I am so honored to be invited to participate in this years SMART author fair at Powells bookstore.
SMART is great program which brings adults from the community into the school to read aloud with students who struggle to read. Next year it will mark the 25th anniversary of the Start Making A Reader Today program.
I will be signing copies of Written in Stone from 2-4. It’s a great way to support a terrific cause. I hope to see you there.
First of all I must say that I love my local library for the safe harbor it has been for all four of my children for their entire childhoods. What a blessing to have a place I can encourage my kids to go on their bikes without me. A thousand thanks to the librarians who have staffed the Garden Home Branch over the years.
Next Tuesday the Adult Summer Reading Program will have a writer’s panel and I’m so pleased to be appearing with one of my long-time writing friends Heather Vogel Frederick and a new writing friend Cindy Brown. It should be lots of fun. Here’s a link to the full information. It’s also on my calendar. See you in a week!
One of my favorite parts of the book-making process is seeing what the cover artist brings to table. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the art created by Jennifer McLaughlin. It’s gorgeous! So fresh and fun. I love it that both main characters are on the front cover. I love it that you can see that one of the characters is Asian. I’m glad they are actively engaged in sailing. I love it that residents of Oregon and Washington may recognize the Astoria bridge in the background.
And here’s the really impressive part, I think it’s a cover both boys and girls will find inviting and that’s not so easy to pull off. I look at a ton of covers in the bookstore and many of them are only trying to reel in one gender. So without further ado here is my new book cover.
![TurnTide jacket[1]](https://rosanneparry.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TurnTide-jacket1.jpg)
Oh I almost forgot my favorite part! I love secret code. If you can tell me what the signal flags on the front flap say in the comments, I’ll send you a mini-book.
This book will be out Jan 12th of 2016!
I’m going to try to read all the books that are on the 2015-16 OBOB list with me and I’m so happy to start with a wonderful book by my friend and fellow Portlander, Deborah Hopkinson. This is a story after my heart because epidemiology was my 
mother’s field. It’s an account of how the enterprising Dr. Snow and a couple of street urchins proved that a cholera epidemic that a broke out in Victorian London was caused not by the heavily polluted air but by the contaminated water in the Broad Street pump.
1. Any kid who lives Bones or CSI or other tv crime scene procedurals will love this. It’s full of real nitty gritty details of how to prove that disease is water-borne when the water tastes fine and the air stinks. Great fun, and not “teach-y”
2. Cool historical maps of the epidemic are in the back matter. Love Maps!
3. The narrator, a kid who goes by the name Eel, is appealing and keeps the events on a very human scale. In finding and answer to the riddle of the Broad Street pump, Eel finds a home and protection and education for his beloved little brother.
Any story about an epidemic is going to be tragic and this one doesn’t shrink from death. However, and this is the important distinction to me, it doesn’t revel in death or glamorize suffering. It’s a fine line to walk and I think it’s handled beautifully. Well worth a read just to see how Deborah gets the balance just right.
Also I’m going to tag this as a diverse book in terms of class. It addresses very directly the injustices Eel faces because of his economic status. It’s easy to over-look or romanticize the poor. Here’s a book that in my opinion does them justice. The low-income characters are a mix of good and bad actors and the upper-income characters are an equally mixed bag in terms of personal virtue. Bravo!
This is a brand new writers camp in town and I’m really excited to be working on plot with a bunch of avid young writers in Portland. There are just a few slots left!