I dare you.....

.....to buy this.

Only $49.99

I like to died

Here's a great letter that is a perfect example of how kids can learn about other parts of the country (and the world) by reading books:

Hi our names are C--, Z--, and K--.

We are in the Fifth grade at -- Elementary School in --, New Jersey .

We are reading your book How to Steal A Dog and we are enjoying your book so far! Our favorite part so far is Mookie who is living in the back of the vacant house.

We are writing because two things have caught our eye and we wanted to know if they were on purpose. The first one occurs on page 116 and says, “It like to broke my heart to look at it.” Should it be “It broke my heart to look at it?” On page 117 it says, “I like to swallowed my gum when he said that.” Should it say, “I almost swallowed my gum when he said that?”

We are fascinated with what you have to say.

Please let us know if it was done on purpose or was it a mistake. Thank you for your time and we can’t wait to hear from you.

Sincerely. C--, Z--, and K--

P.S. We would take $500 dollars if we are right about the mistake :)

And the winner is.....

The winner of the Useless Information Contest is.....

Diddy!

(She always did beat me at Jeopardy. Dang....)

Show me the money

My husband is a serious car guy.

Last night at the dinner table he showed me a picture in a car catalog and said, "I'll give you $100 if you name this part."

I did it!

HA!

Can YOU name this part? (But I'm not giving you $100.)

P.S. It's amazing what useless information you absorb after 25 years of marriage.

P.P. S. Hmmm....this would have been a good contest for a free arc of my next novel. Problem is, I don't have any arc's yet. I'll have to come up with something equally as enthralling.

Huh?

Arlington Part 5

The students at Anderson Elementary School really got into the spirit!

They made great posters. This one shows how much they have thought about the elements of the story, such as main characters, time, place and goal.

They wrote terrific letters and even drew pictures of me! (I look pretty good!)

This boy had made a graphic novel-type version of my visit, with photos showing me receiving cards and letters, writing books, and even students cheering for me:

And a wonderful welcoming banner:

Thanks so much, Anderson!

Arlington, Texas Part 4

I had a great visit with the gang at Corey Elementary School.

They had a fabulous mural in their library.

The kids were fantastic and really got into the spirit by dressing as characters from Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia. Thanks, Corey!



Here I am showing the Danish version of Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia to the students of Larson Elementary.

They had great questions and had really thought about the stories.

Thanks, Larson!

Arlington, Texas Part 3

Then it was off to Short Elementary School.

They have a fireplace in their library! Here I am (center) with librarians Linnette (left) and Julia (right), who did an amazing job helping to prepare for my visit.


Here I am showing the students my sixth grade report card.

Thanks, Short Elementary School!

Arlington, Texas Part 1

The folks at the Arlington Independent School District in Arlington, Texas, sure know how to roll out the red carpet for an author!

Here I am with the readers who took part in the Battle of the Books at Butler Elementary School:

Signing books for students at Butler Elementary School:

Thank you to Butler Elementary School!

Arlington, Texas Part 2

Here I am trying to get the students at Amos Elementary School to guess how every book starts. (They got it right.)

The fourth grade reading class of Amos Elementary School presented me with a fantastic book of drawings from Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia:

Thank you to Amos Elementary School!!

See ya...

Today I'm headed to Arlington, Texas for three days of school visits.

Authorfest

Here are some pics of an authorfest I was part of in Winchester, MA last Friday.

This is an amazing event that has been happening for many years now. Every grade and every school in town has an author and/or illustrator presentation (about 20 author/illustrators!)

There is a lovely luncheon at the town library.

At the end of the day, there is a book signing at the town hall. It's a real family affair and such fun for all of the children to buy the books and meet the authors.

The folks who participated this year were:

Jamie Spencer, Susan Lubner, Karen Day, Nancy Poydar, Loree Burns, Kathleen Duble, Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Judith Jango-Cohen, Brian Lies, Allen Kurzweil, Jacqueline Davies, Dan Mahoney, David Biedrzycki, David Elliott, Heather Panahi, Jeff Nathan, Scott Magoon, Mark Peter Hughes, Steve Krasner and me.

(l to r) Mark Peter Hughes, Steven Krasner, Kathleen Duble

(l to r) Karen Day, Jamie Spencer, Nancy Poydar

(l to r) Dan Mahoney, Jeff Nathan, Scott Magoon

(l to r) Scott Magoon and Susan Lubner

(l to r) Allen Kurzweil, Judith Jango-Cohen, David Elliott

(l to r) Allen Kurzweil, Judith Jango-Cohen, Jackie Davies, Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Loree Burns, David Biedrzycki

The whole gang (minus me, taking the photo)

Duh

My husband and I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant the other night.

When we were leaving, we went through the bar area to go out the back door.

There was a large group of burly, leather-clad biker dudes in there having a meeting of some sort.

One burly leather-clad biker dude was standing in front of everyone, speaking.

This is what I heard:

"I've been a member of this writers' club for almost ten years now and blah blah blah."

Me to husband: A writers' club! Wow! That's cool.

Husband to me (with look of incredulity on his face): Not writers' club, you ninny, RIDERS' club.

Me to husband: Oh.

Heh!

Hello? Anybody home?

I HATE this part of the writing life....

....that scary time between projects.

My idea box is empty.

I will never have another idea as long as I live.

This happens to me EVERY time I finish a book.

EVERY time.

I stare into my box of ideas....

...and it is empty.

E.M.P.T.Y.

I am all washed up.

I am a has-been.

Goodbye.

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

A few folks had filters that prevented them from seeing images posted earlier, so I'm reposting with Blogger images that will probably come through - although somewhat smaller and harder to read.

Coming September 2009

Check this out

This is an amazing school project done by a 4th grader in Illinois!

Auction for Foundation for Children's Books

Here is the link to this month's auction (thanks to illustrator Anna Alter).

Proceeds benefit the Foundation for Children's Books.

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

Coming September 2009

Horned Toad Tales

I recently learned that How to Steal a Dog was voted as the winner of the Horned Toad Tales Award.

This award is voted on by the 49,000 elementary school students of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District in Texas.

I just received the trophy for the award.

Can there be a cooler trophy than this??!!

A great day

I recently had the honor of visiting The Masters School in West Simsbury, CT.

One word:

WOW!

What a great day!

It started out by waking up in a canopy bed! How cool is that?


Then I walked in the door and was greeted with an amazing display all the way down the hall: felt banners representing scenes from How to Steal a Dog!






The students had done so many creative and interesting projects using my books.

The fourth graders wrote in their journals from the perspective of some of the minor characters in the book, like Georgina's friend and her teacher. I was impressed by how they were able to see the same story through different eyes.


The fifth graders drew their own versions of the covers of some of my books. Again, a great way to think about the books and what the students saw as some of the more important story elements that could be highlighted.


The third graders made these lovely welcoming cards for me.


And the sixth graders had so many thoughtful and intelligent questions for me about my books.


One student made this awesome poster of Willy on some cool foam material.


And another student made a How to Steal a Dog Easter egg!!! Here it is on my Easter Egg tree.


And here it is up close.


And the day would not have been complete without this mummified chicken.


Thank you, Masters School, for such a lovely and memorable day.

Stuff with a story

I love stuff.

My house is full of stuff.

And most of our stuff has a story. (My favorite kind of stuff.)

I spend a depressingly large amount of time at the kitchen sink, so that's a good place to have stuff with a story.

Everything you see here has a story or a memory behind it.

Inside that little cupboard is a bunny jar my mother-in-law gave me, a sugar bowl I bought at the yard sale of a friend, and salt and pepper shakers from my friend, Maria.

And vintage spice jars (please note that they are in alphabetical order):

In the middle of the spice jars is a nurse given to me by my husband.

This nurse is his representation of ME as a nurse. It is his theory that I am a terrible nurse. (It is my theory that men exaggerate their illnesses and should get their own dang ginger ale.)

This is a ceramic turtle clock made by my son when he was about 6:

A frog we bought at a restaurant when we first moved to Boston 20 years ago (and to the left of it you can catch a glimpse of a sterling silver rattle that was my husband's as a baby):

A little dog we got on in Nogales, Mexico when we were on a roadtrip in the Southwest:

A plate from a trip to Italy:

But this one is my favorite. It is a brass "K."

When my son was about 7 or 8, we went to London. We went to the theater to see Oliver. While waiting to be seated, my son looked down at the floor and said, "Look, Mom, a K!"

He then tried to pick it up.

That K, of course, was the letter of the row we were at and was, of course, attached to the floor.

We've laughed about that story many times over the years.

Several years ago, my husband found this K in a junk shop somewhere and put it in my son's stocking at Christmas.

Hippity hop

I love traditions.

Holidays (especially Easter) are steeped in traditions.

Like the Easter egg tree, loaded with eggs we've decorated over the years:

But my favorite is the panoramic sugar egg the Easter Bunny brought my son every year.

Naturally, I've saved them all. Some of them haven't survived (darn those pesky, sugar-eating mice up there in the attic!).

I love looking at them each year.

There's this one with bluebirds on the top:

And this one with a caterpillar:

And a chicken:

This one is hard to see inside of, but it's a hummingbird:

This is blurry, but you can see the little ladybug inside there with the hummingbird:

And this one has a bunny painting eggs:

Heading south...

....but only as far as Connecticut (every time I type that, I can never remember if it has two T's on the end...duh!).

Tonight I'm meeting my writer friend, Stacy DeKeyser for sushi dinner. Woohoo! I'm looking forward to that since I won't be attending the New England SCBWI conference this year, which is the only chance I ever get to chat with Stacy in the real world (as opposed to online).

Tomorrow I'll be doing author presentations at The Masters School in West Simsbury, CT.

Can you dig it?

I have an ongoing project of updating photo albums. I came across these pics of my dear dog, Phoebe.

I think they are hysterical.

(My husband, however, does not.)

These boots are made for walking

These are the geekiest boots on the planet.

They are so geeky, I bet even Geek Girl wouldn't wear them.

But I do!

Because they are also the BEST boots on the planet.

I got them from L.L. Bean a million, trillion years ago.

They are the MOST comfortable boots ever.

They are the warmest boots ever.

L.L. Bean doesn't carry them anymore. If they did, I would buy two more pairs, just in case....

They have been sitting by my back door for waaaaay too many months, thanks to the ever-loving snow and mud.

Today, I retired them to the basement until next winter.

As much as I love those geeky boots, I am so happy to see them go.

Look out, Steven Spielberg

A student at a school in Rhode Island wrote part of a screenplay for Greetings from Nowhere!

Check it out!

Camera (close up on Aggie's hands, going through the mail and all the bad bills).

Aggie: Plumbing bill, electric bill, got to get that wasp's nest out from underneath the porch. I have to fill that pool with water. Oh, and that heating bill I forgot to pay. How can I get all that money? Should I sell the motel? No, I could never sell it. Harold would be so mad.

Screen goes black.