By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 12/19/2011
Tooting a little horn for The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester and The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.
Both are on ALSC's (Association for Library Service to Children) Great Early Elementary Reads list.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 11/4/2011
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 10/7/2011
Hilton Head Preparatory School Yoohoo Boat Race from Barbara O'Connor on Vimeo.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 9/26/2011
Last week I spent time at Cider Mill School in Wilton, CT.
The 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students had all read The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis for their summer reading.
They've spent the first weeks of school discussing the book, making projects, playing Jeopardy and getting ready for my visit.
It was wonderful. I was greeted by lovely displays around the school.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 3/8/2011
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 3/1/2011
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 2/7/2011
A student wrote to me asking how to make the Yoohoo boat from The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.
Here is how:
How to Make a YooHoo Boat from Barbara O'Connor on Vimeo.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 1/11/2011
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 1/5/2011
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 7/12/2010
Coming soon...The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis in paperback.
This is a preliminary sketch of the cover. The final one is slightly different. I love it. Thank you, Greg Call.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 5/3/2010
Remember my post entitled Lessons from Dead Matter?
I have just received the dead matter for The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, so I thought I'd shared some more Lessons from Dead Matter:
1. I originally had the following:
They walked to the gas station down on the main highway where Popeye was never supposed to go without asking Velma first.
I hear it in my head as all run together like that.
But the copyeditor added a comma after "highway."
She explained that it is "nonrestrictive."
Okay, I get that. But it just doesn't sound the same, with that pause in there. (I added the comma anyway, but I still don't like it.)
2. I used a word that isn't in the dictionary! Yay, me:
"They don't call me the Royal Rulebreaker for nothing, right, Popeye?"
Copyeditor suggested hyphenated (Rule-Breaker), although not in the dictionary.
3. On one page I had several conversations with the copyeditor about "qm's". Huh? What the heck are qm's? I finally figured it out: quotation marks. Heh....
4. I had a floral easy chair and then four lines later, floral sheets. One of the "florals" had to go. (The easy chair went.)
5. Original version:
Gauzy yellow butterfly wings, tattered and dirty, dotted here and there with clusters of shiny gold sequins and attached to the girl by straps that slipped over her arms like a backpack.
At copyeditor's suggestion, this was changed to: "...by straps that slipped over her arms like those of a backpack."
Now, I understand that. But it still just doesn't sound right to me.
6. Copyeditors notice repetitions that authors often miss since we are so close to the writing. I'm always amazed at all of my repetitions:
"Y'all get on out of here," she said, throwing her arms out as if to sweep them all out of the house.
[I kept two of them and changed the second one to the word "wide."]
Her livid voice burst right through the metal walls of Dooley's trailer and slithered across the darkness of the backyard and right into the kitchen...
[deleted the second one, although I liked the sound of it]
Popeye looked down at his feet, the guilt stinging his face like fire ants. Silence. Popeye looked up. Velma was
7 Comments on Lessons from Dead Matter, last added: 5/4/2010
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 2/25/2010
I'm delighted to announce that The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis has been named a 2010 Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts by the Children's Literature Assembly, an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 2/11/2010
It's amazing the things you discover through Google Alerts:
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 1/21/2010
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis was named an ALA Notable.
Woohoo!
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 1/1/2010
A great way to start the new year:
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis made the list of finalists for the 2009 Cybils Award in the middle grade fiction category.
Yay!
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 12/14/2009
One more lovely review and a shout-out to my friend and Iowa librarian. (Hey, Devin!)
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 12/14/2009
Many thanks to author Greg Leitich Smith for this nice review!
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 12/12/2009
Oh, Becky, Becky, Becky.....what a lovely review!
Thanks.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 12/10/2009
Thanks so much to The Book Nut for this terrific review.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 12/1/2009
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 11/19/2009
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis was named one of School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year for 2009.
Hooray!
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 11/13/2009
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis named New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing.
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 11/2/2009
An interview with little ole me in the November issue of School Library Journal.
Photo credit: Getty Images
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 10/6/2009
By: Barbara O'Connor,
on 10/5/2009
Could there be a better review than this? So fun and spunky and, well, good!
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
by Barbara O’Connor
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Ages 9-12
Hardcover: $16.99
Fall, 2009
Review by Grier Jewell
Barbara O’Connor has a knack for creating offbeat characters living a few degrees north of normal (but never with cartoonish effect). The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis is no exception.
Recipe for this irresistible middle grade novel:
Mix Together
1 very bored boy with a bad eye
1 no good, no account uncle
1 grandmother with an obsessive fear of cracking up
Add
A pack of wild children stuck in a stranded RV
Several mysterious Yoo-hoo boats floating down a creek
1 eccentric girl with wings
Pour into a pan of mad talent and READ!
Though the world of Popeye is far from average, it’s normal as far as he’s concerned. All he needs is a little adventure to break up the boredom of every day tick tick ticking away.
As the title states, this is a small adventure. Small, as in: a spark of genius wrapped up in a tiny childhood treasure. Any world O’Connor creates is one I want to inhabit. Popeye’s is no exception. Get The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. I command you.
See more fantastic reviews by Grier Jewell, reviewing for the Whidbey Writers Workshop.
And toot, toot, toot to the illustrator for fabulous eye-catching covers.
You should be tooting a BIG horn for this news.
They look gorgeous next to each other on my shelf!
Ahooga!