Moonbeams and Rhyme Dreams is a collection of 50 funny, silly poems for kids, which is also enjoyable for grownups, too!

 

When I started creating this book, I had some concepts and rules I wanted to follow:

1. exactly 64 pages long, in a smaller size (perfect for kids to take with them in the car, on the bus, in a backpack) 

2. 50 poems in perfect meter.  I love perfect rhymes!

3. A wide variety of styles and rhyme schemes (iambic, anapestic, varied “feet” (tetrameter, heptameter), acrostics, limericks, short/long… an intro to poetry for young readers

4. A broad mix of themes, settings, characters and situations

5. Highly detailed illustrations that interact with the poems & readers

6. Clean humor, light mischief … nothing too scary or controversial

7. No modern technology references (computers, tvs, cell phones, video games, social media, etc.)

 

I wanted the collection to feel whimsical (like a diary of dreams), which loosely lined up with my own inspiration for the stories. I also wanted the stories to feel like they were told and illustrated by a child.

 

Based those starting criteria, I carefully selected poems that worked well together and also brought something different or unique to the collection. Some poems were re-written to offer a different metering, and others were tweaked to avoid repeating similar rhyming sounds or punchlines.

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Similarly, every illustration was designed to complement the poem, but also to work within the context of the book – different color schemes but similar look and feel, diversifying narrators and characters, etc. I wanted every page to feel like a new experience, to keep even the most reluctant readers engaged.

 

In total, this book represents well over 1,000 hours of writing and illustrating over 2+ years, and it is 100% AI-free. I hope you love it as much as I do!