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The Cybils are chosen by both readers and Weblits, part of the growing (YAY) communities of online booktalkers. What the newspaper community is giving up on, and TV never had, is thriving online.
So many lit-bloggers have great wit, real intellect, and a very contagious love of books. I was SO worried about literacy a few years ago. Now? Less and less....
And Skin Hunger is a Cybil nominee this year, in the SF/Fan category. I am honored, pleased, and proud. I am also delighted to have these sweet, long lists of Cybil titles to help guide my reading over the next year....
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National Book Award
I am honored to be a finalist for young people's literature. And by honored, I mean stunned, thrilled, and astonished to be in the company of such amazing writers. The official list is here , with links to excerpts and bios. There are four categories, fiction, poetry, nonfiction (all for adult readers) and literature for young people. I love the foundation for using that phrase: young people.
2007 finalists for the National Book Award for Literature for Young People:
(winner: Sherman Alexie)
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7/7/07
On the the third of July, Adah and Ozzie had puppies. They weigh about a pound apiece now, growing fast and cute, cute, cute, cute. They look all white here. But one has a tiny black spot above his eye and his sister has a small black patch on her hip. More pics later... 
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June 11, 07
Ozzie and Adah get to go outside and play.
I can't. I am writing, writing, writing... .
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June 10th.
 A weird drought year here.
Still, the silk oak is in bloom.
And the first of the Canna Lilies...
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It rained off and on for two days at BEA. One sprinkly afternoon, Lynn Everts, an amazing and outspoken librarian, and I walked from the convention center to Chelsea, stopping here and there. New York is a wonderful place to walk.
I am slowly getting over my country bumpkiness and can now step off the curb to hail cabs with a fair amount of confidence.
I found a museum of Tibetan art that I hope to visit next time I am there--it was closed. Wah.
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June 5th, 2007
 Book Expo America is always amazing.
This year, on the way, I was running between terminals in Atlanta to make my NYC connection and came upon an amazing art installation in the airport.
African sculptors created these from many kinds of stone. There is information about each artist. Oh, I wanted to spend more time with them and couldn't.
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My epiphyllum are such interesting plants.
The blooms only last a few days,
but they are spectacular!  
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IRA, 2007
 Teachers, librarians, reading specialists, are the literacy front liners. IRA members are committed to making sure that kids can read.
Talking to them about their students always makes me want to write books, to do my small part...
Toronto provided a sky-splitting thunderstorm one night--and about five hours of tornado warnings. I grew up in Colorado, but I have lived in southern California for a long time. Real weather brings back many good memories for me...it was *wonderful*.
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April 30th
 Perrysville (near Pittsburgh) was wonderful. The whole week was beautifully organized and each school's schedule ran smoothly, except one--and staff and students there reacted to a short-duration emergency evacuation so calmly that it was a perfect day anyway.
The indomitable librarian (aren't they all?) organized a change of venues in about six minutes (no lights in the auditorium for a few hours), rearranged the sessions and groups to fit the new available-time frame, and on we went.
It was fun to meet so many people who had grown up nearby and who had attended the schools their children are now attending. I love small towns and the sense of community that seeps into everything. A school with an excellent PTA is a better school than it could be without one. Parent volunteers, librarians and teachers of Perryille--you all rock!
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March 27, 2007
I am just back from two weeks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, both part of the United Arab Emirates. It was an amazing trip, full of wonder, great students and and energetic teachers. The students are from *everywhere*, they are citizens of the world. Ancient traditions co-exist with massive modern progress. Buildings like jewel boxes. Mosques and skyscrapers, camels and cars. Incredible. I learned so much. My heartfelt thanks to everyone!
 
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Coming home from Dubai, Emirates Airlines flew over Iraq, then eastern Europe, then Sweden, Norway, Iceland, making a long arc back down to New York...This is Greenland, seen from 36,000 feet. The plane was full of people from all over the world. I stared out the window at the snow and the blue, blue water, so far below, listening to conversations in four languages in the seats around me. I felt both small and important, a tiny citizen of the amazing planet earth.
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coming June 2007...
A Resurrection of Magic
Book one in a new trilogy for teen and adult readers.
A circular tale of idealism, love, fanatacism...and magic
click on the title in the menu links above for more information and an excerpt
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My father found the big one in a riverbed in Tennessee in 1957 and I found the other one in a homesteader's cabin dump in Strawberry Park near Steamboat Springs Colorado in 1970.
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Ozzie and Adah. They really do love each other.
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August 10, 2006
The first of the three new Hoofbeats titles is finished and with the editor now. It is set in Boston, during the time when people were struggling to decide whether to try to make America a country of its own--or stay a colony of England. They knew claiming their independence would mean fighting a war, people giving their lives for freedom. It wasn't an easy time for anyone--it was a terrible, dangerous decision to make. Imagine being 12 years old and realizing that the beautiful mare you have raised might end up being ridden into battle by a mean-hearted British soldier...
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July 15, 2006
Did I say I would blog more? Yes. Have I done it? No. My usual summer writing time has been far more compressed than I thought it would be. Several things happened--the last of which was a nasty flu that stole about half my energy for almost two weeks....And then there is the weather. It has been so hot! Wilt-your-body-and-weaken-your-intellect hot.
So. Those are my excuses and now I have to go back to work. The Hoofbeats book is shaping up really well. I love writing about a single person's experience of history.
The YA fantasy is becoming deeper, the revision process is fascinating.
The Time Soldiers adventure with Leonardo is solidifying into a really interesting plot. http://www.bigguybooks.com/
If you have emailed me and I haven't answered, I apologize! Please use the message board on this site. I am trying to keep up there at least...!!
Happy! Summer! Everyone!
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| Gravestones in the Puritan graveyard in Boston. The history just seeps up out of the dirt on that little hill. |
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June 6, 2006
It's official! There will be three more Hoofbeats books coming out in 2007. These are single titles--each one containing a different story. I am beginning to write them now.
The first is set in Boston during the American Revolution. A few weeks ago, the heroine whispered in my ear.
She said this:
"My name is Silence, after my grandmother's Godmother. It does not fit me. It never will."
And I can tell you that her voice is musical--you can imagine her laughter from hearing her voice--but I could also hear worry and fear. I am very excited to write her story.
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| These chinese hanging temples inspired part of the YA fantasy I am working on now. I have never seen them in person. Maybe soon. I first read about them in Mrs. Fredericksen's class--fourth grade--and they have enchanted me since. |
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May 29, 2006
I actually have a few months more or less at home this summer and I want to spend more time here in the blog than I have been. I love talking to the kind people who take the time to write me, to drive an hour to a signing, to write me cards and letters when my books touch them.
I will be writing madly the next few months, meeting deadlines that travel has interrupted. The YA fantasy (I am still searching for the perfect, one word title for this dark and unnerving first book in a trilogy) is progressing beautifully, I think. And I think, maybe, possibly, I am writing the book I meant to write, and that it will be good.
I am writing three more historical horse novels as well. The first is will be set in Boston, during the American revolution. I have a wonderful contact in a historical society there, I visited the places the book will be set when I was at PLA in Boston a couple months ago, and I have found some wonderful primary source documents and maps!! Revolutionary era maps on CD!!
There are other projects in the works, too. I will write more about them in the days to come. Enjoy the coming of summer, those of you in my hemisphere...and for my friends farther away, enjoy the coming of winter. It looks like I get to travel far and away again next Spring, this time to Dubai and the UAE. I love my job.
talk soon,
k
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May 25, 2006
Book Expo America is always exciting and always fun. Acres of books and a crowd of independent booksellers--what could be better? Dear Booksellers: If your store has a wonderful selection of children's books and a community-connection attitude, ask a teacher or school librarian to send me your information at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
If you know a wonderful bookstore, I would love to it include it in the educator-recommended list: wonderfulbookstores The page is getting between 15-20,000 hits a month. People write to tell me they are using when they vacation, authors say they use it for signings and drop-in-and-sign stock visits, teachers say they are using it to find knowledgeable book people to ask for recommendations...and I am thrilled. Thanks to all of you for helping literacy and independent thinking survive! See you again next year at BEA and at regionals next fall.
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| Shenandoah Leaves |
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May 16, 2006
I am just home from the SCBWI writer's retreat held at Skyland, in the Shenandoah National Park. Ellen and Linda can organize my life anytime!! It was a wonderful weekend full of lovely (and incredibly good) writers, warm connections and changeful, fabulous, beautiful weather. I had a wonderful time. People who commit to writing children's books are deep, kind, fearless and caring by nature. I always love meeting them.
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May 7 2006
IRA this year was everything a great conference should be. Reading teachers and reading specialists are the backbone of literacy--and lovely people. Thanks for all your interest in The Unicorn's Secret. The letters from readers continue to touch and delight me--there are so many that I run 200-400 behind in answering them. The Unicorn's Secret Click the link to see the artwork and to read the first chapter of each book.
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| Faneuil Hall. This is where the founding fathers debated every single decision that set America on the course of nationhood. There were no chairs, they stood and talked, argued, shouted, hammering out the blueprint of democracy. |
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April 10, 2006
Public librarians are some of the most civilized people on the planet. They are giving their lives to the effort of saving human learning, keeping it organized and available for our children and all the children to come. I loved meeting everyone at PLA in Boston, thanks so much for all your hard work.
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| Augusta Commons, James Oglethorpe |
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April 2, 2006
I had so much fun in Georgia--the kids of Columbia County are curious, interesting and creative and the teachers were dedicated. Thanks to Jeannie for all the organizing and thanks to each of the schools for planning a wonderful day!
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| Opryland |
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Feb 28, 2006
I had a wonderful time at the Renaissance Learning conference at Opryland in Nashville. It was like staying inside a botanical garden full of exotic palms--and dedicated and delightful teachers. Educators work hard, are underpaid, too often underappreciated, and they still wake up every morning ready to lead our children through the process of civilization. If you have a chance to do a teacher a good turn, don't miss it.
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