This BookWyrm is Back

My daughter took this photo for me, Aug. 2015

Hello there.  Again.

It's been awhile.

In fact, it's been almost two years since I last shared a post here.  I wish I had a good excuse for disappearing from this blog, but I really don't have one.  When I posted my previous entry, an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland, at the beginning of November in 2013, I was not planning for it to be my last one.  In fact, I had already started writing up several entries to post later in the month.  But then I got busy with life and put this blog on hold.

Not surprisingly, the longer I went without posting anything new, the easier it was for me to continue doing nothing with Blue Sky, Big Dreams and the harder it became for me to break out of that "do-nothing" mode. And I didn't have that problem only with this blog. The same thing happened with my other writing; I've done very little of it over the past two years.

I've missed writing, though.  I've missed working on my stories and my poetry.  I've also missed this blog and the opportunity it gives me to share poems, quotes, words, and books with all of you every day. That's why I'm back! :)

I finally managed to break free from my writing inertia this week and have several posts already lined up for you this month.  I am determined to keep at it.  And I'm hoping that writing here will help launch me back into writing my poems and stories again.  Wish me luck!

It's true that there's been a dearth of writing in my life over the last two years, but time has not stood still and a lot of other things have happened along the way. My kiddos have continued to grow, for one thing. (Imagine that!)

My daughter Emmalie graduated from high school last year and went away to college in the fall. (I'm pretty sure that transition was much harder on me than it was on her!) We've all loved having her back this summer -- I can't believe that it's almost time for her to return to school again.

My son Nick will be a junior in high school this year.  It is unfathomable to me that he'll be headed to college in just two short years.  He started his first paying job this summer, doing an internship with a local forest preserve.  In addition to that, he's been volunteering weekly at another forest preserve and also Brookfield Zoo.  He's been one busy boy!

My youngest, Ben, will be ten next month.  He starts a new school this year and I'm hoping he will love it!  When I last worked on this blog, I was still reading to Ben every night before bed.  He's since become a voracious reader himself (my little BookWyrm!), constantly working his way through big stacks of books all on his own.

As for me, I've still been reading a lot. (Thank goodness that hasn't changed!) I recently joined the Goodreads website and have been busy recording all the books I've read this year, over 60 so far. (They've mostly been adult fiction, but I've also read my fair share of middle-grade and young adult fiction, as well. I will be sharing those books with you in the weeks to come.)

For most of the time that I've been "missing in action", I've had some problems with my right shoulder and biceps.  Last month I had surgery on both.  (And, yes, I'm right-handed. That certainly *has* been a factor when it comes to my lack of writing.)  Now I'm busy with physical therapy and trying to get my arm/shoulder back to normal.  I still have a long way to go, but at least now I can type with both hands again and also use my right hand to write with a pen or a pencil. (Believe me, that's a big deal!)

For those of you who are new to this blog, welcome! (To learn more about Blue Sky, Big Dreams and my philosophy behind it, please check out this post and this one.)

And for those of you who have been here before, welcome back.  I appreciate all of your past support and am so glad that you are willing to come back now that I'm giving this blog another try.

Happy Reading, one and all! :)

P.S. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I would LOVE to hear your comments on this or any other post!  This blog is even more fun for me when I can have a two-way conversation with my readers. :) So please, don't hesitate to write comments -- whether you agree with something I've written or not. I will be happy to hear from you!

"Blue..." is Two! Birthday Contest

Image courtesy of Clker.com

I can't believe that it's June already -- is this year flying by or what?  Around our house, June means birthday time!  Not only is it my birthday later this month, it is also my husband's, my mother-in-law's, and my brother-in-law's.  It is also the birthday of Blue Sky, Big Dreams!  I launched this blog almost two years ago, on June 17, 2011.  Yes, it's true; "Blue..." is two.

Since that first day, I've shared 657 posts (including this one!) with you, my fellow BookWyrms.  This blog now gets around 3000 hits per month, more than triple the amount from a year ago!  (In a post from last year's birthday celebration, I wrote that I could only dream about having 1500 visitors to the blog in a single month.  See... dreams really do come true!)

I still don't get very many comments here or on my Blue Sky, Big Dreams Blog Facebook page the way I would like to -- if you don't count all the spam, that is!  (That's what I get for allowing anonymous comments, I guess, but I still stand by that decision.)  I'm not really sure how to increase the number of real (not spam) comments, but please know that I always LOVE to hear from my readers.  Feel free to comment any time!

Last year's Birthday Contest was a big success and a lot of fun!  I want to celebrate this blog's second birthday with some more fun and another contest.  How about you? :)

Throughout the month of June, I will be collecting the names of my blog readers and putting them in this bowl:

Like last year, some of your names are already there!*

Every Friday I will draw one name from the bowl.  The lucky winner each week will receive a $10 e-gift card from Barnes & Noble (which can be used online or at an actual store). Then, on the 30th, I will draw one last name.  (Edited on June 27th: When I originally posted this, I had no idea that our family will be going out of town on the 29th.  I will not have internet access for a week, so have decided to change to final drawing to July 8th, when I'll be back home.)  The "Blue..." is Two! Birthday Contest winner will also receive an e-gift card.  In addition, he or she will receive one of my favorite books -- perfect for BookWyrms like us -- BookSpeak!: Poems About Books, written by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Josee Bisaillon.

(To learn more about this wonderful book, 

please see what I wrote about it in this post.)

You may be wondering: How do I get my name in that bowl?  It's really not too hard to enter this contest.  I will write your name on a piece of paper and drop it in the bowl whenever you do any of the following:

1. Become an "official" follower of this blog
2. "Like" the Blue Sky, Big Dreams Facebook page
3. Post a comment on the blog (Please see my note about comments here.)  If you don't have a blog of your own, Blogger will let you post anonymously -- just be sure to sign your name at the end of your comment so that I'll know who to make an entry for!
4. "Like" a post on my blog's Facebook page
5. Post a comment on my blog's Facebook page (Please follow the same courtesies in the note mentioned above.)
6. Share a link to this blog or the blog's FB page on your own blog or on Facebook, encouraging others to check it out (Be sure to let me know you've shared it, so I can write your name down.)
7. Share any of the links to this blog that I post on the FB page (Again, please let me know you've done so.)  I often share links to other blogs or book-related pictures that I like.  Please feel free to share those, also, but doing so will not earn you an extra entry.
8. Also, if any of your friends/blog readers check out this blog or its FB page, and lets me know that you referred him/her to the site, I will enter both of your names twice.

*Those who are currently followers of this blog already have three entries each in my vase.  The same goes for those who have already liked my FB page.  I appreciate your support over the past two years VERY much! 

Thank you all for visiting Blue Sky, Big Dreams and helping me celebrate its second birthday! :)

A Big Blue Birthday (and Contest!)

Image courtesy of ClipartPal.com

In case you didn't know, there's a special birthday coming up!  Those of you who know me personally may be thinking: Oh, that's right -- Janelle has a June birthday.  That is true.  My husband has a June birthday, as well, and so does my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law.  But those aren't the birthdays I'm thinking of today.  No, I'm thinking of this blog's birthday!  I launched Blue Sky, Big Dreams almost one whole year ago, on June 17, 2011.

"We turn not older with years, 

but newer every day."

~ Emily Dickinson

When I first came up with the idea for this blog, I knew that I wanted to share poems, books, quotes, words -- as well as my own writing -- with kids, parents, teachers, librarians, writers, and other BookWyrms all over the world.  I imagined lots of written conversations, back and forth with my readers, about the things I'd shared.  I'd never had a blog like this before (just one with family pictures, for my friends and other family members to check in on once in awhile), so I really didn't know what to expect.  A few months later, in an attempt to reach more people, I added a Blue Sky, Big Dreams Facebook page.

As of today, I've shared 370 posts here -- that's even more than one post per day! I've posted most of them on Facebook, as well.  I've shared lots of poems, books, quotes, and words, plus some of my own writing (though not as much as I'd hoped).  So far, there have only been 100 comments here on the blog (and at least half of those are from me, responding to someone else's comment, LOL).  There have only been a handful of comments and "likes" on the Facebook page.

I try not to get discouraged by that.  I know that people are busy and often don't have time to read many blogs, let alone comment on them. (I would really love to get more feedback, though!) The statistics that I receive from Blogger show me that people are coming to my blog, and from all over the world, too.  In fact, in May, I had more visitors here than in any other month so far, passing my former record by 200+ hits.  I still don't have a very big following, however.  A friend of mine who began a new blog not long ago (but with a very different theme from mine) mentioned recently that she'd had over 1500 visitors in one month -- I can only dream of that kind of traffic right now!

I thought about my blog long and hard, wondering, Is it worth the work?  Finally, I decided that, yes, it is.  And that even if my blog only had one reader (myself), I would still keep doing it because it makes me happy. :)  Thankfully, I do have more than one reader.  And I hope that my blog makes all of you out there happy, too!

I tried to come up with ideas to (hopefully) increase readership -- and comments, too.  As part of that, and to celebrate Blue Sky, Big Dreams' one year anniversary, I've decided to hold a Big Blue Birthday Contest! :) Throughout the month of June, I will be collecting the names of my blog readers and putting them in this vase. (Some of your names are already there!*):

Every Friday I will draw one name from the vase and then send the winner a small token of my appreciation.  Then, on the 30th, I will draw one last name.  This lucky winner will chose three books from the list below, and I will send the books (in paperback form) as a thank you for supporting my blog.  All of these books have been featured on Blue Sky, Big Dreams over the past year; just click on the links to see a short review.  I have tried to include books (mostly fiction, but some nonfiction as well) from the various reader levels, ones that will appeal to both male and female readers.  (I realize that, at least so far, most of the people who read my blog are adults.  Hopefully I've picked books for this list that will interest you or a child in your life.)

Picture Books:
Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Swimmy by Leo Leonni
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
About Birds: A Guide for Children by Cathryn Sill

Early Readers:
Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward
Give Yourself to the Rain by Margaret Wise Brown
Bats by J. Angelique Johnson

Middle Grade Readers:
Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher

Young Adult Readers:
The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Pen Commandments by Steven Frank
Seeing the Blue Between by Paul B. Janeczko

You may be wondering: How can I get my name in that vase?  Well, it will require a little bit of work on your part, but hopefully it will seem more like fun than work!  I will write your name on a piece of paper and put it into my vase whenever you do any of the following:

1. Become an "official" follower of this blog
2. "Like" the Blue Sky, Big Dreams Facebook page
3. Post a comment on the blog (Please see my note about comments here.)  If you don't have a blog of your own, Blogger will let you post anonymously -- just be sure to sign your name at the end of your comment so that I'll know who to make an entry for!
4. "Like" a post on my blog's Facebook page
5. Post a comment on my blog's Facebook page (Please follow the same courtesies in the note mentioned above.)
6. Share a link to this blog or the blog's FB page on your own blog or on Facebook, encouraging others to check it out (Be sure to let me know you've shared it, so I can write your name down.)
7. Share any of the links I post on the FB page (Again, please let me know you've done so.)
8. Also, if any of your friends/blog readers check out this blog or its FB page, and lets me know that you referred him/her to the site, I will enter both of your names twice.

*Those who are currently followers of this blog already have three entries each in my vase.  The same goes for those who have already liked my FB page.  I appreciate your support over the past year VERY much!  I have also gone through all of the comments and "likes" from the past year and written out entries for each one.

The Big Blue Birthday Contest is only the beginning.  I plan to include much more of my own writing from now on, plus I have some other ideas for this blog that I'll be telling you about later in the month -- stay tuned!  Thank you for visiting Blue Sky, Big Dreams and helping me celebrate its one year birthday! :)

Are you on Facebook?

In September, I created a Blue Sky, Big Dreams Blog Facebook page, where I share links to my (almost) daily posts here.  At the time, I let all my Facebook friends know about it.  Until recently, however, I never thought to post the link here, for any fellow BookWyrms out there who I don't know personally.  If you would like to be reminded about new Blue Sky, Big Dreams posts on Facebook, please click on the link above and then "like" my page!  And feel free to share the link with anyone you think might be interested. :)  Thank you!

A few notes about this blog...

Before I write anything else on this blog, I want to make a few things clear. This blog, and the things I write, are for everyone. Yes, I said "everyone". Now, I certainly understand that not EVERYONE will be interested in a blog like this. That's okay. But I want to make sure that anyone who stops by to read Blue Sky, Big Dreams feels welcome.


Whatever your

• age
• gender
• skin color
• sexual orientation
• family background
• nationality
• beliefs
• shoe size
• (fill in the blank with whatever kind of distinction you want to make ~ my son Nick, the animal lover, says "species")

you are welcome here.

Also... I am hoping that this will become an interactive blog. Not only do I hope you will read the things I post, I hope you will write comments about them, and we can have a conversation back and forth, all of us together.

At the same time, I want to make this blog a safe place to visit. My settings allow for anonymous comments because I know that many kids and their parents wish to preserve their privacy.


In addition, whenever you make a comment on one of my posts, it won't appear on the site until I have approved it first. You are welcome to disagree with me when I post something. I am not screening comments so that I can weed out any that don't shed a positive light on me and my writing. But, because this site is for kids:

• I will not approve comments with PG-13 (or above) language in them.
• And I will not approve comments that are not respectful of others. There will be NO bullying on this site.

We can all hold different views about various subjects and still accept each other as people of worth. Please treat others the way that you would like to be treated, and I promise to do the same.

Hello there.

Welcome to my blog! My name is Janelle and I am excited to share this little spot on the world wide web with you! I'm hoping to create an interesting, lively site for kids and their parents, especially those who love books, having fun, and dreaming big.


For many years now, one of my big dreams has been to write for kids. I've written stories, poems, articles, and more ~ a few have even been published in magazines. Recently, I realized that a blog like this would be another way for me to write for... and to... kids.


Now, if you've looked at my profile picture over there on the right-hand side of this page, you can tell that I am NOT a kid. I'm a grown-up. (I do like to believe that I am young at heart, however.)


You may be wondering: Janelle, what could you possibly know about kids? Are you an expert on kids, or what? Well, let me tell you a little about my experience with kids, and I'll let you decide whether I could be called an expert or not.


First of all, I am a mom. I have a daughter named Emmalie (15) and two sons, Nick (12), and Benjamin (5-1/2... You know I have to add that half a year ~ it's a big deal to him!). I am home with them full-time, and it's a rare day when they don't teach me something or other about kids.

Me and my kiddos, 2010

Before I had kids of my own, I worked with children and teens for six years. I was a counselor. I helped kids who had been through some very tough times. I taught them things like how to cope with problems they were having and how to express their feelings in appropriate ways. In the process of teaching them, I learned many, many things from those kids. Especially patience.

Before that, I took several classes about kids, in high school and in college, classes like "Growth & Development of a Young Child" and "Child Psychology". As part of my social work courses in college, I spent about 4 months observing and learning at a child psychiatry hospital. I volunteered at a women's shelter where I was in charge of coming up with fun activities for the kids living there. I also worked at a day care center for several months, and did a lot of babysitting, too.

And before that... many, many years ago now... I was a kid myself. Yep, it's true! I really was. :) Back then, I spent my days reading, writing, climbing trees, riding my bicycle, teasing my little sister, and playing with my friends.

Me and my bike in 1975 (I hated my short hair!)

Yes, I am a grown up. But I do know at least a little bit about kids, and I hope you will enjoy the writing I plan to share with you here. Most of it should be a lot more interesting than all this background information. I promise. Once I get all the necessary explanations out of the way, we'll get to the fun stuff! :)