25 books every young georgian should read

I blew in -- literally -- from Mississippi yesterday in time to attend the reception for "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from The Georgia Center for the Book. Each Little Bird That Sings is on the debut list -- thrilling! I'm honored to be on this first-time list for young readers in Georgia, and to be in such great company. A few photos:

Me (very blown in! I literally stepped out of my car from Mississippi and into the restaurant) and Terra McVoy, who was manager of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur and is now assistant program director for the Decatur Book Festival -- it's next weekend, Labor Day weekend, on the Square, in Decatur -- I'll be speaking on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 2:30, but more on that later.
Terra's new book is After The Kiss, and she is also an honoree on this first debut list, with her lovely novel, Pure.

Half the list:

The other half of the list:
Friends and fellow honorees hangin' out: Diane Capriola, owner of Little Shop of Stories; Vicky Schecter (Alexander the Great Rocks the World) and her husband; Laurel Snyder (Any Which Wall); Elizabeth Dulemba (Soap Soap Soap); and Joe Davich of the Georgia Center for the Book.
How long have I waited to meet Sharon Deeds, Youth Services Coordinator for the Dekalb County Libraries? Too long:
Likewise Bill Starr, the executive director of the Georgia Center for the Book:

I was happy, too, to meet Shelia Moses, with whom I'll present at the Decatur Book Festival:

 If you can't wait until Labor Day weekend for your fill of great authors, come to the brand-new, first annual Suwanee Festival of Books in Suwanee, Georgia THIS weekend, August 28 & 29, Saturday and Sunday. Most of us pictured above will be there -- I'm presenting at 2:30 on Saturday (tomorrow), and again at 4pm on a panel. Here's the schedule.

Whew. Enough! Tomorrow I'll ALSO be on the Square in Decatur from 10-noon, signing Countdown with the other Georgia Center for the Book honorees. Come see me! More from there. Have a great weekend, y'all. Get some rest!

what really counts

When it comes right down to what counts, what matters, a life is measured in relationships. I know how lucky I am. Here are a few shots from Wednesday, my last full day in Mississippi, back in Jackson, a day that included schools, booksellers, friends, and family, and little literary relationship, too.

Visiting Jackson Academy. Thanks so much to librarian Suzie Adcock, who had prepared for my morning visit... love that bulletin board! Loved those students, many of whom had music questions for me.
Can you believe this sea of children in the library at St. Andrew's Episcopal School? What a blast... look how attentive they are! I had so much fun here, with these bouncy third and fourth graders. As I began to sing from "All Things Bright and Beautiful," they sang right along -- knew all the words -- and I was floored. I have a long relationship with that song -- Each Little Bird That Sings comes directly from it -- and was thrilled to see it shared with these students (and parents! Parents came! Hooray!)
Here are Emily Grossenbacher, children's manager at Lemuria Books in Jackson, and Jeannie Chun, librarian at St. Andrews.
Emily and I are getting to know each other -- she has been in this position at Lemuria for about a year, and I've been coming to Lemuria for years and years. I miss former buyer Yvonne Rogers (who came to my signing -- thanks ever, Yvonne), but I am happily getting to know the very capable Emily and her tastes and ways of working. I loved working with her over the past month or two, to set up this day in Jackson.

Emily set up the morning at Jackson Academy and the afternoon at St. Andrews, AND the 5pm signing and reading at Lemuria. She is tireless, and I appreciate her so much. Thank you, Emily! And thanks, new friend Jeannie, for preparing your school community so thoroughly for my arrival!

I had a couple of hours between the last school stop and my Lemuria signing, so y'all know what I had to do, right? Right. I went, once again, to Eudora Welty's home, where I wandered the garden and sat in the peacefulness. I never met Miss Eudora, but her work is a big influence on mine, hence the relationship -- the kinship -- I feel with her. Wandering the garden for a while was just what I needed to help me with book two of the sixties trilogy, and to help me catch my breath before my signing.
I don't draw record numbers of people at my signings, but I understand what it means to do a bookstore signing. It means creating a continuing, rich relationship with booksellers -- some of the hardest working, most amazing people on earth. It means signing stock that will be hand sold "right up to Christmas." It means reconnecting with good friends. And, nowadays, those good friends include teachers, librarians, other writers, and family. Especially in Mississippi.
Here are a bunch of us on the stage, after my signing. Look carefully and you'll find my nephew Michael Paul and his new wife, Sarah, who teaches third grade, and, next to them, my cuz (hee) Ellen Ruffin from USM's de Grummond collection. Ellen is standing just behind wonderful writer and photographer Sarah Campbell, whose new book, Growing Patterns (oo! Think fibonacci numbers!)  I snagged at Lemuria. In the spotlight in the back, right, are good friends and librarians Melissa Wright and Mary Thompson, and then there are new friends in this photo -- new relationships -- and more cousins.
This is what really counts in life, whatever your job or station: people to love, and people to love you right back. Ways to belong in the world, ways to understand and be understood. Ways to be safe. Ways to do good work. Ways to count to ten with a toddler! Oh, yes, that's what matters.
Back in Atlanta this morning. The good news I hinted at, coming up next.

greenwood and turnrow books

I spent yesterday with a new friend, Mary Carol Miller, born and bred in Greenwood, Mississippi, and knowledgeable about its history and buildings -- we walked around town, and were stopped every few minutes by Greenwood people who wanted to chat with Mary Carol -- she's a treasure. And I didn't get one photo of her! I was happily overwhelmed (stunned at my good fortune, and Mary Carol's generosity, is more like it) with the research angles and possibilities -- more on this later, but let us just say that Mary Carol is a treasure in more ways than one. I'll be going back to Greenwood for further research, but I only had a few hours yesterday, before my signing at Turnrow.
This is the neighborhood that housed the COFO office in 1964 during Freedom Summer. I have the address, but there is no building there now -- it's a park. I'm not sure if this is because the building was bombed or burned in the sixties -- I'm still researching this.

Greenwood has such a distinct feel -- two sides of town, and a definite, literal "other side of the tracks" look. The Yazoo River and the railroad divided Greenwood in the sixties-- black on one side, white on the other.
 Freedom Summer volunteers -- mostly white, middle class college students -- came to Greenwood in 1964 and stayed with black families, working with SNCC, under COFO's umbrella. Their charge was to register blacks to vote, to organize and operate a Freedom School for black children (to teach them their history and heritage, for one thing), and to open a community center in black neighborhoods.

Below is the Greenwood courthouse, where people went to register to vote -- and be turned away, over and over, as they couldn't pass literacy tests or move around other barriers set up for them because of the color of their skin. Blacks -- and whites -- were arrested here and jailed for attempting to register to vote, or for creating a public nuisance or disturbance of the peace while trying to help register black voters. 
 Above is the Greenwood pool that was closed in 1964 after the passage of the civil rights act, so it wouldn't be open to people of all colors. Today it's a parking lot. The changing house/showers is a locked building now, maybe storage:

Sally Belfrage was one of the Mississippi Summer Project volunteers. In her book Freedom Summer, she says it was nothing short of a revolution that took place in Mississippi, and particularly in Greenwood. Curtis Wilkie told me on Monday that Mississippi -- particularly Greenwood and McComb -- was a war zone in 1964. And yet there were good people, working behind the scenes, white and black, working for change in a climate of fear... fear of reprisals by the white Citizen's Council, fear of injury, and death. What a time. My gal Sunny is going to be in the thick of this time -- Sunny and her love of the movies and her family, and her.... pool. Hmmm....

I'll talk about this time at length -- explore it -- here on the blog, write about how it fits into my fiction and book two of the sixties trilogy. Right now, I'm due at school #2 today -- but I want to show you some photos from yesterday at Turnrow. Jamie and Kelly Kornegay are my favorite people in the Delta. I could go on and on about how smart, generous, and amazing they are, but for now, here are a few photos of some booksellers extraordinaire.
 We've been friends for years; I come to Turnrow just to visit (and be spectacularly hand-sold), when I'm in Mississippi. This trip we had time for dinner together next door at Giardina's. Below, Jon Mayes, sales rep with Publishers Group Worldwide, Jamie and Kelly, and the fabulous Ben.

I love y'all. Thank you so much for bringing me back to the Delta. Thank you for lovingly hand-selling my books. Above all, thanks for your friendship.

this is the delta

"And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge/... and drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge...." *
"Emmett Till's name still catches in my throat/like syllables waylaid in a stutterer's mouth." **

 * from "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry. (Youtube link, Bobbie Gentry, 1967)


** from A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson (Youtube link, Marilyn Nelson reading from her book)

 This is the Delta.

understanding mississippi

Hey, y'all. I am not a good self-promoter! I've already been to Square Books, Jr. (thanks ever to my good friends Jill and Leita and everyone at Square Jr. -- is that Kenneth in front of the non-fiction section? Why yes, it is!) -- we had a great time this afternoon. 

I'll be at Turnrow Books in Greenwood, Mississippi tomorrow, August 24, signing Countdown at 3:30pm, and at Lemuria in Jackson, Mississippi at 5pm on Wed., August 25, and then I'm scooting home for some exciting news. Do please come see me at Turnrow or Lemuria, if you can. Would love to see you. 
 I'm combining a week of Mississippi book signings with some family time (you can see, below, how these folks are related to Miss Eula and Ruby Lavender, can you not?? :> They are certainly as wacky as Miss Eula -- I love them)...
... and some heavy-duty research for book two of the Sixties Trilogy. I'll spend a good part of tomorrow with a guide in Greenwood. Today, I drove all over the state, in service of my story. I spoke with Curtis Wilkie in Oxford, where he teaches journalism at Ole Miss. In the sixties, he was a reporter and editor at the Clarksdale Press. I was grateful for his time. His book DIXIE is one of my research books, and he is a marvelous storyteller.

I took these photos in Lexington, Mississippi:
I went to Lexington to get a feel for the town from which Hazel Brannon Smith wrote her fiery and courageous editorials during the sixties. She was simply amazing. I'm in search of stories like these. They will become part of book two.

Mississippi is such a land of paradoxes and contradictions. I love it so, and yet I still try to make sense of it and see it clearly. I have my work cut out for me, in writing for young readers about Freedom Summer and 1964 Mississippi. I want to be fair, frank, just, and as accurate as possible. I don't want to shy away from hard truths. And I want to reveal the stories that are not often showcased in our literature for young readers.The stories about the heroes -- white and black -- who stood for what was right at a time when doing so meant risking their livelihoods, and their lives. 

Come with me this week, and I'll take you to them. What is right? What is truth? And how do we honor it?

where i've been mash-up


Can you guess where this is? Stay tuned...

I've had my head deep into book two of the sixties trilogy this summer, and summer is almost over. Here's where I was and what I was doing this summer when I wasn't writing Sunny's story:

With Karen Huff, conference-organizer extraordinaire, collapsed after the Shenandoah University children's literature conference, June 2010.

 With Jane Resh Thomas at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 2010.

Scholastic Book Fairs Principals and Advisory Board Meeting, Orlando, July 2010

More Scholastic Book Fairs: Hanging with (left to right) Marsha Thauwald, Principal and Educational Consultant; Deborah Kaiser, Author Event Specialist; Robin Hoffman, Senior Manager of National Sales and Business Development; moi; and back row, Alan Boyko, President, Scholastic Book Fairs. We cut a rug!
Mad Men Season 4 premier dinner a la 1964. Perhaps you'll remember last year's ridiculously difficult (but scrumptious) premier dinner? This year we went homely, with a drink and a dinner I remember from my childhood: frozen lemonade and pigs in blankets, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, French-cut green beans, iceberg wedge salad (with Thousand Island dressing), banana pudding for dessert.

I haven't seen this many packaged products in my house in years (including Easy Cheese! Oy!). Mom's meatloaf was just as wonderful as I remember it, the green beans just as awful, and the lettuce wedge... well... I didn't eat that.:>

Dimitri Thomas, Deborah Hopkinson, and Jim, Portland, Oregon.
Jane Kurtz, Portland, Oregon
 On the train from Portland to Seattle.
Seattle jazz
The tuba player has expanded his repertoire to include drums, uke, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and Freedom Summer!

The Olympic Mountains. Now you know where the first photo was taken.
 Thanks for the love, y'all. Thanks for your friendship. Thanks for making time for me and mine.

I leave tomorrow for Mississippi. More on that, and on where I am with the novel, next.