Dragons n'' Things is for the child in every adult and the adult the child will become. Many of the stories are constructed as learning tools such as Othello the Ox; Sartre the Seal, William the Conquer Worm, Wally the Whale, Sir Thomas the Tiger, and Erase the Mouse.
They are based on the writings of Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Sartre the Existentialist, Edgar Allen Poe, T. S. Elliot and Erasmus; with premises such as Plato''s Republic and many more. They introduce in a fabled fashion works that most of us struggled through in high school and college. Hopefully they will help familiarize the child at an early age with names and topics and make them more palatable in their later years.
The goal is that if your children read or are read to about the adventures of Othello the Ox as a child they will possibly enjoy the play even more when they have become an adolescent or adult. If you join Erase the Mouse in his ventures into Utopia maybe you will understand it better as an adult. The book is constructed so that hopefully the adult can have fun while reading and educating the child. Who wouldn''t want to go to Seventh Heaven or visit Cloud Nine?
The book also caters to the younger child with simple stories such as Baby Billy and Liddle Tina; Tales of the Caribbean Coral Coast and Polar Pals. It is chock full of poems and stories based on games we all played as children such as Ghosts in the Garden and I Packed my Grandmother''s Trunk. Enter the lands of Enchantment such as The Magic Belt, the Fabled Forrest, the Eachy Peachy River, the Connamarra Meadow and many more.
It is beautifully illustrated by Amanda Penrose and Denise Ovelgone with more than 230 illustrations. Dollar for dollar this book delivers a ton of entertainment for you and your child for years to come. Loaded with stories to be read to and memories to be relived and remembered for a lifetime.
We hope you will enjoy the book and contact us with your comments.
Loretto came to this country in 1959 with her mother Anne Shadbolt and brother Gerrard Shadbolt. Her father Robert Shadbolt had come over one year prior to prepare the way for the family. She always remembered that first plane ride when her mother said the rosary the whole way! They were allowed only one suitcase each. She always felt saddened by what her mother had to leave behind in Ireland. They had to sell everything. They came into America with $31 and fifty cents.
At first they resided on Baltimore Street in Baltimore Md. Later they moved for a year to Armistead Gardens. Her parents managed to buy a house in Irvington and resided there till there untimely deaths in 1963 and 1971. “My parents were hard workers” she says, “They never went on assistance no matter how hard it was. My mother who was a writer and had had a book published in England titled The Adventures of Gay, didn’t mind scrubbing floors. ‘It’s good for the soul she would always say’
Loretto raised her brother Jerry from the age of nine. He resided with her on and off till he was 33. He moved to LA to try his luck as a song writer. He returned soon after settling into the Dundalk area where he was a cab driver for the Emerald Cab Company till his tragic death in 1994 at the age of 40. He was hit and killed by a drunk driver. Gerrard had lost his only child a little boy named Robbie after his grandfather Robert when he was 25. He is survived by his wife Nanette Shadbolt who still lives in the Dundalk area.
Loretto considers New York her second home. She will never forget the sight of the Statue of Liberty as their plane landed near the city. She spends a good part of each year there where she has met many friends in the film business. Her company Mc Donagh-Davis Associates is named after her mother’s and grandmother’s maiden names. She has been involved with many film and video productions including; The Family Treasures with her friend Miki Tatum who was the Producer. She was the assistant to the producer for the New York segments.
MDA has produced many shorts and promos and cast into numerous productions shot in Baltimore. Loretto won a Telly Award for a 57 minute documentary titled The Loneliest Journey she made in colaboration with Sylvia Schildt. She was also the Co-Producer for the 90 minute film Stagefright which was directed and produced by Brad Mays. The film was invited by the New York Endowment for the Arts to the Berlin Film Festival. It received a number of outstanding reviews.
Loretto finished her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Maryland in Baltimore; and a second Minor Degree in Writing which she attributes to her mother’s dying wishes that she go to college and make something of herself.
She has been writing since 1969 when by accident her mother’s writings were burned. Through memory she re-wrote most of them and in the process became she hopes herself a writer. She has written hundreds of works including children’s stories, plays, screenplays works on esoterics, essays and of course poetry.
Loretto currently resides in Baltimore Md in the Fells Point Area with her son Kevin and her husband Lou of 36 years where she produces a number of local cable television shows including The Top of the Morning; 200 episodes, Teens Are Talkin with Shawnte Campbell, The Senior Scene with Ms. Verna Day Jones and After Midnight. She also produces the Children’s program titled
“The Children’s Corner” with host Zoh Meyerhoff. The Children’s Corner is in its 50 episode.
She is was a founding mother of Women in Film in Baltimore and is a member of the IFP in New York. She has been listed for 3 years in Who’s Who of Amreica. She has been recently appointed by Mayor Martin O’Malley to the Board of Conveeners for Public Access channel 75 in Baltimore.
The website is http://the_childrens_corner.tripod.com
Virginia smiled a gentle smile as she sweetly plucked the mandolin strings. She lived in the land of Honey Lee of the coast of the Mystic Sea. She was the sweetest, gentlest maiden in all the land and much beloved of the villagers. They came daily to her cottage to hear her lovely songs. They were songs song sweetly of the Land of Honey Lee. The birds chimed in and the butterflies and bees buzzed softly as she sang. She sat demurely on the hill of daffodils, herself a reflection in her orange yellow dress. Her auburn hair tied gaily with a bow. "Love is in the air" she sang and the villagers sighed romantically.
So the days went lazily by with the music of love and the lovely. Then one day the village elder came with a heavy heart to the village meeting hall. Their worse enemy the horribly beastly Dragon Nebo was back and demanded another sacrifice to spare their village from his fiery onslaught. You see each year the villagers had used a lottery to select the unfortunate victim but this year Nebo demanded that the sacrifice be their purest most beloved treasure, which of course was none other than Virginia. Well Virginia being the girl she was volunteered to go but with only one request that she not be shackled and that she could take her mandolin and go out with a song in her heart.