Augusta Scattergood's Blog, page 42

Sharing Glory

I love it when teachers send me pictures of their students' projects. 
GLORY BE was on the summer reading list for the Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Jackson Township, NJ.

Jordan made an entire book of her pictures, storyboarding the book. Here are two pages from Jordan. I love the pool scene!






















This is A'Blessyn H. and her Glory Be project - a storyboard of events.

(And don't you adore her name?)

Thank you, readers and teachers, for all the hard work you do to make authors proud!

Letters, we get Letters...

Kids' authors get the greatest mail. Even if it's just a quick email from a reader.  Mine totally make me smile.

Check out today's delivery:

I was wondering if you were going to publish another book, I'm in the seventh grade and you're book inspired me. it was the only book I actually liked. that's the only book I've read without complaining, 

Well, I just wanted to see if you were going to make another one. it would mean a lot.

Horrendous Book Titles?

Here I am, pondering TITLES again. Blame it on this New York Times article, from today's paper, about titles with LAND in them. I'm reading Stephen King's Joyland and just finished Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfield. But I hadn't noticed the title thing.

CLICK HERE to go to the article.

Be sure to read to the end: "the temptation to be on-trend is particularly acute because a title can make or break a book..."


I'm terrible with titles. I know a lot of tricks for choosing them, and even blogged about them--recently! -- here:
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2013/08/one-more-word-about-titles.html

The article that comes with that Book Title image over there offers 5 ways to choose a title .
I'm particularly drawn to #4:
Would a reader feel cool if someone saw them reading a book with that title? 

From what I  know about kids, they might feel cool if their friends saw them carrying a catchily-titled book. But they certainly wouldn't read it if it were boring, beneath them, or blah.

With kids' books, titles truly aren't everything. There's the cover, and most importantly the writing. But I know an appealing title does a lot to move a book. I mean, how could a young reader resist How To Steal A Dog?  Does a preposition in the title help? Moon Over Manifest, anyone? How about an animal AND a preposition: The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail. Once inside, the writing seals the deal.

Consider poor Stieg Larsson. Ha. Not poor in the least. But also not so great at title-picking. As reported in a memoir by Kurdo Baksi, Stieg Larsson, My Friend, his working titles were the feeble The Witch Who Dreamt of a Can of Petrol and Matches and The Exploding Castle in the Air...

What's in a Name?

Sorry if I seem to obsess over the Name Thing.
But I LOVE what Liesl Shurtliff says in her Author's Note to one of my most favorite, fun-to-read, perfectly voiced (is voice a verb yet?) middle-grade novels of 2013, RUMP: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin.

She, too, seems to collect names.

Here's a thought, from that Note, about names shaping characters, real or imagined.

"Did their parents intuitively know that was the name for them, or did the name have a role in shaping their behavior and self-perception?"

Maybe it's just writers who have unusual names, the names rarely found on any of "those personalized pencils and key chains in gift shops" who obsess over naming things.
She kept looking, between Leslie and Lisa, to no avail. 

Growing up, my name didn't seem unusual. It just seemed un-glamorous. Some days, I wanted my friend Peggy's name, changed to Peggi when she hit High School. 

As Liesl Shurtliff notes, RUMP is her way of answering that age-old question, What's in a name?

I love this book! 
Here's my review from the Christian Science Monitor.

But I also love pondering the influence names have on our persona. 
Would you be a different person if you'd been given a different name?

Is it true of your fictional people?

When Enough is Enough

I have some gems in my files. Had I not spent the summer slowly clearing away the decidedly unnecessary piles of paper, I'd never have found them.

I'm copying this and pasting it in front of every writing spot I ever put myself in.

From THE WRITER, April 1989
(and no, I have not been writing that long but I have been a fan of Lois Lowry's forever)

Knowing when to stop is one of the toughest tasks a writer faces. 

Is there a rule that one can follow? Probably not. But there is, I think, a test against which the writer can measure his ending, his stopping place.

When something more is going to take place, but the characters have been so fully drawn, and the preceding events so carefully shaped that the reader, on reflection, knows what more will happen, and is satisfied by it, then the book ends.
Lois Lowry.  Pure genius.


An earlier post about ENDINGS, with examples from my favorite books:
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-very-end.html

And a few thoughts about my own manuscript's ending words:
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-cautionary-tale-and-writing-tip.html

I do love Mississippi!

I'm delighted and proud to announce that the librarians of my amazing home state have selected GLORY BE for the Mississippi Library Association's Award for Juvenile Literature.
Click here for information about the award.

Can't wait to go back "home" and receive this award next month!


Possibly Related Posts:

About traveling to Mississippi to talk about GLORY Be
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2012/05/note-to-self-mississippi-travels-ten.html

About Librarians I have Known and Loved
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-good-librarian.html

Quotes for the Day

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him. – Mel Brooks

via Cheryl Klein's terrific post listing so many great quotes about characters.

http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/2011/11/quote-file-characters.html

He Had a Dream

Today's Book of the Day.
(Thanks to Random House for the review copy.)

Besides the stunningly beautiful paintings of Kadir Nelson which illustrate this oversized picture book, there's a CD of the speech included. A perfect book to share with your family or your classroom.


Click HERE to read a complete review.

If you are a writer or a reader considering the ways you can honor Dr. King's legacy, you might want to participate in the discussion of Race in Children's Books on Roger Sutton's blog. 

To see the Horn Book blog and the over 100 comments, so far, 
go HERE: http://www.hbook.com/2013/07/blogs/read-roger/a-very-good-question/

Links to other posts on the topic are HERE: http://www.hbook.com/talking-about-race/

THE SATURDAY BOY

You just never know when or how you'll run into a really good book. This one came to me via the author's cousin. But she didn't say enough about it or possibly I didn't pay attention, and I let it slip under my radar.

I did scribble myself a note, however.

Then I walked into my local library, and there the book was. In the children's room, on the New Books shelf.
Miraculously the title rang a bit of a bell. I brought it home. I sat on my deck. I read all afternoon.



A perfect, funny, touching story for boys. And we all know there just aren't enough of those.
THE SATURDAY BOY has the whiz bam and superheros to keep them reading until they get hooked on the story. By the time they get to the parts that left me reading tearfully, they won't want to put the book down. But girls will also love this book. I predict they will nod in recognition about the idiotic things boys in Middle School dare to do.

Really, our hero, Derek is a kid to love. He's funny, he's different, he's got a knack for getting himself in trouble. Climbing tall trees, markers on bathroom walls--that kind of trouble. Pulling a towel out of the closet and they all topple over. Fights in the hall. In other words, big trouble and little trouble.

But Derek can seem clueless about relationships. His buddy, Budgie, is no longer his best friend. His friend who's a girl has a certain attraction. But he can't quite figure any of this out.
Just like real boys.

There's a depth to this book that's more than just mean kids and bathroom jokes. Derek's dad flies Apache helicopters in the Army. He's stationed in Afghanistan. Derek and his mom, as well as his funny, full-of-life tattoo artist aunt manage to get through the days without him. Barely.

The relationship with his dad is particularly powerful. When his former friend Budgie hears Derek's dad has written him 91 letters he says, "Your dad was like a million miles away and you still knew what he was doing and he still knew what you were doing. My dad's just down the hall and I don't think he even knows my middle name."

Sadly for Derek, Budgie is not the kind of friend who'll stand by him no matter what. But Derek eventually, mostly, figures this out. I kind of felt bad for Budgie. I hadn't thought about it before but maybe he was the way he was because otherwise he'd be one of the ones to get picked on. After all, he was what my dad once jokingly called a "target-rich environment." 


Now here's a spoiler alert. Stop here if you don't want to know the sad part.



Derek's dad dies. But as far as a book about death goes, this one's head and shoulders over most I've read for middle-schoolers. Yes, it's sad. But there are so many good things to take from the way Derek and his mom handle this. There's support from his remarkable teacher. His friends are both awkward and kind. I hope David Fleming revisits these kids, or some who are equally well-drawn and interesting and fun.

Just a super book that I'm so glad I spent the afternoon with.

David Fleming's website is here: http://www.davidflemingink.com

Katherine Paterson, on Characters

There is, finally, something mysterious about the life of one's characters. In my secret hart, I almost believe that one of these days I'll meet Jesse Aarons walking toward me on a downtown street. I'll recognize him at once, although he will have grown to manhood, and I'll ask him what he's been doing in the years since he built that bridge across Lark Creek.

On second thought, I probably won't ask. I'll smile and he'll nod, but I won't pry. Years ago he let me eavesdrop on his soul, but that time is past. He's entitled to his privacy now. Still, I can't help wondering.

(Katherine Paterson, People I Have Known in The Writer, April 1987)