S.A. Bodeen's Blog, page 5

Almost done with school visits for the year...

I just got back from spending the week in San Antonio at 7 middle and high schools. I'm always amazed by the cool stuff librarians do to prepare for my visits. One school had a Read it Forward program, where they hid a hundred copies of The Compound and The Gardener around the school for students and staff to find and read and pass along. And this library greeted me one morning:



And then when I got back yesterday, a box fron Rome was waiting for me. Here is The Compound in Italian:

Twain always knew just what to say...

"I've never wished a man dead, but I've read some obituaries with great pleasure." Mark Twain

Crazy Winter

This winter has been crazy for me. I'm the Writer in Residence here in Harney County this year, which means I'm in all the schools, including the rural one room school houses. I spent this week in French Glen, with all twelve of their K-8 students.


 

 

Our county is 10,000 square miles with a population of around 7000, meaning, yes, we each have more than a square mile to ourselves, technically. Here's what my 60 mile one way drive looked like:
 

This weekend is Bird Fest, when thousands of birders from all over come to the area. Currently we have tens of thousands of snow geese, on their way back up north. Here's a field of them I saw yesterday on my drive back:


I've been fitting my writer in residence duties in between trips. I spent two weeks in Brazil for school visits, was home for two weeks, went to Hawaii for spring break, got home Sunday, and will fly to China next week for more school visits. Whew. Today I got  this news:

 

The Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois' High School Readers' Choice Award

2012 MASTER LIST

After  --  Amy Efaw   Speak     2010
Beastly --  Alex Flinn  HarperTeen     2008
Before I Die  --  Jenny Downham  *  David Fickling       2009
Carter Finally Gets It  --  Brent Crawford  Hyperion       2010
Columbine --  Dave Cullen    Twelve      2010
The Compound  --  S.A. Bodeen    Square Fish      2009
Flash Burnout  --  L.K. Madigan    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt     2010
Ghosts of War  --  Ryan Smithson      Harpercollins         2010
Going Bovine  --  Libba Bray  *     Random House      2010
How to Build a House  --  Dana Reinhardt    Wendy Lamb       2009
If I Stay  --  Gayle Forman      Speak         2010
The Looking Glass Wars  --  Frank Beddor  *     Speak        2007
Love is the Higher Law  --  David Levithan  *       Knopf          2010
The Maze Runner  --  James Dashner        Delacorte        2010
Mexican White Boy  --  Matt de la Pena        Delacorte       2010
Reality Check  --  Peter Abrahams      HarperTeen        2010
Shiver  --  Maggie Stiefvater     Scholastic        2010
Story of a Girl  --  Sara Zarr       Little, Brown      2008
Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines  --  Nic Sheff          Atheneum       2008
Why I Fight  --  J. Adams Oaks        Atheneum         2010
Wish You Were Dead  --  Todd Strasser         EgmontUSA          2010
World War Z  --  Max Brooks          Three Rivers          2007

Off to unpack from Hawaii so I can repack for China. See you in May...

Save The Picture Book!

http://savethepicturebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/february-save-sweetness-and-sweet.html


1. My picture book A Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose is one of the books featured this month. Fuse 8 even mentioned the site. Check it out and save the picture book.

2. The same book is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. A good excuse to drive the 5 hours to Portland, which is where everyone thinks I live anyway...

3. The Compound was just named a finalist for the 2011-12 Nutmeg Award in Connecticut along with The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and some other amazing books. Pretty wild to see my book on there...

4. My Packers won the Super Bowl. ( In case you hadn't heard.)

5. I leave tomorrow for a school visit trip to Brazil. I learned enough Portugese to order coffee and beer. I think I will survive.

Packers. Yes.

My cheesehead household is happy. And yes, it is possible to give yourself a headache from screaming too loud...

2011 ALA Quick Picks

I'm so pleased that The Gardener has been named an ALA 2011 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. The Compound made this list in 2009, and it means so much to me.
At a recent high school visit in Orlando, a student came up to me and said he had never read a book before, that The Compound was the first book he had ever finished, and that he was going to read another book. He then stood there and waited for the librarian to give him a library card so he could check out The Gardener.  I'm someone who has always loved books. I'd rather read than breathe, so to think that I may play some small part in a young person discovering the joy of reading...well....I think that is why I do this. A link to the entire list is below.







http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/qp2011.cfm

Clearing a few things up: I did not write Knuffle Bunny

I get odd emails from time to time. Last year, one of the oddest was from a good friend who said, "I didn't know you wrote Knuffle Bunny!"
Um...no. However much I wish I had,  I did not write Knuffle Bunny. However, I began to notice how something called "Knuffle Bunny and other stories about families"  did have my name attached. Here it is:




After a little investigating, I discovered my first picture book, Elizabeti's Doll, is in this collection. So I will no longer feel funny when this gets listed as one of my works. Just clearing that up...

Interview on ALAN

At NCTE, I had the pleasure of meeting some amazing educators involved with literacy. One recently interviewed me for the  ALAN blog. Check it out:



www.alan-ya.org/2010/12/interview-with-s-a-bodeen/

On my list for 2011

Here's one I can't wait to read in 2011!!

Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Reader Award 2010-11

I'm not sure how I missed this one, but I heard from a teacher in Maryland who said The Compound is their favorite book on the list. And wow, cool list. I am so amazed to see my book among these others for Grades 6-9.

Grades 6-9 Nominees

Baskin, Nora - Anything but typical
Bodeen, S. A. - Compound, The
Burg, Ann - All the Broken Pieces
Connor, Leslie - Waiting for Normal
Mackel, Kathryn - Boost
Mass, Wendy - Every soul a star
Slade, Arthur – Jolted -- Newton Starker's rules for survival
Slayton, Fran Cannon - When the whistle blows
Stead, Rebecca - When you reach me
Swanson, James L. - Chasing Lincoln's Killer