Kathryn Lasky's Blog, page 9

My Father and a Pandemic

This is a true story

Once upon a time , a long time ago, there was a boy named Marven. And there was a pandemic in this country. The year was 1918. The boy Marven was ten years old. His parents loved him so much that they sent him on a train to the far north woods to a logging camp on the Canadian border where they thought he would be safer.

When the train stopped he got off and putting on his skis skied the rest of the way in. He stayed at the camp for many months. His job was to keep the accounts and the payroll for the lumberjacks. 



This is a true story and the boy Marven grew into a man and he became my father, Marven Lasky

It’s Black History Month

I was lucky to publish two books featuring African Americans

Two magnificent African American women who enriched our history and our culture.

Legend of the Guardians is on Netflix

It's the 10th Anniversary of the film's release

See how Warner Brothers and Animal Logic brought the Guardians of Ga"Hoole to the big screen.

Bears of the Ice: The Den of Forever Frost

It's now available in Germany

October is anti-bullying month

Here are some resources

So I went and looked up some stuff on the internet hoping to find some information about how to help kids cope with being bullied, how to deal with kids who do the bullying—just general tips and resources that might be helpful. I have to say that I paused when a main resource that popped up at the very top of the list was STOPBULLYING.GOV. Really??? I thought. In this era would this be the best resource to go to? Bit of a quandary.  Similarly I was thinking if there is an environmental problem—ahem—like climate change or global warming would the Environmental Protection Agency be the best place to go to see how you could help. So, I went to STOPBULLYING.GOV. Their suggestions were not bad by any means but vague and general. So they wouldn’t be at the top of my list.

However, there are plenty of good places to find info. 

In terms of helpful books. I would recommend Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, https://www.amazon.com/Queen-Bees-Wan...

One of the best websites is :

https://www.dodea.edu/dodeaCelebrates...

Oh! And finally the answer to the questions about what the two pictures have in common? Bullies. 

The poster is from an Amazon anti bullying prevention kit for elementary and middle school children sold on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Poster-100-Ant...

And the Burning Queen is not a poster but the cover for my latest book in the Tangled in Time series. And on the cover is one of the biggest royal bullies ever—Queen Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary and her target is one Rose Ashley a seventh grade girl who tumbled through time from our century to 16th century England. Will she make it home in time or will she be burned at the stake?  Pub date October 29, 2020—second to the last day in anti bullying month.

The Bullying Queen

Rose is forced into her service

It is going to get dangerous for Rose and Franny!

What do these images have in common?

Stay tuned and you’ll find out.

#October is anti bullying month

#Mean Queens

#Tangled In Time book 2

#The Burning Queen

A lovely review from Booklist

Here's what they say about Bears of the Ice: Keepers of the Keys

The Keepers of the Keys. 

By Kathryn Lasky 

2019. 288p. Scholastic, $16.99 (9780545836890). Gr. 3–6 

 

The danger-riddled adventures continue for polar bear cubs Stellan, Jytte, Third, and Froya in this third

Bears of the Ice series installment. Upon delivering the Ice Clock key to the owls of the Great Ga’Hoole

Tree, the birds realize war within the kingdom is imminent. The owls share their wisdom with the young

bears and send them to solicit help from other owl and wolf clans. Meanwhile, Stellan and Jytte’s mother,

Svenna, has escaped the Ice Clock, distressingly witnessed her cubs’ father Svern disappear into an ice

fissure, and begun the trek toward the Great Ga’Hoole Tree. Will the bear family be reunited? Will the

impending war with Patek finally destroy him and the Ice Clock? Lasky brilliantly entwines characters

from her other series into this creative fantasy world, and her imaginative writing will make readers

willingly suspend reality and trust the mental acuity of her animal characters. Although supposedly the

final book in this series, the story contains several unanswered questions that beg for another installment.

— J. B. Petty

My friend Kevin

He read Tangled in Time and had some comments

People often ask me where I get ideas for my characters. And most of the time I’m kind of uncertain. But in Tangled in Time,the boy Myles has a real life counterpart—my friend Kevin—whom I met in the back of a large lecture hall at Harvard. Kevin was a Freshman and I was a—okay, let’s say way beyond my senior year, and well into my chronologically senior years.  The class was on the origins of fairytales. I was auditing the course. Kevin was taking it for credit. He had to sit in the back of the steeply banked auditorium because there was no wheelchair access to the closer seats. But of course, Kevin made do—actually made more than do. He aced the course, and graduated four years later with honors. He then went on to the London School of Economics and is about to complete his doctorate in political science at Stanford. He is also an outspoken advocate for disabled people and  will soon be starting a job at the National Institute of Health in September focusing on bio ethics. He has done all this without having the ability to speak clearly, walk, or actually hold a book. His vision has been affected, and therefore he can only read on a computer. 

Too often when we encounter people like Kevin we look through them or will them to become invisible. And that is the last thing we should be doing. So, I decided I had to make Kevin and other young people with challenges like cerebral palsy, or being short statured, or autistic, visible. And that is why I created Myles, and then Bettina, a dwarf in the court of Henry VIII, and Jane The Bald, the clever fool, who indeed as Rose so insightfully concludes, most likely is autistic, and not simply an idiot who can turn cartwheels.

Kevin wrote to me recently that although he was the model for Myles, he liked Bettina and Jane the Bald even more than Myles. Here is what he said about his own invisibility as a kid.

" I think what touched me about Bettina is that Rose really makes her feel seen for the first time, and so often as a kid I felt strangely misunderstood always having to prove myself to the next teacher, the next set of classmates, etc. Bettina's speech to Rose's father near the end brought a tear or two to my eyes. In a way, Myles is lucky in that he's been raised to presumably laugh that stuff off, as I was, but I think given her historical context, Bettina allows readers to see a level of emotional vulnerability around disability and bullying that really made her stand out for me. "  

The publisher Harper Collins did have a sensitivity reader go through the book, but having my friend Kevin’s remarks were for me what really counted.

Important Travel Warning

Travel to the 16th Century involves the good, the bad, and the totally yucky

Dear Readers,

Before you hitch a ride from this century back to the 16th century with Rose Ashley, seventh grader from Indiana, there are a few things you should know about  that time in history—let’s just call it The Good, the Bad and The totally Yucky.

The Good 

Hardly any pollution

Gorgeous clothes if you’re rich and royal

Wonderful entertainment, especially when Shakespeare showed up

Bathroom humor was permitted although there were no bathrooms!

The Bad 

If you got sick they might bleed you by inserting a needle in your vein and letting the blood drip into a basin.

The toothbrush had not yet been invented—people used toothpicks and chewed herbs –a favorite was chewing rosemary then rubbing your teeth with ashes.

A solution of lye and pee were often used to wash clothes.

No good medication for acne.

The Totally Yucky  

Since there were no bathrooms people (mostly males) pee’d in the fireplaces  or on the floors that were covered with rushes (herbs, branches from evergreens and hay),

In castles ‘garderobes’ in the towers sometimes were used. A garderobe was a bench with a hole on which one sat and the poop dropped straight into the moat.

Kings had someone to wipe their butts. This person was known as the “Groom of the Stool”. It was a sought after position as one could advance quickly to more powerful roles

Women wore make up that was filled with toxic substances. Powder and face foundations had lots of lead that could lead to paralysis of facial muscles.

So as they sometimes say forewarned is forearmed. Have fun reading this first book The Portal of the Tangled In Time series. Don’t get sick. Don’t wear any make up and I hope you can find a private place if nature calls!

Cheers

Kathryn