All posts by sheri

Activity Sheets

For Kids

Do you like mazes? Click here to get Penelope and her bubbly tummy through the maze before she brings down the house.

What is Penelope’s favourite thing to drink? Click here to play a counting game with Penelope.

The three gnomes have been playing tricks on Penelope, changing things around on her dresser. Click here to spot the differences and do some doodling with Penelope.

Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions

For Writers
  1. Complete my writing in a more timely fashion. (So I’m writing my New Year’s Resolutions in February—so what? What’s your point?)
  2. Write something every day. (Today I plan to write a cheque to Visa for my Christmas purchases. Tomorrow I plan to write a letter to Visa, apologizing for bouncing the cheque that I wrote for my Christmas purchases.)
  3. Never be satisfied until I find the exact definite right correct best word.
  4. Never put off until tomorrow what I can do today. (I plan to start on this one tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.)
  5. Strive to write more better. Oops, I mean strive to write better.
  6. Never allow tyops to silp into what I writte.
  7. Always finish what I sta…

Top 10 Things Kids Say When They Find Out I’m a Children’s Author

For Writers
  1. Do you know J.K. Rowling?
  2. Do you want to hear the story I wrote?
  3. Do you draw the pictures, too? The pictures are the best part.
  4. How long does it take you to write a book?
  5. Could you write a story right now?
  6. How old were you when you started writing?
  7. How old are you now?
  8. Are you a famous author? Like, when you go to the mall, do people point and say, “Look at the famous author!”?
  9. Where do you get your ideas?
  10. I’ve never heard of you.

Monsters

For Kids

In Penelope and the Monsters, Penelope finds out that monsters aren’t so scary after all. Can you name some monsters?

  • Cookie Monster from Sesame Street
  • Mike, Sully, and Randall from Monsters, Inc.
  • Abominable Snowman
  • Fluffy (the three-headed dog) from the Harry Potter books
  • Loch Ness Monster
  • Ogopogo
  • King Kong
  • Godzilla
  • Frankenstein
  • Bigfoot

20 Things Only a Fellow Writer Could Possibly Understand

For Writers
  1. The concept of a good rejection letter.
  2. The contradictory emotions of envy and elation experienced when a friend gets “the call” from a publisher.
  3. How you can still believe a piece of writing is good, even after it’s been rejected 46 times.
  4. The truth of the following equation: butt + chair + time = writing.
  5. How much a form rejection letter hurts.
  6. Wanting honest feedback of your writing, but wanting that honest feedback to be, “It’s perfect! Don’t change a word.”
  7. Ideas are everywhere.
  8. Ideas are the easy part—it’s what you do with all those ideas that’s bloody difficult.
  9. Writing is really, really, really hard work—even when it looks like you’re just goofing off.
  10. Staring out the window for an hour is part of the writing process.
  11. Sometimes characters refuse to behave and insist on telling a story their way.
  12. Everything is fodder for writing—even the juicy secret you’re sworn to secrecy about.
  13. The inner critic is harsher than any outer critic could ever be.
  14. Sometimes scrubbing the toilet or cleaning the garage is more appealing that writing.
  15. Sometimes writing is more appealing than getting enough sleep or going out on the town.
  16. A first novel shooting straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list is just an urban myth. (It has to be, it just has to be, doesn’t it?)
  17. Procrastination is a crucial component of the writing process.
  18. Sometimes bookshelves need to be rearranged, right now.
  19. Having written is far more fun than writing.
  20. There’s always more rewriting to be done.

Top Movies About Writers

For Writers
  • Adaptation (2002)
  • An Angel at My Table (1990)
  • Barton Fink (1991)
  • Becoming Jane (2007)
  • Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
  • Capote (2005)
  • Croupier (1998)
  • Deathtrap (1982)
  • Deconstructing Harry (1997)
  • Factotum (2005)
  • Finding Forrester (2000)
  • The Front (1976)
  • Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
  • The Hours (2002)
  • I Capture the Castle (2003)
  • Il Postino (1994)
  • In a Lonely Place (1950)
  • The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
  • Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
  • Misery (1990)
  • Miss Potter (2006)
  • Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
  • My Brilliant Career (1979)
  • Naked Lunch (1991)
  • Permanent Midnight (1998)
  • The Player (1992)
  • Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
  • Quills (2000)
  • Romancing the Stone (1984)
  • Shakespeare in Love (1998)
  • The Shining (1980)
  • Sideways (2004)
  • The Squid and the Whale (2005)
  • Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
  • Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  • The Third Man (1949)
  • Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
  • Wonder Boys (2000)
  • The World According to Garp (1982)

Emergencies

For Kids

In Penelope and the Humongous Burp, doctors, fire fighters, and police officers appear because they think there’s an emergency going on. Can you think of some other people you might call in an emergency?

  • ambulance attendant
  • nurse
  • Coast Guard
  • lifeguard
  • security guard
  • bodyguard
  • rescue worker
  • search-and-rescue crew