Author: Loree Burns

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Becky’s Christmas

BECKY’S CHRISTMAS
By Tasha Tudor
Viking Press, 1961

Category: Illustrated story

The holiday season overwhelms me, what with Christmas carols being played in October and mall traffic jams mucking up travel during November. The crush of images—in print, online, and everywhere in between—meant to define the perfect holiday are just so far from where I live that, well, I get grouchy. Thank goodness for books. This weekend BECKY’S CHRISTMAS cheered me up.

My copy of this out-of-print classic was a gift from my friend Jane. (That in itself makes me feel better. Jane, you rock!) The story is classic old-time Christmas … complete with real candles and greens, hand-made advent calendars and gingerbread ornaments, siblings who share chores willingly and make gifts for one another secretly. One might argue that this vision of Christmas is as far from where I live as those I try so desperately to escape this time of year. To which I would respond with a cold, cold glare: “Yes. You’re right.”

But striving for Tasha Tudor’s vision stresses me less than striving for decorative perfection (inside and out), greeting card impeccability (to say nothing of timeliness), and season-long, over-the-top domestic flawlessness.

So there.

Happy Holidays!

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Lessons From a Dead Girl

LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL
By Jo Knowles
Candlewick, 2007

Category: Young Adult Fiction

As you will recognize from my earlier post, today is a thinking day. In addition to thinking about my personal Everest and my favorite nonfiction first lines, I am thinking about this amazing book. I read it over the weekend in two intense sittings. And it is one of those books—one of those rare and unforgettable books—that makes you think.

Laine McCarthy and Leah Greene were childhood friends. Unlikely friends—Laine was quiet and awkward, Leah was popular and beautiful—but friends nonetheless. When the book opens, Leah is dead, and Laine (brave, beautiful Laine!) is not sure how to feel about it. After reading their story, I don’t know how to feel about it either. I am left wondering about cruelty and secrets and resilience. Especially about resilience. (Why are some people instinctually resilient and others not? Why? WHY?)

LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL will break and heal your heart at the same time. It is hard to read and impossible to put down. It is sad and liberating and scary and comforting all at once. It will make you think.

 

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Writerly Things

There is a discussion going on over at Roger Sutton’s blog (Read Roger) about a writer’s Mount Everest. That is, the one mountainous project that each individual writer feels she must conquer in order to consider herself a success. Yes, yes, I’ve got one of those. It is there, on the horizon, snowy-peaks and all. I’m still building up my strength, collecting and testing my tools, recruiting sherpas. I think I will need a lot of sherpas …

And over at Nonfiction Matters, Marc Aronson is blogging about the importance of beginnings in nonfiction. He has challenged readers to submit their favorites, and the openings and discussions to date have got my gears turning…

Who says my time on the bloglines could be better spent writing? THINKING ABOUT THE WRITING is just as important to me, and blogs like these remind me to do that. (Yes, I actually need reminding.)

 

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Emi and the Rhino Scientist

EMI AND THE RHINO SCIENTIST
By Mary Kay Carson
Photographs by Tom Uhlman
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction

I know that my singing the praises of “Scientists in the Field” books is not likely to mean much anymore. I mean, I’ve written one and I am working on another; of course I like them! Even still, I just read the latest and I have to mention it here …

Emi, a rare Sumatran rhinoceros, was orphaned as a baby calf, rescued by conservationists, and brought to the United States in hopes of breeding her. Terri Roth is a wildlife reproduction specialist who helped her become a mother. (It was not easy.) Readers follow their story through intelligent text and stunning images, beautifully arranged, as always.

Congratulations to author Mary Kay Carson and photographer Tom Uhlman on a book well done!

 

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Following the Bloom

FOLLOWING THE BLOOM
By Douglas Whynott
Stackpole Books, 1991

Category: Nonfiction for Grown-ups

I’m still neck-deep in bees … and will be for a while. THE HIVE DETECTIVES, my next “Scientists in the Field” book, won’t be published until Spring 2010. That’s right, dear blog reader, there are literally years of bee books ahead of us. Buckle up.

FOLLOWING THE BLOOM is a literary road trip: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers. In it, Whynott introduces readers to a cadre of quirky and irresistible people—almost exclusively men—who spend their lives amongst bees. They keep bees in hives, truck them across state lines, rent them to commercial growers for pollination purposes, wax poetic about their indispensability, collect and sell their honey. The beekeepers I met in Whynott’s book, like those I have met in person, are passionate, fascinating, and a bit out there. Stepping into their world is thrilling; being a bit out there myself, I find I fit right in.

 

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Up Close: Robert F. Kennedy

UP CLOSE: ROBERT F. KENNEDY
By Marc Aronson
Viking, 2007

Category: Young Adult Biography

I am a student at heart, one of those people who would go to school forever if I could manage it. But since I have only recently finished paying for my existing degrees, and because my three kids will be college-age in a blink, I make do by learning from the people I meet and the books I read. Marc Aronson is my latest teacher.

Marc keeps a blog, Nonfiction Matters, at the School Library Journal website. The issues he raises there are important … and his thoughts (and those of his readers) are always insightful. I learn much, and am inspired to think.

Marc has also written this magnificent biography of Robert F. Kennedy, and reading it was a lesson in craft. I was taken by Marc’s passion for his subject—it was palpable—and I couldn’t help but wonder at the massive responsibility a biographer assumes. Telling the story of a life is one thing, but getting to know a person well enough to explain their lives … that strikes me as another thing altogether. I can’t remember another biography that has given me such a strong sense of the author’s commitment to this task.

Great book. Great blog. I recommend both to all students of nonfiction.

 

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The Kindle

Have you read Steven Levy’s cover story in this week’s issue of Newsweek (dated November 26, 2007)? It’s about the Kindle, Amazon’s newly released e-reader, and it (the article) has got me clasping the nearest old-fashioned, pulp and ink, fully-bound, perhaps-error-ridden-but-decidedly,BLESSEDLY!-un-linked BOOK … and reading it. Defiantly.

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On The Road With Richard Peck

Well, not really.

But I did spend today on the road—roads in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, to be precise—and Richard Peck did help make the driving bearable. Alas, I was travelling with the stories-on-tape, not the man. I listened to both THE RIVER BETWEEN US and ON THE WINGS OF HEROES and arrived at my destination completely in awe of this man who brings people to life so easily. His characters, Delphine and Noah and all the rest, are so real and rounded and warty and lovely. And funny. (I appreciated that humor while driving through SNOW in the Pocono Mountains!)

And so here I am in Pennsylvania, researching a new book and contemplating storytelling … and how to do it better.

I’ll be busy through the holiday, so will close with Happy Thanksgiving wishes to all. Safe travels and happy visiting!

 

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Raffle Winners!


Photo © 2007 Betty Jenewin

I am thrilled to announce the winners of the 2007 COASTSWEEP Raffle:

Diana R. won an autographed copy of TRACKING TRASH.

Cameron R. won an autographed copy of TRACKING TRASH.

And Don B., a middle-school science teacher, won a day-long author visit for his school and an autographed copy of TRACKING TRASH.

Congratulations winners, and hearty applause to everyone who helped protect the world ocean by participating in COASTSWEEP this year.