About Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds was born in the summer of 1995. More accurately, it morphed.

In 1991, just as her son was about to enter preschool, Santa Fe mom and writer Claudette E. Sutton created The Tot’s Hot News, a quarterly newsletter for parents of children birth through kindergarten. Struck by the challenge of finding activities and services for families in Santa Fe, she drew on her own journalism background and love of children to create a newsletter chock-full of events, resources and articles on local people and organizations.

With her own son’s growth nudging her, Sutton revamped Tot’s Hot in 1995 into Tumbleweeds, a newspaper for families with children of all ages. For the past 20 years it has continued to grow, more than doubling in page count and circulation, adding juicy new features such as "Long-Timers Club" and “Noisy Acorns,” expanding to the web and social media -- and picking up state and national awards for writing, editing and design.

What has stayed the same? Each quarterly issue still contains timely, informational articles and personal essays about children and families; a day-by-day calendar of events; seasonal directories of summer camps, school break camps and after-school programs, kids’ writing and artwork, craft projects and more.

Tumbleweeds is still edited and published by Claudette Sutton, who still believes that children are not just our future but a precious and vital part of the present. Our goal is still to produce a publication that support families, schools and communities in which children grow and thrive.

And the little boy who motivated it? Now a junior analyst at Avalon Trust here in Santa Fe, after years of international travel, and still the light of his parents’ lives.

Look for Tumbleweeds all over Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Española. For a sample copy, please email us with your name and mailing address. And please write. We’d love to hear from you!

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Farewell, Aleppo: My Father, My People and Their Long Journey Home.

Farewell, Aleppo:

Claudette recently published her first book, "Farewell, Aleppo: My Father, My People and Their Long Journey Home.” Several years in the making, the book lovingly accounts her father’s experiences growing up in the ancient Jewish community of Aleppo, Syria, and his journey to Shanghai in 1941, where he survived Japanese occupation throughout World War II before coming to America and helping the rest of his family escape Syria. Critics and interviewers describe “Farewell, Aleppo” as “merg(ing) the best of family biography with relevant and fascinating historical, social, and religious knowledge” (Foreword Reviews); “a must-read for anyone who wants to explore this rich culture that many people do not know much about” (Jewish Book Council;) and “An engaging, evocative, deeply touching book that is part memoir, part history and part a personal journey....a love-story of a daughter to a father” (James McGrath Morris). It is available locally at Collected Works Bookstore, and online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes, in digital and e-book versions. To see more about the book, including a book trailer, go to www.claudettesutton.com. 

Team Tumbleweeds

Claudette Sutton, Editor

Steve Harrington, Assistant Editor

Katy Yanda, Assistant Editor

Ann Hackett, Graphic Designer

Ana June, Cover Designer

Mari Angulo, Calendar/Directory Editor

Flor de Maria Oliva, Spanish Editor

Jone Hallmark, Kids' Page Artist

Artotems Co.: Social Media & Web Design

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