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Here's another fantastic book trailer created by a student from Killam Elementary in Reading, MA.

This one is Anna's:

They really like me!

Three cool honors for THE DOG:

Winner of the William Allen White Kansas Children's Book Award.

Winner of the South Dakota Prairie Pasque Children's Book Award.

Runner-up for the Colorado Children's Book Award (along with my pal, Kirby Larson.)

These are really special honors since they are chosen by real, live children.

I love this clever idea: students designing cereal boxes inspired by books.

Check out this fantastic little video compliments of media specialist Susan Kalisky of Kenbrook Elementary School in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Thanks for the honor, Massachusetts!

I am so proud that How to Steal a Dog inspired these kids to participate in this great project.

I can't wait to visit Hampden Meadows School in April and tell them in person how proud I am of them.

I was so touched to see that Shutesbury Elementary School in Shutesbury, MA is gathering donations for the Amherst Survival Center as an activity to honor How to Steal a Dog on the Massachusetts Children's Book Award list for 2010.













Great job, guys!

Many thanks to the wonderful Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop in LaVerne, CA, for this great book talk of How to Steal a Dog.

For any teachers or librarians using How to Steal a Dog in the classroom/library, this is terrific.

I received a letter from a 10-year-old about my book, How to Steal a Dog.

She enjoyed it.

But she wanted to point out a mistake in Chapter 12 (9th line) where I wrote, "He like to went crazy."

That line, of course, is Southern dialect and means, "He nearly went crazy."

Children (who don't live in the South) often think that is a mistake.

A great learning opportunity, I think.

But the best part of her letter was that my book had inspired her to write her own book.

Her title?

How to Look Smart Without Being Smart

Now THAT I would read!!

How to Steal a Dog was a Scholastic Book Club Bestseller for the 08-09 school year.

How to Steal a Dog has been nominated for the Massachusetts Children's Book Award for 2009-2010.

That's especially good news since I live in Massachusetts!

I've been accused of condoning dog stealing.

(Which, by the way, I do NOT.)

But the other day (1 a.m., to be exact) while I was in the waiting room of the emergency vet (don't worry...nothing life threatening), I was strolling around twiddling my thumbs and reading every sign on the bulletin board....

....and came across this!!!!

I haven't had to pick out my dress for the red carpet yet....

.....but the movie option for How to Steal a Dog has been renewed by Tracy Kilpatrick.

So....who wants to ride in my limo?

This is an amazing school project done by a 4th grader in Illinois!

North Carolina School Library Media Association's Elementary Battle of the Books for 2009-2010.

I love a good battle!

I received the following lovely email yesterday:

Jill, from the Well Read Child blog, asked a discussion question this week. She wanted to know what book we couldn't live without in our classroom. Thought you might like to see my response:

This fall, I used HOW TO STEAL A DOG as a read aloud with a group of struggling fourth and fifth grade readers. Georgina, the main character in the book, is living in her car with her mother and younger brother in their car, because her father has abandoned the family. She decides to steal a dog and use the reward money to help her family get an apartment.

My kids LOVED this book. My school is in a pretty tough neighborhood- we have lots of single parents and grandparents raising grandbabies, parents without jobs, family members in jail, foster care, being evicted from apartments, etc. My kids, I think, came away with the life lesson that sometimes good people make bad choices. They also, I think, felt comforted that there were other people surviving the same hard lives that they have. Four months later, they are still talking about this book.


You know, writers so often send their creations out into the world and then lose track of them - never knowing for sure how their work is influencing (or not) the very kids they create for.

So it's great to hear from teachers or others who work with kids and to learn about how my work is being received out there in the real world.

THAT was definitely a made-my-day email.

On Saturday Scholastic Book Fairs came out to film a video of me for their author DVD series for How to Steal a Dog.

I've never really paid much attention to the "key phrases" for books on Amazon.

Not all books have them.

Here are some of the "key phrases" for How to Steal a Dog:

string leash
doggie door
gonna steal
Girl Scouts

I clicked on "gonna steal" and was presented with the following books (in addition to How to Steal a Dog):

• The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide
• The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

• Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic
• Magic for Beginners

For all you authors and illustrators out there:

I used to sing the praises of Tandem Library to learn about any state award nominations your book has picked up.

But I've now I'm singing the praises of Perma-Bound. It's more current. (They even post "State Award Lists Just Announced" right on their home page.

While I was there, I discovered a few more state lists for How to Steal a Dog, bringing the latest list to:

Texas
Rhode Island
Maryland
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Hawaii
Kentucky

Okay, I'm tooting my own horn again. Sorry...

But I'm pretty psyched that How to Steal a Dog is starting to pick up some children's book award nominations:

Maryland

Rhode Island

Texas

South Carolina