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Maren Morris and Karina Argow bring garden friends to life in new children’s book, “Addie Ant Goes on an Adventure”
In a journey from the world of music to the realm of storytelling, Grammy Award-winning artist Maren Morris and her best friend, Karina Argow, a former English teacher, have collaborated to create a children’s book titled “Addie Ant Goes on an Adventure.”
The book tells the story of a young ant named Addie who sets off on her first solo journey, guided by the wisdom and support of her garden friends. The narrative is designed to instill values of independence, curiosity and the importance of asking for help among young readers.
The idea for the book was born from conversations during road trips with Morris talking about a desire to delve into children’s literature, motivated by her own experiences of reading to her son.
“I’ve always wanted to do some sort of children’s book or children’s album, and then, Karina is like, ‘Well, I have a whole cast of characters in my head because I garden all the time and I just create bugs in my head,’ and I was like, ‘Well that’s half the work,'” Morris said.
They both picked Addie the ant to be their main character as a way to capture the innocence and curiosity of childhood and encourage young readers to be adventurous yet mindful of their safety.
“There’s a ton of curiosity about the world and it’s not quite scary yet, so I feel like we try to touch in the book on, ‘Yes, be curious. Yes, ask questions, go on an adventure, but also, know when to avoid someone or just be cautious,'” Morris said. “Those are like survival things as parents and educators that we instill in our children. And we wanted to do it in a not scary way in the book.”
The book also talks a lot of the power of friendship, which Morris says mirrors the foundation of trust and support between her and Argow.
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” Argow said to Morris in an interview on CBS Mornings. I don’t. And knowing that I can ask for help from you gives me courage, all the time.”
Morris said the book also allows her to give something back to her son and work with her best friend.
“I just love collaboration. I read a lot of my songs with my best friends. So it just seems so natural to do this with her. And we’ve already started book two, so we’re on a little roll,” Morris said.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election
Washington — Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the federal government needs to do its part to inform Americans of the vast swath of election misinformation that’s being consumed on social media platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and in the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on Nov. 5,” Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Kelly, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen these misinformation operations target not only his state of Arizona, but also other battleground states.
“There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” Kelly said.
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In a committee hearing last month on foreign threats to the 2024 election, Kelly presented screenshots of Russian-made web pages showing fabricated headlines designed to look like Fox News and The Washington Post, targeted at voters in battleground states.
“So my constituents in Arizona and others — they seek to influence the outcome of these elections, and that is absolutely beyond the pale,” Kelly said at the Sept. 18 hearing. “We’ve got to do something about it.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each have the support of 49% of Arizona voters, according to CBS News’ battleground tracker as of Sept. 30.
In another battleground state, Pennsylvania, Trump returned Saturday to hold a rally in Butler three months after an attempted assassination on him. He was joined by members of his own party and billionaire Elon Musk, who said Trump was the only way to preserve democracy and warned of a last election if he does not win in November.
Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Kelly called the social media mogul a hypocrite.
“He’s standing next to the guy that tried to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, saying that this is somehow going to be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote,” Kelly said. “And you know, it just doesn’t pass the logic test.”
At the White House press briefing on Friday, President Biden – speaking from the podium for the first time since taking office – said he’s confident of a free and fair election but alluded to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in his concerns on whether it will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr. Biden said. “If you notice, I noticed that the vice-presidential Republican candidate did not say he’d accept the outcome of the election, and they haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election.”
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