Award lists, and behind the scenes with photographer Plaxton

This time of year thoughtful, enthusiastic "best books of the year" lists are compiled by hard-working librarians,  reviewers, and readers. Marching for Freedom has made the cut on Kirkus Best YA Books of 2009, Hornbook,  Publisher's Weekly Best Children's Books of 2009, Booklist Editor's Choice, School Library Journal, NYPL Top 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing. I am incredibly stoked and honored to be in the company of such terrific books.

Sometimes I forget how incredible the internet is, and then something like this reminds me: here's a New Yorker portfolio of portraits of world leaders, by photographer Platon, with his comments. You get to look at each photo, up close, and hear his story of taking the shot while he was set up in a hallway at the September meeting of the United Nations. Start with the photo of Platon in the lower right corner and listen to the interview of how the whole shoot went, and then click on the images to hear his specific comments. It's amazing how difficult the shoot was, how hard he worked, and how revealing the photos are.

Here's my favorite: Evo Morales, President of Bolivia. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous photograph.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice wins the NBA and goes viral

This year's short list for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature had not one, but two non-fiction titles. Very, very exciting. Both fantastic books: Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, and Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose.

[Late breaking correction!! Since I originally posted this, several people have pointed out that the short list actually has three non-fiction titles. I was so captivated by the graphic novel aspect of Stitches by David Small, I completely overlooked that it's a memoir. I wonder if the judges looked at their short list and said...wow, we've come down three non-fiction titles. Is this okay? Will people say this list is unbalanced?]

Unlike many other awards, the committees for the NBA are made up of authors. Two years ago I chaired the Young People's Literature committee, and I'll tell you: deciding which are the "best" books of the year is incredibly difficult. It's relatively easy to start winnowing, but it gets harder and harder as the list gets shorter. In order to prevent leaks, the NBA committees meet for lunch on the very day of the awards to choose their winner. In my year, a rumor flashed around the banquet hall as we gathered for the award ceremony that the adult non-fiction committee was still out in the hall, duking it out.

 This year's Young People's Literature award went to Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. I can't even begin to tell you how fantastic this book is. Well researched. Beautifully written. Compelling. And the best part: it has, suddenly and without warning, shifted our view of history, and put Claudette Colvin into her rightful place in the civil rights struggle. Her story has gone viral, on the Newshour, and in the New York Times.

King of Mushrooms

Felix and Sasha after two glorious days hunting Boletus, affectionately called Porcini ("little pig") in Italy. We pigged out ourselves on what we could, gave away lots, then dried the rest.

New York Public Library, and Laure Halse Anderson lets it rip

I'm grinning. Marching made the New York Public Library's Children’s Books 2009 - 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list.

How important are libraries and librarians? I climb on my soapbox as often as possible to rave about librarians, but never as eloquently as Laurie Halse Anderson (of Speak and Chains fame) just did at the American Association of School Librarians conference. She talked about recent censorship challenges her books have faced and then said this:

"I believe that every time a library budget is cut, every time a librarian’s hours are cut - or the position is eliminated completely - it is another form of censorship. It is stealing from children and interfering with their education.

Taking books out of libraries and taking librarians out of libraries are just like ripping the roof off of a school. And maybe that’s how we need to describe it, in the dire, stark terms of reality. You can't run a school that doesn't have a roof. You can't run a school without librarians and libraries.

Book people – like you and me – tend to be a little uncomfortable with conflict. We value discussion, we respect other opinions. We avoid fights.

When I was kid, I was not allowed to start fights. If I did, I knew that I’d be in a whole lot more trouble when I got home than I could ever be at school.But my mother – she of the hats and gloves and ugly purses - told me that if anybody ever hit me first, I was allowed to punch back as hard as I could.

“Don’t you ever start a fight,” Mother said. “But if somebody picks a fight with you, by God, you finish it.”

The people who do not value books or librarians have picked a fight with me. That was a mistake.

They are ripping the roof off our libraries, off our schools. They are exposing our children to ignorance and condemning them to poverty. When they rip the roof off of libraries, they weaken our country."

Awesome! To read a longer excerpt, check out her blog post.

Jumpin' week, irresistible music

Great news to share:

An interview about the Google Lit Trip I did for Marching is right here on Teaching Books. Thank you Nick Glass for the opportunity! Jerome Burg, the founder of Lit Trips, and I worked for months to get this just right. I'm so thrilled with how it came out. Jerome and I located all the important places in Selma, and then set up the Lit Trip so you can "fly" with the marchers to Montgomery.

And Marching For Freedom made the Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2009 list! This is a huge honor!

But enough about me. Here is the end-of-the-week launch into the weekend. One of my very favorite songs is Leadbelly's Bring Me Little Water, Silvy.Wonderful, no? (You can download the whole song for a buck at Smithsonian Folkways.)

Now, check this out from VOCO. I love how music travels!


If you haven't heard Sweet Honey in the Rock's version.... listen....

Secret of French Cooking for Writers

Last night I went to a wonderful celebration at the YMCA and sat next to a young guy who makes promotional videos for the internet. Here's what he said is the secret to great videos: brevity. You need to reduce everything. If you have 12 good ideas, cut them down to 9. Then look at them again and identify the 5 or 6 critical can't-live-without bits and keep only them.

This reminded me of:
a) the slash-and-cut stage of editing stage of a manuscript,
b) how amazingly short-term our attention spans are on the computer, and
c) Julia Childs standing over a basting pan reducing roast veal juices with a bit of stock and a dollop of butter to make a "sublime" sauce.

I'm not heading into reducing anything right now, least of all my mouthwatering fantasies about good food. Like 150,000 other hopeful, scared, crazy people, I've joined National Novel Writing Month to focus and push forward my novel writing for the month. If you've been too scared or worried to do this, and figure now it is too late: it's not. Join up. See what you can do when you make writing your front-burner obsession of the month. Go on. You can even treat your tired, written-out self to a delicious cooking session à la Julia when you've done your words for the day.

Let me know if you sign up, or already have. I'd love to know I have invisible company at my writing desk!

Book launch: Marching for Freedom interviews

It turns out the book launch for Marching is not just a magical release date. It's also an audio interview and reading  by me on Teaching Books on School Library Journal's website.

I read one of my favorite parts, when Lynda Blackmon Lowery is jailed for three days with a group of other teens, and what happens when the girls ask for help.

Want to hear Lynda talk about her experiences? Here's an absolutely wonderful video about Bloody Sunday.

The magic of Marching for Freedom launch and a Publishers Weekly interview

Some days are just amazing. I woke up feeling something special was happening, then remembered that today's the day. It's launch day for Marching for Freedom.

I had a great celebratory morning appearing at the Koret Auditorium in the San Francisco library with four other writers. Here's Lewis Buzbee talking with Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Summer Dawn Laurie (tireless coordinator who made all this work seamlessly) and Wendy Lichtman. I missed getting a photo of Hillary Homzie, who was the funniest of all of us, getting the kids rolling in the aisles with her story about how impersonating the Cookie Monster saved her from being mugged.

Our audience was 6-8th graders, who ranged from lively to snoozing (see photo) with one small, totally adorable, girl in Hello Kitty boots who sat listening intently with a stack of books beside her.

When I arrived home, I found an interview I'd done several weeks ago with Kathy Weeks was up on Publishers Weekly. I had so much fun doing this interview. Kathy asked me really compelling questions about the process of putting together the book. Thanks you Kathy for such a great interview and for pulling together so many strands!

Publishers Weekly interview.

Book launch takes me to NCIBA

My new book, Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Get Weary, is “launching” next Thursday, meaning it will be officially available in bookstores.  If you are a really sought-after writer, the publishers call it a “lay-down” date and the book can’t be sold beforehand. (Think Harry Potter.)

Book designers: unsung heros of my world

One of the biggest thrills for me in illustrating non-fiction books with photos is finding little-known  or never published photos, and seeing what parts of the story the photos can carry. I can get seriously euphoric over finding beautiful, revealing photos. For my new book, Marching for Freedom, I found two photographers, Matt Herron and John F. Phillips, who had done incredible photos of the Selma to Montgomery march for the vote in 1965. They were both awesome about letting me look through their archives.

So now picture this: I have a manuscript in pretty good shape, thanks to the hard work of my editor, Catherine Frank at Viking.. I have lots of photos from the two photographers, and many others I've uncovered. I am also getting pretty tired at this point in the process. I am losing traction as we begin the rush to meet our deadline.

Enter Jim Hoover, brilliant designer. He scoops up all my photos, reads and rereads the manuscript, begins sorting out which photos are the very best. We talk. We shoot messages back and forth. Jim lays out the pages. We try one photo then another. Jim finds photos. More talking and emailing. Catherine runs back and forth from her office to Jim's to weight in, provide fresh eyes. The shape of the book begins to emerge. Jim begs the powers that be for more pages, so that the book will have breathing room for the photos. He gets an okay, we slip in more photos, agonize over what we can't include. Jim chooses paper, tries different fonts, finds a spot for one last photo.

We wrap the whole thing up. Jim pushes some sort of magic electronic button and the book heads off for printing. I collapse on my bed for about two weeks. Jim gets on with his other work that's been stacking up.

So six months later the book gets reviewed in time for the pub date, October 15. I was just sent a copy of the Hornbook review. Here is my favorite part: "Partridge once again demonstrates why she is almost peerless in her photo selection. The photographs have a moral impact as well as a visual one: the stirring cover depicting two high school students, one with an American flag draped over his shoulder, the other with the word VOTE written on his forehead; a four-image sequence in which a young boy is confronted and arrested for holding up a voting rights sign; black men filling out applications to vote in front of a sign enumerating the offensively ridiculous obstacles placed in their way."

Of course I love being "almost peerless" in my photo selection!  But I have to say, take a bow Jim Hoover, peerless book designer.

Big Cat Pepper in Brooklyn

My pal Allyson spotted this: Big Cat Pepper, on a ramble in a forest of books. Maybe Pepper was wandering back to Lauren Castillo's Brooklyn drawing board where he sprung to life.

Pepper has been getting some nice blog love, as Lauren noted on her blog.

Challenge of writing fiction

In high school I hung out with the theater/music/arts/protesting hippie crowd. These were a bunch of really interesting people. One thing we liked to do was get up into the wild hills above the city. If it was daytime we would hike. At night, we talked about big things -- the way the world was, what we wanted, how we would get there, what we hoped we could change. Lots of philosophizing. One of our group, Roo Borson, was an especially serious, deep thinker. Staring down into the bowl of the bay area one night at all the twinkling lights, she said, "have you ever imagined how many other ways your life could go? How many different possibilities there are? Infinite."

I was staggered.

Now, I think of Roo's sentences as I write a novel. The possibilities are infinite. I have some lovely, earnest, difficult characters, and who knows what they will do? How will they really feel and act when the going gets tough? This is where non-fiction writing is so much easier. Something really happened. My challenge with non-fiction is to do a good job with those facts, dig deep for how people really did react when the going got tough, and make it a fascinating read. There is a map.

With fiction, there's no map, just infinite possibilities. But today, I feel I may have found the right path, and I'm trusting my feet will find their way.

Beautiful, deep thinking Roo Borson has gone on to become an acclaimed poet. She continues to stare fearlessly into the infinitude and bring us back possibilities, wrapped up as poems.

end of summer and M. T. Anderson

Thunder and lightening, with heavy, short rains washed away the summer dust clinging to the porch. Like an exhalation, summer is finished.

We got the barn almost all the way painted -- still have some very-high-up trim to complete. In fact, we have a lot of high up trim to paint still. This is not a fun job to do -- the satisfaction comes in getting it finished before the rains. That's Tom at the top in a white protective suit because he's using a paint sprayer, Felix on the lower ladder, handing up and down rollers, paint brushes, and doing follow up with the paint roller. Sasha is getting all the low trim masked and painted.

Tiring? Yes, very. Sasha and Felix crashed out for the night on the porch, until woken by our eager dog Penny, who finally couldn't wait one more minute, and bounded out, wriggling and wagging.

Back to my city life, where we ate bounty from the garden, and Tobin Anderson eased my transition. He was out here in the bay area with his new book, Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware. Besides being a genius, he's got a lovely, dark, irreverent sense of humor, and a big heart. There's a terrific book trailer here: http://www.simonandschuster.com/multimedia?video=36437626001. Very fun. Here he is with several middle schoolers who wanted to tap into his brain and figure out for themselves how he does it.

Two new books: After (Efaw) and No Choirboy (Kucklin)

Two amazing books just intersected in my reading: Susan Kucklin's No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row, and Amy Efaw's After. No Choirboy is non-fiction. Kucklin interviewed four young, incarcerated men who committed murder before they reached the age of 18, and one murder victim's family. She does an incredible job of interviewing them and putting together first person narratives straight out of what they say. She also includes photos she took. Kucklin is a fearless writer. She tackles incredibly difficult subjects and always does an amazing job. She has a great post up about her latest project on I.N.K. on the murder of Iqbal Masih.

After is the fictional account of 15 year old Devon who is in total denial that she is pregnant, gives birth on the bathroom floor, and stuffs her baby in a dumpster. The entire book takes place in just a few days as she is jailed and forced to confront her own actions. Amazingly well-researched, breathtakingly intense, and heartbreaking.

After is getting lots of well-deserved blog buzz right now, and Viking has set up a website for the book. I finished the book a week ago and can't get Devon out of my mind. I keep wondering how her life is going.... A testimony to the power of well-written fiction.

There are incredible themes in these two books around denial, taking responsibility, consequences and redemption. These books could really, really appeal to teens who aren't usually the least bit interested in reading.

Summer Project

It's been a busy summer in the garden. We decided to double the size of the orchard that is fenced in to keep the deer out. It's a project that requires many hands and strong backs, so we gathered up a bunch of our kids' friends. This is a group of hard-working young women and men who love to be outdoors, and who are interested in growing and eating real food. Most of them garden, and two of the women are heading to Vermont in a few months to start their own organic farm.

Several of our crew worked on the first fence a few years ago, and they feel a wonderful sense of ownership of their orchard.

With enough luck, manure, and TLC, there should be enough apples and pears and peaches and raspberries and garlic and onions for all of us. (Probably there is some equivalent here to "never count your chickens before they hatch," like "never count your garlic heads before they harden off.")

Tom did a bunch of layout prep work the weekend before, and then when the gang arrived the fence posts had to be set, the wire stretched and nailed down, and the gates built and installed. It sounds fairly simple, but it's hard work.

After the fence was up, we even got a few rows dug. I took a turn on the machine....also hard work. The machine wants to run and it's a job to keep up with it and stop it at the end of the row so it doesn't chew up the new fence. After a couple rows I headed back to the kitchen for my usual job: farm wife. After all, a crew like this has to be well-fed.

Last photo: the tired, victorious crew.

National History Day

Several months ago I was contacted by Brandon Diaz at Moreno Valley USD. He was working on a National History Day project on Dorothea Lange. He asked me really interesting questions about her that showed he'd done a lot of research. His project was so strong, he went on to the state level competition where he took second place for Junior Individual Website. Congratulations, Brandon!

In his district there were 14 students who went on to the state level, for the first time ever. As Brandon says, "[and we are EXTREMELY competitive]."

Congratulations to all the students, and thanks to all the parents, teachers and administrators who worked so hard to make this happen!

If you don't know about National History Day, it is basically like science projects for the humanities. (Okay, they'd probably kill me for simplifying what they do to that one sentence.) Here's how they put it: "National History Day, Inc. helps teachers meet educational standards; disseminates high quality curriculum materials; and sponsors challenging contests that teach students the critical skills they need to be effective citizens in the 21st century." Voila.

During the 2009-2010 school year, National History Day wants students to research topics related to the theme: Innovation in History: Impact and Change. Then students, working individually or in a group, put together a documentary, an exhibit, a paper, a performance or a web site. Check it out. It is very, very cool.

Beautiful Toni Morrison quote

Toni Morrison grew up in a family where reading was considered sacred, with enormous power attached to it.

"If you can read, they can't cheat you; if you can't read, they can defeat you."

At the launch of the Free Speech Leadership Council in NYC last week, with thanks to Shelf Awareness.

And while I'm on quotes, here's another that has been sticking in my head for months: Last winter I spoke on an NCTE panel with Marc Aronson, Tanya Stone and Tanya Bolden, chaired by Teri Lesesne. Tanya Bolden said if she'd been able to read about African Americans in books when she was a kid, she would have been "shed of shame" earlier.

What a perfect phrase.

Jon Muth, The Stonecutter

Here's a wonderful video. Take a couple minutes to watch this, and you'll feel like you've been sitting quietly, taking a few slow, deep breaths and letting the busyness of the world slip away. I love the simplicity of how the video has been shot in black and white, like an old movie. Thanks to artist Katherine Tillotson for the link.

Author promo ideas from Flying Pig, Kids Otter Read

Elizabeth Blume who is an awesome, wonderful person and a bookseller as well (co-owner of Flying Pig Bookstore) blogs regularly on School Library Journal. She's just written a long post on how publishers can use their PR money effectively for book store promotion. Thank you Elizabeth! It's clear she gave a lot of thought to her post. There are some great ideas for authors as well. For example: What makes a good postcard or bookmark, or how much a personalized note means from an author. With PR budgets shrinking dramatically, we authors have to roll up our sleeves and help in any way we can.

Check out her To Market To Market post.

Saturday is Kids Otter Read day -- more than 50 authors in the SF bay area are doing great events at book stores. Drop by a store near you! I'll be at Laurel Bookstore in Oakland, run by another terrific woman who owns a book store, Luan Stauss. I'll be with Christina Meldrum, Lea Lyon and Debra Sartell. Hope to see you there!

I love my life, especially the orchard, especially right now

This is what I was doing instead of writing: playing hooky in the orchard. It's almost physically impossible to stay at my desk in this weather. I swear there is some way the sap rises in us, telling us to get outside and get the garden going, and go through the house and do a spring cleaning. The nest needs to be tidied up after the long winder indoors, and the garden tended so there'll be a harvest in the fall.

Here's a shot of Tom fertilizing the garlic, planted last fall. He dug a loooong trench for water pipes, got the pipes in, and the dirt back over them, all in two days. I weeded, fertilized and tended the grapes, and we set up a couple over-ground water systems on some apple trees we planted by the barn.

Felix and Sasha came by for dinner bringing salad, with spicy nasturtium blossoms and fat, homegrown carrots. What colors.

California Historical Society and my chicken-y weekend

Got up early, early Sunday morning to take my dad over to Channel 4 to be on the morning news with Henry Tannenbaum. Henry has all kinds of interesting people on his show that he spotlights for 4 or 5 minutes who are doing art and culture things in the bay area. As you can see, Henry and Ron had a great time talking with each other. Wondering what that is on my dad's head? He fashioned homemade leather straps for all his glasses, so when he isn't wearing them on his face, he can push them up on top of his head. And all that hair? It's a beautiful soft golden red. And at 91 years old, as he says, if you've got it, flaunt it. He cuts it himself, btw, in the bathroom mirror with a pair of huge old steel scissors.

Ron has several photos up in a show at the California Historical Society, Hobos to Street People: Artists' Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present, runs through August 15. There's a panel this Thursday he'll be participating in from 6-8 pm: Photographers Documenting Homelessness from the New Deal to Today with Philip Adam, and Robert Terrell, moderated by Melanie Light. Come by if you can! It's going to be a really interesting evening.

The chicks are growing. They aren't just little fuzz balls anymore. They're getting real feathers. They are pretty mellow birds, luckily. i carry them around as much as possible on the theory that if they get used to human hands and smells, they'll be tamer adult chickens.

Tom and our son Felix spent a day working on the deluxe chicken palace. I'll post pictures soon. It even has a glass skylight! It is going up right next to the two huge greenhouses Felix and Sasha built. The chickens are going to live at Felix and Sasha's -- which is also my parents. My parents live in a huge old Berkeley house, with one of my sisters and her husband, and Felix and Sasha, who have a whole floor to themselves. And an enormous garden, surrounded by oak and redwood trees, where the chickens will be able to go out every day and scratch around.

Los Angeles Festival of Books

I had a fantastic time at the Los Angeles Festival of Books yesterday. People, people, people everywhere. Excited about books.

Moments: The wonderful "green room" where the food was terrific, and the staff had authors moving in and out to their presentations as if it were an airport. Seeing Steve Wasserman, a fellow Berkeley High School student. Heused to be Mr. Los Angles Book Review, and is now in NYC agenting, doing well in his new life. Tea with Susan Patron, another tea with Judy Blundell, a member of my beloved posse, and our friend Jane Mason. Our National Ambasador for Young People's Literature, Jon Scieszka, on the big, empy, windswept stage telling his funny story about pee and urine to an uneven audience who just couldn't quite get with the boy humor (not for lack of trying of Jon's part!) The panel I moderated was terrific -- great stories, laughter, serious moments, lots of information imparted.

But my photo taking capacity fell far short! Actually, the digital-moving-of-photos was where I really scrubbed. I seem to have erased rather than moved most of the photos. Here's just a couple.
Candace Fleming on the left, Kathleen Krull in the middle, and Kadir Nelson on the right.

Candace's husband, Eric Rohmann, was with her, and I fell in love with his scrapbook/journal that he carries with him, drawing and jotting notes. He let me take these two photos of a couple spreads. Wonderful to see his process of leaping from idea to idea.

Earth Day and spring and friendship are in the air

Girls out for a hike on Earth Day. I love my friends, just like this, even if it doesn't always show.

And here are the flowers at Full Belly Farm's stand at the farmer's market. Spring, brought to you by the armload.

San Francisco Public Library Laureate's dinner, upcoming events

I had a fantastic time at the San Francisco Library Laureate dinner on Friday night. I was crazy-worried about what to wear. My friend Julie Downing's wise counsel: "Simple. Just wear black." Brainwave. Black pants, black jacket with a nice way the fabric fell, and a great scarf. I LOVED the people sitting at my table. No one under 75, I'd guess. One man told me he'd met my father in Qualalampur in 1962! (You never forget my father once you've met him.)

The woman seated next to me was tiny and wore a black net coat with hundreds of bright yellow leather leaves sewn all over the netting, an amber necklace, rings on many of her fingers, and maybe 50 bangles. She was the walking embodiment of "when I'm old, I shall wear purple." I couldn't resist and finally asked, "how old are you, anyway?' She leaned in and whispered, "don't tell anyone, but tomorrow I turn 89." I shared my vegetarian dinner with her when she was given an inedible leg of duck, and she shared half her meringue dessert in return.

"I hope you speak first," she said after dinner, "so I can go home." Alas, she had to stay to the bitter end, but said she would buy my book, Big Cat Pepper, to help her eight year old grandson get used to the idea that she was going to die.

Thank you, thank you, whoever put out those place cards, for sitting such a wonderful woman next to me.

Here's my husband (didn't need to wear black to look handsome) standing with the revered guest of the evening, Charles Darwin.

Upcoming Events: This Sunday I'll be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, moderating a tremendous panel of writers:

Young Hall CS 24, 11 a.m.

Kid Wise: Teaching with Words & Pictures
Moderator Ms. Elizabeth Partridge
Ms. Candace Fleming
Ms. Kathleen Krull
Mr. Kadir Nelson

Don't worry, we're not going to stick too tightly to the "teaching" part of the title! Come say hello!

Just how long does it take from idea to picture book?

The inspiration for Big Cat Pepper was my then-seven year old son, Willie, grabbing handfuls of rose petals and scattering them into the open grave on top of his favorite pet, Ratty Three.

Now a grad student in Evolutionary Ecology, Will has just co-published a paper in the ISME Journal: "Rhizobitoxine producers gain more poly-3-hydroxybutyrate in symbiosis than do competing rhizobia, but reduce plant growth

William C Ratcliff and R Ford Denison
Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Legume sanctions against rhizobia that fix less nitrogen should exert a strong selection for more beneficial genotypes of rhizobia, but strains providing little host benefit are common.... ISME Journal advance online publication, 9 April 2009; doi:10.1038/ismej.2009.38."

That's how long.

Battle of the Books

My Battle of the Books decision -- a heart-rending choice between Freedman's Washington at Valley Forge and Anderson's Chains -- is up on School Library Journal and Twitter. Jonathan Hunt professes shock at my decision!

And check this out: the Everdeen Sisters rap Now or Never (Battle of the Book style). Awesome talent!

Battle of the Books, We the People bookshelf grants

It's heating up over at the Battle of the Books. Catch their tweets here. "Judge Partridge" they're calling me. I like the sound of that. It has a certain heft, doesn't it?

Here's the brackets -- a complete list of the contestants and judges and how the books advance.
I'm on for Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and Washington at Valley Forge by Russell Freedman. My winner goes toe to toe with Meg Rosoff's pick between Here Lies Arthur and Tender Morsels. And the final arbitrator of the whole show is Lois Lowry. Ahem... make that Judge Lowry.

Good news on another book front: National Endowment for the Humanities’ We the People Bookshelf grant program has awarded 4,000 libraries across the United States free hardcover editions of 22 classic books. This year's theme: Picturing America.

Check out the books for grades 9 to 12:

• Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis
  
• Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge
  
• Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
  
• Viajes Con Charley - En Busca de America by John Steinbeck (translated by Jose Manuel Alvarez Florez)
  
• Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Pretty impressive company I'm keeping! Steinbeck, Tocqueville and Partridge? I know this is really an award for Dorothea Lange and her incredible photography. Still, I'm happy to bask in her glow!

And because I love great images, check out this one below by Julie Paschkis from the front page of the We the People website. Beautiful! And I love image within image within image. Always magical.

Big Cat Pepper, wonderful reviews, and my beloved cat Coyote

The package hit the front porch with a thud. Penny barked. And here it was: Big Cat Pepper, the real book. Warm apricot-yellow endpapers, beautiful, heart-warming illustrations by Lauren Castillo, so gorgeous on their final paper, soft and creamy and inviting, desolation of olive green nights lightening to spring-green grass under a lemon-yellow sunrise.

Two great reviews have already come in. One from Kirkus: "...Castillo’s mixed-media illustrations of a rural, single-parent family are smudgily warm and comforting. The entirely secular explanation of death and the fact that there is no substitution pet added to the family in the end make this a very worthwhile addition to bibliotheraputic literature for the young."

I love "...smudgily warm..." Yum!

And from Booklist: "Because of their loyalty and innocence, the death of a pet is especially poignant, and Partridge gets it just right with this tale of a boy and his beloved cat, Pepper...."

The next day, our beloved cat Coyote died. As a hungry barn kitten, she'd somehow pulled her trapped leg out of the metal teeth of a coyote trap set by a sheep farmer. She arrived at my sister's house in the country, one back leg partly degloved of skin and fur. We nurtured her back to a healthy, sweet cat and had her for 17 years.


Tom dug her a grave in the backyard by the fence, right near her favorite mousing grounds (still a barn cat at heart, she was a great mouser). We covered her with dirt and sprinkled on rose petals, carefully watched by Penny.

Penny put her head deep in the grave, sniffed and sniffed, then settled back and pushed crumbling dirt into the grave with her nose, over and over again. I've never seen her bury anything -- no bone, no treasure, nothing.

Sleep well, Coyote.

The Strand on BBC radio with Daby Toure and Skip McDonald

Years ago I read an account of a group of African men hired to transport supplies on their backs for someone who was exploring in Africa. The explorer set a fast pace, despite the heavy packs the men were carrying. At the end of a week or ten days, the men refused to shoulder their packs, insisting on a lay-over day. When pressed, they said they were "waiting for their spirits to catch up with their bodies."

I've always loved the expression, and find it very true. And it's what I'm doing now: after the push to get MARCHING FOR FREEDOM done, I'm waiting for my spirit to catch up with my body.

Last night I was laying in bed in the dark listening to the radio. I wasn't sleepy, just done with my day, enjoying the stars I could see gleaming through the skylight after days of overcast and rain. I heard the most wonderful program on The Strand on BBC radio. One of the leaders of the World Music scene, Mauritanian musician Daby Toure teamed up with American Bluesman Skip McDonald for an album, "Call My Name." Before playing their song, "Rhythm," Daby Toure introduced it, saying, "For us, rhythm is everywhere. The rhythm is when we walk, when we talk, when we decide things, when we think about things, everything is with rhythm. We have to chose the good one. When you chose the good rhythm, your day is good."

Check it out here at BBC radio. It's about 20 minutes in. I think the BBC only leave their programs up for six or seven days, so take a few minutes soon. I promise, the rhythm of the song will set your day in a whole new direction.

advanced reader copy for Marching for Freedom

You know that feeling you get when you are in a little cabin in the woods and its been windy and maybe rainy and suddenly you realize that the wind has stopped blowing. It is calm. Beautifully, quietly calm. And you know how you pick your head up and wonder, "when did the wind stop blowing? Just now? Or minutes ago and I didn't notice?"

The wind stopped blowing for me... minutes ago. For the last few weeks I have been hard at work on the final fixes on my upcoming book, Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children, and Don't You Grow Weary. But I haven't been alone. My editor, Catherine Frank, has been reading, shooting me questions, rereading. Strategizing. Asking more questions. Jim Hoover, the designer...well, he's put together the most incredibly beautiful book. I was able to pull together 50 black and white photos of the march from Selma to Montgomery, 1965. Here's a snapshot of some proofs that Jim recently sent me that I put up on the wall of my writing room. He was working on getting the grays just right. Not too warm, not too cool. And the manuscript has also been circulating through the incredible, encylcopedic mind and capable hands of Janet Pascal, catching my most dim-witted errors, and querying jumps or oversights I've made.

While we were doing this, I was also finalizing all the permissions: for the photos, for quotes and music lyrics. Not for the faint hearted, I promise you. But all the worry and work and second-guessing is worth it: today my Advanced Reader Copies came in the mail. I held the book -- well, the pre- book really. (These are what the reviewers will get this spring. It's like a paperback copy of the book. Still missing the index and a few high-res photos.) I ran my hand over the silky-smooth cover. Sniffed it. Thumbed through it. Slowly, very slowly. Greeted each photo like an old friend.

There a few tasks left for each of us, but the book goes off to the printer very soon, and reappears as a real book this fall. Now... in the quiet... the rest of my life is waiting for me.

Here is what happens to my desk when I work this flat-out. Kind of scary, eh? You can see that I have a little clean-up to do now that the winds have stopped blowing!

Working and playing in New York City, all in fast-forward

I'm back in the land of beautiful sunsets, hiking in the hills every evening with Tom and our dog Penny, the bay at our feet, turning shades of turquoise and aquamarine as the sun sets and the lights of the city sparkle in the darkness, laying out grids and curves.

NYC was a blast. I had five incredibly busy days as I met with my agent and several of my editors. Highlights were: working on layout for my upcoming book, Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Get Weary with designer Jim Hoover and editor Catherine Frank, a party for Deborah Heiligman, celebrating her new book, Charles and Emma, which is truly spectacular (five stars, all well deserved), a wonderful visit with editor Jill Davis as she stretches in new ways, (interview with Jill on I.N.K. here) a visit to the New York Tenement Museum with my friend Allyson Feeney, and a brainstorming session with one of my beloved posse, Judy Blundell, (interviewed by Daniel Handler here) over breakfast at Balthazar.

I took my camera and shot lots of photos. Imagine my surprise when I arrived home and no. camera. in. my. bag. Somehow I lost it. The very last day. I keep looking in all the usual places -- did I take it out of my bag when I got home and lay it down somewhere? (It was 3 am, after all.) I called the airline and I called the hotel and I looked all over again at home. No camera. So I lost my great photo shoot. I wonder: is this like the fish that got away? But I know I had a great shot of fashion on the streets: a woman walking in high, high heels, with canary yellow soles. Photos of this wonderful store full of ribbons in satin and gross grain and velvet, and buttons! buttons! buttons! All in floor to ceiling displays. (I just found it on Google -- it's M and J Trimmings) and Anna, next time we go to NYC I'm taking you there.

Enough wallowing about my lost camera. Time to get to work. Heading to the library to rough out an upcoming article for Smithsonian Magazine.

Blaze of glory

Took a walk in the hills as the sun was setting in splendor just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Goodbye to the bay area and hello to New York City for a quick trip. Brrrr!