Winner 2023
Bronze Moonbeam Award for Children’s Books / Environment
George Leaves the Lights ON
(or the importance of being earnest about conservation)
Genre: Middle Grade Chapter Book ♦ Fantasy / Poetry / Nature & Conservation
This delightful and educational story uses anapestic meter style poetry which incorporates an element of fun. A parent can read the whole book in and evening, or if the child is learning to read, each chapter is a stand alone story.
In addition to being fun to read aloud, the story allows parents an opportunity to discuss basic information about sustainable living and energy issues at a kindergarten level. A middle grade reader energy conservation chapter book in anapestic tetrameter.
In the story, George leaves lights on wherever he goes. His parents worry that he’ll blow power grids up and down both Coasts. Maybe to even Madrid and Bombay and far Timbuktu! As the electric bills rise, George’s Mom begins to have terrible dreams. From nightmares of what life would be like without light, she comes up with ideas for conservation. As do her other children. But George keeps leaving the lights on. Until the day he turns 12. On that day George finally figures out which light is important to leave ON.
Book Link to Amazon – George Leaves the Lights ON
Barbara J Genovese’s chapter book George Leaves the Lights ON: the importance of being earnest about conservation, garnered a 2023 bronze Moonbeam Children’s Book Award/Environment. “Launched in 2007, the awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to celebrate children’s books and life-long reading.”
14 years from pen to paper to publication, Barbara continues to write about what she learned as an independent publisher of Merlin’s Falcon Press. You can read her weekly blog How I Built This Book on Medium.com [@bjgenovese], LinkedIn, and Facebook. Topics include: fonts, contracts, lit searches, awards, grants, Powell’s Bookstore, trim sizes, quoting quotes correctly, books that fall off shelves, writing the Wild Bio, the Acknowledgement Page, and the Great Book of Ireland.
George’s GENRE is Fantasy / Poetry / Nature & Conservation. He’s in the ether, surfing the web, and available at your preferred online bookstore.
Author Barbara Genovese Bio
Writer
Most of the literary lighters of my way published under their own steam: William Blake, Willa Cather, Stephen Crane, e.e. cummings, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman. Whenever I encounter a good story, one that pulls me up and inside out, I ask: How did the writer do that? Answer? That writer asked: “What is it that I cannot say?” And then – held nothing back.
Master Crayon Maker
My artisan Kolorwacks™ crayon was born in Arizona’s Painted Desert. Not only did I try to rival the colors of the stone, but my spirit asked that I recapture the childhood where – when I created art in my mother’s house – she ordered me to walk it to the trash.
I live in the company of eight rivers, where the trees are magnificent communicators, and the Weather Gods of the Oregon Cascades teach the finer points of ark building.
weblinks:
Blogs https://medium.com/@bjgenovese
Writer | Editor www.southwestwriters.com/barbara-j-genovese/
Artisan Crayon Maker www.kolorwacks.com
Published November 15, 2022 George Leaves the Lights ON
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Also by Barbara Genovese:
Fiction & Non-Fiction Nominations & Awards
♦ 2015 NON-FICTION WINNER | Perceptions Literary Magazine
“My Father’s Ghosts”
♦ 2012 FICTION WINNER | Perceptions Literary Magazine | Pushcart Prize Nominee
“Far Memory”
♦ 2009 FICTION WINNER | Perceptions Literary Magazine
“Requiem for a Fish Tank”
♦ 1997 FINALIST | Journal of GIM Creative Medical Writing Award
“Ave Regina”
♦ 1994 NOMINEE | Science Fiction Poetry Association Rhysling Award
“Gravediggers Don’t Farewell Lowering Children”
NOTE: Author lost to Ray Bradbury
Articles & Essays
“A Forest of Owls: Reflections on healing dreams and their attendant, and rewarding, lexicons” ♦ IJODR/Vol 13, No2, October 2020 [on-line]
“Ancestor Dreaming: A portal for inner and outer world peace when dreaming for and with the ancestors” ♦ IJODR/Vol 10, No1, April 2017
“Thinking Inside the Box: The art of telephone interviewing” ♦ Field Methods/Vol 16, No2, May 2004
“If You Came This Way” ♦ BMJ/314:451, Feb 1997
“And God Will Fill the Bullet Holes with Candy” ♦ BMJ/313:1585, Dec 1996
Scientific Media
Contributing author on 22 journal and peer-reviewed RAND publications (full CV upon request)
Radio Plays
The Sudden Radio Project | KBOO Radio/90.7 FM | Portland OR (2005-2010)
Television Plays
The Duck Who Came in from the Cold
Aired on MetroEast Community Media’s Part Time Playhouse | Gresham OR | (January 8, 2012)
White Papers
- U.S. Cultural Exchange in the Middle East: How well do the State Department’s cultural exchange efforts map to U.S. foreign policy goals? | Briefed to the U.S. State Department | (2004)
- Jihad, and the Conscription of Children as Soldiers – Uneducated Foot Soldiers or Educated Believers? (2002)
- Unresolved Trauma, Forgiveness, and the Criminal Component (2002)
