Holly Engel-Smothers

Holly Engel-Smothers is a former Parent Educator for the Parents as Teachers early childhood program and continues to work as a consultant for Parents as Teachers, especially for families with twins. Since 1990, she has been an educator specializing in teaching parents and their children up to age seven. She works in a Title I program teaching low-level students and is on her district's Communication Arts Committee and Literacy Team. She has a Master's Degree in Teaching Reading. Holly's writing credits include "The Read and Respond" series, consisting of six curriculum guides based on children's literature, and "The Real World" series-three books for practical applications of reading, math, and science. Holly has had numerous articles published in magazines and is a contributing author to several books.
Holly Engel-Smothers

By same author
Boosting Your Baby's Brain Power
A newborn baby's brain is quite phenomenal, with over 100 billion neurons that would stretch more than 60,000 miles!

A newborn baby's brain is quite phenomenal, with over 100 billion neurons that would stretch more than 60,000.....

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T'was the Night Before Christmas... 

 (With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, may he forgive my doggerel...)

...and all through the shop,
all we minions were working,
   until ready to drop.

The ebooks were flying,
the covers were spare,
The edits were crazy,
   with "one more thing I must share!"

We waited for Santa,
'Cuz we love old Saint Nick,
But Hitch made us work,
   Waving 'round an old stick!

So slave we all did,
And made all your books,
So that Hitch would say now,
   that we're off the hook.

Come today we're off,
to rest up our fingers,
Our hats we will doff,
   No books they do linger.

But we'll all be back,
Don't give it a thought,
for like all wage slaves,
   we're easily bought.

We'll be back on the fifth,
all eager and fresh,
All ready for you,
   after a well-deserved rest.

So Hitch wants to say,
very strongly and loud,
THANKS ALL YOU GUYS,
  you're the best type of crowd.

Indy and Len and Hitch and the gang,
will be back on the 5th,
to do books with a BANG!

In the meantime don't worry,
if you're in a hurry,
'cuz some poor guy got stuck
   sitting here like a duck.

Your emails we'll receive,
so no need to grieve.
We'll be a bit slow,
but we're raring to go.

Your books will be worked on,
your edits still made,
we're just resting a bit,
   before we all fade.

So please excuse the delays;
It won't be for days;
we'll jump on your queries,
   for your wondrous new series.

We waited for Santa,
'Cuz we love old St. Nick,
And sure 'nuff he came,
   It wasn't a trick.

And as he rode off,
into the night,
I could swear I heard Hitch yell,
   "That Edit's Not Right!"

~~~~~~~~~~

We'll be back on the morning of January 5th; we'll be here parttime between now and then, thanks.