Milestones
Here are some events and highlights from my professional career:
March 2023
My poem “Wee Friends” was published in Ladybug.
November 2022
My poem “Dark Night” was published in Touchdown, one of the magazines that make up the Australian publication The School Magazine.
October 2022
Super Teacher Worksheets purchased five more of my poems and stories to post on their website as classroom materials that can be printed and used with students in schools around the country.
September 2022
My poem “Scooper-Upper,” a poem about a pelican hunting for supper, was published in Spider.
August 2022
My poem “Nancy’s Fancy Dancing Ants” was published in Blast Off, one of the magazines that make up the Australian publication The School Magazine.
May 2022
My poem “Honey Bear,” a poem about a bear enjoying a delicious snack, was published in Highlights High Five.
April 2022
My poem “Springing” was published in Ladybug, just in time for spring.
March 2022
My poem “If an Elephant Were Yellow,” a funny poem about an elephant falling into a bucket of paint, was published in Fun For Kidz.
March 2022
This marked my 10th year as a member of Poets’ Garage, an online critique group for writers of children’s poetry.
February 2022
My poem “A Nosy Hippopotamus” was published in Spider.
November 2021
I had three poems published in Australian children’s magazines this month. “Cinderella a Cappella” was published in Orbit, “Nervous Circus”was published in Touchdown, and “Fireworks” was published in Blast Off. These magazines are part of The School Magazine, a literary publication for children featuring work from writers around the world.
November 2021
My poem “A Pledge,” which was originally published in The School Magazine earlier this year, was published in the literary journal Better Than Starbucks.
October 2021
My poem “Cavemanners” was reprinted in Spider. The poem was originally published in the November/December 2015 issue and was my first work published by Cricket Media.
October 2021
My poem “Pumpkins” was published in Highlights High Five, just in time for Halloween.
September 2021
My feature “10 Smart Facts About Owls” was published in Fun For Kidz. This was my 50th double-spread color cartoon in the “10 Facts” series, featuring a different theme in each issue.
August 2021
My poem “Night Lights,” a poem about lighting bugs, was published in Highlights Hello, a board book magazine for babies by the publishers of Highlights For Children.
July 2021
My poem “Bee Yourself,” which I wrote and illustrated, was published in Fun For Kidz.
June 2021
I had two poems published in Australian children’s magazines this summer. “Amazing Pete’s Amazing Feet” was published in Blast Off, and “A Pledge”was published in Countdown. These magazines are part of The School Magazine, a literary publication for children featuring work from writers around the world.
May 2021
My rhyming story “Billy McBeal and the Best Part of Art” was published in Spider.
May 2021
Two of my poems, “Cats Across the Internet” and “Family Reunion,” were published in the literary journal Better Than Starbucks.
April 2021
My short story/tall tale “Breakfast In Fastbreak” was published in Spider.
April 2021
My poem “Rain Music” was published in Babybug.
March 2021
My poem “When Midas Met Medusa” was included in The Best Ever Book of Funny Poems, a children’s poetry anthology edited by Brian Moses, published in the United Kingdom.
March 2021
My poem “A Mole In a Hole” was published in Ladybug.
March 2021
My poem “Dragon Wagon” was published in Highlights High Five, a magazine for children ages 2-6 by the publishers of Highlights For Children. Although I’ve been published in Highlights For Children before, this was my first time being published in Highlights High Five.
February 2021
My poem “Hang Time,” a simple poem about sloths, was published in Babybug.
February 2021
My poem “The War of the Noses” was published in Spider.
November 2020
My poem “Family Tree” was published in Ladybug.
October 2020
My poem “What Noses Know” was published in the Australian children’s literary magazine Countdown (part of The School Magazine, which is the world’s longest-running literary publication for children). They also created a video of the poem for YouTube.
July 2020
My poem “A Vampire’s Dilemma” was published in the Australian children’s literary magazine Touchdown (part of The School Magazine, which is the world’s longest-running literary publication for children). They also created a video of the poem for YouTube. This was my first time being published in Australia.
April 2020
Super Teacher Worksheets purchased six more of my poems and stories to post on their website as classroom materials that can be printed and used with students in schools around the country.
April 2020
My poem “Brother For Sale” was the first of several of my poems to be published on GiggleVerse, a website developed by Kenn Nesbitt, featuring “the funniest kids’ poems in the universe.” The website is meant to encourage children to read by providing them with new funny poems from writers all over the world, every weekday, on the website and by email.
March 2020
My poem “Middle March” was published in Highlights For Children.
February 2020
My poem “Annie, Get Your Gum,” which originally appeared in Spider, won the 2019 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for poetry.
January 2020
My short story “The Bigwigs’ Bad Hair Day” was published in Highlights For Children. The Bigwigs think they’re the most important people in the world because of their outrageous beehive hairdos, but the only attention they seem to attract is the attention of bees. Which is not a good thing, as the Bigwigs soon find out.
December 2019
My poem “Pets Rock!” was posted on Reading Unlocked, a British educational website that helps young readers and people with dyslexia learn to read.
November 2019
My Hanukkah poem “Festival of Lights” was published in Ladybug.
Spring 2019
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), which is one of the United Kingdom’s oldest acting organizations, published my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” in their Anthology of Verse and Prose (Volume 19). The collection includes “carefully chosen verse and prose pieces from a wide variety of international authors,” providing students with different characters and worlds to explore while studying for their examinations and practicing their communication skills.
May 2019
Oxford University Press-India renewed its rights to reprint my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” so it can include the poem in their educational publication New Pathways Literature Reader 4.
April 2019
My poem “Dirty Work” was published in the SCBWI Bulletin, the official newsletter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
April 2019
My poem “Earthworms” was published in Babybug. This was my first time being published in a magazine specifically for babies.
Fall 2018
The Children’s Literature Assembly of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) published my poem “Read a Book” in The Journal of Children’s Literature, a refereed journal devoted to teaching and scholarship in the field of children’s literature.
October 2018
Super Teacher Worksheets purchased three more of my short stories to post on their website as classroom materials that can be printed and used with students in schools around the country.
Summer 2018
This summer my work was published in five national children’s magazines. I had poems in Highlights For Children, Spider, Pockets, and Humpty Dumpty, and two cartoon features and a puzzle were in Fun For Kidz. Although I’d been published in each of these magazines before, this is the first time I had work in all of them simultaneously.
May 2018
I redesigned my website. Web7 Marketing helped me create a new responsive WordPress version containing samples of my art and writing, events and highlights from my professional career, places where my work has been published, links to some of my work online, ways to set up school visits and birthday parties, and much more.
March 2018
I won first place in the Saturday Evening Post “Limerick Laughs” contest for the 5th time. This was for the contest that appeared in the November/December 2017 issue.
January 2018
My poem “Smells Like Chicken Noodle” was published in Spider.
October 2017
My poem “Saturn’s Rings” was published in Spider.
July 2017
My feature “10 Weird and Wacky Facts About Weather” was published in Fun For Kidz. This was my 25th double-spread color cartoon in the “10 Facts” series, featuring a different theme in each issue.
April 2017
My poem “Brother For Sale” was published in Spider.
February 2017
Super Teacher Worksheets purchased three of my short stories to post on their website as classroom materials that can be printed and used with students in schools around the country.
February 2017
My short story “Where’s My Shadow?” was published in Highlights For Children.
December 2016
I was featured in an interview by Charlie Barshaw on the Mitten blog, the blog of SCBWI-MI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator in Michigan).
November 2016
My poem “Moon Mice” was published in the book One Minute Till Bedtime: 60-Second Poems To Send You Off to Sleep, edited by Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt (Little, Brown). The book is described as “a blockbuster collection of all-new poetry penned by some of the most beloved and celebrated poets of our time.”
October 2016
Two of my Halloween poems were published this month: “Owl-oween” in Highlights For Children and “Won’t You Be My Frankenstein?” in Spider.
October 2016
Highlights posted my short story “No Ordinary Frog” on their HighlightsKids website. The story was originally published in Highlights For Children in October 2010.
September 2016
Debbie Diesen, a New York Times bestselling children’s author, featured me on her personal blog Jumping the Candlestick.
July 2016
Oxford University Press-India purchased the right to reproduce my poem “The Pizza Beast” in its Oxford Ink Literature Reader 4. This poem originally appeared on the Super Teacher Worksheets website.
March 2016
My poem “Warm Welcome” was published in Highlights For Children.
Spring 2016
My poem “Cavemanners,” which originally appeared in Spider, won the 2016 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for poetry, and my short story “Messy Messages,” which originally appeared in Highlights For Children, won the 2016 SCBWI Magazine Honor Award for fiction.
December 2015
Cricket Media chose my poem “Cavemanners” to be an Editor’s Pick as one of the Best Stories of 2015 from their family of literary magazines.
November 2015
My poem “Cavemanners” was published in Spider. This was my first publication in one of the Cricket Media magazines.
November 2015
Highlights For Children published my short story “Messy Messages.”
October 2015
Two of my drawing features were reprinted in a special cartooning themed issue of Boys’ Quest.
October 2015
Oxford University Press-India purchased reprint rights to my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” so they can include the poem in their educational publication New Pathways Learning Reader 4.
September 2015
Measured Progress, a nonprofit educational testing agency, purchased my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” for use in their Common Core Assessment standardized testing project.
September 2015
Fun For Kidz published my poem “My Little Porcupine.”
Fall 2015
My poem “Creepy Pizza” was resold to PizzaMan Dan’s, a small pizza company in Ventura, California, for use in some seasonal advertising.
April 2015
My poem “Retired Tires” was published in The Poetry Friday Anthology For Celebrations, a bilingual (English and Spanish) collection of poems about holidays and commemorative events, compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Pomelo Books). “Retired Tires” celebrates America Recycles Day (November 15).
March 2015
My poem “The Wait” was published in the SCBWI Bulletin, the official newsletter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Spring 2015
My poem “My Dinosaur, My Friend,” which originally appeared in Fun For Kidz, received a Letter of Merit as a runner-up in the 2015 SCBWI Magazine Merit Competition (and I also illustrated, but didn’t write, the winning poem in that category, “George Nissen, Boy Inventor,” by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, which originally appeared in Boys’ Quest).
Spring 2015
My short story “The True Meaning of Hannah Berger” was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 84th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, Children’s/Young Adult Fiction.
February 2015
My poem “Dinner With the Cannibals” was featured in Limerick Alley on Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’s blog Today’s Little Ditty.
February 2015
My poem “Creepy Pizza,” which was originally published in the book Dinner With Dracula, was posted on The Midnight Society website which specializes in young adult horror writing and books.
December 2014
My drawing feature “Creature Creations” was published in Hopscotch For Girls.
December 2014
Super Teacher Worksheets purchased eight of my poems to post on their website as classroom materials that can be printed and used with students in schools around the country.
September 2014
Fun For Kidz published my poem “I Finished My Homework.”
August 2014
Bluffton News commissioned me to do a regular feature for their magazines Boys’ Quest, Hopscotch For Girls, and Fun For Kidz. The double-spread color cartoon “10 Facts” would present ten interesting facts or ideas relating to each issue’s theme.
May 2014
Fun For Kidz published my poem “My Dinosaur, My Friend.”
March 2014
My satire “If History’s Greatest Speeches Were Delivered By George Dubya Bush” appeared on the Cracked blog. This feature was originally published in the print version of Cracked in November 2004.
Spring 2014
The Children’s Literature Assembly of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) published my poem “Poetic Politics” in The Journal of Children’s Literature, a refereed journal devoted to teaching and scholarship in the field of children’s literature.
Spring 2014
My comic Kiddie Litter reached its ten-year mark of being published by SCBWI-MI, the Michigan chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, in their newsletter and blog. Kiddie Litter is a single-panel comic that satirizes characters and situations related to children’s literature.
January 2014
Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt posted the first of four of my poems on his website Poetry Minute, which provides a new poem every day of the school year to help teachers share poetry with their students.
October 2013
My poem “The Last One Picked For Basketball” was published in Chicken Soup For the Soul: Think Positive For Kids, edited by Kevin Sorbo and Amy Newmark (Chicken Soup For the Soul Publishing). Proceeds from this book benefit the charity A World Fit For Kids! which helps needy children in Los Angeles learn to become heroes and mentors to each other.
October 2013
This marked my 25th year teaching cartooning workshops.
September 2013
I won first place in the Saturday Evening Post “Limerick Laughs” contest for the fourth time. This was for the contest that appeared in the May/June 2013 issue.
May 2013
Highlights posted my short story “The Mystery of the Magic Lunch Bag” on their HighlightsKids website. The story was originally published in Highlights For Children in March 2008.
May 2013
My poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” was published in the book Poems To Learn By Heart, edited by Caroline Kennedy (Disney/Hyperion).
April 2013
American Public Media posted two of my poems on their Marketplace website for National Poetry (and Tax) Month. The poems were part of their Taxing Poetic poetry contest. I came in second place.
March 2013
I was a runner-up in the Saturday Evening Post “Limerick Laughs” contest for the first of several times.
Spring 2013
My poem “I’d Rather Read a Book” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators.
December 2012
Two of my poems, “Headless Horseman” and “The Vampire’s New Clothes,” were published in the book Open Doors: Fractured Fairy Tales, edited by Elisabeth Hirsch (Wayman Publishing). The publisher donated profit from this anthology to Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah in the form of Christmas gifts for the long-term patients staying there.
September 2012
I wrote and illustrated the short story “Hare Family Reunion,” which appeared in Fun For Kidz.
August 2012
My humor article “Show, Don’t Tell” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators.
July 2012
I won first place in the Saturday Evening Post “Limerick Laughs” contest for the third time. This was for the contest that appeared in the March/April 2012 issue.
June 2012
Dark Eclipse, an e-magazine, published my poem “Follow Me.”
June 2012
My poem “It’s Summertime” was published in the Christian children’s magazine Pockets.
March 2012
My article “Classic Kids Camps: Getting Back In Touch With Nature” was posted on the Metro Parent website. This article was originally published in Metro Parent magazine in 2008 under the title “Keeping Camp Unplugged.”
March 2012
I joined Poets’ Garage, an online critique group for children’s poets.
March 2012
Highlights granted permission to Pearson to reprint two of my short stories: “The Farmer and the Fox” and “No Ordinary Frog.”
Winter 2012
My class enrollments for my cartooning workshops reached 100,000 students. This was based on students who signed up individually, not including kids who attended large, all-school presentations.
January 2012
I won first place in the Saturday Evening Post “Limerick Laughs” contest for the second time. This was for the contest that appeared in the September/October 2011 issue.
November 2011
The Saturday Evening Post published my poem “Not Quite Working Out” in the “Post Scripts” column of their magazine.
October 2011
Hopscotch For Girls published my poem “Freaky Feet.”
September 2011
I won first place in the Saturday Evening Post “Limerick Laughs” contest for the first time. This was for the contest that appeared in the May/June 2011 issue.
July 2011
Games magazine published my hidden picture puzzle “Lonely Lion.”
April 2011
My poem “The Bookworm” was published in Boys’ Quest.
April 2011
McGraw-Hill School Education Group purchased the right to reprint my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip.”
Spring 2011
My short story “Giving Up Sydney” was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 80th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Children’s/Young Adult Fiction category.
October 2010
My short story “No Ordinary Frog” was published in Highlights For Children. Chuck is a frog who steals flies from a spiderweb because he doesn’t like catching them himself. Eventually a surprising friendship develops between him and the spider Lady Eightlegs.
September 2010
Highlights granted permission to Peoples Education to reprint my short story “The Farmer and the Fox.”
June 2010
My poem “Recollections” was published in Boys’ Quest.
May 2010
My short story “Slam Dunk!” which was originally published in My Friend, was reprinted in the book Family Ties, a short story collection, edited by Diane M. Lynch (Pauline Books and Media).
April 2010
Pearson Education included my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” as part of their Writing Coach writing and grammar program, which includes a textbook for sixth-grade students around the country.
March 2010
Highlights granted permission to CTB/Mc-Graw Hill to reprint my short story “The Mystery of the Magic Lunch Bag.”
September 2009
My cartoon feature “How To Name Your Pet” was published in Fun For Kidz. This double-spread cartoon provides tips and advice on how to come up with an appropriate name for your dog, cat, or other kind of animal.
Summer 2009
This was my 25th year working at Camp Walden and editing the camp newspaper, the Walden Pond.
March 2009
Six of my poems were published in the paperback book What I Did On My Summer Vacation, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press).
March 2009
Highlights granted permission to CBT/McGraw-Hill to reprint my short story “The Farmer and the Fox.”
Spring 2009
My short story “The Mystery of the Magic Lunch Bag,” which originally appeared in Highlights For Children, received a Letter of Merit as a runner-up in the SCBWI Magazine Merit Competition.
Spring 2009
My short story, “Eggs For Mr. Raskin,” was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 78th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Children’s/Young Adult Fiction category.
Spring 2009
The popular magazine for writers of children’s literature Once Upon a Time published my cartoon “Raining Cats and Dogs.”
September 2008
US Kids published my short story “Pigtail and Duckweed” in Humpty Dumpty’s Magazine. This was my first publication in one of the US Kids magazines.
September 2008
My poem “The Right To Write” was published in the SCBWI Bulletin, the official newsletter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. This poem was originally published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter.
August 2008
Mad Kids commissioned me to write an assortment of short poems for their feature “Remy’s Rhyming Guide To Food,” a parody of the movie Ratatouille.
July 2008
Fun For Kidz published my poem “Bowling Blues.”
June 2008
My poem “The Kiddie Pool” was published in Mad Kids, a kids’ version of Mad magazine.
May 2008
My short story “The Silly Millers” was published in Fun For Kidz.
May 2008
Castle Rock Research requested permission to use my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” as part of their online materials designed for the curriculum of the Province of British Columbia.
April 2008
Two of my poems were published in the paperback book My Teacher’s In Big Trouble, edited by Bruce Lansky (Scholastic).
March 2008
My article “Keeping Camp Unplugged” was published in the parenting magazine Metro Parent. The article examines how summer camps try to deal with technology and electronics in an environment that places an emphasis on simple living in a natural environment.
March 2008
Highlights For Children published my short story “The Mystery of the Magic Lunch Bag.”
March 2008
My poem ”Hockey Team” was published in I Hope I Don’t Strike Out, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press), a book of funny poems about sports.
February 2008
Bluffton News began hiring me to illustrate some of their feature stories, poems, and puzzles written by other people for their magazines Boys’ Quest, Hopscotch For Girls, and Fun For Kidz.
January 2008
This was my 10th year as a member of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators).
September 2007
Wee Ones, an e-magazine for kids, published my poem “My Backpack.”
September 2007
My poem “I Finished My Homework” was published in Fun For Kidz.
July 2007
My cartoon feature “10 Fun Things To Do In the Summer” was published in Fun For Kidz.
July 2007
Fun For Kidz published my poem “Camping Trips.”
June 2007
Boys’ Quest published my puzzle “Dangerous Catch.” This was the first of a couple drawing puzzles that I created for the Bluffton News family of magazines.
June 2007
Boys’ Quest published my poem “Grandpa Took Me Fishing.”
May 2007
My humorous cartoon feature “Neal’s 10 Ways Not To Get Published” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators.
May 2007
My poem “The Birthday Cake” was published in Mad Kids, a kids’ version of Mad magazine.
May 2007
Fun For Kidz published two of my features related to drawing: “10 Tips For Drawing Cartoons” and “Make a Funny Face.”
April 2007
I created my first official website with the help of BTR Associates.
March 2007
My poem “If I Ran the Lunch Room” was published in Mad Kids, a kids’ version of Mad magazine. This was my first publication in one of the Mad magazines.
March 2007
My poem “My Favorite Fibs” was published in the book I’ve Been Burping In the Classroom, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press), a collection of funny song parodies. “My Favorite Fibs” is a parody of the song “My Favorite Things.”
March 2007
The American Camp Association published my essay “Life At Camp” in their professional trade magazine Camping and also posted it on their website. The essay is based on my personal experience working at summer camp.
March 2007
Highlights granted permission to Educational Testing Services to reprint my short story “The Farmer and the Fox.”
Spring 2007
My poem “The Perfect Sport” was published in Wild World of Sports, edited by Adele Samuel (Rubicon Publishing), as part of the Boldprint series of books. Rubicon is an award-winning Canadian publisher of K-12 learning resources for students and educators.
February 2007
My nonfiction article “The Louisiana Purchase” was published in Boys’ Quest.
January 2007
My short story “Slam Dunk!” was published in My Friend, a Catholic magazine for children from the Daughters of Saint Paul.
November 2006
Highlights For Children published my short story “The Farmer and the Fox,” based on an old Jewish folktale. This was my first published short story and my first publication in one of the Highlights magazines.
October 2006
My short story “The Mice On the Moon” was published in Hopscotch For Girls.
October 2006
Three of my spooky poems were published in the book Dinner With Dracula, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press).
September 2006
Two of my poems were published in the paperback book My Teacher’s In Detention, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press).
Fall 2006
The Poetry Foundation added my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip” to their online archives.
Spring 2006
My humor article “I Knew There Was a Word For That” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators. It was also reprinted in Scribbles, the newsletter for the Brazos-Valley, Texas, chapter of SCBWI and Once Upon a Time, the popular magazine for writers of children’s literature.
September 2005
My poem “Afterschool Snack” was included in the booklet If I Ran the School, edited by Bruce Lansky (Scholastic). This booklet was distributed to second and third grade classrooms around the country as part of the Scholastic Lucky Book Club. Over a million copies in print!
June 2005
Kids In Common, a parenting magazine in Jackson, Michigan, published by article “The Perfect Game For All Occasions,” which explained the game commonly known as Twenty Questions.
May 2005
My article “Handsome Kangaroo” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators. The article is about anagrams, and “handsome kangaroo” itself is an anagram of “hooked on anagrams.”
May 2005
Livingston Parent Journal, a parenting magazine in Livingston County, Michigan, published a cartoon I drew about birthday parties.
Spring 2005
Once Upon a Time published the first of several of my spot illustrations and cartoons in their popular magazine for writers of children’s literature.
November 2004
My puzzle “Hidden American Heroes” was published in Fun For Kidz. This was the first of a few visual puzzles, including some matching puzzles and mazes, that I created for the Bluffton News family of magazines.
November 2004
The humor magazine Cracked published my satire “If History’s Greatest Speeches Were Delivered By George Dubya Bush.” This was the last official print issue of Cracked magazine since it began in 1958.
October 2004
My scrambled word puzzle “Say Cheese” was published in Boys’ Quest. This was the first of a few word puzzles that I created for the Bluffton News family of magazines.
September 2004
Six of my poems were published in the hardcover book Rolling In the Aisles, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press). This book includes the first publication of my poem “Baby Ate a Microchip,” other than it being posted on the Giggle Poetry website.
August 2004
My poem “My Baseball Mitt” was published in Boys’ Quest.
April 2004
Boys’ Quest published my hidden picture puzzle “Space Surprise.”
March 2004
My poem “Gym Class” was posted on the Poetry Teachers website.
March 2004
My poem “Gym Class” was published in the book If Kids Ruled the School, edited by Bruce Lansky (Meadowbrook Press). This was my first poem to be published in a book by Meadowbrook Press (and my first poem to be published in any book).
March 2004
SCBWI-MI, the Michigan chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, began publishing my comic Kiddie Litter, in their newsletter and later on their blog. Kiddie Litter is a single-panel comic that satirizes characters and situations related to children’s literature.
March 2004
My article “What To Send To Camp (Besides Your Kid)” was published in the parenting magazine Metro Parent. The article discusses what parents should and should not pack when sending their kids to summer camp.
February 2004
Games magazine published my hidden picture puzzle “The Tortoise and the Hare.” This was my first publication in Games magazine.
January 2004
My hidden picture puzzle “Trail” was published in Fun For Kidz.
September 2003
The SCBWI Bulletin, the official newsletter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, published the first of some of my cartoons.
September 2003
My poem “The Right To Write” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators.
August 2003
My hidden picture puzzle “Something’s Fishy” was published in Kid Zone.
August 2003
Kid Zone commissioned me to draw the first of a series of eight double-spread cartoon memory games for their magazines, based on different seasonal events throughout the year. After studying the pictures closely, kids were asked to answer questions about what they remembered without looking. The pictures could also be used as coloring pages. This was my first assignment for a national children’s magazine.
Summer 2003
I published my 1,000th issue of the Walden Pond, the camp newspaper at Camp Walden.
March 2003
Meadowbrook Press posted my poem “Pet Day” on their Giggle Poetry website. This was the first of my poems posted there. Viewers could rate poems, and poems that received high scores on the website (along with poems that received high scores when tested in schools) would be considered for inclusion in some of their anthologies. Although “Pet Day” received the highest score, it never made it into one of the books, but several of my other poems posted on Giggle Poetry website eventually did.
March 2003
My humor article “SCBWI Proverbs” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators.
Spring 2003
Spellbound magazine, a fantasy magazine for children and young adults, published three of my illustrations.
February 2003
My puzzle “Zoo Clues” was published in Boys’ Quest. Readers have to decipher a secret code to uncover a hidden message. This was my first official publication in a children’s magazine.
January 2003
I was featured in the Paintbox column in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators. The Paintbox column highlights Michigan artists who work in the field of children’s literature.
August 2002
The Cheboygan Daily Tribune published “The World Comes To Walden,” a newspaper article I wrote about the international staff at Camp Walden, a summer camp in northern Michigan.
March 2002
My article “Kids These Days” was published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators. This was my first published article in a publication devoted to children’s literature.
May 2001
Two of my cartoons were published in SCBWI-MI News, the newsletter for the Michigan chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Publishers and Illustrators. This was my first published artwork in a publication devoted to children’s literature.
Fall 2000
Although I had been writing for fun for nearly two decades, this is when I began taking my writing seriously and realized if I really wanted to get published and become a professional writer, I would have to start submitting my work and developing other professional skills and habits.
October 1998
This marked my 10th year teaching afterschool cartooning workshops.
January 1998
I joined SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), a professional organization for children’s book writers and illustrators around the world.
Fall 1996
I drew a cartoon for an article on the myths of pregnancy for Metro Baby, a publication put out by Metro Parent.
Spring 1995
I drew a cartoon which appeared on the cover of the Michigan Children’s Camp Directory, a publication of the American Camp Association.
Summer 1994
This was my 10th year working at Camp Walden and editing the camp newspaper, the Walden Pond. This summer also marked my 500th issue of the paper.
Spring 1992
I sold some illustrations for use as clip art for to the George Dubow Agency, a publications company.
May 1991
I co-wrote with Liz Stevens and illustrated “Summer Camp Daze,” an humorous article about summer camp, for All Kids Considered, a parenting magazine in southeastern Michigan that would soon become Metro Parent. This was the first article I wrote for a professional publication.
Spring 1991
I began doing freelance cartoons for All Kids Considered, a parenting magazine in southeastern Michigan that would soon become Metro Parent.
August 1990
My comic strip “Phish,” which had previously run in the Michigan Journal, the student newspaper of the University of Michigan-Dearborn , was picked up by two local newspapers, the Royal Oak Daily Tribune and the Macomb Daily, and ran as a color strip in their Sunday comics sections.
Winter 1989
I created my first official cartooning booklet as part of my cartooning workshop.
October 1988
I taught my first afterschool cartooning workshop at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
May 1988
I had my first official school visit as an artist at Hickory Grove Elementary in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
June 1987
My comic strip “Grumblecord” ran for a period in the Observer and Eccentric newspapers, a family of eleven papers in various suburbs around Metro Detroit.
January 1987
I began substitute teaching and starting doing a lot of freelance artwork for schools, camps, and small businesses, including designs for a few T-shirt printers, as well as artwork for other individuals, companies, and organizations.
Winter 1987
I started doing artwork and entertainment at bar and bat mitzvahs. In addition to drawing cartoons at the parties, I created original T-shirt designs, sign-in boards, placecards, souvenirs, and other decorations.
December 1986
I earned my elementary teaching certificate from the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a focus on English and social studies.
Fall 1985
While earning my teaching certificate, my comic strip “Phish” ran in the Michigan Journal, the student newspaper of the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Phish, a professor in the comic, was a fish with a “Ph”D whose grades were all below C-level.
Summer 1985
I was hired as a counselor at Camp Walden and began editing the camp newspaper, the Walden Pond. I also began doing a lot of other artwork for the camp.
April 1985
I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a major in psychology.
Fall 1983
I took a cartooning course taught by Dick Mayer, art director at the Detroit Free Press, at the Center For Creative Studies in Detroit. This was one of the few art classes I’ve ever taken.
Winter 1982
While taking a general creative writing course at the University of Michigan, my instructor suggested I might be prefer writing for children and referred me to another instructor, Carolyn Balducci. A took a tutorial with Carolyn and enrolled in her course Creative Writing For Children and Young Adults and agreed that that was where I would like to focus.
Summer 1981
After graduating from high school, this was the first year I was officially a camp counselor at Camp Maplehurst. This is also when I began thinking seriously about cartooning. I started working on artwork that the camp would use in some of their promotional materials.
