Hope is Here! by Cristina Kessler, earns the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval

Hope is Here! by Cristina Kessler, earns the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval

by | Dec 30, 2019 | Hope is Here!, Society, St. John

“I am excited and proud to share this good news with all my family and friends. I received it while in Africa and hope to have the press release go out next week. I am honored that HOPE IS HERE! has received this recognition. Yahoo!”

For Immediate Release
Children’s Literary Classics

http://www.clcreviews.blogspot.com/2015/06/hope-is-here-by-cristina-kessler-earns.html

Children’s Literary Classics is pleased to announce that the children’s picture book, Hope is Here!, written by Cristina Kessler and illustrated by Marcos Castillo, has been selected to receive the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval. The CLC Seal of Approval is a designation reserved for those books which uphold the rigorous criteria set forth by the Children’s Literary Classics review committee, a team comprised of individuals with backgrounds in publishing, editing, writing, illustration and graphic design.

Hope is Here! is the fascinating story of a small migratory bird called Hope. Hope is a Whimbrel, a bird about the size of a duck, which was implanted with a solar antenna for the purpose of scientific research. It is the research team’s intent to learn the migratory patterns of these birds to help protect the eco-system upon which they depend. The story, as told by a teacher to her students, recounts the incredible journey made by Hope each year from Canada all the way to her breeding grounds in the Caribbean. Over a four year period, Hope provided valuable data which will help ensure that more of her kind will continue to thrive in the many places they call home.

The book includes photographs and colorful illustrations along with a glossary and even suggestions on how to help protect Hope’s delicate eco-system.

Hope is Here! is well written and provides a great deal of information to keep young readers engaged. This book is recommended for classroom reading, and for home and school libraries.

Children’s Literary Classics, an organization dedicated to furthering excellence in children’s literature, takes great pride in its role to help promote classic children’s literature which appeals to youth, while educating and encouraging positive values in the impressionable young minds of future generations.

To learn more about Children’s Literary Classics, you may visit their website at www.clcawards.org or www.childrensliteraryclassics.com

Field biologist Fletcher Smith visited the Virgin Islands as the Celebrity Scientist with the UVI program EPSCoR

Field biologist Fletcher Smith visited the Virgin Islands as the Celebrity Scientist with the UVI program EPSCoR

by | Dec 30, 2019 | Hope is Here!, St. John

“I wanted the students to meet a scientist who loves what he does, who is really excited about his job,” said Kessler. “Maybe it will inspire some of them to want to be scientists themselves.”

The week of March 14 – 20, 2016 was a busy one for field biologist Fletcher Smith. Fletcher visited the Virgin Islands as the Celebrity Scientist with the UVI program EPSCoR. It took almost two years for me to arrange this visit, but the wait was well-worth it. We visited 7 schools on 3 islands in 5 days. There were also bird walks on St. John and St. Croix, plus an evening presentation for adults on those two islands.

Fletcher presented to over 750 students, and it was truly a success. The reason I proposed this program to EPSCoR is because I thought it would be good for the kids to hear about the life of a true scientist who spends 80% of his time in the field. He’s traveled from the Arctic in NW Canada, to St. Croix, just tracking Hope the Whimbrel, the star of my book HOPE IS HERE!

It was very obvious by the quality and quantity of questions from the students that they were fully engaged in Fletcher’s presentation. His show included slides, videos, maps and a few graphs. Some kids even stayed after the class to ask individual questions. I would say that there are many budding scientists on the three islands as a direct result of hearing and seeing what an interesting and important contribution Fletcher’s field work makes.

I sincerely thank Fletcher for his hard work in making so many presentations and know for sure that he was an inspiration to the kids. And a big thanks to St. John Rotary and the Audubon Society of St. John that generously presented Fletcher with honorarium checks. Having community support like this is great, so thanks again to the Audubon Society on St. John, St. John Rotary and EPSCoR.

Learn more about Fletcher’s visit on this featured article in the St. John Source.

Excerpt from the article:

This month Fletcher Smith, an ornithologist working out of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, visited schools across the V.I. to talk to students about what he and his research team have learned while tracking Hope and other whimbrels. On Monday and Tuesday, Smith visited St. John, where he spoke with students at Gifft Hill and Julius E. Sprauve Schools.

Smith was accompanied by award-winning children’s author and St. John resident Cristina Kessler, who published a book about Hope in 2013. The two also visited schools on St. Thomas and St. Croix.

Gifft Hill School Students listening to a presentation from Fletcher Smith.
Fletcher Smith talking to students after his presentation at Julius E. Sprauve School.
Chats about Hats, St. John School of the Arts

Chats about Hats, St. John School of the Arts

by | Dec 14, 2019 | Culture, Society, St. John, Women

2015 has proven to be a very exciting year, as I ventured into new projects. In cooperation with the St. John School of the Arts I interviewed four West Indian matriarchs about their hats. Wearing hats is an old tradition in the local community. This project was inspired by Kim Wild, Director of the School of the Arts. I interviewed each woman and then wrote their stories according to what they told me. I then visited each one to take a photo of them.

The photo of Miss Blake was taken by her daughter and accentuates how the hat is the finishing touch on a well-planned and executed outfit. Once the stories were written and approved by the ladies The School of the Arts put together a dance performance based on the stories. I hope you enjoy their stories. It was a real honor for me to get to know these wonderful women.

Chats About Hats

told to Cristina Kessler

I grew up in Cruz Bay until I was about 14. It was a village then, like a big family. We celebrated together and sympathized together as one family. If someone heard a child crying everyone came. They would take you on a walk or visit the bay with you.

I was still a small child when I got my first hat. Even before I started school. There was a woman who platted hats from straw. She wove them like someone plaits hair. She platted hats for girls going to school. For the little girls they had a ribbon to tie under the chin, I think so they wouldn’t fly off when we ran. Hats were always part of the back to school clothes. That lady made some fine styles with her hats.

Mrs. Andromeda Childs

Today I like to wear a hat with a wide brim so I can wrap a scarf around it. I have many scarves and many hats. I wear the same ones a lot until I go to the back of the group and pull out something I haven’t see for awhile. Sometimes I put it aside and sometimes I look at it and then just put it back. When I was up north I had hats with plumes or feathers, but not anymore. I like Panama hats because you can shape them. My hats for church are dressier.

Sometimes when I wear a hat it just makes me feel better. You can tilt it to match your mood. It says a little more about the way you are feeling. I usually wear a hat when I leave the house. It depends on my hairstyle. Usually I have a hat to protect me from the sun. Also a hat does something special for me sometime so I like that. A nice hat can make you feel better, more together.

I’ll never forget when I wore a hat to my first opera. I had it on to finish my outfit because I was dressing up. What I didn’t know is that you aren’t supposed to wear a hat to the opera. There was a man mumbling behind me but I didn’t know it was about me until a young man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to remove my hat. I did and I never made that mistake again. It’s hat etiquette.

We go on cruises now, and if I see someone wearing a fine hat some place we stop, I get one there. If I don’t buy one my husband might ask, “Not getting a hat this time?” I got my Panama hat in Ecuador. It came rolled up in a small box it is made so fine. And when I’m in New York if I see a hat store I go in and try hats on. If I’m in Macy’s or Gimbles I go to their hats departments and try hats on.

Times change with generations. When I was growing up all girls and women wore hats. Not all women wear hats to church now. Young women will wear a hat to church sometime. I think that hats will always be around. Hats definitely have a future.

When I was growing up you would always see women wearing their hats. My mother used to say, “Women wear hats to church and men take them off.” We had straw hats made by hand by a woman over in the BVI where I grew up.

I don’t like big hats because I like to wear a hat down on my forehead – so I prefer little ones. Thin ones, not the wide, wide ones. When I do Worship Service on Sundays at church I don’t wear a wide hat because I don’t want people to look at the hat, I prefer them to listen to what I say. I don’t want to wear one over my face, because that would like take away from what I’m saying. They’d be looking at that instead of listening.

Mrs. Reubenia V. Hill

I wouldn’t say I have a lot of hats, but the ones I have are old. They don’t fit so well because my hair is less full than it used to be. But every once in a while I see them, love them and leave them. Now I can crochet some for myself. I learned to crochet from when I was young, but then a cousin taught me to read it recently and that helped me a lot because now I can take up a pattern and try to follow it. Maybe I don’t get everything a 100%. I can make my own hats and I can read a pattern now.

I admire a woman that looks very nice. Some wear hats to match their clothes and that finishes the outfit. I look and I say, “That person looks really nice.” I feel more completely dressed with my hat on. Some places I go don’t need a hat, but mostly at night with the weather I wear a hat to keep the cold off my head and in the day to keep sun off it too.

Sometimes I watch different worship programs on TV, and some of the hats they wear are out of this world! I might be able to help someone if they put on a hat and asked me, I could say that one looks better than the other. For me I look in the mirror and if it’s ok I just wear it. I don’t know any secrets about choosing a hat. I just look in the mirror.

Today is not like when we were growing up. Not so many hats, and sometimes not worn right. Pastor George says baseball caps on backwards are bad boy style or bad girl style. Not good. In church I don’t see so many hats, like when growing up, but I can tell you – I still like mine.

I was about 10 years old when I got my first hat. My mother was in St. Thomas and she sent me and my sister nice white hats for Easter. It is a family tradition, wearing hats to church. You wear a hat to show respect for God in his house.

My grandmother never went to church unless she had her head covered. When I was growing up, if we didn’t have a hat for church we wore a mantilla to cover our heads. My grandmother never kneeled to pray unless her head was covered with a mantilla, so it was a sacred something we did in our family. It’s a tradition that was handed down to me from my parents and my grandparents.

Miss Daisy Callwood

I was about 10 years old when I got my first hat. My mother was in St. Thomas and she sent me and my sister nice white hats for Easter. It is a family tradition, wearing hats to church. You wear a hat to show respect for God in his house.

My grandmother never went to church unless she had her head covered. When I was growing up, if we didn’t have a hat for church we wore a mantilla to cover our heads. My grandmother never kneeled to pray unless her head was covered with a mantilla, so it was a sacred something we did in our family. It’s a tradition that was handed down to me from my parents and my grandparents.

I haven’t passed this tradition onto my children because they think it’s old fashioned, so they don’t wear hats. But, they give me a hat for Christmas most every year. Some I have never worn because they don’t fit my face. I have to fit the hat, no one can tell me what hat fits my face. I have more hats than I can count, stuffed in closets and boxes and bags.

The hats I wear most are custom-made. I have my own hat maker, on St. Thomas. She comes with hats and if I like one I say, “I’ll take this one, but in a special color.” When I was being honored at Frenchman’s Reef I didn’t have a hat for the night. I told her I needed a silver hat, to go with my outfit. She made a fine one.

Not all hats are right for me. I may not like the shape, and it has to match my face or I don’t wear it. I feel comfortable in a hat, like I am ready for whatever I am going to do. Without my hat on I am not ready to go. I feel like part of me is missing – the hat makes me complete. My image is very important to me, since I was a child, and I’ve passed this onto my children. There must be a difference between how you look at home and how you look outside. You don’t need to be rich, but be clean and neat.

There are not so many hats in church anymore, in fact one Christmas a lady gave me a hat and I wore it to church and the minister mentioned my hat. He encouraged others to wear hats, and now they do. I have received many comments about my hats over the years. One lady asked me if I there is any color hat I don’t have, and I told her, “I don’t think so.”

A hat makes a statement. I have green, gold, tan, purple, red, white, black and black and white hats. I love all my hats, but my favorite hat is this black and white one. My friend Millicent made it for me.

She bought the hat plain, then added the lace and flowers and made this beautiful hat for me. The green rose hat is number two.

It’s the latest one that I got in Florida.

Mrs. Helena Blake

A hat makes a statement. I have green, gold, tan, purple, red, white, black and black and white hats. I love all my hats, but my favorite hat is this black and white one. My friend Millicent made it for me. She bought the hat plain, then added the lace and flowers and made this beautiful hat for me. The green rose hat is number two. It’s the latest one that I got in Florida.

I probably wore my first hat when I was about 10. I grew up on Nevis and the British like to wear their hats, just like the Queen. I was an Anglican when I was there, and was in the choir. We never, ever went to church bare-headed, we had to wear a hat. I still do. I have been in the Virgin Islands for 67 years and 8 months, and I am happy to see all the women in church with their hats. If I see a well-dressed woman, with a nice hat, I gawk at her – not look, but gawk – she looks so good.

You feel good when you have a dress, hat, shoes and bag that match. I pick the dress first, then choose the hat from a color or stripe or something in the dress. I love hats and shoes and I feel very confident when I am dressed-up. I went to a funeral on St. Croix, and after we went into a shop and the woman there said,

“Oh my! Aren’t you gorgeous! Look at that hat!” It’s the same black and white hat that is my favorite one. It was good to have the woman appreciate my hat.

I have a sister named Elaine Hill, who loved the hats, but not to wear. So when she sees a nice hat she bought them for me not herself. She would see a hat and say, “This looks just like Lena.” And then give me that hat. My daughter bought me a dress and shoes to go with a hat I have.

A hat says something about the person wearing it. You can fit it just right, and tilt it or not, it is up to you. I prefer hats with rims and brims. I pick a color from the dress and match it up. I never lend my hats, no, no, no! I have many, and they are all well-preserved in the top of my closet.

I see lots of women, mainly my age, wearing hats in church. The younger women not so much, but the older women yes. I love my hats!

Author-in-Residence, St. John, Virgin Islands (2010-2011)

Author-in-Residence, St. John, Virgin Islands (2010-2011)

by | Dec 14, 2019 | St. John

During the 2010-2011 school year I was the Author-in-Residence at the Julius E. Sprauve School in Cruz Bay, St. John in the Virgin Islands. I taught a creative writing course for 45 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, and a Gifted and Talented class. We did Character, Plot, Setting, Show Don’t Tell, and Dialogue workshops. I think everyone’s favorite workshop was a day at Trunk Bay where we focused on Using the Five Senses in our writing. Each student then had three, one-on-one sessions with me for the editing process.

At the end of the year we produced an anthology with 37 short stories written by the kids. Five students were selected to read their short stories at a Rotary lunch. A very big honor has been bestowed on three writers. Their stories were accepted by a magazine called Skipping Stones – A Multicultural Literary Magazine for Children.

Alyssa Paris from the 4th grade wrote “Chippey’s New Best Friend”, a story about a young blue beetle bug that goes in search of a friend. He eventually meets Juan the pelican and they have great fun together. Another 4th-grader, Kiarha Boynes, wrote a touching story called “Papa Do You Love Me More Than the Stars?” Kemisha Hobeb, a 6th-grader, wrote a fun story called “The Sunrise That Brought Carnival”. All three stories will appear in the September/October issue of the magazine. It was a great year.

We ended the year with a wonderful beach party at Lameshur Bay to celebrate our success. Thanks kids, for the hard work and all the hugs!

Another Magical Evening was another magical success

Another Magical Evening was another magical success

by | Dec 14, 2019 | Hope for Limpopo, St. John

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you, Another Magical Evening was another magical success. We raised $7,778.00, so we can continue to support the five kids we have helped since 2012, and sponsor five more if there are that many unsponsored students. Ten beautiful little kids. We may also have enough for establishing the “Rent a Ram” program, if that’s what VMS needs most. It’s great to know that Hope for Limpopo guarantees that every penny we send goes directly to the school.

None of this would have happened without the usual great teamwork of Lisa Menna and her NGO, Cause to Wonder. This year Lisa provided world-class magician, Steve Silverman. Wow! Steve’s up-close magic was dazzling and fun and I thank Steve and Lisa for making the night such a success.

Another Magical Evening once again demonstrated the generosity of the folks on St. John

Another Magical Evening once again demonstrated the generosity of the folks on St. John

by | Dec 14, 2019 | Hope for Limpopo, St. John

Another Magical Evening once again demonstrated the generosity of the folks on St. John. The evening’s gathering of 40 people was entertained by world-class magician Lisa Menna from Cause to Wonder doing card tricks and generating excitement before another world-class magician and sword swallower, Johnny Fox, wowed the audience with his unique skills of long balloons disappearing down his throat, followed by a real sword that made all squirm. His charm and humor were infectious. There was a silent auction with beautiful artwork and jewelry donated by local artists and shop owners, as well as a piece of handmade lace by my sister Susie in Cal.

I was honored that Nancy Amanti, one of the Co-Founders of Hope for Limpopo made a trip down to the island to join us for the event. The biggest surprise of the evening was the amazing donation of Whitney Falk, daughter of my good friend Jane Kelly, who was awarded Rookie of the Year at her place of work in NY. Her award was a check for $5000 to the charity of her choice. Hope for Limpopo was her chosen charity, bringing the total amount of money raised for the Vhutshilo Mountain School in Venda, SA to an impressive, mind-blowing $12,770! This means we will continue to support our 7 AID+ orphans at the school, and make a major contribution to another project at the school.

I am humbled by the giving spirit of the people who attended Another Magical Evening.