Jo Knowles's Blog, page 48

The Powerful Sound of Silence

Last year, I participated in the making of this video to commemorate the Day of Silence.


Yup, that's me toward the end, followed by another YA author, Paula Chase Hyman. The FiveAwesomeYAFans, are an amazing group of people. Their words and their silence speak volumes. Watching this again, my heart breaks to think of all the additional young people who have taken their own lives to escape the pain of bullying.

Today, to remember all those who've been silenced by cruel words, silence is a way o...

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday, I'm thankful for...

• The many thoughtful comments on my last entry about saving libraries and the people who shared the link here, on Twitter and Facebook. I loved reading everyone's library stories. :-)

• The people in my town who are organizing a production of Vermont Idol, which is going to be a riot. Thank you for including the kids who wanted to participate, and for letting my son get a chance to sing his Green Day song. And for cheering so enthusiastically when he did. You...

Save libraries

When I was growing up, my public library had special bags just for books. Everyone got one.

You could fill it.

I had my own card. My number was 141.

The librarian squealed when we came. She ran out from behind the big desk and hugged us.

The books in the library were covered in clear film and smelled like tape.

They crinkled when you opened them, like some ancient, priceless tome.

I thought they were just for me. But they were for everyone.

Because anyone could go to the library.

You didn't have to b...

I <3 Ellen Wittlinger

Ellen Wittlinger has a new middle-grade novel out!!!!

(Sorry, Indiebound doesn't have a link yet.)

The title is THIS MEANS WAR! and I have to say, it's really wonderful. I read the book out loud to my son (age 10) and at the end of every chapter he wanted to have long discussions about friendship, boys versus girls, parents and how stressed out they get over money, the Cuban Missile Crisis, bullying, peer pressure, fear, belonging, making mistakes... you name it.

I love when the characters beco...

Thankful Thursday

Today, it starts with...

a fat cat curled up next to me
the yellow-green buds on the forsythia
patches of brown grass turning green
screen doors being used for the first time
a surprise gift from a fairy godfather
a child who still needs to be read to and tucked in
friends to confide in
the hope and glorious fear in sending a manuscript out again
forgiveness
finishing the first draft of a freelance project
a small voice singing upstairs
frogs peeping ceaselessly
new birds at the feeder
tulips and daffodils...

Improvisation

Last night I brought my son to his first play rehearsal. There were only a handful of kids there, as it's mainly an adult production. We few parents tried to sit apart from the other adults so it was clear we weren't there for practice, but just to be there for our kids.

Let's do some warm-up exercises before learning the main song, one of the leaders suggested, and began directing groups of 7 or 8 to go up on stage for some improvisational skits. We parents sat back comfortably and laughed a...

Monday morning warm-up, and signs of spring

On Monday mornings, the house is quiet again, and I go through all the rituals of forcing myself to open up my freelance work files and figure out how many words I need to write in order to stay on schedule. The cats wander around the house, moping, wondering where everyone went, and then finally settle next to me to sleep until the rest of the family comes back. I turn on the radio to keep me company. Make tea. Check e-mail. Log on to Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal. The New York Times. What ...

5 HAPPY Things On A Friday (Finally) :-)

1. Fan art!
I woke up this morning to a message from a reader who'd sent a link to a book trailer he'd made for Jumping Off Swings! This is one of the coolest things that's happened to me as an author so far. I mean, seriously. Thank you Fausto! You totally made my day.


2. Jennifer Richard Jacobson has a new YA book coming out!!!!!
JJ is one of the coolest, wisest people I know. Her writing advice has changed me as a writer and person. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of her book and started re...

April Fools

This morning's conversation...

Me: Hey! Its April!!!!

E: What?

Me: It's April 1st!

E: *mischievous look in his eye* I'll be right back.

A few seconds later a sweet evil voice calls out...

E: Mom, where do we keep the buckets?

Uh oh.

In other foolish news, here are some more pics of the damn dam damage.

This is one of the beaver dams in November:


And here is what was left yesterday:


Here is the bigger dam that was behind it in November:


And yesterday:

You can see to the right how high up the water level wa...

Ducks and dams

The ducks are back on what's left of our pond. Hooray! They seem like the harbingers of hope on what has been a very upsetting morning.

Sometime in the night, the beaver dam broke on our neighbor's property. It burst through to our pond and wrecked what was left of our own dam, flooding our lawn briefly, before sweeping down the stream and wreaking havoc all down the road.

You can see here where the water line used to be.


And here you can see a bunch of junk that came from above that's now sitt...