Blackstone Tabner, Marianne: - Marianne Blackstone Tabner is passionately curious about everything. As an author, she shares her own fascination of learning with children by making reading fun. Taking Turns, offered in both English and Spanish, helps children to explore concepts of sharing while providing them with opportunities to expand their creativity and imagination with hands-on science activities. Inspired by the birth of her first grandchild, Marianne rediscovered her passion to advocate for children's literacy and their learning needs which began when she was a special education teacher in the Boston suburbs. Marianne is a devoted supporter of local and national literacy foundations. A portion of Marianne's proceeds is donated to Every Child a Reader and Children's Literacy Foundation (Clif). Marianne has created Mimi's Story Hour to share her love of reading with children and to provide fun, educational, hands-on activities for parents and teachers. Visit MarianneBlackstoneTabner.com to access more resources, including a downloadable teacher-parent resource guide found @Mimi's Story and to follow Mimi on her next story hour adventure. She now lives, writes, and plays in sunny San Diego, CA.