Tag: Vermont

SPLAT! Envisioning the Future of CLiF

Posted by on June 8, 2017.

 

Once a year, the CLiF Staff and Board of Directors get together to discuss what CLiF has done over the past year, what’s coming up, and to enjoy dinner together while taking a breather from our busy, busy lives. That happened at CLiF World HQ on Monday, and this year, we had a lot to talk about. 

(See photo above – Back Row (L to R): Program Director Meredith Scott, Secretary Dan Lynch, outgoing Board Chair Glenn Curie, Rick Roesch, incoming Board Chair Mitzi Barrett, Treasurer Matt Rightmire, Program Manager Jana Brown; Front Row (L to R): Executive Director Duncan McDougall, Jess Eakin, Laura Rice, Data/Office Manager Stephanie Kucinskas, Communications Manager Erika Nichols-Frazer, Deb Nelson.

Shipwrecks, Flying Pigs & Talking Fruit: VT PBS Kids’ Writing Contest

Posted by on April 27, 2017.

What do shipwrecks, flying pigs, and talking fruit have in common? There were all featured in story submissions for the Vermont PBS Kids’ annual Writing Contest, which I had the pleasure of judging last week.

Last Friday, I joined nine other writers, librarians, and members of educational non-profits at Vermont’s PBS headquarters in Colchester to review 106 compelling stories written and illustrated by talented students from all over the state. 

Middle Ground: What the DCF Ceremony is All About

Posted by on June 3, 2014.

Author Linda Urban at DCF Ceremony

Last Tuesday, about five hundred young readers filled the seats of Judd Hall at Vermont Technical College for the 2014 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Ceremony. You could feel the excitement in the air as soon as the students walked through the doors.

May 16 Friday Links Library

Posted by on May 16, 2014.

Lots of news over the past two weeks! Here’s the roundup:

CLiF Spotlight: Keeping Family Stories Alive

Posted by on March 26, 2014.

From a Lowell, VT child's Storykeepers family history research project: "I never got to meet my grandfather. But if I could, well, I'd love to."

Probably most adults could not coherently discuss

  • the differences between the 1840 and 1860 census
  • how a daguerreotype differs from a tintype
  • or the repercussions of the 1890 census being destroyed in a Department of Commerce fire.

But the children of Island Pond and Lowell, Vermont can.

Middle Ground: How the DCF List Process Works (and why I had 10 boxes of books in my living room)

Posted by on March 12, 2014.

DCF committee selects 30 books for 2014

Up until Saturday morning, I had about 10 boxes of books sitting in my living room and dozens of middle grade and young adult books scattered throughout my house. I had a pile of books to read when I was upstairs, a pile of books to read when I was downstairs, a pile of books on my nightstand.

A Novel Idea

Posted by on November 1, 2013.

I have a theory that everyone who loves reading also has their own book kicking around in their imagination.

It’s simple: reading other people’s stories empowers us to tell our own. I would bet every one of us — faced with an incredible real-life situation, waking up from a dream, looking up an interesting fact — has thought, This would make a great story.

Sharing Our Stories and Finding Others to Share

Posted by on June 26, 2013.

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About a week ago, a big box arrived at our office. With everything from Captain Underpants to an illustrated Secret Garden, it was overflowing with beautiful, brand-new children’s books.

Thanks to a successful bookdrive by Bud and Bella’s Bookshop of Randolph, Vermont, we now have 50 books to add to our library!