Author: hatfield13

Paper Towns by John Green

 I just discovered that GoodReads now offers the option of cross posting book reviews to a blog, which is terrific, since I always mean to post more book reviews but have trouble finding the time.

I devoured an ARC of John Green’s Paper Towns recently, and it was everything I  hoped it would be.  Here’s my micro-review (because school started this week, after all). 

(Note for those wondering why all my reviews on GoodReads get five stars…  I review books that I love or that I’m pretty sure someone else will love.  I’m a teacher as well as a writer, so I’m in the business of selling good books, and I’d hate for someone NOT to pick up a book just because it wasn’t my cup of tea.  My solution is to shout about the books I love from the rooftops and set the others quietly aside so other people who do love them can talk about those.)

Paper Towns by John Green

Paper TownsMy review


rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s hard to choose a favorite of John Green’s books, but for me, this one is right up there with Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, and I bet it will get the same kind of award buzz. Paper Towns has phenomenal voice and that trademark mix of humor and gut-wrenching teen angst that makes his writing so made-of-awesome. Plus some Walt Whitman connections, just in case you weren’t won over already. Loved it!

Friday Five – Hand Sales in the Classroom

As authors, we talk a lot about "hand sales" — when a bookseller personally recommends a book to a customer in the store.  But that’s not the
only place hand selling happens. 

I often give quick book talks in my 7th grade English classroom.  I’ll pull a pile of new or favorite books from my classroom shelves or the school library and give quick pitches for them at the end of class.  My students keep a list books they want to read, so if they like the idea but are already in the middle of something, it goes on their to-read list.  It’s a great way to share new books with kids and make sure they always have a steady supply of recommendations.

In that spirit, here’s my Friday Five — a list of the most-snatched-up books from this week’s book talks, in no particular order:

~Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor — I read this last June, loved it, and couldn’t wait to share it.  The kids are loving it, too.
~Alabama Moon by Watt Key — One of my favorites for kids who ask for "something like Hatchet."
~First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover and First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins — Super high-interest novels about a Pakistani-born girl whose dad runs for President of the United States. These books give a fascinating and incredibly timely look at life on the campaign trail and in the White House.
~Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney — This one consistently wins over the I-hate-reading crowd.
~The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson –  I loved this book, and it’s a title that some of my more advanced readers have a LOT to say about when they come by to talk books after school.

As for me, I’m immersed in the 1918 flu epidemic, with an ARC of Winnie’s War, Jenny Moss’s 2009 debut from Walker Books.  I’m halfway through and (aside from feeling feverish now and then because I’m so impressionable) LOVE the book.  Teachers who use historical fiction in the classroom will want to snatch this one up when it’s released in February.

What about you?  What new titles are you hand-selling this week?

2000 Red Wiggler Worms x 4 =

My composting worms are starting to multiply!

See the little brownish yellow balloon-like things?  They’re worm cocoons.  I found them while I was burying the crust from my daughter’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich for them to eat the other day.  My research tells me that up to four tiny baby worms will hatch from each cocoon. 

Worms are hermaphrodites, which means they have both male and female sex organs, and all worms produce cocoons.  As a result, the experts say, I can expect the population of my worm bin to double every month.  All the better for eating those PB & J crusts!

Thankful Thursday

It’s the first week of school for my kids and their teacher-writer-mom, so I’m sneaking in time to blog thankfulness for the following:

~It’s been a relatively smooth start to the school year.  I love my new 7th graders, and my own kids have enjoyed their first few days.

~Tomorrow, I’ll start reading Cynthia Lord’s RULES with my students (yay!)  to get ready for her author visit later this fall (double-yay!).

~In a little less than two months, I get to vote for a new President of the United States.  I love voting — LOVE it with a capital L and with a passion I usually reserve for books and chocolate.  Every time I pull that little lever, I feel the same surge of excitement that I felt when I voted for the first time after I turned eighteen.  

-And on a related note, I’m part of an extended family with extremely diverse political views – from the extreme right to the extreme left.  My husband and I have been known to cancel out one another’s votes.  In 2000, I remember my mom asking my then-four-year-old son if he had gone to the voting booth on Election Day.

"Yep," he said proudly.

"Who did you vote with?" she asked him.

"Daddy and Mommy."

"And who did you vote for?"

"George Bush and Al Gore."

It made us laugh at the time, but now, it makes me feel thankful.  The divergent views in our family have taught my kids that there’s always more than one side to an issue, that you ought to have information to back up your opinions, that people can disagree — sometimes fiercely — and then sit down to dinner together, and that everyone gets to make up his or her own mind at the end.

Let the conversations continue… 

September Changes

The pencils are sharpened, the backpacks are packed, and my kids head back to school tomorrow.  I went back today, and while I was in first day meetings, our Monarch caterpillars decided it was time to get moving.

Yesterday, they had both climbed up to the top of the butterfly house.

When I left for school today, they were hanging upside down, shaped like the letter J.  Some time during the homeroom teachers meeting, while my husband and kids watched (I’m so jealous!)  the caterpillars shed their skin for the last time to reveal the chrysalides that had formed underneath.

In about two weeks, we should see another change… with wings!

Earlier this week, I compared the caterpillars’ metamorphosis to my revision process.  Turns out they’re much faster than I am.  I’ve made it through my first 40 pages of line edits, though!

Metamorphosis

The UPS guy came this week with a new revision letter and another marked up manuscript from the editor working on my middle grade novel with Walker Books.  I went through her notes, which are funny and brilliant and helpful and all things that an editor’s notes ought to be.  And tonight, I sat down at my computer to open a new document.

Draft #18.

That is a whole lot of drafts.

This manuscript is 47,536 words long.  Multiplied by 18, that’s more than 855,000 words to chew on.

That is a whole lot of words.  And even though I’m excited about these revisions, sometimes I get a little sleepy just thinking about it.

Tonight, these guys were my inspiration.

Less than a week ago, they could fit on one of my fingernails.  But they’ve been eating milkweed leaves, day and night.  I don’t think they even stop to sleep.   They have chewed through at least two big leaves a day — leaves that are more than twenty times the size of their bodies. They’ve been working their little striped tails off (do caterpillars have tails??), doing the hard work of getting ready to become butterflies.   And they’re getting big now.  They’re almost there.

So am I.  My line edits are due by the end of September.  Like the caterpillars, my manuscript is becoming more fleshed out, more grown up. 

But it’s not quite ready yet.  And I’m holding out for the butterfly.

It’s a bird…. It’s a plane….

We see a lot of interesting things fly by our deck on Lake Champlain. There are always seagulls, geese, ducks, and great blue herons. We spot an occasional bald eagle, and one September we saw a huge swarm of Monarch butterflies — there had to have been more than a thousand — on their migration south.

Tonight might take the cake, though.

At first, we thought it was someone parasailing, but there was no boat. Then we decided it was a skydiver who was about to get wet. Finally, we heard a motor and saw that it was actually some kind of ultralight or powered parachute.  On first glance, it looked like something my 12-year-old might have made out of Legos a few years back, but after watching it fly up and down the lake, we were impressed. 

So, to the two people who seemed to be operating the ultra-para-motorized-gizmo… Well done.  We hope you had a great flight and a safe landing, wherever you ended up.  And thanks.  You made for an interesting night out on the deck.

Happy Monday Things

1. My new regional MG historical novel, Champlain and the Silent One, is available for pre-order on Amazon!  Seeing it there with a cover and a blurb and everything brings it one step closer to real.  The book is due out early next month, and  I’ll be signing copies at the Burlington Book Festival on September 14th.

2. The Cybils blog is active again!  If you’re a kid-lit blogger, consider volunteering as a panelist or judge for this year’s Children & YA Bloggers Literature Awards.  I served as panelist for the Middle Grade Fiction category last year and loved every minute & every page.

3. Espresso Therapy Ice Cream is really, really good.  (It it a testament to my self control that I stopped short of finishing the pint.)

Thankful Thursday

Lots to be thankful for…even as summer winds to a close.

1. I’ve been revising two books this summer — and surviving.  I was a little worried back in June when I figured out this would happen, but somehow, two editors at two different houses have been intuitive enough to stagger their editorial letters and follow-up emails so that I’ve only had one on my plate at any given time.  They’re both friendly, funny, brilliant sorts of editors, too, which makes the whole process a joy.

2. I’m mighty close to finishing a draft of my second Marty McGuire book.  A rough, unattractive draft with an untucked shirt and messy hair, but a draft all the same.

3.  The leopard frogs are out at the state park near my house.

The kids and I spent the afternoon catching, releasing, and just watching.  Also wondering what it must be like to be able to jump fifteen times the length of your body. That is just so cool.

These two posed for me and then jumped away in opposite directions in perfect unison, just like the synchronized divers in the Olympics.

4.  We found two tiny Monarch butterfly caterpillars and brought them home to raise in our butterfly house over the next few weeks.  Every year, we pick fresh milkweed daily and watch the caterpillars grow fatter and fatter until they climb to the top of the screen house and form their chrysalides.  Every year, we watch and wait.  And every year, I have to catch my breath on the morning that I come downstairs to find they’ve emerged as butterflies with wet, new wings.  It never, ever gets old.

May your last days of summer be filled with wonder (and ice cream), too!

The smell of new pencils

It’s a sure sign that summer is winding down…

Not only am I spending time in my own 7th grade classroom this week, working on some curriculum with colleagues, but I’ve also gotten a sudden surge of requests for information about my author visits from teachers and librarians who are planning for the new school year. 

I’ve just updated the part of my website that deals with school & library visits, and I’m excited about some new presentations I’ll be offering this year.  One is the hands-on, historical fiction writing workshop that I piloted last year with these terrific kids in South Burlington. 

Another new presentation ties in with the Champlain Quadricentennial — the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s voyage from Quebec to what is now Lake Champlain to encounter the Iroquois.  It focuses on the first contact between Native Americans in this area and the French explorers and fur traders, using my upcoming historical novel Champlain and the Silent One as a jumping off point. 

Click here to check out my updated list of school and library presentations.

If you’re a teacher, librarian, or home schooler looking for more 400th anniversary resources, here are some additional links:

Vermont’s Celebration Site
New York’s Celebration Site
The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Quad Curriculum (includes Chapter 1 of Champlain and the Silent One)
A Quadricentennial Site hosted by Champlain College

If you’re a teacher picking your last few batches of blueberries and sneaking in those last morning swims this week like I am, I wish you all the best in these getting-ready days before the desks fill with students again.