Kate Messner's Blog, page 42

Two States, Three Schools, & 350 Fantastic Readers!

Have I mentioned that talking with kids about books and writing is one of the absolute best things about being an author?   Today was one of those amazing school visit days, starting first thing in the morning here...



Students from Rouses Point joined the kids at Mooers Elementary School for my presentation "Firing Cannons and Kissing Frogs: The Truth About Author Research."  I love giving this presentation because the research process is one of my favorite things about writing, whether I'm ho...

Thankful Thursday

It has been one of those finish-school-get-the-van-inspected-rush-home-dinner-going-back-out-soon kind of days.  But sometimes, those are the best days to just take a moment...  I'm grateful today because:

~ I found out that I'll be speaking at this November's ALAN Conference as part of a panel on helping teens and tweens find their voices through writing, along with Jo Knowles, David Gill, and Chris Crowe. I've never been to ALAN and can't wait.

~ I have two new projects out on submission -- a...

Get this book for your mom. Or your daughter. Or yourself...

So I think this has to be one of my favorite books ever. 

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Really.

Full disclosure - I know Jeannine and heard her read a poem from this book at a writers retreat last summer. It was lovely and poignant, but when she described the book as a collection of poems about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and their daughters, I wondered a bit how that could all fit together.

Then I was lucky enough to pick up an advance copy of BORROWED NAMES at ALA Midwinter, and I understood.

It d...

Skype Author Visits - and a Skype-Author Music Video!

It's been a busy few weeks for Skype author visits, which means my lunch hours have been spent at my desk in my classroom, but far from alone!

Last week, I got to meet these great kids from Holden Christian Academy in Holden, MA, and they had great questions about THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. and writing.



Their teacher, the book loving and blogging natlski  , blogged out our visit here.

The next day, I ate my soup with kids from Moriah, NY and answered questions about one of my Lake Champlain ...

Happy Pi Day! A dedication and a challenge...

It's March 14th ~  and if you're a mathy person, you're probably already baking various number-shaped treats to celebrate Pi Day! 

For those who aren't so mathy...all the fuss is about the date, 3-14, and the fact that this date makes up the first three digits of pi, the mathematical relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle. It goes on after the 3.14, of course...

3.1415926535... and...well...it goes on.  You can click here to see the first million digits. Or visit...

The Problem with Great Expectations: Should kids be pushed to read more difficult books?

A parent of one of our middle school students approached me at my daughter's ballet class a while back.

“I was hoping I might be able to talk to you about my son,” he said, shaking his head and wringing his hands in a way that led me to believe the young man must be a drug addict or serial shoplifter.  “He’s constantly reading graphic novels.  What should I do?” 

The idea that parents ought to “do something” when kids aren’t reading the books that fit our notion of what t...

Brave New Books: New Dystopian YA Novels to Pair with Old Favorites

I may write upbeat books for middle grade readers, but I have a dark secret…  I’m a sucker for a great dystopian novel.  Bring on the floods, the repressive governments, the book burning, the horrifying reality TV, and you’ll have me up reading long past bedtime.  I’ve been delighted by the fantastic array of new dystopian novels that have hit bookstore shelves lately and jumped at the chance to talk about some in today's Share a Story-Shape a Future blog event...

GIANNA Z. is going to be a Scholastic Book Clubs/Book Fairs Selection!

[image error]I got a surprise email from my editor at Walker/Bloomsbury one day last week while I was cleaning up my desk at school, getting ready to go home. 

"I'm delighted to report that Scholastic Book Clubs have licensed book fair and book club rights to GIANNA Z...." 

I had to write back to make sure that meant what I thought it did.  That THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. would be one of the titles on the big racks at Scholastic Book Fairs at schools?  That it would be paperback, in a price that's ea...

Sunshine & 40 Degrees? Beach Weather on Lake Champlain!

We had originally planned to go see The Lightning Thief movie this afternoon, but the weather called us outdoors.  Even though it hasn't been much of a winter in Northern New York, this first sunny 40-degree day melted my heart, and we headed for a state park not far from the house. Sometimes in the winter, we see a bald eagle here, but he's been tough to find this year.  We looked for him in his favorite tree on the way in, with no luck.  But that was okay... the beach alone was worth the tr...

Friday Five: The Author Visit Edition

Spring seems to be the busiest time for author visits, and since I'm both a coordinator of visits for my school and an author who visits other schools, I thought a special Friday Five was in order...

1. My students were lucky enough to have not one but two great author events this week!  The first one was a live-and-in-person visit from Rebecca Stead, the author of WHEN YOU REACH ME, winner of this year's Newbery Medal. Here's Rebecca talking with our seventh graders. 



She was lovely and wonde...