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Of Macroinvertebrates and Multiple Choice

Guess what??  I’m going on a field trip tomorrow!  (I know that makes me sound like a third grader, but I love field trips just as much as a teacher as I did when I was a kid.) 

We’re taking our 7th graders to the river to release the baby salmon that they raised from fertilized eggs in their science classroom. 

Then we’re putting on hip waders and collecting macroinvertebrates for a watershed survey.
 
And then we’re having a picnic lunch and lounging on the grass and reading our novels until it’s time to go back to class.   Now that’s my kind of school day.

My students have also been working on another interdisciplinary English-Science activity called the River City Project.  We’re participating in a Harvard University School of  Education research project to determine how video game concepts can best be adapted to engage kids in academic settings.  In this game, kids travel back in time to a 19th century river town where residents are getting sick.  Students work online in collaborative teams, use their 21st century research skills to gather data, form hypotheses about the causes of the illnesses, and design experiments to test their hypotheses.  Afterwards, they write letters to the mayor of River City explaining their conclusions and making recommendations to improve the city’s health. You can read more about the River City Project here.

I thought this was all worth posting because there’s been an awful lot of talk online lately about No Child Left Behind and the damage that high stakes testing has done to many schools.  It’s a huge problem — one that’s chasing many great teachers out of the classroom. (Read Jordan Sonnenblick’s heartbreaking SLJ column.) 

But there are also lots of teachers like

[info]cfaughnan

, whose recent post on testing reminds me to keep fighting the fight for authentic learning. 

We don’t test our kids to death at my school.  We don’t have them fill out bubbles in workbooks for weeks on end.  We read and write and think and question and get outside and learn.  I have faith that these kids are going to be critical thinkers and real-life problem solvers when they leave us.  And you know what else?  When it comes time to fill in the bubbles on the test, they do just fine.

Thank you, Chamberlin School!

I spent a fabulous day with the 4th and 5th graders at Chamberlin School in South Burlington earlier this week.  Their amazing librarian, Cally Flickinger, even set up a special blog so we could chat a little online before my visit.  

I did a large group presentation for each grade level; both went long because the kids had so many fantastic questions. They had all read Spitfire and asked very detailed questions about specific scenes in the book – terrific fun for me as an author!

After the two presentations, I got to work with small groups for historical fiction writing workshops!  The kids who signed up for the workshops were just amazing.  We spent an hour doing different kinds of research — from deciphering 18th century journals to trying out some of the games, tools, and foods that would have been part of everyday life.

The kids went back and forth with their “experimental archaeology,” trying things out and then taking notes with loads of sensory details relating to each experience.

There was the ever-frustrating bilbo-catcher, a game that I managed to win once — the first time I tried it.  I haven’t been able to catch the ball on the post ever since.  Not surprisingly, some of the 4th and 5th graders were much, much better at it than I was.

The kids also tried their hands at tabletop ninepins…

…making sparks with flint and steel…

…and practicing penmanship on a slate.

They’re using their notes to write stories set in the 18th century, and they’ve already posted some terrific first drafts to the blog their librarian created. 

We talked a lot about revision during my visit.  I told them some of my revisions stories and pulled the messy, marked-up manuscript I’m working on now out of my tote bag to share.

They’re excited about revising, and I’m excited that I’ll get to play another part in their writing process.  After they’ve critiqued one another’s work and made revisions, they’ll post to the blog again, and I’ll be making comments to them online, offering “editor feedback” for one more round of revisions before they complete their final drafts. 

With their permission, I’ll post some excerpts from those final stories when they’re done.  I can already tell they’re going to be fantastic.   Chamberlin School has some seriously talented writers!

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Children’s Literature New England

My Mother’s Day weekend started off in a room full of readers and writers.  I got to say hello to LJ friends

[info]saraharonson

,

[info]tanyaleestone

,

[info]sarah_create

, and I heard two amazing lectures at the Children’s Literature New England Colloquy. 

First came M.T. Anderson, discussing “Experimental” opening pages.  If you’ve never heard Tobin Anderson speak, you should do everything you possibly can to find an event where he’s featured. He’s simply brilliant and speaks so eloquently that I’d drive a couple hours just to hear him read the phone book, because he’d probably make such smart, funny comments about the names after he read them.  (I was too enthralled to take a picture on Friday, but here’s a photo my friend Stephanie took after we heard him speak at Vermont College’s Special Event Day last summer.)

And look what Candlewick handed out after Anderson’s presentation…

I’ve already started reading my ARC of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves and will be sure to post a review before the book comes out in October.

I had remembered my digital camera by the time Gregory McGuire (the one at the podium)  introduced the Friday afternoon speaker, Arthur Levine of Scholastic (the one smiling even though he has a broken hand). 

Arthur wouldn’t tell us how he broke his fingers (

[info]lisayee

, do you know?), but he did tell lots of fascinating, funny stories about his own “first pages” that led him to be the über-editor that he is today.

I was surprised — but thrilled — when I ran into Brian Selznick, who wasn’t speaking until later in the conference.  I couldn’t stay to hear his presentation, but I did get to chat with him about how The Invention of Hugo Cabret started out as a fairly traditional middle grade novel and evolved into the incredible book that won the Caldecott Medal. 

Brian signed this copy of Hugo as  a Mother’s Day gift for my mom who arrived at my house for the weekend with my sister right after I returned from the conference. 

Mom (

[info]gailschirmer

) loved the artwork in Hugo; she’s the artist who created the cover art for Spitfire.  The publisher of my regional historical novels, North Country Books, has also asked her to do the cover for Champlain & the Silent One, which comes out this fall.  It’s almost finished, but not quite.  I got to see the current version this weekend, and I’m so excited.   I’ll be sure to share the final painting when it’s done!

As for the rest of my weekend…the sun is shining, and the bike path is calling.  Have a terrific Mother’s Day!

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful because I’m going to see M.T. Anderson and Arthur Levine speak  at Children’s Literature New England tomorrow.  Is anyone else going to be there? 

Also, two nights ago, I finished a new round of revisions on my MG novel MAPLE GIRL and clicked the send button.  My agent read it in 24 hours (I don’t think she sleeps) and says it’s ready to go.  Think good thoughts for my manuscript, okay?  It’s a big, bad world out there….

Oh – and one more thing… tomorrow’s the deadline to comment on this post and enter to win an ARC of KNOWING JOSEPH by Judith Mammay.

Knowing Joseph – Review and Contest!

Judith Mammay’s debut novel, Knowing Joseph, opens with a little kid making a scene in a bowling alley parking lot. Brian Bertram walks away from him. “I’m glad I don’t know that kid!” he says. 

But the boy kicking and screaming and throwing himself on the ground is Brian’s autistic brother, Joseph.   So begins Brian’s struggle — to deal with his brother, to defend him, and ultimately, with the help of a surprising new friend, to understand him.

Judith — Judy, to her friends and

[info]jmammaywrites

on LJ– is one of my online critique partners.  I always enjoy her writing, so I picked up JOSEPH expecting to like it. I wasn’t disappointed, and I was especially taken with the details that let readers see Joseph as a real person and not just “the kid with autism.”  Judy has an autistic grandson, and that was important to her.  Knowing Joseph is a natural book choice for older siblings of autistic kids, since Brian grows to model so many caring, supportive strategies for helping his brother.  It’s a great title for schools, too, because it helps readers understand what’s behind scenes like the temper tantrum at the bowling alley.  And understanding leads to acceptance.

This book has many of the same themes as Cynthia Lord’s Rules, one of my favorites.  Knowing Joseph is probably geared toward a slightly younger audience, though.  I’m guessing the 8-10 crowd will like it best, and it has nice big print and plenty of white space so reluctant readers won’t be intimidated.  Kudos to the BTP design team for making sure this book will be accessible to kids with special needs, too.

 If you’d like to win an ARC of Knowing Joseph, just leave a comment below about why you’d like to read it (or with whom you’d like to share it).  I’ll choose a name at random Friday night at 6pm EST to win!

Too Much Blushing: A Revision Story

I’m wrapping up a new revision pass on a middle grade novel.  It’s been through all my regular critique partners, and I needed a fresh perspective before I finish and send it back to my agent. I especially wanted to identify any places where the pacing was slow. 

So earlier this week, I gave it to a few of my book-loving 7th grade students, along with three stacks of Post-It notes.  I asked them to put a pink Post-It in spots they liked best, a blue one in places where they were getting bored, and a green one with a comment where they had something else to say.  One student returned the manuscript two days later, and I just finished working through her comments.

She pointed out seven places where I was able to tighten up the pacing and went on to offer another 38 suggestions on everything from voice to consistency.  Check out the variety of feedback…

It’s kind of weird that she’s crying from that comment, which wasn’t even that bad. Maybe you should make it meaner.

This whole cross-country part is really entertaining.

How old is Ian?

Oh – I can relate to this part!

Too much science talk.

I thought it said she zipped up her sweatshirt when she went out, and now you’re talking about a jacket.

Is Nonna her dad’s mom or her mom’s mom?

A real kid wouldn’t say this.

I love evil school people.

Too much blushing here- too sappy.

Does this kid have a future in editing, or what?

Her last comment made me laugh in recognition.  I really try to guard against sappiness in my writing, but when you’re the kind of person who listens to Barry Manilow and cries at Folgers commercials, it creeps in occasionally.  Thank goodness I have a twelve-year-old editor to help me root it out.

Happy, Happy Book News!

It’s official!  Super-Agent literaticat   says I can share the news that’s had me over the moon for the past three weeks or so….

She sold my picture book to Chronicle Books!  Here’s the official announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

Children’s:
Picture book 		  
Kate Messner’s OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW, in which a girl on a ski trip discovers the secrets of the animal kingdom beneath the snow, to Melissa Manlove at Chronicle, by Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency (World).

…and here are some of the juicy details.

If you read my blog much, you know that I love spending time outdoors in every season — especially winter.  Really astute blog readers might even remember this entry, where I talked about a snowshoe trip I took with my 7th grade students in the Adirondacks.  We saw tracks like these…

…disappearing into a crevice in the packed snow and heard all about the tunnels of the subnivean zone, under the snow.  I was enchanted.  So I started reading and researching and writing, and playing around with the poetry of snow, and then I went to the Kindling Words retreat and shared the manuscript with a new writer friend, Joan.  She loved it and gave me a few ideas for revision.  In early February, I sent OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW off to Jennifer, my agent.  She fell in love and sent it out to a few editors she thought might fall in love, too.

One of them did.  She took the book through the acquisitions process, and Chronicle’s formal offer came a few weeks ago. 

I am thrilled — more than thrilled — to be working with a house that publishes such beautiful, beautiful picture books.  Plus, there’s the added bonus of Ivy & Bean.  My daughter LOVES the Ivy & Bean series and was very excited when she found out it’s the same publisher.  I told her this kind of makes her related to Ivy and Bean in a way…like distant cousins or something. 

Since then, my house has been a chatty, excited place — even more so than usual.  There’s been a lot of squealing and jumping up and down and imagining what the illustrations will look like. I’m early for the Thankful Thursday blog post, but this time, I was too thankful to wait.

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Sunday in Montreal

We spent our Sunday in Montreal enjoying three of my favorite things…food, the performing arts, and a great book.

First, we went for dim sum at La Maison Kam Fung (yes, that’s the right name…stop laughing. That’s what happens when you have a Chinatown in the middle of a French city).  Our table was littered with empty bamboo steamers after we consumed huge amounts of shaomai (steamed pork dumplings) and har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings). 

After brunch, it was off to Place des Arts to see…

…Swan Lake on Ice, performed by the Imperial Ice Stars.  We bought the tickets as a Christmas gift for the kids and weren’t quite sure what to expect.  We were absolutely floored.  This show was an incredible marriage of theater, ballet, and figure skating.  It was truly stunning, from start to finish.   I checked the tour schedule, and it looks like there’s just one more stop in North America — in Toronto.  If you live anywhere near there, it’s definitely worth checking out.

On the ride home, we finished a read-aloud of Andrew Clements’ No Talking, a lively, funny book that can be enjoyed equally by a six-year-old, an eleven-year-old, and a couple parents.  We spent the rest of the evening trying to talk only in three-word sentences (if you’ve read the book, you understand).  Thanks, Andrew – your characters were fabulous company in the car, and the game they inspired ended our weekend perfectly — with terrific fits of laughter.

I have a confession…

I steal my children’s ARCs.  Sometimes, when they’re in bed at night with their new books clutched in their hands, I pry their fingers loose and sneak the books downstairs to read.

J and E are members of the Harper Kids First Look Program.  Every month, they go to a website and choose the titles they’d like to read from a list of books on offer.  Harper has a drawing and sends them the ARCs to review if they win.  Cool, huh?

Except grownups aren’t allowed to participate.  Just kids. Which forces me to stand over their shoulders when they log on each month, saying things like, “Ooohhh…don’t you want to read that one?  I really think you’d like that one. Look how exciting  it looks.  You really ought to let them know that you’d like to review that one…”  Sometimes it works out beautifully.

Like last month… when E scored ARCs of two books that I absolutely LOVED.  Both walk the line between genres — mixing text and illustration in creative ways that bring even more life to already lively stories.

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, due out in June, is by Chris Riddell of  Edge Chronicles fame.  It’s the kind of book you might imagine if Roald Dahl and Brian Selznick had teamed up on a graphic novel.  Ottoline is a  young girl whose parents travel the world and leave her home in the family townhouse in the care of a friendly, hairy creature-person named Mr. Monroe. I loved the characters in this book. Ottoline’s a little like Pippi Longstocking — brave and funny and always up for an adventure.  And Mr. Monroe…. well, he was so cute I want to adopt him and keep him as a lap dog.  Ottoline and Mr. Monroe team up to solve the mystery of a string of neighborhood burglaries — a plot that is brought to life by the abundant and amazing illustrations.   This one was well worth the grief I got from my daughter when she found out I stole it.

Then I had to wait a while to read The Curse of Addy McMahon by Katie Davis because E wouldn’t let it out of her sight until she finished.    Like Ottoline, this book mixes text and illustrations in a way that’s sure to grab even the most reluctant readers.  Sixth graders, in particular, are going to love this one because it’s the perfect mix of humor and the honest-to-goodness angst that’s part of starting middle school. I’ve already recommended this one as a purchase for our school library. Addy McMahon has a lot to deal with as she makes that transition — a father who died of cancer, a mother whose icky boyfriend is moving in, and an email disaster that nearly costs her her best friend.  Add it all up, and Addy’s convinced that she’s cursed. What middle school kid hasn’t felt that way? 

Addy is both a talented writer and illustrator — just like author Katie Davis — so the book’s narrative is told in part through Addy’s “autobiograstrip,” an autobiography in comic book form.  Full disclosure time… I met Katie Davis at a writers retreat this winter and thought she was fantastically funny and smart and energetic, so I fully expected to like this book.  It didn’t disappoint, and it’s going to be a terrific title for kids making that leap from elementary school to middle school.  They’ll appreciate the warmth and honesty as well as its creative format.

An open question for writer friends…

I just received a whole new batch of questions from kids at Madill Elementary School — a follow-up to my author visit there a few weeks ago.  Two questions from the kids were similar, and I thought I’d combine them and toss them out there for your thoughts…

Does it bother you when people say bad things about your writing?  Because you worked really hard on it and everything.

Ah…the wisdom of young people.

My response:  Having people say some negative things about your writing is part of being a writer.  Sometimes you submit work to editors and they say no thanks.  Sometimes, you have a book published, and then people write things about it in the newspaper or journals or online.  Lots of those things are very nice, but some aren’t.   And sure, it hurts my feelings when that happens.  And I might mope a little or sniffle a little (okay…sob) but I do know that it goes with the territory, so eventually, I go outside for a run and have lunch and get back to writing my next story.  I’ll also say this… Nice notes from kids make up for anything that grownup critics have to say.  So thanks!

How about it, writer friends?  Care to respond to that question?

Are you fond of Louis Sachar?  And did I take good pictures during your visit?

I like Sachar a lot.  Holes, which you’ve probably read, was my favorite.  And yes, you took great pictures. Thanks!

What was your favorite part of your book?  Who was your favorite character?  Mine was Abigail.

Asking an author to choose a favorite character is sort of like asking a parent to choose a favorite child.  I love them all!  My favorite part of the book is probably the escape scene.

I think that the hard tack was not good. Did you like it? Did you also like the pea soup also?

No, I don’t really like hardtack either.  I’m glad I don’t have to live on it.  And I really, really didn’t like the pea soup on the boat. It made me sick to my stomach.

I think Spitfire is one of the best books ever written. I think you did a terrific job. Did any one inspire you to write Spitfire?

Well, thank you!  Actually, I was most inspired to write Spitfire because of the educators who work at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. They visit schools, too, to teach kids about that period in history.  I bet you’d like their website:  http://www.lcmm.org.

My name is Adam. I am eleven years old and Spitfire is one of the greatest books I have ever read. I love your website!!

Thanks, Adam!

It was very interesting seeing how and where you got you’re ideas from. But I have to tell you the hard tack was disgusting!(no offense). I liked hearing about your adventure on the reanactment,that was cool! who inspired you to write books?How do you feel when you write books? How old were you when you started writing?

I was seven when I figured out that I loved writing.  Reading great novels by other authors has always been an inspiration.  How do I feel when I write books?  Sometimes it’s the best thing in the world, and words just pour out.  Other times…. well…the truth is that a lot of the time, I feel like it’s very hard work, and sometimes it’s frustrating, especially when I know I need to revise to make a book stronger and I’m just not sure how to do that.  But I always feel great after I’ve finished writing for the night.  And I love that kids like you get to read my books!

I don’t really like writing but people say I am kind of good at writing, like it is neat,but do you ever get bored of writing?

I used to get bored with writing sometimes when I was in school, because they wanted me to write about a particular subject — like apple trees or something — when what I really wanted to write was a story about gorillas.   Now that I get to choose my own ideas for writing, I never ever get bored.

I know you said that you love to teach and love to write but have you ever wished that you did something else?

I used to want to be a marine biologist.  I still love the ocean.

I know that making those powder horns are hard to make in all but have you finished them yet I know that you were just here not to long ago so you might not have but I was wondering if you have finished them yet?

Ummm…no.  But thanks for the reminder.

You have been writing for quite some time and I was wondering how old you were when you starting writing. And if your first book was Spitfire or was it another book but it didn’t get published?

I wrote a book about sharks when I was seven.  It wasn’t published, but my parents taped it to the refrigerator.  :^)

What kind of books do you read now?

I read a huge variety of books, including kids’ books, which I still love.  I’m reading No Talking by Andrew  Clements with my daughter right now (so funny!) and on my own, I’m reading a book called The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  It’s great so far, and the writing is really beautiful.  I hope you’re enjoying the book you’re reading right now, too!