If you are interested in kids' books for the holidays, check out the 18 New Holiday Books For Kids photo gallery on the website of the Chicago Tribune - which is www.chicagotribune.com.

I particularly like #2 in the lineup - but there are a lot of interesting titles here!

Click Here to go there!

- Mark

The good folks at Chronicle Books have put together a teacher's guide for The Story of Snow. In my storied past, I spent a few years working as an Assistant Superintendent in an urban school district. I was the HR Director and did not get directly involved in instruction, but I did develop a great appreciation for the rigorous life of a Teacher.

So if you are a teacher and plan to use The Story of Snow in your classroom - grab the teacher's guide. Every resource helps!

To download the guide - click this link:

StoryOfSnow_TeachersGuide_WEB.pdf

It is a 1.7 MB PDF file.

And thanks to Chronicle Books for putting this together!

The Kalamazoo Nature Center's Buy Local Art and Gift Fair is coming up in just 2 weeks. I'll be on hand to sign books and talk about snow crystyal photography from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. The Art Fair runs from 10 to 4, and in the afternon the results of the Photoblitz contest will be unveiled. Holidays At The Homestead will also be in full swing, with live Celtic Music, horse drawn carriage rides, and other holiday festivities from the past at the historic DeLano Homestead. For more about the event, visit www.naturecenter.org.

And don't forget the December 4 art hop at Nature Connection in downtown Kalamazoo!

- Mark

I just confirmed that I’ll be interviewed on the Lori Moore Show – AM 590 WKZO Kalamazoo – around 9:45 a.m. on Friday, December 4. I expect we’ll be talking about The Story of Snow, the Art Hop at Nature Connection that evening, the upcoming “Buy Local” event at that Kalamazoo Nature Center, and about anything else that comes up!

Just for the fun of it - here is a snow crystal from 12/21/2008. We've had an unusually warm fall in Kalamazoo this year, so it's hard to believe that we'll be seeing snow like this in less than a month - but I can hope!

- Mark

On Friday, Decmeber 4, I'll be participating in the December Art Hop at Nature Connection - a cool nature oriented gift store located in Downtown Kalamazoo. I'll be there to sign copies of The Story of Snow, and will also have photo note cards and matted prints.

The Art Hop is from 5 - 9 on December 4, and Nature Connections is located at the corner of Lovell and Burdick. See you there there!

- Mark