Augusta Scattergood's Blog, page 16

School Library Month, Podcasts, and all sorts of fun stuff

This morning I ambled around my sunny neighborhood with earbuds and my podcasts. 
I chose randomly- I'm so far behind. But I picked perfectly.

Click here--> It's a MUST LISTEN : librarians talking about their own libraries- childhood, school, professional. How they came to love books.
A terrible, possible future for kids without libraries.

School Library Month was April, but we should always celebrate libraries and the connections librarians make between readers and books.

I smiled when John Schu said he'll always call himself a librarian, even though he's moved on(?), away(?), sideways for a bit.
I feel the same way. Once a librarian, always a librarian. Or media specialist. Or whatever we choose to call ourselves.

While you're here, note my new blog title. (Thanks, Eileen!)
And my own chapters: writer, book reviewer, librarian. 
(I've worn a lot of hats- haven't we all at this point!)
Okay, enough about me. Hurry on over to that podcast: 

Librarians: Making Hearts Large Through Story (John Schu, Scholastic librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey, and Kristina Holzweiss, the 2015 School Library Journal School Librarian of the Year) 

LIbrarian Humor

 Happy Teacher's Day!

In honor of my fellow teacher- librarians, here's a little Library Humor to brighten your day:


 https://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/librarian-humor/


AND, check out the Google Doodle. 
(It's right here; go ahead and click away!)

Happy almost birthday, Richard Peck

Yes, I missed the exact day. But it's April so I'm going with that.

I love this blog's "literary birthdays" feature.

http://writers-write-creative-blog.posthaven.com/literary-birthday-5-april-richard-peck

Click on it quick. Some great quotes from Mr. Peck.

My favorites are the last two:

Nobody but a reader becomes a writer.The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.
For more great Richard Peck quotes, check out Irene Latham's post , written after he spoke at the KAIGLER BOOK FESTIVAL in Hattiesburg, MS at the University of Southern Mississippi a few years ago.

Quotes like these:

"Childhood is a jungle, not a garden."

"Kids are not looking for authors in books; they are looking for themselves."

Thank you, Pope Elementary

Skyping is so much fun!

This week a great group of readers from Jackson, Tennessee, appeared on my screen, fully prepared to present me with their reaction to THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY.

The first thing I saw upon answering their Skype call? A whole room full of kids waving their copies of "Destiny" in the air.


And then they held up illustrations and explained why they'd chosen that moment to feature. 
Here they are.  (Apologies in advance. My Skype image was a little fuzzy that day.)
Here we go!


 Green birds!
(Guess what? They're making a lot of noise right outside my window today.)

  Mr. Dawson and his Bait Shop. This student told me she thought he played an important role in the book.
I confessed that he is a character I like a lot. Even if he had to be beefed up when I edited.

 The piano. No explanation needed!

 Bird's eye view of the piano (no pun intended), modeled after the book cover image.


Thank YOU, Pope Elementary!
And a special thanks to my friends at Scholastic who made this particular Skype event possible.

Just Like Me

(Is that a perfect book title, or what?)



 
Happy Book Birthday Week to my friend Nancy Cavanaugh's third fabulous book.

I'm beyond excited that she's stopped by to introduce you all to this newest middle-grade novel.

Kick off your flipflops and stay awhile, Nancy. Let's talk!


AUGUSTA:You've drawn from your own life for your previous novels, is there a little bit about you in this book? Were you a camper? Counselor? Do you love or hate swimming/ canoeing/ hiking/ soccer? As a former camper, counselor, and lover of summer camp, I think you described the camp activities so well.
NANCY:
Summer camp is one of my most vivid childhood memories.  Notice that I didn’t say my “fondest” childhood memories.  My camp memories include the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The “good” was always the active fun of activities with my friends (swimming and boating were my favorites) and enjoying a week of complete freedom away from my parents.  The “bad” was the camp arguments with difficult cabin mates, strict counselors, or the time I got strep throat at camp.  And the “ugly” was that awful camp oatmeal, the really bad bug bites, and the way my clothes felt damp all the time.  (Oh yeah, and the sand that always ended up in the bottom of my sleeping bag when I didn’t brush my feet off well enough before I crawled inside. I always HATED that!) 

In spite of all that, I really did love going to camp, and I think summer camp really changes kids.  At the end of the week, everyone returns home a slightly different person, which is why I chose Camp Little Big Woods as the setting for this story.        But my daughter and her friends going to summer camp were the real inspiration for JUST LIKE ME.





AUGUSTA: I know Chaylee is proud of her mom!

Tell us a little about the design of this book? I love love love the puzzle pieces at the head of each chapter, the fabulous cover design of canoes, the uber cool little envelopes for page breaks. Who gets to decide what goes where and why? 
NANCY:I LOVE the way JUST LIKE ME looks too, and I can say that without bragging because I didn’t have anything to do with the way the book looks. Thank goodness for that!  The art design team at Sourcebooks is responsible for how wonderfully creative all my books are in terms of design.  The art team works closely with my editor to come up with a concept for how everything will look and how it ties together with the story.  Throughout their process, my editor does show me the ideas they are working on. She not only asks for my input, but also asks if I have any ideas of my own. It really is such a team effort.   
  AUGUSTA: Speaking of teamwork, there's a wonderful subplot about teamwork and helping friends in your book. Is that one thing you hope kids will take away from JUST LIKE ME?

NANCY: As a former teacher, I spent lots of years encouraging the students in my classroom to not only get along, but to actually work together. I think it’s one of those things that I’m always trying to impress upon young people because it’s such an important life lesson.    

AUGUSTA: Ah, yes. Life lessons. I love that about books! I know kids will read this novel for fun and they'll get those lessons, because it feels very true. But there's also a serious side to Julia. Was that hard to write? 
NANCY:Though this book was inspired by my daughter who was adopted from China, the character of Julia is completely fictitious, and finding Julia’s story was quite a struggle. I’m an adoptive mom, but I myself was not adopted. I really had to dig deep into my imagination and emotion to put myself in Julia’s shoes and figure out what her struggles and issues would be. 
AUGUSTA: And you did that so well!
Here's a bonus question, just for fun and because so many writers who aren't lucky enough to be published yet would love to know more about school visits, which you're so great at.
What's the funniest question you've ever been asked at one of your many school visits? (Other than Are you a millionaire?!)
NANCY: When I do my school presentation for my book THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO RATCHET, I bring engine parts and talk about how taking apart an engine and putting it back together again is very similar to how we as writers take apart our writing and put it back together when we revise it. Well, at one school visit a couple years ago, the microphone was acting up during my presentation, and it kept making that really annoying buzzing sound. A student interrupted my talk to ask, “Since you know how to take apart an engine and put it back together again, would you be able to fix the sound system?”  I’ll let you guess what my answer was.

Want to know more about Nancy and her books?
Check out her website, HERE.

And this terrific review:
https://momreadit.wordpress.com/2016/03/24/just-like-me-examines-adoptions-internal-narrative/

Also, when Nancy's first book was born, I asked her about her fashion sense and other important questions, HERE.

WISH by Barbara O'Connor

 In the interest of full disclosure:  
I read a very early kind of/sort of draft of this novel when Barbara first shared it at our fabulous writing retreat with Kirby Larson and Susan Hill Long,
over a year ago.


It was a few chapters, heartfelt characters, and a dog. I loved it.
We all loved it.


Here we are, working hard on four manuscripts that all will appear- or already have- in 2016.
That's Winston the Wonder Dog, ready to host the first ever Pet Book Group.
(See below.)
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2686#m31365

Truthfully, I've been a fan of Barbara's since our mutual friend Leslie Guccione asked her to read my very first manuscript, many years ago, and she offered some sage advice that helped turn that into my first novel, GLORY BE.
(Okay, it took about a zillion more drafts, but Barbara's encouragement was crucial.)

Her blog advice about writing craft ( "Writing Tip Tuesdays" ) is invaluable to newly-minted writers. 
Click on that link to see what I mean.

But I vowed a long time ago never to review a book I couldn't say nice things about.
Even if a friend writes it. ESPECIALLY if a friend writes it.
Of if I know the author. And by "know" I include social media.
Knowing an author has become very easy.

I have nothing but great things to say about WISH.

First, the characters will tug at your heart. Oh that redheaded boy with the up-down walk, Howard Odom. Big time, heart tug! A Backpack Buddy who shakes hands when he first meets Charlie on the bus. Tiny details say so much. That's the way Barbara writes her novels.

And poor Charlie. You will love this girl whose real name is Charlemagne. So unlikable and yet- well, I don't want to say too much. I want everybody to read this book when it finally appears, 11/1/16.

The entire time I was reading my Advance Reader Copy of WISH, I kept hearing it in my head.
A read-aloud kids won't forget. Ever.

I would love to share my copy, especially if you're a teacher or a librarian or someone who would continue to share.

Leave me a comment or a Facebook message or a Twitter reply, and I'll choose a winner early Thursday morning, just before I have to make a trip to the post office!

Oh! And there's a Doggie/ Kitty/ Bunny Book Group forming.
Post a picture of your pet reading the book on Twitter or Facebook.
Join the fun and celebrate another perfect Barbara O'Connor middle-grade novel.




Remember! Leave a comment before March 31st at 10 AM EDT and I'll pick a lucky winner.
You don't have to own a pet to be a fan. Or a winner.
In fact, you don't even have to love dogs to love this book.

What I'm Reading Now

THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING 2015, edited by Wright Thompson.



The book fell open to "Precious Memories."

Although I'd read Tommy Tomlinson's beautiful tribute to Coach Dean Smith when it was first published and shared from the ESPN magazine, reading it today caught me off guard. 





"Here is the special cruelty of it: the connector has become disconnected. The man who held the family together has broken off and drifted away. He is a ghost in clothes, dimmed by a disease that has no cure."


I also love what Thompson says in his introduction to this year's volume, about writing.
Writers can't hear this enough.

I'm often wondering if I'll write a good story again, or wondering how I've written some good ones in the past, and over and over I find my way out of the darkness by reading a story I love, one that inspires me to be better and makes me afraid that I'll fail.

This book is full of not only good sports essays. 
These pieces are just plain good. 

MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG

My book-to-be has a title and a cover and even a blogpost on Mr. Schu's WATCH CONNECT READ.

You can see them all by clicking HERE.
(Find a bit about the story, about the books I'm reading, and about my writing buddies there.) 

I'm so excited about the cover. There's even more on the back cover! I'll share it soon. 

The book's coming in August. Which will be here before I know it.
I think you can already pre-order it on all the usual places. 
It must be really happening!

Things That Inspire Us

I've spent the past few days submerged in writing and learning new things about books for kids. If you find yourself in the Pacific Northwest about this time next year, do not miss the 14th Annual Children's Literature Conference at Western Washington University. 

Not only did I hear some fabulous writing wisdom, I met some fabulous teachers, writers, librarians- lots of librarians! 
I made new friends and hung out with old. 

One new friend, Adam Shaffer, just posted the most amazing Nerdy Bookclub post about historical fiction, specifically about Kirby Larson's awesome book, DASH.



I'm putting the entire link here so you won't overlook it. Teachers, be inspired. Writers, take a lesson from a master and read Kirby's book.




https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/a-dash-headlong-into-history-by-adam-shaffer/


Adam has a lot of excellent ideas about historical fiction and using it in the classroom. I could quote the entire post, but I'll begin and end here:  

"There is enormous value in reading these books. We
 are more knowledgeable, more compassionate, more understanding people when we read historical fiction."

Reading Aloud to Kids

 Next Wednesday is WORLD READ ALOUD DAY.

If you're a teacher or a librarian and haven't scheduled a free Skype reading by one of your favorite authors, next year be sure to check Kate Messner's post about it. 






I suspect most of her list has already filled their slots. But if you hurry on up to that link, there could be a few left.

I'm really excited about reading to kids, always one favorite part about being a school librarian. I'm choosing my WRAD selections and thinking hard about what book to pick.

And today I found what could well be my favorite statement about the joy of reading aloud. 
 I absolutely adore the blogpost from Colby Sharp.

Something that should be framed and hung or at the very least needle-pointed and turned into a pillow:

"The next day we once again met at the carpet for read aloud. Our days can be a little crazy at times, but this is one appointment we never miss."


CLICK RIGHT HERE to see what Colby did to mix Winn-Dixie and Willy, two of my very favorite dogs in kids' books.