THE 3 R's - READING, 'RITING, & RESEARCH

Coming Right Up: SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD BLOG TOUR

2012-01-27T09:40:00.001-05:00

Once again, I am thrilled to participate in the Sydney Taylor Award Blog Tour.

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

I finished Morris Gleitzman's THEN last night and feel inadequate to say anything regarding such a profound book. But I shall return to review it before my interview with Morris on Tuesday, November 7.

Meanwhile please check out the following blog tour schedule and drop by each site to meet the authors and their amazing stories.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2012 (Honor Awards)
Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of Naamah and the Ark at Night - Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category at Ima On & Off the Bima
Holly Meade, illustrator of Naamah and the Ark at Night - Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category at Into the Wardrobe
Shelley Sommer, author of Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg, Baseball Pioneer - Honor Award in the Older Readers Category at Great Kid Books

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2012 (Honor Awards)

Marcia Vaughan, author of Irena’s Jar of Secrets - Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category at Shelf-Employed
Ron Mazellan, illustrator of Irena’s Jar of Secrets - Honor Award in the Older Readers Category at The Children’s War

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012 (Honor Awards)
Trina Robbins, author of Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer - Honor Award in the Older Readers Category at Bildungsroman
Anne Timmons (and possibly Mo Oh), illustrators of of Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer- Honor Award in the Older Readers Category at Gathering Books
Morris Gleitzman, author of Then - Honor Award in the Teen Readers Category at The 3 Rs

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 (AWARD WINNERS)

Michael Rosen, author of Chanukah Lights - Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy - Robert Sabuda, illustrator/paper engineer of Chanukah Lights -
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category at Practically Paradise
Susan Goldman Rubin, author of Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category at Cynsations
Robert Sharenow, author of The Berlin Boxing Club - Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category at Jewish Books for Children

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012 (Honor Awards)

Durga Yael Bernhard, author & illustrator of Around the World in One Shabbat - Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category at Frume Sarah’s World
Shirley Vernick, author of The Blood Lie - Honor Award in the Teen Readers Category at The Fourth Musketeer

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012 (Notables)

Eric Kimmel, author of The Golem’s Latkes - Notable Book, (and winner of the National Jewish Book Award) at Ann Koffsky’s Blog
Gloria Spielman, author of Marcel Marceau, Master of Mime - Notable Book, (and finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) at Shannon and the Sunshine Band
Richard Michelson, author of Lipman Pike: America’s First Home Run King - Notable Book, (and finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) at Blue Thread

Sydney Taylor Award Winners – Wrap-Up!
All winners, all categories at The Whole Megillah

WEED & FEED: Writing Buddies

2012-01-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

Last night I finished War Horse and now I'm preparing to review it.

Meanwhile, my colleague, Carol Baldwin has included some of my "writing wisdom" in her latest blog post. (something about orange popsicles & wild onions!) Hop on over to read my thoughts but more importantly to experience Carol's touching poem at the end.

Her post demonstrates how writing buddies feed and weed each other's plots.

Carol & I at one of those school conferences where we co-presented.

Amber Brown Grant

2012-01-19T22:37:00.001-05:00

SCBWI (Society of Book Writers and Illustrators) is an international organization that provides support, training, and relationships for those of us who want to produce literature for young people.

There are lots of reasons to participate, including grants and awards!

Each year The Amber Brown Grant, in honor of Paula Danziger is awarded to 2 schools demonstrating interest and need. It provides funds for an author or illustrator to visit winning schools to spend time with students.

This year one of the 2 winning schools is Eastover Central Elementary School in Fayetteville, NC. And the author they chose to visit is me. Yay! How exciting is that?

As I understand it, Eastover Central will be given several hundred dollars worth of my books, author visit expanses will be covered, and we'll all enjoy a pizza party. Thank you, SCBWI and to Gee Cee Addison for working out the details.

We're planning the visit for late April - should be a great time to travel.

ELLEN'S BROOM: By Kelly Starling Lyons

2012-01-09T08:41:00.000-05:00

Kelly Starling Lyons, author of One Million Men and Me has a new picture book out!

Ellen's parents walked over to the broom hanging on the wall. Mama always said it was part of the family-a record of the way things were.
The way things were was that Mama and Papa had been slaves. As slaves they didn't have the right to be legally married. So they had a broom jumping ceremony and a deacon to say a few words.

But all that was in the past. Now they are free. And a new law says they can be married officially. It will be recognized by the law. And the whole family gets to participate!

Ellen's Broom is a peek into history. It is a story of a new beginning. A story of family. And also community. It is a celebration. Once again Lyons brings to the written page the strength and resiliency of the African American community with a story of hope and change.

Daniel Minter's block prints strike just the right tone - there is the earthy quality that reminds the reader of slavery mixed with brilliant joyful colors that express an indomitable spirit

This post is a part of Kelly's blog tour which celebrates the release of Ellen's Broom. If you leave a comment here or at one of the other stops on the tour and you will be entered to win a decorated wedding broom made by Stuarts Creations and also a copy of the Ellen's Broom cover. The winner will be announced on January 16.

Oh, and before you leave me, take a minute to peek inside this gorgeous and tender story.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: The Birth of The March of Dimes

2012-01-03T22:14:00.001-05:00

At a school visit the other year, a 4th grader came to me and held out his hand. In it was a dime. "This is for you," he said. "For coming to our school." So sweet and yet how could I possibly take his money?

Hello? It was a dime. The answer was obvious. I didn't have to keep it. "I'll give it to the March of Dimes," I promised. He knew what that was because his class had just read Blue and done polio related studies.

The March of Dimes is a non-profit founded in 1938 by Franklin Roosevelt to benefit the research and treatment of polio. Thousands of children benefited. We all did because the money went a long way toward funding vaccine research. January 3 is its birthday.

At first they called it The National Foundation For Infantile Paralysis. But say that three times fast and you'll realize how catchy The March of Dimes sounds. I have a small collection of dimes on my desk - each of them sent to me by the March of Dimes in separate envelopes - peeking out through plastic windows like little eyes - begging to be acknowledged. With them come address labels and notepads as an incentive for me to give back to the foundation.

I could just drop the dimes into my change purse and spend them on whatever. Except that I can't. Like the dime in the 4th grader's hand they just feel destined. Today's date reminds me that it's time to click on over to The March of Dimes website and make a contribution.

Nowadays, since polio is no longer a problem in the U.S., The March of Dimes works to eliminate birth defects and premature births. Obviously a worthy cause - in case you're looking for ways to start your New Year out with a really great feeling.

A TALE OF TWO "KINGS"

2011-12-25T16:30:00.007-05:00

Remember Good King Wenceslas? I've always loved this Christmas carol because it tells a story. But also because the story is one of compassion.

A king looks out his castle window and sees a poor man struggling through the snow in search of wood for a fire. He and his servant go out to find the man and bring him in for a feast. The servant grows cold and weary but King Wenceslas leads the way, warming the soil for the servant who walks in his footsteps. The song doesn't tell us if they find the man. It simply states that in doing good, we will find blessing.

Wenceslas was born in Prague, the son of a king in 907. When he was 13 years old his father died. Although he was the heir apparent he was not yet ready to be king. His grandmother took him under her wing and gave him Christian training which later influenced his rule. He has long been the most revered man in the land we now know as the Czech Republic.

King Wencelas - Image provided by Wikipedia Commons

Last week, the Czechs lost another beloved leader. Vaclav Havel served time in prison for writing plays and essays that spoke out against communism and he helped lead Czechs in the peaceful revolution that ended 4 decades of communist rule. He did not seek to be president but the people asked him to lead which he did for 14 years. Like Wenceslas, he led with compassion and courage, warming the soil for his followers.

Vaclav Havel Image provided by Wikipedia Commons

In the years after Havel's presidency he continued to write and to work for freedom and human rights. Last week, on December 18 he died. The Czech people filled Wenceslas Square to honor his life and to mourn his death. Many of them remember the years under communism and the bloodless revolution that bought their freedom. Havel is the predominant symbol of that change.

You can read more on Havel here and on countless other sites.

Here's a Havel quote I particularly like. "Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed." I suspect that King Wenceslas would agree with Havel on this and countless other beliefs.

WRITING THE VIETNAM WAR: Do I have to?

2011-12-17T13:55:00.003-05:00

I did not want to write about the Vietnam War.

At first I thought it was because of my impatience about the book making process and how adding in another layer meant a mountain of research on a new topic. I'd done whole mountain ranges of research on several topics for this book already and was not eager to take on another.

I wanted to get on with it. My attitude was "just give me a contract already. Let's get this book published!"

But my editor, in her superior wisdom, knew my story wasn't contract worthy. Indeed one of my viewpoint characters was missing a soul. Or at least, I had yet to find her soul. Which meant I had to dig deeper. Which I did. Which led me to Vietnam.

Which is breaking my heart. Which should have been broken a long time ago over this very topic. I lived through the 60's and 70's. I remember.

I have family and friends who were up-close-and-personal with the Vietnam War. One friend died there. Another is still affected by post war trauma. Several peacemaking family members chose to live in Vietnam during the war and to offer moral support without taking sides. In addition, thousands of war refugees (and their descendants) live in my community today.

I've been close enough to the topic to care but I haven't had the courage. But ya' know what? Writing forces me to look things in the eye that were too horrifying to acknowledge before.

Eventually I accept my calling. Which is what I'm doing now. It's why I go to sleep watching documentaries of the war and wake up and play them all over again. It's why I'm reading refugee and prisoner-of-war stories and why I'll call my friend who suffers with PTSD and ask to hear his story.

I will research this war and find the best way to share my character's soul. I'll allow myself to feel a smidgen of the pain that others have endured. I have no idea where this will lead me but I suspect it is more than just to writing.

Whether my work-in-progress lands a contract or not, perhaps it will at least make me into a more compassionate human being.

The following homage by Colonel Michael Davis O'Donnell reminds me to care about all the victims of war:

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and one backward glance when you are leaving, for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not always have. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind." (Major Michael Davis O'Donnell - South Vietnam)

To End All Wars: The Story of Conscientious Objection during WWI

2011-12-14T19:44:00.002-05:00

My work-in-progress is about war and peace. It asks questions related to conscience and the causes we feel committed to. So naturally I am intrigued to hear of Adam Hochschild's book, To End All Wars. It deals with conscientious objectors in England during The Great War.

"This is a book to make one feel deeply and painfully, and also to think hard." (Christopher Hitchens, "NY Times Book Reviewer)

I'm thrilled to see my local library has this volume. But I have a feeling I'll end up paying its price in overdues so I may as well just go ahead and buy my own copy.

This quote from the book trailer pretty much sums up how I feel about history and why I write historical fiction: "We need to look at history in terms of the things that they maybe didn't tell us in high school and college."

Another quote from the author: "What could be more glorious and hopeful than the idea that this war was going to end all wars forever?"

If only...

Buzzzzzzzzzzz...... National History Bee Middle School Competition

2011-12-02T09:03:00.002-05:00

Got a middle schooler who loves history? And competition?

Maybe he or she would love to participate in the first ever National History Bee Middle School Competition.

From the history.com website:

"Students have the opportunity to win a trip to Washington, DC and compete for the $50,000 Grand Prize Scholarship at the National Championship, which will air on History."

Here's how it works.

More info and link to registration form here.

Buzz on over, my friend.

ASK AN EXPERT: A Few Good Resources for Writers

2011-11-05T13:28:00.002-04:00

I've recently discovered two professionals who offer their expertise specifically for the writer's use. I'm totally intrigued and want to introduce them to you!

1. THE CHARACTER THERAPIST: An Online Therapy Service for Fictional Characters is provided by Jeannie Campbell, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

If you're struggling with your protagonist's (or other character's) behavior, you can make an appointment for him/her to spend time on Jeannie's couch. There's an intake form which is by no means easy to fill out. But that's a good thing since it forces you to have a decent understanding of the character before wasting the therapist's time! Based on the info you give, Ms. Campbell addresses your character's emotional makeup in a blog post. She'll also provide more intensive feedback for a fee. I love this concept and have thoroughly enjoyed eavesdropping on Jeannie's counseling sessions! Perhaps I'll even schedule one. If only I could decide which of my characters needs it most!

Ms. Campbell provides lots of other useful info as well, such as insights into mental disorders, Skype consultations, and Therapeutic Editing. And since laughter is the best medicine she throws in a helping of that as in the NaNoWriMo Stress Reduction Kit which will either make you laugh or give you a headache.

2. REDWOOD'S MEDICAL EDGE: Medical Fact for Your Fiction provides medical information related to your story line.

Jordyn Redwood is a novelist and a registered nurse with years of Emergency Room and Intensive Care experience. She accepts your medical questions via email and after spending an hour researching your topic, she blogs the answer. More intensive input is available for a fee. Redwood provides info on specific diseases and on medical history. She hosts guest bloggers who write on health topics outside her expertise.

As an author with 3 disease related novels, I have no trouble imagining the need for Redwood's Medical Edge.. In fact, a google search on polio brought me to this 3 Part Guest Post by author Sarah Sundin. I'm eager to explore other topics on Jordyn's site.

BTW - both of these ladies have gorgeous websites.

I'm curious - if you were to offer an online service to help writers with authenticity, what would that service be?

Book Giveway: She's a winner!

2011-10-27T22:21:00.001-04:00

Mary Stott is the October winner of the Paperback Pair Contest. Congratulations, Mary!

As for the rest of you - November 1st is upon us! Another winner to be announced!

If you haven't entered, see sidebar for the requirements!

A LITTLE CONVO WITH KIRBY LARSON

2011-10-26T08:29:00.002-04:00

I love it when a great author brings hidden history to light. Kirby Larson has done that with The Friendship Doll!

The relationship between the US and Japan has had its share of animosity. But back in 1927, an amazing American, Dr. Sydney Gulick, came up with a plan for creating goodwill. He facilitated the giving of more than 12,000 dolls to the children of Japan. The Japanese loved the dolls and wanted to give back. So they sent 58 stunning handcrafted dolls with intriguing accessories. These dolls began their lives in the US with a ceremony and a national tour! Then each state received at least one doll.

I could go on about this but Bill Gordon has done it so much better at his Friendship Doll website. What a history this is! I see why Kirby Larson could barely wait to write a fictional account of one of those dolls and her life in the US. A few months ago, Augusta Scattergood reviewed The Friendship Doll for me here. And today, I'm honored to share a little dialogue with the author!

Kirby, one of the features of the book is that that the doll, Miss Kanagawa, communicates with the girls in the story. Can you talk about how these dolls speak to you, personally?

I was never a doll kid, though I did own a Midge back in the day. Growing up, I would rather read or play Man From U.N.C.L.E. with the neighbor kids. But when I was researching Hattie Big Sky, I came across this intriguing photo taken in 1928 of a little farm girl with a stunning and nearly life-size Japanese doll. I had to find out about these dolls and when I "met" Washington state's Friendship Doll, Miss Tokushima, I felt as if she was about ready to tell me something.I fell under her spell and, though it took many years, I knew I would write a book about the Friendship Dolls.

Kirby with Miss. Kantoshu, the ambassador doll who lives in the Rosie Whyel Doll Museum in Bellvue, WA.

Ms. Kanagawa's travels in the United States take her to 4 distinct locations - New York, Chicago, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. One thing that struck me as so authentic and natural in these stories was the use of language which seemed to grow right out of the landscape. How did you choose the locations and familiarize yourself with the settings, characters, and dialogue in your story? Oh, do you have a few days?! After a big-time false start, I decided to set the story during the Great Depression. It impacted our entire nation and I wanted to try to capture that. In addition, the Friendship Dolls toured the entire country, visiting towns large and small and I wanted this story to reflect that,too. I will do ANYTHING to learn what I can about other places and times, from reading old newspapers to reading diaries and journals to scouring eBay for old letters, postcards and photos. I also collect old atlases, books of folk proverbs and spend many hours in our local university's archives. All for the sake of story!

Got a research story to share? Some obscure detail you tracked down or some accomplishment you’re particularly proud of? I think I am proudest of bringing to light a bit of little known history, especially because the doll exchanges between the US and Japan were about building friendships, something I think we can never hear enough about.

What is your approach to researching, plotting, and writing historical books in general? (brief pause for maniacal laughter) I am a terrible plotter. I fully embrace the Karen Cushman model of plotting which involves getting to know your character as fully and deeply by putting them into pickles to see what happens. I do as much primary research as I can, and I try to tell my stories as honestly as possible. That's my approach to writing historical fiction.

Ah, a kindred non-plotting spirit - I love it! So, if you could be an ambassador doll from the US where would you like to go? And why? Love this question! I would go to Lebanon because it is a beautiful country with such incredible people and yet so much sorrow and mistrust.

Kirby, I know 13 of the original Japanese friendship dolls are missing and that you're hoping your story helps to rediscover them. It's still early of course, but by any chance has someone come forward with one yet? Not yet! But I am a relentless optimist.

Awesome! I have a feeling it will happen and I can't wait to hear about it. Thanks so much for stopping by. I loved having you here.

Kirby is the award winning author of Hattie Big Sky (Newbery Honor), The Fences Between Us, Nubs, and Two Bobbies. My thanks to Provato Marketing for making my visit with her possible. Please visit www.provatoevents.com

COMFORT BOOK TRAILER

2011-10-14T12:54:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to say that Wendy Hostetter Davis has just uploaded the COMFORT book trailer. Take a look. Then link to it somewhere and send me the link. I'll enter you into a drawing for the PAPERBACK PAIR. This is a separate drawing from the other PAPERBACK PAIR CONTEST (see sidebar)

If you enter that one - you can be entered twice.

Well, three times actually, if you link both BLUE and COMFORT trailers OR to keep that third chance simple, just link the BOOK TRAILERS page of my blog.

I'm proud of Wendy's work! One of these days I'm going to interview her on here.

BAG-A-BOOK PAGE

2011-10-11T21:22:00.001-04:00

I just added a page to this blog. See the tab on the far right at the top - the one that says BAG-A-BOOK? I wanted to share the very cool concept of journaling/scrapbooking on a book made from paper bags. This is a great project for students and teachers, parents and kids. And well, just about anyone. A paper bag journal can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want it to be.

Click on the tab and see the one I made to celebrate one of my favorite picture books.

I've included some instructions in case you want to try one for yourself . Oh, and if my instructions or photos are really unclear, do me a favor. Let me know and I'll tweak them.

Paperback Pair Contest: lst Winner

2011-10-02T16:26:00.001-04:00

Remember the Paperback Pair Contest?

(If not, see sidebar and sign up.

There are 2 more chances to win -

once in November and again in December.)

The time has come to pull a winner. So into the little blue skillet goes a pile of names.

One of my sweet German friends is here to visit so I asked her to do the honors. She is completely trustworthy as you can see from this face.

Can you read that name?

The winner is Mary Stott! Congratulations Mary! Send an address to moyergirl at charter dot net and I will send you the Paperback Pair just as soon as I get my copies. (I'm fairly certain that will be mid-October.)

Danke schön, dear Emma!

BANNED BOOKS WEEK: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

2011-09-30T22:36:00.002-04:00

For Banned Book Week, I sort of wanted to write about the Bible. But I've decided to go with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank because I am reading a book my hubby gave me at Christmas last year - Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, and The Afterlife by Francine Prose. (Isn't that a great name for a writer?)

There are lots of Anne Frank books out there but I love this one because it examines Anne as a writer. I reread her diary last summer and wove reflections on Anne into my work-in-progress. Here is a quote from my character which I may as well share now since the whole Anne Frank theme is unlikely to last through my revisions.

As far as I’m concerned Anne Frank is the quintessential writer. Her simple diary is laced with all the elements of story. Character, setting, plot. It has conflict, self-exploration, and humor.

Now, I learn from Prose's book, that Anne was being somewhat intentional about making her writing publishable. Not at first, of course. When she received the diary at age 13 she put her uncensored thoughts and emotions on the page. But later, after the families in the Secret Annex heard a radio broadcast that discussed the immense societal value diaries would have after the war, she began to dream of being published. And the others in the Annex dreamed about this with her.

Since Anne had plenty of time on her hands she turned to writing for meaning. As she dreamed of publication she began to fill in pages she'd left blank in her diary. This meant reconstructing scenes that she'd missed earlier. (Prose points out that the writing in those spots is more mature.) In addition, Anne actually revised well over a hundred pages of her diary, adding details where she originally had generalities, choosing stronger words, and dropping cliches.

In the awful moments that followed her capture, friends found and safeguarded Anne's checkered bound diary, two other notebooks, and the loose leaf pages of revisions. After the war, Otto Frank made the decision to publish Anne's work. He decided which passages would be included and those that would be left out, omitting some sexually themed material and pages that reflected poorly on Mrs. Frank and also on his marriage.

This is what writers and editors do. We make decisions about which themes, scenes, and individual words are essential to the story. And which ones our audience is ready for. Who knows; we might even get it wrong.

When the book is published others decide whether it is worthy of their attention. Sometimes the reader abandons a story 20 pages in. At times a parent knows the child isn't ready for the material inside. And sometimes librarians decide not to place certain books on library shelves. And of course, sometimes an angry individual makes a fuss about a particular title.

Anne Frank is one of the most taught books in America but it has also been banned from schools for sexual content and tragic themes. Over the years more and more of the material censored by Otto Frank has made its way into editions of the book.

The truth is that the world is filled with kids whose lives are more horrible than anything many authors can dream up to put into a book. Those kids deserve to find characters who help them survive. Anne Frank does this.

You can listen to author Francine Prose talk about Anne's writing on this NPR broadcast. It is well worth the listen!

And if you have ten minutes to soak it up you can enjoy watching her discuss it here. (WARNING: the video ends abruptly after you are hooked!)

EXPLORING POST-WAR TRAUMA: Through Fiction and Documentary

2011-09-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

Comfort, deals with among other things, post war trauma. I was motivated to explore this topic because I have friends whose fathers appeared to exhibit PTSD symptoms after serving in WWII and the Korean War. Of course post-war trauma wasn't exactly being diagnosed in those days.

And as you can see in this Frontline documentary, The Wounded Platoon, it still doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

The documentary is over an hour and it's hard for me to sit and watch a movie at the computer so I canned tomatoes while I worked, Perhaps this was also a distraction technique so that I didn't feel the pain too deeply.

I heard an extraordinary definition of PTSD while watching. A psychiatrist told an Iraqi veteran, "PTSD is a normal response to an abnormal situation."

Thank God he went on to say that war is abnormal!

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: The Death of a President and What That Has to Do With My Character

2011-09-14T15:05:00.005-04:00

On this day in history William McKinley, a beloved U.S. president died as the result of a gunshot wound.

So happens, I'm writing about that.

Just 7 days earlier my character had been at the Pan American Exhibition, waiting to catch a glimpse of the President and even to shake his hand. But an assassin got there first.

Photo of a drawing by T. Dart Walker used with permission under Creative Commons License

The assassin was Leon Czolgosz. He'd been a hard worker at a wire plant in Ohio for a number of years but became mentally unstable and began showing up at anarchist meetings.

When questioned about his motivations, he responded with, “I killed President McKinley because I done my duty. I didn’t believe one man should have so much service and another man should have none.”

Photo by unknown photographer around 1900 - in public domain

In fact, the president was not yet, dead. But doctors failed to find the bullet that lodged in his back and, as a result, gangrene took his life.

Czolgosz was executed on the electric chair about 6 weeks later. His final words were, " "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."

My protagonist had nothing to do with the president's assassin. He just happened to be standing a few feet behind him, in the same line, waiting to meet the president. But he also had a paper and pencil in his hand. Which, in my opinion, makes things a little more interesting! All of America was deeply affected by this tragic incident. But, for my character, this death of the president was much too close for comfort.

BLUE: Finally, a book trailer!

2011-09-09T08:49:00.001-04:00

I haven't heard the latest on the value of having a book trailer. But I think we all know that putting the word out there in as many ways as possible is a good thing.

And a lovely little clip like this can only help. Don't you agree?

Thanks so much to the talented Wendy Hostetter Davis who created this for me.

RANDOM ACT OF PUBLICITY: Another Not-So-Random Book Review Re-post

2011-09-08T08:24:00.001-04:00

Also in keeping with Random Acts of Publicity week, I offer another of those books I bonded to a few years ago.

The Night of the Burning

by Linda Press Wulf

I love stories that take place in eastern Europe. So it was a natural for me to pick up The Night of the Burning: Devorah's Story. This story begins in an orphanage in Poland but immediately the reader realizes the setting is about to change. Devorah Lerhman and her sister Nechama receive an invitation to move to a strange land – Africa.

Devorah is leery. Her life so far has been filled with loss. Why should she risk new attachments?

But there is the man with the funny hat. Mr. Ochberg has come to transport two hundred Jewish orphans to South Africa. In spite of herself Devorah is drawn to him.

And so she sets out on a journey, moving back in time even as she chooses a new future. She reflects on the early years with Mama and Papa – before typhoid fever robbed her of both parents. She relives the Night of the Burning when Aunt Friedka was killed during a pogram – an unprovoked senseless attack on the Jews in her village.

After that night, an orphanage becomes her home. It isn’t easy living in the orphanage but at least it is predictable. Traveling with Mr. Ochberg to South Africa is not. The trip is a risky one and it calls forth all of Devorah’s courage –courage to move emotionally as well as physically.

Author Linda Press Wulf snatches her readers up in the earliest pages and takes us on this journey too. We feel the forward movement as Devorah lets down her guard and learns to give and receive love again. Her ability to make us feel Devorah’s emotions is phenomenal.

Wulf is passionate about preserving stories. You feel this when Devorah says to her papa in the early part of her life – “I vow before God and before Papa that I will always remember our stories.” And again at the close of this book when she says “Mama, Papa, wake up. I need to tell you something important. It’s this: the stories won’t be forgotten….There is to be a book, a book that will tell it all.

Thanks to Linda Press Wulf for this book – The Night of the Burning -historical fiction which preserves and validates the story of Devorah Lehrman, the mother-in-law she never met.

The Night of the Burning won the Sydney Taylor Honor Award for 2007. This award recognizes the best in Jewish literature for children.

RANDOM ACT OF PUBLICITY: A Not-So-Random Book Review Re-post

2011-09-07T19:02:00.002-04:00

It's Random Acts of Publicity Week so I'm reposting my review of A True and Faithful Narrative by Kit Sturtevant. I am a huge fan of this author.

By Katherine Sturtevant

(historical fiction for young adults and older ones too!)

It is 1681 and Meg Moore is often at work in her father’s London bookshop. Her position there puts her in touch with the literary world and agitates her desire to be a writer. However, because she is a woman, her father strictly forbids her to write anything for others to read.

Edward, a family friend, stops in at the bookshop before leaving on a trip to Italy. He asks Meg what gift he can bring her from his travels. Startled, Meg realizes he is suggesting a romantic relationship. She responds by joking that perhaps he will be captured at sea and thus return with an adventure for her to write.

In fact, Edward does get captured and is sold into slavery. Meg’s careless jest haunts her and she begins to raise funds to buy his freedom. Will, who also works in her father’s bookshop, helps her. An infatuation with Will ensues and the two of them envision a future together.

But then Edward returns and he wants Meg to write his story for him. Of course she must do this in secret or she will incur the wrath of her father. Meg and Edward begin meeting in a tavern where he relates his adventure and she writes it down.

But Edward’s experiences do not convey the tale that Meg has imagined. She is disappointed that his story lacks certain dramatic points. When he tells her his Muslim owner was actually a kindly person, Meg must let go of preconceived ideas about the Islamic world.

She discovers then, the writer’s dilemma. She can sensationalize Edward’s story so that it suits her fancy and captures her reader. Or she can render it truthfully, thus opening a window into the broader world. By the same token, Edward learns to trust the author of his story—to let go of particular details in order to shine a light on the more significant aspects of his experience.

I loved this book for the way in which Katherine Sturtevant slips so much information about time and place so naturally into the story. However, word choice and sentence arrangement convey as much about restoration England as do the many historical details provided.

I also treasure the way in which the story, itself, explores what it means to be an author. For Meg, it is about much more than finding and conveying the truth of a narrative. Being a female writer in restoration England has limitations. There are areas in which she has no choice about her life. And yet, Meg is not powerless. In some ways this story is about accepting limitations and in other ways it is about choosing wider horizons.

A True and Faithful Narrative is at once a romance and a story of hard realities. Meg’s life is not all about the bookshop and the essence of writing. She has responsibilities to home and family. Her best friend, Anne (Edward’s sister) is caught in an unhappy marriage which gives Meg reason to examine her own romantic choices.

There are many layers here which will be best appreciated by mature young readers. A True and Faithful Narrative is a book that writers, like myself, will want to own so we can revisit it when in need of inspiration and grounding.

A True and Faithful Narrative is a sequel to At The Sign of the Star.

NEW BOOK COVERS & OTHER GOOD STUFF

2011-09-02T09:53:00.003-04:00

Remember these?

Well, they're getting a new look!

And COMFORT is joining BLUE in paperback! (all this, in late September)

So, naturally, I'm celebrating! Which means a contest, of course! I'll give the paperback pair to one winner each month from October through December. You or your friends may enter at any time!

Here's how you enter.

1. Follow me. (Click on "Join This Site" at right and follow instructions. (If you already follow me, proceed to # 2.)

2. Tell me you want the Paperback Pair.

3. Sit back and wait for the announcement.

No, wait! Don't just sit back and wait! Send your friends over here!

So you might be asking, Does "Join this Site" mean I have to read it? Of course not! But it'll help me look good and in this business it's all about perceptions, right? Or deceptions maybe...

I will try to hook you into reading. And that's no lie. At least, come back to see if you won!

GUEST BLOGGING FOR EMILY SMITH PEARCE

2011-08-29T07:57:00.002-04:00

Hey. Thanks for dropping in.

But, actually, I'm not here. I hopped a plane...

and landed over at Emily Smith Pearce's blog.

Emily, who now lives in Hannover, Germany, asked me to guest blog about visiting Germany this spring and how traveling for the sake of research influences a trip.

I adore Emily's blog because she's such an artist, writer, mommy, and world citizen sort of person and she has the ability to put those things out there in concise little snippets with gorgeous photos.

So I'm honored to be there today. Please stop in and say "hallo" or "guten tag" to Emily.

Then, in a day or two, I'll come back here and introduce you to Emily's books!

AN OPEN LETTER TO CLARA GILLOW CLARK

2011-08-21T17:31:00.024-04:00

Dear Clara,

I loved meeting you here online through your generous blog. I've marveled at the way you fcous the spotlight on other writers when you could be calling attention to your own books. In a short time, you have introduced me to a smorgasbord of talented history writers and their stories.

I love the giveaways you sponsor. Oh, yes, the giveaways! That brings me to the day I met you in person in lovely, historical, Honesdale, PA.

How cool to discover that I had, indeed, just won one of your contests! I am now the oh-so-very-pleased-owner of EDDIE'S WAR. Everything I see and read about this story makes me want to read it. I haven't yet, because a certain amount of restraint is in order just to get through each busy day. But it's right on top of my TBR pile.

I did just read your HILL HAWK HATTIE though.

And here's what I have to say about that.

The first thing I noticed about Hattie was her voice. It's powerful. Succinct. Determined. Poignant. I believe the author's # 1 task is to make the reader care about the character on the very first page. Clara, you did that in - let me see - how about the first sentence? Impressive.

And by the end of that first page I understood why Hattie would say about her Pa, "Guess he must hate my guts. Guess I'm not too fond of his. The way I see it, we're stuck."

I'm guessing a whole lot of readers will relate to that!

But if a whole lot of readers are like me, they're going to soon find themselves in unfamiliar territory also - on a raft going down the Delaware River. What a ride! I'm a wimp about white water so I was more than happy to let Hattie Basket (I do love her name!) steer me through. I'm pretty sure I leaned to the right when Pa called out "pull Pennsylvania" and to the left if he hollered "New Jersey". And when Jasper yelled, "Don't fall!" I hung on. More than once, I hit the deck and clung to it for life itself.

I encountered some familiar places but they were only names I knew from maps or road signs - strictly landlubber access. I kept wondering how you knew the river so well. I felt as if you took notes from a raft, looking up at the Erie Railroad Bridge while floating beneath it and that you knew all the rifts and narrows and aqueducts along the way.

You carry your readers through other treacherous waters - the emotional ups and downs of a girl who feels orphaned by her mother's death and her father's rejection. Who faces the jeers of those who consider themselves better than her. Who wants desperately to be the girl she is but who must pretend to be a boy to suit her father's whims. At least that is how it seems. In the end of course, Hattie Basket understands much more than she does on that first lonely page.

In the end, the reader realizes there is more to Hattie's story. And I for one, am eager to read HATTIE ON HER WAY.

Thank-you, Clara for this gripping story about loss and identity and logging and survival during the mid 1800s. I learned a lot and enjoyed the ride!

Your new friend,

Joyce Moyer Hostetter

FDR Cottage in Warm Springs, GA Burns

2011-08-11T15:25:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday, we lost a vital piece of history. McCarthy Cottage at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilition burned - possibly as the result of an electrical storm. (Please note that nearby the Little White House is still standing!)

In 1924, Franklin D. Roosevelt went to Warm Springs GA (they called it Bullochville) in those days, seeking a cure for the paralysis caused by polio. What he found was a dilapidated resort, a simple way of life, and plenty of southern hospitality.

When this newspaper article in The Atlanta Journal hit the wires, polios from around the country began coming to Warm Springs. Roosevelt's dream of a rehabiliation center became a reality much sooner than he imagined.

The dilapidated resort consisted of pools fed by warm mineral water, various cottages, and a large victorian hotel known as Meriwether Inn. Roosevelt viewed the inn as a firetrap. In 1927 McCarthy cottage was built and he stayed there instead. McCarthy Cottage became his Georgia home until he built the Little White House in 1932.

Roosevelt loved the resort so much that he bought it and changed it's entire mission. It would no longer be a resort but rather a place for children and adults affected by polio to find comraderie, to rehabilitate, and to get their lives back.

That's what Ann Fay Honeycutt did in COMFORT, the sequel to BLUE.

As a fictional character, Ann Fay represents the many real individuals whose lives were changed at Warm Springs. They arrived in various stages of despair and hope and found others who shared their pain. They discovered friends, lovers, and role models. They followed Roosevelt's example and went on to live productive lives.

One small and yet very important piece of history burned to the ground this week but no fire can destroy the happy results of Roosevelt's dreaming and his gift to children and adults who had had polio.

You can view an image of McCarthy Cottage at Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative and read about the fire here.

Book Review: THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL by Kirby Larson

2011-07-21T20:25:00.000-04:00

I'm always pleased when Augusta Scattergood drops a book review into my inbox. And thank goodness, she's done it again!

THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL

By Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press, 2011)

208 Pages

Ages: 9-12

In 1927, 58 dolls were sent from Japan to the United States as Ambassadors of Friendship. About three feet tall, their black human hair was cut in a bob, their faces hand-painted. They were dressed in silk and possessed lacquer chests, tea sets, and parasols. A young girl’s dream.

The dolls traveled around the country until Pearl Harbor, December 1941, when most were removed from display.

Based on her research into these doll ambassadors, Kirby Larson, author of another of my favorite historical fiction novels, HATTIE BIG SKY, has just published a terrific new book for kids, THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL.

Told chronologically in ever-worsening situations, beginning in 1927 and ending in present-day Seattle, four girls with strong, distinct voices, relate to a single Japanese doll. Woven together by the presence of the doll, any of the chapters could be read aloud as a stand-alone. The stories are harsh, moving, uplifting, funny—and page-turning.

The doll star of this show is Miss Kanagawa. She’s special, and yes, she interacts with some of the human characters in the book. But she’s not a toy who comes awake at night to dance in the playroom. Not a chance. She’s considerably more subtle and sophisticated than that. She communicates with interwoven snippets, imagined eye movements. She feels a slight twinge, a pain in her heart here and there.

As the story unfolds, Miss Kanagawa begins to understand what is happening:

I sit on the shelf, watching the seamstress mend my kimono. It seems I am being prepared for something, but I do not know what that is.

There is a new feeling in my heart—how strange and yet how sweet to say that word…like there is a string tied to my heart, as if it is a kite being tugged by a kite flier whose face I cannot see.

Yet.

A quasi debate about the nature of historical fiction has turned up on blogs and websites. Is it historical if it’s just set in the past— with appropriate details, characters, language— yet not related to an actual event? Is it historical fiction if it was written as contemporary fiction but now read by young readers 30 years later, who see anything before they were alive as the past?

I’m not re-opening that particular worm can right now. But I would like to go on record: This book represents all the best in historical fiction for young readers. Real history and facts—the kind you find in textbooks, reference books, and on scholarly websites. Through terrific books written of another time and other places, kids experience history in context (the food –lots of beans during the Depression, the clothing, the actual words spoken).

That’s what I love about THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL. It’s based on research and real facts, and it’s a great story, well-told in a way that makes the period jump off the page, in a good way. And there’s so much history! The Chicago World’s Fair, the Okies traveling Route 66, Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Author’s Note at the end breaks down the different stories and offers a glimpse into Kirby Larson’s extensive research and contagious enthusiasm for this project. I want to know more, or at the very least, read the novel again from start to finish.

This book was sent to me by the publisher. Whether or not, they knew I was once a child ~~hoarder~~ collector of dolls (often snatched from the arms of my younger sister), I can’t say. But that’s not really what THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL is about. Yes, there is a doll. No, it’s not the only thing to love about the book.

For additional information and resources, check out Kirby Larson’s website.
http://www.kirbylarson.com/books/the-friendship-doll/

And check out this article on the Seattle’s Child website.
http://www.seattleschild.com/article/the-friendship-doll-has-a-voice-of-its-own

Augusta Scattergood

Reviewed by Augusta Scattergood

GLORY BE, Augusta’s first novel, is historical fiction set in 1964 Mississippi. It will be available in January, 2012, from Scholastic. You can follow her progress on her own blog: http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/

Click on over and check out GLORY BE's stunning cover as well as Augusta's thought provoking reflections, book news, and reviews.

Thank you, once again, Augusta! I'll definitely be reading The Friendship Doll!

PEGGY AND THE SEAGOING COWBOYS

2011-07-17T08:17:00.004-04:00

In connection with my work-in-progress I asked my Uncle Richard about his experiences delivering cows to Poland after WWII. He suggested I might want to connect with Peggy Reiff Miller.

PeggyReiff Miller
Photo Credit: Jean Williams

So I did. And it turns out that Peggy has a whole website dedicated to seagoing cowboys!

But what is a seagoing cowboy anyway?

After WWII United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration shipped food, clothing, and even livestock to European countries liberated from Axis powers. And, of course, if you're going to ship cows and horses across the ocean, well you'll need cowboys to tend to them. 

Wilbur Stump delivering heifers to France aboard the SS Zona Gale, April 1946.
Photographer unknown.

I was interested in these fellows because many of them were conscientious objectors to war - a topic I'm writing about. I wanted to learn about the times and discover what took them to Europe when the war was over and they were not under obligation to the draft.

As it turns out, Peggy has a whole boatload of info she's been collecting from these former cowboys. The scope of her website is amazing with multiple pages dedicated to their memories, journals, and photographs of post-war Europe.

Cowboys board the SS Queens Victory in Newport News, Virginia, in June 1946 to deliver horses to Germany. Photographer unknown.

I just had to ask her about this.

Peggy, you've clearly spent a lot of time gathering stories and making them available to the general public. Why? What motivates you?

My original motivation was to learn what my deceased grandfather's trip to Poland might have been like so I could write a young adult novel about it. I started with one man I knew who had made one of the trips. One cowboy led to another, who led to another, and another. Each story was different, and all the stories were compelling. I realized an amazing history was hidden away in people's attics and drawers and minds. My mission quickly expanded from writing a novel to documenting this piece of long-forgotten history. Over the past nine years, I've interviewed over 150 cowboys from all over the country and been in contact with hundreds more. They have been both generous in their sharing and appreciative of being recognized. And they've become like family to me. I do it for them.

Peggy invites cowboys to share their stories in Des Moines, Iowa, June 2009.
Photo credit: Megan Oliver

And now that you've gathered all these stories, what are you doing with the info? How are you incorporating the cowboy stories into your writing?

I continue to work on my young adult novel about a 16-year-old seagoing cowboy to Poland, the first of a planned trilogy with the next trips to Greece and Germany. I've written and will continue to write articles for various magazines. I produced a DVD photostory documentary that I've used on a five-state tour to recognize the living cowboys. I have plans for a comprehensive nonfiction adult book about the seagoing cowboys and another on the related history of the first decade of the Heifer Project, today's Heifer International. I have enough material to keep me writing until I'm 110 and beyond! When I finish my projects, my collection of materials will go to the Brethren Historical Library and Archives so future historians will have access to it.

Sounds like we need to clone you. What are you working on now? Anything new and exciting in your writing life?

I've taken a break from my seagoing cowboy focus for a few months. I'm working on a picture book biography for grades 3-5 on Indiana author Gene Stratton-Porter. I became smitten with her when asked to lead a book discussion at my local library on her novel A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST. Her environmental message is as relevant today as it was in the early 1900s, and I felt compelled to tell her story. I'm also working on a picture book entitled BABY'S SONG inspired by my little grandson.

I do have an exciting development in my writing life. I have just won a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission that will enable me to attend the Big Sur Writer's Workshop in December, pending acceptance. The workshop will help me polish my novel to get one step closer to publication.

That's awesome, Peggy. You make me want to read Gene Stratton-Porter's books all over again. And congrats on the grant!

Thanks for your interest in my writing and research, Joyce. I admire your work, including this blog, which is wonderful for us historical writers. I look forward to your next book!

Ha! I do too. It's taking a long time. But you know how time-consuming the research is. I can't imagine all the work you've put into collecting the cowboys' stories. What a gift to them and their families. And also to your readers who would never know about them otherwise.

I'm so glad my uncle introduced me to you!

Heroes and Saints: SAMANTHA SMITH

2011-07-10T23:40:00.001-04:00

Remember Samantha Smith? (I confess that I do not!)

She was a really cool kid who went on a huge mission to Russia in July of 1983.

Here's what happened. She wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov who was newly elected to Russia's highest office.

Dear Mr. Andropov,

My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight.

Sincerely,

Samantha Smith

Mr. Andropov wrote her back - you can read his letter here. He invited her and her parents to visit Russia. She went and thus began a rather short but intensive career as a goodwill ambassador and peace activist. Just two years later she and her father were killed in a plane crash.

There is a website dedicated to Samantha Smith as well as a Foundation which, for awhile, continued her legacy and brought children from Russia to a camp in Maine, her homestate.

This clip catches you up a bit.

In the event that you understand Russian (Hi Katia) you might want to view this clip of her visit.

And if you want to meet a feisty new Samantha Smith, here she is!

This Day in History: ANNE FRANK GOES INTO HIDING

2011-07-06T08:31:00.003-04:00

On July 6, 1942 Anne Frank's family moved into a hidden apartment in the large building where Otto Frank worked. The following clip reveals what the Secret Annex looked like.

So there's a glimpse.

But if you want a more leisurely view, one in which you choose which room to visit and how long to stay, one with fascinating narration about the occupants and their relationships, I recommend the virtual 3-D tour of the Secret Annex.

After following the link above, click on the bookcase and watch it swing open. Enter the Secret Annex and imagine being in this space for over 2 years.

Imagine that even looking out the window was a dangerous activity.

ON LIBERTY: This Day in History

2011-06-17T12:49:00.000-04:00

On June 17, 1885, The Statue of Liberty arrived, disassembled, in the New York Harbour - shipped in 200 crates. She was given to us by France to commemorate the French-American alliance during our Revolutionary War.

But most of us think of her as America's official greeter to immigrants seeking freedom and economic prosperity.

Photo complements of Creative Commons

Chuck and I were in Germany recently where a replica of "Lady Liberty" also greeted us just outside Berlin's main train station.

Just a few blocks away from this statue is a street named Strasse des 17 Juni.

It commemoratees this day in 1953 when a pivotal event took place in eastern Germany (which had been granted to Russia in the wake of WWII). East Germany wasn't recovering economically after World War II as West Germany was. The people were fed up! On June 16 construction workers took to the streets to protest the socialist government imposed on them after the war

One day later, Soviet tanks squelched the anti-government rebellion. About 20 people died and 100 were injured. For several decades fear and intimidation ruled in communist East Germany. However by the 1980s the people began to find their voice again and took to the streets in large peaceful protests. Their efforts resulted in the reunification of the two Germany's.

Today, on Strasse des 17 Juni stands another "statue of liberty" - this one known as The Caller.

The inscription on the pedestal reads "I pace through the world and call peace, peace, peace."

I love how she stands on the Western side of the Brandenburg Door calling to citizens in the East.

The Brandenburg Door is Germany's defining symbol.

Brandenburg Door as seen from the east.

Sadly, during communist years it was mostly inaccessible to both German nations. Happily, one can now walk through from both sides.

Strasse des 17 Juni becomes Unter der Linden (under the Linden trees) as west meets east on this side of the magnificent gate.

LIVING STATUES

2011-06-14T16:01:00.006-04:00

With the economy as it is (and who really knows how it is!?) we might all be thinking about a different line of work. Here's one you might consider if you have great posture, a good deal of endurance, and don't mind watching the world go by for hours at a time.

Anyone can be a statue for a day. Right?

Well, not me. But, it seems to me that playing statue beats begging on the same hot streets with no gimmick to interest people in the cause. This duo in Leipzig, Germany covered themselves in silver paint, picked their spot, climbed onto the pedestal and turned into statues.

And I'm guessing they prayed that people going by would dig into their pockets. Because getting money in the can is their only excuse to move. Play the following video to see them in action.

I've seen this sort of thing in several European cities. But, the US seems to be catching on too. Last summer we met this colonial era fellow in Boston.

He looks like a real statue to me.

But - hey he just closed his eyes!

And now he's rewarding this girl for the money she dropped into his container. Wish I had videotaped this because he actually removed a small scroll from his bag and gave it to her.

So let's pretend you decide to be a living statue in some public place for a day. Who would you be? What sort of moves would you make if someone dropped money in your cup? Keep in mind that moving in this situation is way more fun than playing statue. At least I assume so. Have never tried it myself. And I'm not one for standing still and watching the world go by.

But if I WERE actually going to do this I would want to be part of a group that did readings of some sort. Maybe some readers theater or a group of authors taking turns reading from our own books.

BTW, a search for "living statues" over at YouTube

will provide lots of entertainment without you needing to throw money in a can. It's not the same as watching statues sweat but oh well...

Driving Through Henry River Mill: Where HUNGER GAMES was filmed

2011-05-29T22:06:00.002-04:00

Last week, I talked hubby into riding with me past the filming location of The Hunger Games. It's close to home and over the years (ahem - decades!) I've spent some time there exploring the property, drooling over the old buildings and imagining their history.

There were once about 34 homes in the Henry River Mill Village.

Since it closed in the 60's or 70's many of the houses have been stuffed with boxes left over from the hill's former life as a sock factory village. If you want more pics go to my guest post at Carol Baldwin's blog. There's also a link there for a great Henry River Mill website.

I was curious about the filming but not so curious that I would make a fool of myself looking for movie stars. I do love behind-the-scenes operations though and would loved to have seen a little movie making in action. But I didn't expect that. I wasn't sure I'd see anyone since I half expected the road to be closed.

But it 's a public road so after filming for the day they opened it. Mostly we saw equipment and trucks blocking our view! I'm sure that was purely accidental! : )

They probably thought people like me come by looking for a glimpse of famous people but honestly, I don't even know who's starring. I've seen the names somewhere but it's all Greek to me!

Not the usual abandoned and beautiful sight we're used to around here. Most days you might see an occasional car go by but never will you see them lined along the road like this.

There were people milling about after hours including a policeman - smiling and motioning us on. I did not take his picture! Or anyone's.

The Old Company Story photo by my sister, Joanne Hunsberger

Rumor has it that the company store became The Bakery for the film.

They added a roof to the lower front section.

Photo by Joanne Hunsberger

And yet another view of the store because it is so gorgeous and intriguing. I read (online) that there used to be a school upstairs for the children of the village.

At one time there were dozens - or maybe hundreds - of mill villages scattered across North Carolina. I can think of three such villages within ten miles of my home. They each had their own personality. And of course each held its own share of human drama - love and heartbreak, moonshine and murder. Obviously a mill village would make a great setting for some historical fiction.

Photo by Joanne Hunsberger. Love the lighting in this pic!

I've met a few North Carolina authors who are working on stories about mill villages. My fingers are crossed for each of them!

And now I see that Kim Church is writing about the 1929 Textile Strike in Gastonia, NC. (speaking of murder!) She blogged about Henry River Mill Hill recently. Her work in progress is called Mill Mother's Song. So if you are intrigued as I am about mill village life - you might want to follow her blog. And I will definitely be watching for that novel!

If you'd like to see what I saw driving through Henry River Mill hill take a look at this video. I di d not film this - just grabbed it off YouTube. The author of this movie drove through 3 times so you might want to hop out of the car after the first pass. Nothing much changes on the second and third times. But if you're feeling obsessive about Hunger Games, well then enjoy the ride!

ON TWO DIFFERENT SIDES OF A GROWING DIVIDE: Can a Rift Between Nations Affect Friendship Between People?

2011-05-22T16:12:00.002-04:00

Today, Katia Raina is back with the last installment in her series on growing up in the Soviet Union. In this post she touches a familiar raw nerve - that of changing friendships.

Meet my friend Olga.

In the late 1980s, when I was a pre-teen, a term BFF had not yet existed, but of course, that’s exactly what she and I were.

Olga and me. (Olga is the taller one on the left) visiting the city and the apartment of my birth at about 13 - 14 years old.

We took long walks together, weaving in and out of yards in our small Moscow Region town located about an hour’s drive outside of the capital. We studied English together. Copied each other’s homework sometimes. (Mostly, I copied hers). We talked about boys, dreaming of the day they would finally pay proper attention to us (attention that would not involve pummeling us with snowballs or stealing our school bags). Together, we hopped about on construction sites playing war with said boys. We read books together. We played with toys and paper cutouts for hours, making sure we kept it a tight secret from our peers. We circulated a newspaper for our classmates’ entertainment. We staged a play based on a story I wrote – and then practiced it for months.

Then came the teenaged years. The parties. The drinking. (Hey, it’s Russia we’re talking about!) The boys that now were paying a different sort of attention to us, which turned out to be more complicated and confusing than we ever thought it would be.

Also us in Ukraine, at my first every apartment.

Among the many scenes of our friendship, one comes to mind a lot. August 19th, 1991 was the day of my fourteenth birthday. The day when Olga and some of our friends who were boys were invited to my apartment to celebrate. That day was also a big one for Russia, it turned out. With Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev conveniently out of Moscow for vacation, a group of eight high-placed Communist party members – including a KGB chief and Gorbachev’s own vice president – tried to quietly take over power and turn the country back to its past.

On the morning of that day, these eight bandits took control of Central Television and announced that a) Gorbachev is mysteriously ill and thus cannot continue his duties at the moment, b) the country is going to change its course now, and turn back toward tight centralized control and c) a curfew will be imposed. Oh, and no demonstrating or political gathering of any kind will be tolerated.

Mass demonstration in Moscow against the 1991 coup attempt. (Image from Wikipedia Commons)

In other words, good-bye beginnings of democracy, free speech, perestroika, glasnost., Back to the dark days, citizens.

Well, if this happened even ten years ago, it just might have meant the end of things. But having had the taste of freedom, the Russians (and Ukrainians and Latvians, and others), were not about to relinquish their gains so easily. My mama was one of thousands of people all around the nation, who, upon listening to the long lost of curfews and prohibitions announced on Central Television, went right to the center of the capital.

I, of course, was ordered to stay home and celebrate my birthday as planned.

Hey, at least I can say, we gathered too. A different kind of gathering, to be sure. Olga and I drank wine and champagne to my health, and let boys chase us in the juvenile game of blindman’s bluff, their hands lingering over us, as they tried to figure out who they had caught. We played our usual games of “wink,” tokens (a “dare” version of a truth-or-dare game) and spin-the-bottle. But we talked politics too. We worried about my mama – and about what was going to happen to us all tomorrow. We traded newly minted “coup” jokes. We knew exactly where we stood. Just like my mama, Olga and me and our other friends have declared, there was no turning back for us. At the end of the day, drunk on champagne and our own fearlessness, we ran out onto my ninth floor balcony and started throwing watermelon rind down at the ground (wild Russian teens, I know!), while yelling out, “down with the coup, Go Yeltsin (the president of the Russian Republic who resisted the coup from the Russian Parliament building), bring back Gorbachev!”

At the end of that magical night we learned, that Russia has done it. Yeltsin has prevailed, the illegal “committee” that tried to turn the country back was arrested, and Gorbachev was coming back.

I wasn’t ever much of a patriot. Still, along with Olga, I felt proud to be a Russian that day.

***

Mere two years later, in 1993, when I left Russia for good, the new Russian president of Boris Yeltsin who was a symbol of Russian democracy on August of 1991, faced opposition from the public and the parliament, many of its members yearning for the return to old order.

We have seen each other twice more since then, Olga and I. She was a maid of honor at my wedding, and I will never forget it. How she danced with my new American friends. How much fun she had. Her smile and her eyes shone with happiness for me.

Olga visiting me in New Jersey about a week or so before my wedding. (Yes, I married very young!)

The next time I saw her was several years later, at her own wedding in Moscow Region.

Olga and me in a restaurant in Moscow, Russia where I came to her wedding in turn.

Now, fast forward another decade plus. My friend Olga and I still write to each other – the old-fashioned letters in cursive (which are still easy to read but are becoming harder for me to write, with my deteriorating Russian). We still share secrets, and a big part of me will always love and miss her. Mostly, though, when we talk, we exchange news of our kids, our work, our creative and personal lives. (Olga is an amazing visual artist. She stitches, she sews, she paints in glass and leather and makes jewelry like this:)

But when Olga and I talk, we now stay away from two subjects, mostly. Politics and religion.

Even though Olga is Jewish by mother, like I am, she practices Russian Orthodox faith – a popular choice now in Russia. She is a proud patriot. When she considered a trip to America, she said she was so put off by the American Embassy staff’s cocky attitude, that she changed her mind. “Let’s meet somewhere in Europe,” she told me. “On neutral territory.”

Neutral territory. The words gave me pause. They reeked of cold war a little.

I think people are more than countries. And it is true – the attitude of American Homeland Security workers can be offensive and maddening to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen (I have seen it first hand). But at the same time, through research for my books or just my family/friends ties to Russia, I have come to believe that Russian attitude can also benefit from a little adjusting.

Here are some of the developments I have come across over the past eighteen years since I left Russia:

1. Nostalgia for all things Soviet
I have seen videos of people at concert halls, clapping and cheering wildly for old patriotic songs about Communism and Motherland, songs we all used to poke fun at in the 1980s and 1990s. I have seen tears rolling down women’s cheeks – and the women are in their 40s and 50s, mind you – they are my mom’s contemporaries!

2. Collective amnesia about Soviet history
When I was researching people’s opinions about Stalin and his oppressions, I was shocked to discover dozens of young people in Russian chat rooms discussing his accomplishments, and how he never gets enough credit. And that was about five years ago. Last year, I wrote this blog post about a lawsuit trying to “clear Stalin’s name.” Today, people on the Russian Internet are even more matter-of-fact when they speak of Stalin as one of our great leaders.

3. The nationalism
Russian nationalism was actually on the decline during my childhood. In the stagnant Brezhnev 70s, people secretly joked about our aging leader and the deterioration of our economy. In the 1980s and 1990s, everything American, from music and movies, to clothes and attitudes, was revered, longed for. Today, the rhetoric seems to have returned to a gorilla-like stance of pounding on your chest and screaming, “We are the best.” This nationalism is often accompanied by vilifying the United States of America, the land of chips, hot dogs and “gamburgers,” in many of the Russians’ eyes.

I guess I have my own nostalgia. I miss being able to talk to my old friend with the ease we once had, just as much as I miss the 1990s Russia – that wild period of hope and promise, when it seemed like the seeds of a new future would take root in Russia, after all . . .

Katia, once again you have reminded us of how complex our world and friendships are. Thank you for sharing so personally and consequently so universally. Although this is your final "official" chapter in this series, do feel free to pop in anytimethat you feel inspired to share more!

Interview with Newbery Award-winning CLARE VANDERPOOL

2011-05-16T08:45:00.001-04:00

As promised on Friday, Augusta Scattergood, who reviewed Moon Over Manifest for us, is back with an interview from the the author, Clare Vanderpool!

Thank you, Clare Vanderpool, for agreeing to speak to us here at THE 3 R's: READING, 'RITING & RESEARCH.

Congratulations on the amazing award. Your fellow lovers, writers and readers of historical fiction are very proud!

Can you share some of the books that made you fall in love with reading when you were young? The books you read so intently that you walked into those telephone poles? And we love this image because we’ve all been there!

A Wrinkle in Time, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte’s Web, Half Magic. These are all great books for walking into telephone poles… so be careful!

I noticed from your book jacket bio that you enjoy reading historical fiction. Are there books in the genre you’ve read recently that you particularly loved?

I recently read Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm. And a while back I read Crows and Cards by Joseph Helgerson. This was kind of a Tom Sawyer, river boat story. I also loved Richard Peck’s A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder.

Was there a part of Moon Over Manifest that drove the writer in you crazy? For example, anything big that got left out of the book in the end, or ended up being your favorite part after much writer hair-pulling?

Nothing really drove me crazy, but sometimes it seemed like I’d never really finish the book. The story was just so layered that I went back through it many times to make sure the different characters’ voices were consistent, that my timeline was accurate, that the various threads of the story pulled together in the end. I created a master checklist that listed every chapter, Hattie Mae column, letter from Ned, etc. and would use that same checklist over and each time I went back through the manuscript. I also used lots of post-it notes to mark places that I needed to come back to and add little brushstrokes or bits of information to the story. Every little detail mattered. It was a great relief to me when there were no more post-it notes stuck throughout the pages.

What drew you to this particular place and especially these two time periods-1936 and 1917?

I’m a very nostalgic person and I like imagining myself in another place and time. The town of Manifest is based on the real town of Frontenac , Kansas. My mother’s parents are from that area in southeast Kansas. As I did the research for the story, I learned how rich and colorful the history was in that part of the state. And there seemed to be a natural connection between 1936 and 1917. During hard times (like the Depression), I think people tend to harken back to a time they remember to be simpler and happier. Both time periods had plenty of difficult things going on. Drought and economic crisis in 1936. World War I and the Spanish Influenza in 1917-18. So there was plenty of history to draw from for both storylines.
Since many of our blog readers read and/ or write historical fiction, do you have any great tips to share about your writing process or your research techniques?

I love doing research. As I said, I’m a very nostalgic person and I love delving into the past. Newspapers, yearbooks, graveyards, the History Channel. These are all great avenues for learning about other times and places. I spent a lot of time looking at microfilm in the library of old newspapers from 1936 and 1918. This can add a lot of authenticity and flavor to a historical novel. And it’s fun!

(Joyce here) Thanks Augusta, for coming bringing Clare to The 3 Rs!

And thank you, Clare for taking time from a truly busy schedule to grant this interview. I loved reading your update to your website - the one that explains a bit of life after winning the Newbery. I've often wondered how one copes with the aftermath of winning a major award. Now I know - with a healthy dose of humor!

For more from Augusta Scattergood, visit her blog at http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/ .

Book Review: MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool

2011-05-12T09:14:00.000-04:00

Augusta Scattergood is back as my guest blogger today. And she's brought with her a review of this year's Newbery Award winner, MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpoole. I'm thrilled to say she's also snagged an interview with Clare. Drop back by on Monday for that sweet treat!

But first, Augusta's reflections on MOON OVER MANIFEST.

This year’s Newbery winner took a lot of people by surprise. It shouldn’t have. Everything that gold medal stands for is right there inside this novel. An adventure story and a mystery, the book interweaves letters from the First World War with musings from the society page of a local newspaper. The Ku Klux Klan makes an ominous appearance as does a conjurer, a preacher, and one of the most intriguing heroines to appear in historical fiction since Calpurnia Tate.

Young Abilene Tucker has been sent by her father to Manifest, Kansas, for the summer. Or so she thinks. Manifest is a town with history, with her own father’s history to be precise. He’s sent her there to stay with a sometimes preacher named Shady Howard. Eventually, Abilene decides she’ll just make the best of it.

She’s hardly picked herself up from a jump off the train before she’s face to face with a pathway called Perdition. Turns out, Manifest, Kansas is nothing like the stories her father told. “I tried to conjure up something smooth and sweet from those stories, but looking around, all I could muster was dry and stale. Up and down Main Street, the stores were dingy. Gray. Every third one was boarded up.”

And that’s Abilene’s introduction to the place she’s destined to spend more than a summer exploring. A broken pot leads her down the Path to Perdition where she meets Miss Sadie. Miss Sadie, the local fortune teller and potent maker, has found Abilene’s treasured compass, and the young girl schemes her way into Miss Sadie’s stories, hoping not only to retrieve the compass but to learn what connection her father had to this Kansas town. As a mystery unravels and Miss Sadie’s reveries unfold, Abilene digs deeper into Manifest’s history. But the harder she— and her new friends— delve, the less they seem to discover and the less it all seems to make sense. Even worse, Abilene is no closer to discovering her father here.

The time is the Depression, 1936, but Vanderpool’s skillful plotting takes the story back to 1917 via newspaper articles and remembered stories. This complicated novel, remarkably, ties the story up so that in the end young readers will see the connections. While they might need grounding in the time period to understand all the threads that run through the story, that should never keep a good student from enjoying the sheer mystery and adventure of MOON OVER MANIFEST, this year’s Newbery winner.

Thanks so much, Augusta! I'm reading Moon Over Manifest myself right now. I love reading about the first half of the 20th century in the US and I look forward to making the conections in this story! Kind of you not to include spoilers!

ART SCULPTURE BASED ON BLUE

2011-05-03T03:56:00.002-04:00

BLUE was the book selected for the 2009 ALAMANCE READS (a community wide reading event). The Friends of the Alamance County Library pulled off some incredible events related to the book and its various themes.

Today, in connection with the upcoming issue of TALKING STORY newsletter which I co-produce with Carol Baldwin I am reposting one of the group sculpture projects that Artist, Ann Hobgood created with local youth.

Ann Hobgood with Found Objects Sculpture Based on Blue

She simply (and I'm sure it wasn't simple!) listed EVERY SINGLE ITEM mentioned in the book, collected them, and the group assembled them into one amazing sculpture!

Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

MS MEL and The Summer Library Program Collaborative

2011-05-02T01:56:00.008-04:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Youth Librarian, Mel Hager would be attending the Collaborative Summer Library Program national conference. She promised to give us a report and what she has to say follows.

Ms. Mel in Arizona

It was absolutely incredible to be in that conference room with all those library folk at the CSLP (Collaborative Summer Library Program) national conference. There were some power house people there – even Caldecott and Newbery Committee members!

I was surprised by the “politics” involved. What a hoot to lobby for our favorite slogans and themes! Going at it from 8 am to 5-6 pm at night was exhausting. There was a lot to learn and a lot to decide. We even looked at potential artists for the Underground theme and got to vote for our favorites.

The winning slogans for the UNDERGROUND theme of 2013 are:

Children's Slogan - "Dig Into Reading"
Teen Slogan - "Beneath the Surface"
Adult Slogan - "Groundbreaking Reads"

The all over general theme for 2014 is......SCIENCE. The good news is that recycling, going green, wildlife, agriculture - all of that can go under a science banner. Each library can take it wherever they like!

Another great opportunity I had in Arizona was to visit my friend’s Kindergarten class in Page. Since Page is in the Navajo Nation, most of my friend's students are Navajo. Arizona is a CSLP member state like North Carolina, so these children will have the opportunity to do "One World, Many Stories" this summer at their library just like us. Isn’t that neat to think about?

If anyone would like to see the storytime I did with the Kinders in Page AZ, check out the Alexander County Library Children’s Page on Facebook. I told them my Wide Mouth Frog story. They were a hoot!

Thanks Ms. Mel for that little peek into the world of library politics! And speaking of hoots - Wide Mouth Frog really rocks!

HEROES AND SAINTS: Kindred Spirit

2011-05-01T14:45:00.003-04:00

Remember when I blogged about Kindred Spirit?

It's been a few years. Thanks to my dear friend, Kelly Parr, I discovered that Kindred Spirit Mailbox now has a website. And, not only that, she is celebrating 30 years of listening. 30 years of paying attention to anguish. And joy. Fear. Hope and prayers. All from total strangers.

Kindred Spirit is situated at the border between North and South Carolina beaches. It is filled with notebooks and pens which anyone who visits can use to write whatever they wish.

Those of us who have visited over the years have naturally wondered to whom we are pouring out our hearts. Is someone reading our entries? Is that someone praying for us?

We also read the entries of those who came before us and we have the opportunity to pray for them.

This morning I was reflecting on the statement from Chariots of Fire by Olympic athlete, Eric Liddll who said, "God made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." (This is a quote from the movie - apparently not from the real Eric Liddell) But it is a good quote.

I feel that way about my writing. A visit to this new website convinces me that Kindred Spirit feels that way

about listening.

If you visit Sunset Beach, North Carolina and decide to walk to the mailbox you will walk for a long time and more than once you'll wonder if you unwittingly passed it or if it washed out to sea. But then, it will be there. And you will be so grateful for the bench to sit on and the notes from strangers to cherish.

And also that you brought water with you!

At one time there was a push to develop Bird Island. Kindred Spirit gets the credit for preventing that. So many visitors (kindred spirits) wrote down their protests that they made a difference!

See why I included a write up about Kindred Spirit in my occasional Sunday Heroes and Saints feature?

IN SEARCH OF STORY: Berlin!

2011-04-26T09:00:00.003-04:00

I was in Berlin last week. The first thing hubby and I saw when we turned onto the street to our motel was this piece of ruins. Oh, my! It so happens my work-in-progress has to do with architecture, art, Germany, and war. Right away I felt sure I'd be incorporating this structure into my story.

I found a historical marker and discovered its name and painful past. Anhalter Station was the site of the deportation of thousands of elderly Jews during WWII.

After spending a few days seeing historic sites in Berlin, Chuck and I added the Deutsches Teknik Museum of Berlin to our itinerary. On our walk over we went through a park that was directly behind the Anhalter Station. I was fascinated by some obvious ruins we saw there.

Clearly something had happened here before. But what?

When we got to the museum we found out. The museum itself and the long stretch of park between it were once part of the Anhalter Station complex.. We discovered this amazing model of the way it used to be.

The section of the station that impressed me so much with its grandeur and obvious sense of history was actually only part of a much larger building.

Can you see the section that is still standing in real life? The ruins that are left are almost dwarfed by the rest of the building.

The long foundations we saw in the park appear to be related to these railroad lines coming out of the back of the station.

Here's how the Anhalter Station looked after the allied forces bombed Berlin.

Naturally the allies would target a major transportation center like this. And if I were a Jew sent to a death camp I would probably want it to be bombed. But I also realize those same Jews must have traveled through this station countless times in happier days. History is so painful, so convoluted.

The picture above represents only the actual passenger station. There was so much more! Parts of this amazing complex are still standing and the Teknikmusuem are built into them.. The train exhibit was mostly housed in the round houses where trains are repaired. Here's the model.

And this is a view from outside where one of the round houses connects with another building..

There is evidence of war damage and reconstruction in the buildings that remain.

I love nothing better than exploring old historic sites so I was really in adventure heaven.

The Germans are making good use of their history. I loved that there were toiletten in this small old building outside.

They also are fearless about facing the dark side of their history. I could show you some exhibits related to the deportation of Jews from this station but I don't want to trivialize that piece of history in any way so I will save it for a separate post.

I wanted to go to the Teknikmuseum for Chuck because he is a train man and figured I'd learn somthing useful too - maybe get some pics of trains that my characters might have traveled on etc. Wow! Turns out, this was my absolute favorite stop in Berlin - I felt so immersed in history and I also knew that it was feeding somehow into my story. I can't wait to discover how.

If you find yourself in Berlin, do visit the Teknikmuseum. It is about so much more than one train station and the history of railroading. There is information on shipping, aviation, manufacture,and technology in general. It is an astounding place of interest to all ages!

My Mama, My Hero by Katia Raina

2011-04-17T15:47:00.003-04:00

Last month, Katia Raina wrote for us about the fear she felt growing up in the shadow of Vladimir Lenin,a Soviet hero. She also promised to tell us about her personal hero, her Mama. Today, she keeps that promise. It's easy to see why her mother was a tower of strength during hard times and also her source of inspiration for a brighter future!

Mama and I shared a life,
but when we look back at it,
what I see
     isn’t always
             what she sees.

The mirror to the past grows foggy.

I could tell you about the struggles my mama went through in the U.S.S.R.,
    fighting her way,
         making mistakes
                toward her own personal freedom,
                    through the stale society that tried to suffocate her.

But do I have the right to share her with the world this way?

I decided instead
to just show you what I saw,
through my big scared Soviet eyes,
when I gazed
        at the beauty
            and freedom
               that was my mama,
                                 my hero.

There is a Russian saying:
“The tallest blade of grass
is the first one to be cut down by a scythe.”
In other words,
        don’t stick your neck out.
              Keep your head level.
                   Don’t stand out too much.

It was a difficult balance:
On the one hand,
teachers,
       parents,
          peers.
They spurred you on,
they wanted things from you,
expected greatness.
Dress your best,
        Raise your hand,
                  Show initiative
                        Make us proud.

But at the same time,
Even as they encouraged you to reach higher,
You could almost feel
The weight
Of an invisible hand
Pressing
          Down
              On your shoulder.

My mama was a short slender girl,
But her green witch eyes
hit people straight on,
always.
Her back stayed straight
Always.
She didn’t need heels
               To tower over the crowd.

She is Jewish –
People could tell
Just by looking at her.
          Her looks were a statement.

Her father dared emigrate
To the treacherous United States
In the 1960s,
The height at the cold war.
     That made Mama
            the daughter
                      of a traitor.

And still she wanted a Life with a capital L,
    Big dreams,
          big city,
                    journalism.
She wanted
the best
university in the country.

      She wanted.
           How dare she?

She dared. She fought.
I watched her from a distance
Of phone calls
           and visits
                              and missing her.

With delight and yearning,
I glimpsed her secret life –
The illegal movies
About dissidents
she and her friends watched
Projected onto a white sheet,
Cracks underneath her apartment’s door stuffed with pillows,
Lest the neighbors overhear.

I collected snippets of freedom:
Her friends’ laughter,
Her secrets shared in passing –
“Have you ever thought that God might be real?”

As I grew,
My country changed,
Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary,
The breeze of perestroika,
             reconstruction
                            change,
Became the winds of true personal freedom,
That no wall could any longer stop.

Mikhail Gorbachev
photo from Wikipedia Commons is in the Public Domain

Suddenly,
Mama’s unapologetic brashness
Became as cool as the jeans
She brought from visiting her father
In America

The 90s rolled in,
Finally, Mama was able
To take me in with her,
To Moscow

Finally, she could
Flood me with her secrets
that were secrets
no longer.

Everyone now talked about it –
The hideous truths
about our country’s history,
the things she knew so very well
a long time ago.

How classy your mother is,

My friends said,

I beamed, I’m sure,

But this was no news to me.

Today I sometimes wonder,
Does she realize?
Does she know –
How her secrets shaped me?

I wonder,
Would I ever be the same,
Would I be this brave –
                This freakish –
                       This crazy –

Would I dare
Be an artist,
Search for happiness
On my own terms –

Would I?
If I didn’t get to witness
My mama,
         My hero?

The way she dared
         To be her own person,
                     Long before freedom
                                              Became fashionable.

Is freedom in Russia but a passing fad?

Demonstration by the people during a 1991 attempt by Communist Party to regain control of Russia. Photo from Wikipedia Commons is in the Public Domain.

I hope not! For the next – and last – installment in this series, I am going to write about friendship – both personal friendship and a friendship between countries. I still stay in touch with my once best friend, Olga, but in so many ways, our relationship is drifting. When I hear and see the things happening in Russia today, I cannot help but observe the very same thing taking place on the global scale, between Olga’s Russia and my America.

Katia - Thank you for giving us this powerful, beautiful glimpse of your amazing mom. You've intrigued me with your thoughts about the relationship between Russia and America. Can't wait to hear more next month! - Joyce

CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN IS UNDERGROUND!

2011-04-04T10:32:00.002-04:00

Meet Ms. Mel, Youth Services Librarian at Alexander County Library in North Carolina. She looks calm on this pic but answer me this!

Mel Hager, as usual, hanging out with readers.

When does Ms. Mel run around like a chicken with its head cut off?

During the Summer Reading Program, of course!

Each year thousands of libraries across the US, particapate in the Collaboarative Summer Libary Program (CSLP).

Based on themes, promotional materials, and program ideas provided by CSLP, local libraries pull off dynamic summer reading programs replete with reading lists, parties, author events and lots of children coming and going all summer long! Children, teens, and adults have a marvelous time. And libarians like Ms. Mel wonder whatever happened to summer vacation!

Ms. Mel is having hers right now.  No, not really - but she is a bit giddy about representing North Carolina at the CSLP national meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. Over the next 3 days she'll work with librarians from around the country to determine the summer reading slogans for 2013 revolving around the theme, UNDERGROUND.

How'd Ms. Mel get this gig?

For the past two years, when Lori Special, from the State Library of North Carolina, represented our state's vote, she polled all of the children’s librarians aross the state. As Ms. Mel, said,  "I had to put in my “two cents” – and, lo and behold, it grew in value! I still cannot believe I’m going!"

By now, it should have sunk in because Ms. Mel is probably enjoying a marvelous Arizona morning with librarians from 49 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and the Mariana Islands.

UNDERGROUND - what an intriguing theme to work with. Before heading for Arizona, Ms. Mel solicited some ideas from her her nckids listserv. A few of her favorites?  Dig A Little Deeper (children's theme) I Dig My Library (teens) and Unseen Passage (adults).

As for the 2014 theme Ms. Mel would like to Go Green but of course there will be other ideas to consider as well!

Dear friends - the Summer Library Reading Program is coming to a library near you. So what do you think?
1. Anybody want to second Ms. Mel's dream of a "Go Green" theme for 2014?

2. Got 2013 slogan/title ideas for reading with an underground theme?

3. What focus possibilities come to mind for an underground theme? (Roots? A railroad? mining? or say...The Mafia?)

Your "two cents", please!

BLUE IN PAPERBACK GIVEAWAY: April Winner

2011-04-01T22:32:00.000-04:00

Tonya Kerr - you are the winner of BLUE in paperback and this is not an April Fool's joke. Okay? Send your address to moyergirl at charter.net and I will get it to you!

Oh, and here's something else that is not an April Fool's. I totally forgot to pick a winner in March so I am choosing two winners today. The March winner is Mel Hager!

I'll be winding up this contest in May but if February's winner, Bailey Clark doesn't contact me by then, some lucky person will get her book so that could mean two more chances at large.

Oh, but wait! My publisher just announced that COMFORT comes out in paperback this fall. So I guess you know what that means. I'll have to have another contest! 12 more chances to win! Also not an April Fool's.

I know. I'm no fun at all! Unless, of course you like winning books!

SOUTHEASTERN LITERARY TOURISM INITIATIVE

2011-04-01T12:19:00.000-04:00

As a child I loved when books included maps of the story's setting in the endpapers. Come to think of it, I still do. I also love actually seeing the place where a story is set. Even if the story is fictional.

Patrick Brian Miller does too. So much so, that he created a website for the purpose of highlighting the connection between novels and setting. He calls his site the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative (SELTI) and uses each entry to focus on a particular book, the author, and especially the area where the book is set.

When Patrick selects a book to feature on his site, he does what he hopes you will do with that book. He reads it, travels to the place where the story happens and explores! Then he goes home and plots his blog post. His meaty entries include an excerpt from the book, background info, Author Links, and a Tourism Guide with links to all sorts of sightseeing opportunities!

One of the most intriguing things about Patrick is his passion for literary tourism and the fact that he maintains contact with the authors he features. Every so often I get a status update to let me know how many visitors are clicking onto the COMFORT feature he created back in October 2010. He always gives me an analysis of how visitors are finding the feature and how it compares with other features on SELTI.

Patrick is intrigued with the dynamism that can happen when people make that connection between literature and story and clearly he is has a vision for how technology can make that difference. A few months ago he released his own novel BLIND FATE on Kindle.

Blind Fate is the first tourism novel in the world with an interactive travel guide inside the book. It has live links in the book that take readers instantly to the websites of the real tourism places found in the story. You can read an excerpt of Blind Fate here!

Email Patrick at literarytourism@aol.com and read more about SELTI here.

Also, please browse the SELTI features for online tourism guides to many Southern books.

HIGHLIGHTS WRITER'S WORKSHOP AT CHAUTAUQUA

2011-03-26T16:02:00.002-04:00

While reviewing my publishing journey for a presentation I'm working on, I happened on this video clip of the amazing conference where I met my editor, Carolyn Yoder. You too, might want to consider spending a July week in an idyllic community with literary giants and fellow writers. You never know who you could meet there.

Did you recognize Jerry Spinelli, Patti Gauch, Suzanne Bloom, Carolyn Yoder or someone else you admire in that fun clip?

This is a magnificent conference for someone who has been writing for awhile, has learned to revise, and is ready to move into publication. This year the conference is July 16 - 23. More info at Writer's Workshop at Chautauqua.

A MESSAGE FROM OPRAH

2011-03-22T07:10:00.001-04:00

I would like to say that Oprah called but I'd be either dreaming or lying. And since she has not invited me to be on her show and since I've been too busy to be on my own blog, I've decided to put her on.

Of course, now that I've posted this I really have to avoid texting while driving. Oh wait! That's easy. I don't text. Ever. But I could do better with the cell phone while driving.

Thanks, Oprah for the reminder. Like I said, I'm busy; but if you ever need someone for your show I'd be happy to return the favor. We could talk about books.

FEAR

2011-02-27T16:42:00.001-05:00

Yay! Katia Raina is back to share the second installment of her personal story! If you missed her first one, you can still read it, THE SOVIET UNION DID HAVE A GOD either before or after finishing this one.

Me in preschool

I fixed an enormous ribbon bow on the top of my head. My eyes lifted to face the preschool teacher. She had just told us to quiet down. The room was already pretty quiet before she spoke to us – as we sat at our tables, working on our drawings to commemorate the upcoming anniversary of the Revolution. But underneath the quiet, I had felt a happy layer of thoughts buzzing amidst occasional coughing and paper shuffling.

But now, even the sound of my thoughts was dead. Only the heels of the preschool teacher’s shoes could be heard tap-tap-tapping against the hardwood floor.

“In honor of the anniversary of the Revolution, which, if you recall, was a victory of the proletariat over the capitalist oppressors, you will hear a speech by the leader of the Communist Party and our great, powerful nation, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev,” she told us.

The year was 1980 or so. Once, when the Soviet Union was young, 1980 was thought to be a target year when true communism would be built. Decades before my birth, people used to dream that money wouldn’t exist in our country anymore, that every citizen would live in a spacious skyscraper apartment. People used to speculate how everyone would probably wear white all the time. How we would change the world by then. Make them all see light and reason.

Turned out, the magic date -- the year 1980 – saw the country smack in the middle of economic and spiritual stagnation. Most adults knew well by then, communism wasn’t going to happen. They now dreamed of foreign jeans and secretly listened to rock music. Or, just quietly pretended that everything had been as before, while the country kept on quietly crumbling. Prices kept rising. Food kept disappearing from stores. High-ranking members of the Communist elite continued living in luxury. The leader of the USSR, Comrade Brezhnev was getting old. Each day on Central Television the country watched his small eyes grow still tinier and his cheeks droopier. Some brave souls joked with each other about Brezhnev’s grammatically-incorrect speech becoming increasingly slurred and hard to understand from age and pure moroseness. Still, most adults continued pretending that everything was fine, citizens. Parents, grandparents and teachers kept feeding us children with the same fairytales they had known when growing up.

Also in Preschool

The clean, well-lit daycare/preschool facility smelled of boiled milk. I shivered, watching the teacher load in an LP disk with the speech of our leader.

“And…” She turned around and shook her finger at us – at me? "You, as future communists, are to listen well. Now, up on your feet, everyone. No movement, and not a sound. You are to understand every word, or else…”

Or else what?

I stood at attention so hard, my legs started itching already. I didn’t realize how much work it would require to just stand still, to make your body obey you. Brezhnev’s elderly voice started crackling. My eyes prickled with tears. I don’t think there was a single word I could make out, let alone understand. I was doomed. I tried to look at everyone else – were they not moving? Did they seem to be following – unlike the dim-witted me? But it was hard to see anything without having to move even more. I strained my ears so hard, I got dizzy. White stains floated before my eyes. The stiffness in my legs climbed up the rest of my body, turning me into a stick that could barely stand at all.

We had been told God didn’t exist. We had been taught to make fun of the Bible, its crazy ideas of heaven and hell. But standing there, my body tilting, my cheeks hot with shame and my ears withering from the sounds coming out of the LP player, I found myself a sinner. Wondering how I would be punished, I stood there expecting nothing less than a supernatural act from above or below. Would something terrible take me away? Would the floor cave in under my feet? Would I die before I even make it to the end of his speech?

I made it to the end of his speech alive. I made it out all right, even.

As I grew up I realized, fear doesn’t kill you. It just etches itself deep into your earliest childhood memories. Which is all right, as long as you don’t let it burrow so deep that it defines who you are. As long as that fear doesn’t become a part of your soul.

Next month, I would like to blog about someone who taught me this courage, a woman who never became that scared gray little Soviet her country was trying to mold her into, a woman who formed me in more ways than one.

Next month, I will blog about my fearless mama.

Katia, Thanks so much for stopping in and especially for sharing such personal stories. I am so eager to read more about your mama who won my heart in your last post!

And to you, dear Reader, the following photo is Katia with another preschool teacher. Be sure to check out her caption!

Not every Soviet teacher was cold and uncaring. This nanny treated me like I was her own personal doll and made sure no one could hurt me. She surrounded me with love and care.

CELEBRATING AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY: Alvin Ailey and the connection between story and dance

2011-02-24T12:09:00.002-05:00

February is nearly over and I've done nothing to acknowledge African-American History Month. I've hardly blogged at all, actually, but still - what kind of excuse is that?

This morning, my friend, Carol Baldwin unwittingly inspired me. She'd driven to Chapel Hill last night to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater live performance, Revelations. On her way home today, she called with all sorts of superlatives about the performance - "incredibly strong, controlled, liquid, amazing use of space". And more!

So naturally I scurried around to the video sites to get a feel for what I'd missed. Please watch this at full screen! It's not the same as a live performance but it will take you way beyond this tiny box of images.

Celebrating Revelations at 50 Film from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

Since FIX ME JESUS is one of my favorite spirituals, I can't help but share it here.

Want to know more? View a timeline of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater History.

THE JEW STORE: A Family Memoir by Stella Suberman

2011-02-22T15:49:00.001-05:00

Last night, my book club discussed THE JEW STORE. Just the title of this book feels raw and startling to me. I expected a painful read. What I got was some pain and a whole lot of pleasure!

Aaron Bronson knew what to expect when he moved his Jewish family south to open a dry goods store. To buffer the racism, he changed his last name to Bronson. But mostly he simply showed up in "Concordia", Tennessee and was who he was - a born salesman! And yes, a Jew.

Folks in Concordia, Tennessee reacted with undisguised fascination and in some cases, ill-will. Here are two examples.

T. introduced the boy with him. He was another "cudden" one named Nathan, who was "near nineteen years old," and who, according to T, had "never see a Jew person in all his life." and despite T's insistence to the contrary, was convinced that Jews had horns.

"A YankeeJew merchant comes and turns First Street into a cutthroat place and pretty soon everybody in town is miserable."

Aaron Bronson was used to being discriminated against. In Russia the Kossacks had "tormented, chased, and attacked" him. After immigrating to New York the Bronsons were insulted and ignored. They could handle the south which, as it turned out, proved to be more friendly than not.

The Bronsons learned to eat southern foods, they made friends, and much to the horror of visiting aunts from New York, the children occasionally attended Sunday School.

Appalling, of course, but think about it. What was one family with three children with no other Jews for miles around supposed to do for a social life? How could they possibly remain kosher and celebrate Jewish holidays? How would their son be bar mitzvahed? And most important of all, who would the children marry?

I kept waiting for the KKK and the Great Depression to undo the Subermans. But the conflict didn't center around these external factors. Instead their greatest challenge was the question of how to maintain their Jewish identity.

Of all the books The Sojourner Truth Book Club has read and discussed, I think THE JEW STORE brought out the most personal sharing among us.

Two of us, who had moved South as Pennsylvania Mennonites, identified with the outsiderness of the Bronsons. Several African-Americans shared memories about Jewish families who treated them with more dignity, respect, and love than they'd ever received from any other white people. Another woman, a Gentile, planned to marry a Jewish boy but was not received by his family.

There's something for everyone in this book. Culture clash, unrequited love, humorous anecdotes, and a whole lot of heart. Read it, please!

MEET SUSAN LYNN MEYER, AUTHOR OF BLACK RADISHES

2011-02-08T07:25:00.001-05:00

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

As I mentioned last week, I'm participating in the Sydney Taylor Award Blog tour. And today I am tickled to have as my guest, Susan Lynn Meyer who won an honor for her first novel, Black Radishes.

Susan, congratulations on such a great accomplishment with your first novel. You really earned it!

I will say, the title had me fooled. I’m not familiar with black radishes. I assumed the character was reduced to eating rotten or frost bitten radishes! But I love that the radishes were a device for the story and for outwitting the enemy. That was terrific! Have you eaten black radishes? And, if so, how did you like them?

I know—the title BLACK RADISHES is evocative to Americans because so few of us have heard of them or tasted them. So people imagine in their own minds what the title means, and I love that. And it isn’t just Americans who form their own interesting impressions based on the title. In fact, while I was writing the book, I spent some time with a French novelist who was also writing a World War II era novel. We talked a lot about our works in progress, and he said to me at one point, “So who were the Black Radishes?” He thought that it was the name of a French Resistance group! I love that idea, because in fact when you read the novel you find out that in it black radishes play a role in Resistance activity.

I do like the taste of black radishes, but you have to eat them in the right way, the way they are eaten in France. First you peel off the black skin. Then you make very thin slices of the white flesh. Place them on top of a buttered chunk of baguette. Delicious!

Gustave actually never gets to eat the black radishes during the course of the novel, however. The Germans are greedy for this delicacy and take them away from the French whenever they have the opportunity. So in a way, the black radishes also stand in the novel for the lost freedom of the French people.

True. This story is so grounded in history and research. I felt that as I read and visiting your website confirmed it. (Seems to me you mentioned crawling under bridges in France to see construction dates.) Talk to us about research – how you approach it, what you’ve learned about how to research, and about your favorite way to gather info.

What works best for me is a “total immersion” method of research for historical fiction. I read everything I can about the period, especially first-hand accounts, such as memoirs. I love reading newspapers from the time, because they give you a very vivid sense of what daily life was like. They can be painful to read, too, because of their immediacy—they are written just as terrible things are happening, and the writers are living through those terrible times and don’t know yet how the events will turn out.

I also watched later films set in the time (because those film historians have already done some of the work of constructing the visual appearance of daily life). I was also able to locate and watch actual newsreel excerpts from France in the 1940s. Those were very informative, even though they had to meet with Nazi approval in order to be shown. The best thing of all, of course, if it is possible, is to talk to people who lived through the time, and I was lucky enough to know and to meet several such people. You can go to the place—and I loved doing that—but you can’t go back to the time. Not directly, anyway—you can by reading, looking at photographs and film footage, and talking to people.

Do you speak/read French or did you get help from a translator? What tips do you have doing research in a foreign country?

I do speak and read French. I learned in school, though, not at home, and I’ve never lived in France, not for longer than a short visit. So I work hard at it and I make lots of silly mistakes. There was the time I meant to offer to help someone carry his “mattress” down the stairs, but I accidentally offered to carry his “mistress”. . . !

Ooops! (Sorry. I laughed out loud on that one!)

It would have been very hard to do the kind of research I did without speaking French, because I talked to some people who spoke only French. Then, too, I just hung around and listened to conversations, sometimes struggling to make sense of things I didn’t quite get, or processing the language with a few-second delay. Sometimes that confusion can be interesting and productive though. It makes you really notice how the language is working and really think about what people are saying.

BTW, the slide show on your website is terrific! Seeing that castle and the bridge - after having just finished the book – it was really emotional for me. Can you talk about what it felt like to go to Saint-Georges and to walk the ground where your father lived and where your character met with so many adventures?

Thank you! Well, being there was a very intense experience for me. I traced the path where my father once rode his bicycle and where Gustave rides his. I walked through the chateau, Chenonceau, which is built over the river (check out the photos on my website if you find this hard to imagine!) and I walked through the woods behind it, thinking about what it would feel like to cross the chateau in an attempt to escape the Nazis.

I walked and rode back and forth over the peaceful river Cher many times during the week I was there. That river once was the Demarcation Line between the Occupied Zone and the Unoccupied Zone, and it was such a difficult barrier to cross, a barrier between death and life for some people. And now it is so easy—you can walk back and forth several times a day and never know what happened there. That is, unless you stop and read the plaques by the side of the road. I seemed to be the only one doing that. But maybe that is because the people who live in the village already know that history in their bones.

I love that you included the Author’s Note which helps the reader know how truth and fiction are woven together in this story. Can you talk about that a bit?
I felt a kind of ethical hesitation about making the novel too close to my father’s actual life story. I feel as if his life is his story to tell. But on the other hand, the novel grew out of anecdotes my father used to tell me and my five brothers and sisters as we were growing up. As a child, I loved the funny stories about his French childhood, especially about the mischief he and his sister and friends used to get into. Gradually I came to understand too why he and his family left France, although he did not say much about that. But his stories have always lived in my memory and I always wanted to know more. That’s where the novel came from. Some of his stories are so good, and the anecdotes are so telling, that I used them, though in modified form and shaped to my own purposes, in the novel. For example, the “looking-up game” that Gustave and his friends play in the first chapter, where they trick adults into looking up at the sky—that comes from a real game that my dad and his friends used to play. But to make it work with my purposes in the book, I added in the part about the adults thinking that the boys see a German bomber in the sky—so they get very angry at the boys when they realize it is all a trick. The boys aren’t yet as aware as the adults are of the realities of the war. That’s an example of the way my father’s stories became transmuted as they became part of the novel.

Is it true that Gustave’s story continues in a book you are working on now? Please tell us about that.

Yes! I am thrilled that Delacorte has given me an advance contract for my second novel, a continuation of Gustave’s story as he and his family come to the United States in 1942. Rebecca Short will again be editing the book. (She and Francoise Bui edited BLACK RADISHES.) In the new book, which is tentatively titled GREEN AND UNRIPE FRUIT, Gustave has to deal with his family’s new poverty in America, with adapting to a new language and a new culture, and with the loss of his French identity. He and his family are much safer in America and are grateful for the refuge they find. But on the other hand, Gustave is startled to encounter segregation and anti-Semitism in America, to find out that America doesn’t quite live up to its promise that there “all men are created equal.”

Wow! Another must read. I'll buy it. But don't take too long!

Thanks Susan for coming by to talk with us. Here's hoping Black Radishes keeps getting the love it deserves! And btw, I bet you’ve got a picture of black radishes you can share with us, don’t you?

Here I am with a radish and the novel at a book signing! Thanks so much for having me on your blog.

Superb! I loved having you here, Susan. Do come back!

Also, I thought both you and my readers might enjoy this entry on black radishes over at the Weird Vegetables blog!

THE SOVIET UNION DID HAVE A GOD (guest blog by Katia Raina)

2011-02-06T14:40:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Katia Raina via this blog post. I promised she'd be guest blogging monthly about growing up in communist Russia. Today, the two of us are making good on that promise. Are you ready for a thought provoking story?

Here's Katia!

I thought I’d start this series of posts from the beginning: the founding of the Soviet Union.

Since the age of seven when we officially started school, we were fed the following STORY:

The oppressive tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia most unfairly, depriving peasants and workers of rights and fortunes. The people tried to revolt, but the cruel tsar had repeatedly squashed each protest, until October 1917 – when under the leadership of the Great Comrade Lenin, his Communist Party and the Bolsheviks, a bunch of marines and soldiers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd (formerly known as St. Petersburg – later to be known as Leningrad).

The sailors and soldiers took the tsar and his family into custody, overthrew the monarchy and created a new society in Russia – one of fairness and equality, where the working class became the ruling class, and the rich, the noble and the bourgeoisie were banished.

As we advanced through the grades, we learned more: that before Lenin’s Soviets took power, there existed a provisional government headed by the Mensheviks (from the word: “minority, as opposed to Bolsheviks, “majority.” The Mensheviks were painted in history lessons as morally weak and traitors to the true spirit of the Revolution, even though (a) the revolution of 1917 was actually successfully carried out under their leadership, not the Bolsheviks’ and b) the “minority” Mensheviks actually outnumbered the so-called Bolshevik majority.)

As some of you might have heard, we (supposedly) didn’t have religion in the Soviet Union. The moment our little feet stepped across the thresholds of our clean, well-lit primary schools, we were taught this: our great motherland had no need for God. After all, we were building our own paradise on earth, comrades!

In fact, looking back at it now – we did have gods in the Soviet Union. Our most important one was a man with a goat-like triangular beard, named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

He ruled new Russia – the U.S.S.R. – from 1917 until his death in 1924.

By the time I started school sixty years later, Lenin was everywhere.

His name was the name of every city’s busiest thoroughfare.

His granite monument stood in the middle of children’s parks and busy squares.

His portrait hung on the wall of EVERY classroom – right above the blackboard.

This LIFE magazine photo taken at a Young Pioneer camp in Soviet Russia shows a
display of "Big Shots". Lenin is second from far right.

His words – or words attributed to him – greeted the passerby from posters attached to public buildings.

He was the hero of pictures books my bookcase was stuffed with. Books about little Lenin showed him growing up, dealing with everyday situations, children’s problems. One could suggest Lenin was Russia’s Arthur or Franklin Turtle – but I call him god because unlike those characters in popular children’s books, little Lenin was PERFECT. He never seemed to saver much in making choices, and yet his choices always turned out to be right.

Katia with books

There were books about grown-up Lenin, older Lenin, the wise Grandpa Lenin, we called him. They were legends about a man who seemed so modest and plain on the outside – always depicted as working at his desk, wearing simple pants and jackets and maybe a tie.

And yet, he was more than a simple man – he was wisdom, and perfection and triumph personified, he was our Soviet god.

I remember as a very young child looking up at his portrait on the wall during class, and asking, in the privacy of my own mind, “Grandpa Lenin, what should I do? Am I being good enough?” “Is this a good choice I am making?”

Next month – I want to blog about the other side of this god-like, mysterious aura the lovely “Grandpa Lenin” and some of our other Communist leaders carried. Next month, I want to talk about the memories of fear our communist “gods” have inspired.

Wow! Katia, that is so powerful. Thanks for dropping by and sharing your personal history with us. I feel how big Lenin felt to you and how small you felt in comparison! I'm especially interested since my work in progress take place in a communist country. I can't wait for you to return!

BTW, Dear Reader Here's a glimpse into some Soviet classrooms.

And if you sneak over to Katia's blog you'll find that's she's giving away a few of my books. What are you waiting for?

SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD BLOG TOUR: (And you are invited!)

2011-02-04T21:36:00.001-05:00

I just finished BLACK RADISHES,a WWII story set in France. Wow! That book is filled with history, heart, and suspense. No wonder it earned a Sydney Taylor Honor Award!

And lucky me! I'll be interviewing Author, Susan Lynn Meyer here on Tuesday, February 8 as part of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour.

I can't wait to meet all the authors on this tour and learn more about their books which, BTW are featured in this lively clip.

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

Come tour with us! February travel never looked so warm and inviting!

A CANDID PHOTO TO MAKE MY DAY!

2011-02-03T09:53:00.002-05:00

Fan mail is always sweet but when it comes with a candid shot of a reader with book in hand?

Delectable!

This reader is Sydney who I've never met. But obviously, I love her!

In the words of her mom:

"Sydney is 10 years old and in the 4th grade. She was introduced to BLUE by her 3rd grade teacher. She just finished reading the book for the third time and is very excited about starting the sequel, COMFORT."

Thank you, Sydney's mom for sharing that! Some days authors feel as if their stories are no longer being read. A little proof to the contrary goes a really long way.

BLUE IN PAPERBACK GIVEAWAY: February Winner

2011-02-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

Bailey Clark - Come out, come out wherever you are!

You just won the February giveaway of BLUE in paperback. Please contact me. My e-mail address is in the sidebar.

Congratulations and thanks for participating!

This Day in History: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

2011-01-27T10:04:00.003-05:00

On this day in 1888, the National Geographic Society was founded. And aren't we glad of that!

It began with 33 men - geographers, explorers, teachers, cartographers, military officers, lawyers, and financiers.

Nine months after forming, the society published the first issue of the magazine which later exploded in popularity when it moved from short technical articles to longer stories with stunning photos.

Revenues from the magazine have enabled expeditions to Tanzania, the North and South Poles, and the bottom of the sea. Do the names Jane Goodall, Robert Peary, Richard Byrd, and Jacques Cousteau ring any bells?

I actually have, in my possession, every issue ever published. That's a lot of yellow in the attic shelf - right?!

No, actually it's a neat little box of CD's with every issue in searchable format. (Thanks to my sister and her hubby for donating that wonderful surprise to my personal archive!)

Recently I popped one of those 1960s era CDs into my computer, searched the titles, and there it was - an "in the moment" article on the Berlin Wall.

Ja toll!

To be frank, the set I have is old and slow on my computer.

But not to worry!

You can buy the latest greatest version of this over at National Geographic. At $ 69.95 - if you're a lover of history, science or National Geographic Magazine, could you possibly go wrong?

New Theme Song: I remember

2011-01-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

I can't seem to escape the war theme lately. Maybe War and Peace is my new brand. Or maybe it's always been there, waiting for me to realize.

Anyway, I recently submitted a manuscript about conscientious objection to war. If my protagonist could pick a song that expresses her viewpoint I think it would surely be, I Remember by Griffin House.

I like that this song asks questions without offering easy answers.

One of the many reasons to question going to war is its long lasting effects on veterans and their families. On Veterans Day, I blogged about Post War Trauma and included an excerpt from my book Comfort. I won't post it again here but feel free to hop over and read it.

This Day in History: Post WWI "Peace" Conference Begins

2011-01-18T14:04:00.005-05:00

A few years ago, I chose to write about a polio epidemic because the other option staring me in the face was a war story. I didn't want to write a war story.

Guess what! BLUE turned out to be a WWII homefront story which led to COMFORT and post-war trauma and suddenly I find that I cannot stop writing about war.

This quiet anti-war passion in me has been called forth and I am daily reminded that war is dangerous to humans and other living things.

Post-WWI Peace Conference led to the Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
President Woodrow Wilson is seated at the table, 5th from left.
Image shared via wikimedia commons

Today's "This Day in History" feature at History.com is yet another example that one war leads to another and that revenge is a very bad idea.

The Great War is over. Germany has surrendered. Peace Talks begin on January 18, 1919. President Wilson has assured Germany that the Allied Powers will not deal too harshly with her. But Wilson, whose philosophy is "peace without victory" is outnumbered in this approach. So, in order to get the other allied leaders to form The League of Nations, he compromises, agreeing to make Germany take sole responsibility for the war and also to pay heavy reparations.

The idea is to keep Germany on her knees.

It was a very bad idea. The German people were demoralized and frustrated. They were also ripe for a political hero. I'm not sure why Adolf Hitler captured their hearts. I can't comprehend the social and spiritual blindness he put over on the people - especially the blantant racism. But, historians seem to agree that the Treaty of Versailles with its heavy penalties to Germany, led directly to the rise of Hitler and World War II.

It's heartbreaking to think about - the knowledge that a bit of grace could have prevented so much tragedy. If only we'd been willing to extend it...

Forgiveness is an upsidedown and backward idea. It doesn't come easier to me than it does to anyone else. But I believe it works. I believe that individuals and nations who exercise unexpected compassion can change the world.

Gail Halvorsen who I blogged about a few days ago, is a clear example of someone, who after World War II, offered unexpected sweetness to the enemy. Our relationship to Germany hasn't been the same since. And that's a good thing!

In Which I Meet Our Literary Hero

2011-01-14T15:59:00.003-05:00

I've been blogging about a few WWII heroes lately and that era is just so painful that I thought maybe it's time for a little lighthearted blogging.

So how about joining me at the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield, MA? You don't even have to wear your snow boots because I went there in the summer time.

Dr. Seuss agreed to pose for a pic with me.

Naturally, you can't think of Dr. Seuss without also thinking of that cat in that hat.

The Cat in the Hat was never one of my favorites because well,

for some reason, the book always made me feel

like this!

I think it was on account of the stressed-out fish

(who is way more like me than I care to admit!)

I was much more comfy with the Thidwick, the Big Hearted Moose.

And, oh so proud of my favorite Seuss hero, Horton who is always faithful to the miserable end.

And sticking close to the hero theme we have Yertle the Turtle who is somewhere
at the bottom of that stack.

Ah, yes, there he is

with the weary look of sheer endurance on his face.

I'm pretty sure all heroes get tired at times and scared and just plain annoyed. But they endure with humility.

They help others to acheive instead of focusing on themselves.

Which is why my hubby is in the hero chair here.

He's my Yertle, my Thidwick, and my Horton all rolled into one.

And he might even be the Cat in the Hat if I weren't so stressed-out fishlike!

There's more fabulousness in this memorial garden but

I don't want to provide too many spoilers so go check it out for yourself.

There's a chair, there waiting for you.

For more on Heroes, see this issue of Talking Story - coproduced by Carol Baldwin and me.

THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT ANNEXED

2011-01-11T16:37:00.003-05:00

Last week I blogged about Annexed, the historical novel by Sharon Dogar which tells the Anne Frank story from Peter Van Pels point of view.

Dogar has taken some heat for writing this book because naturally, the Anne Frank diary has come to feel sacred to us.

And, after all, her story is true.

Annexed, on the other hand, is a novel written by an author who was not there to know what Peter experienced.

But novels are true too. They may have fictional characters and made-up scenarios but they carry an emotional truth that is as essential as getting the facts straight. Dogar immersed herself in the facts of Anne Frank's story and the broader history surrounding it. She gleaned emotional truth from Anne's diary, from other research, and from her understanding of human nature. From that compassionate and careful position she told a truthful story.

I hope you will watch the video below in which Dogar discusses her intent.

Some of the heat she's taken has been unnecessary because it claims that she sexualized the relationship between Peter and Anne. She did not. Dogar may believe that Anne and Peter had sex but she did not include it in the book. In fact, the amount of kissing in Annexed was less than that mentioned in The Diary of a Young Girl.

Peter is a teen-aged boy so there are some moments when he's alone in his room struggling with sexual feelings. If I had written the book, I might not have portrayed those scenes in quite the way Dogar did but I don't see them as problematic for todays teens.

The whole point of the story is not sex at all. It is personhood. Peter is struggling to hang on to his sense of self in a world spiralling into the depths. Dogar raises haunting questions about that world and for that reason I champion this extraordinary book and the brave author who followed the story that would not let her go. In the end that's what a writer has to do.

BTW, Annexed has a website all its own. Do check it out!

Heroes and Saints: GAIL HALVORSEN,

2011-01-09T07:17:00.002-05:00

I just read this exciting book, Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's Chocolate Pilot by Michael O. Tunnell

Remember The Berlin Airlift - that momentous event in 1948 and 1949 when America and its allies delivered tons of food, fuel, and coal to West Berliners because the Soviet Sector of Berlin cut off their supplies?

Sixteen months and nearly 277 thousand flights later the allies had delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies.

During that time, grateful Berlin children gathered at Templehof Airport to watch the flights come in. One day an American pilot, Gail Halvorsen engaged a group of 30 children in conversation and because they were so grateful for flour and powdered milk, he got an idea. Right then and there Halvorsen promised the children that very soon he would drop candy for them. He told them he'd wiggle his wings so they would know which plane was his.

Sure enough! On his next daylight flight, he dropped Hershey bars via 3 handkerchief parachutes.

The parachutes found their intended audience and one thing led to another so that by January of 1949, "Operation Little Vittles" was a busy enterprise with its own headquarters and plenty of community volunteers. It shipped eight hundred pounds of sweet supplies to Germany every other day. Businesses and individuals donated eighteen tons of candy and gum - also two thousand sheets, three thousand hankies, and eleven thousand yards of ribbons for parachutes!

Don't forget that just a few years earlier America was bombing the Germans, a fact that makes The Berlin Airlift and the Candy Bomber story that much sweeter! Halvorsen went out of his way to build relationships with the people of Berlin, especially the children. He responded to letters and requests from children who called him Uncle Wiggly Wings, The Chocolate Uncle, and The Chocolate Pilot.

Margot Theis Raven tells one child's true story in Mercedes and The Chocolate Pilot.

Over the years, Halvorsen has reunited with Mercedes and other Berlin children, participated in commemorative candy drops, and even led the Berlin athletes into the stadium during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Somewhere along the way, ABC honored Halvorsen as their person of the week - hence this great clip. Watch it and be grateful. Because as Gail Halverson demonstrates, a little gratitude goes a long way!

PBS also created a documentary about The Berlin Airlift. It's in my public library. Or will be when I return it! Maybe yours has it too.

ANNEXED by Sharon Dogar

2011-01-07T21:06:00.002-05:00

Book # 1 in my YA Historical Fiction Challenge is

Annexed.

I got it for Christmas (thank you, Chuck) along with a nonfiction called Anne Frank, The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. Anne is my hero. So when I learned via The Fourth Musketeer that Sharon Dogar had written a book from the viewpoint of Peter, the teen that Anne fell in love with there in the secret annex, I knew it was just a matter of time until I owned that volume.

Dogar did not disappoint me. The book starts fast and scary, then lulls just a bit during those first boring days in the attic when Peter wants nothing to do with Anne. But the relationship changes in a believable fashion - until Anne and Peter are good friends.

I suppose I read the book because I wanted more of Anne, herself. I didn't exactly love Peter's sometimes unfavorable description of her because she's always been larger than life for me. And yet, by her own admission, Anne had many faults and it was good for me to see her through someone else's eyes.

So Peter did give me more of Anne. Conversations that may or may not have happened. Questions that could have been asked. Their sure knowledge that under entirely different circumstances these two teens would not have shown the least bit of interest in each other.

But there was nothing normal about their being locked up together for two years, hiding for fear of their life, hoping for rescue, and above all not being able to make sense of any of it.

Peter asks the questions that all of us do about the Holocaust. Are you there? Are you listening? Can you hear me?

How could anyone do this?

I read Peter's story because I wanted more of Anne but in the end it was Peter I wept for. And not only for him, of course but for all whose story he helped to tell.

Not everyone thinks Sharon Dogar should have told this story but I have to agree with her statement in this article "The problem is that a writer doesn't always choose what they write." So very true.

I, for one, am glad that this story haunted Dogar for 15 years. And I'm grateful that she finally wrote it. Judging from the reviews, lots of others are too. Here's the trailer. Have a look.