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Today, I received an email from South Burlington’s Chamberlin School principal Holly Rouelle, who told me that a decision has been made to carry THE SEVENTH WISH in her school library. She says the school never intended to censor the book, and that is great news in light of this week’s events.

In case you’re new to the story, my latest novel, THE SEVENTH WISH, is about a lot of things – Irish dancing, ice fishing, magic, entomophagy, flour babies, and friendship. It’s also about the effects of opioid addiction on families, especially younger siblings. On the day my book was released this week, I was disinvited from a school visit at Chamberlin on less than 24 hours notice. The librarian and principal told me they felt they hadn’t prepared their students well enough for that visit, given the sensitive subject matter, despite the fact that it was scheduled in January and a copy of the book was provided to them at that time. They also returned all of the copies of the book they’d purchased for the school library. You can read more about that situation in this post, and this one, about the heroic effects of the town’s public library and Phoenix Books to get books into the kids’ hands anyway.

So despite the cancelled visit, today’s email was very good news, and I’m pleased that the school has decided to make the book available to students and staff. I’m hoping I’ll still get to share my presentation with lots of Chamberlin readers at my rescheduled event at the Community Library, too, where there will be free books available for at least the first hundred kids who register. 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m no stranger to Chamberlin School – I’ve visited before and done multiple free Skype visits with readers here – and I’ve found the people who work at Chamberlin to be energetic, kind, caring advocates for kids. I do not believe at this point that the school is engaging in censorship of my book.

That said, I do know that our conversations here and in social media have reached far beyond Vermont, and I hope those conversations will continue because the quiet censorship that happens in some schools and libraries affects kids’ access to books in very real ways every day.

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post called “Remember Who We Serve: Some Thoughts on Book Selection and Omission,” which you can read here. I explained how another librarian from a different state contacted me after the Vermont incident to let me know that she loved my books but had removed THE SEVENTH WISH from her library’s order list because it’s about a family affected by our country’s opioid epidemic. She responded to the blog post with a comment, which I’m sharing here with her permission:

I am the librarian in question and I stand by what I wrote. The parents in my community trust me to stock the library with books that won’t cause their children with extreme anxiety. I think the public library should certainly carry this book and parents should go with their children to pick it out and read it together. In a school library, most students choose books without even showing their parents. What about the parent that will call me when their child is crying and scared because now they know something their parents didn’t want them exposed to?? I cannot be responsible for that. I would certainly recommend this book for a student that needs it, but I can’t put it out there on the shelf. What if an 8 year old checked it out? What would I say to their parents- “I’m sorry your child is confused and upset. You should talk to them about the dangers of drugs in between playing with My Little Pony.” I think people forget how young 10 years old really is. Why is there a constant push for them to be older and know everything? Even 12 years old is more emotionally stable and ready for these types of discussions. You can vilify me all you want to for my opinions but I know the parents of my students thank me.     

It was not my intent to vilify but to offer a different view of things. I honestly wanted to talk with her more after I saw this comment, so I emailed and asked if she’d be open to that. She said yes, and we had a good phone conversation this afternoon. I learned that she does indeed see the other side of the argument as well, but she still thinks kids’ innocence should be preserved longer by limiting access to some topics. She’s also under pressure from the parents in her community to limit the kinds of books in her library.  The bottom line is, she feels like she can’t give elementary students access to a book like THE SEVENTH WISH without risking her job.

I have a tremendous amount of empathy for librarians and teachers in situations like this. I taught middle school for fifteen years. I faced book challenges and angry parents, too. I remember the sick feeling I’d get in my stomach when I opened a parent email and found a complaint about a book in my classroom library. I was lucky to have supportive administrators. Not everyone does. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can all do a better job supporting librarians and teachers who want to provide kids more access to books but are worried about pushback, so I proposed that this librarian and I start a conversation about this. We have some real disagreements about what kinds of books belong in a K-5 library, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be able to disagree respectfully, listen to one another, and try to brainstorm solutions. So we’re going to try that, and we’re inviting you to join the conversation, too. 

As many of you know, I’m on book tour this month and leaving for Maine in the morning, but in between school events and bookstore signings, I’m going to be talking with her via email. Once we’ve had a chance to share some ideas back and forth, I’ll post the conversation here on my blog, and we’d love to hear from other people who care about kids and books, especially from other teachers and librarians who have found ways to deal with the particular challenges that face elementary school libraries with regard to book selection and access when there’s a wide age range of students. I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to have a spirited, passionate, respectful, problem-solving conversation. And I hope you’ll join us. 

My newest novel, THE SEVENTH WISH, is about a lot of things – Irish dancing, ice fishing, magic, entomophagy, flour babies, and friendship. It’s also about the effects of opioid addiction on families, especially younger siblings. On the day my book was released this week, I was disinvited from a school visit in Vermont on less than 24 hours notice. The librarian and principal told me they felt they hadn’t prepared their students well enough for that visit, despite the fact that it was scheduled in January and a copy of the book was provided to them at that time. They also returned all of the copies of the book they’d purchased for the school library. You can read more about that situation in this post, and this one, about the heroic effects of the town’s public library and an independent bookstore to get books into the kids’ hands anyway.

I’ve gotten lots of messages of support about this from people who agree that we need to share books like this with kids. But I also got an email this morning from a school librarian in another state, who said she wanted to offer me a different perspective on THE SEVENTH WISH.  She wrote:

As a huge super fan of yours I did want to offer a new perspective of The Seventh Wish. It was on my book order list before I even read what it was about. However, after reading the description, I too sadly had to remove it.

She says I’m one of the favorite authors in her K-5 library. They have all of my other books, and they fly off the shelves. But this one won’t be added to the collection. She continued:

It’s not that I don’t think heroin addiction is extremely important. Our community has faced its share of heartbreaking stories in regards to drug abuse but fourth and fifth graders are still so innocent to the sad drug world. Even two years from now when they’re in sixth grade this book will be a wonderful and important read but as a mother of a fourth grader, I would never give him a book about heroin because he doesn’t even know what that is. I just don’t think that at 10 years old he needs to worry about that on top of all of the other things he already worries about… For now, I just need the 10 and 11-year-olds biggest worry to be about friendships, summer camps, and maybe their first pimple or two.

This breaks my heart. As a writer. As an educator. As a parent. As someone who loves kids. It breaks my heart because I know this feeling so well. Those are all the things I want 10 and 11 year olds to worry about, too. But I don’t get to choose what those kids’ lives are like. None of us do.

We don’t serve only our own children. We don’t serve the children of some imaginary land where they are protected from the headlines. We serve real children in the real world. A world where nine-year-olds are learning how to administer Naloxone in the hopes that they’ll be able to save a family member from dying of an overdose. And whether you teach in a poor inner city school or a wealthy suburb, that world includes families that are shattered by opioid addiction right now. Not talking about it doesn’t make it go away. It just makes those kids feel more alone.

When we choose books for school and classroom libraries, we need to remember who we serve. We serve the kids. All of them.

When we quietly censor books that deal with tough issues like heroin addiction or books like Alex Gino’s GEORGE, which is a wonderful story about a transgender fourth grader, we are hurting kids. Because no matter where we teach, we have students who are living these stories. When we say, “This book is inappropriate,” we’re telling those children, “Your situation…your family…your life is inappropriate.”  This is harmful. It directly hurts children. And that’s not what we do.

As Pernille Ripp pointed out so beautifully in this blog post, it is not our job to censor. It is not our job to keep books away from kids. It’s our job to make books available for the families who need them, to respect the rights of families to choose or not choose whatever books they want and need. But not to make those decisions for them without ever giving them a chance.

Instead of carefully erasing books that might be controversial, what if we did a better job educating our school families about what we do? When I taught middle school, I used to talk with families about why my classroom library was so diverse. I explained up front that it included titles they might not find appropriate for every single reader because my students were all wonderfully unique, with different lives and different needs. We talked about what that diverse book selection meant for families.

Kids, in general, do a fantastic job self-selecting books, and when they find they’ve picked up something they’re not ready for, they’re usually quick to put it down and ask for help choosing something else. As teachers and librarians, we’ll offer recommendations and steer kids toward books that are age-appropriate, and we encourage you to talk about books with your kids. We have multiple copies of many titles in our library.  Let us know if you’d like to check out two copies of a book so you can read together.  And if you find that your student has chosen a book that you think might not be the right book for him or her right now, talk about that, too.  

We respect your right to help your own child choose reading material, and we ask that you respect the rights of other parents to do the same.  If you object to your child reading a particular book, send it back to the library, and we’ll help your student find another selection.  We’ll put the first book back on the shelf because even though you don’t feel it’s the right book for your child right now, it may be the perfect book for someone else’s.

Teachers & librarians…please feel free to use any of this blog post about heading off book challenges if it’s helpful to you as you do your job.

And thank you so much for doing that job.  So many of you are fighting every single day to make sure kids have access to the books they want to read and the books they need to survive. Thank you for serving the kids. All of them.

Yesterday, with less than 24 hours notice, I was disinvited from a Vermont school visit that had been planned since January. The reason? My book, THE SEVENTH WISH, deals with the effects of addiction on a younger sibling. I wrote about that here and have an update to share today. There’s more sad news but some happy news, too. 

This morning, when I stopped by Phoenix Books in Burlington, I learned that the school not only cancelled my visit but also returned all of the books it had ordered for the school library.

Every. Last. Copy.

So not only did those 4th and 5th graders not get the author visit they were promised. Now they won’t have access to the book at all. This is a school where some kids deal with addiction in their own families. I know from fifteen years of teaching that the right book can be a lifeline for kids in situations like that. The right book says, “It’s not your fault.”  It whispers, “You’re not alone. Be strong. It gets better.” I had so hoped The Seventh Wish would be that book for some kids. That’s why I wrote it. 

I had a wonderful time at my other school visits today, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the kids whose visit was cancelled. So I stopped by the Community Library in South Burlington, donated a copy of THE SEVENTH WISH, explained what had happened, and asked if the library might be willing to host me later this month so that families whose visit was cancelled could come. Children’s librarian Meg Paquette was wonderful. She whisked me into a back office, found a date for the event, and booked the space.

I’ll be speaking at the South Burlington Community Library on June 28th at 4pm. I know not all the kids will be able to make it, but I hope lots of them can come and hear the talk they missed today. I’ll be there with my writer’s notebooks, research notes, outlines, and messy, marked-up manuscript pages. We’ll play the word game Charlie’s family plays in the book. We’ll talk about fairy tale retellings and brainstorm some re-imaginings of Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella, too.

Bloomsbury is donating 20 copies of THE SEVENTH WISH to give away to readers at that event. That’s not enough to put a book into the hands of every reader who missed my author visit, but it’s a wonderful start.

Thanks to everyone who commented and offered support after reading my post yesterday. If you’d like to help get books into these kids’ hands, the Community Library has cheerfully offered to give copies away to kids at this event and beyond, as long as they last. Phoenix Books has offered to coordinate and get the books to the library. 

HOW TO DONATE A COPY OF THE SEVENTH WISH

Call Phoenix Books at 802.448.3350 to order over the phone. Let them know the book is a donation to South Burlington Community Library.

You can also order online here. Just write “South Burlington Library Donation” in the comments field when you order.

Or if you’d like to have a book sent from another bookseller, you can have it mailed directly to the library at this address:

Community Library

540 Dorset St.

South Burlington, VT 05403

Attn: Meg Paquette

Finally, thanks to everyone who has reached out over this. I’ve never found myself in the middle of a book challenge before, and it’s a sad, strange place to be. But I’m so, so grateful for the outpouring of support from writers, teachers, librarians, administrators, and readers. Thanks especially to Donna MacDonald and Sharon Hayes, the librarians who welcomed me to Orchard Elementary and C.P. Smith school with kind words and big hugs today, and to those school communities whose open minds and hearts are so very much appreciated. 

Thanks to everyone who’s been offering public words of support about this book and to everyone who sent me quiet private message about how important it is. Those notes talked about family members who are addicts. They talked about parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, college roommates, and best friends who overdosed. They talked about children lost to opioid addiction and children struggling with a family member’s addiction right now. It’s all so real, and so scary, but that’s why we need to keep talking about it.

It would be wonderful to live in a world where not talking about a thing made it vanish or took away all of its power. But we don’t live in that world. This epidemic is fueled by silence and shame. And keeping kids from stories about the effect of addiction on families only makes that stigma worse. So I’m going to keep talking and keep writing. I’m going to keep working to get books into kids’ hands, and I hope you will, too. 

~Kate

Judy Blume edited an anthology of writing by censored authors called PLACES I NEVER MEANT TO BE. It’s a great collection that I read years ago and hadn’t thought about in a while. But its title came crashing back to me today when I got an email from a school librarian disinviting me to her school tomorrow. This was one of my school visits for THE SEVENTH WISH book tour. It had been scheduled five months ago and was now cancelled on less then 24 hours notice.

The reason? One of my book’s themes is the impact drug addiction has on families.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone at the school, since the email I sent way back in January, offering the author visit began like this:

THE SEVENTH WISH is a book that uses magic to explore something many families are afraid to talk about with kids – addiction. I was floored a few years ago when a neighborhood friend told me that her beautiful, smart, joyful daughter was hooked on heroin. She got help and survived, and she is thriving now, but I still struggle to understand how it happened. And when I struggle, when something really scares me, I write.

THE SEVENTH WISH begins on the day Charlie Brennan goes ice fishing on her town’s cold winter lake, hoping the perch she reels in will help pay for a fancy Irish dancing solo dress. But when Charlie’s first catch of the day offers her a wish in exchange for its freedom, her world turns upside down. Charlie catches the fish again and again, but each time, her wishes go hilariously wrong. Just when things are finally starting to turn around, a family crisis with her older sister forces Charlie to accept the fact that some of the toughest challenges in life can’t be fixed by wishing.

So I was shocked when I got an email this afternoon, disinviting me to the school I was supposed to be visiting tomorrow morning. The fourth and fifth graders have all been told I was coming. They’ve read the early chapters of THE SEVENTH WISH together in their classes. Book order forms went home to families, letting them know about the author visit.

But now, that visit isn’t going to happen. I was told today that the principal felt the book and my presentation about the writing process behind it would generate many questions that they would not be able to adequately answer and discuss. I called and asked the school to reconsider because I desperately didn’t want to disappoint all those kids. I explained how the topic was handled in a sensitive, age appropriate way. I told them about reviews like these:

From Kirkus (Starred review)

“As Charlie processes the changes in her life, her perspective shifts. Friends of all ages, old and new, support her. And she finds outlets in ice fishing and Irish dance. Most affecting, Charlie begins to understand the serenity prayer. Hopeful, empathetic, and unusually enlightening.”

From Publishers Weekly

“As she did in All the Answers, Messner lightens a heavy theme with a bit of magic (this time the talking fish rather than a talking pencil) while humanizing a growing epidemic and helping readers understand that even “good people make awful mistakes.” 

From School Library Journal

“A charming fantasy story with threads of several deep themes that could serve as the basis for thoughtful discussion.”

 From 5^th grade teacher Melissa Guerrette:

“Sometimes I get the chance to read books ahead of their publication date. Once in a while, I read something that I know with my whole heart will be important for kids…too important to wait to share. This year that book was The Seventh Wish. All of our fifth graders read this together. By next week, all our sixth graders will have, too. The bravery and honesty of Kate Messner’s writing has stretched our hearts to let in Charlie and Abby and resulted in more understanding and empathy about the realities of addiction.”

None of it mattered. The school decided they hadn’t had time to prepare kids for the visit, despite the fact that it was confirmed back in January and a letter about the book’s content had gone home to families.

So I won’t be allowed to talk with those kids tomorrow. We won’t get to brainstorm new fairy tale retellings together. They won’t get to see my writer’s notebook or my messy rough drafts, or marked-up revision pages. They won’t hear Charlie’s hopeful story, even though I know there would be kids in the room who could use that hope. There are kids like that in every class I visit. Stories about families like theirs let them know they’re not alone.

I understand that school administrators are afraid to talk about tough issues sometimes. Authors are, too. But we’re not protecting kids when we keep them from stories that shine a light in the darker corners of their lives. We’re just leaving them alone in the dark.

So families… If your school is the one where my visit was cancelled, I’m sorry. Please know that I wanted to come so much. The school was going to order copies of the book so it would be available in the library after my visit, but I don’t know if that’s still going to happen. I’m going to drop by the public library in South Burlington tomorrow, though, to donate a copy. If you want to read it, it will be there for you. I’m so sorry I can’t be.

~Kate

Updated 6/13: On Saturday, I received an email from South Burlington’s Chamberlin School principal Holly Rouelle, who told me that a decision has been made to carry THE SEVENTH WISH in her school library. She also sent home a note letting parents know about an upcoming event at the public library on June 28th.  In addition, I’ve offered to reschedule this free author-visit presentation in the fall and hope Chamberlin will take me up on that offer, once school is back in session and they’ve had a chance to prepare the students.

My next middle grade novel, THE SEVENTH WISH, comes out June 7th! I’ll be on tour much of June, sharing stories, visiting with readers and signing books. I hope you’ll come say hello if one of these stops is near you, but if not, you can still order a signed copy through my local indie bookstore…

TO ORDER PERSONALIZED, SIGNED COPIES OF THE SEVENTH WISH:

Call The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid at 518-523-2950 during business hours.

Let them know how you’d like the book signed & they’ll ship it out to you after I sign it on June 9th!

Here’s where you’ll be able to find me in person this June & July. All bookstore events are open the public. You can click on the links to RSVP to the event on Facebook & invite friends who might be interested, too. 

June 6 – School visits in Gouverneur, NY

June 7 – Guilderland Elementary, Guilderland, NY

June 8 – Orchard Elementary and Chamberlin Elementary in South Burlington and C.P. Smith School in Burlington, VT

June 9 – Morrisonville Elementary & Tupper Lake Middle School  (and Bookstore Plus to sign orders!) 

June 12 – 1pm – Barnes & Noble – Augusta, ME  (with Carrie Jones & Megan Frazer Blakemore!)

June 13 – Oxford Elementary School & James Otis Kaler Elementary in South Portland, ME

June 13 – 7pm Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA

June 14 – Medway Middle School & Dover Sherborn Middle School – MA

June 15 – Wilson Middle School, Natick, MA

June 16 – Bonnie Brae & Mantua Elementary Schools in Fairfax, VA

June 16 – 7pm – Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C. 

June 17 – Swanson & Kenmore Middle Schools in Arlington, VA & Churchill Rd. Elementary in McLean, VA

June 21-22 – American Booksellers Association Children’s Institute – Orlando, FL

June 24-25 – American Library Association Conference – Orlando, FL

July 7 – 3-5pm – The Bookstore Plus, Lake Placid, NY

July 8-10 – International Literacy Association, Boston, MA

July 10 – 4pm – An Unlikely Story in Plainfield, MA (with Carrie Jones & Megan Frazer Blakemore!)

Here’s a little more about THE SEVENTH WISH…

From Publishers Weekly…

Twelve-year-old Charlie—a devoted friend, loving sister, enthusiastic Irish dancer, and budding ice fisher—has read enough stories to know not to be greedy when making wishes, so she is extra careful when a wish-granting fish turns up at the end of her ice-fishing pole. She isn’t always careful, however, to be specific with the wording of her wishes, leading to muddles for her friends and family in this rich and daring novel. What initially seems harmless becomes seriously hurtful when well-meaning Charlie is unable to wish away a loved one’s struggle with addiction, and the book takes a hard but important turn from the ordinary fun of middle-school crushes, sibling rivalry, Irish dancing, and fish-wishing into drug abuse and its aftermath. As she did in All the Answers, Messner lightens a heavy theme with a bit of magic (this time the talking fish rather than a talking pencil) while humanizing a growing epidemic and helping readers understand that even “good people make awful mistakes.”

From Kirkus (*Starred Review*)

In this novel-length riff on “The Fisherman and His Wife,” when Charlie goes ice fishing with pal Drew and his nana, she catches a fish who says it will grant her wishes in return for its release.

Charlie would like some control over her life, so she keeps hooking the fish even as she learns, like her fairy-tale predecessors, that wording matters. After all, Charlie’s hope that Roberto Sullivan notice her goes unfulfilled. Instead, a boy named Robert O’Sullivan shows up! Her generous intentions toward friends and family meet with varying success as well. Drew makes the basketball team, except he doesn’t like sports; and good friend Dasha passes her ESL class only to find keeping up in regular classes difficult. Charlie narrates, making dry, honest observations that zing straight to the hearts of readers, especially as the story builds toward one of Charlie’s most anxious pleas: that her beloved college-student sister be cured of her heroin addiction. But wishing doesn’t make it so. Charlie’s largely white upstate New York world is fully realized, typical in its everyday concerns and complicated by a frightening, news-making epidemic. As Charlie processes the changes in her life, her perspective shifts. Friends of all ages, old and new, support her. And she finds outlets in ice fishing and Irish dance. Most affecting, Charlie begins to understand the serenity prayer. Hopeful, empathetic, and unusually enlightening.

From School Library Journal…

In this realistic novel with a whimsical twist, 11-year-old Charlie catches a magical wishing fish and tries to use it to solve all her problems. Her wishes range from getting rid of her fear of the ice to getting her sister to come home from college for a visit. Not surprisingly, poor phrasing causes her wishes to go wrong, and she ends up making things worse instead of better. The plot covers a lot of ground, ranging from Charlie struggling to save enough money to buy a dress for her Irish dancing performance to helping one of her classmates learn English. The most serious subplot involves the discovery of her older sister’s heroin addiction and her subsequent treatment. Charlie eventually decides she does not need to rely on making wishes to solve her problems. Though somewhat sanitized, the gentle portrayal of heroin addiction may serve as a good way to introduce this serious issue and engender discussion. VERDICT A charming fantasy story with threads of several deep themes that could serve as the basis for thoughtful discussion.

TIME TO WRITE REVISION RETREAT with Linda Urban & Kate Messner

November 3-5, 2017

The What:
The 2017 Time to Write Revision Retreat will include daily craft lectures from Linda and Kate, mentor-facilitated small-group critique sessions, lively community meals, and quiet work time.  Cost: $480 includes all lectures & workshops, snacks and meals from Friday dinner through Sunday lunch. Lodging is not included. See below for options.

The When:
November 3-5, 2017.  Arrive any time after noon on November 3rd (first session begins at 4pm) and depart after lunch on November 5th.

The Where:
Valcour Inn and Conference Center is located on beautiful Lake Champlain, just south of Plattsburgh, NY. You can read about the inn here:
  http://www.plattsburghcas.com/valcour-conference-center

The Valcour Inn has nine bedrooms with different nightly rates depending on the level of accommodation and occupancy. Some are large with lake views, porch access, and private bathrooms. Some are smaller with a shared bathroom. Most rooms can accommodate 2-3 people, if you’d like to have a roommate or two to reduce lodging costs. There are also larger hotels in Plattsburgh, just a few miles away, and of course, if you live nearby, you are welcome to sleep in your own bed and commute.  Valcour room options and rates are here:

http://www.plattsburghcas.com/valcour-inn-and-boathouse/main-house-guest-rooms

Additional nearby lodging options include the Hampton Inn & Suites and Microtel Inn &  Suites, both about a 10 minute drive.

The Who:  

Linda Urban and Kate Messner are award winning children’s authors and friends who love to teach and mentor other writers. Between the two of them, they’ve written more than thirty books, presented at over a dozen state and national conferences, and consumed approximately four hundred mocha lattes.

Who should attend?
This is a retreat for experienced novelists, both published and not-yet published.  The workshop will be aimed at writers who are working to revise a completed (or mostly completed) draft of a middle grade or young adult novel or chapter book.  We’ll be asking for writing samples – just your first few pages – when it’s time to register, so that we know you’re in a place where what we’re offering will be useful and relevant.  We can accommodate up to twenty-two writers in this lovely, intimate setting and will cap the retreat at that number. We’ll have the option for returning writers to repeat a craft session from years past or break off into a smaller group workshop.

The How:
Valcour Conference Center is on Lake Champlain in Northeastern NY, 1.5 hours from Burlington, VT, 2.5 hours from Albany, 4 hours from Syracuse, 4.5 hours from Boston, and 5 hours from New York & Rochester.
http://www.plattsburghcas.com/valcour-conference-center/directions
You’ll see that the website gives driving directions from Plattsburgh International Airport, but this is not an airport that services many places. The nearest full-service airport is in Burlington, Vermont a little over an hour away (including a ferry ride). If you fly, it will probably be necessary to rent a car or find a friend who’s passing through Vermont to pick you up at the airport.

How to sign up: 

Send an email to timetowriteretreat at gmail dot com with your name, address, email, and phone number. Please include a quick note about what you hope to be working on and share a short writing sample (700 words or less) if you’re not a returning writer. Don’t worry about this being a tryout or application; our goal is to make sure the workshop will be useful to you, and this will help us to plan our sessions. If you’re hoping to room with someone at the retreat, please let us know that as well. As soon as we receive your email, we’ll send you more information, including directions for mailing your deposit.

Registration Deadline: 

October 1st ($480) 

To reserve a spot at the retreat, participants must submit a $50 nonrefundable deposit at the time of registration, with the balance due by October 1st.  It’s also fine to pay the full amount when you pay your deposit.

Questions? Email us at timetowriteretreat at gmail dot com.

The meteorologists have been buzzing for days, and that giant icy blob on the weather map is headed your way. The wood is stacked, you’ve been to the grocery store, and the hot chocolate is on the stove. There’s just one more snowstorm priority. What will you read while you’re cozied up and hunkered down? 

This morning, the Albany Ave. Elementary Library in North Massapequa, NY sent me a photo of some excited readers getting ready for their big snow with my picture book OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW.

OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW is the story of a girl who goes cross country skiing with her father and discovers the secret world of animals under the winter snow. It’s a book I wrote because I’ve always been a fan of snowy weather and wait every winter for that first big storm. 

Here are some other suggestions for reading by the fire when that first big storm arrives…

For Younger Readers:

I had to start with this one because it’s a winter-storm classic, now and forever. Thank you, Ezra Jack Keats, for THE SNOWY DAY.

Jane Yolen’s OWL MOON illustrated by John Shoenherr was one of our family’s favorites when the kids were small. It’s about a father and daughter on a quiet, snowy, moonlit adventure in the woods, searching for owls.

WINTER BEES AND OTHER POEMS OF THE COLD is a lovely, frost-laced poetry collection by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen. This one is perfect for reading aloud by the fire.

BLIZZARD by John Rocco helps us to remember the adventure of going outside for the first time after that big, big snow. It’s a little like being an Antarctic explorer!

And finally, I love THE LITTLE SNOWPLOW by Lora Koehler, illustrated by Jake Parker. This story of a small plow training for the big day is a great one for young truck fans.

For older readers:

TWELVE KINDS OF ICE by Ellen Bryan Obed, illustrated by Barbara McClintock, is one of the loveliest cold-weather read-alouds you’ll ever find.  With the quiet joy of a freezing lake, it introduces readers to all the kinds of ice we see while we’re waiting to skate. 

COLD AS ICE is Book 6 in Sarah Mylnowski’s Whatever After series of fractured fairy tales, popular with 2nd-4th grade readers. This one will be a particular treat for fans of the movie Frozen, since it plunges two kids into the icy world of The Snow Queen. 

BREADCRUMBS by Anne Ursu is a Snow Queen retelling for older elementary readers. For everyone, really… This is one of my all-time favorite novels, so lovely and frosty and magical you’ll be able to see your breath when you read it.

ICE DOGS by Terry Lynn Johnson is a great title for middle school kids to curl up with while the storm rages outside. It’s the story of a teen dog sledder struggling to survive a storm and save her team.

For grown-ups:

WINTER WORLD: THE INGENUITY OF ANIMAL SURVIVAL was a book I picked up while I was researching OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW, but it’s one I’ve read many, many times since. Whether he’s writing about ravens, summer trees, or winter insects, naturalist Bernd Heinrich has a way of looking more closely than the rest of us – and reminding us through science how magical it is to wonder.

What are some of your favorite “big snow” reading recommendations to pick up when a winter storm rolls in?

Hi there – and welcome to the World Read Aloud Day author Skype volunteer list for 2016!

If you’re new to this blog, I’m Kate Messner, and I write books like these:

Jennifer Maschari
HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray
Older Elementary & Middle School
8 am- 12pm EST
http://www.jenmaschari.com   
jen.maschari@gmail.com 

Joanne Levy
Aladdin M!X (forthcoming), Bloomsbury
Middle School
8 am  – 4 pm EST
http://www.joannelevy.com
joanne@joannelevy.com

Stacy McAnulty
Random House Kids
Elementary
8:30 am- 2pm EST
www.stacymcanulty.com
author.stacymcanulty@gmail.com

Kim Norman
Penguin, Sterling & Scholastic
Younger Elementary
10am-3pm Eastern Time Zone
www.kimnormanbooks.com
kimnorman@mac.com

Ammi-Joan Paquette
Philomel/Penguin
Elementary
11am – 3pm EST
www.ajpaquette.com
joanpaq@gmail.com 

Melanie Crowder
Atheneum / Simon & Schuster
Upper Elementary, Middle School or High School
8 am -11 am MST
www.melaniecrowder.com

Julie Falatko
Viking Children’s Books
Elementary
9 am – 2 pm EST
http://juliefalatko.com
julie@juliefalatko.com

Lisa Jahn-Clough
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Elementary K – 3 (picture books)
High school (YA novels)
9 am – 2 pm EST
www.lisajahnclough.com
jahnclough@gmail.com

Sarah Albee
Random House/Bloomsbury/National Geographic
Middle School, Older Elementary
1 – 3 Eastern Time
sarahalbeebooks.com
albees@taftschool.org

Josh Funk
Sterling Children’s
Younger Elementary
8am – 6pm EST
http://www.joshfunkbooks.com
joshfunkbooks+av@gmail.com

Jennifer Swanson
National Geographic Kids, Charlesbridge, Capstone 
Older Elementary, Middle School, High School
 8am to 2pm EST
www.JenniferSwansonBooks.com
 Jennifer@JenniferSwansonBooks.com

Miranda Paul
Lerner Publishing Group & Macmillan Children’s
Elementary
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. (Central)
http://mirandapaul.com
wisconsinauthorsbooking@gmail.com

Molly B. Burnham
Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
older elementary
East Coast time available school hours
www.mollybburnham.com
mollyb.burnham@gmail.com

Anne Marie Pace
Disney-Hyperion, Scholastic, Henry Holt, Beach Lane
Younger Elementary
9-3 Eastern time, minus 1:45 – 2:15
http://www.annemariepace.com
annemarie@annemariepace.com

Augusta Scattergood
Scholastic
Upper Elementary, Middle School      
2-5 PM EST
www.ascattergood.com
gsgood2@gmail.com

Nanci Turner Steveson
HarperCollins Children’s
Upper Elementary/Middle School 
8:30-11:30 Mountain Time
www.nanciturnersteveson.com
Ponywriter7@gmail.com

Alma Fullerton
HarperCollins, Fitzhenry and Whiteside
Elementary
8am – 2pm EST
www.almafullerton.com
almafullerton@almafullerton.com

Erin Dealey
Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, Sleeping Bear, Kane Miller
Elementary
Flexible to your needs–worldwide. (I’m PST)
http://www.erindealey.com

Laura Sassi
Zonderkidz (HarperCollins Christian Publishing)
Younger Elementary, Preschool
10am – 2pm EST
www.laurasassitales.wordpress.com

Hayley Barrett
Candlewick Press
Younger Elementary
9-12 EST
https://hayleybarrettwrites.wordpress.com
hayleybarrettwrites@yahoo.com

Deborah Freedman
Viking Children’s Books
Younger Elementary
9 am — 3 pm EST
http://www.deborahfreedman.net/

Nikki Loftin
Penguin (Razorbill)
Older Elementary
1 pm – 4 pm Central
www.nikkiloftin.com
nikki@nikkiloftin.com

Sarah Darer Littman
Scholastic Press/S & S Aladdin
Upper Elementary/Middle School/High School
8 am- 4pm EST
http://sarahdarerlittman.com
sarahdarerlittman@gmail.com

Sarah Jamila Stevenson
Flux Books
Middle School/High School
10am – 3pm PST
http://www.sarahjamilastevenson.com
sjs@sarahjamilastevenson.com

Michelle Edwards
Random House Books for Young Readers, HMH
Younger Elementary
9 am- 3 pm  CST
www.michelledwards.com
michelledwardsmail@gmail.com

Katy Duffield
Two Lions Publishing
Younger Elementary
9am to 3pm EST
www.katyduffield.com
katysduff@yahoo.com

Rosanne Parry
Random House Books for Young Readers
Older Elementary
8:30 to 2:30 PST
www.rosanneparry.com
rosanne@rosanneparry.com

Allison Ofanansky
KarBen
Younger Elementary
9 am to 5 pm. Israel (2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time)
www.karben.com
allison.ofanansky@yahoo.com

Lauren Magaziner
Penguin Books for Young Readers
Elementary
9 am – 6 pm EST
http://laurenmagaziner.com/
lauren@laurenmagaziner.com

Abby Cooper
FSG/Macmillan
Older Elementary/Middle School
9 AM – 4 PM Central 
www.AbbyCooperAuthor.com
AbbyRCooper@gmail.com

Gretchen Kelley
Henry Holt for Young Readers
Older Elementary/early middle school
Available 8:00- 2:00 EST
gretchenkelleywrites.com
glelley2012@gmail.com

Jodi Wheeler-Toppen
National Geographic Kids and Capstone Press
Upper Elementary/Middle
8:30 am- 2pm EST
http://OnceUponAScienceBook.com
wheelertop@gmail.com

Denis Markell
Little Simon (Simon and Shuster) 
Younger Elementary
9am – 2pm EST
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/534331.Denis_Markell
Dmarkell@aol.com

Lindsey Leavitt
HarperCollins, Bloomsbury
Older Elementary,  Middle School, High School
9am-3pm Mountain
www.lindseyleavitt.com
contact@lindseyleavitt.co

Margie Palatini
Simon & Schuster, Harpercollins, Hyperion, Clarion, Dutton, Abrams, Scholastic
All Elementary
10 am to 2 pm (Eastern Standard)
www.margiepalatini.com
margiepalatini@netscape.net

Dana Alison Levy
Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House
Elementary
9-3 EST
www.danaalisonlevy.com
dana@danaalisonlevy.com

Melanie Conklin
Penguin (Putnam)
Older Elementary or Middle School
10am-2pm EST
http://www.melanieconklin.com/
melanie@melanieconklin.com

Authors & Illustrators: If your schedule is full & you need to be crossed off the list, please email to let me know. If you’d like to be added to the list, directions are here. Please note that this particular list is limited to traditionally published authors/illustrators, only to limit its size and scope. I’m one person with limited time. However, if someone else would like to compile and share a list of self-published, magazine, and ebook author/illustrator volunteers, I think that would be absolutely great, and I’ll happily link to it here. Just let me know!

Happy reading, everyone!

“World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.”              ~from the LitWorld website

Hey, author-illustrator friends! To help schools plan their celebrations for LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day I’m putting together a list of author & illustrator volunteers who would like to read aloud to classrooms on that day. 

(image courtesy of LitWorld)

World Read Aloud Day 2016 is Wednesday, February 24th. For the past several years, some authors & illustrators have spent part of their day reading aloud to classrooms via Skype to help schools celebrate. These aren’t long, fancy presentations. They typically run 10-15 minutes each, and a typical one might go like this:

• 1-2 minutes: Author introduces himself or herself and talks a little about his or her books.
• 3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel
• 5  minutes: Author answers a few questions from students about reading/writing
• 1-2 minutes: Author book-talks a couple books he or she loves (but didn’t write!) as recommendations for the kids

 Interested in volunteering? If you’re a traditionally published* author or illustrator, here’s how to sign up:

1. Send an email to worldreadaloudskype@gmail.com.
2. In the subject line, write WRAD Skype volunteer.
3. In the body of the email, please put these SIX pieces of information, in this exact format, so that it can be copied & pasted into the list:

-YOUR NAME

-YOUR PUBLISHER

-GRADE LEVEL FOR WHICH YOUR BOOKS ARE MOST APPROPRIATE

      (Younger Elementary, Older Elementary, All Elementary, Middle School, or High School) 

-HOURS YOU’LL BE AVAILABLE AND YOUR TIME ZONE

-YOUR WEBSITE

-EMAIL WHERE YOU’D LIKE TO BE CONTACTED WITH WRAD SKYPE INQUIRIES OR A LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE CONTACT PAGE

So…the body of your email should look something like this example:

Laurel Snyder
Random House Books for Young Readers
Elementary
8 am- 2pm EST
http://laurelsnyder.com

Laurel-email@gmail.com

Thanks for using this exact format. It saves so much time. Once I have all of your information, I’ll add you on the list and share it. 

IMPORTANT: Whenever your schedule for WRAD is full, please send another email to worldreadaloudkskype@gmail.com to let me know that, and I’ll cross your name off the list so you don’t keep getting requests.

*This list is limited to traditionally published authors/illustrators to limit its size and scope. I’m one person with limited time. However, if someone else would like to compile and share a list of self-published and ebook author/illustrator volunteers, I think that would be absolutely great, and I’ll happily link to it here. Just let me know! 

Writing the Ranger in Time books is a dream job for a long list of reasons. I get to spend my days making up adventures for a time-traveling golden retriever. I write for amazing, enthusiastic readers who devour chapter books like M&Ms. And every time I send Ranger off on a new adventure in history, it feels like I get the chance to time travel, too. I read piles of books and devour diaries, journals, letters, and newspaper articles from each time period Ranger visits. I tend to save my favorite part of the research for last — the field trips.

When I was working on Rescue on the Oregon Trail, I traveled to Independence, Missouri, a jumping-off point for the Oregon Trail, to see where Ranger would have met the Abbott family for the first time. Danger in Ancient Rome sent me overseas to explore the ruins of the Roman Colosseum and Ludus Magnus gladiator school where Marcus and Quintus trained.  

The third book in the series, Ranger in Time: Long Road to Freedom, is the story of two enslaved children who escape from a tidewater Maryland tobacco plantation and make their way north in search of safety and freedom.

Ranger travels with Sarah and Jesse through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. I decided that the best way to gather details from all those settings was to plan a road trip that traced my characters’ imaginary journey, so in the summer of 2014, my daughter and I flew to Philadelphia, rented a car, and drove south to the Mount Harmon plantation in tidewater Maryland, where we’d arranged a tour. This planation became the model for the Bradley planation in Long Road to Freedom. 

So often, details of a site visit help to inspire the plots for my Ranger in Time books. That’s why a creekside tobacco prize house, where tobacco is packed in barrels for shipping, plays an important role in Long Road to Freedom.

The plantation house at Mount Harmon has a widow’s walk, where someone could spot an approaching boat. That scribble in my notebook became a plot element, too.

From Maryland, Sarah and Jesse escape through Odessa, Delaware to Philadelphia. My daughter and I explored real-life settings like William Still’s house and the Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, and I took notes on details that I thought Sarah and Jesse might notice, too. 

From there, Sarah and Jesse make their way to Albany and end up, for a time, at Rokeby, a farm owned by the Robinson family in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. That farm is a museum now and tells the story of two real-life enslaved men who found their way north to Vermont in the 1800s. Interestingly enough, the “hidden rooms” that we hear about in many Underground Railroad stories are nowhere to be found here. Vermont was a free state, and historians say it was no secret that the Robinson family, who were powerful land owners, were helping and employing people who had escaped from their enslavers. Some of those men reportedly slept in a not-so-secret room above the kitchen and worked openly in the fields and with the sheep, alongside the other workers.

Across Lake Champlain, in Northern New York, it was a different story. In early 19th century Clinton County, historians believe that about a third of people were against slavery, about a third were pro-slavery, and a third wanted nothing to do with the whole issue. That meant that abolitionists who did help escapees had to do so more in secret. This barn owned by the Keese Smith family, documented abolitionists, does indeed have a secret room that might have been used as a hiding place.

I spent some time in this damp, cobwebby space with my notebook, soaking up the details and imagining what it would have been like on a dark night, with cows walking over the boards on the floor above. 

As I read and research and travel and read some more, elements of the story take shape, and then it becomes even more fascinating to try and see all these places through my characters’ eyes. You’ll recognize some of these settings if you read Ranger in Time: Long Road to Freedom – and I hope seeing these photos from my research will help you to imagine their journey even more vividly.

Want to hear more about my research for the first two Ranger in Time books, set on the Oregon Trail and Ancient Rome? Check out this virtual author visit!