All posts by Amber

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley

Events, My Reads, Writing, ,

This delightful, picture book biography is up for an Oregon Book Award tonight.  I’ll be in the audience clapping loudly for Barbara Kerley.

As a nonfiction writer myself, it has been gratifying to watch picture book biographies and history come into their own. Writers are pushing the form to greater excellence by using innovative formats and many of the techniques of fiction: scenes, voice, character, story arc, etc.

Interestingly, science books for kids have not innovated in the same way (with the exception of scientist profiles).  I think it’s the next frontier and I plan to be there!

Recently I gave my agent a manuscript about extinction biology that melds a graphic novel format with more traditional nonfiction.  I can’t wait to see what he says!

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown @itspeterbrown

Antics, My Reads,

Today I read Peter Brown’s delightful book to my son’s class.  I told them there was a curious garden quite close to our school.  They made me promise to take some pictures.

I’ve always been fascinated by how quickly nature overwhelms our puny human structures once we get out of the way.  This bridge is a case in point.

In the story, Liam helps his garden transform an entire city.  I love it!

“I love you, Grandma Dowdel!” A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

My Reads

Oh, Grandma Dowdel, I know I’m not Mary Alice, but I want you to teach me to trap foxes and make cherry tarts.  Some of that glue would come in handy too.  And where do I get a nice, big snake for the attic?

I’m sure the indomitable woman herself would brush me off with the wave of her big, strong hands, but let me continue to gush…

I thought this book probably wasn’t for me… historical novel about the Great Depression in a small town…  Yet it was just exactly perfect for me!

Let no one lament the death of historical fiction!  Instead celebrate its ascendency by buying a copy of one of these:

Heart of a Samurai
Moon Over Manifest
Turtle in Paradise
When You Reach Me

Or go back to A Year Down Yonder.  You won’t be sorry!

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

My Reads

I am on a mission to read all 89 winners of the Newbery medel.  The Whipping Boy was number 27.  It jumped to the top of the pile based on a recommendation by my nine-year-old son.  He is reading it in his third grade reading group and loving it.

And Peter Sis illustrated this edition.  Need I say more?  No, of course not, brilliance speaks for itself.

If we ever run away, we hope the heck it’s with Jemmy.

Gaw!

My Big Indie Bookstore – Powell’s in #PDX

Antics, ,
Credit to librarything.com for the photo

As a teen, I used to spend hour upon hour sitting on the floor in the Blue Room reading books.  Now you’ll find me in the Rose Room haunting the children’s books.

The goal today was to buy The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman because my son came home from school saying, “Mom, you have to read this book.  It is the best!”

Other books that came home with us today:

Stagecoach Sal by Deborah Hopkinson
I’m Not Sleepy! by Jonathan Allen
Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000 by Eric Wight
Toot & Puddle The One and Only by Holly Hobbie
The Uninvited Guest by Nina Jaffe
Miriam’s Cup: A Passover Story by Fran Manushkin
Miriam in the Desert by Jacqueline Jules

Beverly Cleary Walking Tour

Antics, Events, ,

Here I am with Ramona in Grant Park, the spot where Beverly Cleary played as a little girl.  We visited her childhood home and school, the library where she read and the apartment building her mother forbade her to enter.   Altogether and delightful (and sunny) day!  If you’re in Portland, you should go.  This weekend there are three tours scheduled with Portland writer Laura Foster.

 

Taking a ride on the big yellow bus = researching my readers!

Antics, ,

Today I went on a field trip with my daughter and 55 other K/1 kids.  I can’t remember the last time I was on a school bus.  How kooky!  I forgot that little people can’t even see over the seats so it’s like being in a little space pod.  And the wheel wells kill the leg room.  And stopping at train tracks.  And the way you slosh around in your seat during curves.  And no seat belts!  That feels weird, weird, weird.

My Chincoteague Pony by Susan Jeffers

My Reads

I read this book to my kids tonight.  I always choke up when I read it.  Always!  There is something so moving about a girl’s need to have a horse and the need of the crowd to make sure she has it.  Ahh!  I never get tired of reading it especially the personal connection to Marguerite Henry.

I was one of those girls who needed a horse.

But I never got one.

The right frame of mind to write

Antics

After a several week long hiatus, I’m back to my current WIP.  I’m about 30K squishy, all-over-the-place words in to the thing and have enough of a handle on it to know it’s time to get serious about plotting, story arc, character arc, etc.

So for the last hour I’ve been on the wood floor with a huge piece of drawing paper, scribbling, sketching, and drafting out the bones upon which the words will hang.  Can you imagine me totally absorbed?

Imagine my shock to look up and see snowflakes the size of frosted flakes falling thick and fast outside.  Right on my newly planted peas.

So much for the best laid plans in gardening (and writing)!