Category Archives: News + Tips

Spring flowers may be blooming outside, but Oskaloosa author Merle Lee Mann is bringing a touch of wintry magic to readers with his newly released children’s book, Troy the Llama Gets a Guitar for Christmas. The story begins just a few days before the holiday. A young llama named Troy is excited to decorate the barn and bake cookies with his friends and family, all the while dreaming of the guitar he hopes Santa Claus will bring him. […]

How many times have you heard someone call themselves a nobody? Or have you ever called yourself one? Why did you say it? And is it really a bad thing to be a nobody? Author Merlin Bylsma covers these questions and more in Nobodies in a Somebodies’ World… […]

A new biography for middle schoolers hit the shelves this Women’s History Month: My Name Is Dixie: Designer of the Iowa Flag, written by T. E. Waldmann-Williams, Ph.D., and illustrated by Cindy Gordon. As the title suggests, the book chronicles the life of Dixie Cornell Gebhardt, the Knoxville native behind the design of Iowa’s state flag. But the story doesn’t begin with that well-known symbol. […]

Peter, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, Pontius Pilate—the life of Jesus Christ was peopled by fascinating men and women whose stories have long inspired writers and artists. But what about those quiet figures, the men and women who were part of the Gospels, but whose names and stories aren’t fully known? Have you ever wondered about the […]