About

I was a licensed speech language pathologist certified by the American Speech Language Hearing Association for more than 30 years. During that time, I kept returning to picture books for language models and engaging art. Picture books sparked my students’ interest in history, science, art, geography, social issues, life skills, and more. Picture books fostered conversation and curiousity. In 2015, I began the Picture Book Talk series to share my ideas.

Early in my career, I worked for an Easter Seal Society, my own private practice, and a private school setting for children with multiple needs. After moving to Massachusetts in 1996, I focused almost exclusively on fluency therapy. I attended and/or participated in many National Stuttering Association conferences, was invited to participate in several International Suttering Awareness Day on line conferences, and wrote a blog called Comments on Speech Therapy.

I am now retired. My hobby is to cruise library book sales and second hand shops for those beautiful books with illustrations that are works of fine art. Yes, I do find good stories accompanied by digital art, but my preference is painting.

My first Picture Book Talk lessons were long, convoluted attempts to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards. But I came to believe this approach missed meaningful content in the text and in the pictures. Now, I choose what is important in each story and create only 10 or 11 questions. My most recent lessons include links to websites and YouTube videos for background knowledge.

I encourage readers to purchase the books; however, because many are no longer available in bookstores, I provide links to find them read aloud online. With any luck, they are available at local libraries.