Me'n'ALA and GMA (Good Morning, America!)

Hey! I've been meaning to post links to fabulous Countdown reviews, and will do that as soon as I can breathe a bit -- this entire week is a race to the finish, with Jim's band playing in the Callanwolde Jazz in June series -- picnic dinner and jazz on the lawn in a beautiful setting, this Friday, June 25 -- come hang with us, Hotlanta peeps! -- I'm bringing the sweet tea and 'mater sammiches.

-- and then, I am flying off to ALA at 6am on Saturday morning -- and there's so much to get done before that.

I DID meet  my Monday deadline for a draft of book two of the sixties trilogy -- it's definitely a draft, and will need a lot of work. But it's a draft -- that's huge. More on THIS, later, too --

AND -- big news! -- Countdown has been featured on Good Morning America as one of a host of fabulous books for kids' summer reading. I loved watching the feature as much for the banter in this segment as the actual books featured, which are stellar... to see Countdown among them is unbelievably humbling, and -- dare I say it? -- exciting.

Thank you, thank you, to all of you out there who are reaching out to this little book with such enthusiasm and devotion, who blog about it, review it, put it into the hands of young readers everywhere -- I am so thankful.

And now, to turn attentions to Friday's jazzy event, and Saturday's departure for ALA.  If you're coming to ALA, come see me! I'm reading at the Scholastic Literary Brunch at the Westin on Sunday (June 27) at 10:30, and I'm signing at the Scholastic booth, #1520, at the D.C. Convention Center at 1pm.

AND -- if you are not going to the conference but live in the D.C. area, come see me at the Smithsonian's American History Museum on Saturday from 1-3. I'll be signing at the giftshop. (See? I'm right here, on the events page, along with Dorothy's ruby slippers!)

Hope to clap eyes on a bunch of you this coming weekend -- or at Shenandoah University's Children's Literature Conference (look at the line-up!)  on Wed., June 30, in Winchester, Va.

On the road again! xo