About

THE STORIES

Shoddy Shirt Books are fun, educational stories for elementary aged children. The silly rhymes, and sometimes quirky characters, help introduce different educational concepts along with new vocabulary. The intent is to provide a fun introduction to these topics, thereby creating a cognitive link to future study in higher grade levels. Each story includes fun, hands-on activity suggestions to support further understanding and is tied to educational standards gathered from a variety of sources.

THE AUTHOR

I have been writing poems and silly rhymes since the age of seven. I used to read Dr. Seuss stories over and over until I had them memorized. (I still believe that “The Sneetches” provides one of the most important social lessons of all time!)

I have worked as a mentor/tutor for elementary students, as a summer camp counselor and as an Education Coordinator for an after school program. I was even a teacher for a short period of time, but soon realized that my talents lie behind the scenes. I decided to leave the classroom to those who possess that amazing combination of creativity, personality and patience.

I believe in a comprehensive approach to learning styles, and that the absorption of educational concepts is most successful when presented through a combination of visual, auditory and kinesthetic means. Through rhymes, pictures and activity suggestions, I hope my stories meet this goal.

THE NAME

Shoddy Shirt is an homage to my closest friend, my uncle Jon. He was an eccentric, brilliant man who was in love with words. He used to wear the same teal and white pinstriped shirt for days on end while he buried his nose in his works of poetry. He was always using words I had never heard before, so I had to figure out the meaning based on context. One day he was hanging wallpaper in my sister’s room. He stepped back and said, “How shoddy!” I was thrilled to death because shoddy was one of my vocabulary words at school that week, and I knew what it meant! Shoddy – of poor quality.

A few years later, after he passed away, I was rocking my newborn daughter to sleep. She was unusually fussy that night and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I glanced up at the wallpaper border in her room. A corner was starting to peel back, and a single word came to my mind – shoddy. I smiled at the memory of my uncle, then suddenly realized that it was his birthday. In that very instant, my daughter fell fast asleep.