Category Archives: bookstores

A new baby orca in the Salish Sea

It’s been a busy two weeks since A Whale of the Wild splashed down in bookstores on Sept 1st. Wildfires have occupied most of my attention this last week but I prefer to focus on much happier news. For example, there is a new baby orca in the Salish Sea! You can read all about it on the Center for Whale Research website. The photo below is by Katie Jones who helped me vet A Whale of the Wild.

Last Thursday I got to spend an evening with one of my favorite writers Janet Fox on the Books in Common NW writers series. We had a lovely chat about my book and hers, The Artifact Hunters. It was great fun and you can catch the whole conversation here. It starts a little slow because we are waiting for folks to join the zoom, so skip ahead a minute if you like.

I had hoped to create some science videos in my backyard here in Oregon this month as a supplement to school visits, but at the moment my back yard has the most unhealthy air in the entire world because of wildfire smoke, so I’ll be postponing that for now. Fortunately I haven’t had to evacuate yet and I’m grateful for all the help and prayers that people are sending.

If you are looking for a way to support people in my state, the Oregon Food Bank is going to have 40,000 extra folks to feed this month, so a donation there would be very welcome. If you are looking for more literature-specific aid, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC) gives direct aid to displaced booksellers and burned or shuttered book shops.

Thank you!

A Book Birthday for A Wolf Called Wander

At last! The American edition of A WOLF CALLED WANDER is out in the world. It’s my first book with a signed first edition and my first book to be translated. Thanks to Virginia Duncan and the team at Greenwillow for a beautiful project from start to finish. Breathtaking art from Mónica Armiño graces nearly every page. There are blog interviews with Janet Lee Carey here and with Brazos Bookstore here. And my hometown bookstore Powells has made it a Pick of the Month for May. I’m going to be celebrating the launch at A Children’s Place Bookstore on Friday May 10th at 7pm 4807 NE Fremont St, Portland OR.

With excitement, humor, sweetness, and a beautiful, imaginative voice full of innocence, exuberance, and downright wolfiness, A Wolf Called Wander is the incredible tale, based on a true story, of one young wolf’s coming-of-age during his adventurous 1,000-mile trip in search of a new home. Recommended By Gigi L., Powells.com

A Book Partner for Last of the Name

One of my favorite parts of researching a historical fiction is finding books that will be a perfect partner for my work-in-progress. Books that illuminate an era near to the one in my story or books that explore the same events from a different lens. I am always grateful when my publisher makes room in the back of the book to recommend these book partners. The author notes in LAST OF THE NAME point to several books by Zetta Elliot, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Walter Dean Myers.

Sometimes a book comes along too late to be included but is nevertheless a perfect companion read. Streetcar to Justice: how Elizabeth Jennings won the right to ride in New York, by Amy Hill Hearth came out last year. It is non-fiction, set in New York city a mere ten years before the setting of Last of the Name. And it illuminates a little known bit of history.

Nearly everyone knows Rosa Parks but did you know that more than 100 years before the Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, a woman named Elizabeth Jennings won the right in court for a black person to ride the public trolley in New York City. Hill’s well documented book is chock full of photographs which illuminate the condition of the streets of New York in the pre-Civil War era.

So many of the difficult racial, ethnic, and class issues we are facing today had their roots more than a hundred years ago. I hope both these books spark conversation and reflection on how we got to this moment, and inspire readers to move forward with ever greater understanding and compassion.

A Book Party for Last of the Name

I’m so excited about the book party for Last of the Name because it will be as much a celebration of the perseverance of Irish culture as it is of the book. I’ll be joined by musicians and dancers and we will be meeting in the Annex next door to Annie Blooms Bookstore where you can order food and drinks from our neighbor restaurant Gastromania. I hope to see you there!

Annie Blooms Bookstore 7834 SW Capitol Highway Portland Oregon 97219 at 7pm on Tuesday April 2nd.

Annie Blooms Bookstore 40th Anniversary

It is my very great privilege to work at one of Portland’s legendary independent bookstores: Annie Blooms Books. On Sunday the bookstore and her intrepid owner Bobby Tischner celebrated 40 years of fostering a literary community in Multnomah Village. I love going to work with my generous and wise colleagues. I love helping our patrons find just the right book, especially for the youngest readers, and I love the role indie bookstores play in upholding the First Amendment. In an era full or dark and foreboding news I’m very happy to say that I know of several new independent bookstores opening in the northwest and across the United States. It gives me much hope for the future.