Adirondack Family Book Festival 2025

The 2025 Adirondack Family Book Festival is just around the corner! Join me and fifteen other writers and illustrators of books for children and teens at the Lake Placid Middel/High School in Lake Placid, NY on Saturday, August 16 from 9:30am to 4pm. There will be mini-workshops and presentations throughout the day, as well as books for sale (shout out to The Bookstore Plus!) and creators happy to inscribe them for you. This is the fourth annual celebration of books and reading and readers and writers, and you do not want to miss it. For more details, visit the Festival website. (Like the graphic below, it contains lots of delightful art by Maxwell Eaton III!)

NCTE Conference

NCTE Conference

I’m thrilled to be heading to Boston this week for the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference. I’d love to see you at either of the two panel presentations detailed below … or out and about around the exhibit hall!

Adirondack Family Book Festival

Adirondack Family Book Festival

Saturday, August 17
9:30am – 4pm
115 John Brown Road
Lake Placid, NY


Please join us for this free celebration of summer and reading and readers!

All are welcome!

You’re Invited …

You’re Invited!

In this two-part outdoor event, participants are invited to expand their knowledge of Adirondack biodiversity, practice their skills as a naturalist, and celebrate National Moth Week … all by studying nighttime lepidopterans.

On Friday evening, help writer and naturalist Loree Griffin Burns lure moths to the John Brown Farm using lights and bait; bring your own flashlight/headlamps and stay as late as you’re able!

All are welcome back to the Farm early on Saturday morning for a peek at the straggler moths and to continue the learning.

Come to one or both events; all are welcome.

This event is sponsored by John Brown Lives!

Pre-Order Incentive!

Pre-Order Incentive!

I’m thrilled to announce that my friends at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY are helping me coordinate a pre-order campaign for my next book for young readers, which comes out on May 14, 2024. If you pre-order a copy of One Long Line through the store anytime between now and publication day, using this link, you will receive a signed copy of a second of my books–Citizen Scientists–completely free. That’s right, two books for the price of one! You can pick up your books in the store after May 14, or they can be mailed to you; all the information you need is at the link above.

Ordering new books before their publication date is probably the most important way you can support your favorite writers and their work. Why? Pre-orders help publishers gauge interest in books before their publication, which can help them decide if they will publish that writer’s subsequent work. (This is particularly true in series. And ONE LONG LINE is the first book in a brand-new series!) Pre-order numbers are also an important factor in determining what books are considered “bestsellers,” as all books ordered in the months before publication day are included in the book’s first-week sales numbers. So … I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering. It’s easy-peasy and means a lot to me.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! And happy reading!