Category: Uncategorized

I just went to look for a past event photo on my blog and realized that I haven’t posted in weeks so thought I’d send out a quick update. I have been busy revising my January 2015 novel with Bloomsbury, a magical middle grade story about a girl who finds a magic pencil, and that’s been great fun – but also a terrific challenge. Magic can be tricky sometimes, with all its rules and twists.  I’m sure you’ll hear from me more frequently again once it’s all worked out.

I’ve been watching Lake Champlain freeze – and thaw – and freeze again, which has led to some spectacularly chilly views.

If you’d rather be looking at pictures of warmer weather, there’s a new book in the world that you won’t want to miss.

I’ve been enjoying the text for HANDLE WITH CARE: AN UNUSUAL BUTTERFLY JOURNEY & ogling its gorgeous photos for a while because author Loree Griffin Burns is one of my critique partners. But friendship aside, it’s a stunning book. Teacher-friends…if life cycles are part of your curriculum, this is the most unique, gorgeous take on the topic you’ll ever see.

What else have I been up to? Reading and watching movies and playing card games and laughing with family over the kids’ school vacation. I’ve also been catching up on the email and regular mail that piles up when I’m locked in my writing room revising, so if I owe you a note, it’ll be on the way soon.  I’m happy to say that all of my reader mail is currently answered – a bigger feat than usual because an enormous pile of mail from my post office box got misplaced last year, leaving me with a newly-found pile the size of Mount Everest on my desk for most of the fall season. Accept my apologies, please, if you were one of the people who waited far too long for a reply.

Letters from kids always contain some gems, and this batch included some great student artwork. Sometimes, when kids write to me, they illustrate scenes from my book or even draw their own author photos, and those letters are always fun to open. This author drawing in a recent letter might be my all-time favorite, though.

Actually, if you look closely, you might see that I am, in fact, a unicorn. I am feeling very special indeed.

If you read this blog, it’s probably because you know me as a children’s author, but for seven years out of college, I worked in local television news. My undergraduate degree is from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, and in my years there, we talked a lot about what makes a news story — and what doesn’t.  Amazon’s big 60 Minutes reveal about plans to deliver products to your door via drone wouldn’t have made the cut.

How come? Because there’s a difference between a legitimate news story and a publicity stunt. One way to tell the difference is to ask good, intelligent questions about what you’re being told and shown, no matter how shiny those things may be.

Make no mistake – I’m a huge fan of technology in all its latest greatest forms. I desperately want to try out those Google glasses. I’m about to send a kid off to college to study engineering – heck, I loaned him my van for two days so he could chase an electronics-laden weather balloon into the Massachusetts woods. And I’ve ordered things from Amazon. But when Amazon trotted out its “delivery drone” prototype,  I wished the 60 Minutes people had asked some better questions. Here’s how that conversation might have gone…

Question: Wow…that’s pretty cool. But isn’t it illegal to fly drones in lots of places? Say, close to airports and in heavily populated areas like those to which you’d be delivering?

 

Answer: Why yes…yes, it is. And we have no reason to believe that’s going to change soon.

 

Question: Those propellers on your delivery guy look kind of sharp and dangerous, too. Any worries that could be a problem?

 

Answer: Well…yes. Drones aren’t toys. They’re aircraft, and like other kinds of aircraft with whirling, spinning metal blades, they’re dangerous and can slice up human flesh quite nicely. We’re…uh…going to have to think on that one.

 

Question: What’s to keep people from running off with your drones and repurposing them for their own nefarious plans?

 

Answer: Nothing. We expect people will have a lot of fun taking them apart.

 

Question: Won’t that get expensive for you? And what about the drones that crash and break things or hurt people? There could be lawsuits. And I also read that drones are awful in wind. Isn’t it windy sometimes in places you deliver?

 

Answer: We hope it will never be windy when we need to deliver things.

 

Question: So given all that, are you really working on this as a serious thing, or did you just want us to talk about you right before Cyber Monday?

 

Answer: Hey, do you want to see our warehouse? It is bigger than a lot of football fields…come on!

 

None of this is to say that drones aren’t pretty cool. They are.

But you know what’s even cooler? Walking into an independent bookstore that smells like paper books and maybe hot chocolate, too. Finding a real live person behind the counter (she’ll probably be wearing a Santa hat). Telling her about your dad who loves old coins and baseball, or your kid who likes to take apart your toaster to build things, or your best friend whose favorite thing in the world is butterflies…and having that fellow book lover find the perfect, just-right book for the person you love.

Shop local. Shop small. Give books.

World Read Aloud Day 2014 is just three months away. Do you have plans yet?

For the past couple years, I’ve helped out with LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day by pulling together a list of author volunteers who would like to spend part of the day Skyping with classrooms around the world to share the joy of reading aloud. World Read Aloud Day 2014 is March 5th, and I’d love to do this again, to help interested authors, teachers, and librarians connect.

A suggested World Read Aloud Day Skype visit goes 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
• 5-10 minutes: Author answers some 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

Sound like fun? If  you’re the author of a traditionally published* book and you’d like to volunteer to do some 10-15 minute Skype visits with classes on March 5, 2013, please send me an email via the contact form on my website (you can get there by clicking on the little envelope on the right side of the screen).  Deadline: January 1st, please, so people can plan.

• Put WORLD READ ALOUD DAY VOLUNTEER in the subject line
• Include the following information in the body of your email:
  • Your name
  • Your publisher
  • What ages your books fit best (Elementary, Middle School, or High School)
  • What time zone you live in (EST, CST, etc. This is important for scheduling!)
  • Hours you’ll be available for Skype visits on March 5, 2013 (10am-2pm EST, for example)
  • Your website (and email if your website doesn’t have contact information)

So a sample email from an author volunteer will look like this:

Kate Messner

Scholastic

Elementary/Middle School

EST

11am-2pm EST

www.katemessner.com

 

Please use this exact format; it will make it easy for me to copy & paste your entry to the blog post, and then I will love you forever.

I’ll pull all the author volunteer information together in a blog post for early January and share with teachers & librarians who want to Skype with read-aloud authors on March 5th.  Teachers & librarians will contact authors directly to request visits.  If you’re on the list for a while and then realize your schedule for the day is full, it will be helpful if you email me to let me know that so that I can cross you off and you don’t keep getting requests.

*I’m limiting this volunteer round-up to traditionally published authors who write children’s and YA books. That’s not because I have anything against self-publishing or ebooks — it’s simply to limit the scope of the project so it doesn’t overwhelm me. If someone else would like to create a similar list of self-published and/or ebook author volunteers, I’ll happily link to it here.  Thanks for understanding!

I spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in a whirlwind of books and readers and general awesomeness at the National Council of Teachers of English Convention in Boston. Here are some highlights.

Run NCTE!

A couple weeks before NCTE, I had this crazy idea. What if a whole bunch of us – authors and teachers and whoever else wants to come – made plans to go for a run/jog/walk together one morning? #RunNCTE (yes…it even spawned a hashtag) happened Saturday morning at the convention, with about two dozen enthusiastic morning fitness fans. Erin Dionne mapped out a route for us and gave directions before we took off.

Here’s Team-Bloomsbury after the run – from left to right, it’s Erin Soderberg, school/library marketing guru Beth Eller, and me.

After the run, I spent some time in the exhibit hall, ogling new books and saying hello to some fellow book people like Wendy Mass…

…and Brian Floca, who illustrates the MARTY MCGUIRE books!

On Sunday, I took part in two panels – one with my Teachers Write summer writing camp friends Brian Wyzlic, Jennifer Vincent, Jo Knowles, and Gae Polisner!

My other panel was with more talented writers & artists – Matt Phelan, Linda Urban, and Loree Griffin Burns. Here’s Linda showing us some pages in her notebook.

After our panel, I signed books at the Bloomsbury Booth. Can you spot WAKE UP MISSING on the banner?

Many thanks to my fellow panelists and to the teacher-readers who made NCTE 2013 such an amazing experience!

This can be a tough time of year to be an author or illustrator. When all those “Best of the Year” book lists come out from publications like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, it can feel like getting picked last for the kickball team all over again.But my wise writer friend Erin Dionne reminded a fellow author on social media today that there are other lists – quieter ones – that matter, too. Every kid who is a reader has one – and your book just might be number one.

It’s true. And it reminded me that this might be a good time to bring back a poem I wrote a couple of years ago.

What Happened to Your Book Today

by Kate Messner (Copyright 2011)

 

Somewhere, a child laughed

on that page where you made a joke.

Somewhere, she wiped away a tear,

Just when you thought she might.

 

Somewhere, your book was passed

from one hand to another in a hallway

busy with clanging lockers,

with whispered words,

“You have got to read this.”

And a scribbled note:

O.M.G. SO good.

Give it back when ur done.

 

It’s looking a little more love-worn lately,

rougher around the edges than it did on release day.

There are dog eared pages and Gatorade stains.

Someone smeared maple syrup on the cover

because she read all through breakfast.

Pages 125 and 126 are stuck fast with peanut butter

Because Chapter 10 was even more delicious

than lunch.

 

Somewhere, tiny hands held up your book

And a little voice begged, “Again!”

Somewhere, the answer came,

A grown-up sigh…and a smile…

And the fourteenth read-aloud of the morning.

That same book. Again.

Your book.

 

Somewhere, a kid who has never read a whole book on his own

(Really. Not even one.)

picked up yours and turned a page.

And then another.

And then one more.

And it was pretty cool, turns out.

He brought it back – huge smile on his face –

(and I mean huge)

And asked for another one.

And he read that, too.

 

Somewhere, a teenager who thought she was alone

Opened your pages and discovered she’s not.

And somewhere, somebody who thought about giving up

will keep on trying,

keep on hoping.

Because of that book you wrote.

 

Somewhere tonight – listen closely and you’ll hear–

A child will turn the last page of that book,

That book you wrote,

and sigh.

Can you hear it?

It’s the sound of a story being held close

Right before a young voice says,

“It feels like this was written just for me.”

 

And it was.

 

Note from Kate: If you love this poem & want to share it on your own blog, website, or Facebook wall, please do not copy and paste the text. Instead, please include a short quote or just the title and then share the rest of the poem by providing a link to my original post here – that way, you can share with your own readers and honor the copyright, too. Here’s the URL:

https://katemessner.com/what-happened-to-your-book-today/

Many thanks for practicing good digital citizenship!

I’m heading to Boston for the NCTE Convention this weekend. Looking forward to talking books, signing, seeing old friends, and meeting new ones!  Will you be there, too?  If so, I’d love to see you! Here’s where you can find me throughout the weekend…

Friday, November 22

3-4 pm

Signing HIDE AND SEEK at Scholastic (with Deborah Wiles signing COUNTDOWN), Booth #1018

Evening

Scholastic Family Dinner, followed by the Nerdy Book Club gathering!

Saturday, November 23

6:45 am

 Meet-up for the Author-Teacher Run/Jog/Walk! We’ll be leaving from the Sheraton at 7am for a casual, fun 2.3 mile trek. Join us! All the info is here.

4-5 pm

Signing OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW, SEA MONSTER’S FIRST DAY, and SEA MONSTER AND THE BOSSY FISH at Chronicle Books Booth #1007

Evening

Dinner with Bloomsbury team

Sunday, November 24

8:30-9:45 am

HOW TEACHERS WRITING NOW CAN BUILD STUDENT WRITERS OF THE FUTURE panel with Jo Knowles, Gae Polisner, Jen Vincent, and Brian Wyzlic – Sheraton/Beacon E Room, Third Floor

10:00-11:00:

Signing WAKE UP MISSING and EYE OF THE STORM (with Megan Frazer Blakemore signing THE WATER CASTLE) at Bloomsbury Booth #818

11:30-12:45

BRINGING THE WORKING METHODS AND STYLE OF PUBLISHED WRITERS TO YOUR CLASSROOM panel with Linda Urban, Loree Griffin Burns, and Matt Phelan.  Hynes Convention Center, Room 105, Level One

Other than these official events, I’ll be around much of the weekend, ogling books on the exhibit hall floor.  If you see me, please don’t be afraid to stop me and say hello!

I had a great day of author visits with the students of Tesago and Skano Elementary Schols in Clifton Park, NY last week. It’s always so great to walk into a school where reading and writing are valued, and it shows from the moment you arrive. These kids were so enthusiastic, and they had such smart, thoughtful questions for me.

After my morning presentation, I spent a couple hours signing books in the library (these kids LOVE their books!)  While I was signing, some students came in with a poster for me to sign.

The students brainstormed this list in their classroom right after my presentation and told me their teacher was going to keep it on the classroom wall to remind everyone of the habits of writers. I thought that was such a great idea and a wonderful way to make the most of an author visit.

Many, many thanks to the students and staff at Tesago and Skano Elementary Schools. I had a great day with your readers!

Will you be at NCTE in Boston next week?

If so, and if you’d like go get in a little exercise and fresh air with friends, I hope you’ll join us for the First Annual Author-Teacher Run/Jog/Walk at NCTE! (I’m being optimistic with that “first annual” part, but hope springs eternal, right?)

Here’s your official invitation:

Who’s Invited? Teachers, librarians, authors, illustrators, editors, and other publishing folks and readers who want to get a little exercise and cavort with one another before getting down to business at NCTE on Saturday.

What: A fun, casual 2.3 mile run/jog/walk with fellow book lovers

When: Saturday, November 23 – Meet between 6:45 and 6:55 am – Depart at 7am sharp!

Where: In front of the entrance to the Sheraton near Prudential Center. There’s a brick colored walkway between two trees at entrance at the corner of Dalton & Belvedere. That’s where we’ll meet!

The wonderful author-runner Erin Dionne has planned a route that takes us through the Public Garden and crosses the Boston Marathon finish line!

Why: Because exercise and sunshine are good when you’ve been traveling and breathing hotel/conference center air. Also, because authors love teachers and vice versa. We’ll have fun, I promise.

My school/library publicists at Bloomsbury will be joining us as walkers, and they’ve added an extra incentive for you to wake up early. The first 25 people who show up at my Bloomsbury signing on Sunday with a photo of themselves at the author-teacher run will get a FREE copy of WAKE UP MISSING. The same deal holds true for Erin Soderberg’s signing of THE QUIRKS on Saturday afternoon.

Please know that runners/joggers/walkers of ALL ability levels are welcome. We have running authors and walking authors. None of us run super-fast; we’re talking 10-13 minute miles, mostly. (If you run faster, you can totally join us, too. We’ll give you a route map and there’s no need to wait for us. 🙂

I hope you’ll consider setting that alarm a little early to run or walk with us. And now…I’m excited to introduce your running/walking buddies!

Julie Berry, author of ALL THE TRUTH THAT’S IN ME

 

Erin Dionne, author of MOXIE AND THE ART OF RULE BREAKING

Erin Downing (Erin Soderberg), author of THE QUIRKS series  – Be one of the first 25 people to show a photo of yourself at the run to get a free book at Erin’s signing at the Bloomsbury booth #818 from 2:30-3:30 on Saturday.

Ammi-Joan Paquette, author of RULES FOR GHOSTING and PARADOX

And me. I’m Kate Messner…just in case you stumbled on the blog and said,”Wait…who is this?” 

I’ll be signing these books at NCTE:

HIDE AND SEEK at Scholastic Booth #1018 from 3-4pm Friday

OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW, SEA MONSTER’S FIRST DAY, and SEA MONSTER AND THE BOSSY FISH  at Chronicle Books Booth 1007 from 4-5pm Saturday

WAKE UP MISSING and EYE OF THE STORM at Bloomsbury Booth 818 from 10-11am Sunday(Be one of the first 25 people to show up at this signing with a photo of yourself from the morning run, and you’ll get a free copy of WAKE UP MISSING!)

Authors/Illustrators: If you want to join us and know for sure you’ll be there, let me know if you’d like to be added to this invitation!

Teachers-Librarians-Readers: You don’t need to RSVP to join us – you can just show up. But if you think you’ll probably be there, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment to let me know. Hope to see some of you bright & early Saturday morning at NCTE!

There were snowflakes falling during my run this morning.  As much as I love snow and winter, this has left me bewildered. I feel like we were just smelling new pencils a couple days ago, and now it’s mid-November. Where did October go?  If I look back through my photos, I can start to piece it together…

Staff development day at Washington West Supervisory Union…

I spent a wonderful morning with the staff of Washington West Supervisory Union in Central Vermont, including these great teacher-librarian readers who read MARTY MCGUIRE with the Global Read Aloud. It was truly energizing to be around educators so committed to staying true to students and authentic learning in the midst of all of our “educational reform” twists and turns.

Writing with 7th and 8th graders at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord, MA…

I do a wide variety of presentations and workshops when I visit schools, but some of my favorites are the writing and revision workshops, where I get to work with smaller groups of excited student writers, and this crew of 7th and 8th grade girls was just amazing. They had such fresh, thoughtful ideas in our “Writing the Future” workshop that I have no doubt I’ll see some of their books on shelves one day.

Speaking and signing at the Rhode Island Festival of Children’s Books & Authors…

The authors on the bus go scribble, scribble, scribble…  This festival was SO much fun. The dozen or so authors invited to sign and speak at Providence’s Lincoln School rode a cute little bus from place to place, which was great because we had so many opportunities to talk and laugh. The festival itself was simply amazing — an incredibly well-organized celebration of books and reading – and it was an absolute joy to be there.

One reader brought me a copy of MARTY MCGUIRE that illustrator Brian Floca signed for her at last year’s festival!

The post-festival dinner for authors and organizers was quite a treat, too. It was held at the Providence Atheneum – book-nerd heaven.

I may have been a bit over-enthusiastic about the library setting. At one point, storyteller Bill Harley tactfully brought this to my attention when he said, “I don’t know if you realize this, but you’re kind of petting that card catalog…”  Before you judge, you need to understand that it was full of hand-written cards dating back to the 1800s. I couldn’t help myself; I was smitten.

School visits in Chicago…

I had a great day at Saint Clement School in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The second graders welcomed me with a bulletin board full of sea monsters!

The kids were absolutely wonderful, and I always love seeing how different schools are from one another.  Because Saint Clement is in the middle of the city, space is at a premium, so its playground is on the roof!

My second Chicago-area school visit was at the wonderful Whittier School in Downers Grove. We spent an energy-filled day writing together in the gym – everything from Halloween stories to myths!

And of course, I couldn’t let October pass without heading for the mountains. Even in the midst of a busy school visit month, I spent some time leaf gazing (and snake gazing!)

Hope you’ve had a wonderful fall, too!

One of my favorite things about being a traveling author is meeting other writers, teachers, and librarians . Last summer, I had the opportunity to spend some time with teacher-writer Ruth Ayres. We had so much in common and became fast friends. Ruth has a new book out called CELEBRATING WRITERS, so I invited her to visit my blog today to tell one of the stories behind the book!

The Story Behind Finishing the Manuscript by Ruth Ayres

My favorite part of the book Celebrating Writers is the “Closing Thoughts.” I wrote it in ten minutes and then couldn’t wait to read it aloud to someone—anyone. I walked around the school, searching for someone with ears I could steal for a few moments.

I landed on the school secretaries. In a rare course of events, there were no phones ringing and no students hanging on the counter and no doors buzzing, so I asked, “Do you want to hear what I just wrote?”

Like they’d say no.

 I read my words straight from my computer screen. I finished and looked up from my screen, expecting high-fives. The book was officially complete! I knew I could depend on the secretaries to whoop it up and make a little noise to celebrate. Instead there was silence. They blinked back a couple of tears.

“You wrote that?” one asked.

I smiled and nodded, “Yeah, just now. The book is officially finished!”

“Girl, you are a writer,” the other said. “That’s powerful.”

There were no high-fives. Instead, I was given the gift of a genuine celebration. It was quiet and simple, and yet it fuels me—even months later—on the hard days of being a writer. When genuine celebrations happen, writers are sustained and encouraged to keep going. This is the heart of the message in Celebrating Writers and the reason I’m grateful I get to keep putting words on the page alongside students.

Closing Thoughts

My husband and I adopted three of our children from the state when they were the ages of four, six, and seven. As they adapt to life as a forever family, our constant conversation has been about making choices and the power we have as individuals to determine the outcome of our lives.

My side of the conversation sounds like this: “You have the power to decide if the day is going to be pleasant. It is completely up to you. You can make choices that lead to a pleasant day or choices that lead to unpleasant consequences. Either way it is up to you.”

The same is true in our classrooms. There are many things we cannot control. We cannot control educational mandates. We cannot control fathers drinking and mothers leaving. We cannot control standardized writing assessments.

But we can choose joy.

This is the heart of celebration. We choose joy about the excess periods in a student’s writing, because a month ago there were none. We choose joy about the three meager lines of writing, because yesterday there were crushed pencil points and tears. We choose joy about the misspellings, because all of the sight words are accurate.

In the face of so much need, we can make a choice to celebrate. There will always be an error, a refusal, an inadequate paragraph. Student writing will never be perfect. We live among the mess. We can choose to wallow in the doom. Or we can choose joy.

I will always choose joy. I suspect you will too.

 

Ruth’s CELEBRATING WRITERS blog tour continues all week with these stops:

Nov. 13: Reflect and Refine with Cathy Mere (http://reflectandrefine.blogspot.com/)

Nov. 14: Read, Write, Reflect http://readwriteandreflect.blogspot.com/

Nov. 15: Nerdy Book Club http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/

If you ask a question or leave a comment these blogs, you’ll be entered to win a free Stenhouse book at the end of the tour!