There once was a man who made hats of all shades,

Some styled for balls, and some for parades.

Each day the man sat with needle and thread,

Every stitch a masterpiece, fit for a head!

The Hat Maker's Hats is about a man who makes hats and gives them away for free.  Everyone seems to appreciate his gifts.  But then one day people begin to demand that he do better, and give them what they want rather than what he's offering.  The hat maker becomes discouraged, and wonders if it's even worth making hats anymore.

When faced with opposition, it is easy to lose faith in your abilities.  But why do we do what we love?  Is it to please others, or is it to fulfill a need inside us?

As I leave home I hear my mom say,

“When you don’t know what to do, Always Fly Away.”

Always Fly Away is written in rhyming verse and tells the story from the perspective of a young bird named Stella.  She leaves home to meet a friend by the creek, and there she is greeted by a kind-looking cat.  The cat seems gentle and asks for Stella’s help, but Stella remembers the advice her mother gives her every time she goes out, “Do not go with strangers: always fly away!”  Stella must keep her distance, stay alert, and fly away in order to escape the cat before he shows his true intentions.

Always Fly Away teaches children important lessons about who a stranger is—it does not matter what they look like, a stranger is someone a parent or guardian has not introduced to you.  Not only does the story teach child safety through the example of a lovable protagonist, but it also contains questions and instructions at the end of the book to review with the child reading it.

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Jeffrey's Monster is a webcomic about a scientist and his creation, as well as the diverse characters that live in their world.

Written by E. M. Wixen and Illustrated by Sarah Broberg.

JeffreysMonster.com

It is easy to know the beginning of a story—it will introduce itself the moment you take notice of it.  The difficulty lies with worlds.  There is often no one around at the start of one to tell us how it all came to be.  There is even some question as to how our world came to be—whether with a word, or a bang, or a word so loud and powerful that it sounded like a bang.  But however ours started, there is little mystery as to where Jeffrey's dimension came from.  It was a spot of tea.

The unknown comes from who spilled the tea, although there are plenty of theories regarding that. Still, the event is clear: a spot of tea landed on a clean piece of parchment and for some reason (again, theories abound) no one sopped it up.  Thus, the stain was allowed to soak in, and it grew and grew and took shape into little towns, cities, and sprawling lands.  As with any fertile haven, there came creatures to fill it.

Since the tea and parchment came from our world, hints of us also seeped through, creating and forming something familiar yet different, old yet new, where actions have power but powerful words have consequences. Generations passed and the parchment world grew clearer and deeper, forming colors and characters and becoming something wholly itself, with a touch of soul, some say.  They also say that every story must have an end…I say they need not have endings, just punchlines.