On Saturday from 1:00-2:00, I’ll be part of a panel discussion on Writing for Children and Young Adults at Fletcher Free Library, along with the authors of these amazing books.
Julie Berry (THE AMARANTH ENCHANTMENT) Linda Urban (A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and MOUSE WAS MAD) Jo Knowles (LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL and JUMPING OFF SWINGS) Tanya Lee Stone (ALMOST ASTRONAUTS, SANDY’S CIRCUS, and more)
We’ll be talking about both the craft and business of writing for kids. What would you like to know? Feel free to share a question in comments, even if you can’t join us on Saturday.(But we really hope we’ll see you there!)
You know how some bookstores are so bright and cozy and wonderful you’d just like to set up a cot and move right in? Newtonville Books is like that, and I was so happy to have an event for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. there this past Saturday. There were even beanbag chairs!
Thanks so much to store owner Mary Cotton, whose hard work just shines in this place, and to everyone who came out to meet Gianna and me.
And just in case they’re reading…thanks to my husband and kids, too. As always, they helped so much. My daughter single-handedly ran the leaf identification challenge for kids while I was signing books, and it even included a tree we don’t have at home – the rare and elusive sassafras! (We grabbed a branch from a tree in our hotel parking lot!)
The thing I’ve loved best about this book journey has been the fact that my family has been able to enjoy so much of it with me. Our book trips always leave some room for non-book fun, too, so Sunday morning after a big diner breakfast, we headed into Boston for Free Community Day at the Museum of Fine Arts.
We wandered through the early American paintings and European masters before finding our way to an exhibit called "Seeing Songs" in the contemporary wing. It’s a fascinating collection of visual art inspired by music. This piece, called "Queen (A Portrait of Madonna)" especially caught our attention.
It was a bank of monitors with people performing — and I mean really performing — Madonna songs. The artist, Candice Breitz from South Africa, put ads in newspapers and online inviting the most devoted Madonna fans to come to a studio in Milan to perform her entire 74-minute Immaculate Collection album. Hundreds showed up; Breitz chose thirty people who are now captured in this wall of monitors, belting out Madonna songs in unison. Breitz said she’d wanted the piece to explore the dichotomy between the "somebodies" who create music and experience fame and the "nobodies" who internalize that music and make it their own.
I’m not sure why, but I had trouble walking away from this one. Maybe it was watching ordinary people who were so different from one another so united in their passion for an artist’s music. Maybe it was wondering what kind of person would travel to Milan for this. While I was wishing I had video to share with you, I found the YouTube video below that shows a clip of the piece, along with video of the big karaoke party the museum had to celebrate its opening this summer. That celebration, I think, captures the same sort of "putting yourself out there" that I appreciated so much in Breitz’s piece.
And thinking about it, maybe that "putting yourself out there" feeling is the reason this piece caught my imagination this weekend – the first time I’d seen my book out on its own, in another state. Like a kid who snuck out when no one was looking. (I kept feeling like I should gather up all the copies and take them home.) After all, as writers, we’re putting ourselves out there every time we let go of a book. It’s not so very different from having the nerve to just let go…and dance.
I just said that to get your attention, so I could say this:
Thank you.
In the two and a half weeks since the official release of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z, I’ve opened up my email and smiled like crazy at least a thousand times because people — and by that, I mean you guys — have been so amazing about helping to spread the word about this quiet, funny, quirky book about a girl and a leaf collection project, with not a single vampire in sight.
And today, there was this post on Publishers Weekly’s ShelfTalker blog, which I read religiously at lunch time. I just about choked on my salsa when I opened the page today and saw Gianna staring back at me. It was overwhelming.
It’s all been pretty overwhelming. The nice notes you’ve posted on GoodReads and the ones you’ve emailed me or sent in other ways. Those little things make a huge difference in an author’s world. This 140-character gift arrived via Twitter this morning and had me smiling all day:
My 9-year old is reading TBFOGZ; when I asked at breakfast this am how she liked it, her face stayed in the book; a good sign!
(I keep all my reviews in a file on my computer, but this one I printed out and put on the bulletin board for when I’m stuck on a scene. That’s when I really need to remember the nine-year-old with her nose in a book at breakfast. She is why I write.)
Anyway, thanks. The very best part of this publication journey has been the people whose paths I’ve crossed along the way.
(Editing to add: I have absolutely nothing against vampires, werewolves, evil fairies, bloodthirsty pixies, or fallen angels. In fact, I’ve been known to love and devour books about all of those things. I mention the vampires only to contrast that sort of book, which often gets heaps of attention, with the quieter, Gianna-ish books, which often don’t and rely on people who love them to share them with others. Thus the vampire bit…and the thanks.)
Gianna Z. and I will be in your neck of the woods this weekend!
I’ll be reading, answering questions, signing books, and doing some fun leaf identification activities with kids this weekend at Newtonville Books. I’ve heard such great things about this independent bookstore, and I can’t wait to visit! Here are the details:
THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. Author Event Saturday, September 19th 2:00 PM Newtonville Books 296 Walnut St. Newton, MA
If any of your friends are teachers or parents of middle grade readers, I’d love it if you’d share the time & date with them. There’s also an official invitation on Facebook if anyone has Boston friends & would like to pass along the link!
After teaching all day, then heading straight to my favorite coffee shop for this afternoon’s GIANNA Z. launch party, and signing books for two hours straight…I am pretty much out of words tonight. Pictures will probably do a better job anyway, of capturing the brilliant fun and sheer joy of sharing this book launch with such amazing friends, colleagues, and students.
Thanks so, so much to everyone who stopped by today – it was an afternoon I’ll never forget.
Today in my 7th grade classroom, we started our first read-aloud of the school year, Rebecca Stead‘s amazing WHEN YOU REACH ME. If you read my review, you know how much I love this book. I’ve already read it aloud to my eight-year-old daughter, who swooned over it just as much as I did and cannot wait to see Rebecca at the Rochester Children’s Book Festival in November to ask her how she made everything fit together so perfectly.
When I finished reading the first two chapters to my classes and closed the book today, I got thinking… If this book had come out when I first started teaching, I might not have chosen to share it with my students. Why? Because there is absolutely no chance I will be able to finish it without crying.
I actually remember setting aside a couple stories in my first year of teaching because I almost loved them too much…because I knew I couldn’t read them without getting all emotional, and that worried me. What would the kids think?
But after spending thirteen years with seventh graders, I don’t worry about that any more. I know what they’ll think. "Wow. Stories are powerful." And they’ll be right.
I remember two things about my own eighth grade English class. One was dressing up in an enormously fluffy rabbit costume to give a speech. (I cannot remember what the speech was about or why it seemed like a good idea to deliver it dressed as a rabbit, but I remember being hot in there.)
And I remember Mr. Caisse reading the very end of A TALE OF TWO CITIES aloud to us. I can still hear his voice breaking on the words… It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.
And I still remember the impression it had on me. That a book could move someone who had clearly read it about a hundred times to the point where he would tear up in front of a room full of 8th graders. That a man could love a story, a particular line from that story, so much, that he seemed to forget we were even there.
The kids came back today! We had teacher meetings yesterday, but the first day isn’t really the first day until the seats in my classroom are full of 7th graders. I’m always excited for the start of a new school year, but this year brings some extra joys.
One of my former students is all grown up and working as a teaching assistant in our school. She’s helping out students in my classroom one period a day, and she is every bit as smart and kind now as she was when she was twelve. I’m so excited to have her in our classroom this year!
Another one of my former students is teaching third grade in our district, and my daughter is in her class. I remember thinking when this young woman was in seventh grade what an amazing teacher she’d be if she chose that path, and I’m thrilled that she did. It makes me feel so proud of her. (Also kind of old…but mostly proud.)
Tomorrow, we’ll start our first whole-class novel of the year, Rebecca Stead’s WHEN YOU REACH ME. I gush about this book at every opportunity, and I’m so excited to share it with my kids that I kept bouncing today while I was telling them about it. It feels like I have a huge surprise present for them – I just know they’re going to love it as much as I do.
Our students will have the opportunity to see President Obama’s back-to-school speech this week. They weren’t back to school when he delivered the speech yesterday, but they’ll meet by grade levels in the auditorium to see the recorded speech on Friday.
Our district is taking real steps to embrace Web 2.0 opportunities for teaching & learning. This year, I’ll be teaching a mini-unit on social networking and talking with kids about Facebook, MySpace, & Twitter – and how those who choose to use these sites can do so effectively, responsibly, and safely.
Along those same lines, we’re having a class Twitter feed! We’ll be tweeting reflections on our learning, book reviews, and all sorts of things, and we’re inviting parents, other teachers and librarians, and kids’ authors to follow us and maybe join in some of our conversations. Here’s our Twitter profile – if you’d like to follow us, just send a request. (The feed is locked so that I can filter out inappropriate followers, but we’re happy to talk with anyone interested in reading, writing, and learning.)
I’m teaching an advanced creative writing class again, this year in a team teaching situation with , who is both a great teacher and a gifted writer. She’s also my friend and funnier than most comedians I’ve seen, so I expect this class to be a lively one!
I hope your September shines and smells like new pencils, too.
It’s probably not a good idea to try out trail running for the first time, on unfamiliar trails, an hour and a half before you need to leave for a book signing.
Even if your son, who just started running cross country and claims to know the trails, really wants you to go with him.
Because if you have fall allergies, there will inevitably be lots of ragweed. And your asthma will kick in and you will be the wheeziest runner the trails have ever seen.
And then you will probably trip on an invisible root and go flying through the air and land on your stomach with the kind of loud, guttural "Ooomph!" sound that is usually reserved for people falling in cartoons. And then your legs will look like someone attacked you with sandpaper and you will have to wear the longer skirt to the book signing.
If you ever get there, that is.
Because when you turn around to run home, you will take the wrong trail, not once, but three times, before you find the right one. You won’t have time to eat lunch, and you will just barely have time to shower really, really fast before you put on the skirt that covers your scraped up legs and get to Lake Placid. (The good news is that you will be just a minute or two late, but the people at the Bookstore Plus are so, so nice that they will have your table all ready and offer you cold drinks and cookies anyway.)
Helpful tip #2:
If you are ever invited to sign at Bookstore Plus on a glorious Labor Day Weekend, you’ll want to say yes.
I had the best time at this afternoon’s event, despite my burning knees. Lake Placid was bubbling over with visitors, and they set up a lovely little table outside under the awning for me, right on Main Street. I spent the afternoon handing out bookmarks, visiting with readers, and signing lots of books, including one for Arabella…
She’s 15 months old, and her mom let me take her photo since she’s officially the youngest person I know of who owns a signed copy of GIANNA Z. Her grandmother bought it to save for when Arabella is older, a tradition that I absolutely love.
Helpful tip #3:
If you are in Lake Placid signing books or doing anything, really, you should probably have dinner here afterwards.
Tail O’ The Pup BBQ is sort of a legend in the Adirondacks, thanks to their picnic tables, live bands, and killer chicken and ribs. (Which you will appreciate more than ever…because you didn’t have lunch on account of that trail run, remember?)
Anyway…thanks to the great, great, book-loving people at Bookstore Plus for a fantastic afternoon – and to everyone who dropped by to say hello!
Yesterday’s launch party for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. at Flying Pig Books was…well…it was the stuff launch party dreams are made of. So many kids, teachers, readers, and friends, along with a great place for a party — the beautiful, light-filled Flying Pig Loft. We got there early to set up…
We had a drawing for a free school/library presentation. (Mrs. Althoff, congratulations! My son drew your name out of the bag. I’ll email you today so we can start figuring out the details!)
I was excited that the silicone bracelets I ordered – red and gold swirled with the book title embossed – arrived on time! And those are Nonna’s famous funeral cookies from the book on the plate with the candy corn. (If you weren’t there to eat some, you can download the recipe from my books page!)
My daughter helped me set up by placing a sugar maple leaf on each chair before the guests arrived. That’s the tree Gianna and Zig are trying to identify in the book in the excerpt I chose to read, so I thought it would be fun for kids to follow along with a leaf as they tried to figure out whether it had teeth or lobes, a downy underside or not, milky sap…all those tree identifying things.
After the reading, kids had a chance to try their own hands at identifying leaves. I set up a tree identification challenge – with photographs of three different trees and branches from each one. Kids used the Watts Tree Finder guide – the same book Gianna and Zig use in the novel – to identify trees and win prizes.
And then it was party time!
Here I am with Flying Pig co-owner and picture book author Elizabeth Bluemle. Note her stylish accessories.
From left to right: Jo Knowles ( ) me, Cindy Faughnan ( )
Jo and Cindy and some other friends made long morning drives to be here, and it just about made me cry every time one of them walked through the door. My friend came over on the ferry from NY and brought her daughter Stephanie, who drove up from Albany for the weekend. Stephanie is in graduate school to become a children’s librarian right now, and she’s one of my former students (also a survivor of the original monster leaf collection project that inspired my book!)
Me, Marjorie, & Stephanie
At the end of my reading, I took a minute to introduce the other authors & illustrators who were there. In addition to Jo and Elizabeth, there were Sarah Dillard, Amy Huntington, Liza Woodruff, and Tanya Lee Stone. "Wow," my husband said when we were packing up the car. "You children’s book people really support one another, don’t you?" We’ve talked about that before…how the people who work in this field are some of the nicest people around. It’s one of so many things I love about writing for kids.
The morning flew by like leaves in a gust of autumn wind… I hugged lots of friends, read from my novel, ate entirely too much candy corn, signed lots of books (including a bunch for far-away friends! When I came down to the store after the party, Josie presented me with a stack of "virtual book signing" copies. If you ordered one, it’s all signed and will be in the mail next week!) I’m so, so thankful to everyone who came out on the last weekend of summer and to the folks at Flying Pig, who always make an author feel so special.
When the last book was signed, we headed to the nearby Shelburne Museum for a picnic with Jo Knowles and her family. My daughter and Jo’s son got to be pals at her launch party for JUMPING OFF SWINGS a few weeks ago, so it was great to spend the afternoon together. Sitting on the grass, exploring the steamboat Ticonderoga, and riding the antique carousel seemed like just the right way to end the day.
I left the house before the sun came up this morning…
…saw it peeking over the horizon halfway through my ferry ride…
…and then arrived here for a series of morning radio interviews on my new middle grade novel, THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z.
WOKO-FM is the number one radio station in the Burlington market, but more than that, WOKO and sister stations KOOL-105 and WJOY are made up of a bunch of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. These stations do so much for our Champlain Valley community, so I was honored to be their guest in the studios today, talking about my new book and my GIANNA Z. events coming up this weekend.
I took my trusty FlipVideo camera along with me and recorded two of the interviews, so you can check out this ten-minute video if you’d like to hear and see how they went!
Gianna Z. and I will be in your neck of the woods this weekend!
Today in my 7th grade classroom, we started our first read-aloud of the school year, 
