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The Classroom Bookshelf has just published an incredible post about Over in the Wetlands that I wanted to pass on. You can click through to read an overview of the book and ten Teaching Ideas and Invitations for readers K-8.

So much to love.

First, as a former upper elementary and middle school teacher, I am so pleased to see others actively using picture books with older children. Second, these lesson ideas cover a number of disciplines, from art to science to literature to geography. There are a couple of other picture book suggestions that parallel nicely with Wetlands as well as a number of website resources.

And don’t forget the Over in the Wetlands Discussion Guide and Activity Sheets Random House Children’s Books produced for the book.

Click through to read The Classroom Bookshelf’s post.

The post Using Over in the Wetlands in the Classoom appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

Part of my month-long writing-free vacation was spent with these lovelies.* Like I did with May B., I collected addresses in dribs and drabs over the last year, waiting until I had a stretch of time to devote to stamping, labeling, and writing.

On 699 postcards. For real.

While it isn’t the 1,662 I sent out for May B., it was still a pretty big commitment, one that I found surprisingly satisfying.

You’ve probably heard the rate of return on direct mailings falls somewhere between 1/2 and 2 percent. Pretty dismal and probably not worth the effort, right? For me, the process has become a ritual where I can exert the tiniest bit of control over the unwieldy and unpredictable experience of releasing a book into the world.

Because the books I write are largely sold to the school and library market, that’s where I focus. I had graphic designer Sierra Fong create two postcards for my mailings this time around, one meant to introduce Over in the Wetlands to the schools and libraries of the Gulf Coast, and another to share both Wetlands and Blue Birds with New Mexico schools and libraries.

Here’s what’s happened since the postcards went out: I have had a handful of teachers email me after receiving the card. My sales for both of these books have increased slightly in the last few weeks.** I’ve gotten more website hits from the areas I’ve targeted. And I’ve been invited to speak at Mosquero Elementary School, a K-6 school of 22 students in Mosquero, NM (population 93). Seeing young readers in corners of my state I’ve never visited is pretty much the best thing out there.

While I’ll never know the actual results of the mailing, every postcard was a chance to directly tell a teacher or librarian about something I believe in, and in this age of quick and impersonal blasts of information, it felt significant, important even. However small the return, my efforts to match books with readers has left a mark, perhaps in ways I’ll never know.

Which is exactly how this publication thing works, anyway.

*Points to the person who catches the typo. My son spotted it immediately!

**Penguin Random House has a website called Author Portal where sales can be tracked, using numbers from Nieslen BookScan. Many, many bookstores don’t report sales, and few, if any, schools or libraries do. Until statements come in months from now, it’s really impossible to know true numbers, but the BookScan stats are a start.

The post Postcard Marketing in the Age of the Internet appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

I’ve been a fan of Tsh Oxenreider since 2009 (which is pretty much forever on the Internet). Back then, I was just about ready to jump into this thing called blogging, but I wasn’t sure how to begin. My dear friend Jamie Martin sent me a “how to” link that led me to Tsh’s blog, The Art of Simple. I’ve been faithfully reading ever since.

About four years ago, Tsh started a podcast called The Simple Show, which has kept me company through numerous runs and cleaning days and afternoons walking the dog. And perhaps last summer, as I listened while taking the dog on one more lap around the block, I cooked up some things I’d say to Tsh if I were ever on her show. Which was utterly ridiculous. Tsh and I had interacted some in her blog’s comment section and a few times on Twitter, but that was pretty much it.

So imagine my surprise when September brought an email with a podcast request. “No worries,” Tsh said, “if you’re not interested.”

I was most definitely very over-the-top interested. I hope you’ll listen in!

The post So Wow. The Simple Show Podcast appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

The talented Sierra Fong designed these gorgeous Over in the Wetlands and Blue Birds bookmarks for me, and I’d love to send you a set! I also have stickers of both covers. If you’d like one of each, simply drop me an email with your mailing address (caroline starr AT yahoo) and I’ll send them along. I’m happy to give you any combination you’d like: four Wetlands stickers, two Blue Birds stickers and two Wetlands bookmarks — whatever you choose.

Teachers, librarians, homeschool families, book club folks, I’m also offering a class set (for lack of a better term) to the first ten people who contact me. This would be up to thirty bookmarks and stickers of your choosing. Again, tell me what would best serve your group, and that’s what you’ll get, whether it’s a Blue Birds pack, a Wetlands pack, or some combo in between.

And now for the request I have of you. I’m not one who feels especially comfortable asking for this, but fair or not, I’ve learned how vital this thing can be to a book’s life and success. The thing I’m talking about is the Amazon review. I have to admit I’ve never liked being asked directly for a review. There’s pressure and expectation and a bit of ickiness all rolled into one. So if you feel as I have, you are utterly free to ignore this. But if you’ve read any of my books and enjoyed them, I’d be super grateful if you took a moment or two to write a quick note on Amazon.

Here are quick and easy links to find my books there:

May B.
Blue Birds
Over in the Wetlands

Thank you, friends, for your faithful support and enthusiasm. I look forward to sending out oodles of bookmarks and stickers.

The post Free Bookmarks for Readers…and a Review Request appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

I ran this post just last month to point readers toward books similar to my Over in the Wetlands: A Hurricane-on-the-Bayou Story. With the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina upon us, it felt like the right time to share it again.

This list includes picture books and novels about Katrina, “the single most catastrophic disaster in US History,” stories about other storms, and a collection of books about the wetlands.

Picture Books about Hurricanes and Storms

Hurricane! by Jonathan London
Blue on Blue by Dianne White
The Storm by Kathy Henderson
Big Wind Coming! by Karen English
Waiting Out the Storm by JoAnn Early Macken

Novels about Hurricanes

Storm Runners by Roland Smith
Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale
The Night of the Hurricane’s Fury by Candice Ransom
The Great Storm: The Hurricane Diary of J. T. King, Galveston, Texas, 1900  by Lisa Waller Rogers

Katrina Picture Books

A Storm Called Katrina by Myron Uhlberg
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen by Shadra Stickland
Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival by Kirby Larson

Katrina Novels

I Survived Hurricane Katrina by Lauren Tarshis
Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina by Rodman Philbrick
Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Hooper Finds a Family: A Hurricane Katrina Dog’s Survival Tale by Jane Paley
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie Lamana
Saint Louis Armstrong Beach by Brenda Woods
Another Kind of Hurricane by Tamara Ellis Smith

Picture Books about Wetlands

Deep in the Swamp by Donna M. Bateman
Liza Lou And The Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer
Everglades by Jean Craighead George
Here Is the Wetland  by Madeleine Dunphy
Near One Cattail: Turtles, Logs And Leaping Frogs by Anthony D. Fredericks
Babies in the Bayou by Jim Arnosky

Novels about Wetlands

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little
Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little
The Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little

Here are a few more titles in listings from Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal .

The post A Hurricane Katrina Reading List for Young People appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

Instead of a launch party for Over in the Wetlands, I lead story time at the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library‘s Cherry Hills branch. Think stories, games, coloring pages, and gator cookies.

Reading Wetlands by Cathryn Sill.

Explaining the three things we needed to “make” a hurricane: wind, waves, and rain. Look at that handsome boy of mine on the right!

And the other handsome one! (Incidentally, this is what happens when the Rose boys take over the camera).

The post A Wetlands Story Time in Pictures appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

I moved to Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana in 2007, a few months short of Hurricane Katrina’s second anniversary. To see the marks of devastation New Orleans still carried, to hear the daily conversations, it was clear Katrina, “the single most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history,” had left a lasting impact on countless lives.

What was completely unknown to me was the plight of Louisiana’s wetlands. Louisiana, which contains approximately 40% of the nation’s wetlands, experiences 90% of the coastal wetland loss in the lower 48 states. The state loses 25 to 35 square miles of wetlands per year. If nothing is done to alter this, all of Terrebonne, along with other coastal parishes, will be underwater by 2050.

Follow me over to The Nerdy Book Club to read the rest.

The post Resilience and Restoration appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

From SCBWI-NM:

Veronica Bartles and family are due to move back to Maryland this August. While on a trip back to Maryland to check on their home, Veronica discovered some pipes had burst. There was water damage to the entire house, and it was overtaken with mold. The insurance company won’t cover any of the damage because the damage wasn’t found soon enough, voiding the policy.

Veronica Bartles has been a vital part of our local chapter of SCBWI for the last few years. She and her family are facing not only a move but an enormous financial responsibility in repairing their home. On their own. Emily Moore has arranged an auction to raise money for the Bartles family, and I’ve donated an ARC of Blue Birds and a finished copy of Over in the Wetlands. Opening bids start at $10. If you are a writer, there are a variety of other items that will interest you, from critiques to phone consultations with writers and agents.

Blue Birds auction page
Wetlands auction page

I encourage you to consider participating and would be thrilled if you spread the word. The auction closes Friday, 7/31.

The post Help Author Veronica Bartles: Bid on Blue Birds and Wetlands appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

Oh my goodness, this book.

I wrote it in 2008 (which, looking back, was a very good year for me. I finished my first draft of May B., wrote Wetlands, and had my first inkling of an idea for Blue Birds).

Over in the Wetlands didn’t sell until early 2012. And finally, three and a half years later, I can proudly say this special picture book releases tomorrow!

On Friday I’m giving away three copies and three Wetlands posters through my newsletter. The poster is a two-for-one treasure — the back has discussion questions and activity pages for teachers and librarians to photocopy and share with young readers. If you’d like a chance to win a book and poster, simply sign up for my newsletter here. It’s an e-publication that comes directly to your inbox just three to four times a year and is an easy, low-key way to keep up with my books, events, and the like.

Here’s to a book that’s been a long time in the making. Happy Book Birthday, Wetlands!

The post It’s Been a Long Time Coming… appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

In celebration of Over in the Wetlands: A Hurricane-on-the-Bayou Story releasing next week, here’s a list of similar books to inspire your summer reading!

Picture Books about Hurricanes and Storms

Hurricane! by Jonathan London
Blue on Blue by Dianne White
The Storm by Kathy Henderson
Big Wind Coming! by Karen English
Waiting Out the Storm by JoAnn Early Macken

Novels about Hurricanes

Storm Runners by Roland Smith
Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale
The Night of the Hurricane’s Fury by Candice Ransom
The Great Storm: The Hurricane Diary of J. T. King, Galveston, Texas, 1900  by Lisa Waller Rogers

Katrina Picture Books

A Storm Called Katrina by Myron Uhlberg
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen by Shadra Stickland

Katrina Novels

I Survived Hurricane Katrina by Lauren Tarshis
Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina by Rodman Philbrick
Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Hooper Finds a Family: A Hurricane Katrina Dog’s Survival Tale by Jane Paley
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie Lamana
Saint Louis Armstrong Beach by Brenda Woods
Another Kind of Hurricane by Tamara Ellis Smith*

Picture Books about Wetlands

Deep in the Swamp by Donna M. Bateman
Liza Lou And The Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer
Everglades by Jean Craighead George
Here Is the Wetland  by Madeleine Dunphy
Near One Cattail: Turtles, Logs And Leaping Frogs by Anthony D. Fredericks
Babies in the Bayou by Jim Arnosky

Novels about Wetlands

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little
Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little
The Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little

*Also releasing next Tuesday with my publisher, Schwartz and Wade / Random House Children’s Books

The post OVER IN THE WETLANDS Read Alikes appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

I hope you’ve had a lovely June. As you’re reading this, I’ll be on a cruise ship, floating around Alaska, celebrating my twentieth anniversary (today!) and soaking up the scenery while reading this book. I imagine my children, who are with my parents, are eating entirely too much ice cream and spending loads of time at the pool.

This is another month of busyness around here — there’s a quick jaunt to Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, and Phoenix (we won’t melt…there will be a lazy river involved). I’m still hard at work on first-round edits of my Klondike Gold Rush book (hence the novel I took on the cruise). And my first picture book launches mid month, the same day as another little book you might have heard of.

Those of you who live in Albuquerque, I hope you might consider joining me for one of two Over in the Wetlands events! There will be games, coloring pages, gator cookies, and reading, of course. On July 30 I’ll be at Cherry Hills Library (6901 Barstow St NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111) for the 10:30 story time. Page One Books will provide copies to purchase, and the library will have copies available for check out.

On August 22 at 10:30, I’ll do it all again, this time at Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande Boulevard Northwest, Albuquerque, NM 87107). Same stories, same coloring pages. If there are gator cookies left over, I’ll be sure to stick them in my freezer and bring them by!

Finally, in celebration of Over in the Wetlands and as a thank you to my readers, I’ll be giving three personalized, signed copies of the book away through my newsletter toward the end of the month. This is a 3-4 time a year publication delivered directly to your inbox, where you can get the inside scoop on new books, what I’m reading, and a few other details I don’t include on the blog. I’d love if you’d consider signing up. Simply click through to do so.

Let’s get back to this regular blogging thing…

The post Of Books and Travels and Gator Cookies appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

I few months ago I linked to Kate Messner’s post on bullet journaling. She’s such an on-the-ball author (Kate has seven books coming out this year, I believe), I knew any organizational system she uses would be worth looking into. I found her explanation and examples of bullet journaling really insightful.

I started my own low-key version after reading her post. While I don’t list day to day events (I still use my calendar for that), I’ve found it helpful to have one place to stick all my notes — work related or not. Here’s a glimpse at what I’ve got down for May.

On the left I have notes about my son’s eighth-grade dance. Our church, which meets in my boys’ school, tries to give back throughout the year. One way we’re helping this time around is by decorating for the dance. It’s an 80s theme. Think Rubix cubes, fun movie posters, and Pac Man!

On the right is May at a glance. My current calendar is a weekly one, giving me plenty of space to write in daily tasks. But if I want to see the general flow of the month, I can’t. That’s why this overview is so handy.

Here’s my checklist for May, which I know will grow as the days pass. It’s life, it’s work, it’s big stuff and small. I’m working again on a manuscript I affectionately call Jasper. Though it’s not due back to my editor until August 10, I want to be sure to get my rhythm down now. I’ll check off each day I work and record the amount of time I’ve spent (my own version of a sticker chart).

I’m also deep in the middle of my Laura Ingalls Wilder class. Well, I’m actually a bit behind. Thankfully participants can finish at their own pace.

Over in the Wetlands releases in July (!!), so it’s time to start thinking about some guest blog posts as well as add to my Louisiana mailing list (my plan is to send postcards to the schools and libraries in the ten coastal parishes).

Then there’s that dance. The shelves in my office closet. A writing mentorship (I’m reading and responding to two picture book manuscripts a month for a local writing friend). A birthday sleepover. The end of school. An eighth-grade graduation. Other books I’d like to read. A piece of writing for SCBWI-NM’s Enchantment show. My calendar is great for the everyday, but I’m loving the bullet journal for fleshing it all out.

Anyone else out there bullet journaling?

The post Bullet Journaling My Way Through May appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

You might have noticed this lovely over in the sidebar.

This dear book comes into the world July 14, in the midst of hurricane season. While it isn’t a Katrina book, it is a Louisiana hurricane story, and its release before Katrina’s tenth anniversary feels just right.

A few months ago, illustrator Rob Dunlavey shared this wonderful mini-documentary about his process with OVER IN THE WETLANDS. I’d love if you took a few minutes to listen to what he has to say as he goes about his work.

Rob’s thoughts on process (don’t be afraid to screw up; art is boxing rather than rocket science, you just have to keep sparring and discovering what you want to say) and purpose (art changes the way you see the world; it’s about zeroing in, magnifying and feeling the joy; art exists to enhance living) speak to me as a writer. The purpose and drive behind the creative life really is familiar across the board.

The post A Behind the Scenes Glimpse into WETLANDS appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.

In June, we spent two weeks in Texas.  While my husband had some meetings the boys and I headed to Houma, LA, the second-happiest city in the US, and our home for three years. Ten minutes in to Louisiana, a roseate spoonbill, a native bird I’d never, ever seen, flew over our car, kind of like a state ambassador welcoming us back.

I was determined to go on a swamp tour while we were in town — something we never got around to doing when we lived in Houma (though we sure loved our swamp adventures). I scheduled a trip with Cajun Man Swamp Tours, invited some friends to come along.

The super personable “Black” Guidry was our guide (check him out here in this Kia commercial). As there were French Canadians on board, Black gave the tour in both English and French, which was a lovely little Cajun bonus.

Oh, we sweltered. But there was Spanish moss!

And cypress knees (those little knobby things poking out of the water on the left-hand side)!

Egrets!

Even Leroy came to visit!

The tour felt especially personal knowing OVER IN THE WETLANDS, my picture book love letter to Coastal Louisiana, is coming out sometime next year.

A few days after the tour I stumbled on these gorgeous WETLANDS images from illustrator Rob Dunlavey’s studio.

The tour, that spoonbill, those illustrations, they were all like coming home.

The post Over in Them Wetlands: A Summer Swamp Tour appeared first on Caroline Starr Rose.