Mary Jo Wisneski Johnston is a retired reading specialist who has taught at levels ranging from kindergarten through graduate school during her 44-year teaching career in several states as well as in Germany. She enjoys living on a hobby ranch with her husband and approximately twenty animals ranging in size from horse to goldfish.

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Have your children enjoyed meeting animals through picture books, but are now reading on their own and looking for more challenging stories. Still, picture books are so much fun, especially when they are full-color painted pages! Johnston, a reading specialist, has provided just the book for your tweens--children now yet into their older teens, but still enjoying the imaginative tales that gets them totally involved! Like a flying dog! OK, we know dogs can't fly, but... One of my favorite figurines given to me by a then young nephew, Brandon, is a flying cat! He proudly sits on my stove watching over me and all my live cats!

Well, that's exactly what Bibi desired, and then intended to do! Bibi was always wanting to help Mom at their ranch, but sometimes the critters would get away from her, climbing trees, or soaring into the skies!

She wanted so much to rid the farm of those who would destroy his beautiful home...  And then one day--

She soon got used to her new appendages. The first time she streaked after a squirrel and lifted two feet off the ground, she seemed surprised, then ecstatic! There was no stopping her now...

Doggie Delicious:

A Chapter Book for Some Tasty Reading

By Mary Jo Wisnesky Johnston

Illustrated by Malinda Raines

The author and her husband live on a hobby ranch--a Log Cabin just like me and my critters! In fact, as she, acting as the narrator, shares her story, it sounds much like what she would share as her routine life...as if talking to her neighbors, children or grandchildren...  Had you ever heard of a hobby ranch? Perhaps after you learn about this one, you'll want to visit one! I sure would! Because you're going to read about some very exotic animals!

Now, depending upon the age of the child when you share the story, he or she may come up with words they don't know... By now, however, you should have either a printed dictionary or online access so they will have the opportunity to discover new words from this reading specialist, and help them improve their vocabulary! Cool, right?! And one other issue for younger children...the reality of dogs and their prey... Please be aware that part of the help Bibi gives on the farm may be more graphic than you can share for younger children, at least without parental involvement... and especially if they have not previously been exposed to the animal environment... On the other hand, it is a good way to explain to older children how to understand how some animals are really pests that must be eliminated...

The awesome thing about this is how Bibi actually came to live at the ranch! One day a stranger announced that a dog was born and that it was over there!

I didn't immediately pick up on this part until reading further that a loved one had been lost due to age. She was a white-faced husky/ malamute mix, named Zephyrushka and they still had Koko, the nickname for Kochaniu (Polish for "sweetheart").

Well, if a stranger came up and told you that a white dog was waiting for you over there, and even if you have many other animals already, you are now curious enough to go look! Right?!

She went home, looked at the newspaper, saw the location was where the strange had pointed to as over there. She was, by now, curious and, as me, wondering about this coincident (you know, the ones I call God incidents)...

So she and her husband made an appointment to go...over there...LOL!

Now readers are going to hear a lot more in the 35 full 8x10 pages that includes fantastic paintings illustrated by Malinda Raines... The book includes nine chapters, many of them identifying some of the exotic animals spotlighted in the book, besides Bibi!

She successfully captured pesky gophers and moles who constantly uprooted garden plants... There was many a time I saw her eating a tasty fresh rodent meat meal. She had a high degree of success in her endeavors. At least she had some reward for her underground activities and provided a fine service for the ranch. In addition, her process for wood rat catches also was proven. She ate all these...starting with the head first. ~~~

Tony served as a National Security Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government, has an M.A. in International Relations from the Catholic University of America, and earned a Master of Military Art and Science from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies. Notably, he is listed as a distinguished member of the famed 502nd, 504th, and 505th Parachute Infantry Regiments. He is also a graduate of the Broad Superintendent’s Academy of the Eli Broad Foundation, which focuses on training leaders around the country for service as superintendents in large school districts. After a career serving his country in uniform, Tony is finding his second calling in education reform in America.

The author of the critically acclaimed Threat Series fiction novels featuring the Garrett Brothers, Tony donates 100% of his Sudden Threat book proceeds, so far over $27,000, to the USO Metro DC Hospital Services fund for Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda National Naval Medical Center. BG Tata’s story has garnered national attention with appearances on NBC’s The Today Show, CBS Early Show, FoxNews’ The O’Reilly Factor, America’s Newsroom, Fox and Friends Weekday and Weekend Editions, Geraldo at Large, The Daily Buzz, The Jim Bohannon Show, and scores of nationally syndicated and local station radio interviews such as the one included below.

The third novel in the Threat Series, Hidden Threat, was released January, 2011, following Rogue Threat, released in November 2009 and Sudden Threat in mass-market paperback September 2009.

Mortal Threat:

ISIS Steals Ebola Cure

By A. J. Tata

“Yes, Kiram,” Amanda said stiffly, her small protest against the weapons. She had been on a nonviolence kick for the past five years with the orphanage and thought she was making progress. She was still processing how to react to the availability of the weapons and their obvious need for protection. Practically speaking, she considered, they would be fools to take another step in the darkened gorge without the weapons as they navigated the Serengeti Plain. She knew and had accepted the need for violence and strategy, had even employed it in the past, yet she had been so overwhelmed by the prior brutality visited upon the children she supervised that she’d enacted a no-violence policy in the orphanage. Now she knew her survival depended upon summoning her father’s warrior instincts. “Animals. Serengeti dogs follow. Pack of about fifteen. They started out smaller, maybe seven, but as they watched how slowly we go, they went back for more,” Kiram said. 

Amanda watched her star pupil talk in near fluent English. “These are the wild dogs you have told me about?” she asked. “They’re smart, hungry, and operate in packs, right?”