Please Say Hi to Kate Messner!!!

Most of you know what a wonderful writer, teacher, friend and mom Kate Messner is, so you can imagine how thrilled I am to have here here as my first ever guest blogger!!

Everyone say, "Hi, Kate!"

Kate is celebrating her new, beautiful book, Sugar And Ice.



Description:
For Claire Boucher, life is all about skating on the frozen cow pond and in the annual Maple Show right before the big pancake breakfast on her family's farm. But all that changes when Russian skating coach Andrei Grosheva offers Claire a scholarship to train with the elite in Lake Placid. Tossed into a world of mean girls on ice, where competition is everything, Claire realizes that her sweet dream come true has sharper edges than she could have imagined. Can she find the strength to stand up to the people who want to see her fail and the courage to decide which dream she wants to follow?

The book has already made the Junior Library Guild Selection AND Winter 2010-2011 Kids IndieNext List!

I was lucky enough to get an ARC at NCTE/ALAN and will be posting my own glowing report soon. I can't wait to read it!

And the best news, the book is officially on sale TOMORROW! You can order it from your local Indie in time for the holidays!

But wait! There's more!

The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid is hosting a launch party from 3-5 pm on Saturday, December 11th. If you can’t make it but would still like a signed, personalized copy, just give them a call at (518) 523-2950 by December 10th. They’ll take your order, have Kate sign your book after the event, and ship it out to you in plenty of time for the holidays.

Or, if you have a favorite Indie you like to shop at, you can order it there, too.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Kate is here to talk about an important topic: Reluctant Writers.

And now, heeeeeeere's Kate!! *wild applause*

One of the very best things about writing books for kids has been the people writing has brought into my life. Last month at the NCTE/ALAN conference, I was lucky enough to be on a panel with David Macinnis Gill, Chris Crowe, and Jo Knowles. Our title was “The Perks of Being a Wallflower Writer: Helping Teens and Tweens Discover and Share their Voices,” and while I love talking about this topic, I think on this particular day, I loved listening even more.

David and Chris talked about strategies for helping young writers, providing a framework for success and ideas for making a big project feel manageable. And Jo talked a lot about the sharing part of the writing process, something that I just loved, since I’m a classroom teacher of middle school kids. Her strategy of taking volunteers to share but asking that everyone comment and provide out-loud feedback for the shared writing encourages talk, and supportive talk in the classroom leads to more talk and to trust.

Here are three more things I like to tell reluctant writers in my classroom and writing workshops in the way of encouragement:

• It’s not a test.

So much of the writing kids do in school is graded on very particular criteria, and sometimes this creates anxiety. What’s the right answer? What’s the right way to structure this, to set it up? How long does it have to be? The answer for creative writing is, “You get to decide all that. You do. Because you are the writer.”

• You get to choose things you love to write about.

When I look at the books I’ve written, there are stories about history, about hiking and collecting leaves, and most recently with SUGAR AND ICE, about figure skating and maple farms and math (I know…weird mix…but I am the writer, and I get to decide to mix weird things). Writing is a way to talk about what you love and to explore things you want to know more about.

• You have stories that nobody else can tell. Nobody.

Some writers don’t believe this right away, but it’s true. Your life history, your world views and experiences and hopes and dreams make your particular point of view one of a kind. You might be the only Star-Wars-obsessed yodeling unicycle rider in the world…or the only person who’s ever stopped to really think about what would happen if a kid whose mother plays Donald Duck at Disney were suddenly invited to compete in a worldwide musical-instrument-building contest. Your stories – however weird and wonderful they may be – are yours. And if you don’t tell them, who will?


My new book started with one of those “what-if” moments. What if a quiet girl from a small-town maple farm were suddenly plunged into the high-pressure world of competitive figure skating? That girl in my imagination is named Claire, and her story is SUGAR AND ICE, due out December 7th from Walker/Bloomsbury.

Thanks Kate!! I wish you could be everyone's middle school teacher!

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Monday Morning Warm-Up:

In honor of Kate, describe your favorite moment on the ice. For some inspiration, here's a lovely video Cindy Lord recently posted on her blog: