Kathryn Lasky's Blog, page 15
December 17, 2015
Christmas After All Blog
Instead of a Time of Bounty with stockings stuffed with goodies, Minnie Swift thinks of it as The Time of The Dwindling—everything is diminishing—money, the light of day and even the time her father works, for it is 1932 in the depths of the Depression. I set this book Christmas After All, one of several books I wrote in the Dear America series, in Indianapolis, Indiana in the actual house where my mother and her sisters and one brother grew up. One significant change. My family is Jewish , so they were not celebrating Christmas but Hannukah, most likely.
But I hope during this season we can celebrate all faiths and remember that first and foremost we are humans and belong to the family of humankind.
Happy Holidays
Kathryn
December 10, 2015
Run with the wild ones!
December 4, 2015
Fact follows fiction
Click on the link to see the Boston Globe story on recovering a map stolen from the Boston Public Library rare books collection.
December 2, 2015
Wild Blood
Winston Churchill wrote that history is written by the victors. The Horses of the Dawn series is told from neither the point of view of the victors or the vanquished, but the from the horses. It is story of the discovery of the new world, told by those first horses brought over in the 16th century by Cortes and the Spanish Conquistadores when they sailed from Cuba to Mexico. Ironically, this single voyage marked the return of horses to North America for the first time in millions of years.
I have always been interested in firsts. First stars glimpsed through powerful telescopes. First artists who painted on the walls of caves. First voyagers who crossed vast seas. And yes, first horses—like Tiny Horse , Eohippus equus, that is considered the first horse and existed only on the North American continent. It was no more than ten to twenty inches in height and its evolution began some fifty million years ago.
I wound up writing more than a different way to tell a story but also, and most gratifying, I plunged into an odyssey that explored the differences between being feral and being wild. That’s what I love most about writing a book, fiction or nonfiction. You stumble into new territory you never imagined.
November 22, 2015
My account of Thanksgiving in 1621
"All the women have been cooking from dawn to dusk. Meat stews, fish soups. Squanto has shown me a new dish to make called succotash with a mixture of beans and corn. I promise to make pudding. Father and the men in shallop did well. They brought in baskets brimming with fish.
Tis the first day of the festivities. And guess what? Massasoit has brought with him ninety Indians. We are busily cooking more. It is so exciting. The whole village bustles and everywhere Indians! The men have their faces painted deep red and they smoke their long pipes--and sometimes the women smoke the pipes too! The air is laced with the scents of roasting meats and herbs."
November 12, 2015
A trailer for The Extra
A nice book trailer for Ashes
October 30, 2015
A Muse Visits My Study
October 29, 2015
A Soul Returns
October 27, 2015
Halloween Ga’ Hoole Style
Came across this fabulous pumpkin while walking in our neighborhood. Had I fallen down a ‘rabbit hole’ or maybe more appropriately a hollow into Ga’hoole?
In Ga’Hoole they call Halloween ‘Scroomsa Wikken’ when owls return to their loved ones final ceremonies sites to pay respects. Some owls bring flowers and bits of food to make their departed ones stay in Glaumora more comfortable. Read about it in A Guide Book To The Great Tree.
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