Many writers’ lives changed this morning, in the short time it took to make a few phone calls! I know what such a call can mean so I am thrilled for everyone. Especially delighted for Kimberly Brubaker Bradley whose The War that Saved My Life was one of my favorite reads of last year; and for fellow Scholastic author Pam Munoz Ryan for her intriguing and complex work, Echo, and for Kekla Magoon, who is on this term’s faculty of the Vermont Children’s MFA program where I am at this moment a guest lecturer. Kekla won a Coretta Scott King award honor for X: A Novel (written with Ilyasah Shabazz).

Fun day! Celebrate!

Now, back to work.