Children’s Corner–For Young Readers

What is a “Children’s Corner”?

One of my children had a special place to sit and read. It was a warm, cozy corner, in the living room, between a bookcase and one wall, next to a heat register.

As a kid, I didn’t have an actual special “corner,” but I liked to read in bed, especially on weekend nights when I was allowed to stay up later than usual. Sometimes my parents would forget to check up on whether I had “finished the next chapter” and turned out the light. You probably know how it is when you are so engrossed in a story that you just have to find out what happens next. Before you know it, you are in the next chapter, and the next, and the next!

There was a song I liked in the 1965 television movie “Cinderella” that came out when I was seven. The lovely actress Leslie Ann Warren played Cinderella. She sang, “In my own little corner in my own little house, I can be whatever I want to be” (Here is a link to the words of the song from the Rogers & Hammerstein musical. http://www.songlyrics.com/rodgers-and-hammerstein/my-own-little-corner-lyrics/.).

Maybe your bed is your special place, or a fort you have made. It might be behind the sofa or a table covered by a blanket, making a tent, or a big cardboard box. Maybe you don’t leave it up all the time, but just for awhile.

Or, maybe your special place is a swing outside, or sitting on a branch of a tree, or a place where you like to walk. It can be anyplace that works for you.

This idea of having a special place where you can go to think your private thoughts, doodle and dream, read and imagine–whatever you want, really–is what I had in mind when I named this page the “Children’s Corner.” My wish for you is that you find the ways to make your dreams come true, even if it takes you a lifetime.

You might like my poem:

(First published in Hopscotch for Girls magazine (June/July 1999). Reprinted with permission of Shannon Comins (art) and Fun For Kidz Magazine).

When I started this “Children’s Corner” page …

… my children’s book, The Voice of the Wooden Dragon, had not yet been published. In September 2024, NFB Publishing in Buffalo, New York published it. Here’s what the book’s Amazon page says:

“After a brief hiccup, in which an irate dragon must be placated, the story begins–as now told by Christie and her new co-author, Marcus A. Dragon.

“In the land of Deweydaire, which is ruled by (anthropomorphic) dragons, things are not fair. Humans work while dragons play. Princess Meredith, a dragon, leads others in fighting against the injustice, supporting the human cause. How could she have foreseen that she, like her human friend, young Peter Porter, would fall afoul of her bully cousin, Prince Rupert? Or that he would go to such lengths to silence her voice? Will intrepid Peter and the underrated court-jester Felix be able to help Meredith break the power of an illegal spell? In this Year of the Wood Dragon, The Voice of the Wooden Dragon is an entertaining-yet-inspiring story of transformation and new beginnings.

“This is Christie and Lane Waldman’s debut novel as an author-illustrator team. Christie’s stories for young readers may be read at Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things, Skipping Stones, and East of the Web. Lane is also a writer whose sci-fi/fantasy stories have appeared in Uncanny, Daily Science Fiction, and Capricious, among other places.”

The Voice of the Wooden Dragon can be purchased ($16.95 paperback, $5.99 Kindle) from NFB Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.

Also, you can read my short stories online for free:

“Lewis the Giraffe.” East of the Web, August 2024. With cover art by Lane Waldman. https://www.eastoftheweb.com/node/7339

“The King of Maragor,” Skipping Stones: A Multicultural Literary Magazine for Teens. Sept. 5, 2023. https://www.skippingstones.org/wp/.

“Something to Look Forward To,” Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things. October 27, 2021. https://read.emberjournal.org/.

You can read my story, “Slippers for Molly,” and watch a video of my daughter, Eliza Waldman, performing her original song, “Pink Bunny Slippers,” right on this website (April 2020). https://christinagwaldman.com/childrens-stories-slippers-for-mollys/

Did you ever …

… make a gum-wrapper chain? I guess chewing-gum doesn’t always come in paper wrappers anymore, but that’s okay. You can cut other papers to “gum-wrapper size” and use them to make a pretty Christmas tree chain. See pictures of one I made at “New Twist on Christmas Gum Wrapper Chain.”

Here is a list …

… of some of my favorite children’s books, “Books to Beg, Borrow, but not Steal” (blogpost, this website).

Last updated December 18, 2024.