So I was just poking around the bin of red worms we keep in the basement to eat kitchen scraps, and this scene is way too tiny to photograph, but…
Imagine an apple peel, about an inch wide and two inches long and curling at the edges. If you look very, very carefully at the flesh that remains, you can see tiny white squiggles, maybe 1/16th of an inch long and so thin they’re almost transparent. They are wiggling, and every every once in a while, one stands up and waves its tail. Or maybe its head. It’s difficult to tell.
Red worms actually reproduce fairly quickly, so this isn’t the first time my little guys/girls (they’re hermaphrodites) have had babies. But it’s the first time I’ve seen them so soon after they’ve emerged from a cocoon, and they were just so new and tiny…oh heck, I’ll admit it….I almost teared up a little.
(Note to blog readers who are just thinking "Ew!" right now. I still love you, just as I still love my husband, who looked somewhat horrified when I ran upstairs to show him my wormy apple peel while he was having his coffee.)
Judy Blundell just won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for What I Saw and How I Lied!
Huge congratulations to Judy and Scholastic editor David Levithan, as well as amazing NBA finalists Laurie Halse Anderson (I’m reading CHAINS with my 7th graders right after Thanksgiving!), Kathi Appelt (THE UNDERNEATH), E. Lockhart (THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU BANKS) and Tim Tharp (THE SPECTACULAR NOW). Huzzah!!
Is it just me, or is there something very final about handing over a package to the person behind the counter at the Post Office? I’d forgotten how nerve-wracking it can be…how I have to fight the urge to snatch back any package that’s full of my words. The last time I was mailing manuscripts was more than a year ago, during my agent search. Since then, everything from submissions to revisions to line edits have been emailed as attachments. And somehow, pressing "send" is easier for me than handing over a big pile of papers and leaving a building empty-handed. But copy edits happen on paper. Mine looked like this…
There were, if I recall, four or five pages without any marks. Yay, me!
You learn a lot about yourself during the copy edit stage. I have an uncanny ability to mess up words like shoe box and crab apple, both of which I’ve written correctly in this blog. The manuscript was another story. Sometimes, in my brilliance, I’d write the word two different ways on the same page, to be sure of getting it right once.
This one puzzled me. Somewhere, I missed the memo that there’s no longer a comma before the word "too" when it’s used at the end of a short sentence. For example: I’m befuddled too. No comma.
Anyway…in case the lady at the Post Office happens to read this, I’m sorry I kept trying to tug that package back out of your hands. I let it go eventually. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to say goodbye.
Students at my middle school spent an amazing Thursday with Cynthia Lord, the author of the Newbery Honor Book RULES. I met Cindy at the New England SCBWI Conference a couple years ago and had so hoped that I’d be able to have her visit with my kids someday. She gave three presentations, sharing with kids the time line for the publication of RULES as well as the inspirations for some of the characters and settings.
The kids loved seeing the Chinese, Korean, and Braille versions of RULES, but they were especially excited to see her Newbery Honor Plaque. One of my very favorite things from the presentation (and there were many) was what Cindy said about how plaque reminds her of "the powerful combination of wishing and work." What a powerful message for our kids, too!
Cindy passed her Newbery Plaque right around the auditorium and invited students to put their hand over the Newbery seal and make a wish for their own dreams to come true. You might think 7th and 8th graders would consider themselves too cool for something like that, but they weren’t.
I watched as just about every student held his or her hand over the seal before handing the plaque to the next person. I smiled even wider when the math teachers in the audience got a turn to see the plaque — they all held their hands over the seal for a moment, too, before passing it on.
After school, Cindy signed books for students in the library.
There’s an author at the end of that long line of RULES fans!
Thanks so much, cynthialord , for a day our students will never forget. Cindy also took some great photos Thursday, so please stop by her LiveJournal to see them if you’d like!
I’m waking up extra thankful this Thursday because…
I spent last evening with a wonderful, friendly group of book club women who chose my book SPITFIRE as their selection for this month. It was terrific to hear the variety of books they’d read together, including LOVING FRANK by Nancy Horan and LETTERS IN THE ATTIC by Bonnie Shimko. They were all smart and funny and delightful, and just as excited to see my copy edited pages of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z as I was. It was wonderful to spend an evening with people who are so excited about books and open to reading such a variety of genres.
When I got home, I managed to squeak out another thousand words on my work-in-progress, SUGAR ON SNOW – and hit the 22,000 mark last night!
I got THE HUNGER GAMES back from my son, who stole it two days ago and wouldn’t give it back. He’s done now, so I finally get to read the rest.
And…(ready for the best thing this Thursday?) cynthialord is coming to my middle school today!! We read RULES earlier this fall and are all so, so excited to hear her speak. So I’d better sign off….
Rule #1 for Author Visits: When there’s a fabulous, famous author coming to your school, you’d better get there on time!
As much as I love the bright leaves on the trees in October, there is also something to be said for the thick carpets of them that cover the forest floor now. Temperatures never got out of the 30s in Northern NY today. We spent the better part of this chilly afternoon in the woods at a favorite state park, getting a little exercise and talking about the important things in life.
"How come you’re scuffing your feet like that?" my son asked.
"Because I like the sound…"
We climbed down to the beach to watch oak leaves drift into Lake Champlain and then stopped for soup at a favorite organic deli on the way home. When we pulled into the driveway, I saw right away that the UPS guy had been here — my copy edits for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z were leaning against the front door. I’ll be at my desk tonight with my red pencil and a cup of green tea.
Tuesday night, after most of my 7th grade students had gone to bed, history happened.
Whether you supported Barack Obama for President or not, it is difficult to dispute that his election speaks volumes about how far we have come as a nation in terms of Civil Rights. In my classroom, we looked at how newspapers around the world covered our election here in America. Click here to see some front pages that showed up on news stands all over the world Wednesday morning. Be patient; this is a cool site, and a lot of people are visiting it today, so you may need to keep trying to access it.
(Note to other teachers & parents: I downloaded the images I wanted from this site and used them, with credit, in a SmartBoard presentation. Because newspaper content varies a lot from country to country, there are sometimes images on this site you wouldn’t want to share live with your classes. )
My Spanish speakers helped translate the articles about the first African American in "la Casa Blanca." We talked about the Paris newspaper that ran an editorial on its front page with the interesting headline "America has Returned." You don’t need to speak another language to understand the one-word headline, "Historico!" The students commented on that one over and over again.
But my favorite classroom conversation started when the kids checked out a newspaper from Barcelona. On the front page was an image of an African American man, but it wasn’t Barack Obama. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. We talked about the Civil Rights Movement as a long, long road and noted that even MLK might not have imagined the scene in Chicago’s Grant Park. One of the girls at the front table nodded, looking up at the image of King on the screen and said quietly, "It was like he was there last night, too."
This morning, when it was still dark, my kids and I walked to the neighborhood community center that serves as our polling place. On the way there, we talked about how voter turnout today will likely be higher than in any modern election. Seven-year-old E, scuffing her feet through the leaves along the curb, wanted to know what that meant.
"That more people who are allowed to vote will actually show up and vote today," I told her.
She stopped. "You mean some of them don’t?"
We talked about countries where things are different, where the right to vote is much newer and never taken for granted. And then we turned the corner to the park and said hello to the election volunteers who had just unlocked the door. I was the fourth person in line to vote.
One of the things I love about Election Day is the way it brings us all together. As promised…here’s my celebration of all of our VOICES AND VOTES — a picture of me outside the polling place next to the playground. You can see the light is on inside. There’s just one voting machine — the old-fashioned kind where you pull the levers. It will be replaced by a new, electronic one next year, but today, pulling the lever was just right.
By the time we walked back home this morning, it was getting light.
It’s time to get the rest of the day going now – time to get the boy to jazz band and the girl to school, time for me to teach revision strategies for personal narratives. But this hopeful feeling? I’m keeping it with me all day long.
I’m not alone in enjoying my moment at the polls today…not by a long shot. Visit these bloggers and citizens…a whole collection of us, celebrating our VOICES AND VOTES with stories & photos online.
I’m not alone in enjoying my moment at the polls today…not by a long shot. Visit these bloggers and citizens…a whole collection of us, celebrating our VOICES AND VOTES with stories & photos online.
kimmiepoppins blogs about voting…and how lucky we are. kellyrfineman voted and posted a poem that says it all. jmammaywrites voted in Florida today. Kurtis Scaletta shares some images from his trip to the polls. maryecronin voted and then ate pancakes to celebrate! madrobins went to the polls with her 18-year-old daughter – a first time voter! seaheidi shares her voting story and her voting outfit. missrodeo shares pictures of her early morning trip to the polls. goadingthepen voted early today, too. cynthialord talks about the need for us to be extraordinary on Election Day. halseanderson voted by absentee ballot before her book tour. newport2newport voted early and shared her thoughts on the election today. elspeth47 stood in line to vote in Texas. janni voted in Arizona this morning. vivaler talks about changing…from a non-voter to a voter. jbknowles voted and feels big and strong now (me too, Jo!) jeannineatkins was voter #273 at her town hall. pdlloyd enjoyed the sense of community in voting. lurban voted today and invites you to share your favorite part of voting. jamarattigan stepped out of the kitchen today to vote! lillpluta voted with her homeschooled son today. thunderchikin talks about voting with a sense of hope. kbaccellia shares her thoughts on tough choices. wordsrmylife is celebrating high voter turnout. marsha_brantley voted early and blogged about it today. writerross voted with tears in her eyes.
And my mom, artist gailschirmer voted (I suspect Dad did, too, but wasn’t as eager to be photographed…) after volunteering to make lunch for the election volunteers. Go, Mom!
Want to join us in celebrating? Just post your voting story and/or photo, drop me a comment or an email (kmessner at katemessner dot com) and I’ll add you to the roundup. Happy Election Day!
Edited to add: I’m having trouble with this post when I update, and I’ve had to redo it a few times. If I’ve missed you, or if you were on the list and you’re missing now, please drop me a note and I’ll fix it. Let’s all hope the election technology is working out much better than mine!
Tomorrow morning, before school, I’ll walk to the tiny community center building in my neighborhood park to vote. The election volunteers there will know me. They’re my neighbors — the walkers I see out on my morning run, the people who handed my kids candy a few nights ago, the volunteer firefighters who showed up in the middle of the night when squirrels chewed through the wires in our basement last winter. They’ll greet my kids by name and hold the curtain as the kids crowd into the booth with me to help press the levers. When I leave, they’ll wish me a great day. All of this will happen, whether or not we agree on who should be President of the United States, and this is what I love about voting – the way it brings us together.
This will be my 6th time voting in a Presidential Election, and I’ve never been more excited. For the first time, I’ve been actively involved in a political campaign, making phone calls and talking with voters in states far away from mine. Two nights ago, I chatted with a 68-year-old Pennsylvania woman while I was boiling water for pasta. Her name was Fiona, and she’s never been more excited to vote either. She actually thanked me for the phone call that no doubt interrupted her dinner. I’ll be thinking about her when I vote tomorrow morning. Even though we’ll be in different buildings, using different systems, in different states, Fiona and I have a connection.
We all do on Election Day. I’ve voted in different places over the years — in a big community center in Syracuse right after I graduated from SU, in an elementary school in Burlington, Vermont when I worked there as a tv reporter, and now, in the one-room community center between the swing set and the soccer field. In all those times and places, whether or not the election workers knew my name, they greeted me warmly, and I headed back out into the November day feeling important and connected and…well…American.
Soon after the polls open at 6am tomorrow, I’ll walk to the park with my kids. I’ll sign my name on the election roster and lift my daughter so she can reach the levers in the booth. I’ll referee when the kids argue over who gets to press the one for President, and then I’ll pull back the curtain and say goodbye to my neighbors and take my son to jazz band rehearsal at 7. But that feeling will last all day long…the feeling of being part of something big…something important, along with the election volunteers, and with Fiona in Pennsylvania, and with you.
Visit Colleen at Chasing Ray for a full list of Blog the Vote posts on the importance of voting…and please stop back here tomorrow. To celebrate all of our VOICES AND VOTES on Election Day, I’ll be posting a photograph of myself at my polling place right after I vote, and I’m inviting you to do the same. I’ll be posting a VOICES AND VOTES roundup with links, so If you want to participate, drop me a comment or email (kmessner at katemessner dot com) and I’ll include your link. Happy Voting!
