AUDIO BOOKS, PAINTING, & WEEDS

Last summer I started painting the trim on our garden shed but, before I could finish, the rains came (every day for the rest of the summer, it seems) and I lost momentum. 

I really need to get that finished so I checked two audio books out of the library yesterday.  Audio books are my companions while I paint, scrub, or pull weeds and sometimes while driving on a long trip by myself.

I just finished listening to The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

I'd heard much about it and figured I'd need a box of tissues to get me through. I did like the book. I especially enjoyed paying attention to how Green developed the relationship between the two teens. Maybe my mind was on the mechanics of his writing and storytelling because I did not cry. But I also wonder if listening made the difference. Would I have entered the story in a different way if I'd been reading? I haven't really analyzed whether listening makes a difference for me.

Either way, the book got me out of my computer chair and through some hot, dirty gardening and yard clean up. And yes, the story gave me lots to ponder on the meaning of life, how it might feel to know one is dying, and also how we respond to people who are ill. I do resonate with these themes.  Why else would I write about polio,disability, and leprosy? 

Audio Book Bonus:  There's a cool interview with Green on his audio. It's hard not to like that guy! 

Now, I'm counting on getting lots of work done while listening to Forge by Laurie Halse Andersen

and Hokey Pokey  by Jerry Spinelli.

By the time I'm through  these two audio books I hope to have painted the deck & some lawn furniture, and to have weeded quite a few veggie and flower gardens. 

And, oh yeah, the garden shed needs to be finished. I have a feeling I'll leave it for last on account of -you know - ladders and cobwebs. Or rain.

Question: How do you feel about listening versus reading?

MEETING KAY WINTERS

I first discovered Kay Winters when I attended an SCBWI workshop near Philadelphia - back before the turn of the century.

And then, a few years later, in 2002, I bumped into her at a history writing workshop led by Carolyn Yoder of Calkins Creek Books.


As an aspiring history writer, I was a bit awestruck by Kay who had published an impressive stack of books. (And yes, envious, too.) I haven't seen Kay since then - probably because she's been busy researching and writing books about Abe Lincoln, the Boston Tea Party, Ancient Egypt, and more!


I decided it's time to catch up with her a bit and fortunately she agreed to answer a few questions for me here.  So, join me, please in welcoming the lovely Kay Winters.

It's so great to have you here, Kay. Maybe we could begin by hearing a little about the themes you feel compelled to write and some accomplishments that you're most proud of.


I am drawn to people in history who focus on overcoming obstacles instead of complaining about them. In Abe Lincoln: the Boy Who Loved Books, we have someone who came from a very poor family, a father who did not understand or appreciate him, who went to school for less than a year. And yet he walked out of the wilderness into the White House. Again and again as a private citizen and as President he failed.He ruled this country at a time of the greatest divisions we have ever known. ( Even worse than current politics!) But he persisted. I was so delighted to discover that books made the difference to Abraham Lincoln, and this is a message I am delighted to relay. I was proud to be invited to sign Abe at the National Museum of History in the Smithsonian and to find the title included on a number of state reading lists.


In Colonial Voices: Hear them Speak, I wrote about  the townspeople in Boston at the time of the Boston Tea Party. I described their occupations, their  politics, their struggles, their hopes. This  book won the  Carol Hurst Children's Book Prize for the book which  “best exemplified the highest standards  of  research, analysis and authorship in its portrayal of the New  England Experience.” The local theater  did a  reader’s theater production of the book at the Colonial Harvest  day in Westfield, Massachusetts.  My  husband and I and several others also did a reader's theater  presentation of Colonial Voices at Old South in Boston where the tea party meeting took place.


Ah, nothing like seeing your work embraced and interpreted by the artistic community. Congratulations on both the reader's theater and on the Carol Otis Hurst book prize.  What an honor! Now I'm impressed (and envious) all over again!


I know you get to mingle and compare notes with other history writers.  And you must have a few that you really admire.  Can you tell us who your favorite history authors are?

• My favorite author of historical picture books is Pam Munoz Ryan.  I love When Marian Sang because of the details Pam chose to bring Marian Anderson to life. The book is both poignant and compelling,  irresistible combination. Pam paints a portrait of a young girl who  is incredibly talented and determined to pursue her dream. When she is turned away from the Music School in Philadelphia because of her  race, she finds a teacher. When he is about to refuse her, she  opens her mouth and sings. When the  Daughters of the American Revolution reject a possible  performance at Constitution Hall, after she has  sung to royalty  in Europe, she sings to a mega-crowd at Lincoln  Memorial. I think this is an example of a  picture book that  should be in every classroom from K-8. Unlike  history text books this picture book and  many others, captures  personality, setting, a  time period in history in a way students are not likely to forget.

• For Middle Grade Students and anyone in fact - Chains by Laurie  Halse Anderson is an forgettable historical  novel about a 13  year old slave and her sister and their harrowing journey to freedom during the time of the American Revolution. Only the 13 -year old survives.  This meticulously researched book is based on fictional characters but Anderson used letters, diaries, runaway  ads and military reports to develop her characters.  When I  finished reading Chains, I  thought this book is so  much better than many so called adult historical novels.I hope it  finds a wide audience with both students  and adults.

I love both of those books.  And now what is your favorite method of research?
My favorite method is on site research. When I did Voices of Ancient Egypt I went to Egypt twice, visited tombs and sites of ancient habitats. I sailed in a felucca, rode a  horse around the pyramids and a donkey in the Valley of the  Kings at Luxor.For Colonial Voices we went to Boston a number of times. We  also travelled  to Sturbridge and Williamsburg. I needed to check  out shopkeepers and their wares in these historic villages.   For my new book Voices on the Oregon Trail My husband and I  took that  journey by car, stopping to stand in wagon wheel ruts, visit  Trail Centers and Museums with dioramas, films and  artifacts, and photograph the prairie and the mountains. In  general,  I haunt the library, read diaries, journals,  letters, ads,  use film and on line sites and interview specialists in  the field.


Two trips to Egypt?!  History writers have the most fun, don't you think, Kay? And after you gather all that information, how do you weave fact into fiction?


In Abe Lincoln: the Boy Who Loved Books  all the quotes from him were authentic. None were invented. In Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak, the characters were invented, so were their quotes, but in that book  almost every line on each page is packed with fact. I searched old books for samples of objects  that were used  at that time and mailed pictures of them to my wonderful illustrator Larry Day. So you see how he included  Whisper Sticks, for the Dame School, Wag on the Walls, for the Clockmaker, an old Tavern sign for the Tavern Keeper.  In this book I included a blacksmith’s slave and a Native American because they are often left out of accounts of the Revolution.


Thank you Kay, for sharing so many wonderful details and for introducing to several other amazing historicals!  And thanks to you, dear reader, for stopping by. 

Please visit Kay's website for more info on her and her numerous books.  But first, I want to mention that she has a new picture book out!

And she's giving away a copy via Talking Story, an E-newsletter co-produced by Carol Baldwin and me. Click on over to the current issue of Talking Story. Then visit the sidebar for instructions on joining the book giveaway contest!



CHAINS (Just in Time for Independence Day!)

I wasn't intentional about reading CHAINS during the week of July 4th. I read it because it was right there within easy reach at the local library. Because it is historical fiction. And because I know how Laurie Halse Anderson writes!

Indeed.

What an astute move on Laurie's part to tell a slavery story that takes place in 1776 - right there in New York City where Loyalists and Patriots were duking it out over the colonies' desire to be free from England.

Isabel is supposed to be freed upon her owner's death but the owner's greedy relative snatches her and little sister Ruth up and sells them. However, Isabel's knowledge of her intended freedom and her own belief in the right of all people to be free, do not allow her to ever be fully enslaved.

She works for her viscious new Madam because she must. But when she meets another slave - a boy who works for the Patriot's cause, she finds herself in a position to work against her Madam and the Loyalists. The risks she takes lead her into deep trouble.

But it's possible that risk-taking ultimately leads to her independence.

Of course we do not know for sure what happens to Isabel. We will have to wait for January 2010 to read the rest of her story in FORGE, a sequel.

First line of Chains: The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up.

Chains won the Scott O'Dell Award 2009 and was a 2008 National Book Award finalist. Laurie won the Margaret A. Edwards award for lifetime acheivement in young adult literature.

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Here's to the freedom of all people everywhere. And freedom from our own chains which we unwittingly cling to because we're afraid to take risks.

ONCE UPON A DIME: (This is a book giveaway)

Vintage March of Dimes poster given me by the family of one of my experts, a wonderful physiotherapist who worked with polio patients.

Once upon a time, the March of Dimes fundraising campaign was held for 2 weeks in January. It culminated on Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday (Jan. 30) with Birthday Balls in cities across the nation.

After all, FDR was the man who inspired this organization. It was called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis until Eddie Cantor, a radio comedian, got the idea to ask children across America to send a dime to the President. Cantor called it the March of Dimes.

Within days, the White House mailroom was overwhelmed with dimes (268,000.00 worth)! Official White House mail got lost in the morass of dimes. I don't think the MOD repeated that exact scenario again! But it did collect money in hundreds of creative ways which constitute an amazing heartwarming story.

For decades, the MOD funded polio related needs: hospital care, crtuches, iron lungs, and vaccine research. By 1955 we had a vaccine!

There'd always been people who felt that the MOD money should help with other causes. So, after the vaccine, March of Dimes changed its focus. Since 1958 it has benefitted babies with birth defects. And somewhere along the way, the campaign switched to April.
MOD is a tremendous organization as any family who has had a baby with special medical needs will tell you! But this year in "this economy" fundraising is down.

So, here's where I make good on the book giveaway. My new book, COMFORT, the sequel to BLUE is hot off the press. And I want to give a copy to you. Here's how you can get it.

1. Participate in the March of Dimes (suggested donation - 10.00). (This would be a great time for me to be Neil Gaimen, Cynthia Lord, or Laurie Halse Anderson - think how much money we could raise! )
2. Leave me a comment, telling me that you contributed. (I don't need to know the amount, but feel free to share stories.)
3. Link to this post or copy the contents into your blog. (If you don't blog, send out emails with this blog address.)

Since April is practically over, I'm going to give this contest 2 weeks. On May 9, I'll pull a name out of my comment reservoir and announce a winner. I hope your name is on the list!

How you can contribute to the March of Dimes

a. Join a Walk for Dimes event.
b. Sponsor someone who is particpating in a Walk for Dimes.
c. Drop money into a jar at your local bank.
d. Buy a few of those March of Dimes stuffed animal babies offered at your bank.
e. Click here to donate online.

Sources:

Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine by Jane S. Smith

Four Billion Dimes by Victor Cohn

Images of America: March of Dimes by David W. Rose