Hi, I’m Rebecca. I write books and I write here at This Joyful Mess to inspire everyone to find JOY in the everyday messes of life. Here you’ll find inspiration, educational resources, and so much more. Please explore and connect—I’d love to hear from you!
Cinderella or Cinderella or Cinderella - All the Same
If a culturally rich adaptation of a classic tale is going to be on a required reading list for any MFAC program, I think it should be Yeh Shen.
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe
Any MFA in Children's Writing must have this book on it's required reading list -- such an important tale. Uniquely South African and full of stunning, authentic illustrations. This morality story...
Aesop Rewrites: So lovely and Gentle: Aesop’s Fables by Jerry Pinkney
Compression and storytelling meld with just enough detail to set the stage and uphold the story. I found a mix of familiar and more obscure stories (i.e. “The cat, the Rooster and the Mouse”). All included small details that made the story more vivid, like garlands of flowers around the heifer’s neck. This is a compilation, so...
Too Tall for Truth: Tall Tales - John Henry by Julius Lester
An authentic, engaging voice mingles fantasy with reality.
Pinkney’s vivid artwork combines with Lester’s picturesque text to make the telling of the story every bit as “larger than life” as the subject of the story. Lester fills his pages with word pictures, “bat wings on tombstones” and personification, the sun flossing, the wind out of breath. Yet...
Three Little Piggies, Take Two (The True Story)
Twisting and turning a traditional story to make something new. Scieszka takes the well-known 3 Little Pigs story and tells it from the wolf’s point of view. Many of the details remain the same, yet the story has new...