Worldreader 2016 top ten book list is out!

Worldreader 2016 top ten book list is out!

See the book on Amazon

Pull a toddler onto your lap—or tuck it into bed—and share a tale about a house that has a mouse problem (There’s a Mouse in the House!), a gooseberry-gobbling pheasant (George, the Great Green Gooseberry Gobbler), and a cat named Ribbons who gets into trouble with a Christmas tree (Ribbons at Christmas). I’ve broken up the story about Jamaica and Jupiter (Jamaica and Jupiter) into shorter chapter stories so that the friendship between the “outside” bird and the “inside bird” can develop over time.

This small collection of short stories and poetry is from my personal collection of stories I told to my daughter and grandson. Most of the stories are based upon real-life events in our family. My grandson co-authored the opening poem.

My approach to telling stories to children is the same as my approach to talking to them: I never used baby talk or purposely avoided complicated words if they enhanced the story. If there was a question about a word we looked it up and talked about it.

All of my writing, whether it’s women’s fiction, short stories, historical, or a story for children, has humor. Also, as in all of my writing, I bring an awareness of the environment into the story content.

I hope you agree with me:

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
Frederick Douglas


See all my books and short stories on my website

Okra, the cat–an excerpt from There’s a Mouse in the House!

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Chapter 3. Okra (the cat)
An excerpt from There’s a Mouse in the House!
Janelle M. Hooper, Jacob N. Studebaker, illustrations by Sherri Bails

There’s a Mouse in the House! Amazon Kindle

Jamaica, a little green parrot, plans lunch with Jupiter, the big black crow in the front yard…

Okra got his name when he was a kitten and Sally dropped a piece of deep-fried okra on the floor. He’d snatched it and took off running before Sally could pick it up. He thought it was a piece of fish. When he’d bitten through the crust there was no fish inside. Just something slimy and green. What a nasty surprise!

Jamaica could have told him if he’d been there but he was in Sally’s office at the time. Jamaica didn’t know what Okra would do without him. Sometimes, getting that cat through the day was a fulltime job. And sleep! Okra would sleep all day if he didn’t have Jamaica to call to him. Sometimes, he slept so soundly that Jamaica would have to fly over and bite his tail to wake him up. Once, he bit his ear, but he found out that waking up a big cat was a lot more fun if he wasn’t so close to the cat’s biting end. Jamaica knew that Okra hadn’t meant to frighten him but a cat was not a bird. He’d learned that much since he came to live with Sally.

Mostly, Okra ignored Jamaica’s attempts to make friends with Jupiter. As long as they stayed out of his bowl whatever they did was all right with him. This lunch thing that Jamaica kept talking about was going to be a big disaster. Broccoli and seeds? For lunch? What was that crazy green bird thinking?

Amazon:
Kindle
There’s a Mouse in the House!
Your toddler will love it!

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Janelle Meraz Hooper Is an indie writer who writes in several genres (She wrote the traveling play, Geronimo. Life on the Reservation!). Stop by her book site to see all of her books. Paperback, Kindle.