Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 105

The Winter People

Beaver Brook, Belgrade Lakes, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

There is something serious and spare about the day after Columbus Day in New England. Columbus Day weekend is the last real tourist weekend here. It's a weekend of showy leaves and draining the pipes in the summer places. And when it's over, the people who are left are the people who stay.  The winter people. 

The air is full of change. When I opened the door for Milo early this morning, I felt a little blast of frost cold in the black air. We haven't had a true killing frost yet, but it's coming.

Having finished my little book tour for Touch Blue, I'm anxious to think about my third novel again.  I've been thinking about the people who come and go and the people who stay--both in a certain place and in our lives.  And what happens when you want someone to be one kind and they are another.  

This paring-down, staying-and-leaving season is not the season for the plot, but it is the perfect season for the themes. 

So as I'm doing my island visits in the next few weeks and traveling around New England, I'm going to look into the Winter People's faces and think about what makes them stay.   
 

Ending Back Where I Started

Alton, New Hampshire.

I've spent the last two days in New Hampshire--including my final bookstore signing today for Touch Blue.  Sally, the CRM at the Newington Barnes and Noble, is such a great person to do events with. I did my first Hot Rod Hamster signing at her store and my final one for Touch Blue.

"I've begun and ended this year with your store!" I told her. 

  It's Educators' Week, and Sally arranged with the State of New Hampshire that she could offer two hours of professional development credits to any teacher who came to my talk. I had a full room, and it touched me how many teachers and librarians came that I have done events with.  One principal even came from a Massachusetts school that I'm visiting in November.  It was a lovely event!  

After my talk, I showed everyone how to band lobsters. Lots of kids and teachers tried it.  

Here is a photo of my favorite future lobsterman and his dad. . . .



:-)  

Ending Where I Started

Alton, New Hampshire.

I've spent the last two days in New Hampshire--including my final bookstore signing today for Touch Blue.  Sally, the CRM at the Newington Barnes and Noble, is such a great person to do events with. I did my first Hot Rod Hamster signing at her store and my final one for Touch Blue.

"I've begun and ended with you and your store!" I told her. 

  It's Educators' Week, and Sally arranged with the State of New Hampshire that she could offer two hours of professional development credits to any teacher who came to my talk today. I had a full room, and it touched me how many teachers and librarians came that I had done events with.  One principal even came from a Massachusetts school that I'm visiting in November.  It was a lovely event!  

After my talk, I showed everyone how to band lobsters. Lots of kids and teachers tried it.  

Here is a photo of my favorite future lobsterman and his dad. . . .



:-)  

Giving the Book Back to Me

Ram Island Light, Boothbay, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

My husband went up to Boothbay on a photo trip, and he took this photo for me. I can't help but think of Ram Island Light as my lighthouse, because the keeper's cottage is on the cover of Touch Blue.

In many little ways, I feel the book coming back to me. As an author, you send a book off and hope that readers will enjoy it, and that maybe it will even matter to some readers.  When that happens, it's like having the book returned to you, completely whole for the very first time. I remember vividly the books that mattered to me as a child.  So to feel that come back to me as an author. . . .there are no words.

Thank you to author (and my dear friend) Jo Knowles, for giving me a peek into reading the end of Touch Blue with your son.  My son had stopped me several times throughout the book to say, "This is going to have a happy ending, right? Right? Everything's going to be OK?" The characters were as real to him as his best friends.

And thank you to fabulous blogger, brand-new mom, and Red Sox Fan, Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page for this beautiful review of Touch Blue.   Touch Blue is one of those rare books that I read slowly, because I didn't want it to end.

Sea and Ski with Mr. Magee and ...

    Since Chris' new Mr. Magee book is about skiing, I put all the names of the  people who entered my contest into my son's winter hat! 

And drew out one name. 





JAN! 

Jan, I have your library's address, is that where you'd like me to mail the books?

Five Things on a Friday

1.  I've read 14 of the books on the Easy Reader and Early Chapter Book list for the Cybil Awards.  Here's my growing "read" stack.



2. Milo is enjoying curling up with me as I read.  He particularly likes the animal stories. Yesterday, we read the delightful Aggie the Brave by Lori Ries, illustrated by Frank W. Dormer.  Aggie is a brave dog. . .

   All dogs are brave!  What's it about? Chasing robbers?  Keeping joggers away?  Barking at squirrels? Attacking squeaky toys?

  Wait a minute. . . what's this? Aggie is brave because she goes to the VET?!!!!! 

  Mom, you didn't tell me this was a HORROR STORY!

3.  My daughter comes home today from college for the weekend.  I can't wait until I can go pick her up!

4. My Maine island tour with Island Readers and Writers starts next Friday with a trip to Islesboro. Islesboro Central School has 85 students in Grades K-12, and they are located 3 miles out to sea.

   Their school is a former summer "cottage," complete with a ghost. How beautiful is this?

I am visiting four Maine island schools in October and November, and I just agreed to do a blog with a group of five more Maine island schools that are also reading Touch Blue (two of these islands are more than 20 miles out to sea). I'm so excited to meet the kids, virtually and in person.

5. My last booksigning is Sunday!  It's at Barnes and Noble in Newington , New Hampshire at 1:00.  It's "Educators' Week" at BN and Sally, the CRM, arranged 2 continuing education credits for any teacher who comes. 

Touch Blue News

 Features a thoughtful first-person narration by Tess that gives readers a real feeling for island life, with vivid descriptions of the sights and sounds and smells of the place Tess loves and desperately doesn't want to leave.  --Horn Book (starred review)

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New Harbor, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

TOUCH BLUE is a heart-warming story about family, community, faith and belonging. Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord’s graceful prose paints a lovely picture of life on an island off the coast of Maine and the lives of foster children, using the right touch of compassion but not pity. Lord does an excellent job creating realistic and vivid characters, especially Aaron and Tess, who believes “wishes are slippery things.” This is a charming, delightful and memorable book that makes me wish for more.  --www.kidsreads.com


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To put myself solidly in Tess' beliefs, I only used blue Post-its and clips on Touch Blue. . .until the last draft. After having told myself blue was lucky for this book for months, it was incredibly hard and even a bit scary to give that up.

And I was especially moved by this blog from a teacher in Singapore. Nancy Johnson friended me on Facebook and when I checked out her blog, I saw that she had been reading Touch Blue to her eighth graders. 

I was completely charmed by this entry where she found one of her students hiding under her desk with the classroom copy of Touch Blue. The student admitted she had taken the book, because she couldn't wait for Nancy to read what happened next.

Yesterday, they finished the book.   I read the last sentence in its brilliant three word simplicity, then closed the book reverently.  Silence — for a good 2-3 seconds (which can seem really long) — followed by spontaneous, heartfelt applause.  Eighth graders generously clapping at the end of a read aloud.  Just because.

Having set Touch Blue so firmly on a tiny, rural Maine island, I did wonder if kids in other places would relate to it.  Nancy and her students on the other side of the world from me gave me a such a gift.

They showed me that I can let that worry go. 
 

Wordless Wednesday

Brunswick, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

It's a Book Baby!

 
 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: The Twelve Days of Christmas in Arizona

Date of Birth: October 5, 2010

Weight: 32 pages

Proud Parent: Jennifer J. Stewart ( jennifer_j_s ), illustrations by Lynne Avril

Godparents: Sterling

Read, Read, Read

  Here's the first stack of books I've read as a panel judge for the Cybil Awards in the Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books category.  I have 10 more books on hold or coming through inter-library loan this week.   Then I'll have to go hunting! 

I get a thrill when an email arrives from my library saying a new book on my list has come in and is waiting for me at the desk.  It feels like getting a call from a friend who has just flown in and is ready to be picked up at the airport.

"Tell me about your travels," I want to say as we head for my car together.  But really, I'm the one taking journeys.  In the past few days:

I've climbed a ladder to the moon with David Almond.

I've made wonderful, pizza-y mess at a diner with David Catrow.

I've solved a funny mystery at the fair with Lewis B. Montgomery.

I've looked deeper as a poet with Patricia MacLachlan.

I've lost my bathing suit with Diane deGroat.

I've worried and laughed and said, "Banana!" with Mo Willems.

And I've only begun.