Battle of the Books coming....

It's time to rumble.... Battle of the Books time! School Library Journal sponsors this every year. I'm a big fan. It's a great way to see what some of the smartest, hippest writers think of the best books of the year. This year's contest kicks off March 13 with Matt Phelan choosing between two amazing books: Amelia Lost (just won the Golden Kite) vs. Anya's Ghost.

Run out and buy these books or check them out from your library and see what you think. It's a lively, kick-butt contest. Best part? Right at the end everyone can go online and vote one book as "undead," and it has to be put back in the contest!

Malcolm Gladwell, weekends in the apple orchard

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.

Christopher Paul Curtis is my hero.

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."

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

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.