Beth Kephart's Blog, page 303

Birdology/Sy Montgomery: Reflections

I have been reading Birdology these past few days, a book written by my dear friend Sy Montgomery.  Sy and I met years ago (virtually), following a review I wrote of her magnificent Journey of the Pink Dolphins.  We met in person a few years later.  I've read every one of her fabulous books since—Search for the Golden Moon Bear, The Good Good Pig, among them—and counted myself lucky to know this permeable woman who floats among God's creatures—chameleon like, inspirited, sometimes barely brea...

The Informant (and the liars we have known)

We watched "The Informant" last night, the utterly compelling real-life story of ADM vice president/informant Mark Whitacre who "wanted to do the right thing" and so began a campaign to bring down his agri-business company, then caught up in an industry-wide price-fixing scheme.  It seems a noble ambition, but Whitacre himself is far from noble—a man who has built his life on a series of fault lines and who cannot seem to keep track of his own lies.  His parents didn't die in a car accident w...

The Heart is Not a Size and the BCCB review

My thanks to the reviewer of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, who penned these words about Heart:   "Kephart writes with polished style, particularly excelling in her portraits of the characters. The background setting is quietly moving, drawn with telling details rather than cheap color. Readers who were drawn in by Kephart's smooth style and thoughtful characterization will find satisfaction in Georgia's surprising summer."

A hint of purple

We cultivate our silences.They cultivate us.

The rewards of a writer's life

One day, years ago, I came downstairs to find my son engrossed in a Philadelphia magazine story.  I'd written the story for him—the tale of his first official soccer goal—and I'd put him out there, in the world, with the likes of his heroes, Beckham and Ronaldo.  I loved writing the story, but I loved watching that goal far more, and today what I love most of all is this photograph that sits on my sill, the picture I snapped when I came downstairs to find the little guy bemused by the words I...

Sunbursts

Ahem, the note begins, An official announcement:  Nothing But Ghosts was picked by the postergirlz to be a recommended read in the newest issue of readergirlz, to accompany this month's featured title, Absolutely Maybe, by Lisa Yee. 

Being chosen by the postergirlz is like coming home to a place that embraced me more than a year ago, challenged me to become the first readergirlz author in residence, and continues to bring enduring friendship into my life.  Thank you, then, to all of you, for ...

Borrowed Names/Jeannine Atkins: Reflections

In 2001, as readers of this blog know, I had the privilege of chairing the National Book Awards Young People's Literature Jury.  Nothing prepares one for a job like that except, perhaps, a lifetime of disciplined reading.  I brought discipline, at the very least, to the table.

One of the most interesting books I found along the way was Marilyn Nelson's Carver:  A Life in Poems—a book loved onto the finalist list.  Here was a man's life and an era's history rendered by the kind of poet who stud...

Red. Green./A Poem

She was wrong to thinkthat his reading one poemonce, decades ago, on the borrowedthird floor of a dreamer's house,was an indication.Wrong to think that he would
read again, or want to,or ask her to dance,and mean it, or carewhen she said, This bookis for you.  It wasn't,he didn't, he wouldn't, thoughtwenty-seven years laterhe sliced the red meatfrom a tomato and lay it into the sweetanchovy salt and eighthedan avocado.  The redand the green, he said.

International Book Blogger Mentor Program

If there's one thing we know for sure about Presenting Lenore, it's this:  She will never, ever bore us. She will not fade into the woodwork, she will not recede, and she will experience no shortages of great ideas or memes.

The International Book Blogger Mentor Program was her brainchild, too, and I was a participating author.  I sent three of my books—Undercover, House of Dance, and The Heart is Not a Size—to the rising, Puerto Rico-based author/reviewer Patty of Yay! Reads, and her response...

He calls

and tells me the day's stories.  An afternoon of playing blind shoe shuffle with third-grade kids.  A good meeting with the graphics TA.  An evening spent listening to a friend play saxophone, in a building that sits high on a hill, Hogwarts style.  A note of thanks from his TV crew team (affixed to a bag of candy).  It's after ten, and the day's not done—he'll go to the gym, he says, and work out.  He'll finish a paper. He's about to call a friend. 

I love your right now, I say.  I love this...