Morse, the Man and the Code.

As far as I know, The Secret Plan is the only picture book about bedtime that heavily features kittens communicating using Morse code.
What I didn't know was that Samuel F. B. Morse, the man who invented the telegraph, as well as the Code, was a painter before he turned to inventing. I saw one of his most famous works, Gallery of the Louvre at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.



Here's a visual way to remember the Morse alphabet (based on A.G. Reingold's chart.)
Useful when plotting your next sleepover.



For those more curious about Morse and his code:

A short biography of Morse is here.

There's also an interesting article from the New York Times here about a recent event called the Night of Nights, when the air was once again filled with "the music of Morse." (The article was also my first introduction to the term "radio squirrel.")

Lucca Night

A painting from the sketchbook.

Penny Arcade Cameo

Penny Arcade is one of the most popular and longest running webcomics about video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. Besides the comic, the Penny Arcade guys have also created games, books, podcasts, a gaming convention and a reality show based on their adventures.

I'm lucky to have two eagle-eyed, Penny Arcade fans in the family. My cousin Jon Stauder and his wife Heidi were watching the deleted scenes on the Penny Arcade: The Series - Season 1 DVD, and happened to spot The Secret Plan on a table in the foreground! Heidi is an elementary school teacher and has used the book in her classes, recognized it immediately and leapt up and started pointing at the screen and yelling! Jon emailed me and I was surprised and proud.

Here is Jerry Holkins (aka Tycho) and The Secret Plan:



I was also very excited to learn about another of Penny Arcade's endeavors, Child's Play, a charity founded in 2003 that has raised over 7 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world. The issue of children, (and their families) dealing with hospitalization is one that hits home for me. To learn more about the organization or to make a donation, check out their site.