Beth Kephart's Blog, page 188

Okay for Now/Gary D. Schmidt: Reflections

There are just some authors who deserve our readerly love, our supreme fandom, our pass-it-on fire.  Gary D. Schmidt, I discovered yesterday, is one of them.  Don't hate me because it took me this long.  Just let me join the Schmidt Fan Club.  I'll be its secretary, if the job is still open.  I'll wear, well:  What are the Gary D. Schmidt colors?



Because I read Okay for Now yesterday, the 2011 National Book Award nominee.  I read it in a day, sometimes leaving my perch on the couch simply because I could not contain my admiration for this story about a kid growing up in upper New York state under less-than-desirable circumstances.  He calls his home The Dump.  His dad has done some damage.  His oldest brother has been fighting in the Vietnam War.  His other brother is sometimes like his father.  There's a girl, though, and she's lots of fun.  There's a mom with an Elizabeth-Taylor-besting smile. There are the town folk and the teachers who, once they give Doug Sweiteck a chance not to be his brother or old man, are some of the most tender and wonderful people around.



It's 1968, and at first there's not much for Doug to do in this sleepy old town but to go to the library, which is only open Saturdays.  Doug doesn't go there to read.  He goes, after awhile, because of that big book of Audubon bird paintings that lie (only half) protected in a case on the library's second floor.  He's going because a funky old man has started to teach him how to draw these majestic, frozen creatures.  The birds are terrified, or they are huddled by the shore.  They are proud, or they are fearless, or they are wounded.  Doug understands them, intuitively.  And he's got some talent with a pencil.  And maybe the bird and the man and the talent he is discovering will save Doug from The Dump life, or, at least, give him a reason to grow beyond his bruising circumstance.



Schmidt tells his enormously tender story with humor tailor-made for a kid.  He respects his readers, is sure they will understand the nuances, the complications, the simple fact that no one is a label, no one is stuck.  And, without ever stepping beyond the realm of younger reader book-dom, Schmidt gives us some of the most casually beautiful descriptions I've seen:

She had hair as white as clouds, and about as wispy too, and big.  It was all gathered like one of those huge thunderheads that rises on hot summer days.  The top was in sort of a bun and tied tight with red rubber bands.  And in that top bun—I'm not lying—there were three bright yellow pencils stabbing through.  She wore a bluish kind of gown that shimmered—it looked like something that someone about to go to an opera would wear (not that I've ever been to an opera, or would ever be caught dead at one. Can you imagine Joe Pepitone ever going to an opera?).  With the cloud on top and the shimmering blue beneath, she looked like a rainstorm that could walk around all by itself.  Which wouldn't have been so bad on a day that wanted to be a hundred degrees.

Before I had a chance to write this blog post this morning, I Facebooked my applause for this book.  The Schmidt fans flocked.  Yes, yes, they said.  Yes, I say, too.  This is a book (and there are plenty of Schmidt books) that you want the kids you love to read.[image error]

what it is to dance

music in the marrow.

a single touch.

Small Damages: the Two Heads Together review

I had a weekend of goodness—friendship, books, and sun, a crowd of azaleas on a woodsy path, the film "Kolya," (oh!), the book Inside Out & Back Again (breathtaking), simple meals that turned out just fine, the weeds gone from (most) of the front garden.



Enough for anyone.  Enough for me.  But this morning the overwhelming goodness continues, as I discover the ineffable generosity of Ed Goldberg, who read Small Damages one day after he received it, and wrote these stunning words the following day on Two Heads Together, the blog that he writes with his Susan.



Ed, you have buoyed me from the very start of my young adult writing career.  I am and will always be so grateful.

Inside Out & Back Again/Thanhha Lai: Reflections

One of the great sorrows of my past many months has been the paucity of books I've had the time to read.  Life just isn't right without a book in one's hand.  And my blog is hollow when not celebrating the work of others.



How happy I was this weekend, then, to settle in with Inside Out & Back Again, the 2011 National Book Award winner for Young People's Literature. It's, well:  it's perfect.  A story told as a child truly sees. A collection of free-verse poems that set the small things (the taste of papaya) against the big things (the consequences of an abrupt flight from home) and makes us feel, deeply, what it is to lose everything that defines you, and what it is to start all over again.



Like Thanhha Lai once was herself, Ha, the story's narrator, is just ten years old when Saigon falls and she finds herself on a boat to the United States.  Supplies are scarce.  The vessel is crowded.  Ha is a kid, and she's hungry:

Morning, noon, and night

we each get

one clump of rice,

small, medium, large,

according to our height,

plus one cup of water

no matter our size.



The first hot bite

of freshly cooked rice,

plump and nutty,

makes me imagine

the taste of ripe papaya

although one has nothing

to do with the other.

Once the boat finally makes it to Guam, the family waits until it boards a plane for Florida, where it waits again, this time to be adopted by an American sponsor. Chosen at last by a car dealer from Alabama (who seeks to train Ha's brother, an engineer, in the art of car mechanics), the family moves again:

We sit and sleep in the lowest level

of our cowboy's house

where we never see

the wife.



I must stand on a chair

that stands on a tea table

to see

the sun and the moon

out a too-high window.



The wife insists

we keep out of

her neighbors' eyes.



Mother shrugs.

More room here

than two mats on a ship.



I wish she wouldn't try

to make something bad

better.

Everything about this book feels right.  The natural quality of the child's voice.  The intelligent use of symbols.  The piercing grace of the story itself.  The deep, authentic sadness.  Simple words.  Big ideas.  A whole, long tug on the heart.  Inside Out & Back Again is a lasting achievement.  It elevates the genre.

Walking Azalea Hill

There comes a time when all you want to do—all, indeed, you can do—is walk a sacred place with a friend.  This afternoon, I traveled here with dear N.H. and we walked—down around the pond, up into the color, in between the innumerable azalea bushes of Jenkins Arboretum. 



How extraordinary it was just to be and not do.  And how wonderful to have a friend like N.H., with whom I am (without pause, without hesitation) my simple, sometimes stumbling, hands-whirling-the-air-as-I-talk self.  There is such peace in that.

a few photo moments from days past

In my hurry through life I have, in some ways, been neglecting this blog and my blogger friends.  For that, I ask forgiveness.  This morning I'm about to head off to the library to collect a good dozen new books, but before I do I wanted to stop and share these moments from the past few weeks.



The first several shots take place at the Exton Barnes & Noble, where K.M. Walton brought a number of area YA and children's book writers together for what was a genuinely good time.  We're all together in that first shot—K.M. Walton, Elisa Ludwig, Amy Garvey, E.C. Myers, Monica Carnesi, Ame Dyckman, Dianne Salerni, and me.  And then there's Ame (who got a fantastic New York Times Book Review assessment of her Boy + Bot just last week), Elisa, and Eugene.



The next three shots were taken this past Tuesday, during my travels down Locust Walk and toward my classroom at 3808 Walnut Street.  The final image in that series is deliberately blurry; suffice it to say, we had a party and we celebrated with a little food and a handmade book containing the images and words of each student.



Finally, here is Cyndi Reeves, an expert on the novella form and a professor at Rosemont College.  She invited some of us to celebrate the author and professor Michael Martone, and that was where I was Tuesday evening, after hugging my students goodbye.  Cyndi is an extraordinary hostess and cook, and I thought of her eggplant, lamb, asparagus, salad, and pine-nut cookies long after the night was over.

OMG: An update on the Beth list

I am hoping that this photo says it all.  Eight days after I published my I-am-so-scared-by-my-own-list post, I am climbing down those worn-out stairs, not up them.



Yes, that means that it wasn't until today that I did all four loads of laundry.  That I waited for the last possible day to get my car inspected (and then discovered that they wanted to do far more than merely inspect the car, if you know what I mean, ka-ching).  That the fancy clothes are still at the dry cleaner.  That the nice lady from the Oil Company had to call (literally, she called!) and said, "Beth, it is so unlike you to be late with your payment; we wondered if you were okay."


"Do you want my life story?" I asked.  "Or just the money?


"The money will be just fine," the nice lady said.



But it also means that I met the other deadlines, and that I will be ready, beginning next week, to begin work in earnest on HANDLING THE TRUTH, my new book on the making of memoir.


It's going to be all right.  A happy weekend to you all.

Escape to Chanticleer

We waited for rain a long time in these parts, and when it came, Chanticleer, the garden that has formed the backdrop of two of my books (Ghosts in the Garden and Nothing But Ghosts) was glorified.



These shots were stolen on Wednesday afternoon.

Children's Publishing Conference 2012

I
have mentioned my excitement about being a panelist at the upcoming
Children's Publishing Conference, to be held on Thursday, May 31, 2012,
at the Scholastic Headquarters in New York.  The half-day conference,
which was created by Publishing Perspectives and is designed to bring
together industry leaders, is organized around two key questions: What
makes a children's book great, and How and what will children be reading in
2020?



The schedule for the event has recently been
published. I am sharing the highlights, with the hope that you'll consider attending. Registration details can be found here. Space is limited.




9:00 Welcome
Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief, Publishing Perspectives





9:15 What Makes a Children's Book Great?
Richard Robinson , President and CEO, Scholastic Inc.




9:45 Trends vs. Tradition: The Present and Future of YA and Children's Books
David Levithan (Scholastic), Pamela Paul (New York Times Book Review), Roger Sutton (Horn Books)




10:30 Blockbusters, Bestsellers, and Everything in Between: Agenting Children's Books
Ken Wright (Writers House), Rosemary Stimola (Stimola Literary Studio), Erica Rand Silverman (Sterling Lord Literistic), moderated by Peggy Intrator




11:30 Born Digital, Buy Digital: Sales, Publishing and Community Building for the New Generation
Ken Wright (Writers House), Rosemary Stimola (Stimola Literary Studio), Erica Rand Silverman (Sterling Lord Literistic), moderated by Peggy Intrator





12:15 Author, Author!: Building a Career, Connecting with Kids, and Standing out from the Crowd
Peter Brown (author), Beth Kephart (author), John Rocco (author/illustrator), Raina Telgemeier (author)

She escapes to a garden, she returns to a beautiful SMALL DAMAGES blog review

Let's just say that it's been quite a time in these parts.  I leave the house for teaching and other appointments at 10 AM, say, return at 11 PM, say, and have 20 hours of client work due by 10:30 the next morning.  I'm lousy at math, but even I know that the numbers aren't properly crunching.



But we keep on keeping on (do we have a choice?).  Today I chose to wash my exhausted face, peel my eyes open with fresh mascara, and meet a new client at an utterly atypical client-esque location, Chanticleer—that glorious garden tended by glorious gardeners.  I had my little camera with me.  I took a few furtive shots.  I was made (miraculously) alive again.



When I returned to my desk later this evening, I had an email from Philomel's Jessica Shoffel, who was forwarding a most beautiful blog review of SMALL DAMAGES.  The blog is called Book Loving Mommy. The five-star review touches my heart.  It closes with these words:

This book was written beautifully and I really didn't want it to
end.  You will pick it up and become so involved and wrapped up in
Kenzie's life and her relationships with Estela and Esteban.  You will
feel what Kenzie feels and understand her confusion about the choice she
must make.  This is definitely a book I am going to buy when it comes
out in stores!

Huge thanks, then, to Jessica and Book Loving Mommy for brightening my day.