This is Holly Berry the Christmas Fairy. On Christmas morning, Holly Berry sprinkles Christmas Fairy Dust on the eyelids of little children around the world to wake them after Santa has delivered their gifts.

But this year, Holly Berry the Christmas Fairy isn't feeling very merry. She's grown bored with sprinkling Christmas Fairy Dust and wants to try something new.

So, what's a not-so-merry Christmas Fairy to do?

First, Holly Berry the Christmas Fairy stops by to visit Crystal Carrie the Candy Fairy. Surely Holly Berry can become a Candy Fairy.

But Crystal Carrie is covered in sugar and knee deep in candy canes in need of red stripes. She doesn't have time to teach Holly Berry how be a Candy Fairy.

"Don't be silly, Holly Berry! You're the very best Christmas Fairy! You don't want to be Candy Fairy!" says Crystal Carrie.

Holly Berry still isn't feeling very merry...

Lydia kept her hands in her lap and stared out the right rear window. Her body numb, but her senses aroused like live wires on a dark street, ripped down by a deadly storm. The stench permeating from the back car seat is confusing against the glaring sunlight streaming through the windows. She feels her own fearful perspiration mixing with the sweat of others that occupied this same seat, destined for a different kind of hell. Their blood smelled fresh, and the remnants of bodily fluids that live and fester in the carpet pores threatens the delicate balance of the contents of her stomach. Her mind wanders aimlessly: do cop cars get shampooed and vacuumed? By her calculations, this cop car looked clean, but there’s not enough soap and water in the world to wash away the human desperation that traveled through this cage on wheels. 

She looked down at her hands, ashen and dry. Her nails brittle and raggedly chewed to near bleeding. She weaved her fingers inside each other to avoid looking at them. She rested her back against the cracked black vinyl seat, all at once tense and fragile, thankful for this backseat. Anything was a vast improvement from where she’d been.  

The shoes and clothes she wore didn’t belong to her and reeked of generic detergent, Lysol, and moth balls. The lady cops scrounged around the station and pieced together the latest in prison couture: an orange jumpsuit and Adidas running shoes, both two sizes too big. But she didn’t complain. It was better than what she’d been wearing, which amounted to a little of nothing. At her side was her one possession: a journal. She glanced at it, comforted by its presence and acutely aware of its power. She slid it closer to her side, her only reminder of the last year of her life. 

 

I am a new Barefoot Books Ambassador hoping to give parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, godparents, teachers and anyone who loves kids an avenue to purchase books and gifts that will feed the imagination, while instilling a respect for diversity and a love of planet. Check out my Barefoot Books site today! You will thank me -- your kids will thank me! 

 

 

August 5-8th in Los Angeles!

Click here to learn about the all-star line-up for the best SCBWI conference ever! I was there for four days of editors, agents, networking, keynotes and consultations. For the first time in the history of SCBWI, the conference was sold-out to more than 1300 participants at the Hyatt Century Plaza. To see get a peek at what I experienced, the action was captured online right here. 

 

 

Illustrator Extraordinaire, Lois Wang