My family was mentioned in one of the many Harry Potter articles floating around this week … you can read it here.
The kids and I are closing in on the end of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE and are anxiously awaiting our copy of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. The hype is palpable, and I think it’s fabulous.
Happy Reading!
THE CHRISTMAS MENORAHS, HOW A TOWN FOUGHT HATE
By Janice Cohn
Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
Albert Whitman and Company, 1995
Category: Illustrated story
Christmas in July? Well, sort of.
I am doing some curriculum work this summer. Firstly, I am working on a curriculum guide for TRACKING TRASH. Secondly, I am writing several curriculum stories based on the history of my Unitarian Universalist (UU) church. Both have been rewarding, if somewhat difficult, projects. It was while working on the UU lessons that I came across THE CHRISTMAS MENORAHS.
The book is based on actual events that occurred in Billings, Montana during the 1993 holiday season. A rock was thrown through the menorah-lighted bedroom window of a boy named Isaac Schnitzer. Isaac is shocked—to say nothing of frightened—to learn that his family was targeted simply because they are Jewish. When the local paper prints full-page menorahs, the Billings community responds in force: thousands of menorahs are displayed in windows—windows of all classes and all creeds—across the city. Take that, haters!
I like this book as a tool for framing discussions about hate crimes and standing together against bigots. And I like it for reminding me to stand up, too … in my own small way in my own small life.
THIS IS A POEM THAT HEALS FISH
By Jean-Pierre Simeon
Illustrated by Olivier Tallec
Translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick
Enchanted Lion Books, 2007
Category: Picture book
So busy around here these days! And hot, too. Very hot.
We are still working our way through HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE in anticipation of the release. And I have been playing “Who Should Illustrate My New Picture Book?” … so have been reading lots of picture books. THIS IS A POEM THAT HEALS FISH was one of my recent favorites.
The cover caught my eye from the top of the bookshelves of the library Children’s Room. It shows a young boy, forlorn, head resting across a table and arms wrapped around a fish bowl. The image was irresistable, especially when coupled to the that title. A poem? That heals fish? Okay. I’ll bite.
The fish is named Leon.
His boy is named Arthur.
Arthur thinks Leon is dying of boredom, and he asks his mother, frantically, for advice. She offers this:
“Hurry, give him a poem!”
The problem is that Arthur doesn’t know what a poem is, or where to find one. For the rest of the book, the adults in Arthur’s life (and a bird named Aristophanes) share their notions of poetry, abstract and beautiful descriptions that, unfortunately, mean nothing at all to Arthur …
The text is beautiful. The illustrations are gorgeous. The story is, hmmm, what is the word I want here? Unexpected. That’s it. The story is unexpected. I like it more each time I read it.
When I was writing TRACKING TRASH and marveling at the magnitude of the marine debris problem, I felt strongly about finding something concrete that I could do–and that readers could do–to protect the ocean. What I found was Ocean Conservancy and their International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) events. If you’ve read TRACKING TRASH, you know about them already.
ICC events are not your run-of-the-mill beach cleanups. Held annually across the country and around the world, ICC events are mega beach-cleanups during which volunteers not only pick up trash, but they count it too. Yep, you read that right … they count it. Every September, volunteers don plastic gloves and comb shorelines carrying a trash bag and a collection sheet. Each and every cigarette butt, plastic straw, food wrapper, plastic bag and bottle cap is recorded on the collection sheet before it is dropped in the trash bag. In the past twenty years, 6.6 million ICC volunteers have removed 116 million pounds of debris from 211,460 miles of shoreline in 127 countries.
That is a lot of trash … but what’s up with the counting? Why count garbage? Well, because the numbers are POWERFUL. Let me give you an example.
If I tell you that cigarette butts are a big problem on beaches, you would probably nod and sigh. But if I told you that during the 2006 International Coastal Cleanup volunteers collected 1,901,519 cigarette butts, you might get a little outraged. And if I went on to tell you that during a one hour cleanup of a 1.5 mile stretch of California beach volunteers collected 6,300 cigarette butts, well, then you might support something like this. ICC numbers provide information, and that information helps citizens and conservation groups and lawmakers to address the problem of marine debris.
This year, I am hosting a cleanup event near my home in central Massachusetts. I am also participating in a special raffle for Massachusetts ICC volunteers. You can find out more about Massachusetts COASTSWEEP here and about the raffles here. And if you don’t live in Massachusetts, fear not. There is an ICC event near you; find it here.
REX ZERO AND THE END OF THE WORLD
By Tim Wynne-Jones
Melanie Kroupa Books, 2007
Category: Middle-grade fiction
Awards: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honoree
This was a fun book.
Firstly, you can tell the Winne-Jones digs language. I like that.
(Quick aside: I feel as if I am just beginning to focus on language in my writing. Previously I have worried more about plot and character and Gotcha! beginnings and the rest. I am only now letting myself linger on the words.)
Secondly, you can tell Winne-Jones has a sense of humor. I like that, too.
(Quick aside: I do not have a sense of humor. I was born without one. Very sad.)
Thirdly, I’ve never read a book that successfully blends the intrigue of a fantasy (what is the creature living in Adams Park?), the drama of history (what is so cold about the Cold War and nuclear bombs?), the frustration of adolescence (“It’s a well-known fact that families move in the summer so that their children can wander around a new neighborhood for two months in lonely despair.”) and the wit of ten-year-olds (Rex’s surname is actually Norton-Norton, which his new pals think is weird, sort of like Norton “minus” Norton … which would equal zero, or Zero).
(Quick aside: I came of age at the very end of the Cold War. It was interesting to compare the backdrop of my childhood with that of Rex. He lived in a much scarier time.)
Anyway, it is easy to see why REX ZERO AND THE END OF THE WORLD was honored. Great book.
MANIAC MAGEE
By Jerry Spinelli
Scholastic, 1990
Category: Middle-grade fiction
Awards: Newbery Medal
Ahh. Now I get it.
It took seventeen years, but I finally read MANIAC MAGEE. And I Loved it. (Capital L intentional.) The voice is unusual, and it was pitch-perfect throughout. It didn’t let up for a single sentence. Not one.
“They say Maniac Magee was born in a dump. They say his stomach was a cereal box and his heart a sofa spring.
They say he kept an eight-inch cockroach on a leash and that rats stood guard over him while he slept.
They say if you knew he was coming and you sprinkled salt on the ground and he ran over it, within two or three blocks he would be as slow as everybody else.
They say.”
And so it goes, for the entire fantastically unbelievably true story of Maniac Magee. It is masterful. And a heck of a lot of fun to read.
WOLVES
Written and illustrated by Emily Gravett
Simon & Schuster, 2006
Category: Picture book, 2007 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honoree
Sorry for being so quiet this week, but I have been working. Hard. So hard that I nearly met my self-imposed July 1 deadline for polishing and mailing my Work-In-Progress. I mailed it on July 2, and it felt GOOD!
My first thought was to clean the house, which has been sorely neglected these past few weeks. But there is a pile of books needing attention, too, and reading is much more fun. So instead of vacuuming this morning, I lost myself in a book about … losing one’s self in a book.
Perfect.
In WOLVES, Rabbit goes to the library and gets himself a book about wolves. Strike that; it is not just any book about wolves, but a fascinating and intriguing book about wolves. Rabbit is into this book; really into it. I can’t tell you what happens, but I can guarantee a happy ending.
Sort of.
I have a heavy heart today.
My town, like many small towns across the country, is struggling financially. Residents voted recently (and vehemently) to restrict the amount of money the town can appropriate via taxes. As a result, heart-wounding and community-dividing decisions are in our future. Like closing our library, like closing our senior center, like cutting art and music programming from our schools, like short-changing community safety.
I am sick over the idea of losing my library, to say nothing of the decisions I would then have to make. But how do I tell my neighbors that my need for library access is more important than a music director for their child’s school band? How can any community choose between fire fighters and police officers? Between schoolchildren and senior citizens?
I have come to believe there are no right or wrong answers in this situation, only difficult and gut-wrenching decisions. At this point my fondest wish is that we find a way to make them honestly and respectfully and with the thoughtfulness they deserve.
So … if you have a local library, support it! The American Library Association has some great ideas for how, including writing your Congressperson and letting them know how important local libraries are. Find more information and other ideas here.
Okay, this is going to be fun.
I was invited to speak at the Fish Tales, Tugs & Sails Festival in New London, Connecticut on August 11. Just last week I got my author packet, and I am stoked.
Check out this author list:
D.B. Johnson (HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG and other titles)
John Himmelman (IBIS, A TRUE WHALE STORY and other titles)
Linda Michelin (ZUZU’S WISHING CAKE)
Nancy Elizabeth Wallace (RECYCLE EVERY DAY and other titles)
Mark Kimball Moulton & Karen Hillard Good (MISS SADIE MCGEE WHO LIVED IN A TREE)
Karen Romano Young (ACROSS THE WIDE OCEAN)
Barbara Shaw McKinney (A DROP AROUND THE WORLD and other titles)
As if presenting alongside these amazing artists in an outdoor, waterfront extravaganza weren’t enough of a treat–the organizers informed me that I get to arrive at the festival in a tugboat. Seriously. A tugboat.
Toot! Toot!
Those of you who have been following this blog since the beginning may recall this post about the debut novel of my critique partner Eric Luper. Back then–April 2006–I recommended each of you buy BIG SLICK the moment it became available. I still think this is a good idea. And I am happy to let you know that BIG SLICK is almost here!
Check out this review at Teens Read Too … and read an excerpt from the novel here.
Way to go, Eric!
