this feeling and act on it, but I came away feeling that, yes, my writing is going to land at the top of my priorities list once again. Everybody I met and listened to contributed a lot to this feeling, but Deborah Underwood‘s talk about getting rid of obstacles to our creativity really hit a home run for me.
  • You think you’re ready, and you’re not always ready. That includes the state of your manuscripts, your receptivity to hearing critiques about them, and your understanding of what they need to improve. But if you smile and breathe and give things a few hours to sink in, they usually do, and you find yourself thinking the critiquer much more sincerely later in the day, because you now do have some next steps to follow. AND you can see why they’re necessary and important.
  • Clare Vanderpool is not only a wonderful writer and a speaker with a lot of important things to say, she is very possibly the funniest person on the planet. If you are a conference organizer, invite her. If you have a chance to attend a conference where she’s on faculty, go. And be ready to nod and nod and then LAUGH AND LAUGH.
  • I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to a conference where tears were shed during so many talks. It may have been the theme: Live Your Story, but people shared so openly and honestly, the keynotes and workshops stopped being just about my work and your work and became about our work and our worlds and our lives.
  •  Rhyming picture books DO get me. Who knew? Go get Deborah Underwood’s  and Meg Hunt‘s Interstellar Cinderella and Corey Rosen Schwartz‘ and Rebecca J. Gomez‘ and Keika Yamaguchi‘s What about Moose?, and you’ll see what I mean.
  • We had power outages that faculty laughed and spoke through, even though, literally, the power was going off, on, off, on, off, on, like a badly out of sync strobe light, and must have been driving them crazy.
  • I remembered that calendars have power. Every weekend, I will be calendaring my weekday writing into its after-work time slots. And I will be printing a monthly calendar to check off all the days during which I put in writing time. I have promised myself I get to go back to Asilomar in 2017, IF I DO THE WORK. Guess what? I’M GOING TO DO THE WORK.
  • The deer at Asilomar barely look up when you walk near them. Okay, they look up, but they keep chewing away and just let you ooh and ah at them. Because we are no threat. Now we all just need to work on expanding that safety and peace beyond our relationship with deer and beyond the gates of Asilomar.
  • There was a quilting conference going at the same time as ours. I never did get a chance to sneak past their classrooms and see all their work, but I chatted with some while we were in line for meals, including the cousin on one of my absolutely favorite picture book authors. Yes, I asked her to tell her cousin how much I loved her book. Random and special.
  • I have some work to do with my art notes. Or maybe I should say without my art notes.
  • Some of us had to take off after the last sessions, but some of us lingered, joining each other for one last long talk around the lunch table in the dining room. As the last of us pushed away our chairs and started to head toward our cards, one of us said that it felt like leaving summer camp–making sure you gave and got hugs, exchanged emails, shared good and powerful wishes for the next year. I understood what she met, but it felt different for me. I never wanted to go back to summer camp. I DO want to go back to Asilomar.

And I will.