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Marianne Blackstone Tabner is passionately curious about everything. As an author, she shares her own fascination of learning with children by making reading fun. Taking Turns, offered in both English and Spanish, helps children to explore concepts of sharing while providing them with opportunities to expand their creativity and imagination with hands-on science activities.
Inspired by the birth of her first grandchild, Marianne rediscovered her passion to advocate for children’s literacy and their learning needs which began when she was a special education teacher in the Boston suburbs. Marianne is a devoted supporter of local and national literacy foundations. A portion of Marianne’s proceeds is donated to “Every Child a Reader” and “Children’s Literacy Foundation (Clif)” and the “Monarch School in San Diego for the homeless.”
Marianne has created “Mimi’s Story Hour” to share her love of reading with children and to provide fun, educational, hands-on activities for parents and teachers. Marianne is a devoted supporter of local and national literacy foundations and an active member of SCBWI, 12 x 12 , and several other writing/critique groups for children. Marianne completed her certificate in Writing for Children with UCSD, March 2021.
Stay tuned to access more resources and to follow “Mimi” on her next story hour adventure. She now lives, writes, and plays in sunny San Diego, CA.
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
The Moon brightens the night sky, sometimes making the stars giggle as they twinkle brightly. The Sun brightens the daytime hours, encouraging all loving creatures to come out and enjoy its warmth. But one day, the Moon decided it wanted to have all the attention, so when his nighttime ended, he didn’t let the Sun take over. In fact, the Sun was blocked from the sky. All the creatures were baffled, not knowing what to do with the forever night sky. It took Thunder to point out to the Sun that something must be done. The Sun did do something to make things right again.
Marianne Blackstone Tabner’s picture book story, Taking Turns, is a clever and informative way to teach young readers the importance of sharing and caring and, yes, taking turns. Using the two illuminators of the sky, the Sun and the Moon, to lead readers through a plot that challenges the bully-ish notion of who’s the better, young readers will instantly grasp the intention of the story and how important it is to allow others to shine in their own place and their own time. The story is written in simple language with basic sentence structure, and simple subject/predicate form, which makes it easy for a young reader to follow along and perhaps read themselves. I particularly love the illustrations – beautiful paintings depicting the sky, the Sun and the Moon, and life on Earth during the day and the night. At the end of the book, there is an interesting fact sheet on the Sun and the Moon.
