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The Only Constant is Change!
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Oct 13, 2022
We welcome children's author Alva Sachs to the spotlight! We talk about her newest book "Sam & Sadie Super Sleuths". We also discuss her mission to promote literacy in a society where there is such a great divide in educational opportunities for our kids. #literacy #childrensbook #childrensliteracy 📌 Subscribe to the Channel: https://YouTube.com/cgmusc Watch all shows on Roku: https://bit.ly/CGLIVEROKU. Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carenglasser Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carenglasserlive Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carenglasser
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0:01
hello everyone Karen Glasser here and
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welcome to the author's Spotlight
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interviews with best-selling authors
0:09
from all around the world so whether
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you're here live or on replay make sure
0:12
to say hi in the comments below and tell
0:15
us where you are watching from today we
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are welcoming back children's author
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alvisacts to the spotlight Albert is the
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founder of three wishes publishing
0:25
company and a former Elementary School
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teacher with 16 years of classroom
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experience and a master's degree in
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education she writes stories to engage
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excite and Empower young children at an
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early age for the sheer Joy of reading a
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few of our award-winning titles include
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the pirate princess on your mark get set
0:44
go and your newest release which we'll
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be talking about today Sam and Sadie
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super sleuth so without further Ado
0:52
Alvin welcome to the show
0:54
hello everyone good to see you I am so
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happy to welcome you back you are a
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regular I think we can actually call you
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a regular you've been on a couple of
1:02
times you've read your stories but today
1:04
it's really about you the author and um
1:07
how what's your process and how you get
1:09
to where you're going and talk about
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your new book that's just come out which
1:11
is very very exciting absolutely let's
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just jump in I mean you are let's talk
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about your journey you're an educator a
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consultant your speaker you're a
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presenter I'm exhausted because all of
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those take a lot of energy how did you
1:23
get from one end of the spectrum all the
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way to where you are today as a
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best-selling author
1:30
oh well I appreciate all the accolades
1:33
and I worked very hard and I don't know
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if I'm best selling but I I love love
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what I'm doing
1:39
um and my magic word has always been
1:41
Serendipity because you never you never
1:43
know what's going to be around the
1:44
corner uh and actually I uh
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do what I do because of being a former
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educator and I I was a teacher by
1:55
accident because I didn't want to be a
1:57
teacher but it turned out that I became
1:59
one I loved it and it was the best
2:02
accident that ever happened to me and I
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did a lot of writing in my classroom
2:07
with my kids and I kind of used it as a
2:10
stepping stone and all of my subjects
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and my curriculum and my thighs doing
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reading or math or social studies I
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always find some way to connect writing
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activities and things like that
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um with my kids and so
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um I owe a lot to being with kids my
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whole life before I was even married and
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had my own kids and
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um then um we moved around a lot and how
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to try to find myself to be comfortable
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to help make my kids comfortable because
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moving as we all know was very difficult
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on children and starting over making new
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friends being in a new neighborhood and
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and them growing into themselves when we
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moved to you know very tenuous ages so I
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literally had to jump right into their
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schools and participate and do things
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and so on and so forth and um
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then when they they went back to school
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um I had taken a writing class when I
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taught in Barrington Illinois and I had
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actually written my first book circus
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fever back then
3:15
um when I lived on Little House on the
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Prairie you know it was a long time ago
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um and um I was a great great writing
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seminar one of the best seminars I ever
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had in my life with all the ones I've
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done and then all of a sudden I thought
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you know what maybe I should try and do
3:30
something with this book it was cute it
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was generic and it was about circuses
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and animals and blah blah blah and I was
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rejected over and over again it's very
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hard very very hard
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that's got to be the rejection okay yeah
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and then I um I came across
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standpointers self-publishing book
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and I I bought it and I went to Barnes
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and Noble and sat around looking at
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looking at children's books
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people might have thought I was kind of
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weird because I was stealing books and I
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was touching papers and looking
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illustrations and fonts and you know
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kind of like detective work not be funny
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with Sam and Sadie think about it and so
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um
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I had sponsored my illustrator Patricia
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Krebs at a uh an arts and crafts thing
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that we had in Calabasas and she came
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with her book and her partner at that
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time and I said I had a book and blah
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blah blah one thing led to another I
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sent a manuscript to Patricia and to
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Marcy at that time and I was good
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history
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the rest is history right now and I
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piggyback I was gonna they wanted me to
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piggyback on their self-publishing
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company but I thought no let's just do
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my own
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um which I did in agile wishes
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publishing was born and it was great I I
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I was blind
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but you know what sometimes when you
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don't know what you're doing that's
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actually is the best thing I think to do
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because you're not contained by um
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preconceived ideas that you have to do
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it this way or that way so you did it
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and you started your own publishing
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company that's that's pretty impressive
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actually well yeah and it can be done
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and it you have to learn it's on the job
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learning let's just say and as I tell
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people when I meet with them or talk
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with them or have interviews or whatnot
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you know the the internet is your best
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friend
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and you you can't you can't fall off the
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edge right there's there's no Edge you
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know you click on one thing it takes you
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to another thing and you know yeah
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exactly but you can find what you're
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looking for
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and and as um Sara Bareilles says you
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need to be brave yes yes you need to be
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brave and you're going to fall down you
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need to find some way to get back up
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right so you can talk to other people
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and
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um one step in front of another you are
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an inspiration so you literally
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um just decided to do it and you put the
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time the energy I love the idea that you
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were in the bookstores touching the
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paper because that's research because
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when you when you when it attracted you
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and you knew that that's what you wanted
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to do how many writers do you think
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actually do that I'm as you said I've
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never heard of that before that I've
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never you never have that people go in
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and do that kind of research
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um I don't know because I I didn't know
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what I was doing right I was trying to
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think of what what could I do besides do
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a field trip as a teacher
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that was my field trip you know and you
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walk into Barnes and Noble and you see
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all these books and you you think oh my
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God you know could I ever get my book
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there right and um it's really important
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to I don't care how big or small you
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immerse yourself into something you
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could just take one thing that will
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spark you and or if you look for me in
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my case when I looked at a book I didn't
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like the font or I didn't like the feel
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of the page or I didn't care for the
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illustrations I wanted I wanted to
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invite reader children and parents and
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grandparents and and helpers who are
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with children to really want to jump
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into that book and and be a part of it
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and for children to see themselves in a
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book and your books are like that I mean
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all of your books we're going to be
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putting up the newest book in a second
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but the first one Patricia is amazing
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your illustrating and you guys have been
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working together for a long time now and
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her illustrations just match up
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perfectly with your words and your
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stories I just I I love it she's she's
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amazing
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um but you you just weren't satisfied
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being
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um a teacher who became a writer you
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also are and have been the president of
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the reading is fundamental of Southern
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California first of all what is that
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organization and why was it important
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for you to get involved in that
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actually uh an author friend of mine
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told me about reading his fundamental
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and I was doing an event at the
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Calabasas Library outside they had
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people out there for something I forgot
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what it was I can't remember but it's
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not important and so
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he's he asked me if I ever heard of
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reading his fundamental and
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I had not
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um which is unusual for an educator not
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to have heard about it but then again
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things like that happen and
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um
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I uh made an appointment and called
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Carol hanult who was a our executive
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director and told her who I was I wanted
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to come down and see her and visit them
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and find out what what they do and I
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fell in love with Carol when I met her I
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fell in love when I walked into this is
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my other story I walked into a riff
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Warehouse where all our books are and I
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know books that you can smell books
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I love the smell of books it's history
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in it I love it I know but I walked in
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because there's books everywhere on the
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shelves for all the kids and whatnot and
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so
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um
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um
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she invited me to the next reading this
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fundamental meeting which which was in
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Pasadena and we are a separate LLC we're
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separate from Reading Is Fundamental in
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Washington DC okay and so we had
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meetings we had a board and blah blah
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blah blah and
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um I loved meeting people and hearing
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their stories and doing fundraisers to
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raise money for our kids for books is
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that the purpose of the organization to
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raise funds we raise we raise money
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for um our book supplies and book orders
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you know and where we order from and uh
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companies that we do business with to
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get the best price and um and we have
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school sites that um all around Southern
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California and Orange County County and
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um they have fees that they pay and we
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offset the fees for the kids and
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um we have events at various sites these
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are in the underserved areas in Los
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Angeles Orange County shelters and
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preschools and um we were part of a head
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start but they got rid of head start and
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so um and that's what we do and it's
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it's ten dollars a kid now I think and
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they get three three brand new books and
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what and the schools also do events to
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help fundraise and then we do events to
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help fundraise and um I did not know
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that I'm glad I asked you that question
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I wasn't sure what it was I knew it had
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to be important if you put your name on
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it and that you were involved with it
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so I guess I'm going to ask a question
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does it ever get old when you win so
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many awards Let Me name some of them
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mom's Choice Award independent Press
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award five star reviews with readers
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favorites National Indie excellence
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awards Creative Child magazine book of
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the Year USA best books International
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book award Eric Hoffer for excellent I
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mean it goes on and on I guess the first
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question is or the first statement is
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congratulations that's that is quite a
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tribute to who you are and what you do
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does it get old though I mean you just
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get all these honors these Awards you
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just keep them coming right
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well you do the best you can you do have
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to and I appreciate uh your support and
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um
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it does mean a lot to me you do have to
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pay
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to apply and send books and they are
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thoroughly thoroughly read by
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um judges
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um who have been doing this for years
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right you know and uh I I'm tickled when
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I do apply and send a book you hope that
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you'll get you know the response you
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want and so on and so forth and um
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it does give you that extra Pat you know
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on the shoulder because we all think
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that what we do what we write what we
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say has credibility and and people will
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think that oh okay they're really
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dedicated and passionate to what they do
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you know and stuff like that so
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my hope is that my stories stand a lot
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Alone
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um on their own of value and I like use
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it with Patricia I mean what she does
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with my words you can't put a price on
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that so right I said before I paid her
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handsomely but um she always tells me
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that our books would sell like warm Pond
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like warm bread and
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um yummy something that people can't
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resist is warm bread right amen Amen to
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that it's on butter you know goes a long
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way yeah I just put up your newest
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books which I thought was funny because
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when you were talking about going in and
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researching and sort of like smoothing
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what where did you come up with the idea
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of this particular book and you can see
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Patricia's illustrations are on the
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front why what led you to this
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particular title
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actually this was um Sophie and Sadie
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from years ago and and I had this
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manuscript
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um started and laying around and I all
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my other books came before that and I
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don't know I just had not gone back to
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it and
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um
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to be really honest with you Karen
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um I I don't know where my ideas come
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from
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um I usually dream them or I'll wake up
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at night and write something or I'll
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think of something that's happened and
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kids have always just been the Forefront
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of of my life and I I really like some
13:27
people could say well I did this when I
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was younger or I went here when I was
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younger or I had this experience to
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build on
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I fly by the seat of my pants to be
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honest with you I have no
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um I don't have writer's block because
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if I can't write I just don't write or I
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pay I'm at a point where I need to stop
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and pick it up I just do that so I I'm
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I'm an unlikely children's author
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and I I just don't know I don't know
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where it came from or how it um
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developed you just how it manifested
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itself I mean I loved books I loved
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reading to my kids when I taught school
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I read every day to my kids in class and
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I feel fourth and fifth graders and
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usually teachers don't read to their
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kids at that age you know because
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they're older and whatnot and that they
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said okay it's a tank actually I should
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do it before we before we got called
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down for lunch right yeah and then when
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my kids came in from Recess they all had
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it you know that the drop everything and
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read and there are all these acronyms
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and that type of type of stuff and so I
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encouraged that while I was teaching and
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um
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I don't know so what is the book about
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what is salmon Sadie's super sluice
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about other than what it sounds like
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it's about their sleuths and they
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hunt for something so right well um Sam
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and and his his dog Sadie and that's my
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Schnoodle Sadie this is her third book
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so she's going to be asked to be paid
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pretty soon and he's was playing outside
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with Sadie and tossing the ball and just
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having a really really good time and
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then he went back in and he heard he
15:02
heard his dad walking around their
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bedroom
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I can't find my watch where's my watch
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where did I put my watch so it just
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started as one of those you know hearing
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something out of the ordinary and Sam
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got really excited and looked at Sadie
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and said we got to get on this you know
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we have to find dad to watch that and
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those are that's not the language but he
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does go to his closet he gets his
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Sherlock Holmes hat because obviously he
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must have done this before he gets this
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big magnifying glass I think it's a
15:34
fancy scarf and ties it around Sadie's
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neck
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and off they go how fun well I I want to
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encourage everyone to go check this out
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it's available everywhere the books are
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sold Amazon Barnes and wherever you
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where we go online or go in and touch
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the books and smell the books and do
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that I'm also going to encourage people
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it's never too early to start purchasing
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a present for your kids for Hanukkah or
15:58
Christmas or just because no reason no
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reason because reading is what it's all
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about and this is a great book and while
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you're checking out this book make sure
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you check out all the rest of them you
16:09
have a great Hanukkah book of dancing
16:11
dreidels which I think you came on and
16:13
read for us once um you have a lot of
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great books so do go check out all of of
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your books of Alva's books so
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let's get back down to the foundation of
16:24
this why do you do this
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why do you write why did you teach what
16:28
is the purpose of why you do this I know
16:30
literacy you want to promote literacy
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but
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well that was way before literacy
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because because back in back in my day
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um I felt it was really important to
16:42
empower kids to give them an opportunity
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to
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um want to learn and to read and I don't
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care if they read a comic book or if
16:51
they read a mystery or they read a
16:54
recipe book I I didn't really care I
16:56
don't recall as a child growing up that
16:59
anybody read to me my parents were
17:01
divorced when I was 12. we moved around
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a lot so my childhood does not depict at
17:08
all who I am or what I do or how I raise
17:11
my kids so I did I did everything
17:16
different with my kids that how I grew
17:19
up and so
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um you know if you can't read you really
17:25
can't succeed and I don't care what
17:27
level you're reading on if you're
17:28
reading anything you're learning you're
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growing and you're you're finding things
17:32
out and and um
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I I don't know how why or how I started
17:38
doing it I guess it was because of that
17:39
writing class I took way back in the day
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and I never thought that anything like
17:44
that would materialize so I'm surprised
17:47
at myself to be honest with you and I
17:49
think about what I've done I just got
17:51
off of a um a book event yesterday in
17:54
Flintridge La Canada
17:57
um at a bookstore
17:58
um
17:59
and um
18:02
I've done many events there and I had
18:04
lots of people come I sold a lot of
18:06
books and I had all my all my tchotchkes
18:08
as they say laid out my stickers my
18:10
books my my bookmarks my pencils my sign
18:14
and I have my little budgies
18:17
and so I try to make it as welcoming and
18:20
as possible and
18:23
um I try to have a lot of Multicultural
18:26
characters in my books circus fever was
18:29
quite generic and quite Caucasian but
18:32
then again that's where I was at that
18:34
time and it was about a circus so it was
18:36
just you know just Jessica you know the
18:39
clown and all the clowns in the uh the
18:42
circus so
18:43
by the time I did my second book um
18:46
Justin Mario and Marcus Justin was
18:48
Caucasian Mario was
18:51
um Latino and Marcus was
18:53
African-American and I think and I don't
18:56
even know why I did that I don't even
18:58
know why and it was just a boy
19:01
you were an inclusive person you were
19:03
somebody that it would why would you not
19:04
do it it is it is who you it is who you
19:07
are I don't think about you know I don't
19:08
think about it oh let's just do this and
19:10
it was it was three boys and their dads
19:12
it's a great book for uh families that
19:15
have ads and and kids you know there's
19:17
not always a mom around
19:18
right and that type of stuff so I think
19:21
it's been something that I really can't
19:24
put my finger on I feel very fortunate
19:26
and very blessed and so I thought about
19:29
the money I and I I think for a lot of
19:31
children's authors that's probably true
19:33
right it's not about the money because
19:34
it's a hard industry I think to break
19:36
into unless you have to get in somewhere
19:39
right I asked you what your tagline is
19:42
and you said to me the only constant is
19:44
change
19:47
what does that mean to you I loved I
19:49
know what it means to me what does it
19:51
mean to you why is that something that's
19:53
important I just got goosebumps when you
19:55
said that
19:57
um because you can't be complacent you
19:59
can't think everything's going to be the
20:01
same everything should be going to be
20:03
all right you have to go with your eyes
20:06
wide open you have to be uh
20:09
um
20:10
accepting of things that happen you may
20:13
not be happy with them but things are we
20:16
have no we really care and what do we
20:17
have control over
20:19
nothing so
20:20
well even I I'd like to think I have
20:22
control over myself maybe
20:25
right yeah we really don't have control
20:27
of ourselves because there are so many
20:29
things in our environment and our
20:30
surroundings that are bumping into us
20:33
and causing us to react and to respond
20:35
and so you have to realize nothing's
20:37
ever going to stay the same and then if
20:40
you don't realize that you have to
20:42
change when the changes come it might be
20:45
crappy it might be a feeling you don't
20:46
want or it might be something that you
20:48
don't want
20:49
but you really try try to do the best
20:52
you go forward not only for yourself but
20:54
the other people around you because
20:56
we're all I think sharing loving
20:59
generous kind people and that's what
21:02
that to me is what you need to put forth
21:05
even though you might have been hurt you
21:07
might have been damaged you might have
21:09
come from a pleasure and I certainly
21:12
came from a damaged childhood but you
21:14
know what you can sit home and cry and
21:16
close all the windows and the shades and
21:18
block everything out you're not going to
21:20
get better no you're not you're not yeah
21:23
I want to make sure I want to make sure
21:26
people know how to follow you and how to
21:27
get your books and you know actually go
21:31
where you go so I want to make sure that
21:33
they check out your I like that goal
21:36
where you go I would like that
21:38
alvasax.com website on Facebook I want
21:41
to say first of all you're everywhere so
21:43
you're also on Facebook at alba.saks you
21:45
are on Twitter at Elvis hacks there's a
21:48
theme running through this uh on
21:50
Instagram it's at alvid.x and finally on
21:53
LinkedIn Elvis apps it's a good name
21:55
it's a good name to have and it's a good
21:57
thing it's your name because it's on
21:58
every single social media platform uh
22:01
for those of you are watching you used
22:03
to call me
22:06
they used to call me Elvis and alfalfa
22:11
really oh my gosh that's something I
22:14
didn't know that's a nugget uh make sure
22:17
to follow me on my website
22:19
karenglaster.com you can also follow me
22:21
on all social media at karenglasser I am
22:24
there all of our shows are on Roku fire
22:27
and all the social media uh platforms
22:30
out there Alva any last minute thoughts
22:33
you want to share with our audio people
22:34
we say goodbye
22:37
yeah
22:37
just be you
22:39
be you just be you
22:42
couldn't have said it better myself
22:45
we want to thank you for joining us
22:46
today we know that you have a choice as
22:48
to where you spend your time you chose
22:50
to spend it with Alva and I today we are
22:52
grateful for that go out and give
22:54
someone an awesome day and we'll see you
22:56
next time on the author's Spotlight
22:58
goodbye everyone
#Children's Interests
#Children's Literature
#Social Issues & Advocacy