Home Sweet Home READING for the Holidays!

Holy WOW, what a year! Today I have a moment to breathe and blog some highlights from the busy year I've had. And even with all of the conferences, school visits, and grandma time promoting READING, I've made sure that I made lots of time for reading myself.

Hear ye, hear ye! This year Bear Track Press went out on a huge limb to put 10,000 totally free PASSPORTS TO READING ADVENTURE booklets and free printable ebooks into the hands of Michigan kids for the 2016-17 school year when a school books a visit. For a small business, we're kinda proud of this gigantic accomplishment! We felt it was high time to celebrate literacy and promote the outdoors for Michigan kids after reading this statement from the Michigan State Fair's event coordinator:

"In little more than a decade, Michigan has gone from being a fairly average state for student achievement to the bottom 10 in key school quality indicators such as fourth-grade reading. Michigan is suffering systemic failure across racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups in early reading and middle-school math, according to a new report just released by the The Education-Trust Midwest..."
The Detroit News, May 31, 2016

The Michigan State Fair promotes literacy and
READING OUTDOORS!

Fifth Third Bank and the Michigan State Fair get funky fun
Little Free Libraries into the Detroit area! Find a library and fill it with books!

I LOVE my state and LOVE visiting kids to inspire them to get outside to read, write, and draw! 
From the tip of the U.P. to the cuff of the mitt, help spread the word, book an author visit and 
get my free Passport to Reading Adventure into young hands.

Our new super cool, Bear Track Press Passport to Reading Adventure booklet!
Every child gets one FREE when I visit their school. This passport gets kids to explore their 
Michigan home and download a free SUPER, SECRET HOLLY WILD Book!

Choose your own Holly Adventure! The FREE online book can be downloaded
onto tablets or PC or printed as a real book with cool writing and drawing activities!

2016 SUMMER READING FUN and AUTUMNAL ADVENTURES!

Gaylord's Oscoda Library uses my "The Young GeEK's Guide to Getting Outside" picture book
for their first STORY WALK event! Literacy + action + outdoors = Healthy Kids!

Summer grand-tween roughing it and reading in the Lumbermans's Monument National Forest!
Michigan state, national parks, and Huron-Manistee National Forests promote reading
and carry our books in their gift stores. 

Teachers getting creative making poetry books at Michigan Reading Association 's
super fun Summer Lit Conference at Shanty Creek Resrot in Belaire, MI. 
Art + poetry = FUN! Watch for their creativity in a classroom near you!

A family fall fungal hunt of exploration gives exciting stuff to write and draw about--a super 
way to get kids reading. FYI this four year-old grandtot of mine is reading books now!

Rooftop Reindeer Farm in Clare, MI promotes literacy while they thrill kids with
reindeer, Santa visits, hayrides, and an awesome gingerbread treehouse!

Happy READING Holidays to all of you!
Grab a book, a blanket, warm drink--and READ!

The year has taken me to rural librarian and rural school conferences, literacy happenings, schools, libraries and more! Now I'm ready to kick back and READ, WRITE, and DRAW until 2017!

Happy holidays and a warm BEAR TRACK hug from all of us to all of you! Thank you for your immense support and making our year great! Now, back to my books! :)

A Questpedition for a Literary Author/Illustrator-in-Residence

Quester on a questpedition.

How does one bottle the vast and varied experiences of an artist-in-residence? My mind keeps going back to the early autumn days on the shores of Martin Lake. Lichen-covered hill, spicy sweet fern, and jack pine breezes. Eagles and large-mouth bass! Aurora borealis and wolf howl in the early morning. Just a few things that will keep my spirit charged through the months ahead.

Looking high and low. Lichen beauties.

I began my U.P. questpedition at the end of July while I was in Marquette exhibiting my books at the Outback Art Fair. There I met Dr. Nancy Seminoff of the Literacy Legacy Fund Michigan (LLF of MI) www.literacylegacyfund.org. An educator and past dean at Northern Michigan University, Dr. Nancy and I discussed creative ways to promote literacy in Michigan. Since I had been artist-in-residence for both state and national parks in Michigan, we both decided to launch a new endeavor, an author/artist-in-residence in the Upper Peninsula. In fact, Dr. Nancy dubbed my stay, my A.I.R. as the Questpedition for Story, based on the title of my latest Holly Wild book and book that was donated to the libraries and kids of K.I. Sawyer.

The quester--hero--must find
the magic potion or cure, to
bring back to the people.

I would stay two weeks at Dr. Nancy's cottage outside of Marquette to create art and poetry for a new book project of mine on wolves. I would in trade for the stay present a program for children in K.I. Sawyer, speak with teachers at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, and fit in a book signing event at Falling Rocks Cafe & Bookstore in Munising. In addition to all of that, I will create a collaged, handmade book for LLF of MI to use as for fundraising at a later date. Whew! That's good, because I am BOOKED (heheh) right now, illustrating for a few clients.

K.I. Sawyer Community Center fun.

So with kayak, guitar, laptop, art supplies, and BOOKS in tow, the Big Blue Bear Track Bookmobile van and I made the trek--questpedition--north. Off to write, draw, and read. Silence. Solitude. Scenery. Yes, all that, but also a blend of meeting and talking with amazing kids, teens, tweens, librarians, counter help, musicians, food service people, teachers, bookstore owners, museum volunteers, and not just listening to, but truly hearing their stories, packing them away into my mind.

Showing the kids "the BIG picture"
of artist-in-residences past.

It is said, and I find it true, that during the creative process one needs to get up and get away and allow images and words to incubate. So I incubated often by bass fishing and kayaking. Taking drives into Marquette (pronounced by U.P. born folk as "market") to the Children's Museum, a quick side-trip to see Grand Island off Sand Point on Lake Superior, and a visit to the Laughing Whitefish Falls--a truly spectacular sight. Then it was back to "studio" time.

The words and art came at first were planned. But they were too predictable. Then the more I got out and away, images and words seemed to fall into place. The land spoke to me. The wind, ever constant (the cottage is named "Breezy Point"). Then somewhere between the flashing red darter dragonflies and sun-bathing painted turtles, I heard my voice. My voice filled the pages of my newly purchased and redesigned sketchbook. This would be a different book, an art book, a book for teens, adults. A story, a meditation--on life--through the eyes of a wolf and young girl. A kind of writing I had not done in a long, long time. It was exciting. The words and art became fresh and I was excited how they fell onto the pages.

How does one bottle the experiences of an artist-in-residence questpedition? They engage all of their senses and record in word and picture--then share it. A sketchbook becomes the magic, elixir, potion that heals and inspires. This treasure that the quester finds and brings back to the village, cures the people and themselves in the act of sharing the gift. So I share my bit of U.P. autumn A.I.R.with you.

Grand Island view from Sand Point.

Laughing Whitefish Falls. Can you hear the whitefish? 

Morning Rainbow from the deck!

Dinner awaits.

Evening autumnal meal overlooking Martin Lake.

Falling Rock Cafe & Books is an amazing place to spend the day! 

The collaged cover of my sketchbook "dummy".
Ephemera from my surroundings, poetry, drawings.

Tracks at the top of Laughing Whitefish Falls

Then two weeks later, in the wee hours of the morning, the day I was to leave my A.I.R., I heard the low, moaning, mournful cry of a wolf outside the cottage window.

The crowning experience, the seal of a mission accomplished. Oh, to bottle the rainbow colors, the flashing aurora, the crunch of dry lichen, the splash of bass leaping among lily pad, the whoosh of wings from the bald eagle overhead, the plop of turtles sliding off the abandoned beaver lodge at my approach. 

But that sound, that wolf song. Ah, to bottle that wildness of spirit. This--this is what I must try to capture not only in my art book but the art book to be donated to the LLF. A gathering of elements to inspire writing and literacy in Michigan. My work has begun, my questpedition is complete.

Last paddle on the lake in front of the cottage.

Sketch of Place. Field notes of my visit.

"My LLF of Michigan artist-in-residency was different than the others I've participated in, as the two weeks spent was a balance of public events where I listened and shared stories with people and the peaceful solitude of nature. During this time, I was pleased to complete a story "dummy", poetry, art, design, and layout for my graphic novel all of which was totally inspired by my A.I.R. stay." Lori Taylor