Ahoy child authors and illustrators! Look for the Minnesota Children’s Press’ pop-up publishing

club table in the lobby of the YMCA on Thursdays, starting March 12, 2020. Open afterschool

on a casual, drop-in basis from 3-7 p.m., the Story Scouts club is courtesy of Minnesota

Children’s Press, www.minnchildpress.org. Minnesota Children's Press is Grand Marais’ new

nonprofit dedicated to helping children voice and amplify their messages for the world they will

soon steward as adults.

Staffed by award-winning author and publisher, science writer Anne Brataas

(www.thestorylaboratory.com), a Grand-Marais part-time resident, the pop-up table is open to

kids in grades 2-8 (but we're flexible; show up and see how you do) who have visions they want

to voice and can focus and collaborate productively to make it happen. If word writing is not your

talent or interest, no problem! Pictures, maps, secret codes, cartoons, runic designs, shape

poems, totems, charts, graphs, flags, logos, heraldic crests and more that help visualize story

are all welcome. We need child researchers, archivists, editors and interviewers, too. Want to

build a website? Great! Learn how to update our Story Scouts ( www.storyscouts.org and

BorealCorps web sites! ( www.borealcorps.org)

March through May, we feature a three-part story sampler of publishing activities for you

to choose from — do one or all — that include:

1) Bring out your inner Stick Figure artist! Create your character and embody it in a Stick Fig

you send on adventures around the pages of a book you begin today with Minnesota Children’s

Press( www.minnchildpress.org ). On March 12, Stick Fig Artist, cartoonist, actor, and improv

player Kip Hathaway will be on hand to inspire and guide you to a world where all things Stick

Fig are possible. Ditto Cartoons–just ask Kip!

suffragettes who won the vote for women through the passage of the 19th amendment to the

U.S. Constitution, ratified August 18, 1920. Make your own banner and sash designs as

Minnesota women throughout the state did 100 years ago —and help us celebrate this

important centennial of women’s vote. We will make and publish exhibit boards and display

them around town!

3) Co-create the text and illustrations for Deer and Rabbit, a true story of growing up in

Grand Marais in the 1930s involving a blind deer, and the rabbit who took care of him. This is

the first in a series of True Tales of North Shore Childhoods that Minnesota Children’s Press is

creating and publishing in 2020. It is dedicated to the spirit and work of the late gifted teacher

and beloved mentor, Grand Marais native Bob Pratt.

With his lifelong friends and fellow Grand Marais natives, Gordon and Joyce Russell Lindquist,

Bob spoke with Anne Brataas of Minnesota Children’s Press in April 2017 while gathered

around the Lindquist’s kitchen table. We created what we called “The Wisdom Project.” We

wanted to pass on local elders' views and true tales of the North Shore life, culture and values

to the children who will create and tend its future.

Now that Minnesota Children’s Press is finally formed and certified as a tax-exempt public

charity based in Grand Marais, it takes as its first project carrying that kitchen-table conversation

forward. We will begin thanking and honoring Bob by writing, illustrating and publishing the

story of Gordon’s Grand Marais childhood pets–Silver, the abandoned blind fawn he found and

the family's pet rabbit, who adopted Silver–with the book-to-be authored and illustrated by

children, Deer and Rabbit. Join us!

Visit us in person on Thursdays at the Publishing Pop-up -- or email [email protected]

to learn about how to join us remotely from wherever you are in Cook County. As an

entrepreneurial authoring club, Story Scouts aims to prepare kids with the portfolio and

authoring skills to thrive in 21st century digital communications. Remote working is a vital 21st

Century skill set worth you need to learn and master! When you join Minnesota Children’s Press

Story Scouts entrepreneurial authoring club this spring you get the full fun…including eligibility

for the Lego Challenge Tree Fort Building Blast.

We supply the Legos in our as-yet unbuilt Lego Lounge that is on our list of good things-tobe...

and coming soon to a North Shore childhood near you!