Author: Loree Burns

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Blubber

BLUBBER
By Judy Blume
Bradbury Press, 1974

Category: Middle grade fiction

Remember that exercise I did last week, when I spent a couple hours remembering my elementary school days? BLUBBER popped up in third grade and I have not been able to shake the image of that red cover in library cellophane since. So when I was at the library this week, I took a peek on the shelf … and there it was: the red cover, the blue daisy, the stamps, the paper clip on white lined paper, the cellophane. I took it home and read it for the first time in twenty-seven years.

Nothing was how I remembered it. I had forgotten how mean Jill and the other kids were to Linda, the girl they dubbed ‘Blubber’ after her oral report on whales. How could I forget that? Did they not seem as mean when I was younger? Was that sort of behavior so normal that I wasn’t outraged? Am I just old, old, old? (Don’t answer that…)

I had also forgotten that the tables turned, in the end, and that Jill was made to suffer in much the same way as Linda. Or had I? The themes of “what comes around goes around” and “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you” are such a part of my adult psyche. I believe them in my core. Did Judy Blume plant them in my subconscious when I was in the third grade?

PS. Author Tanya Lee Stone actually met Judy Blume. For breakfast. To talk about books and life. Can you imagine? Read this to learn more.

 

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Staying grounded

Yesterday was full of wonderful news and exciting phone calls and many, many kind emails. (Thank you all for those!) There have been many emotions–mostly of the elated and joyful variety–and I can’t seem to lose this smile.

Thankfully, I have my kids to keep my feet on the ground. When they arrived home from school yesterday I was finally able to let my excitement bubble over. I began shouting before the bus was out of sight, “TRACKING TRASH was given a Boston Globe-Horn Book honor award!” We shared high fives, talked about celebrating, and spent some time gazing at the award website.

“Clementine! Clementine is going to be at the award banquet?” This came from my youngest, who is five. She spotted our favorite cartwheeling redhead from across the room.

Me: “Um, no. But the woman who wrote CLEMENTINE—her name is Sara Pennypacker—she will probably be at the banquet to accept her award.”

Youngest: “Does she have kids?”

Me: “I don’t know.”

Youngest: “Can we meet them?”

Me: “Um, I don’t know.”

Youngest sighs in frustration because her mother knows nothing.

Middling, pointing to the cover of ESCAPE!: “Will HE be there?”

Me: “Houdini? No, he’s dead. But Sid Fleischman, the man who wrote ESCAPE! should be there. He’s the one I told you about … the one who did magic tricks at my writing conference last month … remember?”

Middling: “Will he do magic tricks at the award banquet?”

Me, wondering: “I don’t know.”

Middling, after a moment of deep consideration: “Maybe you should learn some magic?”

Me, swallowing feelings of pure panic at the thought of an acceptance speech … and hoping my oldest will change the subject: “What about you, bud, any questions?”

Oldest: “Yep. What’s for dinner?”

So, there you go. Grounded. But very, very happy!

 

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Tracking Trash in People Magazine!

I kid you not!

The June 11, 2007 issue of PEOPLE (Lindsay Lohan is on the cover) has a “Books, What To Read This Summer!” section on page 57 … and TRACKING TRASH is one of the six children’s books listed.

As if mention in a magazine with a circulation of 3.5 million weren’t enough to make my weekend, TRACKING TRASH was placed beside Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID in the accompanying photograph, which has impressed the heck out of my eight-year-old boys…

 

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Tracking Trash on TV …

… but only if you live in Worcester, Massachusetts!

If you happen to live in Worcester, tune in to Ramona Interviews on WCCA TV13, Worcester’s local cable access station. You’ll learn all you need to know about me, TRACKING TRASH, creating citizen scientists, and protecting our oceans. Or maybe more than you need to know. Anyway … the interview will air:

Monday, June 4 at 10:30pm
Tuesday, June 5 at 10:00am
Tuesday, June 5 at 4:30pm
Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm

I’m off to spend the weekend with my high school girlfriends. It has been twenty years (TWENTY YEARS!) since we graduated Everett High School together. Oi!

Have a glorious weekend …

 

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The Librarian of Basra

THE LIBRARIAN OF BASRA, A TRUE STORY FROM IRAQ
Written and Illustrated by Jeanette Winter
Harcourt, 2005

Category: Picture Book; Biography

My daughter and I read this book earlier in the week. It seemed fitting, at the end of the long Memorial Day weekend, to read a book about bravery in the face of chaos and conflict.

In 2003, Alia Muhammad Baker was chief librarian of the Central Library in the Iraqi city of Basra. When war threatened her beloved library and its collection, Alia tried to convince public officials to allow her to move the books to a safer place. She was refused. As it became clear that the war would not spare Basra, Alia took matters into her own hands … and with the help of friends and neighbors managed to save tens of thousands of precious texts from the library’s collection. Shortly after her covert removal of books, the Central Library was burned to the ground.

Jeanette Winters’ vibrant, stylized illustrations perfectly complement her simple text. The book sparked a conversation about freedom and courage and difficult decisions and, to my great joy, about how we can help Alia rebuild her library. I’ve been looking into this last idea, and can share this website from the American Library Association. If anyone knows of other concrete ways for contributing to this cause, I would love to know about them.

 

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New England SCBWI – Wrap Up

Oi vey, but I am slow. It has taken me over a week to process and parse out my thoughts and experiences from the New England SCBWI Conference. Here, finally, are the last of my meditations …

Yolanda LeRoy, Editorial Director, Charlesbridge Publishing
First of all, Yolanda can sing … I mean REALLY sing; her performance at the Friday night cabaret was stupendous. And her workshop on matching manuscripts to editors and publishing houses would be especially useful to the beginning writer. Here’s a link to Charlesbridge’s submission guidelines and to their new blog.

Theresa Howell, Managing Editor, Rising Moon and Luna Rising (Northland Publishing)
Theresa used her workshop to make a (very solid) case for working with small to medium sized publishers. She values artistic merit, literary integrity, and creative, fresh voices (what editor doesn’t?), and she is on the prowl for boy books with social impact. Be sure you study her tightly focused lists before submitting.

Finally, I had some lovely and kind responses to the copy of TRACKING TRASH I displayed on the Member’s New Books table at the conference. Perhaps the oddest compliment came on Sunday, when the book disappeared … as in, someone took it. I have decided to embrace this small theft as a most sincere form of appreciation!

Here’s to next year’s conference, which will be held April 11 and 12, 2008 and will feature Laurie Halse Anderson as the keynote speaker. Looking forward to that …

 

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Memorial Day

On April 27, 1938 at the stroke of midnight, four Massachusetts towns passed quietly out of existence. (This despite the fact that a Farewell Ball had been—until the church bells began to chime—in full swing.) The towns had been dis-incorporated in order for the state to build the Quabbin Reservoir, at the time the world’s largest manmade drinking reservoir. It had taken eleven long years to de-populated and dismantle the towns, to move more than 6000 bodies to a new cemeteries, to denude the land of trees and other vegetation, and to build the dike and the dam that would stop the Swift River and sink the places once known as Dana, Enfield, Greewhich and Prescott. From what I have read, the final moment was an emotional one.

I grew up drinking water from the Quabbin, but never knew the story behind its construction. As an adult, I have spent a good deal of time researching the towns and their demise … first out of a general interest in this forgotten history, and now in preparation for two book projects. As part of this research, I spent Sunday at the Quabbin Park Cemetery, final resting place for valley residents that passed away before and after the building of the reservoir. It is also the location of war monuments which once graced the four town commons.

In a truly moving Memorial Day ceremony, former residents of Dana, Enfield Greewhich and Prescott (there are only a handful of them still living) honored their war dead by laying wreaths at the base of each monument. Their families, valley descendents, and other interested Bay Staters (like me) looked on with hands on hearts. We pledged allegiance to the flag of these United States of America, listened to “Flander’s Field”, and “The Gettysburg Address”, wiped tears during a call and response rendition of Taps. It was a Memorial Day truly in memorium, and I will not soon forget it.

I hope you had a moment to remember over this Memorial Day holiday.

 

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New England SCBWI – Workshops on Craft

Although I spent twenty-three years of my life in school (!), I have no formal training in creative writing. As a result, workshops on craft are a high priority for me when I attend writing conferences. Here’s a look at who taught me what at last weekend’s SCBWI Conference.

Laurie Stolarz, “Learning the Layers of Revision”

Laurie’s workshop began with this warning: before you begin, you must “admit you are powerless over the need to revise.” In other words, we all have to do it, so figure out how to deal with it. Laurie went on to discuss the layers of revision (global edits, line edits, and polish edits). Her handout was comprehensive and I left with a more structured approach to the revision process. I think I can deal.

By the way, I spent some time exploring Laurie’s website, and it is very nice. If you are in the process of creating your own, or if you are considering an overhaul, I think Laurie’s site would be a good one to review.

Jacqueline Davies, “Got Arc?”

This was a stellar workshop on the topic of story arc by the so-called “Structure Queen”. Jackie invited attendees to bring their works in progress (picture books through novels) and to delve into a detailed analysis of their narrative arc. What is your story sentence? How does the tension flow throughout your piece? By walking us through an examination of the structure of several well known titles, Jackie got all of us thinking deeply about our own structure and how to improve it.

Jackie has posted her entire workshop at her website, including a PowerPoint presentation and several downloadable materials for creating picture book dummies and for charting story arc (or conflict resolution or word count or theme appearances or anything else you might want to monitor across the length of your picture book or novel). You can find it all here.

Mark Peter Hughes, “Characters That Leap Off the Page” and “Plotting Your Middle Grade/YA Novel”

These are the two that got away. One of the hard truths about a conference like this is that several great workshops will be held at the same time, and you will be forced to choose. I missed both of Mark’s workshops, and kicked myself the rest of the weekend as I heard them praised over and over again.

I did treat myself to a copy of Mark’s novel, I AM THE WALLPAPER, which you will be hearing more about as soon as I am able to read it. (And for those keeping track, like my husband, you should note this is only the second book I bought for myself. The rest were gifts. Honest.) Anyway, cruise over to Mark’s website to read about his latest novel, LEMONADE MOUTH, and the fabulous tour it will soon be making across America … with Mark and his family in tow and with NPR listening in!