The mother of all book-signings!

Meet  43 children’s authors & illustrators!

Kindling Words Caravan
Thursday, January 24, 2008
4:00-5:00
Phoenix Books
Essex, VT

I’ll be there signing copies of Spitfire, and I’m bursting at the seams over the company I’ll be keeping. 
Here are some hints…

Kindling Words Caravan 2008
Laure Halse  Anderson
Sarah  Aronson
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Jeannie Brett
Robin Brickman
Elise  Broach
Janet  Buell
Laurie Calkhoven
Cinda Williams Chima
Jane  Cowen-Fletcher
Katie Davis
Sarah Dillard
Elizabeth O. Dulemba
Michelle  Edwards
Barbara  Garrison
Jamie  Harper
Amy  Huntington
Marthe Jocelyn
Michelle Knudsen
Judy Irvin Kuns
Martha Peaslee Levine
Sarah Darer Littman
Gregory Maguire
Wendy  Mass
Kate  Messner
Carol  Murray
Denise Ortakales
Susanna Reich
Anita Riggio
Leda Schubert
Barbara  Seuling
Janni Lee Simner
Rebecca  Stead
Tanya Lee  Stone
Melissa  Sweet
Kyra Teis
Patricia  Thomas
Amy  Timberlake
Andrea Tompa
Nancy  Werlin
Vera  Williams
Ellen Wittlinger
Jane Yolen
 

Now do you want to come?  Stop by and say hello if you can!

Edited to add:  This is the participant list I received a couple weeks ago. If you are an author or illustrator attending the KW Caravan and you’re not on the list, please drop me a comment and I’d love to add you! 

Book Brawl

I love it when I book-talk a new selection for my classroom library and end up with a near-battle over who gets to sign it out first.  I know, I know, chaos is generally frowned upon in school, but I love to see kids ravenous about reading.  Here’s the book that caused the commotion this week…

Dee got there first, so she’s enjoying Lisa Schroeder’s debut novel in verse tonight, probably up late with a flashlight under the covers even as I type this review. 

I read I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME in one weepy sitting over the weekend and savored

[info]lisa_schroeder

‘s free verse poems that come together to tell a touching story of love, loss, and healing.  The book opens with the funeral of Ava’s boyfriend Jackson — a funeral for which she can’t help but feel a sense of responsibility, given what happened.  This isn’t a traditional tear-jerker, though — because Jackson comes back.  As a ghost.  And Ava finds herself pulled in two directions, forced to choose between the love she lost and the life she still has.

Lisa Schroeder’s poems are spare and beautiful — the kind of poems that paint an amazing picture and then hit hard in the last lines.  This book will have huge appeal for fans of other verse novels.  Kids who love Sonya Sones, especially, are in for a treat.  Like Sones, Schroeder takes a realistic look at teenagers. Simon & Schuster recommends this title for grades 9 and up. There are some very mild references to sex, but nothing, in my opinion, that would make the book inappropriate for a 7th or 8th grade reader who has read Sones’ work or other books that  deal with teen romance.

Ava and Jackson were so real to me during the hour I spent in their world,  I couldn’t help being swept up in their drama.  Part of me was glad I read this one at home, so I didn’t end up sobbing through sustained silent reading in front of twenty seventh graders.  But part of me thinks that would have been just fine, too.  Sometimes, an old-fashioned cry is a perfect reminder of  how transporting a great story can be.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie is  brilliant.  But you probably already knew that.

This week, I finally got to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Wow.  Just wow.

I won’t write a traditional review here, because plenty of other people have praised this book up and down, and there was that whole award thing, too….  What I do want to talk about is how this book impressed me by nailing some aspects of poverty that are rarely addressed in YA novels.

As a teacher in a small city school district, I know that about a third of my students are living in poverty, carrying with them each day the baggage that goes along with it.  We have breakfast programs and free lunch and a good library, and that helps.  Some.  What we can’t always do, no matter how hard we try, is provide that new way of thinking that Junior figured out in Alexie’s book – that moment when living in poverty becomes so unbearable that a person has to make the painful choice to leave.  In Junior’s case, it’s the decision to leave his reservation school to attend a more privileged white school in a nearby town.

There’s a scene in Part-Time Indian where Junior gives a lengthy and funny-but-true list of rules for fighting.  His rules.  The rules of the reservation.  Among them…

  • If somebody insults you, then you have to fight him.
  • If you think somebody is thinking about insulting you, then you have to fight him.
  • If somebody beats up your father or your mother, then you have to fight the son and/or daughter of the person who beat up your mother or father.

When Junior starts at the white school, one of the big guys insults him, and sure enough, Junior punches him.  He’s stunned when the guy doesn’t fight back but walks off with his posse, all of them staring at Junior as if he were a monster…

I was absolutely confused.

I had followed the rules of fighting.  I had behaved exactly the way I was supposed to behave.  But these white boys had ignored the rules.  In fact, they had followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people apparently DID NOT GET INTO FISTFIGHTS.

“Wait,” I called after Roger.

“What do you want?” Roger asked.

“What are the rules?”

“What rules?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just stood there red and mute like a stop sign.  Roger and his friends disappeared.

I felt like somebody had shoved me into a rocket ship and blasted me to a new planet.  I was a freaky alien and there was absolutely no way to get home.

The whole concept of different sets of rules is inherent to any study of the impact of poverty on learning.  Some of my middle school colleagues and I participated in a study group focused on that topic last year, using Ruby Payne’s book A Framework for Understanding Poverty.   It’s a fantastic book – one that should be required reading for anyone who works with kids in poverty, and especially for those of us who enjoyed more privileged middle class upbringings.  The rules are different.  Payne, like Sherman Alexie, does a great job demystifying this aspect of poverty and helping us to understand why it’s not so easy for Junior – or anyone – to just walk away.

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Jennifer Harris used to be that poor, chubby kid who sat alone in the cafeteria. Well, almost alone. There was Cameron Quick, another social outcast. Another kid living in poverty and living on the fringe of third grade society. He was her only friend and the only person who ever understood Jennifer Harris. And then he disappeared.

Years pass. Jennifer gets a new stepfather, a new house, a new school, a new name, a new life. She reinvents herself as Jenna Vaughn. Jenna Vaughn is one of the pretty, thin popular girls. She has friends and a hot boyfriend. But she also has a secret – a dark memory that ties her forever to Cameron Quick and to the old Jennifer Harris, who never really left. SWEETHEARTS is the story of Cameron’s return to Jennifer’s life and what happens when her two worlds meet.

As a National Book Award Finalist, Sara Zarr has a lot riding on this next novel, scheduled for release in February 2008. There will be inevitable comparisons to STORY OF A GIRL. Can this second book live up to that standard? Truth be told, I liked SWEETHEARTS even better. The characters in this novel absolutely shine, from the insecure third grade Jennifer and the third grade Cameron whose generosity and fierce loyalty made me want him for a friend, to the high school version of these kids, still haunted by their grade school selves. The minor characters shine, too. One of my favorites was Jenna’s stepfather, whose quiet support helps Jenna and her mother rebuild what was broken so many years ago.

Some character-driven novels sacrifice pace and tension, but that’s not the case with SWEETHEARTS. From the very first chapter, readers sense there’s a story from Jennifer’s childhood that’s not being told in its entirety. Zarr reveals that story in bits and pieces, snippets of memory and elegantly woven flashbacks throughout the book. All the while, the parts of the story left unspoken create powerful tension.

I read SWEETHEARTS in just a few sittings. When I was away from the book, I spent half my time thinking about the characters and hoping things would go well for them. They grow on you like that. Sara Zarr has written another fantastic novel –- one that celebrates the power of childhood friendships, loyalty, and inner strength. Like STORY OF A GIRL, Zarr’s new release is loaded with realistic characters, hope, and heart. The fabulous cookie cover art delivers on its promise – SWEETHEARTS an absolutely delicious read. 

Why I’m not a brain surgeon

The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.     ~ Robert Cormier

I’m revising this month, together in spirit  with jbknowles and her enthusiastic January Revision Club: cfaughnan, eluper, thunderchikin, d_michiko_f, castellucci, ebenstone, dlanthomas, rj_anderson, lisaalbert, resurrection, jmprince, whiskersink, and beeleigh312.

I’m on my first revision pass on a chapter book currently titled PRINCESS MARTY FROG SLIME AND THE NUTCRACKER BALLET.  It’s too long in some places, too short in others.  The characters talk too much in some places, not enough in others.  It’s random and messy in some places, and there are two minor characters that I introduced in the second chapter and then left to rot. (I have a bad habit of doing that.  You never want to be one of my minor characters…) 

But you know what?  Parts of it are funny and true and almost wonderful.  I keep reminding myself of that while I revise.  I bet parts of your WIP are like that, too.  Revision is sort of like mining for precious minerals.  You have to hang out in the dusty dark hacking away at a lot of junk to find the good stuff.  Not a great strategy for brain surgeons, but perfect for those of us who write for kids.

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I love librarians!

I spent the evening with a fantastic group of public, school, and college librarians in NALA, the Northern Area Library Association.  Have I mentioned that I love librarians?  Not only did I get to have dinner with them and talk about books all night, but they were a terrific audience for my after dinner presentation and book talk on SPITFIRE.  Here we all are, happy and well fed.

They were also extraordinarily sympathetic when I arrived for the presentation,unpacked my laptop case, and failed to find the adapter that connects my Mac to my projector.  I was sure it was in there.  I never take it out.  Except for two months ago, when I presented at the NYS English Council in Manhattan and didn’t want to schlep that big laptop case all over and put it in a smaller bag instead.  I’ve seen the adapter in that smaller bag at least six times since then and thought, “Gee, you really ought to put that back in your laptop case or you’re going to forget it some day.”  Did I?  No.

The librarians were very understanding when I went tearing out of the restaurant, leaped into my car, and sped home to get the adapter.  I made it back in time for my salad, too.

Seeing Sky-Blue Pink

Most of the Cybils finalists for the middle grade fiction category were skewed toward the higher end of middle grade, more appropriate for the 10-12 crew than for kids who are 8-9 years old.  That said, those of us who served on the nominating panel read — and loved — some wonderful books for the younger set.  Candice Ransom’s Seeing Sky-Blue Pink is one of them.

This isn’t an action-packed book. There’s nothing nerve-wracking or edgy about it.  But it’s a book that I would have read and loved with a passion when I was eight years old.  I would have kept it on a special place on my shelf and wanted to do all the things that Maddie got to do.

Maddie is eight years old herself, and she’s got a lot to deal with when the book opens.  She’s just moved to a new house in the country from her old house in town, and she has a brand new stepfather.  He’s not the stereotypical evil step-parent.  He’s loving and funny and kind, and he introduces Maddie to a delicious summer of new experiences in her new home that almost make up for the special sundaes she used to eat with her mother on their shopping days in town.

The characters in Seeing Sky-Blue Pink are likable and memorable.  The language is simple and lovely.  If you long for the days when kids enjoyed old-fashioned pleasures like staring at sunset skies, treasure-hunting in creeks, and building tree houses, you’ll feel right at home in these pages. 

Big Slick

It’s confession time.  I gave my 17-year-old nephew a pre-read book for Christmas.  I read it really carefully, though and didn’t get chocolate on it or anything.  At any rate, I’m not sorry, because the book was Eric Luper’s debut novel Big Slick, and it was fantastic.

In poker terms, a big slick is when you start a hand of Texas Hold ’em with an Ace and a King showing. It’s a strong starting hand, but in the case of main character Andrew Lang, things fall apart quickly.  Lang is a boy genius of sorts — the youngest player at Shushie’s underground poker club, and he has a knack for the game.  But he borrowed money from  his dad’s dry cleaning business to enter a tournament and digs himself deeper and deeper in trouble with every page in Big Slick.  Add to that mix some family tension, a really cute little brother, a loyal best friend, and a hot goth girl who works with Andrew at Dad’s dry cleaning business, and you have a seriously compelling plot. 

This is a book that teenaged boys — and girls, since there’s a cool, strong female character, too — will love.  It’s not one of those YA novels that you’ll want to share with most middle school kids, though.  The language is intense sometimes, and there’s a pretty steamy romance scene. It’s definitely more of a high school title — and a perfect one for reluctant readers at that age.

Even though I’m not a poker player (okay…this is an understatement.  I’ve been to Las Vegas exactly once, and the people gambling all around me made me nervous enough to break out in hives), I loved this book.  Probably because it isn’t really just about poker after all. When all the cards are turned, Big Slick is a fast-moving, gutsy novel about finding your way in the world, making mistakes, and making good.

So long, snow…

We’re expecting record high temperatures tomorrow, and it’s making me a little mopey.  54 degrees in January is just plain wrong.  At least my family had a cross-country ski day over the weekend, at a state park where the woods truly are lovely, dark, and deep.

Whenever we ski these trails, we stop at a clearing and make our own “Stranger in the Woods.”  Then we ski away laughing at what unsuspecting deer and squirrels will think when they meet him.

This poor guy will probably be snow soup by tomorrow night.  (Sigh…)  At least the thaw is only supposed to last a few days. We’ll be back below freezing by the weekend.

Roar for Powerful Words

The inimitable

[info]eluper

has honored me with a Roar for Powerful Words.

The Award
“According to the Shameless Lions Writing Circle — the award was created to acknowledge “those people who have blogs we love, can’t live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful.” Each award recipient then presents the award to five other bloggers, helping to scream from the mountains the good news about the powerful posts that are produced every day in the blogosphere.”
(Copied from Eric’s blog. I don’t know who he stole it from…)

As the legend of the great purple lion demands, I’ll pay it forward by honoring five of my favorite bloggers with a Roar:

Because there are different ways to roar…

[info]lurban

 and

[info]elizabethcbunce

Some of us are loud bloggers, chatting about everything and posting pictures all over the place.  Some of us are quieter — bloggers of fewer words, but those words have a big impact.  The two above have inspired me on more occasions than I can count.

Because they talk brilliantly about great books…

[info]britlitfantwin

and Miss Erin.

These two ladies are always blogging about a good book, and they’ve introduced me to more than one terrific title I might have otherwise missed.

Because she dishes out sage advice and good book suggestions (and is a darn good agent, too)…

[info]literaticat

Plus, how can you not love someone who posts a manifesto on her LJ?

What I’d really like to do is say thanks to everyone on my friends-list.  You’re all an important part of my writing life, and I love sharing your funny stories, revision struggles, and happy news.  Roar on…