Just published:

(Available now at Amazon)

coming in Summer 2022:

POMEGRANATE SERIES: A series of short story collections for kids to read to themselves, or for their grown-ups to read with them! We’re calling it the Pomegranate Series: something nice to hold in your hand, with a bunch of surprising story tidbits inside. Check this page for details; look for it soon!

available now:

Now available in e-book and trade paperback:
Click here to buy on BookShop (and support independent bookstores)
Click here to buy on Amazon

Managed Mischief:
A Toolkit of Improv-Inspired Games
by Mandy Khoshnevisan

Improvisation is MAKING something fun happen—and not just onstage before an audience, but ANYWHERE. Improv training is not only in demand to train entertainers, but also to help people to shed fear of public speaking and social interaction, to trust their own creative ideas, and even to improve team dynamics in the grownup workplace.

Managed Mischief is an improv how-to kit, helping parents and teachers celebrate everyday creativity with the kids in their lives. Whether or not you have any prior improv experience, this book will walk you through how to teach and play these self-guided games that boost creativity, confidence, and collaborative thinking.

You can play these games in the classroom, the car, the playground, or even in a public space. These games don’t need an audience, and you “win” by working together to create something delightful. There are games to challenge different abilities, from verbal to physical to artistic—writing, drawing, painting, dancing, and making music.

The book is called a “toolkit” because it contains some improv philosophy, guides for teaching and playing the exercises, and plenty of tips for mixing things up on your own. With background knowledge on improv and a fundamental understanding of how games work, there are no limits: you can combine games, string them together, change the rules, or even make up your own games!

Whether you’re shy or a showoff, these games let people of all ages practice vital life skills such as: trying new things, voicing your own ideas, championing others’ ideas, working together to make something, taking turns being in charge, being unafraid to be “weird,” and taking joy in the world all around.

Author Mandy Khoshnevisan has spent 20 years studying and teaching improvisational theater, and also working as a teaching artist for kids ranging from preschool to high school. This book contains the games that she and her students have the most fun playing together. The games are organized according to the skills they help build, and cross-referenced to make it easy to find and revisit favorites.

“Engaging and witty, this guide to encouraging creativity in children through theater and improvisation is a must for all those who teach, or have, children.” —Sharan Newman, historian and award-winning novelist

“Managed Mischief is written in a refreshing, joyful, coaching style to help you learn to incorporate the skills of artistic improvisation into your daily life. The life lessons associated with improvisation training will unleash creativity and enhance team work that can lead to better morale. and higher performance.” — Mary S. Khosh, Ph.D., Consulting Psychologist

Buy Managed Mischief from your favorite source:

e-book:
Kindle and Kindle apps

trade paperback:
BookShop | Amazon | Powell’s | Indie Bound |  Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | 

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Now available in e-book or paperback:

What Does a Truck Driver Do?
A book by a family, for your family.

by Mattie Paul Sivert and Mary Nell (Sivert) Khosh Ph.D.
What DOES a truck driver do, when his truck gets stuck under a bridge? How do birds feel about airplanes? And how exactly do you manage to skip an entire day, when you’re sailing on the open sea?

This illustrated book of poems considers many big questions (and small ones too) about our convoluted world — but author Mattie Sivert answers these questions lightly and playfully. Her haiku, limericks, riddles, and other wry verses describe the shared world of grownups and children in a way that lets children feel at home in that world too. This volume is a sharp and cheeky collection of poetic observations on family, nature, and daily life on earth, accompanied by the whimsical illustrations of an equally irreverent bunch: the author’s great-grandchildren.

Yes, it takes a whole family to make a book like this one. Mattie Sivert wrote poetry throughout her life, for the amusement of her students, her children, and herself. Years later, Mattie’s daughter Mary discovered a manila envelope holding a treasure trove of verse, edited them into a collection, and asked her own ten grandchildren to illustrate them. The children — ranging in age from three to twenty — responded with enthusiasm. The result is a charming collection of illustrated verse that brings to life the vibrant imagination of this talented writer her great-grandchildren never knew.

Read about the genesis of this book, in the Chautauquan Daily (August, 2013).

Buy What Does a Truck Driver Do? from your favorite source:

e-book:
Kindle and Kindle apps
trade paperback:
BookShop |  Amazon | Powell’s | Indie Bound |  Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | 

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Now available for an e-reader near you: ( click here to purchase from Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Separation
by John Doe, Ph.D.

A political satire about the dramatic events during the period 2028-2029, in what is today the United States of America.

By 2028, American politics had become irreversibly polarized, with Republicans and Democrats (“Reds” and “Blues”), bringing the Federal Government to a near standstill. But, so much can happen in a year! A contested 2028 federal election, a “natural” disaster, and a monumental bipartisan decision later, and in 2029 the United States is well into a Great Separation, having fractured into two independent republics.

In this important book, written by eminent historian John Doe, Ph.D. (real name withheld for national security reasons), Dr. Doe documents the recent events that have transpired in these two new countries in the short year since the 2028 U.S. presidential election. He also describes the rapidly diverging lifestyles in the two new countries, examining their differences and, ironically, their similarities. Dr. Doe also investigates the polarizing issues that divided America, and explores implications of the new developments in the two new republics going forward, beyond the Great Separation.

Because this book was written in 2029, readers of today may well understand this book as a work of political satire, and find humor in the events therein. Still, we are currently living through what Dr. Doe has chronicled as the last few years of Pre-Separation America, so it is left to the reader to determine what part is satire, and what part is a cautionary tale for our own future.

Buy The Great Separation from your favorite source:

e-book:
Kindle and Kindle apps
trade paperback:
BookShop  |  Amazon | Indie Bound |  Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million |