I spoke with Suzanne Lieurance of the National Writing For Children Center last week and our interview is now available on Book Bytes For Kids. We talked about TRACKING TRASH, how I came to write it, the folks I met along the way, and tips for nonfiction writers.
Oh, and the interview is available as a podcast. That’s right … apparently you can dowload me to your iPod or MP3 player and bring me with you wherever you go. How’s that for scary?!
I AM THE WALLPAPER
By Mark Peter Hughes
Delacorte, 2005
Ever felt invisible? I have, and I think that is why I AM THE WALLPAPER resonated with me. The protagonist, thirteen-year-old Floey Packer, is a background girl: she blends in, is often overlooked, and never gets noticed … she feels like, well, wallpaper. Until her rotten cousins come to town and make her front page—web page—news. I think adolescents (and ex-adolescents) will recognize in Floey a lot of the joy, conflict, angst, and hope that makes growing up so … so … fun. Yep. Fun.
I didn’t plan this, but it is fitting that I read I AM THE WALLPAPER this weekend. Its author, New Englander Mark Peter Hughes, is launching a cross-country book tour (“two adults, three small children, one minivan, and a shoestring budget”) today. And he will be featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” tonight. Check out his new blog or his website for more info …
This weekend I got talking to a friend of a friend. He used to work for the Environmental Protection Agency and I wrote a children’s book with an environmental underpinning … so we chatted about the environment, marine debris, plastic recycling, alternatives to single-use throwaway plastics … all sorts of things that made everyone else in the room roll their eyes and shake their heads. Toward the end of his visit, this nice, nice man surprised me.
Him: “Would you be interested in having a few of my better environmental books?”
Me: “!” (I was speechless as I tried to figure out how to answer. Did he want me to buy them? Should I? Could I? Did he want to give them to me?!!!)
Him: “I am downsizing my personal library. I’ve got quite a collection and I’d love to see them go to a good home.”
Me: “!”
Him: “?”
Me: “!”
Him, forgetting the impression our recent intelligent and passionate conversation may have left and wondering, I am sure, if I was a nitwit: “I’ll bring a box by later.”
And he did. He brought me a box of books that made me happy enough to get my husband and our friends rolling their eyes again. David Attenborough’s THE LIVING PLANET and LIFE ON EARTH, RUBBISH, by William Rathje and Cullen Murphy and TAKING OUT THE TRASH, by Jennifer Carless, THE POPULATION EXPLOSION, by Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, LIVING DOWNSTREAM, by Sandra Steingraber, EARTH IN THE BALANCE, by Al Gore … and many more.
How to repay such an act of kindness? I’m not sure. But I decided an autographed copy of TRACKING TRASH was in order. I mean, the man has all that space on his bookshelf now …
365 PENGUINS
By Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet
Abrams, 2006
Category: Picture Book
This vibrant, oversized Boston Globe-Horn Book Award honoree caught the eye of my nearly-nine-year-old son the moment it came home from the library.
“Penguins!” he shouted, and he grabbed the book from my stack and headed for the couch.
Thirty minutes and four readings later he informed me that 365 PENGUINS should have won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award outright. Hands down. No questions. When I suggested he consider reading the other books in the category before deciding for sure, he told me that wouldn’t be necessary. “I already know this one is the best.” Ah, the blind passion of youth. The boy has written the following brief review … enjoy!
“The best part about 365 PENGUINS is the illustrations. The words are just telling a single story, but the pictures have about five stories. There are some jokes in the words but not as many as in the illustrations. I’ve also never seen such a design for penguins. The illustrations make you want to read 365 PENGUINS a ton of times.”
If you hadn’t guessed, this kid is an artist. 365 PENGUINS inspired pages and pages of penguins in his journal. Here’s a peek …
ESCAPE! The Story of the Great Houdini
By Sid Fleischman
Greenwillow, 2006
Category: Middle Grade Nonfiction, Biography
The events of a recent, rainy Monday, have inspired me to read and re-read these books … all honor books and winners of the 2007 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature.
I started at the beginning, of course, by revisiting the books on the list that I have already read. Sara Pennypacker’s CLEMENTINE, for example. And Sid Fleischman’s ESCAPE!
Hold it. What is this? There is no entry in my blog archive for ESCAPE! How is that possible? It was one of my favorite nominees in the Middle Grade Nonfiction category of the 2006 Cybil Awards. I know I talked it up to my kids and my friends; I remember mentioning over and over again how struck I was with the role language played in creating atmosphere in the book. I complimented the author on pulling in a reluctant reader by attending so beautifully to story. How could I have neglected to talk about ESCPAE! here on my blog?
Hmmm. Let’s fix that.
First of all, let me reiterate that I was, in the case of ESCAPE!, a reluctant reader. I’m just not all that interested in magic … or in Harry Houdini. And yet I was drawn into this book. Houdini’s intrepid personality leaped from its pages and Fleischman’s language choices painted Harry Houdini—rapscallion that he was—so vividly that even I was entranced.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Sid Fleischman at a recent New England SCBWI Conference. He was a keynote speaker and charmed audiences with both words of wisdom and sleight of hand. He personalized my copy of ESCAPE! during the weekend, doodling a rabbit peeking out of a top hat and inscribing the title page:
“Cheers and Congratulations for Loree on the publication of her first book! ABRACADABRA! Sid Fleischman”
I can’t wait to meet him again at the award banquet …
The folks at Wildlife Conservation Magazine printed a fine review of TRACKING TRASH in their July/August issue. I can’t find an online link, but trust me, it is right there on page 57*. It says, among other things:
“… her book will fascinate people of all ages and lead them to serious thoughts of ‘reducing, reusing, and recycling’ …”
* Remember the People mention? That was on page 57, too. Perhaps this is my new lucky number?
The kids and I spent yesterday at Boston’s Museum of Science exploring The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall. We knuckle walked, sat in a chimpanzee nest, fished for termites, practiced our pant-hooting, and wandered through a facsimile of Gombe Streams National Park, stopping, of course, in Jane’s comfy tent along the way. I left even more in awe of this woman who is so passionate about chimpanzees and discovery and making the world a better place.
And so I am going to share a small list of my favorite Jane Goodall treasures. Explore and enjoy!
• Jane’s autobiography for young readers, MY LIFE WITH THE CHIMPANZEES, is a must-read;
• Jane’s autobiography for adult readers, THROUGH A WINDOW, is equally enjoyable;
• ROOTS AND SHOOTS, a program of The Jane Goodall Institute, empowers young people to make the world a better place;
• Jane’s Four Reasons for Hope, is an essay worth reading.
There is a teeny, tiny flaw in Mom’s Crazy Summer Work Plan: if Mom doesn’t get herself to bed at a VERY decent hour, then she is a bit snookered during the day.
For the most part I can deal with snookered. I can still get up early (I am one of those people who loves early morning: quiet, lonely, and all mine), can still put up solid pages, can survive the summertime adventures of the day. It is only in the late afternoon, when we retreat indoors for lemonade and a chapter or two of Harry Potter, that my eyes begin to droop. Yesterday I fell asleep with Harry under his Invisibility Cloak and surrounded by Slytherins!
Ah, well. Sleep schmeep. I am two short weeks away from my deadline; I can’t stop now. And cat naps aren’t a bad thing, are they? I mean, all the cats I know seem healthy and rather content …
COASTSWEEP, the annual coastal cleanup event in Massachusetts, is holding a Poster Contest … and you are invited to participate. Children in grades K-12 are eligible and the contest deadline is Wednesday, July 18. Prizes include T-shirts, passes to the New England Aquarium, and REI Outdoor School vouchers. One grand prize winning poster will even be included in COASTSWEEP 2007 promotional materials.
If you are a Massachusetts kid and you love the ocean and its wildlife, check out this contest.
If you live in Massachusetts but are too old to participate (like me!), check out the COASTSWEEP website to learn how you can protect our waterways and shorelines. Cleanup events are held throughout the fall and are a fabulous way for families and community groups to work together in honor of the planet.
If you live anywhere else in the world and want to know how YOU can get involved, visit The Ocean Conservancy to learn more about International Coastal Cleanup events being held across the country and around the world this fall.
GOONEY BIRD GREENE
By Lois Lowry
Illustrated by Middy Thomas
Houghton Mifflin, 200
Category: Elementary grade fiction
From my almost-six year old: “A kid named Gooney Bird Greene? Is it a boy or a girl kid? Will you read it to me, please, please, please?”
Turns out Gooney Bird Greene is a girl … and she tells spectacular stories. So spectacular, in fact, that everyone assumes she makes them up. For example, “How Gooney Bird Came from China on a Flying Carpet” sounds like a made-up story, doesn’t it? But Gooney Bird insists her stories are “all absolutely true.” Her second grade teacher, Mrs. Pidgeon, presses the issue, because, after all, she cannot have her second graders believing in trips from China on a flying carpet! But readers soon discover that the remarkable Gooney Bird did come from China on a flying carpet. And she did direct a symphony orchestra. And her beloved cat was actually consumed by a cow.
Gooney Bird is flashy and over-the-top, she is the most self-assured second grader I have ever met, and she has a way with people. It took me a few chapters to be sure, but I like Gooney Bird Greene. I like what she has to say about storytelling and patience and language. And assumptions. I especially like what Gooney Bird had to say about those.
My daughter has added the sequels, GOONEY BIRD AND THE ROOM MOTHER and GOONEY THE FABULOUS to our summer reading list. I’m game; I love good stories!
