Category Archives: teachers

What can one person do?

I have been mulling over the events that unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri this past August and the thing that has really struck a chord with me is this all to common response: what can one person do? It’s a frustrating response in so many ways. It’s a coward’s choice, and must be a very painful thing to hear for people in the throes of ongoing unjust treatment. Unfortunately many people would rather do nothing than risk doing a wrong or offensive thing, and many simply don’t see the small steps that could be taken to advance the cause of justice. I don’t think I have any answers but I do have a story.

The one person who has mentored me more than anyone in my professional life is my cousin Kathleen Delaney. She has spent her entire teaching career in some of the lowest income schools in the Chicago area. She has told me stories about her students my entire life–stories about the ones that have inspired her, worried her, made her laugh, made her cry, and sharpened her understanding of the injustices so many face every single day. This August as she was preparing for the school year she stepped across the hall to introduce herself to a new teacher in her building. She was met with a shout of joy and a warm embrace from this new teacher.

The woman had been an 8th grader in my cousin’s school decades ago. Kathy taught 6th grade and after school she coached the girl for the district speech competition. They chose the address of Chief Seattle from 1854 and worked on it together after school for several weeks. Before the competition my cousin gave her the picture book version of Seattle’s speech written by Susan Jeffers. What she didn’t realize at the time was that the girl’s family had come to this country illegally. The mother was struggling to raise five of kids on minimum wage. That book was the first one the girl had ever owned. The first book anyone in her family had owned. They read it until it fell apart. This girl decided to become a teacher, in part because of my cousin’s example. Her younger brothers and sisters who had Miss Delaney in 6th grade reported that she was the “hardest” teacher in the school, the one who assigned the most homework. She was the one who believed that they could do all that work, even though they were new speakers of English.

This former student took her college classes one at a time over many years because her immigration status made her ineligible for financial aid. But she stuck to her goal year after year and now after all this time, she and my cousin will be teaching side by side. I’ve done author visits for my cousin in recent years and her students are quick to tell me that she is still the hardest teacher in their school. They feign agony in reporting all the writing assignments she’s given but it’s easy enough to see their pride underneath all that complaint. Some of them come voluntarily to school an hour early every day to work in her room before school starts.

I mention all this at the start of the school year because my cousin cheerfully points out that there is nothing unusual about her. Most teachers mentor students before and after school. Many have very high expectations for even their most impoverished students, and almost all of them give away hundreds of books over a teaching career. So this is my thank you to all of you for all you do to change lives, to raise up one literate generation after another, and encourage those who enter school powerless to leave it with something to contribute to the world. It’s easy to get discouraged and in the minutia of daily work and lose sight of your power.

You make history every day. When a child learns to read, you change that entire family’s economic fortunes forever. Our economy cannot function without you. I’m grateful–to my own teachers, my children’s teachers and all of you everywhere who work with students wisely and generously every day. Thank you!

Promotion and the Big Publishing House

The hook I see self-publishing presses use more often than any other is to claim that the major publishing houses no longer promote the books they publish. They suggest that authors are all on their own even at the big houses to arrange their own publicity, so you might as well go with a self-published press and get a bigger share of the pie. It’s a tempting line of thinking but one which can sometimes prompt a decision a writer later regrets.

Harold Underdown has an excellent post on the things a traditional publisher does for your book here. This is my take on the issue. I have a novel out this year. It’s one that I’ve worked on for more than 15 years and is very dear to me. My publisher, Random House, is not sending me on a book tour or buying product placement for me in the chain bookstores or featuring me at the big book conferences–BEA and ALA. And am I upset? Not in the least! Here’s why.

Nobody expects this book to be a blockbuster, not my publishers, not my reviewers, and not me. We all know that what we’ve got here is a solidly written book that will be of interest to fans of historical fiction and useful to teachers and librarians. It’s exactly the kind of book which never gets attention in the self-publishing market which is a great place to discover a highly commercial book like Fifty Shades of Gray but a dismal venue for a literary children’s novel. But with a traditional publishing house we don’t need Written in Stone to be a blockbuster. We just need it to reach it’s intended audience. And to that end my publisher has done a number of extraordinarily intelligent (but not highly visible) things in the marketing of this book.

1. Editorial Process

First and foremost I have the expertise of an editor with lots of experience and a heart for what makes a book work for a kid reader. He also knows what the school and library market is looking for so he made sure I got all the room I needed for a detailed authors note. And did I have to pay him? Nope. Part of the package.

2. Cover design

I love this cover! It does everything a cover needs to do and is a work of art besides. Did I have to find the nationally known artist Richard Tuschman and convince him to do this work? Nope. All that coordination and design work was done by the talented cover team at Random House. They took the few reference photos I sent and their own love of story and made magic happen.

3. Reviews

One of the hardest things to do as a self-published author is to get review attention for a book, even a really good book. I don’t even have to think about it. Part of the package.

4. Teacher’s guide

Pat Scales made a gorgeous teachers guide and my publicist has been great about sending copies of it out to bookstores doing fall teacher previews. Even better, you can download it for free. Because I’m a teacher I could have made this on my own, but it would have taken weeks of research through the common core to do it properly and then there is the design and layout–an entirely different skill set which I do not possess.

5. Sales Reps

Because my book is of regional interest the local sales reps at Random House featured the book in their meetings with the largest library systems in the northwest. It not only encourages book purchase but highlights the title to the group of people who sit on award committees and choose state-wide reading lists. It’s a very smart move and not something I could ever set up on my own for just one book.

6.Book Tour

Here is the best part: they didn’t send me on a book tour! A tour is expensive and puts a lot of pressure on the author to recoup the expense in book sales. Instead they’ve let me set up my own book events in venues where I know I can generate interest, with book sellers who have supported me in the past, and at schools who are invested in bringing me to speak to their students. I get to pick a schedule that works with my family’s commitments. I can take advantage of family or sports events travel and couple it with speaking engagements. I can pull together something at last minute to do a favor for a friend who is suddenly without a speaker at their conference. I can plan a whole year in advance for a week long author-in-residence. Yes, this is a lot of work, but the payoff in terms of relationships built in the business will benefit me for years to come so it’s time well worth investing.

7. Support

Even though they aren’t flying me all over the country, they are supporting me in my travels with timely responses to my communications, and on time shipments to the bookstores where I speak. They’ve never missed a shipment–not once. They keep my back list in good supply. I never have to worry if the books will be there. This reputation is one of the reasons bookstores are willing to have me in. They make it look easy to have a seamless supply and delivery of books, but I bet it isn’t.

8. Prompt conversion to paperback

About half the schools I contact for visits want to wait until my title is in paperback so that they can afford a full classroom set and the students can afford to buy their own book. No problem! The paperback comes out in a year. We can go ahead and schedule into next school year knowing an affordable book is on the way. And just like all the rest, it’s part of the initial contract I don’t have to make it happen all on my own.

None of this is intended to disparage self-published work. There is outstanding craft in self-published books. I’m very excited to see a new book award from SCBWI for self-published work. But I’m also sad for people who have been swan-songed into going it alone on a book that would be better served in a traditionally published venue. So before you decide to go it alone, think about what you are turning down with a traditional publisher. It might be worth the wait and the careful rewriting and polishing of your story to get your foot in the door.

Gratitude for Booksellers and Librarians

My parents first took me to Powells Bookstore clear back in 1972 or so when it was a tiny place tucked away in northwest Portland. I’ve been a fan of indy bookstores ever since. In fact the kind of books I write would not be possible without knowledgeable and passionate booksellers helping readers find just the right fit.

So I was elated today when I saw that the independent bookstore Andersons in the Chicago area had named WRITTEN IN STONE to it’s 2013 Mock Newbery list. The complete list of 25 contenders for the Newbery medal here at the Anderson’s website.

I am also very grateful to the librarian’s who have chosen Second Fiddle for this years Oregon Battle of the Books list for 6th to 8th graders. It’s a fabulous program where kids form teams, read a slate of 15 books, and answer questions about them in a quiz bowl format. It’s great fun and I’m proud to be on the same list as my friends Laurel Snyder with Bigger than a Breadbox, Operation Redwood by S. Terril French, and Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury. If your school does not know the joy of the book battle here’s where you can go for more information.

So happy new school year to all you wonderful school librarians who do so much to help kids find books to grow on.

And a big thank you to the following independent bookstores who have invited me to come share my books. I’ll have a full list of bookstore appearances up on my calendar soon.

A Children’s Place Bookstore in Portland, OR

Waucoma Books in Hood River, OR

Klindt’s Bookstore in The Dalles, OR

Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise, ID

Aunties Books in Spokane, WA

Village Books in Bellingham, WA

Secret Garden Books in Seattle, WA

The Linden Tree Books in Los Altos, CA

Stay tuned for dates and times!

Using Pinterest with Middle Grade Novels

I don’t like to think of myself as a Luddite. I enjoy technology and social networking, but I confess when I first heard of Pinterest I was filled with dread. I didn’t need another distraction from my deadlines. I didn’t have an overwhelming desire to look at every cute kitten that ever lived or learn about people’s quirky taste in shoes. I had every intention of giving this new social network a pass.

But then while working on the author note for my book Written in Stone, I wanted a visual for a particular type of ocean going canoe made by tribes from the Pacific Northwest. I found a group of boards on Pinterest called the Native American Encyclopedia. It has, among other things, a large collection of historical photographs organized by tribe including a variety of images of canoes that I needed.

It got me thinking about ways I could use Pinterest to make my historical novel more useful to teachers and vivid for students.

Children in every single state study Native Americans at some point in their middle grade years. I know teachers are looking for good books with Native American characters. I also know that most people, when they think of Native Americans, default to the Great Plains tribes and picture the horse and teepee cultures of the prairie. My book is set among the cedar and salmon people of the Olympic Rainforest in western Washington. Most people don’t have a visual reference point for this incredibly rich and beautiful culture.

The Olympic Peninsula is home to the only temperate rainforest in North America. Most people don’t have a visual vocabulary for the temperate rainforest either.

I would have loved to do an illustrated book like the ones I remember from my childhood, but unfortunately illustrations would price the book out of reach for already struggling school libraries. It’s my hope that Pinterest can serve to fill the gap. I set up a board for each of my novels with images of the setting and key objects from the story.

The thing that makes Pinterest a particularly useful tool is the space at the bottom of each picture with room to write a caption. Most users put a very minimal title in the caption space, but there is room enough for 500 characters so I can give some context for an image or mention how it relates to my book.

It took me about 20 minutes to learn how Pinterest works and set up a board for each of my books. I spent about an hour gathering the initial images for each board. I spend about an hour a month adding images. That is a manageable amount of investment in time for what I hope will be an engaging and useful tool for classroom teachers and book clubs.

I’m still very new to Pinterest and I’d love to hear from teachers whether they use it already or would consider using it in the future. Here’s the link to my Written in Stone board. Please take a look and leave a comment!

Book Recommendations for the Tender-Hearted Reader

People ask me for book recommendations all the time and the type of books they are most often looking for are what I think of as books for the tender-hearted reader. Sometimes the reader is very young and reading well above grade level. This type of reader wants the challenge of a book with a substantial plot, but doesn’t want the emotional intensity, romantic interest or scary content found in some books for older readers. Sometimes the reader is an older child who suffers nightmares, is unusually empathetic, or simply prefers a gentler tale.

Often such readers either choose books written a generation ago when the public taste in children’s books was more restrained or historical fiction, which by the nature of it’s content tends to be quieter and less edgy. These readers often enjoy non-fiction and poetry as well.

Here is a list of contemporary novels that I think will meet the needs of the tender-hearted. I will only post books I’ve read myself. So it will be a slowly growing list. Please contact me if you have a title you’d like to recommend. I will post a very brief description of the books I’ve chosen and provide links to author websites where possible. Check back often for updates.

Middle Grade Novels

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman--This is an intricate and fascinating story of a world in which a tenuous treaty holds between dragons and humans and Seraphina walks a dangerous line between both camps. There’s a lot here for a precocious young reader: heaps of action without grotesque violence, intrigue without soul killing viciousness, a dollop of romance without off-putting detail.

The Spy Mice Series by Heather Vogel Frederick—James Bond for 9 year olds!

The Mother Daughter Book Club Series by Heather Vogel Frederick—a series similar to the

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but for younger girls.

Larklight and Starcross by Phillip Reeve—light-hearted science fiction with a very British sense of humor.

Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains by Laurel Snyder—as much adventure as you can possibly have when you bring along a prairie dog and a dairy cow.

The Five Ancestors Series by Jeff Stone—if you love action and adventure but don’t like magic, this kung fu series set in ancient China is for you.

The Penderwicks Series by Jeanne Birdsall—a story about the adventures of four sisters. It’s a contemporary story but in the spirit of Little Women.

Oddfellow’s Orphanage by Emily Winfield Martin--I was originally drawn to this book by its wonderfully retro artwork. It has the feel of a classic from the 20s or 30s, and is possibly the gentlest orphan story every told with charming illustrations on nearly every page. This one is on the young end of middle grade and might make a good first chapter book to read aloud together.