Iowa City Part 4

The kids of Twain and Lemme Schools:

Me and librarian Michelle from Twain:

Me with Lemme librarian Kelly:

(Wait until you see what Lemme School made for me!)

Iowa City Part 3

Iowa City librarians are amazing.

They run a taxi service.

They are punctual (one of my favorite qualities).

They are funny and warm and friendly.

They have the world's largest collection of Crock Pots.

They fill those Crock Pots with fantastic food.

They are wizards with flashdrives and cords and computers and projectors and adaptors and all that scary stuff that can go wrong and mess everything up if the librarian wizards weren't there.

I met all the students from Weber.

They made a great welcome sign.

Uber-librarian, Judith, is da bomb.

And a special SHOUT OUT to my Knight-in-Shining-Armor, Preethi - who rode in on a white horse and saved me from the dragon of Technical Difficulties....
....AND makes the best Indian food I've ever had (and owes me a recipe)

(Preethi - here's the irony of the day - for some reason the photo I had of you and me didn't show up on my camera. You and I are destined for Technical Difficulties. Heh!)

Iowa City Part 2

Iowa City totally rocks!

(Thanks for the posters Horn!)


I met the kids at Horn and Roosevelt:

The kids from Roosevelt made these great posters of my book covers:

(l to r) Joan, me, Anne Marie

Me with Iowa City students

Iowa City

I know, I know...it's Tuesday.

But I'm not posting my Writing Tip Tuesday today because:

I'm in Iowa City participating in their 21st annual Community Reads event.

Talk about hospitality!

(l to r) Denise (library coordinator for Iowa City School District), me, Pat (librarian)

(l to r) Dolores, me, Carol

(l to r): Connie, Sharon, me, Jolynn

(Shout-out to Connie - thanks for dinner!)

I signed 485 T-shirts:

And met a lot of kids.

Kids at Wood and Lucas:

Kids at Hoover and Regina:

By the way...

If you noticed that judge's gavel on the bookcase to the left - in the second photo (of video-guy Scott) - that was given to me by my family because of my deep love and affection for Judge Judy.

Some people think I'm kidding when I tell them I tape Judge Judy every single day.

But there's my proof.

I told ya so.....

Hollywood is not calling...

On Saturday Scholastic Book Fairs came out to film a video of me for their author DVD series for How to Steal a Dog.

Here is producer Larry and sound-guy Juan:

Here is video-guy Scott:

Here is Larry pretending to be me so they can test the lighting:

Trust me, despite the sign on that trunk, I will never be a Film Star.
I think I'm going to have to stick to writing.

Iowa Day 1

After entertaining myself in my least favorite place in the world (the airport) by looking for typos....

I arrived in Iowa City!

I was picked up by a wonderful school librarian, Judith Dickson (thank you so much, Judith) and taken to the lovely Brown Street Inn.


It was so inviting. A fire in the fireplace. Classical music playing. Big comfy furniture.

Lots of places to read.

I'm in the White Room....with a lovely little desk to write at...

And a lovely little bed that was calling to me bigtime:

So...after a walk to downtown Iowa City (which is lovely and quaint) and my favorite dinner (sushi), I answered the call.

Hitting the road

I'm heading to Iowa City, Iowa on Sunday for a week.

I'll be doing a residency as a component of a Community Reading Month that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

I'll be speaking to students from 19 Iowa City schools.

Past author residencies for this program have included Ashley Bryan, Pat Cummings, Jerry Spinelli, Brian Jacques, Gail Gibbons, Chris Crutcher, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Lynn Reiser, E. B. Lewis, and Peter Catalanotto.

Last year's author was Deborah Wiles, so I have some big shoes to follow!

No, wait a minute, that's not the right expression. You FILL big shoes, not follow them, right?

And I am certainly not implying that Deborah Wiles has big feet.

She's a Southerner. I'm sure she has lovely little feet.

It's a hard act that you follow, not big shoes.

I have a hard act to follow.

But I'll give it my best shot.

My two minutes of fame

Scholastic Book Club is coming to my house this weekend to film me for their Author Video series for How to Steal a Dog.

I am, of course, flattered.

But....a little worried.

First of all - it takes four hours to film a two-minute video.

Second of all, they are bringing a CREW and, um, want something interesting.

A crew?

Interesting?

This is part of the info I received from them:

The best is when we go on location to places that relate to your book. Recently we took an author out on a boat with alligators while another was filmed in a cheese store in NYC.

Uh oh.

What the heck am I going to do?

Me at my desk?

Nah.

Me at my computer?

Nah.

Me watching Judge Judy.

No way.

Me playing my African djembe drum?

I don't think so.

Heating up some Lean Pockets for dinner?

Guess not...

Me with Hello Kitty?

Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah, but I don't think so.

Me stealing a dog?

Hmmmmm.

That might work...

I don't know about this......

At least I got new slippers.

Revisions

A couple of noteworthy revisions from last week's writing workshop - fifth graders working on "show, don't tell."

Before: He loved football

After: He loved the feeling of making tackles and running for touchdowns.

Before: He was shy.

After: He didn’t start conversations and tried to stay unnoticed.

Before: It was spring.

After: The snow was beginning to melt and the bears were waking up.

Off to a good start

When I teach biography writing workshops, I spend a fair amount of time talking about beginnings.

I know that the first sentence is often hardest.

The students have three pages of interview questions in front of them and sometimes have no idea where to start (writing biographies of a parent, grandparent, etc.).

I give them four choices - and cite examples of each:

1. Start with action.

I suggest that they look at their interviews in the section where there are questions about childhood activities, hobbies, sports, chores, etc. I give them an example of how they could choose one of those activities to start the chapter.

Yesterday, a fifth grade boy chose to start his biography with the answer to the interview question: Who was your best friend and what activities did you do together?

The answer on his interview sheet was: Packy Kennedy; we climbed trees

That student started his biography like this:

Feeling the breeze in his hair, hands sticky with sap, Carl Martin looked down at his best friend, Packy Kennedy.

2. Start with setting.

I give them examples of how they can show the setting - perhaps the season - maybe the geographic location.

One student started her biography this way:

As Jake climbed to the top of the tall pine tree, he could make out the large water tank in the distance. Welcome to Concord was painted in red on the side.

3. A hook that makes the reader curious.

I give them several examples of this, including the opening of my biography of Isadora Duncan (During the summer of 1887 in San Francisco, California, visitors to the seaside were sometimes met by a rather unusual sight.)

One student started his biography:

Jan had a little secret.

4. Get the baby on the paper.

That means just starting like this: John Smith was born on June 2, 1953 in Rome, Georgia.

This is the "last resort" beginning - but it offers a comforting safety net to those students who just can't manage a snappy, creative beginning.

I always notice a look of total relief on the faces of some children when I tell them it's okay to start like that.

And I remind them that maybe they can think of a different way to start later on - but YOU CAN'T FIX WHAT YOU HAVEN'T WRITTEN - so get the baby on the paper.

FSG November/December Newsletter

FSG November/December Newsletter

Writing Tip Tuesday

From Rosemary Wells in an essay entitled: The Well-Tempered Children's Book (From Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children; Zinsser):

Writing about anything is a mistake. The only books that work are those which fly through the air - the ones you let happen, not make happen.

Sad times

I was in an elementary school recently that had a Lock-Down drill.

Cops inside and out.

No one allowed in or out of the school.

Kids locked in their rooms with lights off, shades drawn.

Isn't it sad that we would even have to contemplate such a thing?

How to Steal a Dog

In Korean!

Reading Timelines

I love these.

They are timelines that kids made focused on books that were important to them at various points in their lives.

If you are a writer...

...this is NOT good.

That bandaid on the left looks itty bitty and harmless. But it is there for an incident involving a fingernail and the word MAJOR OUCH!

That ridiculous looking thing on the right is there because of, um, [deep breath, deep breath] ARTHRITIS in my thumb.

For a writer, this is NOT GOOD.

Writing Tip Tuesday

Today's tip is short and to the point.

Once again, I quote from Jack Prelutsky, in Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children (Zinsser):

Children love to be surprised.

Enough said.

Corny fun

The weather was absolutely amazing this weekend so my husband and son and I decided to have a good old-fashioned family outing.

We went to a Cranberry Festival.

It was a corny little small-town affair.
All American family fun.

There were dog shows:

I met Hello Kitty:

My son and I reaped the rewards of my husband's vast experience playing darts in bars:

There was lots of delicious junk food:

I ate an Italian sausage sandwich for the first time in about 20 years:

There was lots of corny stuff:

And the inevitable team spirit:

A good time was had by all!

Score!

The latest addition to my collection: