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Yesterday marked the publication of my first ever eBook—ever book, really!—and said book just happened to be an erotic romance about a faery and some bikers… Yeah, I’m losing you already.

You probably think I’m some sort of sick weirdo, or someone piggybacking off of 50 Shades of Gray (which, by the way, I have never read). I guess I’m in between; I realize that there’s a need for erotica for women, and I happen to enjoy it myself—among just about every other genre—and I decided to try a hand at it for a contest. I won, hence my book.

I’ve been meeting many authors while I try to promote my book, and this erotic lit world is not nearly as seedy as people think it is. I still feel embarrassed to admit what it is to close family and homeschooling friends—several other authors are homeschoolers, so I need to make a note to ask how they do it!—and find myself referring to it as “supernatural romance,” which isn’t a lie, really…

As women, we are raised to be a lot of things. We are supposed to shoulder the burden, be ladies, not enjoy sex, not have confidence in our bodies or be athletic at all… Even though my parents didn’t teach me all of these things—they did teach me some of them—the media and our very culture, from our teachers to our friends’ parents, still do. I don’t know if I would like 50 Shades or not, but I do know that I like that women are finally getting their own erotica, that a sexual revolution that doesn’t just mean “freely have sex!” is happening. That revolution was important, for sure, but we still need more!

We need pornography and erotica that supports women rather than undermines them. We need to be comfortable with our own bodies. Watching boys versus girls speed skating with my daughter last week, I was amazed at the difference—as how the boys trusted their bodies and really sped around that rink, while the girls were so much more careful. Imagine how much fun we’d have with that kind of confidence, that kind of body intuition and trust that boys grow up with.

How about we create a “girls will be girls” phrase and start using it when our daughters climb rocks, ride bikes—or even find a dirty magazine from Mommy’s drawer? That’s right, we need to raise our kids with a healthy sexuality. That doesn’t mean letting them read our erotica, no, because that’s just not age appropriate. But that does mean that when we catch them touching themselves, we don’t scream at them to not do that “down there,” but tell them it’s normal and something to do in private, just like men tell their sons.

And I guess that means I need to own my fledgling erotic romance career, too. I’m just not bringing it up at play dates.

Roseanne Thong is a favorite author of my daughter’s and mine, so when we heard our book club was going to read Fly Free! by Thong at our next meeting, we both were excited to hear it. Unfortunately, we had to miss book club because my husband needed the car for work, so we had to wait and get the book from the library later.

Nevertheless, the book finally found its way into our home, and after reading it, all I could do was delightfully sigh. What a beautiful book! It is the tale of young Mai in Vietnam. Mai wishes to free the sparrows for sale by the temple, but she has no money.

Instead, she sings a song while feeding the sparrows about how when you do a good deed, it comes back to you. Her friend, listening to the song, pays the favor forward when she gives a shoeless, hurt girl her own shoes, and the kindness keeps passing from one person to the next throughout the book.

I did have an issue with some of the kindnesses. Two of the kindnesses paid by men—a man who gave a woman a ride and a monk who helped a sick boy—were conditional. Wouldn’t the monk heal the sick boy with or without a paid kindness? And the man asked the woman he provided with a ride for one of her cakes in exchange since she had no money. Could he not have simply given her one, and then taken a cake later if she offered it?

Otherwise, it’s a lovely story about the circle of kindness—indeed, the author explains about karma and samsara, or the wheel of life, at the back of the book—and the illustrations are just as lovely, lined with pretty watercolor brushstrokes.

In fact, they gave me goosebumps, as once my fifth grade teacher consoled me when I white-outed the lines in a drawing I had done on notebook paper and despaired over the marks. “It could be your trademark,” she told me gently. “It makes your art different from everyone else’s.” I never did adopt the practice of lining out my art, of course, but her kindness reminds me of the kindness in the book, too.

If you get a chance to read this book, sing the kindness song in it aloud with your child and see if you, too, can keep the wheel going. The song goes like this:

“Fly free, fly free

In the sky so blue!

When you do a good deed,

It will come back to you!”

If you’re a fan of The Polar Express, you’re already familiar with Chris Van Allsburg. But have you read his moving book Just a Dream? It’s quite different from the holiday picture book, though it still tells the magical journey of a boy who doesn’t believe in something.

In this case, the boy, Walter, doesn’t believe that it’s important to take care of the Earth. He litters, doesn’t sort his trash, and doesn’t care about trees. In fact, he can’t wait for a future in which robots run everything and tiny airplanes fly around everywhere.

At night, when Walter hopes to dream of this future, instead he dreams of a future that could happen if everyone treated the world like Walter does. In one dream sequence, all of the trees are cut down; in another, there is so much smog you can’t see the Grand Canyon. Ducks search for a pond that’s no longer there as a smog-creating factory produces cough medicine, and Walter wakes up realizing that the world he wished for wasn’t so great after all.

Then, on his birthday, he requests a very special gift—a tree. That night, he dreams about the future and he sees a man enjoying his tree growing alongside his neighbor’s tree and he realizes that his change of heart really could affect the world that dramatically.

Like The Polar Express, Just a Dream doesn’t clearly depict facial features so much as fuzzy scenery, furthering the dreamlike state during which most of the book takes place. The book’s a bit text-heavy, but it works with the picture placement. My seven year old, who normally doesn’t like a lot of text, really enjoyed this book—just as she enjoyed Van Allsburg’s other book, too.

The journey made while in bed appealed to her in particular, because she loves Bedknobs and Broomsticks. She enjoyed the idea of sleep travel, too, and wished for good dreams about the future like Walter’s were at the end of the book. I asked if we could help make sure that kind of dream really happens in our lives, and she agreed that we could.

As much as she loved these two books, I think we’ll definitely have to check out more on our next trip to the library. Maybe we’ll read Jumanji next! Does anyone know if the author has written any books featuring female protagonists, by chance?

For my daughter’s seventh birthday, she received several great craft kits and other goodies. One kit that we have been playing with nearly daily is her Rose Art Window Art kit. It’s a very simple concept: you just take the small plastic square included in the kit, place it over the large stencils, and trace them with the included puffy paint. Allow the paint to dry, gently pull off your creations from the plastic, and voila—you have instant window clings in addition to a reusable canvass!

We did have some troubles with our very first batch. My daughter had me do an outline with black paint and we let it dry before filling it in, but once she did she used way too much paint. She filled it in, then created fun swirls that looked almost tie-dye. However, they were so thick and layered that they did not dry correctly and instead muddied into one another until there was nothing but black in the lizard she painted. So we learned quickly that you only want to use a single layer of paint if you can.

We also learned to limit yourself to only two designs at a time—three if they are small—because if you don’t, you may bleed them together to where you cannot separate them correctly. We had one tear because we did not space them far enough apart. Even if you draw them separately, you have to ensure that your child will not over paint beyond the borders and into the next cling.

As long as you allow the clings to completely dry, they will likely work. You can post them on any glass, from a window to a mirror or cabinet door, in your home. Be sure that the glass is fully clean before you hang your clings or they won’t stick very well, if at all.

Something else you can do is create your own cling designs rather than the ones that are on the template. The template is great—it has a wide range of animals, treats and other designs that both boys and girls are sure to enjoy—but it’s also great that kids can use their imagination with this craft and make their own designs, from their own art to club symbols and other designs.

This is a gift I would definitely give to another friend or family member as it has brought us so much joy. My only worry is obtaining more paint, which I’m sure we can do easily either in store or online.