The Museum of Very Bad Smells: A Dare to Scratch 'n' Sniff Mystery by Monica Arnaldo
Children's Books, Published, Community Melissa Rooney Children's Books, Published, Community Melissa Rooney

The Museum of Very Bad Smells: A Dare to Scratch 'n' Sniff Mystery by Monica Arnaldo

The Museum of Very Bad Smells will, no doubt, be interesting to children for the first read or two. It will also, no doubt, be disappointing to children who open the book to find that the smells “don’t work.” For this reason, you may want to purchase the book in a store where you can test it out, rather than online.

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Mouse on the River by Alice Melvin: A Review
Children's Books, Published, Travel, Community Melissa Rooney Children's Books, Published, Travel, Community Melissa Rooney

Mouse on the River by Alice Melvin: A Review

Mouse on the River is—in a word—delightful. This is not just a book that you’ll read once or twice. It is a book that children will want to read over and over again, with pictures they will scrutinize repeatedly on their own, and that will, no doubt, remain on many of their bookshelves until they are adults and have children of their own.

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The Lion King at DPAC Boasts a Top-Notch Cast and Spectacular Production Values
Published, Arts, Children, Music, Sustainability Melissa Rooney Published, Arts, Children, Music, Sustainability Melissa Rooney

The Lion King at DPAC Boasts a Top-Notch Cast and Spectacular Production Values

Much like "The Festival of the Lion King" performance that comes with tickets to Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park, the Broadway musical features actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets. The Lion King (musical), which has been on Broadway since 1997, is Broadway's third longest-running show in history and the highest-grossing Broadway production of all time. But unlike the movie or amusement-park production, The Lion King (musical) puts its audience in the center of the life-sized animals that are integral to its Hamlet-like plot and message.

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Mix A Pancake by Christina Rossetti and Monique Felix: A Review
Children's Books, Children, Published, Poetry Melissa Rooney Children's Books, Children, Published, Poetry Melissa Rooney

Mix A Pancake by Christina Rossetti and Monique Felix: A Review

Mix a Pancake, the latest book illustrated by Monique Felix for Creative Editions, an imprint of The Creative Company, is a kitten-filled visual feast akin to the Little Golden Books that have lined children’s bookshelves since 1942. This comes as no surprise, given that The Creative Company, itself, was founded just 10 years earlier, in 1932. 

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Home Is Where the Heart Is (Emma Dodd's Love You Books)

Home Is Where the Heart Is (Emma Dodd's Love You Books)

“Home Is Where the Heart Is features a mother cat and her young kitten, who live in a house that clearly has human owners. The story uses simple and repetitive words to describe what “home” means to all of us, emphasizing the security that notion provides even when we are far away from our physical house and/or one another.”

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FrazierTales Collection Volume 2 by Mark and Chris Frazier Continues the Tradition Of Volume 1
Children, Relationships, Children's Books Melissa Rooney Children, Relationships, Children's Books Melissa Rooney

FrazierTales Collection Volume 2 by Mark and Chris Frazier Continues the Tradition Of Volume 1

Frazier Tales Volume 2 continues the whacky stories and overstimulating illustrations of Mark and Chris Frazier, based on a series of bed time stories Mark told his once three-year-old son. The storylines in Volume 2 mimic those in Volume 1 and, likewise, teach moral lessons based on inclusiveness…

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FrazierTales Collection Volume 1 by Mark and Chris Frazier is Vivid and Easy-to-read
Children, Relationships, Children's Books Melissa Rooney Children, Relationships, Children's Books Melissa Rooney

FrazierTales Collection Volume 1 by Mark and Chris Frazier is Vivid and Easy-to-read

Today I review Frazier Tales Collection Volume 1, written by Mark and illustrated by Chris Frazier. It’s a hardcover volume of three illustrated children’s stories, so it’s a good value for money. And there are a lot of illustrations, all of them quite detailed and of the quality garnered by Ren and Stimpy or Rocko’s Modern Life, both Nickelodeon series…

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Jump the Moon: A Children’s Picture Book Review

Jump the Moon: A Children’s Picture Book Review

This morning I had the pleasure of reading Kathy Simmers’ and Marjorie van Heerden’s children’s picture book, Jump the Moon, about the mystical bond that forms between “the girl with the long blond hair” and the misbehaving pony she is charged with for a summer. The book is based on a true story involving the author’s daughter. I rode horses throughout my adolescence (was president of the riding team at my college), so the subject of Jump the Moon immediately spoke to me.

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Playing Possum a No Win
Published, Children, Relationships, Community Melissa Rooney Published, Children, Relationships, Community Melissa Rooney

Playing Possum a No Win

Three weeks ago, my son spotted a tiny opossum outside our house. The next day, he found the opossum in our garage. An Internet search suggested it was about 13 weeks old – too young for weaning. We put the little guy in a newspaper-lined box with fruit, cat-food and water. Over the next few days, our neighbors and we had rounded up 5 littermates…

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Florida Oceanographic Society’s Coastal Center: MUCH More than an Aquarium

Florida Oceanographic Society’s Coastal Center: MUCH More than an Aquarium

As promised via post-it note on the Florida Oceanographic Society's "Pledge" board, I am sharing my article about their Coastal Center in Stuart, Florida, where my family (12-50 years) spent an entire day and still didn't venture along the ~50-acres of Nature Trails in this barrier island ecosystem. If you’re visiting the east coast of Florida, you must put this stop on your list. And those who work for nonprofit organizations could learn a lot from the level of very visible volunteerism created by the leaders of the Florida Oceanographic Society. Building community for a common cause is the epitome of public outreach.

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Covid Camping and Bear Hounding

Covid Camping and Bear Hounding

During our 14-day quarantine after contracting Covid, my 5th-grade son, husband and I went camping in West Virginia and got educated in ways no classroom can provide. Despite our generally positive assessments of the Mountain Mama, our introduction to “bear hounding” was the lesson that stuck most…

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Alison Krauss and Dead Raptor Fledglings

Alison Krauss and Dead Raptor Fledglings

On May 20, my neighbor down the street sent a group text that said, “Our back alley pine tree hawk nest has two fledglings. Very fluffy. So cool!” She welcomed everyone to come see. Two weeks later, she sent another group text: “Sad news. We have not seen hawk parents since the big storm Friday. One of the fledglings is now at the foot of the pine tree - fell? I am burying him this AM. Another remains in the tree and is sad…

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17 Jan 2021- 6 days off Facebook (Peter Gabriel, Watched Pots, and Edible Creations)

17 Jan 2021- 6 days off Facebook (Peter Gabriel, Watched Pots, and Edible Creations)

I came upon the Peter Gabriel song below for the first time today, when looking up the lyrics to Bon Iver's Holocene (one of my son's all-time favorites), and it melted my heart. I shared the song with my musically voracious son, who surprisingly hadn't heard it; and we agreed that it's crazy that, though hauntingly beautiful in its own right, Bon Iver's version is more well-known than Peter Gabriel's original…

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How much is enough when it comes to animal medical care?
Medicine and Health, Money Melissa Rooney Medicine and Health, Money Melissa Rooney

How much is enough when it comes to animal medical care?

When my son and I got home, he found Kale laying in his comfy chair behind the house. I picked him up gently and held him on his back like a baby, like we always do. A circle of hair on his lower belly had been licked clean and among the wet curlicues was an open rip in the skin. The wound was clearly deep. I could see the rippling tissue moving like a clam underneath…

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