Children’s Corner

Hi Kids!

One of my children had a special place to sit and read. It was a warm, cozy corner in the living room, next to a floor vent where the heat came up from the furnace in the basement.

As a kid, my special place to read was 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 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!

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.

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

Would you like to read some stories I wrote?

“Lewis the Giraffe.” East of the Web, August 2024. https://www.eastoftheweb.com/node/7339. I first wrote “Lewis the Giraffe” in the 1990’s. There is a real giraffe named Lewis. He lives at the Pittsburgh Zoo. He is old! He turned 19 years old this year. But, he was not born yet when I imagined and wrote my original story.“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/.

“Slippers for Molly,” with Pink Bunny Slippers, written and performed by Eliza Waldman), 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 instructions and pictures at “New Twist on Christmas Gum Wrapper Chain” (blogpost, this website).

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

Updated 9-2-2026.