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

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

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

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

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

Summer Project

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

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

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

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

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

Last photo: the tired, victorious crew.

National History Day

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

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

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

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

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

Beautiful Toni Morrison quote

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

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

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

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

What a perfect phrase.

Jon Muth, The Stonecutter

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

Author promo ideas from Flying Pig, Kids Otter Read

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

Check out her To Market To Market post.

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

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

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

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

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