This year I’m celebrating Small Business Saturday with writers from across the state of Massachusetts at the Groton Public Library‘s Local Author Fair. There will be warm drinks and sweet pastries, plenty of books for browsing and purchasing, and smiling authors ready to inscribe them to you or your loved ones. Join us!
Here’s a list of the authors you’ll meet; click on their name for more information about their work:
Last week librarians, this week English teachers! I’m thrilled to be attending the annual gathering of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in Boston. Here’s my schedule for the weekend, in case you’ll be there too. I’d love to see you at one of these events …
Saturday, November 23
12:30-2:30pm: Books for Children Luncheon in Room 312 (Hynes Convention Center)
I’ll be grinning all through this luncheon, because Steve Jenkins is giving the keynote and because I’ll be receiving an Orbis Pictus honor award for Citizen Scientists.
3:00-3:30pm: Book signing in the Macmillan Booth (#819)
I’ll be signing copies of Citizen Scientists, and probably still flying from the joys of lunchtime!
4:15-5:30pm: Panel Presentation in Ballroom A (Hynes Convention Center)
Reflecting on the Writing Process: Orbis Pictus Authors Share Their Journeys Authors of the Orbis Pictus award and honor books for 2013 will each share their writing journey and craft used in the creation of their nonfiction works.
Sunday, November 24
9-10am: Book Signing in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt booth (#1506)
I’ll be signing copies of Tracking Trash and The Hive Detectives. Come on by!
Honor Your Process: Bringing the Working Methods and Style of Published Writers to Your Classroom Award-winning authors Linda Urban, Kate Messner, Matt Phelan and Loree Griffin Burns will share the tools and strategies, from thumbnail drawings to field trips to progress journals, that have brought their work to life—and that you can easily bring back to your classroom writing workshops.
I’m looking forward to spending Friday (November 15, 2013) at the annual conference of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in Hartford, Connecticut. If you’ll be there too, please stop by one of these events to say hello!
Rumor has it there will be FREE books, and that I’ll be signing them. Somehow I have been unable to verify this. But how can you resist even the chance of free books? Come on by! Added bonus: I’ll have a preview copy of my not-yet-off-the-presses Spring 2014 picture book with me.
Author-Librarian Tweet-Up
9-10pm in Marriott Hotel (Crush Bar & Starbucks)
If you are a Twitter User, follow hashtag #aasl13 for the latest happenings. If you are a Twitter user who follows me, feel free to giggle at the very thought of me using hashtags and tweeting up.
I shared some citizen science stories with the Worcester County Beekeepers this past week, and got to catch up with one of my favorite hive detectives: Mary Duane. Long live the bees … and their keepers!
That right there is my new vegetable garden. You can’t tell yet, but this corner is home to the spinach, the lettuce, the rhubarb (see the two lonely plants?) and the asparagus. It’s been cold and wettish here in New England this spring, which means the work is slow. Also, it means that I’ve been a muddy mess for weeks. But today I’m spiffing up and getting myself ready for something more civilized: a literary road trip.
First: school visits. I’m looking forward to stops in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and Wallkill, New York in the coming days. It’s fun to meet the parents and teachers and library specialists who help coordinate these visits, and I’m thrilled that my days of talking science with these particular students, long planned, are finally here.
I’ve got a couple public events to tell you about, too …
The very next weekend– Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4–I’ll be in New York City for the PEN World Voices Literary Festival. I’ll be reading as part of the A Literary Safari and speaking alongside authors Eliot Schrefer and Padma Venkatramen on a children’s literature panel called Braving our Endangered World. (Venue locations and ticket pricing can be found at the links.) This Festival promises to be magnificent: talented authors, incredible venues, endless creativity throughout the city, throughout the week; do check out the website for details.
After that? Back to the mud, I suspect.
ps. One of the best parts of a road trip? Audio books, of course. I’m bringing this one and this one.
Andri, me, Phil, Tiffany, Eliot, and Melissa Photo courtesy Salisbury University
My little life in books is very, very busy these days and I’m having lots of great experiences … even if I am not finding time to blog about them. In the past two weeks I’ve visited three schools (waves to the super students at Runkle, Upham, and Winthrop elementary schools), delivered one keynote lecture (cheers to the Rhode Island Science Teachers Association), and spent an entire weekend celebrating readers, writers, and planet Earth with people who care deeply about all three.
For this last event, the environmentalists at The Nature Generation and the children’s book-saavy faculty of Salisbury University teamed up to put on an amazing Read Green festival and to award the 2013 Green Earth Book Awards. It was such an honor to cheer the winners of a literary contest for area students, to work with students at Salisbury Middle School, to see Ellen Harasimowicz‘s photos on display at the Ward Museum of Waterfowl Art, to accept a Green Earth Book Award for CITIZEN SCIENTISTS, and to speak with teachers and teachers-to-be at the Read Green conference.
On top of all that Read Green goodness? I got to hear Eliot Schrefer speak about ENDANGERED, his National Book Award nominated YA novel. (Aside: it’s a must-read, folks.) I met Tiffany Trent, chicken-raiser, beekeeper, and author of the environmentally-themed steampunk YA novel THE UNNATURALISTS. (Yes, I bought myself a copy. Yes, I am excited to read it!) I bonded with author friends old and new, including author Melissa Stewart, photographer/author Shelley Rotner, Icelandic rock star Andri Magnason, and teenaged author/illustrator/environmentalist Olivia Bouler.
I am holding these people and all of my Maryland moments close as I type this morning; it truly was an unforgettable weekend. (I haven’t even mentioned my afternoon with the wild ponies of Assateague! A thousand thank yous to Patty Dean and Ernest Bond for those memories.) The event that sums the entire Green Earth experience best for me, though, is this one …
On Friday night, at the Green Earth Book Award ceremonies, I was serenaded by Phillip Hoose. Okay, he didn’t sing to me exclusively, he sang to everyone in the room. Still … his rendition of the song he co-wrote with his daughter Hannah, Hey, Little, Ant, captured the mood and the magic of this evening so perfectly that I doubt I will ever forget it. Here’s a sip of that moment for you: a previously recorded audio of Phil and Hannah performing Hey, Little Ant. (Go ahead, click over and scroll down and click again and enjoy it. You won’t regret it. Trust me!)
So … it’s been a whirlwind. And things around here aren’t going to slow down anytime soon. It’s planting season in Massachusetts, and I’m busy starting seeds and bedding asparagus and pruning vines. I’m learning how to manage my bees (yes, they survived the winter!) and my daughter and I are embarking on a new husbandry adventure: chickens. I’ll be visiting with students in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York over the next two weeks, too. Life is busy. Life is good. Spring has sprung. I’m embracing it all. I hope you are, too.
At 7pm tonight (Wednesday, March 20, 2013), I’ll join several central Massachusetts writers in a panel discussion at the Groton Public Library. This event kicks of a month-long celebration of reading and writing that is built around a town-wide reading of Stephen King’s book ON WRITING. (How cool is that?) We panelists plan to talk about the book and our reactions to it, and to share our own experiences with the art and business of telling (& selling) stories.
This was Book Week at the Neary School in Massachusetts, and I was thrilled to help the staff and students celebrate by talking with fourth and fifth graders about citizen science. As is always the case during my time with students, special moments were everywhere. One of the sweetest was writing this dedication, dictated by a student buying a copy of Tracking Trash for her older sister.
Sort of makes you want to go buy someone you love a book, doesn’t it?
Thank you, Neary School, for a great day. Long live books, the people who celebrate them, and the people who share them!
Attention Massachusetts teachers, librarians, writers, and readers! I’m participating in a couple free local events in the coming month, and one or both may be interesting to you. Here are the details …
Educator Appreciation Week
March 8-12, 2013
Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester
65 James Street, Worcester, MA
Events are held each evening at 7pm and include local authors and shopping discounts for teachers. I’ll be at Annie’s on Monday night to talk to teachers and librarians (and whoever else pops in!) about science in the classroom and my books, but there are authors scheduled every night. Check out the full lineup of speakers and topics at the Annie’s Book Stop blog.
Groton READS & WRITES Author Panel
March 19, 2013 at 7pm
Groton Public Library
99 Main Street, Groton, MA
This event is part of Groton’s super-cool townwide celebration of reading and writing. The entire town is reading Steven King’s ON WRITING (!) and then gathering for a series of panel discussions, writing workshops, open mic nights, and author visits. Check out the full details on the official Groton READS & WRITES webpage.
A word on the photo: Linda Coviello and I both graduated from Everett High School and were both inspired by our biology teacher there, Mr. James Micarelli. We met this past Monday at the Massachsuetts State Library Association conference and had a grand old time praising our teacher-hero.
SB&F Prize weekend was a total blast! A blur, but a blast. I’ve posted a few photos in this album on my Facebook author page for those who want a peek at the festivities. I’ve also decided to publish my acceptance speech here on my blog, because in my excitement, I left both the speech and my glasses on my seat when I took the podium. Plus, these are thanks that bear repeating.
Thank you to Terry Young and the SB&F Prize committee, to Maria Sosa and everyone at Science Books & Films, to AAAS and to Subaru for making this award possible and for allowing me to be part of it.
Thank you to my friends at Henry Holt, especially my editor Sally Doherty.
Thank you to my colleague, photographer Ellen Harasimowicz, who traveled from Central Park to central Mexico with me in search of the pieces of this story;
Thank you to my husband Gerry, who supports every crazy book idea—and therefore the endless research trips—I come up with.
And thank you to my kids, Sam, Ben, and Catherine, who for the past few years have patiently counted more birds, traipsed alongside more vernal pools, chased after more butterflies, and stalked more ladybugs than they may have wanted to. I’m not sure they know how helpful they were to me and, since they are here tonight, I’m going to take a second to tell them…
One of the tough aspects of a book like this was identifying the parts of citizen science and individual projects that would most appeal—or not appeal—to kid readers. I know what spoke to me, a forty-something adult writer with a scientific bent, but to know what appealed or didn’t to kids, I needed help. And, so, I watched you. Everything you did while we explored Hosmer Street or Wachusett Meadow or Trout Brook was supremely helpful to me. In fact, most of it is in the book. Thank you three for helping me get things right.
And finally, a quick but sincere cheer for all of you who read books, especially kids books and extra-especially kids science books. Ours is a tiny corner of the publishing world, but tonight I realize this is actually just fine by me. So long as we can gather every now and again, like this, and talk books, share our passions, swap our ideas, dream about new projects and new ways to excite the rest of the world about science and its stories.
Thank you all so very much.
And thank YOU for reading. I plan to give away copies of the prize-winning titles in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned!
