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Friday the 13th was a lucky day for the Watertown banks of the Charles River. The hardworking staff of Charlesbridge picked up their sticks with pointy things on the end and put on their gardening gloves to pick up trash that mysteriously collects around the river.

Inspired by April Pulley Sayre's Trout Are Made of Trees, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and in celebration of American Rivers' National River Clean Up, Charlesbridge staff made a day of it down the road at the riverside putting right what once went wrong and enjoying a beautiful day outside.

The Charles River, which begins at Echo Lake in Hopkinton, MA, snakes about 80 miles through eastern Mass before emptying into the Boston Harbor. It has a great history of industry and travel, and today is a major source of recreation--most notably the Head of the Charles Regatta held every October.

The river is home, or provider, for many native plants and animals... although not trout according to Richard, our DCR guide. Ah well, bass are made of trees, also. At Charlesbridge, we enjoy having the river, and the walking trail around it, right across the street. We don't just like to publish books about nature, we actually like nature!

Here, Erin wins the Deep Woods Off Award for going deepest into the foliage.






Even our fearless leader talks trash.



Editorial Director Yolanda LeRoy sifts through the muck and the mire.





After ridding our beautiful river of unwanted debris, we had a pizza picnic in the park by the river. And we picked up all our trash. Carry in, carry out!

Next 2k8 member to join the "Plagiarists anonymous" blog-week? Laurel Snyder, author of the new middle-grade fairy tale, Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains OR The Search for a Suitable Princess.
Laurel, what've you got for us? Just how bad is it?

Oh, man-- it's pretty bad.

See, the number one rule of stealing is that you're not supposed to steal from an obvious/famous source, right? You're supposed to steal something nobody will recognize. Or you're supposed to creatively tinker with what you've stolen, for a kind of meta effect.

Well I broke that rule without even realizing it. We were already in the copyediting stage when I started to have this weird feeling, this panicked sensation that one of the lines in my bookn was NOT MY OWN! It jsut felt like I'd seen it somewhere before...

Can you imagine?

The passage in my book was:

“Which way do you think you’re going anyway? North? North is nice, but then, South has its advantages too. And West rhymes with best, so it can’t be too bad. What’s your general direction?”

And although I didn't actually take this passage, word for word, I did totally steal it. From STUART LITTLE no less. Remember this?

"North is nice," said the repairman. I've always enjoyed going north. Of course, south-west is a fine direction too... and there's east. I once had an interesting experience on an easterly course..."

Imagine my horror when I figured it out, after a long night of poking around online, searching for a vague case of plagiarism. Because although I knew I hadn't really written it, I had no clue where I'd gotten it from. It was awful!

So that's it, my big experience as a thief.

Of course, I didn't actually make up the name of the villain from my next book, but I did pay for it, sort of. So that's not stealing, right? Just prostitution...

Yeah, okay, you're right, Laurel. We all agree. You're a total sleazeball, and you *should* be embarassed.

Just kidding. Sort of.