More good things happening to good people and their great books …
The Audio Publisher’s Association has chosen OPERATION YES by <a href=http://www.saralewisholmes.com/ target=_blankSara Lewis Holmes as the best 8-12 year-old children’s audiobook of 2010. You can hear a clip of the prize-winning audio, read by Jessica Almasy here. Even if you’ve already read this one, folks, consider listening to it again!
Congratulations, Sara! Nice work, Jessica!
Don’t you just love it when good things happen to good people … and good books?
THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z–a book I read out loud to my kids back in September–was just given an E. B. White Read-Aloud Award. It’s author, Kate Messner, is one of the hardest-working and generous children’s authors and middle school teachers I have ever met (to say nothing of being a true blue friend) and I am thrilled, Thrilled, THRILLED for her.
Thanks to Laurie Halse Anderson, you can see Kate’s big moment here.
Congratulations, Miss Kate. You are an inspiration, and I am so glad this book is being celebrated this way!
Adorable honey bee by Kathy, GFL librarian
This Thursday night I’ll be launching THE HIVE DETECTIVES … again.
I know! Crazy! But here’s the thing: I only get one book launch every three years or so. I should totally make the most of the opportunity, right? Plus, I am re-launching* for a great cause: the Gale Free Library (GFL) in Holden, Massachusetts.
Soooo … if you are free this Thursday, consider joining photographer Ellen Harasimowicz and I for an evening of buzzy celebration. We’ll be sharing some stories from our days researching THE HIVE DETECTIVES, selling copies of the book, and signing them, too. All proceeds will be donated directly to the Gale Free Library. Here are the details:
THE HIVE DETECTIVES Book Launch and Library Fundraiser!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
6:30-8pm
Gale Free Library
23 Highland Street
Holden, Massachusetts
We hope you can join us! And please spread the word!
* Our first launch raised $380 in honor of the Beaman Memorial Library in West Boylston, Massachusetts. If you’re interested, you’ll find details here and here.
Ladybug season has officially begun! My daughter and I celebrated yesterday with our first 2010 ladybug survey…
Sweeping the meadow
Exploring the haul
Cycloneda munda (polished ladybug)
Harmonia axyridris (Asian multi-colored ladybug)
Recording our discoveries
Intrigued? Find out more at the Lost Ladybug Project website.
All photos © Loree Griffin Burns
© Loree Griffin Burns
© Loree Griffin Burns
I could also show you what’s up in my office, but its not nearly so photogenic. Nor as bursting-with-promise. Yet.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
By Kathleen Krull
Illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Viking, 2009
Category: Middle Grade Biography
It has been far too long since I blogged about a book love here. And while all the things that have been keeping me from doing so hold—my writing life is crazy busy and my family life is crazier busier—I had to make time today to shout about Kathleen Krull’s ALBERT EINSTEIN. It’s a must read, I think, for kids anyone with an interest in Mr. Albert Einstein.
We all know the man was a genius; his name has actually become synonymous with the term. And most people realize he devised the formula E=mc2. But do you know what this formula means? or how Einstein came to it? or why it turned the world of physics on its head? Do you know what the photoelectric effect is? or how one might prove the existence of atoms? or that Albert Einstein explained both in the very same year he devised his Theory of Relativity?
Now, thanks to Kathleen Krull, there is a perfectly understandable and completely enjoyable overview of the man, his life … and his work. Everything the layperson needs to know about Einstein and his contribution to theoretical physics explained succinctly in 134 pages of a children’s biography. What’s not to love about that?
Breezy writing, historical details, and rock solid scientific content are the hallmarks of all the titles in Krull’s ‘Giants of Science’ series. I highly recommend LEONARDO DA VINCI, ISAAC NEWTON, MARIE CURIE, and SIGMUND FREUD, too.
© Loree Griffin Burns
Did you know that there are birds that sing at night? Me either. But last night I slipped into bed beside my open bedroom window, hoping to hear some frogs, and instead heard a bird. Singing. Incessantly. At 11:30pm!
I listened for a good twenty minutes, head pressed up against the screen, ears stretching out into the front yard. I tried to describe the singing in my notebook, so that I could look into the strangeness come morning, but it seemed there were six (or more?) distinct calls/songs. They all came from the same direction, and I had the feeling it was a single (confused?) bird.
Eventually I fell asleep, and this morning I asked Google who might have been singing outside my window last night. The answer: a Northern Mockingbird.
I’d be tempted to do something silly, like head out tonight and capture some audio for you, but I’m off to the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference for the weekend. You’ll have to use your imagination. Or check out this treasure trove of Northern Mockingbird information from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (including audio and video!). Or, if you’re feeling crazy, stay up late, step out onto your front porch, and listen. Mockingbirds are found pretty much everywhere in the United States … maybe there’s one looking for love outside your window, too?
Happy weekend!
Last night the Beaman Memorial Library in West Boylston, Massachusetts helped Ellen Harasimowicz and I launch our new children’s book, THE HIVE DETECTIVES into the world. It was a marvelous event, chock full of book lovers and library supporters and beekeepers and good, good friends from all the many parts of my life.
THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!
My photographers for the evening are not fully grown yet (read: short!), and so my memories of the night will always have a unique point of view. Like this (almost side) view of the snack table:
© Catherine Griffin Burns
and this (definitely side) view of the books for sale:
© Samuel Griffin Burns
But somewhere along the way, folks lifted my little ones up (as good friends tend to do), and they captured images I’ll treasure always, like signed books:
© Catherine Griffin Burns
and the gorgeous floral wishes of my friends the Flaherty’s:
© Samuel Griffin Burns
and smiles shared with Ellen Harasimowicz and Mary Duane, who helped to make this book buzz:
© Benjamin Griffin Burns
Today I have the pleasure of driving back to the library to deliver a check for $379.76, which represents the funds we raised through book sales last night. Thank you, dear friends, for supporting us, and our book, and one of my favorite local libraries!
© Benjamin Griffin Burns
A quick shout out to my sixth-grade friends at the Runkle School in Brookline, Massachusetts. I enjoyed our time talking trash (the book, of course) together earlier this week. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t remember to take my camera out while I was at your school! This means, of course, that I will have to come back one day soon … and that I had to resort to decorating this post with homemade bees from a friend and spurge from my garden.
I enjoyed your thoughtful questions and left inspired by your ideas about trash, beachcombing, and saving the planet. Thank you for having me!
© Loree Griffin Burns
Remember this post? When I told you all about The Great Sunflower Project and how easy it was to help bees by participating in this important citizen science initiative? Well, it’s time for step three … planting your seeds.
What’s that? You don’t remember the steps? Okay, then, here is a quick review:
1. Register yourself at The Great Sunflower Project website. (You can do this today!)
2. Order some Lemon Queen sunflower seeds. (You can do this today, too! If you don’t want to wait for seeds to arrive by mail, check your local garden center; many carry the Lemon Queen variety.)
3. When the time is right where you live, plant your seeds.
4. When your sunflowers bloom, watch them for fifteen minutes each week, recording how many bees that visit while you do.
5. Send your data to Dr. LeBuhn and her team at The Great Sunflower Project.
I started my seeds a few weeks ago, in a fit of impatience, but you can start them any time now directly in the garden. Today I transplanted our seedlings into the back of my herb garden, right near my office window. With luck, I’ll soon be watching bees from this very desk, reporting to The Great Sunflower Project scientists (and to you) what sorts of bees are stopping by for Lemon Queen nectar and pollen.
Happy planting!
