I may look sweet and innocent but I have an evil plan: I want to turn kids into ravenous readers of historical fiction. And, serendipitously, I’ve discovered one way to be successful in this scheme. Write about dogs! On October 11, the third book in the World War Two Dogs series (Scholastic) will be published. Liberty… Read more »
This will be my last throwback to 1910 (at least for awhile; the sequel is due out in January 2017). It’s been fun providing some historical context for the first book in the Audacity Jones series, Audacity Jones to the Rescue. I’ve shared about newsboys, cars and voting rights. I’m closing with something light. I so… Read more »
I met Sandy Evans back in May at event sponsored by the Western Washington SCBWI called Inside Story. I loved the back story about her book, This is Not a Werewolf Story (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) so asked if she’d be my Friend Friday guest — and I was thrilled when she agreed. Honestly,… Read more »
It’s such a pleasure to host Nancy J. Cavanaugh today in celebration of her latest book, Just Like Me (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky), a sleep away camp story which makes a perfect summertime read! Students in my school visit audiences often ask me how I get ideas for my books. I give the usual writerly answers: My inspiration comes… Read more »
I owe Megan Frazer Blakemore and Karen Harrington huge apologies. Somehow, instead of running Megan’s guest post last week and Karen’s today, I ran them both last week. So I’m asking YOU to help ME make it up to them! Please go to Megan’s post and to Karen’s post and read them. (That, in and… Read more »
I adored Karen Harrington’s first novels, Sure Signs of Crazy (Little Brown), and Courage for Beginners (Little Brown) and was lucky enough to spend some time with her at the Blue Willow Bookshop-sponsored Tween Book Festival in 2014. She is sweet as pie and writes a darned good story. Don’t miss her latest: Mayday (Little… Read more »
It’s pretty special to be able to host a friend AND a neighbor. Well, Dan Gemeinhart and I are almost neighbors; we live in the same state, me on the west side of the Cascade Mountains and Dan on the east. And that eastern Washington terrain/setting plays a big role in his newest book, Some… Read more »
I spent ten days in January in Vermont, as the Writer in Residence for the Vermont Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program. It was COLD but the students and faculty were incredibly warm. I was fortunate to meet J. Albert Mann and very quickly our conversation turned to historical fiction and Jennifer’s new novel,… Read more »
I feel like I have waited FOREVER to host Janet Fox on my blog. And now she’s here, celebrating her spine-chilling new book, The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle (Viking). So I’m going to turn this space over to her right away. Where Ideas Begin Non-writers and young readers often ask me where I find… Read more »
This is the second time Elana K. Arnold has been a Friend Friday guest; the first was for her book The Question of Miracles (HMH for Young Readers) and I dearly hope she will grace this blog many, many more times. When I began writing Far from Fair (HMH Books for Young Readers), I imagined it… Read more »