Mail Time

I received two very nice letters from authors who were 'googling' themselves and found our little website. I received permission from both of them to post them to the blog, so here they are!

Hi Cindy,

Thank you so much for posting a review of Shampoodle and Knuckleheads on Kiss the Book! This is a wonderful blog and the archives and rating system make it an excellent resource for libraries and schools. And you've been blogging books since 2003! That has to make you one of the earliest book bloggers around--or one of the earliest bloggers period. Very cool. I mentioned your site to my friend who teaches 2nd grade in San Francisco, and it turns out she's already a fan. I'm glad I found you, too. Kiss the Book is actually a good resource for authors who're researching book content as well. (From Cindy - I did tell Joan that while we have been posting reviews on the internet since 2003, this particular blog has only been going since 2006)

Greetings!

My name is Pat Bauer and I'm the author of B is for Battle Cry: A Civil War Alphabet. My husband, Dave Geister, is the illustrator. We want to thank you for your positive review of our book on your blog. It was truly a labor of love for us, both because we're passionate about the topic and because we love to work together. I am a middle school history teacher in my "real" life . . . and I also give many workshops on using picture books to teach about American history.

I wanted to let you know that if you go to Dave's website (davidgeister.com) you can listen to and/or download the music for the book. Several friends and I recorded "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Hard Crackers Come Again No More" and I also sing the poems in the book. I wish that this information had been in the book, but it didn't work out that way. We always include bookmarks that give this information when we do book signings. Sleeping Bear Press also has a teacher's guide (website is on the back of the book) that mentions the music. Dave and I often do performances of the book with a different set of friends who play 19th century music, and we all wear our Civil War-era costumes. We hope to get a recording of that on youtube in the near future.

Again, thank you so much for the review!

Pat