My commute today is a few dozen steps to the corner of the yard where my tiny studio is waiting for me as it has every day for the past ten years. Today was going to be the start of a publisher sponsored book tour, my very first in more than 20 years as a working writer. It would have been in support of the paperback release of A Wolf Called Wander. I would have traveled across the country and met and been inspired by thousands of students and their wonderful teachers and librarians. I would have made new indie bookseller friends and seen cities I’ve never visited and had new and interesting research opportunities. And I would have sold hundreds of books. Now, because of the pandemic, that opportunity is gone and nothing will bring it back.
And I am feeling such gratitude! First, and most importantly, I’m grateful to all the school boards and superintendents who made the call to close schools and protect the families they serve. I’m in awe of the energy they’ve thrown into educating their students at home. I’m intensely proud of my fellow booksellers who have sacrificed income in favor of the safety of their shop patrons–many of whom are the grandmas and grandpas of my readers. Special cheers to those who are scrambling to make books available to their communities via mail and delivery and ebooks and downloadable audio. I’m thankful that my publisher HarperCollins has valued my safety over their profits and not even asked me to do something that would put myself and my family at risk. I’m grateful to have a roof over my head and my family at my side in these heart-rending times. I’m thankful to be able to stay in and do what I can to protect those for whom staying at home is not possible. I’m grateful for the vast majority of Americans who understand the importance of elective quarantine and hand hygiene.
One thing I came to appreciate in researching A Wolf Called Wander and it’s companion A Whale of the Wild, is that humans are pack animals too. And we are being hunted by a microscopic creature, weak out in the air, but intensely powerful once it breaks the fortress of our lungs. Thousands of our fellow pack members have fallen prey to it. Even so the human pack has the upper hand. Because a virus can’t run. It can’t even crawl. It can only get from one human to the next if a human carries it. And so I’m sending up a howl of solidarity to my fellow pack members, today and everyday, until victory is ours. I will do everything in my power to starve our predator and I will trust my fellow humans to chose life over profit and do the same.
I just want to say to those youth who organized marches whose numbers were counted not in thousands but in dozens–I hear you. The youth literature community hears you. And we are right beside you, as close as your school or public library. I want you to know that you can be true to the values your communities hold dear and still stand up for your rights. You can be good sons and daughters and also good citizens. If your town doesn’t understand or appreciate you now, don’t give up. You are not alone. A principled life courageously lived is powerful witness. And you have more allies than you may realize in this moment. And if you’re discouraged, reach out to your favorite author, whoever it is. We’re here for you. And most of all, thank you! Thank you for your courage, and your vision of a better, safer, kinder future.
Ordinarily I recommend only children’s books on my blog, but in view of the fires which are burning hundreds of square miles of my home state, including some of my very favorite places in the wide world, I’d like to recommend a book by my friend Gary Ferguson. He has written dozens of books about the wilderness and its role in our lives. His book just out this summer is called Land on Fire. Its a well-researched look at how we got into our current cycle of catastrophic fires year after year, through decades of fire suppression and record draughts. It would be a great book group read and a worthwhile text for high school and even middle school science classes.
We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler is the story of Austrian teenagers Hans and Sophie Scholl who at the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power were glad to join the Hitler youth which they saw as a patriotic organization. But as the Hilter Youth moved from scout-like campouts to militia training and racist indoctrination, the Scholl siblings knew they had to resist at any cost. They put together The White Rose, a society devoted to making Hitler’s war crimes known and turning the tide ofGerman popular opinion against the Nazis. They succeeded, although it cost their lives. Freemen’s book is well researched and includes many historical photographs and yet it handles this very dark subject matter in such a way that most elementary school students can understand without being emotionally overwhelmed.