Author: Loree Burns

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Blogging for a Cure: Week Three

With thanks to Jen Robinson for permission to print the following post …

As you know if you’ve been visiting any children’s book blogs for the past few weeks, Robert’s Snow is an online auction that benefits Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 200 children’s book illustrators have created art on individual snowflake-shaped wooden templates. The snowflakes will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to cancer research. You can view all of the 2007 snowflakes here. Jules and Eisha from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have found a way for bloggers to help with this effort, by blogging about individual illustrators and their snowflakes. The idea is to drive traffic to the Robert’s Snow site so that many snowflakes will be sold, and much money raised to fight cancer. The illustrator profiles have been wonderful so far – diverse and creative and colorful. And there are lots more to go.

Here’s the schedule for Week 3, which starts Monday. As previously, this early schedule links to the participating blogs, instead of to the individual posts. You can find links to the posts themselves, and any last-minute updates, each morning at 7-Imp. Jules and Eisha have also set up a special page at 7-Imp containing a comprehensive list of links to the profiles posted so far. Also not to be missed is Kris Bordessa’s post summarizing snowflake-related contests to date over at Paradise Found.

Monday, October 29

Tuesday, October 30

Wednesday, October 31

Thursday, November 1

Friday, November 2

Saturday, November 3

Sunday, November 4

Please take time out to visit all of these blogs, and read about these fabulous illustrators. And, if you’re so inclined, think about bidding for a snowflake in the Robert’s Snow auction. Each snowflake makes a unique gift (for yourself or for someone else), and supports an important cause.

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Kissing the Bee

KISSING THE BEE
By Kathe Koja
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

Category: Young adult fiction

I’m into bees at the moment and my friend Jane, worried what an uninterupted diet of buzzy non-fiction might do to me, compiled a list of novels that have something to do with bees. It is a longer list than you might think; KISSING THE BEE was right at the top…

Dana is a senior in high school busy with the drama of planning for prom, helping her best friends create a fabulous costume for the festivities, writing a biology report on honey bees, and dealing with the fact that she has fallen in love with her best friend’s boyfriend. True-blue Dana manages to keep everything under control … until the moment she realizes that Emil just might love her, too. With the vivid structure of life in the hive as a backdrop, Koje weaves a tale of chaos, living, and choosing. I’d recommend this short, sweet book even if I hadn’t found this little nugget on page 48:

“Somebody even made a robot bee that can communicate with real bees …”

Seriously? Could this be true? Off to do some more poking in the 590s (you know, the non-fiction section devoted to honey bees) …

 

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The Great Gilly Hopkins

THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS
By THE GREAT Katherine Paterson
Trophy, 1978

Category: Middle grade fiction

Awards: Newbery Honor

The kids and I read this book to commemorate Banned Books Week 2007. I assume its place on the list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999 is because of Gilly’s language, and I will admit to changing a few “hells” to “hecks” as I read aloud. But this was because I had very young ears listening in, ears attached to a little girl who believes STUPID is a swear word. THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS is a finely rendered look at the frustrations of being young, abandoned, and very, very angry; banning a book that has so much to offer readers for mild language seems, um, STUPID, to me.

From a writer’s perspective, I found it interesting that Gilly is so unlike-able for much of the story. This is hard to pull off, I think, and Paterson did it masterfully. (Hey Liza … are you listening? You know how I always rant about unlikeable protagonists being impossible? I stand corrected!)

 

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET
By Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press, 2007

Category: Hmmm. This one is in a category all its own; Lisa Yee suggests we call it Selznickian

My mind prefers words to images. I am not sure why this is so; it just is. And so I was afraid I might not enjoy THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET the way the rest of the world has. And, truth be told, I was feeling less-than-attached (emotionally speaking) early in the story. But then I got to this moment:

“The black engine was zooming right toward Hugo and he was caught, unable to look away, as though he were watching a movie.”

and realized I was in the hands of a capable and talented writer. By the time I closed the covers I understood that this book was more than words and pictures. It was a three-dimensional experience served up in a gorgeous two-dimensional package. The accolades being heaped upon this book are well-deserved; give it a read, er, a look …

 

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Blogging for a Cure: Week Two

Week Two of “Blogging for a Cure” is officially underway. Below is a schedule of this week’s artists and the blogs that will feature them. If you find a snowflake you adore, visit the Robert’s Snow online auction to bid on it. Enjoy!

Monday, October 22

Tuesday, October 23

Wednesday, October 24

Thursday, October 25

Friday, October 26

Saturday, October 27

Sunday, October 28

 

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The Secret of the Old Clock

THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK
By Carolyn Keene
Grosset & Dunlap, 1959

Category: Middle grade fiction of the most nostalgic sort

Nancy Drew, an attractive girl of eighteen, was driving home along a country road in her new, dark-blue convertible. She had just delivered some legal papers for her father.

“It was sweet of Dad to give me this car for my birthday,” she thought. “And it’s fun to help him in his work.”

Think what you will, but this opening thrills me. The scene is as familiar as my own reflection. Nancy Drew! I had forgotten how much I admired her independence, her ability to change tires and think her way out of locked closets, the impossible way that coincidence is always on her side.

I don’t think I’ll go back and read the entire series, but reading this first volume again was fascinating. And because I just can’t help but share more, I’ll leave you with this …

With foreboding, Nancy stopped and got out to make an inspection. As she had suspected, a rear tire was flat.

“Oh dear!” she murmered [sic] in disgust. “Such luck!”

Though Nancy was able to change a tire, she never relished the task. Quickly she took out the spare tire from the rear compartment, found the jack and lug wrench, and went to work. By the time her job was completed, she was hot and a little breathless.

“Whew!” she exclaimed, as she started on her way again. “I’ll be ready for a nice, cool swim in Moon Lake!”

 

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Coastsweep

Is it possible I haven’t updated the world (er, my blog world) on my Coastal Cleanup event?

Oi!

A brief reminder: I am sponsoring a coastal cleanup event, a la The Ocean Conservancy‘s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) event, in central Massachusetts.

The original plan was for a small group of my family and friends to walk the shores of Indian Lake, collect trash, and record what we found. Our results would be reported to the Massachusetts ICC organizing group, COASTSWEEP, and combined with trash data from similar cleanups across the state. Those numbers, in turn, would be combined with trash data from the forty-nine other United States and then with data from the ninety-plus countries that participate in this massive effort to protect the world ocean.

The new plan is similar, except for the “small group of my family and friends” part. The cleanup has turned into a grand community extravaganza, thanks to the Indian Lake Watershed Association, the Worcester Department of Public Works & Parks, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, the Bancroft School and several local school and scouting groups. In addition to collecting and recording debris, we will be stenciling storm drains, brush clipping, mud scouring, sand raking, and performing a myriad of other lake maintenance activities. An entire community of people who live, work, or play in the Indian Lake neighborhood have committed to a day of caring for it … how cool is that?

In case you are in the area and cannot resist a party, here are the details:

Indian Lake Cleanup Event
Indian Lake
Worcester, Massachusetts
Sunday, October 28, 2007
10am to 2pm
Checkin at the corner of Shore Drive and Holden Street
Dress for MUD!

Participants in any COASTSWEEP cleanup event this year, including the Indian Lake event, are eligible for my TRACKING TRASH drawings, you can find more details here.

And you can find a formal press release describing the event here.

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The Dot

THE DOT
Written and Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
Candlewick, 2003

Category: Picture Book

This book was featured in a peace vigil I attended earlier in the month, and I have been thinking about it ever since. I know, I know … THE DOT is not a book about peace. But it is a book about self-expression, and since we were gathered to express our wishes for peace in the world, reading THE DOT was supremely appropriate.

Toward the end of the service, percussionist Matt Meyer reflected on the story and asked us to consider which character in THE DOT most described our place in the world: the student, unsure of her skills and afraid to make her mark; or the teacher, wise from experience and able to say, “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.”

I am SO both.