SAY YES

Little Green Army Men Invade the ALA Conference

Sun, 4 Jul 2010 18:02:25 -0400

What should you bring to a book signing?

Why, little green army men, of course! People will stop and talk to you, and take great care in picking out just which soldier to take home with them. Are you a binocular guy fan? (I love him because he’s on the cover of Operation Yes.) Or do you prefer walkie-talkie man or the bazooka wielder or Mr. “I Have a Grenade and Know How to Use It”? Or maybe you’re more interested in the quiet drama of the army man who is crawling through the field, staying low and out of sight, or the mine sweeper, doing his lonely, hair-raising job?

Whichever LGM you’re a fan of, I hope you’ll send me pictures of wherever they’re on duty in your life. And that you’ll remember our real life troops this Independence Day.

Happy Fourth of July!

Gaithersburg Book Festival

Sun, 16 May 2010 09:05:51 -0400

On Saturday, I finally got to meet the author of the other book with the initials OY. See that photo above? Operation Yes and Origami Yoda look great together, don’t they? Tom taught me how to make an origami Yoda finger puppet and I gave him a LGM (little green army man.)

I got a (temporary) tattoo for the occasion:

Skype with me

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:57:25 -0400

I’ve joined the Skype An Author network! If you’d like your students to video chat with me, check out my new Skype page. There are two types of Skype visits available. One is a 10-15 minute FREE visit, available to those classes or book clubs who’ve read at least one of my books. The other is a more in-depth talk, “Say Yes to Writing,” which is about 45-50 minutes with time for questions.

Talks available for upper elementary schools, middle schools, library book clubs, military base schools or libraries.

Read about my recent Skype visit to Twin Ridge Elementary here.

Listen Up! Operation Yes Wins a 2010 Audie

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 12:12:05 -0500

The AUDIEs: Awards recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). A full list of nominees is here, and the winners will be announced at the Audies Gala on May 25, 2010, at The Museum of the City of New York in New York City
UPDATE! Operation yes won the AUDIE! Congrats to Narrator JEssica ALmsay and the entire Audible.com Team. Thank you for bringing Operation Yes “on Stage” in your production.

Book Signing Photos

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:13:20 -0500

Teacher's Guide (Miss Loupe Approved)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:33:57 -0400

Do Something

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 12:42:04 -0400

@TAPS4America: Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. -Lin Yutang

I think that's my new favorite quote. And it reminded me that I wanted to tell you about Paul McCollom. Or rather, to let Paul tell you about himself. To tell you why he and many, many others are walking/running/striving to make one particular road come into existence: the road to recovery for wounded warriors and their families.

As he says:

“I will be 61 this year but on October 25th I will be in Washington DC again running (mostly) 26.2 miles in the Marine Corps Marathon for Fisher House and military families. I am driven by the young men and women serving today; they are my brothers and sisters and my sons and daughters and I have an obligation to support them as long as I can put one foot in front of the other."

I supported Paul last year in his quest, and blogged about it in this post: Paychecks and Great Battles. I'm doing it again this year. He's the real deal.

For more about Paul and his support of Fisher House, see here. To donate to Paul’s epic run, go here.

Sound off! Jody Call Contest

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:01:30 -0400

What’s a Jody call? It’s a song used to make a difficult job easier. In the armed forces, military members chant them during PT (Physical Training) to help everyone stay together on a long march or a run. Units also use jody calls to build up their sense of community.

In Operation Yes, Miss Loupe teaches her students jody calls because the back and forth rhythm is like the give and take of the improvisational theater games she’s introducing. But maybe she’s also stealthily building her team in Room 208!

Here are some real life jody calls:

They Say That in the Air Force

They say that in the Air Force, the chicken's mighty fine
One jumped off the table and started marking time
Refrain:
Oh, Lord I wanna go
But they won't let me go
hooooooooooooooome
(last word stretched out over 8 paces, and a "Hey" on the right foot to
end the refrain)

They say that in the Air Force, the biscuits are mighty fine
One rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine

They say that in the Air Force, the pancakes are mighty fine
You can try to chew them, but you're only wasting time

They say that in the Air Force, the bed's are mighty fine
But how the heck would I know, I've never slept in mine

They say that in the Air Force, the mail is so great
Today I got a letter dated 1948

They say that in the Air Force, the toilets are mighty fine
You flush them up at seven, they come back up at nine.

They say that in the Air Force, the tents are waterproof
You wake up in the morning and you're floating on the roof.

Jody calls don’t have to rhyme. But they do have to have a rhythm:

Alpha Flight
Everywhere we go - oh
People wanna know - oh
Who we are
Where we come from
So we tell them
We are Alpha Flight
Mighty Mighty Alpha Flight
Rough - n - tough Alpha
Straight shooting Alpha
Better than Bravo
Big baby Bravo
Better than Charlie
Chicken chicken Charlie
Better than Delta
Dumb-dumb Delta
Better than Echo
Icky icky Echo
We are Alpha
Mighty mighty Alpha

So here’s the challenge: Make up a jody call and post it in the comments. (Anywhere from 2-12 lines.)
RULES:
It must be related to children’s books in some way.
It doesn’t have to rhyme, but it must have rhythm.
Keep it PG clean
The drill sergeant says you may use one of these lines to start with, but you don’t have to:
I don’t know but I’ve been told... (or it’s been said...)
Every book we open...
They say that in the library the ____ is mighty ____ ...

Prize for the best three jody calls:
A signed copy of OPERATION YES, delivered to your door by a man or woman in uniform. (That would be the postal uniform.)

Deadline: October 16, 2400 hours, EST
(That’s midnight for you civilians.)

Judge: Brig. General Mike Holmes, who is unlikely to know any of the contestants, but is still a great reader of children’s literature. (Really. Not kidding. Don't try to slip War and Peace by him as a children's book.)