Two Very Good Pieces of Book News

Aside, before I get started: Here's a shout-out to my teacher and librarian friends in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids -- let me know you are okay, will you? JulieL? Cindy? Connie? Anne Marie? Becky? Barb and Paula? And Treva -- where are you? Check in, check in.

Here I am, here I am, early on a Monday morning, to jump on the bed and shout:

EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS has won the California Young Reader Medal!

HOOOOORAY!

Thank you so very much, California Readers! None of my books has ever won a state award, although LITTLE BIRD has so far been on 24 state lists, and RUBY was on 26!

And I truly understand and believe that the nomination is the cake -- it's tops. My books have been blessed to be on these state lists, voted on by children. The lists have increased the visibility of my books and have gotten them into the hands of young readers, which is what it's all about. I have been blessed by having my books on these lists, too -- because I've had a book on state lists, I have been invited to speak in these states, to visit schools and conferences, and I have met so many wonderful folks I never would have met otherwise -- my life has been enriched.

So. State Book Award Lists. A Very Good Thing. Thank you so much to librarians and teachers and young readers in all states who make up these lists and read read read -- and vote!

To have a book that has won a state book award -- I don't know what to say! Thank you, of course... and then... I can't wait to see you in February, during the awards ceremony in Santa Clara -- can't wait to thank you in person. It's a humbling experience to be part of the same list of award winners with Sharon Creech and Kate DiCamillo and Christopher Paul Curtis.

California, here I come. February 22.

Very Good Book News #2:

ALL-STARS has been nominated for the SIBA BOOK AWARD! Be still my heart. Southern booksellers nominate their favorite books for this award each year -- and again, it is such an honor to be nominated! RUBY was a SIBA nominee in 2002, and now here comes a nomination for ALL-STARS, my newest book, all about two boys who want to play baseball, in Halleluia, Mississippi on the same day the county plans to celebrate its 200th birthday, with a pageant full of children whose Mamas insist they participate -- and that goes for the ballplayers, too.

ALL-STARS is a book about baseball, Walt Whitman's poetry, and all kinds of literature: OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee, GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Dickens, and more. Not to mention a lot of laughs -- Frances Schotz, age 14, is in charge of the pageant. She has been off to boarding school, has taken too much French and too much drama, and has renamed herself Finesse. She is responsible for having broken our hero's pitching arm the year before, when she collided with him in the midst of an interpretive dance. There's an old man with a secret. An old man with a past. And a baseball game that, I hope, will have you on the edge of your seat, wondering what happens next.

To have this book honored by SIBA -- Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, is such icing on the cake -- chocolate icing, to boot. Thank you, SIBA! I am in great good company this year, too. Two friends: Kerry Madden's LOUISIANA'S SONG is also nominated, as is SOMETHING ROTTEN by Alan Gratz. I'll meet the other two nominees that I don't know -- see the list here. We'll be together on Labor Day weekend, when the award is ... awarded... at the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia.

Can't wait for time with book buds. For now, my head is down and I'm plowing ahead with Book One of the Sixties Trilogy, as well as a picture book project that has grabbed me by the ear and won't let me go. I've also started an essay I want to finish today -- here's the first line:

"So far the Obama For President Campaign has cost me $56 and a macaroni and cheese casserole."

I'm not on the front lines, like my daughter is, but I'm listening to her stories. More on writing soon, as well as a look at my lunches this week. I know you can't wait.

Big congratulations and kudos to Walter Mayes on finishing his grand run as THE Man of La Mancha in San Francisco!

Back to work. It is finally glorious summer. What are you working on this week?

Tampa Teachers Today

Hey there. Me 'n this sandhill crane are in Tampa, on my last official trip of this school year, where I'm working with Hillsborough County Teachers -- 800 of 'em. Hillsborough County is the 8th-largest school district in the United States. Literacy Compass sets up this conference, and this is my second year participating. It's great good work, and lots of fun, to boot.

I do two breakout sessions this morning, and the closing keynote this afternoon, me and Pam Munoz Ryan. We're having fun reconnecting... last time we worked together we were in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. RobinH, we both send you our love and admiration!

Conferences stretch me, teach me, and get me together with colleagues and friends -- often we live so far away from each other, we'd never see one another otherwise.

I have book news. But... I'm late for work this morning, so I'll post it tomorrow -- how's that? Whoo-hoo, two posts in one week, be still my heart.

I'll be talking about the Sixties Trilogy today (we sang Beatles songs at dinner last night -- Steve Swinburne and Mike Shoulders led the way with a room full of teachers, but I had to keep them straight on lyrics -- my specialty). I'll also talk today about a favorite teacher, Mary Farrell, who taught music at Camp Springs Elementary School in Camp Springs, Maryland in the early-to-mid Sixties. My dad was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base and we lived in Camp Springs for seven years -- unusual in an Air Force career, but oh-so-wonderful for a kid growing up from ages 8 to 15.

Mary Farrell changed my life. As I journaled about her in my notebook, in preparation for writing today's speech, a flood of memories came back to me, things I hadn't thought about in years. Mary Farrell... she wore silk stockings short (well, right above the knee) Jackie-Kennedy-like dresses. When she sat down next to me at the piano, I could see that she didn't shave her legs above her knees -- I noticed things like that then. Maybe because I so desperately wanted to shave my legs and my mother wouldn't let me.

Such a small memory, but it's important to the whole picture, it helps to complete it. "God is in the details," who said that? I don't remember, but I do know that a good story lies in the details.

What teacher changed your life? How did he or she do it? Mary Farrell translated love. That's the title of my talk today: Translate Love. Miss Farrell loved music so much, was so passionate about it, so excited to share it, that we fell all over our ten-year-old selves wanting to know what she knew, wanting to hear more of that classical music, wanting to sing out those tunes from the Great American Songbook -- in four-part harmony, no less! -- wanting to please her, wanting to master what she had to share with us. Miss Farrell was a force of nature. And when she first walked into my fourth-grade classroom, she was 22 years old, just out of college.

"How did you do it?" I asked her, when I met her again many years later.

"No one told me I couldn't," she said.

This is a model for our times.

Slow Motion, Fast Forward

The past three weeks -- has it been three weeks already? Yes, it has -- the past three weeks I've moved along like a swimmer underwater, in a surreal place "in between." Between one life and another, although of course I am still living the same life. But... it's different, somehow, knowing that my girl is graduated, there is no more tuition, no more financial aid, no more lots of things... but brand-new other things, such as these novels I'm writing for Scholastic that are getting some good attention from me, finally. It's amazing to think of months ahead of me -- months! -- to sit down every morning with the next story and just... write. What a treat. In the meantime, I have finished up spring travels, which held lots of treats of a different kind. Here are lots of catch-up photos, all taken in the past three weeks.

Went to Gainesville, Georgia and worked with my good friends at Scholastic Book Fairs, got to meet fabulous Hall County teachers -- here we are, gathered together after a high tea we all attended. Thank you, teachers, and thank you, SBFs -- such a pleasure whenever I get to work with y'all.


Met Joe Davich of Georgia Center for the Book, and friend Elizabeth Dulemba at Little Shop of Stories in nearby Decatur, at ArtWalk, and the opening of the exhibit of original art by local children's book illustrators.




Lots of good work in Columbia, Missouri, with 1200 fourth- and fifth-graders and their teachers and parents.





Four local school visits. This was my lunch one day:

ha!

And these were some of my lunchmates, at E.J. Swint Elementary School in Jonesboro, GA:












Sharing FREEDOM SUMMER:


I had a blast at E.J. Swint -- wonderful students, well-prepared by their teachers and by Trish Vlastnik, Media Specialist Extraordinaire. Thanks to all of you for the special day.





I've been home now for a week, sitting around in a fog, recovering, readjusting, realigning myself for summer.

Now, lunch looks like this:



and this:

And the landscape of daily life changes.

Here are two baby bunnies that Cleebo brought to the back door. He wanted to keep them. We found a wildlife rehabilitator to take care of them until they are old enough to be released on their own.


Here's Gus the cat, recovering from the May 10 party.








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Jim Williams and Stoney Vance have returned. Now they are renovating the basement, to give us a studio for husband Jim and his music.

Found this '50s couch at Kudzu; it will go in Jim's new studio.











Outside:

This is my studio now...






















Birthday Boy -- today is son Jason's 34th birthday. Happy Birthday, Jason.



And this girl? Here's the graduate. She's got a history degree with a minor in art history. She will help me research this summer, as I work forward on the Sixties Trilogy. I have her attention until June 14, when she goes to work for the Obama campaign here in Georgia. Oh, to be 22 and in love with the world of possibilities! This is good.

Well, I'm 55 and in love with the world of possibilities -- this is good, too.

I'm a bit like Gus the cat, still recovering from April and May -- maybe that's why there is that underwater feel to the days now. I can feel some energy seeping in around the edges of my weariness. It's good writing energy -- I will need it in the days and weeks and months to come. Where is my notebook?