Year in a Minute (or Two) 2014

My fifth annual Year-in-a-Minute (or Two)

Year in a Minute 2014 from Barbara O'Connor on Vimeo.

How to Steal a Dog Movie Premiere

So, the movie premiere is TONIGHT in South Korea

and I'm still trying to decide what to wear.

And just in case you need to watch the trailer just one more time:

It's right here. 

And in case you don't know how excited I am:

A great Skype visit

I had a great Skype visit with 4th-grade students at Fort Worth Academy.

This is what greeted me when I first logged on:

Love that!

They had great questions and one student showed me her amazing artwork:

 

Their teacher, Ms. Bonin, sent me these cool pictures of her students reading on the playground.

 

Thank you, Fort Worth Academy!

A New Book!

So excited to share this news (from Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf):

Janine O'Malley of Farrar, Straus & Giroux has acquired world rights for Wish, a novel by Barbara O'Connor. Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has made the same wish since fourth grade, hoping that someday it will come true. When her irresponsible parents cause her to be sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains to live with family members she doesn't know, she needs that wish to come true more than ever. Publication is planned for fall 2016; Barbara Markowitz of Barbara Markowitz Literary Agency did the deal.

El Deafo

I loved this little gem.

I've worn one of those special microphones while in classrooms many, many times.

I usually don't know which kid needs it.

Now, having read this charming memoir, I feel like I have much more understanding of the experience of hearing-impaired students.

This book is honest and sweet and funny and surely gives every reader a whole lot more empathy.

A gem.

Things I Love Thursday

I love these students from Meridian Middle School in Buffalo Grove, Illinois!

Y'all rock!

 

How to Steal a Dog Movie Trailer!

Here it is, y'all!

The trailer for the Korean film of How to Steal a Dog.

Two Things on Tuesday

Thing One:

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.

                                                            --Anne Lamott

Thing Two:

Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count.

 
                                                                 --Dr. Seuss

A Cool Thank You Photo

Here are students from Samuel Wagner Middle School in Winterport, Maine, showing the books won by Betsy Murphy in my drawing.

Thanks for sending this, y'all!!