Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 71

Who needs a snowman?

I have a snow-puppy!

Happy Veterans Day

Touch Blue x2

The Mount Desert Islander has a nice article about my school visit to the Tremont Consolidated School in Bass Harbor last week.

And I love this video of the kids on Matinicus Island, Maine acting out scenes from Touch Blue.  They act out one scene from the book and then imagine a new scene where Aaron and Eben solve their problems with a rock throwing contest.  :-)  Love it!

On the St. George Peninsula

After I voted yesterday, I drove to St. George, Maine. It was a gorgeous day, and I hadn't been down this peninsula for several years. So I was excited to have the chance to see it again.  

   

Lobster fishing is a major occupation in the towns and villages here, and there were so many pretty scenes.  I stopped and listened to these Canada geese honking to each other as they rested on their way south.

   

I loved this sculpture of St. George and the dragon outside the St. George town offices, and this homemade sign on a back road touched me.  I kept an eye out for him. 

   

I wanted to see Marshall Point Light in Port Clyde. When I got there, there was only one other car in the parking lot. It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful. 

   

 I ate my lunch watching the waves and the seagulls (and believe me, when the seagulls saw my sandwich, they watched me).

       

I had a great group of school kids at 2:00. The library and the school are close enough that any students who wanted to come hear me could just walk over for the program. 

   

I had a wonderful group!  Three of the students were writing novels for National Novel Writing Month. When we were finished at the library, I walked them back to school so we could talk about their novels on the way. 

Then I had two hours off before my evening library talk to the girls' book group.  Since the program didn't begin until 5:00, I decided I'd drive back to the lighthouse and watch the sun set.  It sets close to 4:30 here now!

   

When I arrived back at the library, one of the boys who had been in my afternoon talk was checking out Touch Blue.  He said he wanted me to know how much he had liked my talk, and I had made him want to read Touch Blue.  So he had come back to the library to check it out.  Some moments just go right into my heart. 

And what a nice book group!  It includes middle-school-aged girls and adult women who are mentors in the program. The 5-6th graders had read Rules and the 7-8th graders had read Touch Blue.  Here I am with the girls!



It was a perfect day!  Thank you to all the kids, the mentors, and especially to Devin at the Jackson Memorial Library for bringing us together!

It's a Book Baby!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: Tom's Tweet

Date: November 8, 2011

Weight: 32 pages

Proud Parent: Jill Esbaum, illustrated by Dan Santat

Godparents: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Tenants Harbor

Marshall Point Light, Port Clyde, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

Tomorrow, I'm driving to beautiful Tenants Harbor, Maine to speak at the Jackson Memorial Library. I have a 2 pm talk that is open to the public and a 5 pm talk to the kids' book group.

The coast of Maine is full of peninsulas, and I haven't driven down this one recently. So I'm going to get there early enough to drive the whole loop from Thomaston to Port Clyde before my talk. 

Back Home!

It was a beautiful day in Maine yesterday. While I was away at my last school visit trip, my camera came back from being repaired.  The focus had stopped working, so I had to use an old camera for the last month or so.  I took a drive around my area to test the camera. 



I love old cemeteries.



And cow pounds. I don't know if these are an old New England thing, or if they're all over the country. But if not, this is where you used to bring cows that had escaped so the owners could find them (and they had to pay a fee to the Pound Keeper to get the animal back). Lots of older towns have them.

Thank you, Tremont School!

   

Yesterday, I did a school visit in Tremont, Maine for all their K-8 students.  It was a lovely, warm visit in a stunning place.   

You know you're in a lobstering town when the store opens at 4 am and there is a big display of fishing gloves.

  

I stayed in a beautiful little apartment overlooking the water, and I watched the sun rise as I was getting ready for the day.  



At school, I had some wonderful surprises about Touch Blue. Not only did two of the teachers have connections or homes on Frenchboro (the island that really took in foster children), but one of the third graders told me his mom had grown up on the island where I had taught.

"What was your mom's name before she got married?" I asked.

He told me and I grinned, "Oh! Tell your mom that Mrs. Lord, her fifth grade teacher, says hi."

And Crystal Dow, the librarian at Tremont School, had made homemade seafood chowder for lunch. Ohhhh. When she offered me some to take home to my family, I did not hesitate.



Thank you to Crystal and to all the teachers and students at Tremont School for a wonderful day!   :-)

Bass Harbor

I'm in Bass Harbor, Maine for a school visit at Tremont Elementary School today.  I drove up yesterday and took some time to see the area. It's stunning here.  Since it's November, most of the tourists have gone home and I had many of the places I stopped all to myself--including the Bass Harbor Light.  I sat on the rocks awhile and listened to the crashing waves, the wind, and the buoy bells.

The bells are an aid to navigation. Each buoy bell has its own tone, and as waves rock the buoy, they ring the bell. If you listen past the roar of the wind and water, you can hear several different ones ringing. It was wildly beautiful.

From My Mail

    Here are some lines from the kids' mail I answered this week that made me smile or touched me.

I really like your books because in Touch Blue Libby reminds me of me because we are both impatient and squirmy. --Leah

Are you superstitious?  --Daniella

My favorite part of the book was when Catherine was at OT with her brother David and mom and Jason came over and started talking to Catherine and Catherine had made the "Stinks A Big One" card and then Jason said that about the speech woman and Catherine and Jason started laughing. --Kobi

When I take my cousin places, we receive looks, stares, and come across people who pretend we aren't there. --Sarah

My parents always wanted me to read, but I always found books uninteresting or like doing chores. Your book was different. --Caroline

Hearing from you would be a dream come true! Not much happens to a 6th grader from Nebraska.  --Tess

I almost got absorbed into the book and I almost want to read it again!  --Alexa

Your book had a slow start but a great middle and end.  --Owen

David would put toys in the fish tank when he knew he shouldn't of. Then he would tell on himself. --Nick

I would be hesitant if I went to a pond full of muck with a girl I just met and had to touch the bottom. UGH!!!! --Mary Kate