Sunday, August 16, 2015 Hope will be signing copies of Rojo.  Her daughter will be leading children in making red panda masks.  Both will be educating about pandas, endangered species, and how one can make a positive difference!  Join the fun.

I’m a few days late, but this is better than missing it completely.

Wearing red on  last Friday symbolized support of stopping the violence that has kicked back up in this country as if we’ve reverted back to the pre-civil rights era.  Get your facts straight. Click on this article Union between BLM and other political organizations and see how Rojo combats this trend and gets us back on track.‪

“The BDS anit-Israel movement hopes that by drawing comparisons to South Africa’s apartheid regime in the 1980’s toIsrale today they can trick the naive into believing their cause is equally just.”  

Don’t be naive.  Just like the misconception that the Giant Panda is the original panda they’re trying to deceive you into believing a whole other lists of non-truths.

Whether you are big or small, black or white, rich or poor,  healthy or sick you matter!

Special days like “Endangered Species Day” are designated to increase awareness and understanding of how humans can better care for their shared environment with a multitude of different species.

Click on EndangeredSpeciesDay2015 to open a complimentary lesson for 4th-6th Grade Students.    Check out “Rojo, The Baby Red Panda at the Zoo” to accompany.  After all books are critically endangered too.  Click on Beyond the Classroom: Books — a critically endangered species by Laurie Futterman

#EndangeredSpeciesDay #FreeReadingActivity #Redpandas

Feeling trapped in being completely misunderstood.  Struggling to fit in with the norm.  Acting out in frustrated emotion from the two.  And then the cycle starts all over.   Does this describe autism?

I wrote “Rojo, The Baby Red Panda at the Zoo” from observing how often those frustrated by whatever limits them,  behave in self-destructive ways that originate from pity party thinking.

Misinformation will lead others to think incorrectly about us.  Most of us don’t know that red pandas were named panda 40-50 years prior to the giant panda.  Most of us think pandas have to be big, black, and white.

Likewise, how much do we not know as a society about autism?  Do we miss out on how these humans contribute to our lives just as much as the rest of us who may not struggle with autism?

Be inspired as Rojo learns to reject the misinformed view kids have about her as she learns to embrace what God had in mind by creating her as a red panda instead of a giant panda.   Check out a copy today at your favorite online retailer.

#LIUB World Autism Awareness #autismawareness #books #Parents # kids #Red Panda

Click on Vote to conserve red pandas in Nepal by March 30, 2015!   to go to European Outdoor Conservation Association link to vote.

Thanks Zoo Miami for hosting me today for a great day of fun and education.

Click on What Is Our Bad Behavior Teaching Our Kids? to read a thought provoking article published March 20, 2015 in Parents Magazine.

A wise councilor once said that the best gift I could give to my daughter was to be emotionally healthy.   I completely agree with Zeman’s quoting of Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD’s, “insecurity is at the root” in this article.

Parents reproduce what they are.  If they, the parents, feel insecure and thus are easily offended and offend, most likely their kids will be too.    It starts with us, the parent.

Mom and Dad, consider buying Rojo, The Baby Red Panda at the Zoo for yourself and not just your kids.  Read Dr. Seuss’s, Oh The Places You Will Go,  Gertrude McFuzz, and others to yourself as you read along with your kids.  Isn’t the chance to learn what you didn’t growing up through your children one of the greatest privileges of parenting?  The greatest motivation you can give to your kids is to demonstrate that you aren’t perfect and need to learn too.

This might be a bit of a stretch to ask what St. Patrick and red pandas have in common, but I love the story behind St. Patrick’s teen life and calling to love the Irish.  My intent in writing Rojo was to give the world a unique (and educational about pandas) story to encourage loving self and others as God created and call us to do. Doesn’t St. Patrick demonstrate this in his forgiveness of the Irish pirates and those who forced him into slavery?  That plus most people know very little accurate information about both.

St. Patrick was Romano British, not Irish. He was kidnapped by Irish Pirates from his noble home in Brittan when he was a teenager and forced into Irish slavery.  He didn’t go by the name Patrick until he trained to be a Catholic Bishop many years later in France.  He returned to Ireland to share God’s love and knowledge with the Irish…the people who at one time kidnapped him. He most likely used the clover to explain God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three distinct roles in the same one God.

Red pandas were named panda first.  Not the Giant panda.  They are not raccoons or foxes. But, rather very cute creatures that can teach us something about God and his creation too.  Check out how in Rojo, The Baby Red Panda at the Zoo by Hope Mucklow.

Read more about St. Patrick in St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons and Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

“It is difficult to make a man miserable when he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.” -Abraham Lincoln from Wisdom & Wit edited by Louise Bachelder 1965.

This is the whole point of my book, “Rojo, The Baby Red Panda at the Zoo”.   Rojo learns to be content that she is a red panda, not a giant panda because God made her for specific purpose and reason.

Are the plights of weak self-image and disrespect of others that plague American society related to the removal of God as our creator?

America, why not spend some time today to research and reflect on what two amazing presidents model for us and find some inspiration to live more courageously from the lives they lived?

Happy President’s Day!

Rojo Valentines Day Coloring Page and Phonics Activity