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Last weekend I spoke at the 2009 California School Library Association Conference, with its theme of Embrace the Serendipity of Learning. I love librarians. One of them, speaking to a group of writers, said that we are their heroes. Well, the feeling is mutual. Especially these days.

The conference exhibit hall was about as densely populated as our Mojave Desert, with vast walls of curtains trying to disguise the fact. Folks strolling the floor were likewise of a desert town density. Presentations were scheduled simultaneously and I held my breath to see if I would attract more than the one person who introduced me. I spoke on – what else for an INK blogger? – The Serendipity of Reading and Writing Nonfiction, and when I got a crowd of about twelve, I felt grateful indeed. The session I attended after mine had only four in the audience, but the speaker was just as enthusiastic and engaging as if he were addressing four hundred.

Seriously though, the state of school libraries in California is abysmal and getting worse. As you probably know, the Golden State is no more. Now there’s only budget deficits and criminal cuts in services in them thar hills. So what does that mean for school libraries? California, once an innovative leader in public education, now stands 51^st in the nation for school librarian ratios. That’s quite an achievement in a country with 50 states. Two years ago our ratio was 1 school librarian for 5,124 students. Yes, that’s 1:5174. Today it’s much much worse.

At the conference I, of course, only met those librarians who still have jobs and the wherewithal to attend a conference. One librarian I met works at ten different elementary schools – half a day per week in each one. Three hours per school per week. Another works only three days a week and covers six schools. Her district won’t pay her mileage, so she spends a whole day at each school – tw

Barbara Kerley's book, What To Do About Alice?, won the 2009 Washington State/Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award in the picture book category. The book is illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, a Seattle resident.


Gretchen Woelfle will speak on Reading and Writing nonfiction: A Study in Serendipity at the California School Library Association Conference in Ontario, CA on Friday November 20. She will also sign books at the Author and Illustrator Brunch on Sunday, November 22.


From Deborah Heiligman: CHARLES AND EMMA: THE DARWINS' LEAP OF FAITH is a Finalist for the National Book Award. Award ceremony is Novemer 18 when the winner will be announced. But I am thrilled to have my book be a finalist.


Helen's Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's Teacher by Marfé Ferguson Delano was named a 2009 Jefferson Cup Honor Book. Presented by the Virginia Library Association, the Jefferson Cup is an award that honors biographies, historical fiction, and American history books for children.


Sue Macy will be signing copies of her new book, Bylines: A Photobiography of Nellie Bly, on Friday, November 6, at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Charlotte. Stop by the National Geographic booth from 3:30 to 4:30 to pick up a book and say hi. And don't forget to mention you heard about it on I.N.K.!



From Jan Greenberg: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Through The Gates and Beyond is on Booklist's Top Art Books of 2009 list. I will be at NCTE on November 20 in Philadelphia signing Side by Side at Abrams booth 1:30-2:15pm and attending the Notables awards for Language Arts session at 2:30. Hope to meet some of you there.

All month we INKlings have been discussing using our books in the classroom. I’ve been mightily impressed by the ways that our authors, along with teachers and librarians, have brought books to life for students.

I had a lot of fun writing a curriculum guide for Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer (see my website: www.gretchenwoelfle.com.) Jeannette’s long life in politics made her a massive subject to write about (she lived over ninety years!) but an easy subject for kids to relate to. Rankin was a women’s suffragist, our first Congresswomen, and lifelong peace activist.

Though women have reached new heights of political office, their presence does not reflect their demographics, i.e. 50% of the population. I ask students to research their city and state. What percentage of their representatives are female? What percentage of female lawmakers belong to each political party? [Math exercises.] Why do you think so few politicians are female? [Debate topic, with social studies angle.]

Research a female lawmaker in your state, including her early life, education, and path to political office. Read her website and see where she stands on various issues. Write her a letter and tell her where you stand. Jeannette Rankin advised high school students to do this back in 1940! Take a poll of your classmates about gender politics and graph the results. [Math again.]

Classroom activities such as these show students that my biography can relate to what is happening right now. The issues that fill the news and affect our lives are not new, and biographies of people like Jeannette Rankin connect us to history and perhaps show us a way forward.

NB: Be careful what you wish for. Besides the activities I suggested, one teacher asked her students to fact-check my book for errors. They thought they had found three. Their further research vindicated me twice, but they were spot on with the third example. Ouch!


Picture book biographies are a booming genre these days. Each publishing season offers more terrific stories of people I’ve never heard of.

The Daring Miss Quimby (Holiday House) by Suzanne George Whitaker, tells the story of the first American woman to receive a pilot’s license (in 1911) and to fly the English Channel (in 1912.) Harriet Quimby was an adventurous soul, pushing against all sorts of boundaries for women. Catherine Stock’s loose watercolor illustrations depict this mood perfectly. A “Women in Aviation Time Line” extends to 1999 and suggests classroom projects: research the many women found in the timeline, bring it up to date, and read Tanya Stone’s Almost Astronauts for a look at the discrimination aviatrixes encountered.


Sky High: The True Story of Maggie Gee (Tricycle Press) by Marissa Moss, illustrated by Carl Angel, describes a Chinese American’s girl’s love of flying. In World War II she joined the highly competitive WASP, Women Airforce Service Pilots. Moss describes Maggie’s career but also weaves in her family’s stories: immigrant grandparents farming in California, parents growing up in traditional China, mother who worked in a World War II defense plant – each generation assimilating more and more. This book can lead to students exploring our immigration history, both politically and personally. How did early Asian immigrants fare in the United States? Where did your family come from and what are their stories?

Biographies can build many bridges in the classroom connecting the historical with the contemporary, the political with the personal. Can you guess that I’m hooked on writing them?

Last month I took a five-day trip to San Juan Island in Washington State. It was meant to be a vacation of cycling, hiking, and kayaking. No writing, no research, no interviews. Just a vacation. And it was – until the second day. That morning we cycled to San Juan Island Historical Park and I learned about the Pig War of 1859 that led to a twelve-year joint occupation on opposite ends of the island by British and American troops. In the end, the only casualty was a pig. But it became an International Incident that was eventually settled by the Emperor of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm I.

And so my vacation turned into a research trip. I still went hiking and cycling and kayaking, but I also bought books at the park’s visitor centers, explored the two military camps, photographed plaques along the trails, questioned the park rangers, and began to plot a story. This is not the first time a story has leaped out at me from the bushes. And, if truth be told, I really do prefer a vacation with a focus.

Memo #1 to self: Never throw away potentially tax-deductible boarding passes and travel receipts.

Memo #2 to self: Kayak rental is tax-deductible, for how else could I experience the tricky winds and currents that drowned several English soldiers?

An old adage tells us to write about what we know. I disagree. I choose to write about what I don’t know, but want to learn. Full disclosure: I – and other writers I could name, but won’t – enjoy research at least as much, and sometimes more than, writing. Especially when it means traveling to beauty spots like the Pacific Northwest.

Is that why I lean towards writing nonfiction? Perhaps.

14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah, and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez, is a stunning new book from Peachtree Publishers. Its spare lyrical prose tells the story of a young Kenyan Maasai warrior studying in the U.S. who returns to his village after 9/11. He tells the villagers about the suffering of the Americans, and they give their most precious possessions, cattle, as a peace offering, "because," Deedy concludes, “there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.”

I was curious about the genesis of this book and Deedy’s creative process, especially her collaboration with Kimeli Naiyomah, the protagonist of the story and so I arranged an online interview with the author.

When did you begin writing 14 Cows for America?

On April 24, 2002, I stumbled across an astonishing story on page 1A of The New York Times. It concerned a small tribe of Maasai cow herders from western Kenya, who had responded to the attacks on September 11 by offering the United States a sacred gift-- fourteen cows. The article was in-depth, and exquisitely written, and served not only to move me deeply (most Americans were still sharply affected by any reference to the tragedy in the months that followed 9/11), but also to whet my appetite for more information. Were these the Maasai Isak Dinesen referred to in her biography? Were they still the lion-hunters of legend? Were these the same Maasai who now lived on the Mara Reserve? It was clear I had a great deal of reading to do.

Fascinated, I clipped the NYT piece, shared it with friends, and soon began to collect (and to receive from others) a maelstrom of news items, articles, and transcribed interviews. Within months I had compiled something of a dossier on the Maasai, but the true story of their extraordinary gift still eluded me. The first drafts were painfully ineloquent--in truth they were dreadful.

Then, in the summer of 2007, I was offered a writing fellowship at the Carson McCullers House. It was during this hiatus that the story, much as it appeared in the final book, emerged.

When did you begin the collaboration with Wilson Kimeli? How did you communicate?

Kimeli and I spoke electronically at first, and I had to confess to him that I found it odd in the extreme to email and IM with a Maasai warrior. I discovered Kimeli to be in possession of a lovely sense of humor. When we spoke I told him that I had written a story about his part in the gift of the fourteen cows. I wanted him to see it, and let me know if he felt he could give it his blessing. I then sent the pdf and waited. I was overjoyed to hear, in his soft-spoken voice, that he was pleased with the story and would be happy to give it his support.

I invited him, with the encouragement of our wonderful publishing house, Peachtree Publishers, to be involved with the project and write an afterword. He was happy, I believe, to be invited into the process, and the book as a whole was better thanks to his intimate knowledge of Maasai mores, and the accuracy of details he brought to the story. We spoke about the text three or four other times, and participated in creative conferences with the illustrator and the publisher.

How much information did he provide?

Kimeli served primarily as a cultural consultant on the book. In other words, the manuscript was in final draft when it was presented to him. Although he did not write any of the text, he offered suggestions regarding the chronology of events, cultural details, and particulars relating to the Maa language.

He suggested that he be shown consulting with the elders before he tells the story of 9/11 to the tribe as a body--a piece that was absent from any of the news reports. Second, that his cow, Enkarus, be mentioned by name. Lastly, he suggested we use the Maa word, Aakua, in the scene where he is greeted by his mother. I think these were all useful additions. Kimeli served as a cultural consultant as the first illustrations emerged, and provided Tom [the illustrator] with his personal photographs from the day of the ceremony.

What are the advantages/pleasures of working with a collaborator?

This was not a collaboration in which two people hacked out the language of a story together. Rather I brought the writing, Tom brought the sketches, and Kimeli brought his experience as a participant in the story, and as a Kenyan from the small Maasai village of Enoosaen. Together we exchanged views, offered opinions, and listened respectfully to all that was expressed. Then we returned to our separate creative corners to incorporate changes that came out of the exchange.

Kimeli was a wonderful person to work with and I believe his involvement enriched the book. Everyone who took part in this undertaking (from editorial, to art, to marketing) wanted to create something we could all be proud of, in memory of a gesture by strangers who appeared--seemingly from the ether--in the wake of catastrophe.

The Blog Tour

Readers, writers, and publishers have mutated from words printed on paper to words and images on screens in the form of websites, blogs, internet research, do-it-yourself encyclopedias, and you-too-along-with-your-pet-can-be-a-video-star. With these new outlets, fewer bookstores, and anemic marketing budgets, the blog tour has come into its own. Peachtree Publishers has put together a 14 Cows for America blog tour for Carmen Deed and Thomas Gonzalez this week that takes them far and wide in the blogosphere. Think about it–author and illustrator reach thousands of people all over the country the world. True, you can’t autograph books in cyberspace (yet!) but it seems like a great way to launch a book. For the full itinerary of the 14 Cows for America blog tour, go to http://www.14cowsblogtour.blogspot.com/

What with Sonia Sotomayor’s recent grilling by certain senators about her “wise Latina” statements and INK’s Ask the Author question about writing outside your culture (see June 29 post,) I’ve been reminded of a wonderful workshop I attended with Ellen Levine during a Vermont College residency some years back. Since it was a while ago, I can only report my memory of it and I’m sorry, Ellen, if I leave something out or don’t get it all right.

In my response to Ask the Author, I said that I thought authors could write about anything if they got it right: facts accurate, writing skillful, and sensitivity proper to subject matter and readers. Ellen’s workshop showed me just how difficult and subtle achieving this sensitivity can be. None of us are racist or sexist or homophobic, but sensitivity goes far beyond non-hostility toward a particular group.

Ellen began by asking us each to list all the groups we were part of. I scribbled down about a dozen: white, woman, mother, writer, and a few more. Then we went around the room and read our lists. As others read, I realize what I had left out. I didn’t put “straight” on the list. But the lesbians certainly listed “gay.” I didn’t put “sighted” on the list, though a blind participant would certainly have listed that. An immigrant would have included that group, but I didn’t think to add “native-born citizen” as one of mine.

As we went around the table, I realized that to be in the “dominant” group – and here I’m defining dominant in terms of numbers and power – means that the minority/subordinate groups are often invisible, or not considered – unless they take to the streets, or you’ve got one for a friend or neighbor or work colleague. I realized that I’ve got all sorts of blind spots I didn’t know I had.

Some groups today face discrimination from institutions and individuals. With gays and lesbians it may be as blatant as marriage and job benefits for partners. Or it may be as subtle as that expressed by a friend of mine. He said that no matter how long he lives with his partner, people don’t view them as a family and their families don’t see the partner as a relative. This sort of sensitivity is hard to perceive from outside a group.

Back to the workshop. After the participants had named their “groups,” we talked about children’s books that deal with minority cultures. We talked about a picture book in which an immigrant girl named Maria is called Mary at school. (Sorry, here is where memory fails me. I can’t remember the title or author, or if the teacher or the girl makes the choice to change her name.) Two Hispanic participants took opposing views on this story. One was deeply offended – seeing it as the dominant culture erasing the girl’s subordinate culture. Another loved it – seeing it as a realistic and positive way for the girl to begin to interact with her new culture.

An author outside the culture writing about the process of assimilation had better learn many, many facets of the process – from social to linguistic to generational and more. And even then there are no guarantees you won’t alienate some readers.

One of my colleagues spent a lot of time researching Native American history and folktales from her region. In the end she decided not to pursue publication. Instead she returned to her own culture – Irish American – which she knew from birth.
Others, including Ellen Levine, have chosen to write about worlds outside their own, and children’s literature is the richer for it. As I cautiously enter the field of African American history, I’m grateful for Ellen’s workshop that showed me that it takes more than passion and goodwill toward the subject matter for an author to get it right.

This is a huge subject and I’d love to hear others’ experiences/mistakes/successes.

I’ve invited Guest Blogger Deb Hanson, Media Specialist, to describe the Guys Read program at Veterans Park Academy for the Arts, Lehigh Acres, Florida. I read an earlier version of Deb’s report on Marc Aronson’s blog, Nonfiction Matters (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1880000388.html,) and was in tears by the end of it. (But then I burst into tears at “76 Trombones” during The Music Man last week.) Anyway, Deb’s report made me contemplate, once again, the special place in heaven reserved for hard-working innovative teachers and librarians. Back on earth, I wanted to spread the word about her (and her colleagues’) terrific program.

There’s a video about Guys Read: http://tinyurl.com/m63kg7. If you’d like contact Deb directly, her email address is [email protected].

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“Reading is Like Basketball. I love it.” This was one of the comments scribbled on a sticky note on May 14th, 2009 by one of 24 boys who participated in the inaugural, experimental Veterans Park Academy Guys Read Club. It sums up the program in a way nothing else can.

In December 2008, an idea to begin a Guys Read Club for boys began as a small group of dedicated adult men on our faculty volunteered to be mentors to 24 of our most reluctant middle school readers – all boys – boys who also demonstrated some kind of leadership potential (positive or negative). We began the club by inviting the boys to breakfast and giving them an opportunity to tell us what they were most interested in learning about, talking about, or doing. From there we took their top interests (football, basketball, sports) and chose activities that included reading, to engage them in the process of learning and thinking and talking and doing.

By May 2009 the boys had read dozens of websites, articles, magazines and, yes, even books – about football, basketball, baseball players, local high school athletes, steroids, hockey and more. They had bonded with their mentors, gone on a field trip to a local college basketball game, started promoting books to their classmates, and created a promotional video for the school book fair. But most of all their attitudes about reading had transformed. When asked their “thoughts about reading” in December, the sticky note responses read “Boring”, “LAME.” “Reading isn’t fun for me. I hate reading.”. In May, 2009 we got notes that said, “Awesome.” “Reading is like basketball. I love it.” And “Reading is way more exciting than what I thought thanks to Guys Read Club.”

The most difficult part of this experiment was finding enough time and the right time to have club meetings. Because many of the boys participated in after school sports and teachers had after school meetings, we chose to meet before school at 7:30 AM. This meant the kids had to get there early and they missed “social time” out in the courtyard with their friends. Also, most of our mentors were teachers with first period classes, so we had to end the meetings by 8:00 AM. The second problem we had was that many of these boys would miss breakfast if they came to the club meetings, so we fed them at the meetings. Finding donors for donuts and juice every week proved to be difficult, but we provided it anyway through personal donations by staff members.

At one point we found that some of the boys were taking advantage of the food and fun, but were not contributing to the discussions or reading. This is when the mentors decided to assign each mentor to a small group of boys, keeping track of them outside of club meetings as well as during meetings. They also added some competition to the activities, thanks to the advice from Marc Aronson and Charles Smith. Both these strategies worked and by the end of the year, the boys were much more involved and active.

One of the biggest challenges, and I think mistakes on our part, came when we decided to get the boys into books and have each small group read a book together. Because we did not have multiple copies of good choices of non-fiction at lower reading levels, some of the groups chose to read novels. While some novels proved to be good reads (like Tears of a Tiger) and engaged the boys, others did not. When we do it again, I hope we will find more good non-fiction books related to the boys’ interests for their first book to read together.

All in all, our Guys Read Club has been good for these boys. They feel special. They’ve learned that reading is not boring and lame when it helps them learn about things they are interested in. They’ve learned that people care that they succeed. They feel more comfortable with finding information and reading for fun. They are willing to risk being seen with a magazine or book in hand. The last meeting of the year included a 6-station reading and physical challenge in the gym, where teams of boys had to read an article or figure out a reading puzzle and then perform a physical task such as free-throw shooting, football throwing, etc. in the fastest time possible. They loved the challenge. The combination of reading and physical activity and competition was a winner! Afterwards each boy was given a certificate and a copy of Guys Write for Guys Read to take home this summer.

The impact of the club has reached well beyond the boys for which it was formed. Other boys are now asking to be included. Girls are asking if we can have a read club just for them. And so, next year our hope is to have “Read Clubs” for every middle school student. They will choose their clubs based on their interests - sports, music, famous people, cooking, romance, and more. Time will tell if this idea is successful.


2008-2009 Guys Read Club
Pros
• Adult male mentors committed time & energy
• Targeted most reluctant readers
• Focused on student interests
• Started with short reading assignments – websites, articles, excerpts from books
• Got free magazines from ESPN
• Kids love to eat – provided breakfast
• Worked up from websites to books
• Gave students right reasons to read (find info about stuff they love, make choices about sports/teams/etc.)

Cons
• Too little time for meetings (needed 45 min – 1hr)
• Kids were selected by teachers, not self-selected
• Required a lot of planning, coordination, commitment for the mentors outside their regular work hours and duties
• No funding for program initially (did get parent group to purchase Guys Write books)

“I don’t like writing. I like having written.” I read this in Writing to Learn by William Zinsser, but it has also been attributed to Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, and Gloria Steinem. Most writers may have said it, including me.
Whether one calls it a malady or a moral failing, I suffer from procrastination. Well, that’s not exactly true – I don’t always suffer. Armed with denial and self-righteous justification, I often enjoy those activities that delay putting fingers to keyboard. (Excuse me while I go and hang the laundry on the line. Justification: I am eco-friendly!)

I’ve heard writers claim they don’t check email until noon. I don’t believe them. It’s theoretically possible, I suppose, but I can’t imagine it….. Since I live in California, the rest of the country has time to load up my inbox early in the morning. Most of the emails are writing-related, or at least from writer friends, though not always precisely related to our careers, and it’s only polite to respond to friends in a timely fashion. Then the usual round of internet check-ins: INK, news pages, and…… you know how it goes.

Nonfiction writers have the best excuse for not writing. At the beginning of a project, all those trips to the library, reading, taking notes, checking footnotes and bibliographies for more books and more trips to more libraries. Phone calls and emails with experts who share some arcane enthusiasm make me feel clever as clever and oh-so-justified for not writing.

As I research I get a sense of the format and themes of a book. This would be the ideal time to hack out a first draft, but no, I delve deeper. Scholarly journal articles are ideal sources for unusual quotes and details, so it’s off to UCLA Library. Self-righteous justification: since I loathe paying $9 for parking, I cycle the twelve miles roundtrip, and get virtuous eco-friendly exercise in the bargain.

OK, enough of the problem. What is (are) my solution(s)?

Deadlines – real or invented – and accountability.

Real Deadlines
1) A contracted article or book – Not only money, but future contracts depend on getting that writing done on time. It’s amazing how much easier it is to write when ready cash is involved.

2) An encouraging letter from an editor – “We like it but would like see a revision before we buy it.” I’ll usually get this done more of less quickly, i.e. a handful of months – unless the proposed revision is so far from my vision that I decline.

3) My critique group – My reputation is at stake here. What am I doing if I can’t produce enough writing to critique once a month? And I’m not the only one to send my work to the group at the last minute. It’s nice knowing that my procrastination gene is not a rogue mutation.

Invented Deadlines
4) Monthly writing goals – Not life goals or social calendar or even research or marketing goals, but writing goals – as in first draft, revised draft, completed manuscript. I print and tape them to my printer. The kicker: I share these goals with my online writer buddies and each month I fess up: DONE, IN PROGRESS, NOT EVEN STARTED. This trick works because my self-respect is on the line. A slacker – who, me?

5) A NAPIBOWRIWE variation – Inspired by NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month,) an annual international novel-writing binge, Paula Yoo (www.paulayoo.com) recently invented NAPIBOWRIWE – National Picture Book Writing Week. She challenged people to write seven picture books in seven days. After my four months of ‘indispensable’ research on a twelve-chapter book, I decided to take NAPIBOWRIWE and make it my own. I would write one rough chapter a day for eleven days. (I’d already completed one chapter.) The first week I wrote three chapters, the second week I managed two chapters, and the third week I only wrote one. Some might scoff at my (lack of) progress, but I’m happy with this “blitz” method. Reason it’s taking so long: I’m doing more research as I write. Those last six words may just be the best long-term solution for my procrastination dilemma: “do more research as I write.

6) Which leaves my INK blog deadline – No money involved, just larky research-free blathering on about my two favorite topics: writing and myself. Reputation is part of it – the other bloggers manage to post once a month, so I must too. To prove that INK blogging is indeed larky, I’m writing this not the night before it’s due, or even the day before, but TWO days before my deadline.

Please, tell me about any cures (temporary or permanent) for procrastination you’ve tried!

Once an English major, always an English major. Now that Garrison Keillor has made our geeky selves rather cool (at least to each other,) I can publicly admit how much I love to dive into books and pick them apart. And when I read Rosalyn Schanzer’s delightful recent post, Coming to the Theater Near You! and April Pulley Sayre’s stunning Honk, Honk, Goose! Canada Geese Start a Family (illustrated by Huy Voun Lee,) I couldn’t resist taking a dive.

[Full disclosure: April is a good friend of mine, which did not influence this review in any way! I’ve never met Huy Voun Lee – so that proves my objectivity. Besides, I’m just tagging behind the critics who are giving this book stars and more stars.]

So, back to Rosalyn’s movie talk…. As a Screenwriter Sayre has written a tale of romance, danger, and heroic vigilance. Our hero, Father Goose is handsome, assertive, brave, romantic, and good with children – every female’s dream. But his is not an easy job. Predators lay in wait to harm his family. He sometimes fails to avert trouble, but he never gives up. Sigh. What a guy.

Co-directors Sayre and Lee work together to give this story passion and drama. Lee’s stunning cut-paper illustrations give us a stylized but realistic rendering of the world of Canada geese – habitat and predators, as well as details of domesticity. Danger abounds, which Lee shows us in many spot illustrations, but Father Goose is ever-alert. Sayre, as always, uses nature sounds and rhythms to dramatize her story.

Casting Director April chose to make Father Goose the protagonist. Many animal books focus on Mama, but Papa gets the spotlight here. Huy Vuon emphasizes his protector role by showing him with wings spread, neck stretched forward, tongue extended as he speaks his lines boldly: “Honk, hee-honk! Hisssssssssssss!”

Costume Designer Lee exquisitely uses her cut-paper medium to give us finely-cut feathers on the wings which, when spread, dominate the page. She uses downy-textured papers for the geese and goslings’ bodies. Thus we “feel” the power of their bodies and the fineness of their down feathers.

Lee serves as Set Designer with help from Sayre. Lee shows the geese’s habitat of open grassland, (plain green paper with cut-out dark green ridges to show contours and elevation,) and a pond (two-tone mottled blue paper.) This dreamy blue covers the entire double-page spread of the couple’s courtship. We are immersed in the setting as they do what needs to be done to start a family. Sayre’s sounds enhance the setting: “Dabble dip” as they paddle, “Pluck, pull” when they feed, “Stretch, curve, their necks danced.”

Father Goose’s stunts are set up by both author and illustrator. As Stunt Co-coordinators, Sayre describes a raccoon invading the nest and breaking an egg. Father honks, hisses, and lunges. Lee shows us a scary goose in profile, wings reaching beyond the page, neck crossing from one page to another. I’d run away too, like the raccoon.

Cinematographer Lee alters her angles throughout the book: wide establishing shots in the beginning, close-ups for intimate moments, then wide shots showing the new goose family, leading up to the final extreme close-up of Father Goose staring at us and giving us his loudest ever “Honk, hee-honk, honk! Hisssssssss!”

These are Sayre’s Special Effects that bring her hero and the story to life – a sound design that begins with lots of honks, followed by splishes and splashes, flap flaps, more honks, crack crick peeps, still more honks, plop plops, peeps and yawns, and ending with Father’s triumphant Honk. Well done, Father Goose. Well done, April Pulley Sayre and Huy Voun Lee.

Hollywood, are you watching?

Andy Warhol’s allotment of fame came in two installments for me this fall. My latest book, Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer has gotten nice attention this year: several notable lists, two awards, and one finalist. Who knew when I began writing it several years ago that this would be the year of the political woman? Not I.

The Children’s Literature Council of Southern California’s award ceremony was preceded by a scrumptious brunch at the Bowers Museum of Art in Santa Ana. Masks and sculptures from Oceania lined the room; a wall of window looked out onto an Asian-themed garden. Then we processed to an auditorium where authors and illustrators of various genres gave five-minute award acceptance speeches, mine for an Inspiring Work of Nonfiction.

As a member of this congenial group of librarians and authors for the last decade or so, I’d harbored a secret wish to win their award – and now I had done it. I’ve been a public speaker for decades. I’m at ease speaking to kids in schools, college students in classrooms, the general public in all sorts of venues. But this was different. I surprised myself by getting choked up as I spoke to my peers who were honoring me and my work.

Five minutes and it was over.

Two weeks later, the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance gave me the first Once Upon A World Award for young adult literature. (Their picture book award is thirteen years old, won this year by Ellie Crowe for Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku.) This was an afternoon event, open to the public and filled with winning-book-related events. Children made campaign buttons in an art activity room. (Jeannette Rankin was our first Congresswoman.) A storyteller narrated some of Rankin’s life in another room filled with beanbag chairs.


At the ceremony itself I did a ten-minute monologue as Rankin, wearing period hats. Then came the award and photo-op (no choking-up this time,) followed by a reception [see recipe below] and signing, then a dinner party at the elegant home of the award’s sponsor. And my book now wears a gold seal.


5 minutes + 10 minutes = my 15 minutes

Between those two events, I traveled to Missoula (Rankin’s hometown) for the Montana Festival of the Book, a fun-filled two-day event featuring talks, panel discussions, readings, and signings by 140 authors, mostly Montanans who knew each other. Film screenings, art exhibits, and a poetry slam provided entertainment in the evenings. I spoke on two panels with biographers, novelists, and librarians – and paid a school visit to students who, unlike most kids, had already heard of Rankin, a Montana heroine. All that and gorgeous autumn weather -- golden glowing cottonwoods and larch trees -- made for a memorable weekend. (Hanging out with my son, who lives there, was an added bonus.)

I love talking about books. I love being surrounded by other writers and I was happy to be just one of 140 in Montana. But every once in a while I do like that dollop of icing on the cake – see below – when I and my books are the center of attention.

Recipe for Literary Icing
The folks at the Museum of Tolerance created a Jeannette Rankin edible book cover cake! Here’s how they told me you do it:
1) Scan the book cover.
2) Print it onto a sheet of edible rice paper (with edible food coloring.)
3) Lay carefully over a large sheet cake.
4) Eat!

Lately I’ve been doing research on the American Revolution for several biographies I’m writing. (I find that research for one subject often turns up the next subject.) While the same information shows up in many of the books I’ve read, I’m intrigued by the novel approaches nonfiction authors find to resuscitate the old facts and figures.

Finding the way into a story – the “hook” – often takes me two or three (or more) drafts. Surrounded by alluring anecdotes, details, and theories, I will hack my way through my overly-dense early drafts until I begin to recognize the story I want to tell. Why couldn’t I see it from the first? Other authors must surely do it better and more quickly than I do? Will practice make it easier? Rhetorical questions these. On I bushwhack at my own sluggish pace.

Meanwhile, other authors have come up with some great hooks on the Revolution.

I mentioned Don Brown’s LET IT BEGIN HERE last month – full of personal stories of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. What Brown does for one event, Steve Sheinkin does for the whole period in KING GEORGE: WHAT WAS HIS PROBLEM? Short sections describe dozens of events, laws, battles, etc. and virtually every one gives us lively on-the-spot quotes and experiences of famous and not-famous people who took part. This is the human side of history and it’s one great story. (Sheinkin’s TWO MISERABLE PRESIDENTS tells the same sort of story of the Civil War.)

Thomas Flemings’s EVERYBODY’S REVOLUTION describes how many different ethnic groups fought for independence, not just English-Americans, allowing children of more recent immigrants to relate to that far-off era. Laurie Halse Anderson’s INDEPENDENT DAMES focuses on the feminine patriots who advanced the American cause, often in unconventional ways. The Brown Paper School USKids History BOOK OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION combines essays, fictional pieces, games, recipes, and crafts to draw readers into the fray. Guilio Maestro’s illustrations in LIBERTY OR DEATH show us battle formations, maps, uniforms, and portraits of the major players, enlivening the traditional text by Betsy Maestro.

GEORGE VS GEORGE: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AS SEEN FROM BOTH SIDES by Rosalyn Schanzer, while rooting for the Americans, does give us a glimpse of the British perspective. Another side of “our” George (Washington) is revealed in Peggy Thomas’s FARMER GEORGE PLANTS A NATION. Who knew he was an inventor, barn designer, and proto-environmentalist with his compost experiments and “make and buy local” policy? Perhaps my favorite view of the Revolution came from Thomas B. Allen’s GEORGE WASHINGTON, SPYMASTER: HOW THE AMERICAN OUTSPIED THE BRITISH AND WON THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. This story of spies, counterspies, covers, moles, double agents and cut-outs is a thrilling one, full of twists and turns, codes and ciphers, traitors and heroes that don’t make the ordinary history books.

Slipping across the border into fiction, I must mention Kay Winters’ COLONIAL VOICES: HEAR THEM SPEAK. Though the dozen or so “voices” are her own creations, she takes us to Boston on December 16, 1773 from dawn to dusk, to witness the historic Boston Tea Party. And since I’m on “the other side” I have to mention two new Revolutionary War novels with slave protagonists. Laurie Halse Anderson’s CHAINS, gives us a girl in British-held New York – with an ending that hints at a sequel. M.T. Anderson’s second volume of THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING transports a Massachusetts slave to the British Army in Virginia. And wandering a bit farther afield, I just read a terrific picaresque adult novel I must champion: JOHNNY ONE-EYE: A TALE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, by Jerome Charyn. It will change your view of George Washington forever.

All my reading shows me that history can be revived again and again in the hands of a good writer. And my latest book hook….. still working on that.

….. and the people you’ll meet when you write nonfiction! I know I’m not alone in loving – sometimes preferring – the research part of the job. Getting out of my head and on to the phone. Out of my office and into the big wide world.

People
Unless you’re writing about the president or a Beatle, you’ll probably find that the expert(s) on your subject are willing – nay, delighted – to speak to you. Most likely, they live in a rarified world with a few colleagues and a spouse who already know all their stories. You are a new audience, eager to hear what, how, and why their work is so fascinating and important. Of course you don’t begin by saying “Tell me about ______.” You read everything you can and formulate intelligent questions. What can they add that you haven’t already learned?

For my first book, The Wind at Work, Paul Gipe, a noted wind energy expert, invited me to his home for an interview and a look through his extensive photo collection. He let me use his photos free of charge. I also arranged a private tour of a wind turbine factory, got some free photos, and the company has been a loyal promoter of my book every since.

The Guild of Volunteer Millers in the Netherlands includes over a thousand windmillers and their apprentices. I visited one on a Sunday afternoon as he ran “his” restored windmill. Not only did I get a closeup look at and listen to the mill, but I learned that the windmills have to be operated regularly to prevent woodworm larvae from hatching in the beams. It's the vibrations that do that. A few miles away a tourist attraction with several windmills was jammed with people and busy millers. I had a windmill and a miller all to myself.

Not long ago I was researching a particular event in London in 1598. A new book came out that described the event in greater detail than I had found elsewhere. But still I had questions. I emailed the distinguished scholar/author and got a response within half an hour. The man mentioned his son as a prospective reader of my book.

Many towns have historical societies, or perhaps just a display case in the public library, with artifacts from the town’s past. Even more towns have one citizen, probably a native, who is the amateur historian extraordinaire. I’ve had many talks and walks with these folks, who proudly pass on countless stories about their native place. NB: Double the time you think the talk/tour will take. Recently I arrived mid-morning in a town in Norfolk, England for such a tour. I expected to be finished by lunchtime, after which I planned a leisurely drive to York for dinner with friends. I didn’t leave Norfolk until 4 p.m., and ended up dashing halfway up England well over the speed limit.

Places
My travel research began in the 1980s when I wrote for airlines magazines. I rarely took a trip I couldn’t deduct from my income taxes. Besides the pay and the deductions, I found that having a focus for the trip made it more fun. I can’t seem to break the habit – nor do I want to – now that I’m writing children’s books. My recent trip to England involved two talks/tours in two different towns with aforementioned amateur historians extraordinaire.

Then on to Paris where my subject had many adventures. I didn’t meet any experts there, but I did rent a bicycle and found the places he lived, worked, and was imprisoned – snapping photos along the way. I also took some guided walking tours that gave me more information, photos, and local color.

After Paris, I spent a week in the Dordogne region, exploring prehistoric cave art. On this rare occasion I had no research in mind, no story ideas. I didn’t even save my receipts. Then, touring the last cave on my last day, I heard an anecdote that sparked an idea. Aha! Now, home again, I’m contacting authors and curators who will, I hope, lead me to the bi-lingual world authority who can tell me where……. and on it goes.

As for those missing receipts, I’ll have to rely on my credit card bill to help me with the IRS. Luckily I charge everything to my card, which gives me miles to take more trips to research more books….

Now, tell me your exotic, adventurous, disastrous, serendipitous research tales.

Before I began writing for children, I worked as a picture researcher for an educational interactive multimedia company. When I began writing nonfiction children’s books, my old job experience proved financially and literarily (?!) valuable. In my next life I want to be an author-illustrator, but in this one, having no talent in drawing or painting, I settle for doing my own picture research. Through my choice of pictures and captions I can strengthen my narrative. Picture research begins during content research, when I photocopy all images I might use, along with source information.

Paean to the Internet
Twenty years ago I began by making a long wish list of illustrations for a project. I faxed this to the Library of Congress (and other venues,) waited a few weeks for photocopies to arrive in the mail, then sorted through them.
Today I enter http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html and instantly access tens of thousands of images, and not just American history. Just now, searching “ostrich” I found 70 entries including art prints, political cartoons, landscapes, and much more from around the world. I especially enjoyed “Mud mosque in Mali with three minarets topped by ostrich eggs.” Be careful. It’s easy to while away countless hours browsing this amazing site.

Bargain hunting
Picture researchers for glossy magazines and high-profile books will turn to stock houses first. As a children’s author, that’s the last place I look. Some publishers will give authors a photo budget; some will require you to pay for photos; some will pay upfront, then take the costs from royalties. (By photos I mean all illustrative material.) Three types of fees may apply: research fees to find the photos; print (or scan) fees for the image itself; and permission fees to the copyright holder.
Tasks to avoid: the enormous job of acquiring prints and scans, sending letters and invoices, paying invoices, and getting permission releases for every single image. Get your publisher to do that, if you possibly can.
Whatever your agreement, you’ll want to get the most for your money. Here is how to do that:
• Library of Congress – Much, though not all, of their collection is in the public domain. This means you will pay print fees, but not permission fees. LC doesn’t do research for you. If you don’t find what you want online and can’t travel to Washington, you’ll have to hire a private researcher to go through the files of prints. (If you do visit the Library, you can spend blissful days browsing…..)
• Government agencies – NASA, NOAA, USGS, and many other public agencies have old and new photos, as well as charts, graphs, maps and the like – all in the public domain. National tourism agencies, here and abroad, also offer free or cheap photos.
• Private companies – They are often happy to give you illustrations for free.
• Historical societies – These are great sources for local subjects and landscapes, and for material like maps, documents, letters, etc. You may have to pay the staff for extensive research, but they often reduce or even waive permission fees if you say the magic words: “children’s book.”
• University and large public libraries – Libraries offer many of the advantages of historical societies. In addition they may have the “papers of” your subject or subjects relating to your subject. “Papers of” are often microfilmed and if you can’t visit the source library, they will send the microfilm to your local public library through interlibrary loan. Ask about “ephemera” which may be found outside the prints and photos collection. For my book on Jeannette Rankin I located the menu for a 1913 Montana suffragist luncheon: “roast young Montana turkey with chestnut dressing.” I also found suffragist lyrics to “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”
• Museums – Art, history, and natural history museums are great sources for illustrations, but prices are higher. The magic words “children’s book” probably won’t lower your permission fees, though you might negotiate if you buy several images.
• Stock houses – These act as agents for freelance photographers, news photos, and some historical collections. Permissions fees are high – in the hundreds of dollars (or more) – and are usually non-negotiable.

Visit libraries and archives whenever possible and browse. I found several wonderful windmill-related images for The Wind at Work in an old postcard collection at a museum. These weren’t cataloged and I doubt a librarian-researcher would have thumbed through the boxes.

When I’ve gathered more than enough possible illustrations, I send copies to my editor and we cull them together. At this point we discuss how many high-priced images we really need. Be sensible, but not miserly. That gorgeous image that costs $500 may be like the designer shoes or crystal vase that brings you joy for years to come. And unlike the shoes, your perfect illustration is tax-deductible.

Please add your tips on penny-pinching picture resesarch to the comment file below.

I love to read nonfiction – history, biography, environmental essays, memoirs, kid’s books, adult books – and I love to write nonfiction. But last fall I hit a wall.

Before I started writing for children back in the early 90s I wrote nonfiction (art reviews and features and travel features mostly.) I wrote scripts (nonfiction) for interactive educational multimedia programs. Since then I’ve written nonfiction for early and middle grades and I've loved it all.

So what happened last fall? I had just returned from six weeks in Italy and France: singing in Italian cathedrals, basking on Lake Como, bicycling from Geneva to Nice, lolling on the Riviera. Now I love my hometown, Los Angeles, and I love my work. So when jet lag had faded I surveyed my hard drive. I saw several works in progress, and one I was especially eager to complete. But, for the first time in my life….. I didn’t want to write. I was afraid even to think the phrase wr***r’s bl*ck. Or maybe I just wanted to go back and sit by the Mediterranean, sipping cappuccino and eating croissants still warm from a French oven.

At first I didn’t worry: I had heaps of business to take care of. I traveled to Washington DC for the National Book Festival where my latest book, Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer, was featured at the Montana State booth. Back home again, nothing had changed. I dared to think the words wr***r’s bl**k and felt worse. My editor wanted another biography from me. I had an idea or two, but nothing stirred the heart. I read my works in progress. Yawn. I slogged through a revision or two. Then I panicked. Was I finished as a writer? Was I doomed to return to Italy and eke out my days drinking cappuccino by Lake Como? (Ha!)

Three months into spinning-through-denial-slogging-and-anxiety, I attended a guided meditation. I lightly floated “my work” into the cosmos and got a reply: “Focus.” I knew just what it meant: work on one genre, rather than skipping from picture book fiction to biographies to middle grade novels – as I have done for years. Furthermore I knew where to focus: biography. I did have those drafts, I did have an editor wanting more.

Now, epiphanies are common as dirt – just like story ideas. Less common are completed stories and epiphanies made manifest. But this one worked for me. With “focus” lighting the way, I finished one biography, began a second, found a third subject while researching the second, and stumbled across a fourth subject while on a field trip for the third.

So what was my problem? Why the writer’s block? Back to the meditation evening. Jotting down thoughts of my experience, I dared put into words what I didn’t like to admit: I have been a slave to status. Just as children’s writers are the proles of the literary world – “anyone can do it!” – with literary novelists as reigning monarchs, my feudal world of children’s literature was ruled by Baron and Baroness Novelists, surrounded by picture book author courtiers. Below stairs in the scullery, lived the – wince – nonfiction writers. None of this was rational, mind you. I know nonfiction to be just as gorgeous – and difficult – as fiction. But my neuroses dwell not in reason’s realm. Anyway, coughing up my dirty secret allowed me to see that it was – to misquote Mr. Scrooge -- just "a bit of undigested beef.” (And I’m a vegetarian!)

I’m happy to report that while I still long for croissants warm from a French oven, I am working again, neither scullery maid nor duchess, but a (mostly) contented scribbler – writing biographies, telling the best stories I can.

Besides, I’m off to Paris in April, thanks to a winning raffle ticket. More about that next month.

If the title sounds familiar, it’s because it is. I’ve been trying to combine more of my public speaking trips which means more weird weeks like this one and that one, but it works out a lot better on my end. After I got back to Massachusetts from Access, I drove over to NELA and gave three talks there. I really enjoy NELA but there were some complications this time around mostly involving iffy wireless (and hotel staff who were just repeating what their outsourced IT told them which the IT-librarians knew was a little fishy-sounding, but I digress) which means I wasn’t doing much blogging and had a period of radio silence here and on Flickr and on Scrabulous, etc.

I got home today and I’ve uploaded the latest talks. One was all new, one was a modified version of an earlier talk and one was a talk I gave earlier, but with twice as much time. All of them went really well but I have a sore throat and will be heading to bed as soon as they’re linked here so that I can be bright and bushytailed for work which starts tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who made my trip easier, more pleasant, and fun.

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