Today’s Shout-Out!

Today’s Shout-Out goes to the incredible Madelyn Rosenberg, who has TWO BOOKS coming out this fall: Happy Birthday, Tree, a Tu B’Shevat Story and The Schmutzy Family. And there’s gonna be so much more a-comin’, too, so keep your eyes peeled. I, for one, am very excited about what’s a-comin’. She has been toiling and waiting, and waiting, and waiting for so long. Seeing her books on the shelves for the first time will be like a national holiday in our house.

Who is Madelyn Rosenberg? I first met her when she worked with Tom at our local paper, the Roanoke Times; she was an ace reporter and features writer (and sometimes an editor, too) who could make you laugh and cry with just one story. And soon I found out that she had a zillion ideas, all of them good. A lot of them were hilarious get-rich-quick schemes. But what was and is great about Madelyn, is that she gets really, really excited about your ideas, maybe even more excited than she does about her own, and then she lights a fire under your be-hind so that you are helpless to do anything in her presence but to pursue that idea. She has been a huge support to both of us over the years, and I am particularly thrilled that Madelyn herself is soon gonna be OUT THERE.

I once did these little paintings for another friend (who will be getting her own shout-out soon). The paintings showed human organs anthropomorphized (if that makes any sense at all). Madelyn went wild about the idea of goofy organs. I mean, wild. I made her a little painting of a variety of organ friends, and she went wild again. So then, I made her newborn baby a quilt (which was probably intended more for Madelyn), and it had 26 organs on it, for each letter of the alphabet. Here are a couple of the quilt “squares”:

K is for Kidneys!

F is for Femur!

Madelyn, you are so #1!