Hot Tea and a Pencil

Procrastination, fear and celebration of poetry

2011-08-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how easy it is to rationalize procrastinating. I just popped into the market to buy some milk, and met Mrs. Ellis. She got me to throw trash into the barrel and reset the top, all the while telling me about how she was from Russia, and practiced medicine in Germany during WWII. She finished up by commanding me to go inside and get a broom and sweep up all the fallen flower petals, as the staff clearly wasn't taking care of the place.

1) What a character.
2) When I'm old, I want to be as annoying and charming and opinionated and independent as she is. Forget just wearing purple. I'm going for the full Monte.

We've started a blog with the Vermont College faculty. Here's my first post on fear (and inspiration) of poetry. I know if Lee Bennett Hopkins sees this post I'm going to catch hell, but he's busy with his own wicked facebook postings.....

Vermont College

2011-07-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

My first few days home from Vermont were catch-up days. Lots of sleeping, letting things I learned percolate, walks in the hills with my beloved husband and dog, and long, leisurely meals with family and friends. Finally unpacked my suitcase, washed my clothes, and put everything away. Now I'm back to work on my own projects, feeling the press of deadlines, the excitement of using what I learned from other faculty.

We had a terrific ten days at Vermont College. Nonstop learning and laughing. Very little sleep. Somehow Coe Booth talked us into doing a flash mob rendition of Michael Jackson's thriller at the 80's party. I kept my sanity with walks every evening through the neighborhoods. Here's a photo of the old brick armory at dusk. I think someone lives there now.

And a few of my favorite remarks (somewhat paraphrased) from various speakers.

Walter Dean Myers: "We're building America, one child at a time."

Martine Leavitt: "I hope we'll be able to read in heaven, but just in case, make sure you read Cormac McCarthy's The Road before you die." And: "Take your main character's emotional desire and make it plotty."

Marc Aronson: "Illustration is its own story."

Franny Billingsley: "Abstract things are telling. Concrete things are showing."

Until next time, Montpelier, when the snow falls and the trudging outdoors is treacherous and beautiful.

Why people moved to the city

2011-07-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

I'm a city dweller, with all the amenities of modern life. We also have a cabin deep in the California redwoods, a mile up a dirt road. Quiet. Peaceful. No city services. So on several of the hottest days of July, we were out gathering firewood for next winter, loading up for the wood burning stove. Even with Tom on a modern, gas powered splitter (and Felix with a sledgehammer and a maul), it took all three generations of us. Sasha and my 93 year old dad pitched wood from the loose pile to the stack, Felix and I made a tidy, geometric pile to over-winter. Penny supervised. Think that looks hard? Here's my father's father, 90 years old, on the woodpile he just split and stacked on his farm in Graton, about 50 miles from our cabin.

Summertime, interview with Author Turf

2011-06-30T10:20:00.001-07:00

I am loving summer. In a week I take off for Vermont College where I'm teaching. It's incredibly fun. Challenging, exhausting, rewarding... all rolled up into ten days. Not only do I get to be with terrific students who are working their hearts out to get better at writing, but I also get to listen to inspiring lectures from the other faculty.

Before I leave I had to make it out to the Pacific Ocean with my friend Andrea to hold me through the Vermont heat.

Why does the ocean look like it should pour through the gap? I've never understood this optical illusion.

We watched a pre-teen girl and her dad play in the waves, and then brush off the sand and get their shoes and socks back on and head out with their backpacks. On the return walk we spotted them again....

See them? Curled up in the high grass, reading?

Summertime and the living is easy.

And here's an interview with me that Brittney Breakey posted on her fantastic blog, Author Turf.

Road Tripping with my dad: Santa Barbara or bust

2011-06-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

It's always an adventure hitting the road with my dad.
There are coffee and tea stops. Old friends to visit. Interesting things to photograph. "You see all these plastic bags blowing around? It makes a statement. You gotta have two things to make a good photograph. A field, and garbage. That's it." My cousni, Reeve Woolpert (on left) and his photo opening. "Best show I've ever seen." Great Mexican food, a crappy hotel, and home at the end of two long, wonderful days.

IRA and Research Trip to the Big Kahuna

2011-05-21T10:36:00.001-07:00

International Reading Assoc. meeting was wonderful, as always. Our panel was a great range -- from Loreen Leedy's process to the hilarity of Jon Scieszka, with his underlying serious message about reading and computer literacy.

The URL's I referred to in my talk are up on my Facebook page for anyone who wants to check them out. I couldn't get them to upload here.

Then I went on to Washington DC to do some research on the newest nonfiction book I have in the works.... You want to know how much of a nerd I am? Here's the bedroom where I slept. I was very, very happy.

I managed to make it to the National Archives I (records) and II (photos), the Archives of American Art, and the Library of Congress. Going to research in Washington DC is like going to Mecca. I did figure out, however, that I need to really buff up my research skills. These places have so much material it is amazing.

There are an incredible number of rules, as well. Once you jettison all your stuff except a few items (computer, camera) you sit at a table and can only write on your computer or on specially identified paper with a pencil. Makes for a clean desk!

IRA coming up, and Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day

2011-04-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

March 30 has been designated Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day by the U.S. Senate. It's the 38th anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Vietnam. With my new book, Dogtag Summer, just out, I'm fascinated by the whole war -- why we got in, the conflict between what was happening with the military and protesters at home, our defeat by the Communists in 1975. How have the intervening years been for those directly impacted by the war -- the Americans who fought, the Vietnamese, the orphans adopted here?

Do you have friends or family caught up in the Vietnam war? How are they doing? Were you?

There has been a belated, growing attempt to honor the military who served, rather than trash them along with the war. One of the first public attempts was the controversial design and construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, better known as the Wall.

I'm busy getting ready for International Reading Association annual meeting in a couple weeks. I'll be on a panel with some great authors, talking about technology. I've been putting together a speech on how I research online, especially how I find and use photographs, as well as this very cool program I am setting up with Jerome Burg, a Google Lit Trip for Dogtag Summer.

Bookstore appearances with pals, and an awesome writing trick

2011-03-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

I just did two really fun appearances with friends. On Sunday Marissa Moss and Thacher Hurd and I were at A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland. We had an age range from preschoolers to local librarians/educators. DId I remember to take pictures? No! Not during the event... but afterward I caught a couple nice shots. Above is Thacher talking with my husband Tom. And here's the owner, Kathleen Caldwell. You can see by the piles of books and cards around the cash register that this is a friendly, crammed, delicious bookstore. Right outside was the Farmer's Market, full of people enjoying the sun after three cold, rainy weeks.

The next night Marissa and I appeared at Book Passage and spoke to a group of writers and pre-published writers, all working hard on their writing and on understanding the confusing world of children's book publishing. Really thoughtful Q and A.

Before the event, I had dinner with two great friends, Barbara Young and Linda Allison. Allison has been doing nonfiction for kids for ages. She had a brainwave for getting the creative work done before the stuff of life that is a hassle but has to be done. She divides her To Do list into two columns: Creative and Maintenance. I just love the word Maintenance. It puts that stuff right in its place. Sure you have to do it, but that's what it is. Just plain Life Maintenance. She also says "Writing deserves the best of you. That's why you need to do it first." Not new advice, but well said.

This last photo is Lissa Rovetch, Marissa, and me.

2011-03-15T16:09:00.001-07:00

Today is the launch day for my middle-grade novel, Dogtag Summer. It's a wonderful moment, when the characters who've lived in my head get to step out into the real world.

Many, many people helped me with the research -- I had to know about the Vietnam War, about the pacifists at home and those who fought in Vietnam, and the villagers who just tried to survive. I really wanted to know what it was like years later for those who'd been caught in the fighting, or loved people who'd been in the war.

One person I interviewed was Donna Tauscher, who shared memories of her ex-husband's Vietnam was service, how it changed him, their marriage, and the fabric of her life.

I recently did a bookstore appearance and Donna showed up. In her quiet way, she handed me a gift: this small Li Xi, a red lucky money envelope with a 100 đồng note in it. Her husband had brought it back from Vietnam when he returned from the fighting. "I've had it a long time," was all she said as she slipped it into my hand.

What stories this beautiful old 100 đồng note could tell of being passed from hand to hand before it reached mine. And what a tender, cherished gift.

Animotos and learning, International Reading Association

2011-03-04T12:59:00.001-08:00

I had a fantastic week with two great groups: teachers in Burlingame, and teenagers in Petaluma. Polished off the morning with a Skype visit with librarian Marjie Podzielinski's students at Coulson Tough school in Texas. The students are making Animoto's about the Sixties for our IRA session this spring. They're reading Marching for Freedom and Dogtag Summer, researching websites, checking their sources, and putting together photos, videos and music.

I'm so excited about this. I love combining history with 2.0 web skills. It's a fantastic form of narrative nonfiction. I'm eager to see what they come up with.

Reviews roll in, I roll out on appearances in the Bay Area with writing buddies

2011-02-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

A couple posts ago I mentioned that scary pause where an authors finishes a book... moves on to the next project, but some part of our attention is in suspended animation, just waiting for the reviews.

Will the reviewers love my new book? Will they hate it? And worst of all, will they ignore it?

I've finally let out my breath. Two more reviews have come in on my new novel, Dogtag Summer, from Booklist and School Library Journal.

"Creative and winsome... poignant coming-of-age story that resonates with pain and a hard-fought resolution.” —Booklist

"Partridge also succeeds in incorporating solid historical research into a moving story, using the dogtag, symbol of a most unpopular war, as an instrument of catharsis.” —School Library Journal

Let the festivities begin!

Here's one of the wonderful aspects of being a writer: becoming friends with so many incredible people who also write. I've got some great appearances coming up with friends. These will be a blast, hope you can join us for one if you are in the Bay Area.

Monday February 28th: National Book Award winner Judy Blundell is here in California on a book tour with her new novel, Strings Attached. We'll be at Books Inc. Burlingame at 6:00 pm for a special wine and cheese mingler. Books Inc. is giving 25% discount on all books purchased at the event. 1375 Burlingame Ave, Burlingame, 94010 (650) 685-4911.

Tuesday March 1st: Judy and I will do a joint school visit in Santa Rosa, then a Dark Days of Winter Tea at Copperfields in Petaluma. For teens, refreshments served!

Mrach 27th at 1 pm: Great good Place for Books with Thacher Hurd and Marissa Moss. Marissa is dark-side funny, Thacher is hold-your-sides funny. Together they are funny squared. This will be rocking!

March 28th: Kid Lit Salon at Book Passages Corte Madera with Marissa Moss and Joanne Rocklin.

This is how a novel starts

2011-02-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have a once-a-day feed from Google that picks up my name on the web. Usually it's just that a library somewhere has bought my book, or one of my books is for sale on eBay, or that I'll be appearing somewhere (which I already know). Pretty standard stuff.

But today I got a terrific Google Alert via Convict Records. In September 1846, Elizabeth Partridge was one of 169 convicts transported on the Elizabeth and Henry to Australia! Now usually, that side of my family rests very peacefully in small village graveyards. They were crofters -- small farmers -- and small time merchants. I had no idea I had scurvy ancestors.

What did this Elizabeth Partridge do that got her ten years in jail, swapped off for being sent to Australia? What was it like for her once she got there?

What if....

and a seed is planted. I don't know that I would ever take this any further, but it is exhilarating to have my mind tumble in a new direction.

What kind of random things have been making you think "What if....?"

The supreme vulnerablity of writing a novel

2011-01-27T15:33:00.000-08:00

About six months ago, I finished a middle grade novel, Dogtag Summer. The idea had been brewing in the back of my mind, morphing and growing, for a long, long time. It started by my overhearing a conversation between my husband and an electrician, Jim, after they'd been working together all day. My husband asked Jim what it had been like for him to serve in Vietnam. Lots of words and feelings tumbled out of Jim. Several parts stuck with me for years. Like how he always walked point, because he'd been raised in the country, did a lot of hunting, and he didn't ever trust anyone else to walk point.

The what-ifs started for me right away. What if he had let someone else walk point, just once? What if an Amerasian child from Vietnam was pulled out of the country in the last desperate days of 1975 before the Communists took over? And what if, just what if, she were adopted by a vet with his own powder-keg of unresolved feelings?

I did a ton of research and interviews. I went to Vietnam to smell the river and the heavy rains, to listen to the cadence of people speaking to one another in the marketplace. I wrote, and rewrote and rewrote. I turned it in, (wrote and rewrote with my amazing editor's suggestions) and then wondered: how've I done, writing fiction?

Here's what Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus have to say:

Dogtag Summer

Elizabeth Partridge, Bloomsbury, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-59990-183-1

This gripping yet tender coming-of-age story reveals multiple nuanced perspectives of the Vietnam War and its aftermath in the summer of 1980. A backfiring school bus triggers a series of flashbacks for sixth-grader Tracy. Partridge (Marching for Freedom) smoothly interlaces memories of Tracy's childhood as a "con lai" (half-blood) in wartime Vietnam, where her American heritage endangered her Vietnamese family, and her present-day life as the adopted daughter of a Vietnam veteran who is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. When Tracy and her best friend, Stargazer--the child of hippie, war-protesting parents--discover a dogtag in her father's ammo box, the event sets off an unexpected chain of events in both families, leading to excruciating memories, painful misunderstandings, and compassionate insights. Partridge delicately portrays Tracy's struggle to reconcile her last, harrowing memory of her biological mother and her relationship with her loving, adoptive mother, who tries to understand the ghostly memories haunting her daughter and husband. Appendixes include interviews in which Partridge addresses historical questions, as well as a teacher's guide for using this book in a curriculum about Vietnam. Powerful historical fiction. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)

DOGTAG SUMMER
“A child of conflict struggles to understand her past and her present in this impressive historical novel. Partridge proves her keen understanding of young people and her ability to write engrossing fiction grounded in the history she usually illuminates in nonfiction. This is a dual narrative of Tracy’s story, alternating between her experiences as a con lai, or half-Vietnamese/half-American child, in that country in 1975 and her time as an adopted only child enmeshed in her now-ordinary life on the coast of California five years later. The trauma that she suffered in the past emerges from deeply buried memories at the beginning of summer when she and best friend Stargazer, a child of hippies, build a Viking ship of war. Tracy’s father, a Vietnam vet, has hidden an old ammo box with a set of dogtags inside, and their discovery sets into motion Tracy’s process of remembering her past and connecting it with the present. Only 11, Tracy is realistically inarticulate, yet the depth of her emotion and suffering comes through. Never reverting to stereotypes, Partridge uses Tracy and Stargazer's fast friendship to help capture the ambivalence of the culture toward the war, as well as the struggle of the vets to personally cope with their experiences. A strong yet gentle read.” – Kirkus

Vermont College winter residency

2011-01-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

We're coming close to finishing up our ten days together at Vermont College. It's been an incredible experience. Great faculty, fantastic students, learning, learning, learning. A few things I've learned that weren't on the schedule:

Snow is very fun. Beautiful. Cold.
You must always zip up your jacket before going out the door.
Cold doesn't actually hurt until it is about ten degrees outside. Then its pretty critical to keep moving. Even with your jacket zipped up.

I don't think there is any part of craft that we left undiscussed while we were here. And part of the appeal of being on the faculty is that I've learned so much myself. My ever-supportive husband has been behind me all the way in taking on this job, but.... he did just send an email saying our dog is missing me. He's sure. The dog has called a truce with the cat, and they are sleeping curled up together on the bed. Kinda lonely.

We had a great lunch time drop-in visit by Elizabeth Bluemle, who runs the Flying Pig Bookstore, and writes the Shelftalker blog (along with Josie Leavitt). Elizabeth has a lovely post today on "The Dream, Then and Now." Meanwhile, out in the real world at Monica Edinger's blog, Educating Alice, she posted a really cool way she and her students used Marching for Freedom in an assembly. I wish I had seen this performance!

Agent love

2011-01-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

Wonder what authors' different relationships are like with their agents? Roger Sutton at Horn Book magazine asked five of us to answer this question: "Why I love my agent." The articles came out in the latest issue, but they aren't online at the Horn Book.

Because I want to shout from the rooftops about how much and why I adore my agent, I tried to take a picture of the article with my cell phone camera, but the letters and edges came out pretty wobbly. I'll paste the article in below the image, or you can read it here.

Publication: The Horn Book Magazine
Author: Partridge, Elizabeth
Date published: January 1, 2011

Many years ago, as an aspiring writer, I overheard a successful author give her definition of a good agent. "You don't want a friend," she said. "You want someone who's like a shark, swimming next to you. But you have to be careful not to get bitten yourself."

That made sense, in a writer's overblown-hyperbole kind of way. The author/ agent relationship was a business one. You needed someone tough and scary, with lots of teeth, who kept moving on your behalf. And you didn't want to be a bothersome client, or you might get a quick nip.

When I began working with my agent, Ken Wright, I treated him like a shark with a mouthful of teeth. I was respectful, and very guarded. It took him a long time to wear down my defenses and prove that he would never bite me, or even bite anyone else on my behalf.

Turns out he doesn't subscribe to the bunny-eat-bunny model of children's publishing. He operates on the old-fashioned handshake, negotiating deals, linking people and projects. He loves to brainstorm about ideas until they suddenly come into focus as a potential manuscript. It's clear he enjoys the whole business - and he's good at it.

Ken makes me laugh and makes me think. If I'm bogged down or overwhelmed, he smells it in the wind and shoots off an e-mail. "Talk soon?" he writes. He's my touchstone and my taskmaster.

While I'm alone in my writing room with my research and my interviews and a big, rambling idea I'm trying to squeeze between the covers of a book, he's got my back.

Author affiliation:

Elizabeth Partridge's newest book is Dogtag Summer (Bloomsbury).

New Year, new adventure

2011-01-04T06:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our older son, Will, headed home to freezing Minnesota, and our younger son, Felix, went back to work (currently making cow proof fences so salamanders won't get squashed.) All the holiday decorations are put away. One last birthday cake to make -- my husband's birthday is tomorrow -- and then life returns to ... well, not normal exactly. To my new adventure.

In a few days I leave for freezing Vermont. (Notice a theme here with the cold?) I've taken a job teaching at Vermont College in the MFA Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. I am incredibly excited. I've never taught in an organized program before, though I've done all the pieces (lectures, critiquing, encouraging, mentoring.) Being used to mild California weather, I sent ahead a box of warmness -- a down quilt, flannel sheets, snow boots and a teapot.

My year started off with a treat. Last summer we had an amazing Boston Globe-Horn Book award evening, with all the winners giving speeches. The Horn Book people have graciously put links to all of them on their site. Here's my Boston Globe-Horn Book speech for Marching for Freedom. It's partly about writing the book, and partly about why I write and what inspires me.

And with a time-consuming new adventure coinciding with a new year, I've come up with a New Year's resolution: prioritize. This is always a weakness with me in the best of times. So with more demands on my time, I'm going to see if I can be more mindful. I've written prioritize on a slip of paper and stuck it to the bottom of my computer screen.

What will you be doing more mindfully this year?

No cowboys in white linen on the streets of Laredo

2010-12-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

But there is an absolutely amazing librarian in Laredo Texas: Carmen Escamilla of J.B. Alexander High School. She put together a dream program for the fall, and invited teachers in the district to join her. Students read Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains, about a slave girl during the Revolutionary War, and then read my book, Marching for Freedom, kids' part in the success of the civil rights march for the vote in 1965.

The students in Laredo face serious challenges every day. Most of the students in Mrs. Escamilla's district are on reduced or free lunches. Some kids live in stables or with their families under trees. Gang activity from Mexico is leaping across the Rio Grand River. But Mrs. Escamilla is not going to let any kid drop out, fail, or fall behind if she can help it.
Carmen Escamilla

From fifth graders through high schoolers, students in Laredo read the books, joined mixed-grade online discussion groups, made Vokis and Ven Diagrams. One group of readers made t-shirts and posters, and organized a literacy march. Two ninth graders, Troy Lomas and Eric Garay, wrote and recorded an incredible, complex song, "Keep on Reading."

Here's an excerpt:

"Last name Partridge
Fist name Lizzie,
Like a serious story she ain't nuttin to play with,
Started off local, but thanks to all those lovers,
She is signing autographs on those front book covers,
She keeps on encouraging kids to read, So Cool
She just wants everybody to be free, So true
Marching for the freedom come and join us, People

She can't do it all so get involved, niños
Drop the segregation we are all internally equal..."

© Troy Lomas and Eric Garay

Last Monday I spoke to 700 of these Laredo students and listened as the students shared their excitement about reading the books.One of the speakers had me from the first couple of lines of his speech.

"Hello, my name is Miguel Malacara and I am not a reader. I don't read much but I do have an outlook on life and a bit of passion for history. This is why this book got my attention." Incredible.

Miguel Malacara and his classmate.

She spoke about how she was born in the United States but grew up in Mexico, and had recently returned to the US. She was so discouraged by all the negative press about Hispanics that she had been just waiting to go back to Mexico. She went on to say: "Marching for Freedom changed my destiny. I used to want to go back to Mexico because I heard so many bad things about Hispanics. Now, I will stay and fight." (I'm so sorry I forgot your name!) later: Itzamara De La Garza, above with Miguel! Thank you Itzamara for your wonderful heart!

I absolutely love how Marching for Freedom jumped cultures from African American to Hispanic. As Miguel said after reading about the students in Marching: "If we had just a bit of their determination and confidence we could literally accomplish anything we want."

I have a feeling you do have more than just a bit of their determination and confidence.

Thank you Mrs. Escamilla, thank you teachers, and thank you students. I am honored to have been with you. You are truly an inspiration.

There's a nice shout-out in Publisher's Weekly (scroll down a bit).
And an article in the Laredo Sun.

John Lennon

2010-11-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight on public television at 9 pm:

LennonNYC.

I am eager to see this film from American Masters. Several years ago I did a biography, John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth. I was amazed by Lennon. He was incredibly smart, well-read, and political. He had no tolerance for BS. His NYC time was an interesting part of his life. He was no longer a Beatle, and had to find out who he really was. New Yorkers generally treated him really well, saying hello when they saw him in a cafe, but not bothering him. The kind of anonymity you can only have in a big city.

There were two great resources for doing a bio. on him: lots and lots and lots of photos. I managed to get just over 100 into the book! And Lennon liked to find someone in the press he clicked with, and then he would sit down for extensive interviews with the reporter. It is almost like he used the interview as a way of exploring his own thoughts and feelings.

I'm sure I'll learn new things about him in this film. And mourn, all over again, his shocking murder.

National Council for the Social Studies

2010-11-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

I had a fantastic time at NCSS in Denver. Was it cold? Yes, it was very, very cold. Check out how this marsupial daddy kept his baby warm.

It was my first time to be with a big group of social studies teachers. What totally dedicated people! Hard, hard working. I did a presentation on using Marching for Freedom in the classroom, focusing on how to use Google Lit Trips. My presentation went well, though I had some tech difficulties. The teachers were incredibly patient about it. I realized they've all been there before, struggling with computer problems. I'm sure they were kinder to me than a room full of teenagers!

Penguin sponsored me for a signing with free books, and I had a wonderful group of teachers who wanted Marching for Freedom to use in their classrooms. Thank you Uncle Penguin!

I went to as many lectures as I could possible fit in. There were great talks about using technology in the classroom and how to use trade books in the classroom. I also had dinner with the unquenchable Marc Aronson, and another with writer Ann Bausum, our first time meeting each other, though we both do nonfiction.

Also just received news that Marching was chosen for Texas Library Association's TAYSHAS list. An amazing list of books. I'm honored to be included.

And of course, I had to take a picture of this great big whimsical guest:

I was imagining that he wanted in, not to munch up social studies teachers, but wanting to be at a book signing for his latest book Big Blue Bear in the City.

Arc of the moral universe

2010-11-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Finally, finally, finally.

Forty-five years ago, Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by State Trooper James Fowler during a night protest in Marion, Alabama, near Selma. His death led to the march from Selma to Montgomery, which resulted in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act.

Fowler has just plead guilty and been given a six month sentence. Short? Very, very short. But Fowler had previously maintained that Jackson was not murdered, but that he, Fowler, shot him in self-defense.

As Dr. King said in his famous speech in Montgomery about waiting for justice, "How long? Not long, because 'No lie can live forever.'.... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

Here's the New York Times piece.

Check out the archived New Yorker online article, Letter from Selma, by reporter Renata Adler who was on the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. It will give you a vivid feeling of being on the march. Several times during the five day march, Adler spoke with a young marcher, Charles Mauldin, whom I was lucky enough to interview two years ago for Marching for Freedom.

I'd love to hear thoughts on how to ask the right questions to get students to talk about what this means. I can think of a couple of obvious ones: Why do you think Fowler plead guilty? Do you think a jury would be more likely to convict him of murder today than in 1965? What has changed since 1965 that Fowler would now be more likely to be held accountable for his actions?

Any other ideas?

Two challenges in two days

2010-10-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

I don't remember ever being told that recording in a sound studio or leading an online social studies lesson were part of being an author. Turns out they are, for me.

Tuesday I went to Fantasy Records and recorded my author's note to Marching for Freedom for Brilliance Audio. I live about a mile away from Fantasy, but hadn't been there in years (I used to hang around with indie filmmakers who worked there) and it's had quite the makeover.

The sound engineer, Alberto Hernandez, was a sweetheart and put me at ease. And to record, he had me stand with muffling barriers around me. The rest of the room is pretty dark, so it's very cozy, actually. I ended up having a great time.

This morning I did a presentation for Pearson: "Integrating Literature and Educational Technology"on how to use the Google Lit Trip for Marching which Jerome Burg and I put together. Pearson has recorded it (thank you, thank you!) and I'll put a link on my website in a couple days when it's up.

And now, I'm off to a very quiet writer's retreat where we don't talk much at all, but sit at our keyboards writing, writing, writing. Which is, after all, what it's all about. A couple times a day we tear ourselves away to eat delicious food we take turns preparing, and in the evening we hold critique sessions. Bliss.

Jane Addams Children's Book Awards and birthday in NYC

2010-10-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from the Jane Addams Children's Book Award Ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for books that promote peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races. This was an especially celebratory year, as it was also the 150th anniversary of her birth.

I was incredibly honored that Marching for Freedom was the winner for older children. The awardees all came to the presentation, except Phillip Hoose, who had a previous commitment. He sent his publisher, Simon Boughton, to stand in for him. The speeches were all incredible. I was brought to tears by Andrea Davis Pinkney, who came up to the podium and ... sang. I don't even remember what the song was, just that it was so incredibly beautiful to hear her. It was as if everyone in the room stopped breathing, for just a few stanzas. Then she rolled right into a moving speech.

Here are the amazing women who served as the awards committee:

And the Jane Addams Literature Circle for Girls who read all the honored books and talk about the themes of social justice around the world. Amazing girls, amazing facilitators.

Linda Belle, exec. director, closed out the ceremony with: "Become a dangerous woman!" Love that.

And a new experience for me. My hotel was right across from the United Nations. so before I could enter the building, my suitcase was carefully checked out by a bomb sniffing dog.

He looks relaxed here, but he swings into nose-sniffing gear with a quick command.

Teen Crawl in San Francisco

2010-10-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Kevin Wright and jasmine Williams break out their journals.

We just had this incredible Lit Crawl here in the SF Bay Area. On Friday I was the MC for a panel of young published authors at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Library. We kicked off the Teen Crawl. These eight young adults -- 13 to 20 -- were just amazing. Listening to them was like having electricity running through me. Waiting in the green room for our panel to begin was wonderful. Gradually journals and books of poetry started coming out of backpacks. While we waited to go on, we talked and relaxed and Kevin Wright and Brian Hibbeler read and recited Langston Hughes poems.

Laura Jue's journal.

These young adults were an inspiration -- brilliant at both writing and performing. They are passionate, smart, confident and poised. I'm awed. They are involved with WritersCorps, CalSlam, Youth Speaks, 826 Valencia, and Capital City Young Writers.

Here are a few more photos:

Elena Dreisback and Ela Banerjee

Brian Hibbeler

Gabriel Cortez and Laura Jue.

Everybody: Gabriel Cortez, Kevin Wright, Jasmine Williams, Laura Jue, Indiana Pehlivanova, Brian Hibbeler, Ela Banerjee, me, Elena Dreisbach.

Boston Globe--Horn Book Awards and Simmons College

2010-10-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. An amazingly festive, celebratory evening. Here are Martha Parravano and Roger Sutton from HB doing last minute prep, in the "green room" aka classroom at Simmons College where the event was held.

My wonderful Viking people took the train up to Boston. That's Catherine Frank, my editor, on the left, RasShahn Johnson-Baker, Manager of Library Marketing, and Regina Hayes, publisher.

Still in the green room. That's Wendy Lamb, editor of Rebecca Stead's incredible novel, When You Reach Me, my awesome agent Ken Wright, and Catherine. We are all pretty excited.

Speech over, happy, happy, happy. That's the beautiful inscribed silver bowl they gave me. Very Boston. I don't think I have proper Bostonian silver bowl showing etiquette down yet. Probably supposed to be more demure.

With the three Martha's. Then off to a celebratory dinner with the Penguin people et all. My thanks to everyone for an unforgetable evening.

Here are several terrific posts on the evening:

School Library Journal and Read Roger at Horn Book.

The next day was the Simmons College Colloquium where I did a presentation of the Google Lit Trip I've done with Jerome Burg on Marching for Freedom. I didn't manage to take any pictures!

Very end of the day at Simmons. This doesn't look like I am happy, happy, happy again, but I am. That's Peter Sis signing a copy of The Dreamer for me, while I sign a copy of Marching for Freedom for him. An amazing moment.

And a delicious dinner with other Boston Globe-Horn Book winners and friends. Thank you Roger Sutton!

Katherine Tillotson and excitment around my house

2010-09-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

My dear illustrator friend Katherine Tillotson just finished a flurry of work and complained her studio was a mess. I begged for a photo to share. I love artists' studios, writer's cubby holes, love knowing the story behind some lyrics I love.

So here's K's beautiful studio:

And a surprise package arrived at my door full of:

Advance Reader Copies for my upcoming novel, Dogtag Summer. It's an indescribable feeling. I slid my hands over them, and flipped through the pages, sniffing them. (What is it about sniffing books? Something about the fresh ink and paper. Makes it all seem so tangible somehow ). I even made my own beautiful display on the dining room table. The feeling of wonder -- A book! A real book! -- never diminishes.

And! right now, in a sound studio, Alan Bomar Jones has a set of headphones on and is sitting in front of a microphone recording Marching for Freedom for Brilliance Audio.

Life is good. Very, very, very good.

SCBWI summer conference

2010-08-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Days of learning, hanging out, talking, speaking. Old friends and new. This year SCBWI had a nonfiction strand, and I was on a panel with Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Tanya Lee Stone and Deborah Heiligman, chaired by Ken Wright from Writer's House. I also did two sessions: Writing Biographies, and Photo Research. I loved doing these two sessions! People came loaded with really good, specific questions, and wanted lots of practical advice. For more about the conference, check out the SCBWI blog that they kept running during the conference. Amazing.

As always, people are my favorite part. Here's a few photos. Dinner with M. T. Anderson one night. There must be some connection here to Feed....

The amazing and wonderful Linda Sue Park. If I ever write a novel half as beautiful as what she does, I will die happy.

Loren Long (left side) was one of the incredible speakers at the conference. At a Writer's House party Sunday night, David Shannon popped up out of nowhere, like an oversized elf with his mischievous grin. I didn't get my camera going till the grin was temporarily gone, and then a security guy swooped in and told me to stop taking photos.

And here is where we had the party, right across the street from the hotel. In fact, I took this photo right out my window the next morning. I think this building is so totally, utterly L. A. Inside were massive amounts of marble and floor to ceiling windows.

Been trying to get a good shot of Nikki Grimes and her beautiful jewelry. Aced it. Thanks, Nikki for a perfect moment!

And even in the middle of all the fun, an agent's work must go on. Ken Wright, checking in. I missed getting a shot of his quintessential L. A. moment: working by the pool, he emailed me news of a new contract. Then he fell asleep in the sun while I danced in my room.

Traveling writer: on the road again.

2010-07-20T12:46:00.001-07:00

I'm just back from an amazing trip with two back-to-back talks.

First I went to talk to writers at Hamline University MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. The caliber of the students is incredible at this program. Lots of students have a book or two out, or are well on their way. I was able to hang with my editor, Jill Davis, who is there learning about being on the other side of the desk as a writer. Also lunch with Pete Hautman was terrific. We had a chance to catch up after not seeing each other since we both served on the National Book Award Committee a few years ago.

The professors at Hamline are incredible and give powerful, loaded lectures. If you are thinking about joining this program be prepared: they work their students (and profs) hard! Here I am with Gary Schmidt.

I gave a lecture on "How to Write Kick-Ass Nonfiction." Jacqueline Briggs Martin who teaches there did a really nice run-down of my talk on her blog. And yes, I did get all the way from kick-ass non-fiction to primordial energy. Made sense at the time.

Extra bonus: seeing my son Will in his lab and going for dinner afterward. He just got his Ph.D in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Minnesota.

Then on to Brigham Young University's Symposium on Books for Young Readers. I had a blast. The morning view from my hotel window! No wonder so many artists and photographers and climbers come here.

My minder, Annette Garner, who was fantastic. More mountains.

Our last evening together... below is a picture I took of a few of us (Laurie Halse Anderson, Patty MacLachlan, Glenna and Mike Tunnell, David Shannon) as close to paradise as you can get: Robert Redford's Resort.We drove up together in a van. I had no idea that Patricia MacLachlan is so funny. With David Shannon ripping it up alongside her, I just stared out at the spectacular scenery and laughed. The two of them traded White House storied that went like this: Patty: "George Bush asked me if I would like to sit down and I said, 'no, because I have a run in my stockings on my butt and if I sit down it will go all the way down.'" And David told us how he actually got Barbara to sign his Barbara Bush bobble head doll. (He had a little rogue help from the former Ambassador of Children's Literature, Jon S.)

DaNae Leu did a terrific run-down of the two days on her blog, The Librariest. She even brought me her Battle of the Books T-shirt to sign and took this modest photo of me:

And I thought this sign was so hysterical. It's for the last person in line at the bookstore signing....

Braiding the garlic

2010-06-26T08:57:00.001-07:00

Here's the big mound of garlic plants we brought in from the garden. First we cleaned them all... getting dirt out of the roots, cutting off excess roots, stripping off the dead leaves. Then on to the braiding....
I've always loved people's hands. Writing, hammering, cooking, wrapped around a small child... just love watching people use their hands. Both Dorothea Lange and my dad photographed people's hands, so I guess I learned early to notice them. Felix started off the braids by picking three garlic plants and tying them together, then he would add new garlics as Sasha braided. He held tight to the heads so they would make a firm braid.

Flipped over to tie off.... and success! Now on to the next couple dozen. Sasha and Felix stayed up long after I'd gone to bed, braiding and tying.

Malcolm Gladwell, weekends in the apple orchard

2010-06-22T21:00:00.001-07:00

I just watched an incredible interview with Malcolm Gladwell at the Guardian, UK. He's someone I admire tremendously for his ability to stand back and analyze the way things work. [The Tipping Point, and Outliers are two of his books.] He ends his interview talking about journalism and journalists: "The human need to be told stories is universal. We're like people growing food. What we do, there is always going to be this fantastic market for it."

Watch the interview with Gladwell by Sarfraz Manzoor here.

We've spent the last few weekends working in our garden/orchard. We put beet seeds in for a second time (it was too cold this spring for them to germinate), harvested fava beans, and dug up half the garlic, cleaned it up, and Sasha and Felix made garlic braids. Takes teamwork. We got the orchard mowed (again, all that rain made for lush grass and weeds) and thinned off many of the tiny apples on our young and tender trees so they will keep growing and not stop to put all their energy into fruit. Tom wheeling some of the garlic up to the house. Picking fava beans in my favorite new T-shirt. My dad getting the low hanging beans, with a little help from our dog.
Taking a break. And yes, my dad really does dress like this. Those are his old sixties ties he uses for suspenders.

My latest manuscript has been edited, re-edited, copy-edited and rewritten every one of those times by me. I love this stage of a book. It's this consuming sprint to the finish, lungs bursting, as every little bit is done just-one-more-time.

I'm also totally wrung out. I just can't seem to get my mind to think one more thought. I'd rather be outside watering, or watching the bees fly from flower to flower. When I'm inside, I do crazy tasks like clean out the pantry. Do the wash. Fold. Put away. Wash the dog. Sit on the back porch with the dog to both dry off. I've been wondering lately why I don't have a lounge chair in the back yard like other poeple do, so I could just lie down and do nothing. Read maybe, that would be the max.

Garlic braiding pictures tk.

Eggs and Awards

2010-06-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

Two amazing things happened to me this morning:

1. Hen laid an egg right in my hand. (Yes, this requires patience. Lots.)

2. The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced. Marching for Freedom won for nonfiction.

Unlike waiting for an egg, which is a very solitary occupation (believe me, Hen wishes it were a little more solitary), winning an award like this is because many, many people worked incredibly hard to pull this book together. I thank the people whom I interviewed for their heartfelt stories, the photographers who took the photos, and all the people at Viking Children's Books.

Children's Literature New England: Secrets Told and Untold

2010-06-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

It was a couple weeks ago, but I still have my hand-scrawled notes from the CLNE colloquy sitting right on my desk. I gave a talk on non-fiction, and helped roast our wonderful new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Katherine Patterson. My part was easy -- I did a riff off the outgoing Ambassador's recent open letter in the Hornbook to the new Ambassador. The roast was fun, and she was a very good sport about it. Here's a great interview with Patterson by Roger Sutton from several years ago.

Here's Peter Sis at dinner one night: not exactly shy. And I love a guy who'll wear checks. And a striped hoodie.

All the speakers at CLNE were terrific. But my notes are still humming and vibrating next to me because I want to share how amazing Ashley Bryan's presentation was. It was in the evening, and all the lights were turned down low, except at the podium. He recited, by heart, a group of poems. He'd put on his glasses, check the title of the next poem, whisk off his glasses, and sing/shout/whisper a poem. We heard the voices of wise old grannies, gleeful children and sad, gravelly-voiced old men. Ashlely's whole body was part of the poem as he reached and spun and swayed. Sometimes he'd ask us for "help" and draw us into being part of the poem as we recited refrains with him. He did more than forty poems, and what I remember is is love of the poetry, and his pleasure in making the poems fill the room and sweep us into their magic.

As we wrapped up the colloquy, Ashley put his love of poetry so eloquently: "When I read a poem," he said, "I am living it all again. The poems will make it of the moment again."

More photos from CLNE on facebook.com/elizabethpartridge

Good luck comes in threes, and IRA

2010-05-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

This has been an unbelievable month. The Jane Addams Children's Book Awards were announced at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and guess what?

Marching for Freedom won for older children.

Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan won for younger children. The award honors "children’s books of literary and artistic merit that invite children to think deeply about peace, social justice, world community, and gender and racial equality." I can't imagine a more meaningful award. My deepest thanks to the Jane Addams committee, and congratulations to all awardees -- Jeanette Winter, Andrea Davis Pinkney & Brian Pinkney, George Ella Lyon & Stephanie Anderson, Tanya Lee Stone.

I had a blast at the International Reading Association meeting. A dinner with some funny and yet serious authors and librarians at Gibson's Steakhouse. One of those evenings where we each got up to speak for a few minutes, and somehow we started riffing off each other. Illustrator Loren Long had me totally in stitches with his deadpan delivery. "My wife likes to say I color all day," was followed moments later by "The Pokey Little Puppy wasn't just my book, it was my friend." Love it!

The next morning I was on a panel "The Illustrated Teen" with a group of awesome people: Holly Black, Henry Neff, Stephen Emond and Scott Westerfeld, all of our eclectic words and images woven together by Susanna Richards. This photo of mine looks boring, but it was spectacular. Scott writes steam punk which is one of my favorite words right now. Stephen and Henry are both amazing illustrators. I have to admit being a little jealous when Holly and Scott showed off fan art. How totally cool is it to write stuff that opens people's imagination so much that they draw what they see?

Lisa Yee has a great blog post up about how totally fun IRA is,. I went over and stole... um... borrowed this great picture of me with Arthur Levine and the redoubtable Peepy getting a free ride in Arthur's name tag pouch.

But here's the real reason it all goes smoothly: crazy hard work by the publishing people. Check out Emily Heddleson on the phone, moving books, helping a customer and SMILING! My hat's off to you all.

LA Times Book festival continued

2010-04-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

...interrupted by the dog arriving home skunked.
Now up early to fly to Chicago for the International Reading Association, but just wanted to touch on the highlights of the book festival.In one of those amazing moments of serendipity, I met Murray Fromson, who was a CBS reporter in Selma. If Murray and others like him hadn't been there covering the events, there would have been no national attention, and I don't believe we would have had a Voting Rights Bill passed by President Johnson. He was there to moderate a panel which is on C-Span's Video Library.Set the minute counter to 04:03:02.
I did a panel in the morning with the amazing Jonathan Hunt moderating. Deborah Heiligman and I were the two authors, and it was more like a fireside chat than a panel. Deb is a great storyteller and Jonathan has a way of asking just the right question, so we had a blast, much more fun than it looks like in this serious photo:

After the panel, it was the delight of the festival. Who says books are dead??
Heading out for the plane!

LA Times Book Prize Ceremony

2010-04-25T21:19:00.001-07:00

Friday night we gathered upstairs, then traipsed into the auditorium for the LA Times Book Prize ceremony, lead by the Times book editor, David Ulin. We got nervous, winning authors were announced one by one, short speeches were given. Marching For Freedom won for Young Adult Literature. I stood up and spoke. In the middle of naming the wonderful Selmians, who as children and young adults marched and were jailed and beaten and did it all again the next day, I was so filled with gratitude and tears and absolute overwhelm that I had to stop, take a couple of deep breaths, and finish in a rush.

Cecil Castellucci gave the greatest intro to the Young Adult Prize. She's an awesome, energetic, smart woman, with a deep love of children's literature.

After all the awards were announced, we all traipsed off to another room, where we ate and laughed and decompressed.

Here I am with my publisher, Regina Hayes. Are you catching on to my evening's look? The Deer-in-the-Headlights Look? That's still how I feel.

In Honor of National Library Week

2010-04-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Checking out books at the Berkeley Public Library in California with my little sister, Meg. (Yes, that's me in the geeky-girl glasses. You can't tell in this black and white photo, but they are red.) And the librarian in the really cool glasses? Any Berkeley librarians know her name?

With thanks to librarians in cool glasses everywhere. Believe me, you've cheered me up, and given me info and made me laugh and brought whole new worlds to me, and you never even knew. So thank you, from me and millions of kids like me.

And the geeky glasses? They came in very handy. Still do.

Marching wins Battle of the Books!

2010-04-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Amazing -- in the final, Big Kahuna round, Marching won the Battle of the Books.

I am thrilled. And I want to give a great big shout-out to all the young adults who marched and sang and were jailed in the spring of 1965, and decades later told me in vivid detail about their experiences.

Joanne Blackmon Bland, Charles Bonner, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Charles Mauldin and Bobby Simmons, I mean you.

And my thanks also to all the photographers who hung around for long church meetings, and stood in the tear gas and photographed, and bunked out at night on people's floors.

Matt Herron and Bruce Davidson, I mean you. And in memory of James Karales, Spider Martin, Charles Moore, and John F. Phillips.

Because what we got from all these brave people was public support for the Voting Rights Bill signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965. One person, one vote. This is exactly what makes a strong democracy.

And exactly what makes me proud to be an American.

Battle of the Books final round

2010-04-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's almost over.

Fast, furious, contested, cranky, and apologetic, the judges on Battle of the Books have almost all had their say. It's been a wonderful glimpse into the minds of how people pick one book over another to "win."

A few days ago, my book, Marching for Freedom, beat out Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan. Judge Walter Dean Myers put it this way.

Shannon Hale, who had judged Tales in an earlier round, had a completely different take on the book, and blogged about how her opinion was so different from Walter Dean Myers.

I've judged several award contests myself -- last year, I was a judge for the Battle of the Books (Chains vs. Washington at Valley Forge), and have also served on the LA Times Book Prize and National Book Award for Young Adults committees. I wonder if contests judged by authors are more subjective than those judged by librarians or book reviewers. American Library Association, for example, has very stringent guidelines for judges. From what I've heard about those quiet, well-behaved librarians picking winners (not that people are allowed to say much) there can be a lot of thumping on the table and shouting out the guidelines to defend choices and knock out others.

Thoughts, anyone? The bottom line for me is that contests create energy and excitement around books, and this is a good thing.

There's a new twist on this year's Battle, which is the Undead Poll. The Frog Scientist has made a run away Zombie comeback, and is up against Marching and The Lost Conspiracy.

Fascinating. Two illustrated nonfiction and one incredibly detailed fantasy novel. Results posted tomorrow- being judged by Katherine Paterson, this year's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

Christopher Paul Curtis is my hero.

2010-03-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by saying I adore Richard Peck, almost as much as I adore Christopher Paul Curtis. But Marching for Freedom just beat out Peck's latest book, A Season of Gifts, in today's round of the Battle of the Books. I have to admit.... (sorry Mr. Peck) I'm thrilled!

In case you haven't been following the Battle, we're in Round Two. In Round One, Marching beat out Marcelo in the Real World. I love reading the judge's posts every day -- they are quirky and apologetic (after all, it is authors in the kid's world judging their peers) and give me new ways to look at some of the latest, most interesting, and oft-buzzed books of the last year.

I also raise my boxing-gloved fist in victory each time for non-fiction. We don't often make it this far! Deborah Heiligman and I are hoping we get put up against each other so we can take pictures of ourselves in the ring, ready to duke it out.... but first her book, Charles and Emma, has to win another round, and so does Marching.

Scroll through the posts following the judge's ruling for some interesting comments. What did you think of the honest post by Your Neighborhood Librarian?

"I spend some time scratching my head about how to get great nonfiction like Marching to Freedom into the hands of kids I know will enjoy it. Looking at these two books side by side it occurs to me that maybe format plays a part. Grownup trade nonfiction is published in the same format as novels – Glass Castle slots in next to Kite Runner and people tend to forget which book they’re reading ‘for fun’ and which is the nonfiction.

Maybe the wider flatter shape of books like Marching for Freedom and Truce and everything by Russell Freedman is what signals to kids ‘this is a book for school/work’. I don’t know. All I know is that Season of Gifts will be read til it falls apart on my shelves, and circ on Marching to Freedom will be a fraction of that, and I’ll still be scratching my head."

Dr. King's arc of the moral universe: 45th anniversary

2010-03-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

Forty-five years ago today, 30,000 marchers poured into Montgomery, Alabama to demonstrate for voting rights. John Lewis, then Chairman of SNCC, now a Congressman from Georgia, was granted time on the podium that afternoon, and Martin Luther King Jr. gave his powerful “How Long, Not Long” speech.

March 25th wasn’t the protestors’ first attempt to reach the state capitol. Two weeks earlier, Lewis had been at the head of a line of solemn marchers who’d walked anxiously out of Selma. In what became known as Bloody Sunday, the marchers were stopped at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge by mounted deputies and state troopers. Acting under the orders from Governor George Wallace, they attacked the marchers with tear gas, clubs and cattle prods.

Lining the sides of the road were whites who’d come out to watch for sport, their taunts and threats caught by network news. What they said was ugly, and generously spiked with the N-word.

One of the first protestors clubbed down was Lewis. Scores of others were injured as well, among them fourteen year old Lynda (Blackmon) Lowery. Determined to show Governor Wallace he couldn’t stop her, she marched again two weeks later, the black threads of her stitches dangling on her forehead.

Along the route, hostile whites came to watch and jeer. Overhead, a small government surveillance plane circled, scanning the nearby woods for hidden sharpshooters. “I was not brave,” Lowery said. “I was not courageous. I was determined. That’s how I got to Montgomery.”

Just last Saturday, Representative Lewis along with several other members of Congress had racist Americans slinging the N word at him again. It went further than the congressional halls as Tweets urging the assassination of the president went out on two Twitter sites.

Forty-five years on, and we’ve got hate talk, hate Tweets. Hate radio’s been popping with an “us against them” mentality since the House passed the Health Bill on Sunday. The racism, implied and overt, is both frightening and depressing. We’re all going to need fourteen year old Lowery’s determination. That arc of the moral universe Dr. King was counting on has still got a long ways to go as it bends towards justice.

Izumi Shikibu poem spreads the old-fashioned way

2010-03-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Many years ago I ran across this poem -- I don't even remember where. I was so taken with it, I copied it onto a scrap of paper and taped it to the wall where I could see it from my desk.

A few years ago Jenna Ross (reporter for the Star Tribune and friend of our son Will) stayed at our house. Taken with the quote, she jotted it down. Just recently she was taking a printmaking class and made this gorgeous print:

I love this way a poem from a thousand years ago found its way into her hands and heart.

Bookshop Santa Cruz and the Gateway School Freedom Singers

2010-03-02T17:39:00.001-08:00

Usually as I get ready to speak, I look out and see people expectantly waiting, like this:

But this time, Bookshop Santa Cruz and I did something a little different.

Because I love the Freedom Songs that fueled the civil rights march, I asked if we could have a group of kids come and sing at my presentation. In addition to Bookshop Santa Cruz making Marching for Freedom their community book of the month, they arranged for the enthusiastic participation of the second and fifth graders from Gateway School. The kids were amazing!

Not only did they sing three Freedom Songs, but they sang This Land is Your Land. As a special surprise for me, they even included a song they had written. (I suspect it was their incredible music teacher who actually wrote it, seen in the video below playing ukulele as she directs them.)

So music from the streets of Selma, accompanied by hand clapping and feet marching, made its way to Bookshop Santa Cruz, accompanied by the ukulele, originally from Hawaii. Not to be too over-the-top patriotic, but I love so many things about our interesting, constantly-evolving beautiful country. And bright, earnest kids are the best of all. Here they are, singing.

Dancin' in the Streets and Photo Tribute to Legendary Civil Rights Workers

2010-02-24T07:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am. Dancing. Not in the street, exactly, but around the house. While I'm cooking. While I'm taking far too long in the shower. While I'm out in the garden, getting the rich, wet, rained-upon dirt turned over and ready for spring planting. All while I should be writing.

Marching for Freedom is a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize (scroll down to Young Adult Literature). I am in such great company. And most astonishing of all -- three of the five books are non-fiction. A majority. This is so amazing. My deep thanks to the judges, and my congratulations to my gang of five finalists.

Meanwhile, heating up over at School Library Journal, the second Battle of the Books has been announced. Elizabeth Bird has kicked off the contest with this hysterically funny (and informative!) video. Marching is up for contention!

And you know how crazy I am about the photos of Plaxton. Unbelievably beautiful, revealing portraits. Check out these images in the New Yorker of the civil rights leaders of the sixties. Thanks to librarian Nanette Bulebosh for the link.

Lynda Blackmon Lowery, full of grace

2010-02-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

Putting together Marching for Freedom, I interviewed five or six of the people who were teenagers during the protest. Their courage was awe-inspiring to me. Since then, I've become friends with Lynda Lowery, the youngest person to march all the way from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. After living in NYC for years, she moved back to Selma. She's one of the most open-hearted, generous people I've ever known. She also has incredible energy and is always giving to the community. I don't know that she would even call it "giving back," she just is always available, with helpful hands and heart. Here she is at Mount Oliver Missionary Baptist Church last week.

I love these kids with their bright faces and festive tie-dye shirts. The one girl in front with her purple leggings and her warm boots! This photo makes me optimistic and hopeful. I'm also struck once again how important it is to keep on working to make the world a better place for our kids.

A couple weeks ago while I was in NYC I taped an interview with Joe Donahue at WAMC radio. Joe will interview Lynda on Monday and we'll air soon -- I'll keep you posted. Lynda telling her story in her own words is not to be missed!

Old and New California

2010-02-15T09:29:00.000-08:00

I had a great time at the Mechanics Institute. I was awed by the other speakers -- Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, authors of Wherever There's a Fight, had me totally excited about the history of civil rights in California Did you know in the 1860's an African American woman sued when she was forced off a bus in San Francisco and the case went all the way to the California Supreme Court?

Carl Anthony was incredible, speaking about the Urban Habitat Program, the oldest environmental justice program in the country, and his newest book, Breakthrough Communities.

And the stairs at the Institute are gorgeous.....

United Nations International School visit, lovely shout-outs for Marching

2010-02-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

I had a blast at the United Nations International School last week, invited by librarian Lisa Moore. Jim Hoover, the Viking designer I've done three books with, appeared with me and we tag-teamed the kids. For the K-2 group I talked about putting together a book, read one of my picture books, then with enthusiastic participation by the kids we wrote a story all together. Jim drew the pictures: fast, furious, and full of character. So much fun. Here are Jim's quick sketches:

Then Jim and I talked to third through fifth graders about putting together Marching for Freedom. We were in the library, with a great book display of my books. That's Lisa Moore in the upper left corner. Isn't that the most book-rich library you've seen in awhile? And in the middle of the kids coming and going and working at tables, Lisa is a calm center at her desk.

I explained how Martin Luther King and President Johnson worked together behind the scenes and got this question: "Was that president black or white?" The student was too young to have been dancing in the streets with the rest of us just over a year ago. Change does happen, in unexpected ways.

The third group, sixth through eight graders, were incredibly savvy. It was wonderful to talk to an international group of kids.

Good news: Marching for Freedom was featured in several book round-ups for Black History Month: USA Today, and The Washington Post. In addition to being on Best Books for Young Adults and Notable Children's Books lists, Marching made the International Reading Association 2010 Notable Books for a Global Society. Mitalia Perkins is also on the list for her new book, Secret Keepers, and has an excellent blog post on the award and the twenty-five books which got a shout-out. I'm honored to be in such great company!

Kindling Words

2010-01-30T04:25:00.000-08:00

I've gone from rainy California to snowy cold Vermont. Very, very cold snowy Vermont. It really does look like this. A little less snow, a lot more cold. It is exquisitely beautiful. Enough to pull poetry from the air while staring out at the night.

Round moon
Blue Snow
Hare goes hungry

I'm here for Kindling Words, a writer's retreat. Chris Raschka is doing the illustrator's strand, I'm doing the author's. And yes, Chris is as smart and amazing and wonderful as his art. You can quickly see where his art comes from -- his brain isn't sitting around in any square kind of box. He gave us a great view of his process.

Here he is playing the squeezebox to the accompaniment of one of his book dummies to show us his relationship between 12 musical notes and color, ala Chris. Amazing.

Don Weisberg, president of Penguin Young Readers, gave a great talk on where he sees publishing going. One word description: he's very optimistic. Sees how the internet connects people to books, authors to readers. We finished off the evening (at least, I did, some people partied, others went to the outdoor hot tub which I though was crazy at -5 degrees) with a first read through of Gregory McGuire's new play. I was "props."

Off for breakfast and making sure my PowerPoint works.

Just how do writers avoid writing?

2010-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

We all have our little ways. When we're up in our cabin a mile up a dirt road, and the rain is coming down and coming down and coming down, and a tree has fallen on the power line and knocked it down, sparking and fizzling onto the road, and we can't get out anyway....

There is always water trying to go where we don't want it to go. Hence: Tom and I suit up, grab shovels and rakes, and head out. Penny-the-dog comes with us, blinking and shaking madly.

New York Times Book Review

2010-01-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

Some days lightning strikes, in a really good way.

Children Who Changed the World

I especially love the last line: "...Partridge's stirring history poses another, more immediate, question for a thoughtful reader: Where are today’s Selmas and what might a young person do about them?"

Exactly!

Lightning and lightning bug

2010-01-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

As I've just rediscovered for the zillionth time, Mark Twain was right: there's a big difference between lightning and a lightning bug. There is also a big difference between "almost finished with my novel" and "turned in my manuscript to the editor." Big. But I did it. Late, late, late at night I attached it to an email and pushed send.

I took a day off (okay, I was exhausted) and then wrote up the titles for the three lectures I'll be giving at Kindling Words in a few weeks. For the last month or so I've been chucking ideas into a folder. I've got a nice, fat folder. Now, time to organize my thoughts.

Here are my three titles:

1) Steal from the best: strengthen your characters using narrative non-fiction techniques, Chinese medicine, and a few other tricks.

2) Kick ‘em when they’re down: complicate your characters relationships with each other and their environment.

3) Consolidate your gains: get Mean Barbara off your back and fly in new directions.

I'm really looking forward to the retreat.

And while I was busy finishing the novel, we managed to have a birthday party for Tom. Kind of an exuberant guy, as you can see by the photo. This party wouldn't have happened had it been left to me, but our son Will made Vietnamese pho, we invited over a few dozen of Tom's closest friends (like I said, exuberant) and we had a feast.

The boys decided to play a little music to wind down the party, and Sophie who is three-about-to-turn-four shut down the place by dancing all night.

She has now dubbed our place "the house with the band." I think she's under the impression there is always live music here....

Hero

2010-01-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

The older I get, the harder it is to find everyday heros to look up to -- living people I admire with all my heart and want to be like when I'm older. Here's one. Makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me think about what's really, really important in my life.

New year huzzah and upcoming talks

2010-01-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

I love the first Monday at the beginning of the year. It's like fresh snow has fallen. All those footprints from last year and the year before are erased. Sure, we'll each put on our snow shoes and trudge along the same paths where we left off, but there's a lovely pause, isn't there? I always feel a burst of new enthusiasm for my old paths, and a renewed desire to stamp some new ones into the snow.

And here is the most fantastic news: Katherine Patterson is our new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. I can't tell you how much I love her work, and once you meet Katherine or hear her speak, it's impossible not to adore her as well. She has so much to say, on so many levels. Several years ago Roger Sutton at Hornbook interviewed her. Anyone know when this was, and if it's online? It's a wonderful interview between two old friends.

I have lots to look forward to this year. I'm just finishing my first "real" novel. What a challenge! And I'm sure once my editor gets back to me, I'll be chained to my desk, rewriting madly. But what a gift; write something and get incredible feedback on how to make it better!

I've got some great talks coming up. I'll be one of the speakers at Kindling Words in late January, doing talks at the Mechanic's Institute and Bookshop Santa Cruz in February, and traveling to Selma, Alabama in March for the 45th anniversary of the bridge crossing. Later in the spring/summer I'll be at the International Reading Assoc., Children's Literature New England, and Brigham Young University.

I wish for all of you a gratifying new year and new decade. Remember to take opportunities that come your way, work hard, love deeply and recklessly, and help make the world a better place, one small, insignificant act at a time.

Award lists, and behind the scenes with photographer Plaxton

2009-12-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-12T16:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-11T21:00:00.001-07:00

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.)

A launch is a little bit softer on the timing. Which is why I got to go to NCIBA yesterday. The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show is where the publishers show their wares, the booksellers browse, and the authors sign. The last time I was at the NCIBA was years ago, when Restless Spirit: the Life and Work of Dorothea Lange published. I was new at all this. I was kinda overwhelmed and scared. The room was huge and noisy, people seemed to loom up in front of me, stand patiently waiting for me to sign a book, then slip away.

This time was a blast. Today I felt like I was in a room full of old friends. There’s a strong community of booksellers just barely keeping their noses above water in these tough times. I saw my pal, Luan Stauss, who runs Laurel Bookstore. I ran into a librarian who whispered she was going to be on the Newbery next year, then grinned. (No, I won’t have any books coming out, so I can’t bribe her.)

I understood this time about the “trade show” part. Malcolm Margolin who runs Heyday Books, (alright, he IS Heyday Books) had a photography book idea he dangled in front of me. I ran into Laura Sheppard who is the amazing Events Director at the Mechanics Library in San Francisco. We started cooking up an idea for an early spring event at the Mechanics Institute around Marching. She mentioned Heyday has a new civil rights book… maybe we could all do an event together.

Can you see how much fun this is?

Here are a couple photos from my day. Mostly, I forgot to use my camera. But I did get this terrific shot of Sara Zick, my publicist from Viking, and she got these of me.

Here's something you have to learn to be good at booksigning: writing and talking at the last time. And spelling correctly, which is the part I worry about.

Next up: Thursday Oct. 15, 10:00 am. I’ll be at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library for Kidsquake with six other terrific writers.

Book designers: unsung heros of my world

2009-10-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-08-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-15T09:40:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-12T21:33:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-03T20:56:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-27T09:23:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T21:07:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-04-14T08:38:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-14T07:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

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!

Virginia Euwer Wolff

2009-02-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

There's a wonderful interview with Virginia Euwer Wolff (you know, Make Lemonade) on Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf. A wonderful read. Check it out. Virginia is one of the few people who can leave me holding my aching sides laughing while she looks at me, all innocent-like. And she writes beautiful, intense, breathy novels. And plays the violin.

If you are really lucky some day you will hear her speak and you'll laugh so hard you have to gasp for breath. Except for the parts where she'll make you weep. And if you aren't going to cross paths with her soon, you can pick up her new novel, This Full House, which is the third (and I think final) book in the trilogy about Jolly and La Vaughn.

Obama Inauguration Day at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza

2009-01-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

In 1962 my mother kept us all out of school and we walked up to the UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium to hear President Kennedy speak. I was ten, and we sat on the wooden benches under the open sky with his voice ricocheting from the loudspeakers. I don't remember what he said, but I remember he was laid on my heart like a patch that day, a man who made people laugh and cheer when he spoke. A man important enough that my shy and reclusive mother would brave crowds to make sure we saw him.

Since then, my heart has been patched and repatched, in love and in anger and sorrow, often within sight of the campus, inside the surging sounds from the carillon bells. I went to school at UC Berkeley, was tear-gassed in Sproul Plaza, graduated as the first student with a degree in Women's Studies. My husband Tom and I had our night-before wedding party at the Faculty Club, with our family gathered to celebrate us. I still frequently walk to campus, my library card in hand, loving the smell of the halls, the echoing sound of chairs scraping back from study tables, the quiet rustling of paper as people turn pages and scribble and type and sigh.

This morning Tom and I headed for Sproul Plaza to watch Obama's inauguration under a wide open sky. The lovely circle of completion: another president who can inspire us like we haven't had since JFK, another president already laid on my heart, just like on so many other American hearts. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of us gathered together to cheer and weep and dare to hope he can guide our weary, crashing world to a better place.

Oh Lord, What a Morning. The sun clears the building as Michelle walks out.

Obama speaks.

Everyone listens, and this man stands and sings the Star Spangled Banner, start to finish.

As things wound down and the crowd began to drift away, this woman, Lady Liberty, remained perfectly still and watched until Bush took off in the helicopter. Then she turned quietly and walked away, witness to the moment.

Dan Stone Memorial Chidren's Author visit

2009-01-19T20:03:00.001-08:00

I just had the most exhilarating school and library visit. Dan Stone, who lived in Burlingame, California, was a dedicated library user for many years. After he died, his family created a special event, the Dan Stone Memorial Children's Author Series. I was invited this year as the guest. I followed in some pretty big footsteps : Paul Fleishman 2002, Maxine Rose Schur 2004, Pam Munoz Ryan 2005, and Gennifer Choldenko 2007.

In the morning I did two presentations in the middle school library. I had fantastic kids, clustered together on the carpeted floor of the library and up the also-carpeted steps. The were full of questions, which was great. As I was showing Dorothea Lange's photos of the Great Depression and playing Woody Guthrie songs, I realized these kids were hearing today about the recession-could-it-turn-into-a-depression, and now they were seeing and hearing about the Great Depression. What I was doing was not just history, but was suddenly relevant, scarily enough.

In the afternoon I did two more presentations at the Burlingame Library, which is a beautiful place. Dan Stone's daughters came and brought their children, which was really an honor. Here's a photo of the Stone grandchildren with me on the right and a picture of their grandfather. My author minder for the day was Cathy Somerton, with assistance from Kathy with a K. Thanks to both of them, as well as Michele Gilcrest, the librarian, who prepared the kids for my visit. And thanks to Cathy Somerton for taking the photos!

Manuscript into copy editor!!

2009-01-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

It's a sheer pleasure to turn in a manuscript and have it go to copy editing. I know I've wrung every creative drop out of myself that I can, and it is someone else's turn to buff it up. Now I'm working on gathering photos with the designer. I just keep sending the amazing, wonderful photos I find, knowing he will be able to make sense of them, culling out the ones that aren't the best, alighting on ones I'd casually included, but thought were unimportant. (Note the theme here: someone else is hard at work on "my" book! This is actually true all the way along -- the editor has been hard at work, especially the last few months as we passed versions back and forth via email.)

I just had one of those lovely "ah-ha" moments where I discovered a great theme that I can weave into the book, mostly via the images. This makes me very excited. Because images can be so evocative, kids will get a feeling for this theme, a gut level reaction, and it will give them something to think/feel about. More on the details anon.

Meanwhile, I'm home with my cats, who want to lay across the keyboard, and be fed, not necessarily in that order. That's Coyote, un-creatively named for the coyote trap that caught her by the back leg and skinned off her fur when she was a barn cat long ago, before she was rescued by my sister, taken in by me, and mended by her own resilience. (The skin grew back, top to bottom, then the fur came in, top to bottom, except for a thin band around her ankle of shiny scar tissue where she just couldn't make fur anymore). She's a very sweet cat, big on eye contact with her tall, clumsy human companions, and not above an occasional swat at Blackberry, her neer-do-well son, whose tail you see above.

Welcome in the new year!

2009-01-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

It sure feels like 2009. There is something about that first Monday after the first of the year. We had truly spectacular times with our family this year. Some of the best eating ever -- our boys had a bunch of their very best friends up to Mendocino (thirty, to be exact), and they spent the days collecting mussels from the Pacific and mushrooms from the woods and the last of the apples off the trees. We ate Candy Caps and Cauliflower mushrooms and even a lingering, hidden Boletus. The kitchen was a madhouse of cooks who made steamed mussels in broth and all kinds of mushrooms and apple pie. Lots of reading, resting, playing music by the fire, writing (last go-over on manuscript before editor pulls it from my hands and gets it to the copy editor) and watching the sun set over the ocean. Can you see the God's rays in this photo? Beautiful!

We finished off the celebrations with my husband's birthday party last night. Our son Will jumped in with both feet and showed us how to make a Vietnamese dinner. More madhouse chopping and sauteing and boiling and wrapping and then, finally, the delicious eating.

Couple of really cool articles to check out: Nina Lindsay is doing her mock Newbery discussion at the Oakland Library. This is a fantastic way to discuss books by the Newbery criteria. Nina has chaired the Newbery, is one really smart, well-read woman, and she writes incredible poetry as well. If you can't make it, at least try to check these books out from your library or pick up a copy at the book store. This is a compelling group of books.

Kerry Madden just got her first starred! review on her bio on Harper Lee and gave me a nice shout-out on her blog, Knoxville Girl.

And Roger, over at Read Roger flags a great article on the financial squeeze in the book biz. It's a fascinating, nail-biting-inducing article, Puttin' Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing in the New York Times.

That brings us back to 2009. Time to put on your work gloves. It may be an austere business, but it's our austere business.

Winter Gathering

2008-12-23T16:46:00.001-08:00

Woke up to frost all around, sparkling and beautiful, on the grass and trees and glimmering on my strawberry plants.

Winter solstice here, once again. Had a holiday party Sunday night, with food and drink and caroling and lighting the menorah, all to drive back the dark, and glory in the cozy center in the depths of winter.

And before the cold could strike everything, we'd brought in the bounty of the back yard. The persimmons gathered, hung and drying, thanks to our son Felix. These ridiculously large squash, cut and stewed and pureed.

And flourishing in the garden, the sturdy, defiant Meyer's lemon tree, perseveres despite the cold.

Folk and blues singer Odetta dies

2008-12-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Last week, the astonishing folk singer Odetta died. There's a lovely review of her life in the New York Times... They title it "Odetta, voice of Civil Right Movement Dies at 77." Please scroll down on the NYT page to the video of a recent interview with her. She's already old, very old, for the interview, but when asked to sing, she closes her eyes, dips down her chin, and then, up with her chin and she sings... incredibly. Her voice is so percussive and rich. She is a big part of my family lore. When I was little, she came to visit us on the farm we lived on and my dad took astonishing photos of her. We often had her music playing.

As I've been writing books, she's been with me. A friend gave me a tape of her original recording at the Blue Angel in Sausalito. I worked my father's photo into my book on Woody Guthrie. And just two days ago, I wrote about her discovering Pete Seeger asleep in a big tent on the march they had both joined, Dr. King's Selma to Montgomery march for the vote in 1965.

There is lots of end-of-life joys and trials around me right now. My parents live about a mile away, and my mother is bed-bound, and on hospice. The great grace is that she is no pain. Our brother-in-law, Bernard, is very, very ill. He and my sister live with my parents. And in a separate apartment, our son Felix and his girlfriend live at the house. Felix gardens with my dad in the day (they have a ripping garden full of winter vegies and two huge, homemade greenhouses), and goes upstairs to check on my mom every evening, taking his guitar and singing songs to her. Today Felix called me from his cell phone. He and Sasha were just taking a walk in the Mountain View cemetery nearby, and he wanted to know where the family plot was.

Dying can involve a whole family, the sadness and hopeless waiting and caretaking and beautiful, unexpected moments of grace in it all.

NCTE photos

2008-11-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Run right over to Laurie Halse Anderson's blog for terrific photos of NCTE/ALAN authors. I knew I'd find good photos soon!

Thanks so much, Laurie!

NCTE San Antonio, financial melt down in publishing

2008-11-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

Just back from San Antonio, and the exhilaration of NCTE, National Council of Teachers of English. I did a panel with some fantastic non-fiction children's writers: Marc Aronson, (very cool blog on School Library Journal) Tanya Bolden, and Tanya Stone. Great writers, highly opinionated. Fast-paced discussion about how we work, how to use our books in the classroom, all moderated by Teri Lesesne, who managed to keep us all on track!

Of course, the one thing I forgot to pack was my camera. So I don't have any pictures to show. But spirits were high as I rambled around the floor.

But I think everyone was wondering what NCTE would be like next year with the financial melt down that is going on. Want some info and ideas what you can do? Zip over to Editorial Ass today to check out her blog on what's happening in the publishing industry and how each of us can do one. small. random. act. of. kindness. to keep the kettle boiling. She's an amazing blogger, an editor who writes beautifully and with heart and lots of info. I always love her posts.

Selma Alabama and Obama's unsung heros

2008-11-06T04:58:00.000-08:00

This week I've been in Alabama interviewing people who were children and young adults on the 1965 civil rights march for the vote. These people are some of the unsung heros Obama praised in his presidential acceptance speech ("and on a bridge in Selma..."). They marched and sang and were beaten and jailed. Released, they went out and marched again. Their courage provided the news coverage to outrage Americans and give President Johnson the power to get the Voting Rights Act through Congress.

On Tuesday November 4th I was in Selma. It was a historic day to be waiting to hear the outcome of our election. People excited, anxious, hopeful.

Getting out the vote, in the original get-out-the-vote town.

At eight pm I joined a silent candlelit vigil walking across the Pettus Bridge. Faces beautiful in the flickering candlelight. We gathered at the foot of the bridge in a circle, moving in together as Amelia Boynton, in her 90's, walked to the center to share her memories. On the original Bloody Sunday march in 1965 she was struck down by the sheriff's posse and lay by the side of the road in a swirling mist of tear gas.

Check out this wonderful photo taken by Rene Johnston of the Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/photo/530676

We listened, quiet and hushed. Suddenly someone called out: "Obama's taken Pennsylvania!" People yelled and cheered and wept and we clambered back across the bridge, noisy and relieved and joyous.

David Almond, his book Skellig and music

2008-10-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

I love the feeling when a book clings to me -- I finish it, put it down, and find I am still partly in the imaginary book world days later. Lovely.

And a big favorite of mine is Skellig. Even thinking of Almond's book right now, I can slip into Skellig's world. I just found this great interview by Almond where he talks about the importance of sounds and the music in his head -- part of how he creates the magic.

"When I wrote Skellig - set in the streets of Newcastle - my mind was filled with sounds: the creaking of a dilapidated garage, the scuttlings and scratchings inside, a baby's heartbeats, her breath, the songs of blackbirds, the cheeping of chicks, the hooting of owls, the dawn chorus, the voice of a girl quoting William Blake, the sound of the city beyond a small suburban garden. At the centre of it was Skellig himself: his surly almost-animal squeaks and growls becoming more coherent, turning into a confident human voice. And when the book was published and people began to ask questions about it - about the repetition of certain phrases, for instance, or its rhythms, or its composition as a series of scenes, or its use of Blake's poetry, I often found myself referring to music."

Full interview is posted in The Guardian.

Book Passage Kid Lit night

2008-10-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful time Monday night at Book Passage, where I had the privilege of being on a panel with Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Egypt Game, Headless Cupid, Witches of Worm), Gennifer Choldenko (Al Capone Does My Shirts, If a Tree Falls At Luch Period) and Christina Meldrum (Madapples).

Here's Christine, and Gennifer talking, with Zilpha seated.

Lissa Rovetch has put together an incredible once-a-month Kid Lit Salon. Her line-up of Kid-Lit stars is awesome! Check it out.

Here she is, chumming up the crowd. (Lissa is very funny and is responsible for getting all of us going).

We had one of those intense, informational, can't-stop-laughing evenings. The room was full of people in a cheery mood, and the energy just hit a high spot. Thanks to all.

SCBWI talk at Mills College

2008-10-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

A terrific day today. I did the keynote at SCBWI Norcal meeting: UnMask Your Character: Reveal Your Story. A wonderful group of people, wonderful speakers. We were on the beautiful, serene campus of Mills College in Oakland, which right away made everyone want to give up their usual lives and go live on campus in a dorm. Gretchen Hirsch, associate editor at HarperCollins gave a great talk on first pages she likes and why, and Eric Murphy of Erin Murphy Literary Agence talked about queries that work for her and those that don't. Both of them were smart and funny. I also moderated a YA panel with Carrie Watson, author of Quad, and Leigh Purcill, author of Love Meg.
Here's a nice (OK, a little bit blurry) shot of Gretchen, where you can get a feel for how cool she is. She like YA novels that are a little bit dark. In case you're looking for someone to query, she also has that excellent editor trait of being both enthusiastic and very tactful.

Huge thanks to Margaret Speaker Yuan and Colette Weil Parrinello who did tons of heavy lifting to make the day work so smoothly. My only regret is that I had to leave early, and missed the afternoon speakers.

David Macaulay and color fest at the San Fracisco Public Library

2008-10-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

David Macaulay spoke at the San Francisco Public Library last night about putting together his book, The Way We Work. He showed us his process of doing the book -- sketch after sketch after sketch. Amazing to see how he thinks and draws. He loves looking at each body system every way he can -- from underneath, above, outside, inside. Astonishing. Going over the hand and all the finger joints he said, "what a very clever contraption we are." Indeed.

Here he is talking with a young fan. I just loved her skirt and the way she was standing as she talked with him.

There is an exhibit up of Robert Sabuda's original artwork for his picture books. If you live anywhere in the Bay Area, do yourself a favor and go see it. The details of his work and the materials he uses are incredible. They are the kind of images you want to reach right through the glass and run your fingertips over.

And upstairs outside the children's room was another beautiful exhibit, this one French illustrator Olivier Tallec. The evening turned into a color fest for me. Thanks to all the librarians at SFPL for the talk and the exhibitions.

autumn

2008-10-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

I love how the light shifts in the fall. I took this photo a mile from my cabin. I'd just driven down the dirt road to Highway One, where the land meets the water and the sky.Day ends as the sun slips into the water, night comes. Summer ends, autumn pauses, slides into winter. Crisp air, light so rich you can scoop up handfuls and pour it inside you.

Word picture from the Farmer's Market

2008-09-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Went to the farmer's market today, which was lovely and relaxed, with an old-time music festival in the adjoining park. People flowed back and forth between the two, eating plates of delicious smelling food, and biting into apples and peaches. Small dancing children, chatting adults, young ccouples on blankets.

If-I'd-Had-A-Camera Moment: A grey haired lady who had a small table covered with little cobalt blue bottles and a sign saying "homemade healing herbals." Standing in front of her table, a woman held opened her blouse while the grey haired lady earnestly rubbed an oil between her breasts. The woman getting the mini-healing-massage had her eyes closed, her face up to the sun and such a deep look of surrender, while we all walked around her, in the warmth and the music and the smells of cooking food. What was the story here, I wondered. Breast cancer? Heartache?

A few days ago I ran into a friend and asked about something he'd told me about a few weeks earlier. How can you remember I was doing that? he asked.

Easy. The stories are so endlessly interesting. I go around gleaning moments, as lives brush up against mine, and just for a few seconds, or a year, or a lifetime, our stories flow together.

Odd book titles, finishing touches on Big Cat Pepper

2008-09-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

My blog today should be "read, write, laugh."

One of the things I don't do well is come up with titles. I admire people who do short snappy titles -- Laurie Halse Anderson is incredible at this with titles like Speak and Chains. I seem to prefer ten words or more....

So here's a contest for oddest book title of the year, started at the international Bologna Book Fair. Read to the end (it's a short article) for a good laugh.

We're getting down to the details on Big Cat Pepper. Melanie Cecka at Bloomsbury just sent me flap copy to check over, and asked for my dedication. Lauren Castillo's artwork is all done and is absolutely gorgeous.