Pam Withers's Blog, page 21

Boys read (First Descent), and an update on me

Hey, look where my novel First Descent landed a mention recently!
https://webmail.uniserve.com/horde/imp/view.php?popup_view=1&mailbox=INBOX&index=17972&actionID=view_attach&id=2&mimecache=66be23e84db2a31beff965ee24eab90d

Also, I have a new book coming out the end of this summer:
Jump Starting Boys: Help Your Reluctant Learner Find Success in School and Life ($16.95, ISBN 978-1-936740-39-0). Co-authored with my sister Cynthia Gill (a licensed marriage and family therapist who taught high school for 30 years), it’s aimed at parents and mentors, and is available now for pre-ordering, below. Hope you enjoy it!

Amazon.com’s page: http://www.amazon.com/Jump-Starting-Boys-Reluctant-Learner-Success/dp/1936740397/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354853128&sr=1-1&keywords=jump+starting+boys A link to the book's publisher, Viva Editions: http://www.literatura.com.pl/files/VIVA%20EDITIONS%20-%20Spring%202013%20Catalog.pdf 
 Okay, and just in case anyone is wondering...
Q: What have I been up to recently?
A: Just finishing a new young-adult adventure novel...

Q: Why do I blog / facebook / twitter so seldom?
A: I suffer from chronic back pain and sometimes I have to choose to be "selfish" and devote what little computer time I can handle each day to whatever novel I'm working on. :) Sorry, but that's just the truth! 

Have a good day!
Pam

Ontario: Coming to you May 2013!

Hey Ontario readers: I've just joined up with Authors Booking to start arranging school presentations in Ontario the weeks of May 13 and May 20, 2013. Hope to see you then!
http://authorsbooking.com/2043/authors/Pam_Withers.html
Pam Withers

Surprise phone call: Red Maple award nomination

I got the phone call a few weeks ago, only to be told I had to keep it hush-hush until today! Well, I’m honored to announce that as of this morning, the Ontario Library Association has officially released a list of books nominated for its “Forest of Reading” awards, and my latest young-adult novel First Descent (Tundra Books) is up for the Red Maple Award. Thank you, Ontario Library Association! Here’s more information about them:http://www.accessola.org/OLAWEB/Forest_of_Reading/Awards_Nominees/Red_Maple_Fiction_Nominees.aspx
That means I’ll be in Toronto May 15-16, 2013. Coincidentally, just two weeks later I’m due to sign advance reading copies of a forthcoming book (more about that in a future blog) at the Book Expo America conference in New York City (May 30 and June 1, 2013). So in between, I’ll be doing school presentations in Ontario, in Washington, D.C. and in parts between. (Here’s where I insert a little plug; hope no one minds): Anyone interested in booking a presentation, feel free to contact my speaking-tours agent Chris Patrick, 1-866-413-9216, jcpem (at) shaw.ca. More information on my school presentations is here: http://www.pamwithers.com/downloads/bw_presentationflyer_2011.pdf
On another note, I was touched by a recent blog from a librarian who used to snub “reluctant reader” books, but now realizes the value of short, high-action, low-vocabulary books aimed at hooking middle grade and high school kids into reading. “You know that not every 15-year-old can read above a third grade level, and even a lot of those who can, think reading an actual book is equal to pulling out all of your teeth.”Three of my own novels are aimed at “reluctant readers” – Camp Wild, Breathless and Daredevil Club– all published with Orca Books, whose Orca Currents and Orca Soundings series(among others) specialize in such material (http://www.orcabook.com/). Here’s the rest of that blog entry I’d like to share:http://thejenchesney.blogspot.ca/2012/08/a-love-letter-to-orca-soundings-teen.html

First Descent wins another silver!

Silver seems to be my novel First Descent's favorite color! It just won another silver award last week. I'm flattered and pleased. I feel that it puts a bit of pressure on me for ensuring that my current young-adult novel-in-progress endeavors to meet or up the standards of the last one, but that's a good pressure, really. :)

Here's a full recap of the awards and mentions that First Descent has garnered: 

Silver award for young-adult fiction, 2011 Book of the Year Awards (BOTYA) by ForeWord Reviews, announced at the American Library Association conference in Anaheim, California June, 2012:
https://botya.forewordreviews.com/winners/2011/young-adult-fiction/

2012 Silver award for 2012 mid-grade/teen fiction, Nautilus Book Awards, "better books for a better world":
http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/2012_SILVER_Winners.html

Fall 2011 Junior Library Guild Selection designation:
http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com

Feb. 2012 honorable mention for a young adult book in the Ontario Library Association list of "Best Bets":
http://tundrabooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/ola-best-bets-2011/

Meanwhile, I spent the past week in Washington state visiting Tony Dirksen (and his wife Elva) and  Theresa Bateman, fellow team members of my youth literacy website, www.keenreaders.org. Theresa, who is also a children's writer, cranks out an incredible number of middle-grade/young-adult book reviews for Kennreaders, and Tony is co-founder of the site with me. (Better yet, he and Elva have a hot tub in their back yard, from which they occasionally glimpse black bears.)

I also visited friends and relatives in San Francisco (including my nephew's wife ZhengZheng, who works for Facebook and helps Mark Zuckerberg practice his Mandarin). Also visited Brenda Knight, publisher of Cleis Books (http://www.cleispress.com/index.php), which is publishing my forthcoming book on boys and literacy (fall 2013).

Have a good July!

First Descent wins silver from Nautilus Book Awards

How exciting! First Descent has just won a silver from the Nautilus Book Awards. These awards, which have been given out for twelve years, "recognize books and audio books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living and positive social change as they stimulate the imagination and inspire the reader to new possibilities for a better world."
I can't help but feel that my characters, Myriam and Rex, would feel humbled and honored. I certainly do on their behalf. Thank you, Nautilus. Please check out their website:
http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/2012_SILVER_Winners.html
     On another note, just yesterday I finished and submitted an adult nonfiction book I've been working on for a year for Viva Editions in San Francisco. More about that when it comes off the press. So now it's back to young adult novels!

New York City bound

 Hope to see some readers at Book Expo America in the Javits Center in New York City,  where I will be autographing copies of First Descent (courtesy of Tundra Books) on Tuesday June 5 from 12 to 12:30 at Table 10. Here's BEA's website: http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/

Junior Library Guild designation

First Descent has just been designated a Junior Library Guild Selection for Fall 2011. Here's their website: http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/  Stay tuned for another award announcement next week!

First Descent is finalist for an award

My latest book, First Descent, has just been named a finalist for young adult fiction for The 2011 Book of the Year Awards  by  ForeWord Reviews: http://www.bookoftheyearawards.com/
The winners will be announced June 23 at the American Library Association conference in Anaheim, California.

From the website:
ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was designed for booksellers and librarians to share in the process of discovering distinctive books across a number of genres with judgments based on their own authority and on patron interests. After months of winnowing down the award finalists' list, the editors at ForeWord are confident in their selections, and our judges agree, saying this year's titles are the best they've seen!

I'm delighted. I'm tickled. I'm flattered. Thanks, ForeWord!

A sharp-eyed teacher writes!

            Who's the sharpest-eyed teacher in North America? Janet Masciotra of Springfield, Massachusetts, who found a couple of errors in my newest book, First Descent – errors that I and a team of editors and proofreaders missed (blush, blush).            But better yet, this kindly teacher actually took the time to write me and point them out, complete with page number references (and compliments on the novel in general: Phew!).             Clearly, I write better than I do math, because here's what she correctly identified: If the novel's character Gramps visited Colombia sixty years ago, when my character Abuela was seventeen, and if my characters Rex and Myriam are both seventeen in the novel (which they are), then three small aspects of the plot do not work:Gramps' wife could not have been expecting Rex's mother during Gramps' long-ago expedition to South America (p. 122, 192 and 217); she would have had Rex some years later. Rex's mother could not have had Rex while she was a teenager (p. 13).Abuela would have been slightly younger than the "eighty-something" mentioned on page 192.
      For her efforts, this Ms. Masciotra now has in the mail to her an autographed copy of First Descent, and a bundle of autographed bookmarks for her class. As her email stated, "This may seem trivial, but students can be very scrutinizing."       As they should be! Kudos and a salute to this conscientious teacher. The errors are now on record here, and changes will be made in the paperback version coming out February 2013.

On the Road

I'm off tomorrow for two weeks of travel, including Ottawa, Toronto, Minneapolis and Hudson, Wisconsin. I'm especially looking forward to meeting some of my readers at the Ontario Library Association conference in Toronto on Friday February 3rd, both at the Tundra Books booth (#720) in the morning and with CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors Illustrators and Performers) in the afternoon.
I will be participating in the CANSCAIP group book launch from noon till 2:15 p.m. along with 19 other authors and illustrators introducing their new 2011 titles in entertaining five-minute segments. For a full list of the presenting authors, check out the CANSCAIP website. I'm honored to be among such talented colleagues! I will be at the Tundra Books booth from 10:30-11:30 a.m. autographing my novel First Descent. I also look forward to speaking to the students of Edgewood Public School in Scarborough, Ontario on February 2nd.

The Convention Center
Front Street, Toronto

See you soon!
Pam Withers

PS I will have big news for you on Friday!