Grab Bag Friday: Happy Halloween!!

I hope you have lots of fun and sugar waiting for you today!

If you missed last week's post about Trick or Treat for UNICEF, there's still time to make your UNICEF box for tonight's festivities!

The Poop has a funny post about what to do when your child won't put on their Halloween lederhosen. (Some of the comments are more hilarious than the post.)

Seven Impossible Things analyzes Edgar Allen Poe's weaker efforts. (There are more Halloween poems at the Poetry Friday Roundup.)

And this trick-or-treat video cracks me up every time:

Monday Morning Kidlit Tidbits

Here are some fun children's literature links you probably won't want to miss:

Wild Rose Reader has a fantastic roundup of picture books about Autumn. She also has a link to some leaf crafts and activities which look pretty cool.

Seven Impossible Things recently posted a fantastic interview with Lane Smith. I've been a longtime fan of his goofy illustrations and hilarious picture books (I'm especially fond of his work with Jon Scieszka). During this election cycle, I picked up Madam President and enjoyed a good chuckle.

Educating Alice has a note about a live webcast with David Macaulay hosted by her school tomorrow morning (10/7) at 10am. He'll be talking about his new book The Way We Work, and if you can, it will probably be well worth checking out.

Grab Bag Friday: Bits & Pieces

Just a few fine things for Friday:

Trick or Treat for UNICEF: The tradition of children collecting coins for UNICEF on Halloween began back in 1950 and is still going strong. You can pick up free UNICEF boxes at Hallmark stores or your local church, or you can make your own. Please visit UNICEF's website for instructions on how to send in the money, and great stories about the difference even a small amount can make.

This is a great way for kids to get involved in helping others...and to learn that helping others can be both fun and rewarding!

It's Official: The Robert Plant & Alison Krauss official site is now up. Sadly, it doesn't list tour dates yet. And you can apparently listen to the album on the site, but I couldn't get the streaming to work on my computer. Maybe you'll have better luck. If missed my initial response to the new album, Raising Sand, you can find it here.

Let it Snow! Tomorrow, I'll be posting a feature on artist Abigail Marble and her snowflake for Robert's Snow. Please check in for this special "Weekend Edition" of Please Come Flying. Abigail's art is filled with wonder and she was kind enough to answer some questions about inspiration, process, and her connection with Robert's Snow.

• You can still see the gallery showings of the snowflakes
• You can read this week's features by checking my sidebar to the right
• You can catch up on all the past features at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Robert's Snow for Cancer's Cure Gallery Showing

I mentioned a couple Fridays ago that I'll be taking part in the multi-blog promotion of this year's Robert's Snow auction. Robert's Snow is a terrific fund-raiser for cancer research--children's book artists from around the globe have created one-of-a-kind snowflakes to be auctioned off in the months of November and December.

If you are in the Boston area, you can actually visit the Robert's Snow snowflakes in person before they are auctioned off! There will be gallery showings at:

Child at Heart Gallery
Newburyport, MA
October 3-22

Danforth Museum of Art
Framingham, MA
November 4-December 22

If you are not in the Boston area, but still want to see the snowflakes, you can view many of them online. Not all of the illustrators have finished their snowflakes, but many of the ones that are finished have been posted on the Dana Farber website.

I'm so excited to be a part of this effort. I will be posting profiles and interviews with 5 artists...I've already heard back from all of them, and they are terrific, thoughtful, talented people. If you're the kind of person who likes to look ahead, here is my interview/posting schedule for Robert's Snow:

• October 27: Abigail Marble
• November 2: Holli Conger
• November 8: Matt Tavares (from Maine!)
• November 11: Amy Schimler
• November 13: Lee White

Read the story behind Robert's Snow.

Again, thanks go to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for organizing the blogger promotion effort. What a lot of work! Thanks Jules & Eisha!

Grab Bag Friday: Robert's Snow

Every year since 2004, the Dana Farber Institute has held an auction called Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure. This is no ordinary auction.

Here's the story:

Robert's Snow is a children's story about a mouse not allowed in the snow. Children's book illustrator Grace Lin wrote the book, which was inspired by her husband Robert's battle with Ewing's sarcoma. After the book was published, Grace gathered artists from all over the children's book illustrating community to create special snowflakes to be auctioned off, with the proceeds benefiting sarcoma research at Dana-Farber. These snowflake auctions became known as the event "Robert's Snow."

Sadly, last month, Grace Lin's husband Robert passed away. In his honor, and to fight for a cure to cancer, over 150 artists have committed to creating snowflakes for the auction this year.

Here's where you and I come in:

Eisha and Jules, over at the great kidlit blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have taken it upon themselves to coordinate a massive blogger effort to help promote and drive traffic to this year's Robert's Snow auction. In October and November, more than 60 bloggers from far and wide will be profiling illustrators who have snowflakes up for auction.

Here at Please Come Flying, I have agreed to feature five illustrators and their snowflakes (I've seen some of them and they are beautiful), and given my particular penchant for good children's books, you can imagine how happy I am to be a part of this effort!

More news will come soon, but get ready...I'm going to ask you to send these profiles to as many people as you can possibly think of. Let's see how much of a difference we can make when we work together!

(If you're a blogger and want to help spread the word, please visit Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and contact Jules...she's great!)