I am home again and my Inbox is (mostly) cleared and the laundry is (mostly) finished and the kids and I have got a new book going (Avi’s THE END OF THE BEGINNING). It is time to get back to work. But first, a few more posts about IRA …
Did you know Sneed B. Collard III has a new “Scientists in the Field” book coming out in the fall? Or that Jim Arnosky’s next book will include an original recording of a song Jim wrote? I gathered these tidbits at a morning presentation by Sneed and Jim; both thoughts make me happy.
I am also happy about THE SILVER CUP, by Constance Leeds. Connie received the 2008 IRA Children’s and Young Adult Book Award in the Intermediate Fiction category and I got to sit beside her on the dais during the award luncheon. We ended up on the same flight home and Connie had the lovely idea of exchanging copies of our books. (TRACKING TRASH is on its way to you as I type, Connie!)
Other books and authors honored at the Young Adult Literature Luncheon included:
Ibtisam Barakat for TASTING THE SKY: A PALESTINIAN CHILDHOOD (Young Adult Nonfiction)
Laura Resau for RED GLASS (Young Adult Fiction)
I am surprised and disappointed to realize that I didn’t actually meet Ibtisam or Laura during the festivities. (Picture me slapping my forehead and saying, “Duh!”) I hope I will have another chance one day. In the meanwhile, I plan to read their books.
And while I am adding books to the To Read pile, I cannot forget Suzanne Fisher Staples’s THE HOUSE OF DJINN (and since it is the third in a series of novels, I must add SHABANU and HAVELI as well). Suzanne gave the keynote address at the luncheon, and her stories of the people and places that inspired these books intrigued me. Suzanne believes that the best way to fight hatred and violence is to bring peoples and cultures together, to help them know each other; so comes love. Amen to that.
After the luncheon I signed copies of TRACKING TRASH at the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt booth. Guess who stopped by?
Steve THE WOODS SCIENTIST Swinburne! Steve ONCE A WOLF Swinburne! And do you know what he said? He said, “You wrote TRACKING TRASH? I love that book.”
Steve Swinburne and me
I spent much of my time at IRA awestruck at the people I was meeting: publishers I admire, editors I admire, writers and illustrators I admire. Talking with Steve made me realize, for the first time, that these talented and amazing people are my colleagues. It was a giddy moment.