Fever, 1793

I'm a fan of historical fiction, so was eager to read Laurie Halse Anderson's Fever, 1793, a YA novel set in Philadelphia in 1793 during an outbreak of yellow fever. I wasn't disappointed, and Anderson weaves the historical facts with a convincing, well-written and compelling story. This review from Kirkus gives a good overview:

In an intense, well-researched tale that will resonate particularly with readers in parts of the country where the West Nile virus and other insect-borne diseases are active, Anderson (Speak, 1999, etc.) takes a Philadelphia teenager through one of the most devastating outbreaks of yellow fever in our country's history. It's 1793, and though business has never been better at the coffeehouse run by Matilda's widowed, strong-minded mother in what is then the national capital, vague rumors of disease come home to roost when the serving girl dies without warning one August night. Soon church bells are ringing ceaselessly for the dead as panicked residents, amid unrelenting heat and clouds of insects, huddle in their houses, stream out of town, or desperately submit to the conflicting dictates of doctors. Matilda and her mother both collapse, and in the ensuing confusion, they lose track of each other. Witnessing people behaving well and badly, Matilda first recovers slowly in a makeshift hospital, then joins the coffeehouse's cook, Emma, a free African-American, in tending to the poor and nursing three small, stricken children. When at long last the October frosts signal the epidemic's end, Emma and Matilda reopen the coffeehouse as partners, and Matilda's mother turns up—alive, but a trembling shadow of her former self. Like Paul Fleischman's Path of the Pale Horse (1983), which has the same setting, or Anna Myers's Graveyard Girl (1995), about a similar epidemic nearly a century later, readers will find this a gripping picture of disease's devastating effect on people, and on the social fabric itself. (Fiction. 11-13)

If you're interested in knowing more, check out the website for Fever and also Laurie's site. The site includes a teacher's guide.(She's prolific on the Internet - on-line journal, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Phew.)

Loving a Book by Its Cover (and Design and Text...)

I have a shelf in my living room where I keep by Diana's annuals and other books (of questionable quality mind you) from my childhood. I also keep my current favourites (of excellent quality) I will keep forever and not cull when my children are older. I was looking through them today and came across a recent favourite: When You Were Small, by Sara O'Leary with illustrations by Julie Morstad. It's a charmingly simple tale of a boy who asks his father, "Tell me about when I was small." Each spread describes a situation from the fanciful life, with a literal twist, of a "very small boy." So, we see Henry walking his pet ant, standing in for a chess piece becuase "our chess board was missing one of the knights and you were the perfect size."

It was the lovely illustrations and the book design that first drew me to this book, but the text is charming, simple and fabulous too. The book recently won a design award from the Alcuin Society. You can find more on this keeper at the When You Were Small blog.

The Ink Drinker

This is the wonderful, quirky story by Eric Sanvoisin of a young boy whose father owns a bookstore. Our nameless protagonist hates books, but has to work in the bookstore, spying on customers and watching for shoplifters. This is torture until he sees a strange-looking man using a straw to suck the ink out of books. The adventure begins. The Ink Drinker is a slim book, with great illustrations. I loved it for its quirky, thoroughly unique (hallelujah) story. Those who want more can check out sequels: A Straw for Two, Little Red Ink Drinker, and The City of Ink Drinkers. Here's a review of two of these titles from CM Magazine.

As soon as I saw the illustrations, I wondered if this was a European book. Sure enough it was originally published in France. I'm not sure what it is about the illustrations that made me think that, but there are slighly offbeat and definitely not "cutesy." Reminds me somewhat of the wonderful illustrations Stephane Jorisch did for Jabberwocky, part of Kids Can Press's Visions in Poetry series. All of the art in this series is fabulous.

The Aleutian Sparrow

After the wonderful introduction to Karen Hesse's writing through Out of the Dust (see my post on July 24th), I've got a few more of her titles to read through. I finished another verse novel, Aleutian Sparrow, last evening. Although I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Out of the Dust, I did learn quite a bit about the history of the Aleuts during WW2. This story is told by an Aleut girl, Vera, as she and her friends and family are moved from the Aleutians to Ward Lake near Wrangell. Another sad tale of misunderstanding and mistreatment and I wasn't left with the same sense of hope I had after finished the very heart-wrenching Out of the Dust, but I appreciated learning more about this period and these people. Beautiful cover and interior linocuts by Evon Zerbetz.

Blogs to Flog #1

The house is empty, with the hubby and kids away for a few days. I get a lot of work done during these precious days, but I have also been spending far too much time on the computer, snooping around. There have been several sites and blogs I've been wanting to check out, so it's not a total waste of time. Came across a great blog that I think will be useful (okay, at the very least amusing) for children's writers. Editorial Anonymous is the blog of a children's book editor. She's irreverent, hilarious, straightforward and occasionally very snarky. I loved it. If you're a writer and want to get a better understanding of what goes on in the places where most manuscripts go to die (and want to find out why they die) check this blog out.

Summer Reading

The coffee table in my living room, desk (and floor!) in my office, and my bedside table are covered with stacks of books. Some for research for the several projects I have on the go, but most purely for pleasure. What to read, what to read. When in doubt...read a picture book! I had seen Nancy Hundal's Prairie Summer before, but had never read it. A classmate had looked it over closely when I was at school this summer as part of our discussion of picture books. Hundal is a wonderful writer. So lovely to see someone using descriptive, evocative language for kids and not trying to rhyme everything (or anything). Here's a taste:

Snack packed, we went field-roaming
treasure combing,
through burnt, scratchy grass, never smooth green,
wet-filled like at home.
Saw sloughs, cows lips suck greedily at the edge,
tear away chunks of muddy water.
And saw the sky skid off into forever.
Explored it, mapped it, named it -- the Plains of You,
the Rock of Me.

All the while the dung-tinged perfume of the prairie
tickled our nostrils
never stronger near a wild rose or haystack,
just always there.

Like the mosquitoes, whose tickle
left hard and red and hot imprints to scratch.
Scratch. Scratch.

- from Prairie Summer by Nancy Hundal (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999)

In this book we explore the summer prairie through the eyes of country cousins who've come to visit their city cousins.

Another Hundal book, which I discovered on my childrens' bookcase when I was trying to cull it, is Twilight Fairies. Again, Hundal's strong, poetric prose comes through: "Mom made a cake, a circle of angel food frosted in pink, sugary bliss. She made dainty sandwiches of tomato and cucumber, pitchers of soursweet lemonade." or "Miranda coud hear the tinklehum of fairymerrymaking as she passed her cake, opened her gifts." Tinklehum and fairymerrymaking -- what great words.

My MFA Journey Has Begun

Home a week or so since I began my MFA at UBC. My summer began with a 10-day workshop, the first course en route to getting my MFA in creative writing. Was a wonderful and intensive week. I chose to stick with writing for children for this first course, except that I've started working on a novel, something I vowed I would never do. But...since part of this journey is to challenge myself and try new things, this pushed me along that road. And -- surprise, surprise -- I really enjoyed it! I'd like to keep working on the draft of this novel this fall, so will probably stick with children's writing for my first year. Then, onto new things -- poetry, playwriting, short fiction? Who knows.

Above is a photo of my classmates, with our wonderful instructor, Glen Huser. One of the best things I gained from this workshop is how to read and critique carefully. I learned a lot about my own writing as I did this, but also hope that I made comments useful to others.

Although I read a lot of children's fiction, I also came home with a long list of books, many "current classics", to read. The book that affected/impressed me most, was Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust. It is a verse novel, a form which has intrigued me since I read The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter (another book I enjoyed very much). Glen also had a copy of Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, another verse novel, which became a class favourite. Loved that book! Such a charming narrator, and if you haven't read it, do. It will take you 20 minutes or less and leave you with a smile.

Skunks on a Podcast
Thanks to the students at Woburn Jr's Boy and Girls Reading and Technology Clubs for their fabulous podcast. I've been so busy I've only just had time to sit down and listen. They did a wonderful job interviewing all of the writers nominated for the Silver Birch this year. It was fun to be part of it. Take a listen!

More Awards News!

Received a lovely surprise call last night when the publisher of KNOW called to let me know that KNOW had won an award at the Association of Educational Publishers annual awards banquet and gala. We won best One-Theme Issue for Issue 5, our issue on light and colour. And, the cover artist for this issue -- the wonderful and talented Howie Woo -- also won in the Visual Story category for his orienteering spread in Issue 54 of YES Mag.

The other day I also received a great email from Reid. It was the first time anyone had ever told me that one of my books (Skunks in this case) had "blown their mind." Surely you exaggerate a tad, Reid?

KNOW Nominated for Western Magazine Award

KNOW has been short-listed in the Best New Magazine category of the Western Magazine Awards. As well, the wonderful Howie Woo has been short-listed in the Best Illustration/Illustrated Feature category for his great spread, Leonardo's Workshop, which was in Issue 51 (March/April 2006) of YES Mag. The awards ceremony is June 22nd in Vancouver. Wish us luck!

Spring Book Hatching!
The Children's Writers and lllustrators of BC are hosting a "Spring Book Hatching" June 9th from 1-3 at the Alice McKay Room at the Vancouver Public Library. Thirty-three writers and illustrators, including moi, will be launching their latest books. We'll each have tables for signings and visitings, as well as displays, free give-aways, and, perhaps, activities. Kids can grab a free passport in which they can gather author signatures. There will be book draws, door prizes, and snacks (including chocolate). It sounds like it will be a lively event. Hope to see you there!

Primary Science Series in Arabic

I had a cool package in the mail the other day -- the Arabic copies of the books in my Primary Science series. They are published by the Egyptian publisher Nahdet Misr. I can't find a link on the web and still haven't got the scanner hooked up, so I can't show a picture. They're very cool though. The kids enjoyed seeing how the cover and direction of reading is the opposite to the books in English. (Spine on the right and you read from "back to front.") The copies of my books I have in Arabic and Chinese (I suppose it would actually be Cantonese or Mandarin, but I don't know how the characters look) are my favourites. Each character is like a piece of artwork!

For those keen about writing and reading, especially for children and youth, you might want to make the trip to UBC May 4-5 to take in Serendipity. This wonderful annual event brings together illustrators, writers, publishers, and other bookish types for a wonderful day of talks about books. Cornelia Funke, Sarah Ellis, Bill Slavin, Ian Wallace and others are on the schedule this year. I'll be taking my teenager daughter and her friend -- enthusiastic teen readers who can't wait to see Cornelia Funke. If you are in Vancouver, consider joining/supporting the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable. There is also a CLB on Vancouver Island, but I don't have a link for them at the moment. Will post it when I do.

Another drippy spring day here, but there are primroses, daffodils, and forsythia brightening things up.

Honour for Skunks!
My book, Skunks, has been selected as an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the National Science Teachers' Association. It's a pretty short list, so it's a great honour and a nice way to begin my week. You can see the complete list at the NSTA site. My colleagues from YES Mag also have a book on the list -- the wonderful Science Detectives: How Scientists Solved Six Real-Life Mysteries.

Course: Writing Non-fiction for Children's Magazines
In my role as an editor, and from speaking with other editors of children's magazines, I know that many children's magazines are eager for well-written non-fiction for children. It seems that when most people think of writing for children, they only consider fiction. There is a world out there waiting to be written about! Non-fiction can be so many things: personal experience, history, sports, science, nature, ... it's really endless. I'll be teaching a course with SFU's Summer Publishing Program entitled Writing Non-fiction for Children's Magazines. (I can't attach the direct link for some reason, but go to the SFU site and look at the courses down the right hand side of the home page.)Maybe I'll see you there?

Thanks to the students of Ucluelet Elementary, Ucluelet Secondary and Braefoot Elementary schools. I was hosted by these schools in the last month and really enjoyed meeting with young people to talk about books and writing.

The latest issue of KNOW is out. This was a fun, dirty issue -- in a literal, not naughty way! It's all about how dirt (more scientifically, soil) is part of our lives and the lives of plants and other animals.

I won't have much time to blog in the next while as I'll be reading through a stack of books. I'm on the jury for the chapter books and novels of BC's Chocolate Lily Awards. I'm looking forward to it, but I have a lot of reading ahead -- BC authors are very prolific and I have over 40 books to read! (To qualify, the books need to have been written (or illustrated for picture books) by BC residents.) Once the short-list has been announced, I'll post comments on some of my favourites.

Ontario Tour - May 10-17, 2007

I'm planning a tour of Ontario in mid-May for the week prior to the Silver Birch Awards in Toronto. If you are interested in having me speak at your school or library (or to a writer's group) please get in touch. You can find out more through the Author's Booking Service. (My rates are the same whether you book directly through me or through ABS.) Remember to check out my website for information on me and my books.

Pausing with Poetry

After an intensive few weeks of writing about robots (a new kids' book) I took a short break yesterday afternoon and spent the afternoon with my writing group at a workshop given by one of my favourite poets, Kate Braid. Kate has an endowed "chair" at SFU for the year that allows her to do outreach, so we were thrilled she agreed to come to us. It was a beautiful day, the sun stream into our workspace and we looked out onto the mudflats, the flocks of shorebirds providing diversion. We did a few writing exercises, but what I enjoyed most was the discussion of "form poetry." As opposed to free verse, form poetry is anything that (obviously) follows a form, so sonnets, ballands, haiku, etc. I found it very interesting and there were so many that I'd never heard of -- ghazals, palindromes (I know what the word means, but had never encountered it with poetry), glosa, pantoum, and more. I suprised myself by getting excited about this discussion. Not being one who finds writing about poetry easy, I liked the idea of using a particular form as a starting point. In many ways, I think the structure forces you into more creativity, rather than just being free to go wherever you want, as you can in free verse. I walked away with Kate's new book: In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry.


Here is one of my favourite poems of Kate's, from her book To This Cedar Fountain. (In this book she writes poems in response to Emily Carr's paintings.)

Trunks

Her trees are Michelangelo's sculptures
not born to Italy but conceived
in the passionate heart
of British Columbia
by a self-confessed old spinster.

Buttocks and thighs, muscle and flesh
rise from canvas so clear
that hands lift, fingers twitch
impolitely.

No wonder she wants
to be alone
in the woods
with the trees.

by Kate Braid

Other books by Kate: Covering Rough Ground and Inward to the Bone: Georgia O'Keefe's Journey with Emily Carr. Check them out!

Holiday Books

On December 1st, my children started pestering me to get our boxes of holiday decorations out. I relented, mainly because I wanted to get at our collection of holiday books. One family favourite is Kevin Major's House of Wooden Santas. It begins 24 days before Christmas so we read the entry for a day every night until Christmas eve. Even though my children are older (well, not that old -- only 9 and 13), they still love to be read to.

My personal favourite is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski. It is very sentimental, but the story unfolds beautifully and the writing is so well paced and descriptive. I always choke up near the end.

I've asked my fellow writers at CWILL-BC and CANSCAIP for their holiday favourites. The ideas from BC writers will be listed on the CWILL blog. The CANSCAIP suggestions will be posted soon on their web site. I'll let you know when the latter are posted.

What are your favourites? Let me know and I'll post them here.

Canadian Children's Book Week

Thanks to all of the schools and libraries I visitied in Lindsay, Kirkfield, Woodville, Oshawa, Mississauga and Toronto. I had a wonderful, albeit very busy, time in Ontario during the Book Week tour. Also, thanks to the Canadian Children's Book Centre and Monica Winkler, organizer par excellence, for making the trip possible and for making it as smooth and hassle-free as possible! The Canadian Children's Book Centre does so many things for Canadian writers — if you love books and kids and the idea of keeping books about Canada by Canadians on library and bookstore shelves, please check them out and consider supporting them. You can find more at their website.

The trip had crazy weather "bookends." High winds and lots of rain (and, consequeqntly, no power for 36 hours) the days before I flew east and a west coast snowstorm when I arrived home. Still balmy in Ontario I understand. This morning it is snowing here, something we only see every few years. The kids are happy and I would be too if I didn't have to drive to Port Alberni, a town 110 or so km away with some narrow, twisty roads and a high pass. Maybe my daughter won't get her braces today afterall!

Off to Ontario!
I'm off to Ontario for Children's Book Week. I'm looking forward to visiting students, teachers and parents in Woodville, Lindsay, Oshawa, Mississauga, Hamilton, North York, Scarborough and Toronto. Phew! No doubt it will be a fun, but exhausting, week! I'll give a full report when I've recovered.