Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 91

To My Daughter

I loved the funny, precious, little girl you used to be. . .



And I love the funny, precious, amazing woman you've become.

Happy 21st Birthday, Julia

America's Next Top Milo

Liberty Corner School, Basking Ridge, New Jersey

   

I'm back from a trip to New Jersey, and what a nice trip it was! I visited two school as part of their "Wizards of Words" program. The PTO brings in THREE authors for the kids, so each grade has the opportunity to hear two authors.

Tedd Arnold came for K, 1, 2, and 3. Tony Abbott came for 2, 3, 4, and 5. I came for K, 1, 4, and 5--so I had the oldest students for Rules and Touch Blue and the youngest students for Hot Rod Hamster.

Tedd and Tony were there earlier in the week, so I didn't get to meet them, but the kids told me a little about their visits and the hallways were fun of beautiful artwork for all three of us.  What a big undertaking for these schools and their PTOs, but how wonderful! They made me feel very welcome, and the kids could not have been nicer!



As I came up to the library, look who was welcoming me in the window!



     And a whole bulletin board was full of fabulous duckies!

     

          

I visited Liberty Corner School on St. Patrick's Day. Usually when I do Q&A, I call on kids based on their clothes ("The girl in the yellow shirt"), but with each group at Liberty Corner, I would say, "The boy in the green shirt!" and then realize that 90% of my audience was wearing a green shirt!

I had a funny moment when I pointed to a girl who was wearing a St. Patrick's day hat that included two fat, orange braids hanging down. 

"Okay, now the girl in the braids!" I said, and two kids started talking. The girl right behind her had *real* braids!

I got a lot of hugs from the fourth graders, and one of the first grade boys came up afterward. I could tell he was having a hard time putting into words what he wanted to say. 

"It's okay," I said. "Take a thinking moment first. I'll wait." 

He paused and then smiled. "I LOVE that Hot Rod Hamster!"   

Ohhh. What could be better than that?   

Thank you, Oak Street School

   This week, I'm in Basking Ridge, New Jersey visiting two schools. Today I spent the day with the wonderful kids at Oak Street School.  I presented Hot Rod Hamster to the kindergarteners and first graders and my novels to the fourth and fifth graders. 

   The fourth graders made wonderful communication books, and the walls were covered with fabulous hot rods from the first graders.  

    Hamster will LOVE these new rides!

  

 

      

  

How fun!  Thank you to everyone for a great day! 

Throwing Our (tiny) Hat In The Ring

Thanks to Derek Anderson for this fun graphic!

I was delighted to find out yesterday that Hot Rod Hamster is one of five books nominated in the K-2 Category for the Children's Choice Book Awards for this year.  What a wonderful surprise!

I suspect Shark vs. Train has a lock on this category, but if your kids loved Hot Rod Hamster, we'd love them to "burn some rubber" right over to the voting page! 

I certainly knew of this contest, but I didn't know how the books were chosen.  Here's the explanation from the website:

The finalists for Book of the Year in the Kindergarten to Second Grade, Third Grade to Fourth Grade, and Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade categories are the books that received the highest number of votes in the IRA-CBC Children's Choices program in June. . . .Teams of IRA-affiliated educators in five geographic regions receive copies of each submitted title to provide to students to read and rate in classrooms across their region. The votes from the five regions (from approximately 12,000 children) are compiled and the five titles with the highest number of votes in each category (K-2, 3-4, 5-6) become the finalists for the Children's Choice Book Awards.

The fact that kids put our book on this list---no matter what the final numbers are, I feel like we've already won. :-)

Put a Spoon Under Your Bed

I had a fun time last night being the guest of a local mother-daughter book group. Here I am with the daughters!  These girls were amazing.  The groups meets in the members' homes, and the hosting girl lead the discussion.  I loved hearing their thoughts about the issues and characters in Touch Blue. 

When we talked about superstitions, we discussed some common ones, including not stepping on sidewalk cracks and two popular kid superstitions for trying to get a snow day from school. 

Wear your pajamas inside out.
Put a spoon under your bed.

As a gift, the hosting mom gave me a beautiful wooden spoon that her husband had made.  He's a master woodworker, and it is truly the most beautiful spoon I've ever owned.  I'm almost reluctant to use it!  

But I've had enough of snow days, so it's not going under my bed! 

Which One Would YOU Choose?

Five Things on a Friday

Portland Head Light, Portland, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

1. I'm feeling sad for the people in Japan and all the other people around the world who are potentially in harm's way. 

2.  After a long winter, the mud in my driveway smells nice. 

3.  We have a adorable chipmunk in our backyard. He has dug long tunnels under the snow with "lookouts."  So I'll glance out the window and see his itty-bitty head pop up and look around--like a tiny prairie dog. 

4.  Speaking of rodents, I drafted a new Hamster book--actually two.  I only planned to write one, but I had two ideas, and the only way I can see if an idea works for that Hamster "choice and speech bubble" format is to draft them. I ended up writing and liking them both.  

5.  I'm critiquing manuscripts for a conference. One thing I see fairly often when I critique is a plotline where the major events in the story are happening to the main character, not because of him/her.  Beyond the initial set-up and problem, a story will be more compelling if the main character has an active role in (and not just a reaction to) the major plot developments. 

Worldless Wednesday

Bailey Island, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

Wow.

These are the 400+ students from Biddeford Intermediate School in Maine, who are all reading Touch Blue for their "One Book/One School"  title.  I'm doing an author visit with these great kids and their teachers at the end of April.