Kate DiCamillo's Blog, page 36

FIRST IN A SERIES: THINGS THAT NEVER FAIL TO CHEER ME UPI wonder who knitted t...

FIRST IN A SERIES: THINGS THAT NEVER FAIL TO CHEER ME UP
I wonder who knitted the green stem and the green leaves and fitted them to the pole of this stop sign?
Whoever it is, I would like to thank them; it is such a whimsical act of generosity.
The ordinary (a stop sign) is suddenly transformed into the extraordinary (a flower). The world is made new.

This picture was taken on the way up to a friend’s cabin. Every time I look at...

This picture was taken on the way up to a friend’s cabin. Every time I look at it, I think of one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, which starts this way: “I’m driving a big lazy car, rushing up the highway in the dark.”
And those words of Springsteen’s make me think, in turn, of the E.L. Doctorow quote about writing a novel and how it is “like driving at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
Again and again, I have gotten comfort...

I have been sorting through old photographs and scanning them into the computer....

I have been sorting through old photographs and scanning them into the computer. This picture of my mother and my brother and me was taken soon after we moved from Philadelphia to Florida.
For some reason, I keep coming back to it. I stare at my saddle shoes and my red tights. I study my mother’s hands and my brother’s face. I don’t know what it is that I expect this photograph to tell me, what secrets I think it contains, but I can’t stop looking.
My mother, then, was the same age that I a...

Yesterday, I saw an old gumball machine at a garage sale and I stood in front of...

Yesterday, I saw an old gumball machine at a garage sale and I stood in front of it and thought, “Man, I sure would like to have a gumball machine.”
And then I thought, “What in the world would you do with a gumball machine?”
And I walked away.
But last night I dreamed of the gumball machine.
In my dream, the words “Complete galaxy inside!” were printed in gold on the glass front. And when I put my quarter in and turned the handle, a planet, small and glowing, shot into my hands.
“Hold onto i...

From the Candlewick team: You know that “marvelous companions” Bink and Gollie a...

From the Candlewick team: You know that “marvelous companions” Bink and Gollie are back this summer in Bink and Gollie: Two for One. So we’ve updated www.binkandgollie.com with new content for kids as well as parents and teachers. If you’re a fan of carnival games like Bink, head over to www.binkandgollie.com/#fun/whack to play the new interactive Whack-a-Duck game! Whack a Duck and win a donut (or not). If you’re a parent or teacher, proceed to www.binkandgollie.com/#teachers to download the...

The neighbors have a whippet who likes to run away. The other day I came home a...

The neighbors have a whippet who likes to run away. The other day I came home and found her standing in the alley. She let me grab her by the collar and put her back in her own fenced-in yard. She was subdued, but she also seemed quietly pleased with herself. Smug almost.
Later in the day, I saw my neighbor and told him that the dog had been out and that I had put her in the backyard. He sighed. He said, “She has figured out a new way to escape. She gets up on the trampoline and from there s...

In the mailbag this week, a letter from a young reader named Olivia who says, “I...

In the mailbag this week, a letter from a young reader named Olivia who says, “I was wondering if you could write some more books because I read them all.”
Can I tell you how much this sentence delights me, how much it acts as a spur to the flank of my writing self?
Thank you, Olivia. It’s been a week of hard work and self-doubt.
Your words arrived just when I needed them.

I often have the feeling that if I turn around quickly enough (or slowly enough)...

I often have the feeling that if I turn around quickly enough (or slowly enough) I will catch something wonderful that is happening just out of my sight. I call this feeling “peripheral magic.” It can happen when I look up or kneel down or hold myself still. Suddenly, I am aware of wonder, marvels, everywhere.
When people ask me “Where do you get the ideas for you stories?” I want to say: here, in the cracks of this world, in the sidelong glances, in the light that comes suddenly pouring tow...

“It was time for Jenny to go home with her mother, all the way in the tram car t...

“It was time for Jenny to go home with her mother, all the way in the tram car through the haunted November twilight of Edinburgh across the Dean Bridge. Sandy waved from the window, and wondered if Jenny, too, had the feeling of leading a double life, fraught with problems that even a millionaire did not have to face. It was well known that millionaires led double lives. The evening paper rattle-snaked its way through the letter box and there was suddenly a six-o’clock feeling in the house.”...

Yesterday I spent a lot of time out in the yard uprooting dandelions. Each time...

Yesterday I spent a lot of time out in the yard uprooting dandelions. Each time I pulled one out of the ground, I heard George Washington Carver saying, “A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place.”
So after awhile, I stopped and sat back on my haunches and just looked at the weed, it’s sharp leaves and its ridiculously optimistic yellow flower.
I came back inside and read up on the dandelion. It’s edible, all of it. The leaves make wonderful salads. They are richer in iron than spinach....