Saturday morning I headed to Books Inc in Berkeley for Storytime. I brought live snails from my garden, a real (not live) Stink Bug encased in plexiglass, The Amazing Snail of Seymour Snail, and Cinder Rabbit. Oh, I brought a CD of the Bunny Hop, too. Everything was set up and ready to go. All I needed was the audience of children. At first there were no children. It was a beautiful sunny day. The children must have been outdoors playing. But these cool cushions were ready for storytime... It's a beautiful store there on 4th Street in Berkeley. Above is the fun Storytime carpet. The cushions are even more fun and exciting with children wobbling and falling off of them! Children arrived shortly after I took this pic and one little guy was particularly talented at wobbling, belly floating, and falling stunts. Then it got busy with stories, snails, stink bugs, questions, and a whole lot of Bunny Hopping. So busy in fact, I forgot to pull out the bunny ears for the kids to wear during the Bunny Hop. Oh well. Luckily for me, Books Inc folks, Sarah and Ben gave the ears a try.
Thanks Sarah and Ben!
Forecast: More authors and Storytimes at Books Inc, Berkeley. And more exciting wobbling on those fun cushions, too!
Hop on over to Books Inc Berkeley and check out the kid's section. Tell Sarah and Ben that Lynn says "Hi!"
After my Books Inc Storytime in Berkeley, I returned to San Francisco and an afternoon of blue skies and sunshine. After so much rain these past couple of months I wanted to be outdoors and I wanted to experiment with some moss painting.
What do you think, Imaginary Readers? Is this going to work? First I found some moss growing all over the yard. The moss seems to love the recent rains.
I had already scanned some children's snail art and transferred it to a piece of wood. Then I had dremeled out a little groove for the moss paint goo. I soaked the wood in water and my friend, Charlesie, soaked a few terra cotta pots, too.
Then I smushed up some moss and yogurt to make gooey moss paint. I like to think that Seymour Snail would approve of this.So we painted the wood and the clay pots. The idea is that over time and with frequent spritzes of water from a spray bottle the moss will begin to grow... I'll report back soon with some more pics in progress. Will the moss grow? Forecast: A growing love of moss art?
What do you think, Imaginary Readers? Will it work? Do you have any unique recipes for garden arty paint? Seymour wants to know.
Saturday evening, I went to Jandy Nelson's book launch party at Books Inc Opera Plaza in San Francisco. What fun. There was a whole crew of alums from Vermont College's MFA program in writing for children & young adults (and a whole lot of other fans) to celebrate Jandy's debut YA novel, The Sky is Everywhere. Have you read this book? It's amazing. You must read it!
Above, Jess from Books Inc (in the back) helped keep things running smoothly. Here's Jandy again, the gorgeous book cover, and Page in pink!
Below is Alisha Niehaus, Jandy's editor at Dial/Penguin, and Jandy of course. (Below) Jandy Nelson and Annmarie O'Brien, another VCFA MFA grad. Annmarie is teaching a class in Writing the YA Novel at UC Berkeley Extension. Starts soon, so register now all you budding YA novelists! Jandy, Lynn, and Julia Whelan, the narrator of the audio version of The Sky is Everywhere. I hear the audio book is brilliant, too.
Forecast: Everyone is going to love The Sky is Everywhere.
What do you think, Imaginary Readers? Have you read this book yet? Are you going to?
All you have to do is leave a comment on Facebook's Ultimate YA Reading Group's link above responding to the following question(s): - Tell us something about the first car you ever drove. - If you are not yet driving, what kind of car would you LIKE to drive?
Deadline: March 6 – March 27, 2010 Five (5!!) winners will be chosen at random. (you might need to join Ultimate YA Reading Group to leave a comment and enter the contest, but it is easy, just click "join this group" on their Facebook page.)
Take a look at the comments and descriptions of first cars and driving experiences. Some interesting posts that are fun to read. I think my character, Soli, in Shifty, would like reading these snippets of first driving experiences.
Dear Imaginary Readers, Hop on over to the new Books Inc store in Berkeley on March 13th. I'll be reading from Cinder Rabbit and The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail. Shall we do the Bunny Hop? Draw some snails? Race some real live slow-moving snails? (Bring your own snail. I'll bring a couple of mine!) Bring the kids. All ages welcome. Of course, adults and fellow authors welcome, too. I hope to see you there. 1760 Fourth Street in Berkeley.
I visited a really wonderful school recently for their annual Author Day. It was so well organized and fun. The PTA ordered copies of my books months in advance so each class had a chance to read or hear my books read aloud before my visit. When I arrived I met an enthusiastic audience of well-prepared students. They had lots of great questions about the writing process and being an author.
Each grade made a cool group poster. What a great way to support literacy school-wide, with colorful student art, many great book titles, and fun messages. They used themes which matched my books and encouraged reading such as: You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover, Dive Into Reading, Swim Into an Ocean of Books, Hop Into Reading, Slow Down & Read, and Bee a Reader! Please take a look at the group posters and a few close-ups. One fifth-grade class read SHIFTY and made this cool group poster with student art and scenes from the novel.
Uh-oh! Is someone about to be towed?
This must be Lester. I love the cat's expression, the shading and especially the detail of the L on the cat collar. Sweet!
Yikes, below must be when Soli runs over some nails. Did Soli drive this car or just wish he had?
Another group of students made a poster full of book covers and inside flaps. I was thrilled to see SHIFTY there (rubbing book flaps) with such great titles.
Seeing SHIFTY right next to Gary Paulsen's HATCHET made me happy because HATCHET was one of our family's favorites when my sons were younger.
This colorful poster showed more titles, student art, and first lines of books.
Again, I was happy to see MERMAID MARY MARGARET in such good company!
One of the younger grades read THE AMAZING TRAIL OF SEYMOUR SNAIL in advance of my visit. They made this neat poster. The R-E-A-D was formed with snails colored by the students. Seymour Snail definitely approves of this reading message.
The Kindergarten class had read BUZZ BUMBLE TO THE RESCUE. They recently bought a Venus Fly Trap, too. Wow, were they excited. What a great group. Here is part of their colorful poster with a "Bee a Reader" theme. Buzz approves!
Well, maybe you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can tell a lot about a school's students, teachers, librarian, principal, PTA, and parent community by their support of reading. Thank you, Dolphins, for inviting me to your school.
Oopsie, I slept right through my well-intentioned plan of waking up early and watching the ALA Webcast. Then I figured out I did not have the required Windows Media Player. The good news is, by the time I woke up, this announcement was posted with all the ALA winners.
Better news? Yuyi Morales won a Belpré Illustrator Honor for illustating “My Abuelita,” written by Tony Johnston . Whoo hoo! The Pura Belpré Awards honor Latino writers and illustrators whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience. See Yuyi's video on Making My Abuelita here:
More good news from ALA is that Kekla Magoon won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award for her book, “The Rock and the River.”
Hooray for talented award-winning writer and illustrator friends.
Hooray for talented writer and illustrator friends with or without awards.
Hooray for talented writer and illustrator friends, published and not, who keep putting their heart and hope into their craft, their art, their stories.
It all begins with heart and hope, so keep imagining, writing, drawing and creating.
Oh, and while we are in the mood for hoorays, Hooray for publishers who put images of people of color on the covers of books the first time around.
I interviewed Kekla last April right here on The Imaginary Blog (along with Bethany Hegedus as Kekla and Bethany are co-editors of the literary magazine Hunger Mountain's Children and YA section).
Kekla: My novel, The Rock and the River, is set in 1968 Chicago. The civil rights movement is in full swing. Sam Childs (age 13) has been raised in the movement, as his father is a well known civil rights activist in their community. But Sam’s older brother, Stick, grows frustrated with the slow pace of change, as many young people did at that time. When Dr. King is killed, Stick leaves home and joins the Black Panther Party. Sam finds himself torn between the ideals of his father and his brother. He wants to believe in his father, to believe that non-violent protest will lead to the change he desires – but it gets harder for Sam to stand by as his community is being ravaged by police brutality and poverty. He begins to explore the Panthers with Stick, though he still struggles to decide what is right. Will Sam follow his father or his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the river?
Lynn: How do you juggle your time creating new work, promoting your published work and now editing your section of Hunger Mountain?
Kekla: It’s a very big struggle for me to prioritize. Lately I’ve been using a series of to-do lists to help me organize my activities. I write the tasks right into my calendar each week. My writers’ group sits down every January to outline goals for the year, which I find really useful in targeting my long-term goals. On my own, I then break down the goals by month, and each month I break them down by week. This is not to say it that it all gets done! But it has helped me understand my work pace and process better, when I can look back and compare my intentions vs. my accomplishments. It has helped me understand what I can realistically accomplish in a day/week/month, which in turn has helped me stop putting pressure on myself to accomplish too much in too short a time. I’ve become better at saying NO to outside activities that will draw me away from my writing and professional goals. The hardest thing for me lately is to focus on producing new writing, since book promotion and editing are new and exciting adventures for me. But my writers’ groups definitely help me keep on task with my latest draft!
Lynn: Do you do school visits, too?
Kekla: Yes! We each do school visits on our own book, but we also developed a joint presentation. It’s another area of our partnership that works really well. Since our books are set in 1959 and 1968, we are uniquely positioned to provide students with an in-depth presentation about the beginning and end of the civil rights era.
Our presentation is called “The Movement: Civil Rights in America 1959-1968.” It’s subtitled: “Two Books. Two Authors. One Powerful Presentation.” We lay out a timeline of civil rights movement, beginning with Bethany’s Between Us Baxters, which occurs at a time when segregation was still in effect in the South. She discusses Jim Crow laws, Brown vs. Board of Education, the Klan and the Citizen’s Councils, and the kinds of events that occurred that ultimately drove the black community to organize and launch the civil rights movement. Using a photo montage, we fast-forward through the parts of the movement that students more typically study in school, until we reach 1968 and the assassination of Dr. King. I talk about the effect that Dr. King’s death had on black communities around the country, and the new militancy and community organizing efforts that rose up in the wake of his murder. It’s a topic students don’t normally get to study, but is an area that needs more attention if we ever hope to understand the civil rights era as it truly happened.
Our presentation is fun and interactive, using audience participation and readers’ theater to engage students in the material. There’s a lot about our books that make them complement each other. Together, we cover the gamut of civil rights issues: Polly’s a white working class girl in a Southern rural setting, early in the movement. Sam’s a black middle class boy in a Northern, urban setting, late in the movement. The divergent perspectives and settings give us a means to examine the civil rights era from two fresh angles. We provide teachers’ guides and classroom material as a follow-up to our presentation.
We also both do interactive writing workshops for smaller groups.
Bethany: It is wonderful to partner with Kekla on the school visits, as well. We brainstorm, work on promotional materials, rehearse with one another and keep each other laughing throughout the process of whatever is thrown our way.
Lynn: Do you have any tips for authors in the time management juggle?
Bethany: Give up television! I am serious! I no longer have a TV! But I do catch episodes of my faves online (gotta see Lost and Damages!) but truly cutting back on the television has given me a lot more time than I once did. Now instead of watching American Idol I just hop over to facebook and follow editor Elizabeth Law’s witty banter and takes on the performances. I am caught up in five minutes.
Kekla: Ha. Bethany’s quite right. But I love my TV, so that solution doesn’t entirely work for me. (Though, I will say that having DVR makes a big difference…) My suggestion is to include your writing activities in your calendar or schedule in advance, as if they are fixed events, with a date and time attached. Lately I have been managing my time this way, especially since I work from home full-time, which to the outside world often reads as if I’m not working. People have no qualms about calling me to do things in the middle of the day, as if I don’t have anything better to do. I find it easier to say no when I can open my calendar, see my writing plans, and decide if the other activity is actually more important to me.
Lynn: Since this is an imaginary blog, can you please tell us in what ways your writing and now editing career is different than you originally imagined?
Kekla: Well, depending on how far I look back, the fact that I’m a writer/editor at all is something different from what I imagined my life would be like. As a child/teen I imagined myself as a doctor or teacher – all my varying career interests were much more “traditional” than the creative life I’ve patched together for myself in reality. Even looking back just to the time I started writing seriously, which was about eight years ago, I couldn’t have imagined myself making a full-time living this way. My previous professional jobs were very disappointing to me, and I quickly came to believe that any job I ever had would be messy and stressful and painful. As my writing life has evolved, I’ve learned that it doesn’t have to be that way. Although writing bears its own messes and stresses and pains, that energy now feeds my work instead of detracting from it. I feel lucky these days to be doing something I love.
### Come to think of it, Imaginary Readers, I interviewed Yuyi last year, too. But she kept winning so many awards, I had to keep updating the interview before I posted it. I will have to tally in Yuyi's latest award and post her interview soon, quick before she wins again.
Forecast: Many more awards to come for both Yuyi and Kekla.
That's what fiction writers do, right? We imagine characters, settings and plot twists. I imagine this will be a place to capture creative moments in the life of a children's and YA author--a blog filled with short snippets of humor, heart and hope. Forecast: Hopeful with a chance of humor and heart
The Writing Garden
Where creativity blooms & grows
Shifty (in Paperback)!
A Smithsonian Notable, VOYA Top Shelf Fiction, & a CCBC Choice
All I needed was the audience of children. At first there were no children. It was a beautiful sunny day. The children must have been outdoors playing. But these cool cushions were ready for storytime...
It's a beautiful store there on 4th Street in Berkeley. Above is the fun Storytime carpet. The cushions are even more fun and exciting with children wobbling and falling off of them! Children arrived shortly after I took this pic and one little guy was particularly talented at wobbling, belly floating, and falling stunts. Then it got busy with stories, snails, stink bugs, questions, and a whole lot of Bunny Hopping. So busy in fact, I forgot to pull out the bunny ears for the kids to wear during the Bunny Hop. Oh well. Luckily for me, Books Inc folks, Sarah and Ben gave the ears a try.
Thanks Sarah and Ben!
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