Dear Barbara O'Connor

Dear Barbara O'Connor

    Hi, my name is Sonia. I live in Montana and I love to read. I am 12 years old and love your books.  I read your book "Fame and Glory" and I loved it! It was a great book.  How did you get the idea for the cover? I'm wondering because the girl looks a lot like me

Well, guess what?

The girl on the cover DOES look like Sonia! Check it out:

 Thank you, Sonia, for sending your pictures! Bird would be delighted.

Where have I been.....

....that I never knew about this awesome site!!!!

I sent one of my books out into the wild today for somebody's Valentine's gift.

Book club

I was recently invited to a book club meeting.

The club was a group of second graders who had read Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia.

They were so smart and sweet and funny.

I took Bird with me:

I was greeted at the door by an awesome wreath decorated in honor of the book:

And here we are!

Thanks, you guys!!!!!

I'll have a Danish with my coffee....

The Danish editions:

Moonpie and Ivy (Danish title = Postcards from Pearl)

Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia (Danish title = Bird and Harlem)

It's so foreign to me

I thought it might be fun to post some pics of the foreign editions of my books.

Here are some French editions. Kids often ask me why the French publishers use photographs on the covers.

My answer?

I don't know. (Heh....at least I'm honest.)

If anybody knows, please, enlighten me.

Me and Rupert Goody

Moonpie and Ivy

Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia (French title = The Spelling Bee)

Beethoven in Paradise

Porkenbeans, y'all

A recent discussion with my husband had me thinking about pork and beans.

Growing up in the South, I never used or heard used (at least not in my house) the term "baked beans."

We always said "pork and beans" - even if there was no pork in there - which there usually wasn't - or just one itty bitty little slab of salt pork or some weird fat-looking thing like they put in the top of Campbell's Pork and Beans. (And btw, we pronounced it "porkenbeans" - like it was one word.)

It made me realize how easily we let our own ear slip into our writing.

In Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia, there is a line:

She cussed at me and threw a can of pork and beans clear across the room.

I never would have written: threw a can of baked beans.

Yesterday I was listening to country western music on the radio.

There is a song by Sara Evans called When You Were Cheating.

It goes like this:

How do you like that furnished room
The bed, the chair, the table?
The tv picture comes and goes,
Too bad you don't have cable.
How do you like that paper plate?
And those pork 'n beans your eatin'
Maybe you should have thought about that...when you were cheating

So, I guess it's a Southern thing?

Or is it just me?

At any rate, I think it's important to stay in touch with your natural ear.

Writing Tip Tuesday

I love recurring story devices - something that is used repeatedly throughout the story.

These can serve some or all of the following purposes:

• Help tie the story together
• Help develop character
• Show the inner thoughts of the character
• Add to the overall style or theme
• Give cohesiveness to the story
• Help move the story along
• Give the reader something to anticipate

I've written eight books and I've used a recurring story device in five of them!

Moonpie and Ivy:
The main character writes postcards to her mother (who has abandoned her). I ended every other chapter with the postcard. I've had teachers tell me that when they read that book to their students, the kids loved the postcards. They looked forward to them.

The postcards helped the main character express her feelings, which changed and evolved as the story unfolded. Some examples:
Dear Mama: I hate you. Love, Pearl Dear Mama: Ivy asked me to stay here and be her daughter and I said yes. Goodbye. Love, Pearl

Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia
The characters were studying for a spelling bee by using the dictionary. I used letters of the alphabet throughout the book. For example, "By the time we got to 'L'..."

This was a great device to help move the story along and helped the reader keep track of where we are in the story as they studied for the spelling bee.

Taking Care of Moses
The main character draws pictures at the end of every other chapter.

These helped show the character's feelings.

How to Steal a Dog
The main character keeps a journal that starts out as a "how-to" manual but turns into an expression of her feelings about what she has done. This served to show the evolution of her guilt over her actions and her need to do the right thing.

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis [WIP]
The main character's grandmother teaches him a new word each week. He recalls the vocabulary words throughout the story and uses them as they apply to a particular scene. This serves as a thread throughout and helps develop the character.

Poor little Bird

In all the excitement of Greetings from Nowhere coming out this spring, I'm afraid I've sadly neglected my little Bird.

She's the main character in Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia - which will be released in paperback this spring. Sorry, Bird!

She's had a good long run in hardcover - four years and going strong (19 state award lists) - so it's fun to finally see her in paperback.

Here I am with my giant Bird, made for me by author Jacqueline Davies:

See how big she is!

Fame and Glory in the real world

Major high five to the third graders at Wadsworth Elementary School in Palm Coast, Florida!!

They recently took part in a school spelling bee, inspired by reading Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia.

AND - the prize was a trip to Disney World, just like in the book!

I mean, how cool is that!?

Here's what the media specialist, Marilee Palot, said about the event:

Finally, I asked the winning team what Bird’s two goals were in life. One boy responded she wanted to be famous and go to Disney World. I told him they were famous because they won and they were going to Disney World. You should have heard the shout of excitement. It was so cool. Our PTO funded one adult and one child ticket for each of the 1st place winners. All the participants received a gift certificate to the book fair coming up in March.

Mrs. Palot and Ms. Crawford with the winning team.

The winning team with their teacher, Mrs. Thompson

The winners receiving their prize: a trip to Disney World!

The second place winners

The third place winners

Congratulations to all the kids and teachers at Wadsworth Elementary. I wish I could have been there for this exciting event!

Can you spell: G-O-O-D J-O-B?

A shout out

I just had a great conversation with Ms. Townsend's 4th grade class way down in Valrico, Florida at Alafia Elementary School.

I've never had a speaker-phone conversation with a whole class before!

It was like doing a school visit without having to get out of my jammies. (But, of course, I did, as you can see...)

The students had so many interesting and insightful comments and questions about Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia.

So a big shout-out to Ms. Townsend and her students (and the media specialist and her daughter):

Great job, y'all!!

Thanks!

Taking their dictionaries to lunch? !

A letter I just received from a school librarian:

I just thought I would pass along to you what we are doing for a culminating activity. We are going to have a spelling bee in the same fashion described in the book. I am culling all the words from the book. Since we are only about an hour away from Disney World, the prize was going to be an adult and child’s ticket to the park. However, it proved to be too expensive, so the prize will be a bundle of books, including your How to Steal a Dog, and Me and Rupert.

One of the 3rd grade teachers has been stressing all year because her students are not progressing very quickly. Today she said she has four teams who are so excited about the spelling bee they are taking the dictionary to lunch with them to study words. I think this is very exciting and tangible way in which your book has inspired our students.

These kids get it

I was at a school in Tampa last week where the kids had made a banner showing writing elements from Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia.

Personification: I saw doubt dance all over his face.
Strong verbs: ambled, marched perched, hunched, chuckled, flicked, whooshing, admire

Repetition: Then I lay there and thought some more. I thought and thought and thought.

Hyphens: "But Miss-Nag-Me-to-Death-and-Spend-All-My-Money-in-One-Day would have been more like it."

Onomatopoeia: Clang, clang, clang went the bags as he headed our way.

Metaphor: A little tornado of excitement was whirling around in my stomach.

Metaphor: He looked like a big gust of wind had come along and blown away that big black cloud that had been hovering there over his head.

Kids crack me up

Some thoughts on Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia

Last Florida Post

This is the last Florida post. I promise...

(l to r) Harlem, Bird and Miss Delphine

Me!

Kids presenting me with a terrific book of drawings.


Me (left) and librarian Starr Anderson, who makes the world's best Spanish bean soup.

At the FAME conference in Orlando, I got Jane O'Connor's (Fancy Nancy) gift basket and she got mine. So I got a cool wand that made magical noises when you waved it - and a feather fan. There's also a chocolate alligator there.

Now I'm home. Whew! A great trip but my pillow sure looked good last night.

Florida Again

This was the coolest thing ever ! At this school, they are creating a Reading Garden: a garden with plants and trees and benches where the children can go to read.

Each author who visits the school gets something planted in their honor.

This is me with the most amazing librarian on the planet, Dee Dee Schatzberg, planting the three bushes that are MY bushes in their garden. (A Barbara Bush?)

Other authors represented in the garden include Jim Aylsworth, Tom Birdseye, Herb Packer, and Laurie Byars.





Me with a banner made by students.











Me (left) and teacher, Ms. Torres (right). All the kids think she looks just like Miss Delphine in Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia - and she does!! Exactly!

She has great red hair and dangley earrings and even sparkly high-heeled shoes that go clickity clack.

And she is uber nice, like Miss Delphine.

The kids adore her.







The amazing Dee Dee getting roses for her birthday. Everybody in the entire city of Tampa adores Dee Dee.

(Thank you, Dee Dee, for being my chauffeur and BFF.)










Kids showing me their spelling bee!

The Sunshine State

Greetings from Florida. My first day of school visits started at the most beautiful elementary school ever. It was 80 years old and had so much character. Check out the tiles on these stairs, made by children (the tiles, that is...not the stairs.)

Me, yammering away about Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia (my book that is on the Sunshine Young Readers Award list):

Joan McClelland (left), librarian at Mabry Elementary in Tampa and Abby Russell (right), author event coordinator for Barnes and Noble, standing in front of the terrific welcome signs made by the students:

Some words of encouragement from a student:

Abby Russell (left) and me:

Welcoming words from a student:

One of the many drawings of Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia:

One class gave me a terrific book of poems they had made.

AND - another class made a banner about various writing elements they found in FAME AND GLORY IN FREEDOM, GEORGIA. I have some great photos of it and will post it at a later date.