When it finally stopped raining on Saturday, my daughter and I decided a hike was in order. We decided on Silver Lake Bog because we haven’t been there in a while and because Jo Knowles blogged about her bog walk earlier this week and reminded us how lovely this unique environment can be. We brought our binoculars, since we have decided that we want to start keeping a bird list, and set out down the boardwalk.
This little guy was crossing the boardwalk ahead of us.
I’m pretty sure it must be good luck if a Red Eft crosses your path, isn’t it?
At the end of the half-mile boardwalk, there’s a steeper .8 mile trail that leads up to the bluffs overlooking Silver Lake. It was muddy, but it was that good, squishy mud that makes your hiking boots look rugged and impressive, so that was just fine. And the view from the top, with the mountains still wearing scarves of clouds, was spectacular.
Alas, we didn’t come across any lady slippers, but if you’re up for some more bog photos, you can head on over to visit & see some gorgeous flowers from her walk there.
With just four days of regular classes left in my school year, there is the usual flurry of June activity. My students are finishing pieces of persuasive writing about issues that matter to them, and on Monday, we’ll be hunting down addresses and emails for the Senators, company presidents, newspapers, mayors, city coucilors, principals, and others, and sending them off. "Really?" my kids asked when I first explained that I was only a secondary audience for this piece of writing. Some wondered if sending off a single letter could really make any difference, so we talked about that for a while, and I asked them to think about this. Pretty much everything that has ever been wrong or unjust in our world and then improved has gotten better as a result of somebody — often a whole bunch of somebodys — who pulled together their ideas and expressed them. They thought about that, and then we all started writing.
We’ll be making our summer reading plans this week, too — sharing our Top Ten Terrific Books read this school year and using those to make lists of what we’d like to read this summer. I’ve been smiling all week, peeking over my kids’ shoulders as they work on their lists. It’s so much fun to see what titles have really stayed with them this year. I’ll be sharing some of my students’ top picks on the blog later this week.
My own summer includes the usual hiking-swimming-family-visiting-kayaking-ice-cream-eating agenda, as well as plenty of reading. On my list? A few adult books like THE HELP (no, I still haven’t read it) and THE PASSAGE (which will have to wait because my 13-year-old son swiped my ARC and will not let it go), along with a big pile of YA and MG books that I expect will grow a bit after this month’s ALA Convention in Washington, D.C.
And some summer writing plans, which include work on several books at different stages of their lives…
First (and quickly!) I need to make notes on the final-pass page proofs for SUGAR AND ICE, my middle grade figure skating novel that comes out with Walker/Bloomsbury in December. This is the "last-chance proofreading" before the book goes to print.
Later this month, I’m expecting revision notes for my second MARTY MCGUIRE chapter book with Scholastic. The first is already copy edited and comes out in Spring 2011. There is some pretty incredible illustrator news, too, which I will share when I get the okay from my editor.
I am CRAZY excited about my newest project, which right now I’ll refer to as the "upper middle grade dystopian weather book." I’m wrapping up a draft, so July will be a month of lemonade and revision.
And in August, I hope to be doing some research for my second middle grade mystery. Which is the reason I woke up to a slew of good wishes on Twitter this morning (thank you!)…and brings me to the book news that appeared in Publishers Marketplace long after I’d fallen asleep on the couch last night…
June 11, 2010
Children’s: Middle grade
2010 E.B. White Read Aloud Award winner Kate Messner’s SILVER JAGUAR SOCIETY series, in which a group of kids whose families are part of a secret society bound to protect the world’s artifacts pool their unique talents to solve mysteries tied to the creations of their ancestors, starting with book one: THE STAR-SPANGLED SET-UP, to Anamika Bhatnagar at Scholastic, in a three-book deal, for publication starting in 2012, by Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
I’m thrilled — for many reasons — but maybe most of all because this book was a huge challenge for me and required a lot of learning along the way. It’s the book that really taught me to outline more than I ever had before, and the book that led me to Scrivener, the writing program that I use all the time now and love the same way I love chocolate. I blogged a little about the planning for THE STAR SPANGLED SET-UP here.
It’s time for me to put in an hour on those page proofs before the rest of the house wakes up, but first, I have two questions for you to answer in comments if you’re so inclined:
1. If you write, what are your summer writing plans? What do you hope to finish or work on or revise or explore?
2. What’s one book you’re really excited to read this summer? (I’ll share these in a later post, too, so we can all add to our lists!)
This is ‘s African hedgehog, Hermione. Our Dumbo rats, Chester and Guy, are being kind enough to share their basement rec room with her this week so daughter can babysit while Marjorie is away. Don’t worry…they have separate cages, though we did take them out to let them sniff one another tonight. I imagine it went something like this:
Hermione: Rats? I’m sleeping in a room with rats?
Guy: Bonjour! (Guy is French Canadian…We bought him from a breeder in Montreal.) Do you live here now? You’re cute, but you’re prickly.
I’m about half an hour early in celebrating the release day for this book, but just couldn’t wait for it to be officially June 8th.
Why the excitement?
For starters, SETH BAUMGARTNER’S LOVE MANIFESTO by Eric Luper is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read — snorting, laugh-out-loud, funny. But what makes it even more terrific is that the humor is mixed with drama, hope, and the kind of heartbreak that only comes with being a teenager in love.
Poor Seth is having a rough day when the book opens. His girlfriend has just dumped him during her dinner break from work, and across the restaurant, he’s just spotted his father on a date with a woman who is most definitely not his mother. The fact that all of this happens at Applebee’s somehow adds to the sting.
As Seth nurses his own relationship wounds and tries to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding his father’s…(mistress? Is that what she is?)…he decides to explore the very nature of love itself by starting his own podcast on the topic. The podcasts are as witty and insightful and wonderful as the perfectly imperfect characters in this YA romantic comedy. It is just all-around brilliant and great fun, too. And did I mention there’s golf? And really bad chicken salad sandwiches?
And one more note…Eric is running a very cool contest to celebrate Seth’s arrival in the world. You can win books, audiobooks, an iPod shuffle, and great things like that. Click here for information on how to enter.
1. It looks like we may (fingers crossed) be going to Costa Rica for a week this summer.
I have wanted to visit a true tropical rain forest for as long as I’ve known they existed, so I’m downright giddy about this. In addition to spending some time in the Sarapiqui River area, we’re thinking about a couple days near the Arenal Volcano. If you’ve been to either of those areas, I’d love to hear a little about where you stayed & what you thought.
2. I hit the 30,000 word mark on my new MG novel this week and can see the end from here. It’s a distant and still-hazy end, but still…it’s in sight.
3. We are halfway through our latest read-aloud at the Messner house and love this book:
Debut author Jaqueline West has won our hearts with an old house, funny mathematicians, talking cats, enchanted spectacles, and magical paintings. What’s not to love? I’ve been reading from the ARC I picked up at a convention this spring, but THE SHADOWS: THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE will be released soon. It’s due out June 15th from Dial.
4. I am not feeling particularly good about this.
The Common Core Standards for education released this week leave a lot to be desired, in the opinion of this teacher and parent. While there are certainly some fine and important goals laid out — and you can read all about them here — what concerns me most is what’s missing. There is nothing, in all the many pages and bullet items, about creating an appreciation for books and stories, about writing in order to understand who we are and how we fit into the world around us, and understanding the power of language to make that world better. Call me crazy, but I think that stuff is important. It’s why I am an English teacher. (Contrary to popular belief, most of us are not in it for the comma rules.) Also missing on the list of examples of literature for grades 6-8 is any book published after 1976. The concept of revision, happily, is included in the standards, and I hope the authors of this document take that idea to heart and do some revising of their own. We need to do better than this.
5. Since I don’t believe on ending on a negative note…it is almost summer, and that is a happy note indeed. As much as I love my classroom and students, I am also quite fond of those two months of reading, writing, traveling, hiking, kayaking, and family breakfasts on the deck. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Yesterday, I signed a big stack of book plates and mailed them off to New Hampshire for an exciting reason.
THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. has been named to the Great Stone Face Award list for 2010-2011!
That’s New Hampshire’s children’s choice award for kids in grades 4-6. It’s named after a rock formation that actually collapsed back in 2003. Here’s a before-and-after image.
See the face up there? Even though the old man himself is gone, I love that the award is named after him, and I especially love that so many new readers in New Hampshire will be meeting Gianna and Zig. You can see the full list of Great Stone Face nominees here.
So back to the book plates… Kathleen, a pretty amazing New Hampshire librarian, emailed me last week to ask if I’d help her with a tradition. At her end-of-the-year celebration, she rewards kids who have read all or almost all of the 25 Great Stone Face books for that year with a book from next year’s list. She chose GIANNA Z. to get the kids started on next year’s list and asked if I’d sign some bookplates to make the copies extra special. (They went in the mail yesterday, Kathleen!)
And finally, a few of you asked me to post a photo of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award…which, as it turns out, doesn’t photograph all that easily because it’s actually a perfectly clear, crystal book engraved with the award and my book title. But I tried a few options, and the photo turned out best outside.
I think I may have been the only bookish person in the world heading to New York City on Friday of the holiday weekend, after BEA was over, but it was a great, quick trip all the same. A few quick Tuesday-morning highlights before I head off to school…
1. I got to meet with my agent, the wonderful and funny Jennifer Laughran, who did not want her picture taken. Instead, I will show you what I had for dessert at our little rendezvous.
2. My husband somehow managed to get tickets to Glee Live at Radio City Music Hall. Even with six teenagers screaming in my ear from the seats behind us, it was fantastic – such talented performers. "Defying Gravity" was my favorite.
3. We spent some time exploring Greenwich Village, had dinner at Lupa (order the gnocci if you go), and wandered around Washington Square Park, where many kinds of artists were enjoying the night, too.
And later on…
4. A highlight of the trip for me was meeting up with my publisher Emily Easton at the Flatiron Building, home of Walker/Bloomsbury.
Since my family hadn’t been to the building before, Emily was kind enough to give us a tour that started with one of the slush piles.
…continued through the editorial, publicity and marketing, art director’s offices, and the room where acquisitions meetings take place. We took a detour by the Bloomsbury/Walker bookshelves-of-awesome, which she let my kids raid…
…and ended in the boss’s office at the tip of the building, which has a picture on the wall to give you perspective…
…and a view that probably makes up for all the stress of being the boss.
My husband loved the tour, too, and was amazed at how busy and full of works-in-progress, books, and papers the offices were. His comment as we took the old elevator back down to the ground floor? "That whole place looks like your desk."
One more thing happened on the Bloomsbury/Walker tour – I picked up the E.B. White Award for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. that Emily accepted at the ABC dinner at BEA last week. It’s living happily on a shelf over my desk now and is very, very shiny. 🙂
