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... from 8th graders who have participated in a writing workshop are a good way to commemorate The National Day of Writing today (kindly remember that these are all "sic"):

"You've shown me what it is to be an author, and, who knows, I might possibly be your competition one day."

"After meeting you last week I have been totally craving Sweet Tarts."

"I loved how you gave your impression of your parents. It cranked me up."

"Never had I heard an author speak of dating trouble and video games. You helped me realize that not all authors are these stiff hard working people."

"When I wrote my paragraph, I read it over. I was so excited that it was better than my normal writing. I wanted you to read it out loud to my group members. People would overlook me in the option list of 'who wrote this' because it was 'too good' for my writing."

"Why is reading a book so special? You brought the answer out to me: Reading engages you by involving all five human senses. It's why your stomach growls when the character goes to a king's feat or why you walk the streets of an imaginary world while sitting on a bed grasping a book."

Ah, yes. Now that's why I love writing for middle-schoolers.

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After a leaf-peeping morning drive to Willard School in Concord, Massachusetts, an author presentation, and a writing workshop, I was done by noon today. That gave me plenty of time to ramble around a famous pond in the vicinity (can you name it?):

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I remember loving A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN partly because times were tight in my own immigrant family. I also might have connected our loss of property and wealth in Bengal with the Alcotts' downturn in LITTLE WOMEN, as Laurel Snyder points out in an invigorating discussion about YA books and socioeconomic class moderated by Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray.

But North American culture has gone crazy since I was young. We adults whine about the culture's obsession with sex and violence and ignore how societal greed, consumerism, and materialism is trashing the millennial generation (and us.) "Stuff" defines teens now more than it ever did when most of us were that age. It's a rare young person who can resist the pressure of the brand.

As I watched a couple of episodes of "My Super Sweet Sixteen" on MTV with my teens, for example, I wondered how "poor" kids celebrating that milestone birthday processed the excesses on that show.

Which brings us to the authorial dilemma of either reflecting and repeating something that's unhealthy or destructive in the culture OR trying in some way to unmask and even redeem it. On the one hand we run the risk of condoning or even contributing to the suffering and on the other we might become didactic. But given the desperate state of our society and money, how we portray class, wealth, and poverty in our books is well worth considering.

Because a story is powerful, right? A single book can change or conserve a good or bad cultural practice. Like UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, it can actually revolutionize an entire society. That's why writers are in prison and books are banned. I love how Nadine Gordimer put it in her 1991 Nobel acceptance speech:

"... For this aesthetic venture of ours becomes subversive when the shameful secrets of our times are explored deeply, with the artist's rebellious integrity to the state of being manifest in life around her or him; then the writer's themes and characters inevitably are formed by the pressures and distortions of that society as the life of the fisherman is determined by the power of the sea."

Maybe you're thinking, hey, it's just chick lit. Teen chick lit. It's like cotton candy for the soul. Do I have to be subversive or revolutionary? No, but consumerism, materialism, and even greed are sly masters. If you're not purposefully resisting them, you might be inadvertently campaigning on their behalf.

Photo courtesy of ATIS547 via Creative Commons.

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It was a typical suburban corner bake sale fundraiser on a sunny summer afternoon, so I stopped to do my part.

"We're heading to India in 2010 to work at an orphanage," a cheerful high-schooler said as she handed me a packet of brownies.

Just the kind of girl who might read my books, I thought. "I actually wrote a novel about that," I said, forking over the cash. "It's called Monsoon Summer."

She took a step back. "No way. No way."

"I did. It's set in Indian orphanage."

"I read that book four times," she told me. "It's the whole reason I'm going on this trip."

Now that's why I write for young people. As I've said before, it's a window in life's journey when hearts are wide open.

Which books released in the last couple of years set in contemporary times can inspire teens to battle global poverty and xenophobia? Here's what I've gleaned from a quick look at the lists at YALSA's Best Books For Young Adults. Please add titles in the comments.

Alvarez, Julia. Return to Sender. Random House/Knopf. 2009. 978-0-375-85838-3. $16.99. Tyler learns that honesty, patriotism, and the line between right and wrong are not always black and white when his family must hire migrant workers to save their Vermont dairy farm.

Bondoux, Anne-Laure. The Killer's Tears. Tr. By Y. Maudet. 2006. Random House/Delacorte, $15.95. (ISBN-10, 0-385-73293-7; ISBN-13, 9780385732932). When murderer Angel Allegria kills young Paolo's parents, the killer and the orphan embark together on a journey of rebirth and redemption.

Budhos, Marina. Ask Me No Questions. 2006. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Ginee Seo, $16.95. (ISBN-10, 1-4169-0351-8; ISBN-13, 9781416903512). When their father is detained by U.S. Immigration, Nadira and Aisha must maintain an illusion of normality while they fight for his release.

Engle, Margarita. Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba. Henry Holt. 2009. 978-0-8050-8936-3. $16.99. In 1939, Daniel leaves his family behind when he flees the horrors of holocaust Europe. Now a refugee in Cuba, he must find hope to make a life for himself.

Jansen, Hanna. Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You. Tr. by Elizabeth D. Crawford. 2006. Lerner/Carolrhoda, $16.95. (ISBN-10, 1-57505-927-4; ISBN-13, 9781575059273). Based on the experiences of the author's adopted daughter, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, this story provides a heart-wrenching perspective on the horrors of a modern holocaust.

Jaramillo, Ann. La Linea. 2006. Roaring Brook/Deborah Brodie, $16.95. (ISBN-10, 1-59643-154-7; ISBN-13, 9781596431546). Mexican teen Miguel crosses la línea to join his parents in the United States, but the journey is full of danger and hardship.

Lat. Kampung Boy. 2006. illus. Roaring Brook/First Second, $16.95. (ISBN-10, 1-59643-121-0; ISBN-13, 9781596431218). Mat’s Malaysian village comes alive in this graphic novel, showing a picture of life in a 1950s Muslim kampung. Western influences, however, threaten his familiar world.

McCormick, Patricia. Sold. 2006. Hyperion, $15.99. (ISBN-10, 0-7868-5171-6; ISBN-13, 9780786851713). In this startling, frank novel in free verse, a 13-year-old Nepalese girl is sold into prostitution by her stepfather after a monsoon leaves her family destitute.

Resau, Laura. Red Glass. Random House/Delacorte, 2007; ISBN13: 978-0-385-73466-0; $15.99.
Fear has ruled the life of 16-year-old Sophie until dehydrated, speechless Pablo, a 6-year-old survivor of an illegal border crossing, is brought to her home.

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My first novel for younger readers (as opposed to teens), published in 2007, is doing okay. Here are some of the reasons why kids in several states are reading RICKSHAW GIRL 2-3 years after publication:

Nominated for the 2010 New York Charlotte Children's Book Award

Nominated for the 2010 Oklahoma Sequoyah Award

Nominated for the 2010 Arkansas Charlie May Simon Award

Nominated for the 2010 Rhode Island Children's Book Award

Nominated for the 2010 South Carolina Children's Book Award

Nominated for the 2010 Children's Crown Award

Nominated for the 2009 Massachusetts Children's Book Awards

Maine Library Association Lupine Honor Book

Nice, right? The advances and royalties might be heftier if I wrote for adults, but this particular book has showcased two financial advantages of writing for kids:

1. the buying power of educational markets, keeping books in print
   
2. the supplemental income of author visits

Thank you, schools and libraries, for continuing to put Naima's story into the hands and minds of young readers. I'm also grateful to Charlesbridge and editor Judy O'Malley for acquiring and championing the book (which was rejected quite a few times by other houses.)

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As a first-gen American, the passion and support for children's books we enjoy here is breathtaking to me. In every corner of the country, you'll find someone who cares deeply about getting stories into the hands, hearts, and minds of young people. And then actually does something about it.

Okay, so your mind is racing to the complaints, cutbacks, and criticisms you've been hearing (or uttering) lately about the industry, but a New Year is a good time to take stock of the positives. I started a 12-week Tuesday blogging stint at Boston.com/yourtown yesterday, and here's my first stab at answering the question in the title of this post.

Admittedly, mine is an extremely lit-friendly town, but I'm fairly sure that every nook and cranny in the U.S.A. is home to someone who is dedicated to children's literature. I'd love to hear about some of your community's book champions, so leave them in the comments section and maybe I'll do a roundup post.

Our Hometown's a Hub of Children's Books

By Mitali Perkins

If you read Leonard Marcus' book Minders of Make Believe, you might start feeling wistful for the lost golden era of children's book publishing in Boston.

Gone is our heydey when Little Brown, Ticknor & Fields, and Dutton published the likes of Louisa May Alcott, Virginia Lee Burton, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Julia Ward Howe, and other local literary luminaries. It's 2009, and the heartbeat of the children's books industry is in Manhattan, not Massachusetts.

Lest you become too verklempt over this news, let me give you five reasons why those of us in Newton can still feel that we're on the A-list (okay, let's not get carried away, the B-list) when it comes to children's books.

#1: Bloggers

Within the "kidlitosphere," a thriving circle of online hubbub, you'll find links to Newton-based J.L. Bell's posts on fantasy literature for children in his Oz and Ends blog. There's my own little web-based corner, Mitali's Fire Escape, where I ruminate about "books between cultures."

And if you broaden your map search five miles, you'll locate the source of Roger Sutton's feisty, funny Horn Book blog and bookseller Alison Morris' timely ShelfTalker posts for Publisher's Weekly. Anybody else in children's book cyberworld want to confess your Newton location? I'll be happy to share your URL here.

#2: Bookstores

Newton is home to two fabulous independents recognized widely for their commitment to books and events: Newtonville Books on Walnut Street and New England Mobile Book Fair on Needham Street. Now that's richness. Oh, and we also have a Borders and a Barnes and Noble at Chestnut Hill. 84,000 people. Four bookstores with a wide selection of books for children and teens. Go ahead and brag about the ratio if you want, but better still, go buy a book or two.

#3: Library

The Newton Free Library. Our home away from homes. Browsing the new books section alone can make you pity those in other towns, and the children's section is a literary feast for families. I took our kids every Saturday when they were small, and now that they're teenagers they still love to come along (full disclosure: they head straight upstairs to check out the generous DVD collection).

#4: Authors

During a long JetBlue flight from Boston to Oakland, I tried to convince the person sitting next to me to write a teen novel. She was Newton-based Anita Diamant, author of the Red Tent, an adult book which many young adults have enjoyed.

But we already have several bona fide authors of children's books. Award-winning author Karen Day (Tall Tales and No Cream Puffs, middle grade novels published by Wendy Lamb Books/Random House) lives in Newton. And so do Sydney Taylor Honor Winner Sarah Lamstein (Letter on the Wind: A Chanukah Tale, Boyds Mill Press) and Laya Steinberg, author of the bestselling picture book Thesaurus Rex (Barefoot Books). I'm sure there are other children's book writers and illustrators in town, so chime in and let us know of your/their existence.

#5: Publishers

Charlesbridge is still publishing books across the river in Watertown, thank goodness. A bit further, but still within biking distance, are Somerville's Candlewick, Cambridge's Barefoot Books, and Boston's Houghton-Mifflin.

But that's only a taste of why I'm glad I write, read, review, facebook, blog, and twitter from my writing nook in Newton, Massachusetts. Stay tuned over the next few Tuesdays as I share my thoughts on books and book-related events for children and teens, all from a one-and-only Newtonian's perspective.

To check out Mitali's website click here, and to follow her on Twitter click here.

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Came home from Nashville (at 1:30 in the morning!) to find a pile of notes from 8th graders. I treasure each thank you, but the ones from boys who'd been dreading my visit are the best:

Will someone please read that note at my funeral? You'll find it under my pillow.

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Author Siân Pattenden went after a recent clause added to Random House contracts in the UK:

If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children, and consequently the market for or value of the work is seriously diminished, and we may (at our option) take any of the following actions: Delay publication / Renegotiate advance / Terminate the agreement.

"Writers are not, and should never be, seen as role models," Ms. Pattenden states in her Guardian blog post.

Yet another example of how different we are in the States. I doubt if any of our publishers would consider a clause like this one, and yet I think there might be an unwritten expectation in the industry that we are supposed to be role models.

Most American children's book authors aren't known for DUI arrests, suicide attempts, or accusations of abusive behavior towards our mothers. Are creators of children's stories a happier, more stable (some might read: boring) bunch than other artists? Are we better at keeping our mistakes quiet? Or is there an unwritten code moderating our behavior this side of the Atlantic (authors who are party animals need not submit manuscripts; celebrities exempted)?

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After the awards ceremony at Lincoln Center last night, the gracious folks at Simon & Schuster, including Emma Dryden, veep-cum-publisher-cum-editor, invited several of us to Josephina's to celebrate Theresa Nelson's win. 

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At Brookline's Driscoll School last week, I offered my Creating A Sense of Place in Fiction workshop, and once again the 8th graders took us to a myriad of places through the power of imaginative writing. Some samples excerpted below for your reading pleasure.

I sit in the car with the heated seats warming my insides. I look up through the roof at sky scrapers slowly passing by. A slight snow drifts down from the gray clouds. The car zig zags through traffic. The snow crunches under the tires and then we stop. The door opens and I step out, the umbrella shielding me from the snow.

The sun glinted off the freshly painted walls. The wind blew the curtains gently into the room. The mirror reflected the rays of sun so they fell across my bed lighting up the colorful stripes. The door hung open. Honey and fresh cut flowers spiraled up the the stairs and hung lingering in the air.

The tennis stadium filled with 70,000 people cheering, singing. My heart beating at an extreme level, my palms sweating. The whole world watching. The aroma of water, sweat and smoke in the air. The feel of the grass just cut. The taste of Gatorade bubbling in my stomach.

I strolled into the club and heard the loud music blaring. I could see the speakers bouncing. This was it alright. The largest Neptunian rager of all time. The club was huge, and I couldn't see the end of it. I could see people dancing for miles. I got a whiff of the scent of baby corn.

The night air was warm, the stars and moon smiling down on me ... Red and orange flames stained the darkness with color, and the black smoke shone in the dim patio lights. My shirt was flapping in the wind, the cool breeze wrapping around my arms ... I heard the laughing of my friends, my own laughter, and the faint popping of the wood as the flames squeezed the air out of it. I laughed again and threw another card into the bronze dish, only to have it become engulfed in flames. I smiled and backed up so my friend could throw his card.

The golden framed windows glared at me. The door was huge and made of glass and for one second I didn't want to go inside because the building seemed like an animal about to swallow me up. My knees were trembling as I walked towards the shiny golden elevator. My entire career would depend on the next half hour. My whole life, even. I had always wanted to be an actress. I loved the creak of the stage floor under my feet and the rustling of the curtains, but the best part was the applause ...

The officer pushes open the door; the cheap wood feels grainy and decrepit. As he steps onto the threshold, the reek of sewage and spoiled food makes him go to tears. The officer takes out his gun; he doesn't dare to go into the kitchen. He steps into the bedroom. To his dismay, he finds a man lying down with a knife in his back.

The soft, damp grass tickled the bottoms of my feet. A warm wind blew wrinkles in my hair ... The sun warmed the back of my legs as I let my ankles swish though the grass ... The smell of dandelions was sweet and pungent ...

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This is my fourth year of visiting schools, and I'm learning that most want to book an author during the fall or the spring. Brookline, for example, invited me to be their Sakar Fund author this March and April in all eight of their elementary schools. The Town of Needham, too, wanted an author to visit every school during April and May so they won a grant and invited me to come.

Schools in my home state are unusually open to author bookings. Brookline and Needham are both twenty minutes away. I drove to Thoreau School in Concord, Massachusetts last Wednesday, and am day-tripping twice to the Pike School in Andover, Massachusetts next week. I do repeat performances every year in my own town of Newton, where you have to be approved by the Creative Arts and Sciences Division to visit schools. So I may be spoiled when comparing the options available to authors based in other states, but I think the school visit soil in most places may be arable if not as fertile.

How does an author get started? In 2005, I created and offered a few (horrible, I'm afraid) presentations for free, was previewed and reviewed, improved and adapted my shows to enhance the curriculum, and slowly word began to spread. I researched, asked other authors what they charged, and put some middlish-of-the-road fees on my site in an a la carte list along with descriptions of my presentations. Some authors don't mention money on their sites -- they prefer to negotiate individual offers or use an agent. I do my booking myself (I like the control and prefer the direct access to educators), figuring that publishing my fees online might deliver me from countless back and forth emails.

Why do school visits at all? For me, as an ex-teacher who hated grading but loves teaching, it's first and foremost fabulous to be back in a classroom. Second, I get paid to be silly (and to educate, don't worry). Third, it does get the word out about my books. Fourth, I connect to the culture of my readers. Fifth, I receive awesome fan mail. Sixth, I still have time in my week for revision and promotion (if I don't waste it all playing Scrabulous). And finally, school visits leave me with an uninterrupted six months of summer and winter for writing; a nice seasonal rhythm that is beginning to shape the fleeting years.

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I love answering questions during author visits. What I've learned, though, is that most questions reveal more about the people asking them (i.e., the kids) than about the person going on and on up front (i.e., me).

After years of fielding questions during my presentations at schools and libraries, I'm finding myself getting pinged by a variety of odd thoughts. Sometimes it's worth listening to those internal noises before I answer. Here are three questions I was asked during a visit with fourth, fifth, and sixth graders last Wednesday, for example, and the corresponding muttering in the strange place called my brain:

Q. Do you feel more at home in the California house you grew up in or in your house here in Massachusetts?

Brain Ping: This kid looks a bit wistful. She might have two homes herself. Divorce? A recent move? Tread carefully.

A. Both feel like home. That's the amazing thing. You can feel at home in many places if you're willing to be flexible and enjoy the best things about all of them.


Q. If you could go back in your life and change something that happened, what would it be?

Brain Ping: Shy kid. Boy. Took guts to ask such a deep question. Maybe has a regret?

A. I've learned that the hardest things I've gone through have made me the person I am, so I wouldn't change them, no. Now that I've survived them, I find I'm most thankful for the challenges in my life. When I regret something I've done, I try to ask for forgiveness, but there's no use letting it haunt me forever, right?


Q. How do you stand living so far away from your parents?

Brain Ping: This girl's from Bangladesh. She gets the intensity of my South Asian filial ties, even though I'm middle-aged. I can give it to her straight.

A. I can't. I hate it. I miss them every day, every moment.


I stick to the truth because the pings aren't always right, but I like listening because they remind me that it's never about me -- it's about the kids with the courage to raise a hand and ask a question from the heart.

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Read Anastasia Goodstein's thoughtful Ypulse post about teen magazines' responsibility to stop the "onslaught." The same challenge applies to those of us who write books for teen and tween girls.

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I'm delighted to present the winners of the Fire Escape's 2007 teen poetry and short fiction contests. Congratulations to the writers, and to all who entered. The 2008 contests open 9/1/07. Feel free to browse through the best poems from 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, and prize-winning stories from the past.

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