Books with author - Jamison

As "Pops", John shares the stories he told his daughter years ago, and now tells his grandchildren today. Stories of fun and wonder, sometimes crazy, but always with a smile. "Meet the Skwerdlock!" was created to help spark a love of books, help learn a few words, and just have an excuse to sit in the recliner and enjoy time together.Pops says:I really enjoy seeing nicely done illustrations in books. However, one of the goals of this book is to show that you don’t have to be a professional artist or illustrator to create books. Children are filled with great stories, and I want to encourage them to write those stories down, and bring them to life with their own pictures. If they end up looking really, really great, that’s just fine.But if they end up looking like mine do, that’s perfectly ok too!

2019 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards Honorable Mention Winner!The Skwerdlock would never do anything to hurt anyone or to cause any problems. But sometimes, just having a Skwerdlock means that strange things can happen. This little story is a friendly reminder of what can happen when a Skwerdlock is around.It’s not that the Skwerdlock is bad. It’s just that the Skwerdlock is curious. Like we are. And all those times when we say, “I wonder what would happen if…”, the Skwerdlock just does it. A little picture-book story for early readers and listeners, meant to cause a smile and maybe a laugh. Suitable for couches and recliners wherever they may be found.Pops says, the Skwerdlock has been very special in our family for a long time, and I hope others will have the same kind of fun. This is a fun story to read together, and especially fun when your young readers can read it to you! There is no moral, no lesson, just a fun story to relax and enjoy!

"I get along well with honey badgers," says the protagonist of this story. After all, he was raised by a pair of them. Protected by his adoptive parents, who represent the most fearless species on the planet, this boy has nothing to fear as he eats (only flowers) and drinks (spring water) and sleeps (in a den) and plays (with kites made of ferns). In this nonsensical picture book, first-time author Jamison Odone navigates a boldly wild and unabashedly strange style. Radiant, exotic, spooky illustrations highlight the unorthodox sequence of the protagonist's statements that explain his bizarre life.

Chicago suburbs, 1985. The high school. The mall. The blood-stained Mercedes. Misogyny. Homophobia. Class warfare. Cocaine. (And the first semester isn’t even over yet.)The Jocks with their pastel Izods. The Barbies. The loser Burnouts.High school in the 1980s had rules. Barbies and Jocks can mix. Barbie cheerleaders steer clear of the losers.When a snarky Burnout goes after Samantha in a face-off, she has to be snarkier to stay at the top of the heap. Meanwhile, she’s embarrassed to have missed a sexual innuendo—and to feel a tingle when she looks at bad-boy Jason.How could she know her mean girl put-down would launch a war?In Between Days is a pitch-perfect story of first love, friendship, and enemies; of loyalty, betrayal, and the power of secrets. This darkly funny, suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of The Outsiders and The Breakfast Club. “THIS WAS a bittersweet tumble into eighties high school nostalgia, with all the angst, sexual tension and emotional confusion involved with first love, and so well done it was a non-stop read to the end.… (Oh, and one of the best first kisses I have EVER read...),” says one reviewer.

Literary nonsense turns to whimsical imagery with a macabre twist in the pen-and-ink drawings of Jamison Odone. Stick figures have never emoted this much energy as each page brings a certain curiosity to a new light in this deconstruction of Lewis Carroll's classic. Starkly black and white, these stick characters are as much a quandary as their literary, cartoon and theatre counterparts ever were. Omitting much of the melodic verbiage of the original, Stickfiguratively Speaking creates a simple variation with an exquisitely sophisticated twist that's already being compared to Edward Gorey."Stickfiguratively Speaking is a way that I take stories that I love and adapt them in a visually simple way that is truthfully not all that simple," says Odone. "I view each of these books as an individual project in storytelling, design, and picture making.

As "Pops", John shares the stories he told his daughter years ago, and now tells his grandchildren today. Stories of fun and wonder, sometimes crazy, but always with a smile. "I Saw the Skwerdlock" is the second Skwerdlock story created to help spark a love of books, help learn a few words, and just have an excuse to sit in the recliner and enjoy time together.Pops says:The Skwerdlock has been very special in our family for a long time, and I hope others will have the same kind of fun. This is a fun story to read together, and especially fun when your young readers can read it to you! There is no moral, no lesson, just a fun story to relax and enjoy!Children are filled with great stories, and I want to encourage them to write those stories down, and bring them to life with their own pictures. If they end up looking really, really great, that’s just fine.But if they end up looking like mine do, that’s perfectly OK too!

Always Share Your Iceberg: Big Words from Small Penguins is a perfect gift for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a graduation day—or any day!It was Virginia Woolf who said, “You cannot find peace by avoiding life,” and it was Confucius who said “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day,” but who can remember such things? You’d remember if a penguin said them, and now they do. Always Share Your Iceberg pairs 52 wise, witty, profound quotes from history’s great writers, thinkers, and dreamers with penguin cartoons that bring the words to life in a new and engaging way. J.D. Salinger said, “She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.” And when the “she” in the illustration is a penguin,a great quote becomes unforgettable.

Discover the exciting, and often miraculous, missionary adventures of the "Snowshoe Priest"-Venerable Frederic Baraga, the first bishop of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Declared "Venerable" by Pope Benedict XVI on May 10, 2012, this priest came to the United States from Slovenia in 1830 to undertake his mission as a "simple servant of God." For almost forty years, Fr. Frederic Baraga traveled across over 80,000 square miles of wilderness by snowshoe in winter and canoe in summer. In imitation of Christ, Bishop Baraga become poor so that he might bring the riches of the Catholic Faith to the Chippewa and immigrant residents of the beautiful peninsula he served. Although not strictly a biography, this book is a story based on historical facts drawn from Bishop Baraga's own journal and letters. Many of the conversations are imagined, but the characters and deeds are real, making this a fascinating, easy-to-read history of Michigan's northern peninsula. While this exciting adventure is intended for youth who are interested in knowing more about this quiet, courageous priest, readers of all ages will be inspired by his life of humility, simplicity, and selfless virtue. This new study edition contains over 130 footnotes, defining less familiar vocabulary words and-gleaned from Venerable Baraga's Journal and other primary sources-details regarding the region's people and places. Also included are discussion questions, applicable Scripture passages, pertinent quotations of Venerable Baraga from the text, and- most importantly-a section illustrating how to imitate the various virtues of Venerable Frederic Baraga. Additionally, the complete text of Bishop Baraga's 1853 "Pastoral Letter to the Faithful" has been included with numerous references added in order that we may read this in light of Scripture and the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Learn more about the life, ministry, and heroic virtues of Venerable Frederic Baraga, the "Snowshoe Priest"!

What can you do when you love to paint everything, but your dog just loves to run? A fun story for earlier listeners and early readers.From the author:I really enjoy seeing nicely done illustrations in books. However, one of the goals of this book is to show that you don’t have to be a professional artist or illustrator to create books. Children are filled with great stories, and I want to encourage them to write those stories down, and bring them to life with their own pictures. If they end up looking really, really great, that’s just fine.But if they end up looking like mine do, that’s perfectly ok too!This book began as a little story I created to read to our grandchildren while we sat together on the couch. Now, we sit together on the couch while they read it to us. I hope you can do the same with yours.“Pops” Jamison, June 2017.