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By: Marissa Wasseluk,
on 9/15/2016
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All of us at First Book have been heartbroken to learn ways recent floods in Louisiana have destroyed public libraries, school libraries, and home libraries across Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas.
An aerial view of Baton Rouge, LA after 2016 flooding. Picture by U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Even before the flood waters started to recede in Baton Rouge, we knew what residents needed most urgently: clean water, a roof overhead, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing your next meal is not a gamble. But what comes afterwards? Where do we start to rebuild the foundation of a community?
“We lost everything in our library,” said Claire Clickingbeard, a teacher at Tanglewood Elementary in Baton Rouge. “As well as all teachers’ personal collections.”
Teachers from Baton Rouge and across the country wrote and told us where they needed to start.
“Our school lost its entire library, including all the books in individual classrooms, “said Sarah Batty, a teacher at Denham Springs High School in Livingston Parish. “As I was sorting through the books, I opened a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. This particular book had been handed down through three teaching generations. I saw the ink from the handwritten notes running down the pages…and I lost what little bit of composure I still had left. It was my favorite teacher possession, and there it was dripping in the remains of the river that ran through my school.”
First Book is raising funds to help restock school libraries across the region for Claire, Sarah and many other educators and their students. Funds raised will help us cover the shipping and handling costs of donated books, as well as the purchase of additional books from the First Book Marketplace.
We invite anyone passionate about the power of books, education, and the importance of community to make a donation. If you are an individual that would like to help, please visit our fundraising page to make a donation. Each $1 donated will be MATCHED with a new book from our publishing partners, up to $30,000.
We are working with our friends at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and other publishers who have generously donated a range of new books to this effort. If you are a publisher interested in contributing books to schools and programs affected by the floods, please email First Book at [email protected].
If your school or program was affected by the recent floods and would like to request new books to restock shelves or to share with the children you serve, please enter your contact information here. Please note that completing this form will not guarantee that you will receive books, but it will be the first step in the process. First Book will share books and resources with as many schools and programs as we are able.
Please join us in restoring the basic resources needed for a school.
The post Louisiana Book Relief: Help Restock Flooded Libraries appeared first on First Book Blog.
Nikki Landry is at it again! She's found the truth behind The Legend of Ghost Dog Island, foiled The Curse at Pirate's Cove and now, in this third installment, launching September 17th, 2016, she's going to find The Secret in Mossy Swamp.
Rita Monette is both author and illustrator of this middle grade series about legends in the Louisiana bayou. Having lived there herself as a young girl, she captures the voice of 10-year old Nikki Landry perfectly and takes you to a world of swampy bayous, houseboats, and mysterious legends. This time, Nikki is going head to head with the legend of the dreaded Rougarou.
It's going to be an awesome adventure, but you don't need to take my word for it. Here's the cover and blurb:
The Secret in Mossy Swamp by Rita Monette
Things are never what they seem... in a foggy Louisiana swamp
Living in a tiny houseboat, Nikki is stuck with sharing a room with her little brother, Jesse, who does what little brothers do best…torture their sisters. Fed up, she decides to build a place of her own…a tree house where no boys are allowed. Meanwhile, something strange is happening on Bayou Platte. Things and people are coming up missing…and little stick dolls covered in moss, known locally as “signs” from the legendary Rougarou, are showing up in their place.
Is the Rougarou really to blame? Can Nikki get to the bottom of the mystery before things get worse? Find out in this third installment of the Nikki Landry Swamp Legends Series!
This Middle Grade Adventure is expected to launch September 17th, 2016!
You can also pre-order this book in Mirror World Publishing's store:
http://www.mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com
By:
Maya Schulze,
on 12/15/2015
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Woof: A Bowser and Birdie Novel is an awesome book and everyone should read it!
By: Sharon Ledwith,
on 11/23/2015
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Sharon Ledwith: I came. I saw. I wrote.
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Follow the Tour for Reviews, Guest Posts, Exclusive Excerpts, and Spotlights!
“When one man’s treasure is another man’s curse"
Book Information:Title: The Curse at Pirate’s Cove
Series: Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, Book 2
Author Name: Rita Monette
Genre(s): Middle Grade, Adventure, Mystery
Tags: Middle Grade, Adventure, Pirates, Bayou, Louisiana
Length: Approx. 208 pages
E-book: 978-1-987976-02-1
Paperback: 978-1-987976-01-4
Re-Release Date: Nov.17, 2015
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing
About the Book:
Nikki Landry is turning eleven years old, and is looking forward to riding her bike to school. That is until it falls apart. Papa can’t afford a new one. Is she doomed to ride the smelly old school bus from now on?
Hearing of an old pirate ship, and a legend about long-ago pirates burying treasure on a nearby swamp island, Nikki sees a way out. But when she makes a birthday wish for the pirate’s gold, things go terribly wrong. Did her wish trigger an ancient curse?
Join Nikki and her friends as they find themselves sailing away aboard a haunted schooner with ghostly pirates into the Gulf of Mexico … and into the year eighteen fourteen.
How will they ever find their way back home?
Pierre Part Louisiana
by Rita Monette
I have been spending the last few weeks in my home state of Louisiana, promoting my books and visiting relatives.
Today I visited my brother in the small town of Pierre Part, Louisiana, which also happens to be the home of Troy Landry of the Swamp People TV series, and where my series, The Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, begins. No, Nikki is not kin to Troy—at least I don’t think so.
The town is about as Cajun as anywhere in Louisiana. Folks there make their living in the bayous, where crawfish, crabs, and alligators are plentiful.
However, I came across one man that makes his living gathering old cypress and turning it into artistic creations. His name is Adam Morales. He says he is blessed to be able to see things in the old remains of cypress trees. Here are a couple of his creations...
Many folks in Pierre Part still live in houseboats, just like they did back in 1956 where my stories begin.
This week is the release of book two, The Curse at Pirate’s Cove, which is set in the nearby town of Morgan City, and in the Atchafalaya Swamp, where Mr. Morales collects the cypress for his artwork.
Follow the Tour:http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/book-tour-schedule-curse-at-pirates.htmlPurchase Links:Amazon:
http://amzn.to/1HG1d39Mirror World Publishing:
http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/adventure/products/the-curse-at-pirates-coveChapters:
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-curse-at-pirates-cove/9781987976021-item.html?ikwid=Rita+Monette&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0Barnes and Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-curse-at-pirates-cove-rita-monette/1120806662?ean=9781987976021
Meet the Author:
Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. She loves to write stories set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state.
Her middle grade series, The Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, is based on tales told by her father—who made his living in those bayous—of reasons to stay out of the swamp.
She currently lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee. Besides writing and illustrating, she loves watching the many birds that make their habitat on the Cumberland Plateau, working in the garden, and frequenting waterfalls.
Social Media Links:
Behind every legend lies the truth…
About The Legend of Ghost Dog Island:Moving is nothing new for ten-year-old Nikki Landry. Her father relocates their raggedy old houseboat several times a year in search of better crabbing spots. However, their latest move has brought her to a mysterious bayou where she feels something is watching her from a nearby island.
Nikki learns of a local legend about something sinister inhabiting those swamps, stealing the souls of dogs...which would explain the strange howling sounds. Papa reassures her there’s nothing on the island but gators and snakes. He should know. He’s spent his whole life trapping and fishing those bayous and swamps…But maybe there’s something Papa doesn’t know.
Nikki and her new friends begin to uncover strange happenings from years ago that may have started the old legend…and town folks aren’t talking.
Then her beloved beagle goes missing.
Join Nikki as she seeks to discover the real truth behind the legend of Ghost Dog Island…before it’s too late.
Character Interview:
I’d like to introduce Nikki Landry, who is the main character in my Series, Nikki Landry Swamp Legends. Nikki lives in the bayous of Louisiana, in a houseboat, perpetually in the 1950s. She likes to help her papa catch crabs and she isn’t too crazy about school, especially since she moves several times a year and has to continually be the new kid in school. So without further ado, here’s Nikki:
Welcome Nikki. You look like a pretty tough young girl. Is there anything you are afraid of?
Well, I am tough. My papa always says so. But, I’m kinda scared of what might be in that swampy place Papa calls Ghost Dog Island. Does it really have a creature out there that steals dogs? Will it come after my best buddy, Snooper? Lots to worry about you know.
So, can you tell the readers your best or worst memory?
My best memory is playing with my best friend, Lydia in her treehouse.
The worst memory is when we had to move when I was mad at her. I thought it would make me not care about leaving, but it didn't work out that way. It made me all mad and sad at the same time. Ugh!
What would you say is your biggest strength? Weakness?
My biggest strength is that I am a good riddle solver. Just ask anyone. *beams with pride*
My biggest weakness is that I get myself in trouble sometimes by not telling the truth. I really gotta work on that.
What is your biggest pet peeve?
What’s a pet peeve? Is it something like a possum? I’ve never had one of those. I hear they are mean. I don’t think I want a pet peeve.
Your series’ tag line is “behind every legend lies the truth.” Do you think people should always seek the truth?
Yes. And even when I get caught not telling the truth, my papa always finds out. It’s what papas are good at.
But, my stories are about me setting out to learn the truth behind legends I hear about that don’t make no sense. That’s more like trying to solve a mystery. I love doing that, even though most of the time I get in trouble doing it.
So Nikki, If you were stranded on an island and could only have three things (items or people), what would you choose to have and why?
Island? I’d never want to be stranded on no island. I went out there to Ghost Dog Island with my friend, Spikes, and I wouldn’t want to be out there by myself, what with gators, snakes, and mosquitoes. But if I did get stranded, I’d want a flashlight for sure, and my dog, Snooper. A boat wouldn’t be a bad idea either
Book Details:Title: The Legend of Ghost Dog Island
Author Name: Rita Monette
Genre(s): Middle Grade, Adventure, Mystery
Tags: Adventure, mystery, middle grade, louisiana, bayou, dogs
Length: Approx. 204 pages
E-book: 978-1-987976-00-7
Paperback: 978-0-9947490-9-3
Re-Release Date: September 1, 2015
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing
Amazon Link:http://amzn.to/1Vc8647
Mirror World Publishing Links:eBook
http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/history/products/the-legend-of-ghost-dog-island-ebookPaperback
http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/history/products/the-legend-of-ghost-dog-island-paperbackMeet the Author:
Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. She loves to write stories set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state.
Her middle grade series, The Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, is based on tales told by her father—who made his living in those bayous—of reasons to stay out of the swamp.
She currently lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee. Besides writing and illustrating, she loves watching the many birds that make their habitat on the Cumberland Plateau, working in the garden, and frequenting waterfalls.
Follow the Tour to Read Exclusive Excerpts, Guest Posts, Reviews, and a Character Interview:
http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/blog-tour-schedule-legend-of-ghost-dog.html
(Finishing Line Press 2014) delivers a new way of looking at leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease. The beauty of these poems is arresting and surprising, given the once taboo subject of leprosy. The leprosarium at Carville operated for over a hundred years.
As a child in catholic school in New Orleans, Ferrara grew up hearing about lepers. Four years ago, when she visited the colony in Carville, Louisiana, she learned more about the lives of the patients. Carville is located off River Road, near Baton Rouge. However, it is essentially in the middle of nowhere. Ferrara captures that sense of isolation in her Carville Poems. The title references the fact that moss and resurrection fern can be found in the oak trees at Carville. Ferrara was taken by the physical beauty of the landscape at Carville and how the beauty of the land was intertwined and connected to the personal experiences of the patients. From "A Perfect Terrain": 'Drenched in moss and resurrection fern, the oaks stayed stoic--/a perfect terrain for the ostriches, swift-footed and flightless/that would never arrive.'
In writing these poems, Ferrara never lost sight of the loneliness experienced by Carville residents. "I wanted to convey how people who had the disease became isolated--very removed from the lives they had lived and previously known, " she said. "They no longer saw their families or loved ones. They had to establish a new and different way of living."
Residents at Carville may have been isolated, but they lived life to the fullest, put on dances and Mardi Gras balls, and published a newspaper with a circulation of over 250, 000. The poem, "Tea Hour on Point Clair Road," shows how the ladies would take their tea, 'The fingerless/Even the unmarred waited for the sips and stains of tea hours,/ Something miraculous as a cure/under a sun no longer at apex.'
Gina first began writing the poems in the spring of 2010 and finished the book over a period of two years. She approached Finishing Line Press because they had published her first poetry chapbook,
The Size of Sparrows, in 2006. She met one of
the patients, Pete from Trinidad, who was about ten years old when he arrived and is now in his eighties. He is one of the last patients to live there, rides around on his bicycle, and is eager to talk to visitors. The lyrical poems, along with photographs by Elizabeth Garcia, offer a window into life at Carville, Louisiana.
 |
| Gina Ferrara |
Carville in the Spring
Gina Ferrara
Sugar surrounds this sanctuary
far from ordinary or Galapagos.
The road ends each time
I check my appendages
for open wounds, red splotches in tandem.
I remember the last pliant hand I held.
Would the constellated sky feel like a hand?
Each finger with its own unblemished identity—
supple and tapering to a square tip,
the bony range of knuckles
buckling only to brush inside my palm.
I squint and scan for semblances of past lives.
Who is the gypsy? Who is the physicist?
I have my suspicions.
Today a woman arrived.
She strolls through the covered corridors
with memories of her identity and scepter,
helpless and unable to reign over the bacilli
waiting to uprise in time as unwanted suns.
Gina Ferrara's work has previously been featured on
La Bloga. Her latest full-length poetry book,
Amber Porch Light was also recently reviewed by Frank Mundo in the
Examiner.
By: Shelf-employed,
on 8/28/2014
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I was actually searching for a fantasy book, but stumbled upon a good old-fashioned ghost story instead.
Little, Kimberly Griffiths. 2014. The Time of the Fireflies. New York: Scholastic.
Larissa Renaud doesn't live in a regular house. As she tells it,
"My parents moved us into the Bayou Bridge Antique Store—a fact I do not brag about. It's embarrassing to admit I share the same space as musty, mothball-smelly furniture, dusty books, and teacups that dead people once drank from."
Sometimes she wishes they had never come back here from Baton Rouge, but her family has a long history in the bayou town, much of it is tragic.
When Larissa receives a mysterious call on a broken antique phone, she's got a real mystery on her hands.
"Trust the fireflies,"
the ghostly girl tells her, setting Larissa on a strange and eerie path of discovery. Can Larissa right the wrongs of the past to save her family's future?
Though it highlights rural poverty, bullying, and new sibling issues,
The Time of the Fireflies is at heart, a ghost story with a remarkably likable and resourceful protagonist.
To avoid giving away too much, I'll merely mention that readers may see some similarities to Rebecca Stead's Newbery Medal-winning,
When You Reach Me. The spunky Larissa and author Kimberly Griffiths Little will draw you into the rich world of the Louisiana bayou until you too, are carried away by the fireflies.
(My copy of the book was provided by the publisher as an Advance Reader Copy.)
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By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 9/7/2012
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Children’s Literature Top Picks of 2011 & 2012 By Patricia Austin, University of New Orleans
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose. New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2012. 231pp. Gr. 3-7 The title alone May B (short for the protagonist’s name Mavis Elizabeth Betterly) sets up an intriguing metaphoric premise. What is it that may be possible for twelve-year old May B, a poor girl from the Kansas prairie in the 1870s? She shares her dream of becoming a teacher but she struggles so in reading that people think she’s slow-witted. Her family hires her to a farm some fifteen miles away–to make money and help out. May suffers an uneasy relationship with the lady of the soddy, who is so sad, missing home, that she leaves. When her husband searches for her and doesn’t return, May is left to fend for herself facing uncertainly, fears (some imagined but most real) as she braves many hardships. The novel has perfect pacing with tension that will have readers turning the pages, yet its beauty is in the lyrical language.
Readers who have felt “my best isn’t always good enough,” will find a special kinship with the determined protagonist.* They will also appreciate the short verses. Check out the blog of former teacher, Caroline Starr Rose where she offers
info on making sod houses and provides
teaching materials for her book.
*Yes!
By: Elvin Lim,
on 3/27/2012
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By Elvin Lim
Rick Santorum had a great night, but he would need to win 70 percent of the delegates moving forward to unseat front-runner Mitt Romney. That’s not going to happen, but it’ll be a painful road toward the increasingly inevitable. As late as it is in this game, powerful conservatives like Thomas Sowell, Rush Limbaugh, and Tony Perkins are still advocating for Rick Santorum and other non-moderate candidates. Every day they continue to do this, they make less likely confident predictions from outside the beltway that Republicans will come together in the fall against Obama.
The problem could go away if Rick Santorum bowed out, but he has absolutely no reason to. At worst he would be a Hillary Clinton — a serious challenger to the eventual nominee, someone who ran a very credible campaign, and the candidate all eyes will turn to first in the next nomination race. Since all the benefits accrue specifically to Santorum and all the cost is diffused across the entire party, the candidate is here to stay for as long as Romney has not clinched his 1144th delegate.
This means that Romney wouldn’t be able to turn to a frontal, undistracted campaign against Obama just when Americans check out, tune out, and head to the beaches in summer. Most Americans would have made up their minds about their vote by then, and there may not be enough time between September and November for the constant barrage of negative messages and psychological massaging to convince independents that Obama is so bad that he needs to be fired.
The Republican “establishment,” otherwise read as Romney’s supporters, fear this more than anything, and for the love of God — no pun intended — simply don’t understand why Tea Partiers and Southern evangelicals are continuing on the road to electoral perdition. Yet while resentments are building and intra-party strife is festering, it isn’t the moderate Republicans but the Rush Limbaughs of the world who are ironically assuming that an upper-crust, French-speaking Mormon from the Northeast who entered the one percent by way of Wall Street would be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again before the party faces Barack Obama. Hubris!
Next up are Washington, DC and Wisconsin. That means relatively cash-strapped Rick Santorum now has a windfall of a week and some to gloat over his victory in Louisiana, and consolidate the narrative that he is a credible candidate and the truly conservative alternative to Romney. Yet each time the Republican Party has thrown an anti-Romney candidate a lifeline — and doing so has been the leitmotif of campaign 2012 — it has deprived itself of one in the real contest that is to determine the eventual occupant of the White House.
All this is also to say that we are witnessing the maturation of American conservatism. For years observers have described liberalism as a bloated tent filled with too many strange bedfellows. But all we were saying is that it is necessary for a dominant ideology to co-opt many disparate factions in order to form a governing majority. Finally, American conservatism, nearly 60, is big enough to have its own internecine feuds played out in the public square (and not just in the Na
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 3/26/2012
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Three years ago, May B. won first place for a novel excerpt at the Jambalaya Writers' Conference. This year I'm headed back to Houma, Louisiana to present at the conference. It's a thrill to be included on the roster this year! If you happen to live around the New Orleans area, I'd love to meet you.
Here are my topics:
Verse Novels -- From Homer to Ellen Hopkins: Long a mainstay in classical literature, the verse novel has made a comeback in children’s literature in the last fifteen years. What’s the appeal? Learn about the authors and titles which have had an impact on the genre, why an author would choose to write this way, and if your story might best be told through verse.
DIY Marketing Plan: Authors nowadays are expected to play bigger and bigger roles in spreading the word about their books. What, exactly, does this look like? Learn to identify and reach your target audience in traditional and non-traditional ways, produce materials to compliment your book, and create your own marketing plan.
I'll share about the conference once I return -- and don't worry: I'll eat a bowl of gumbo for you.
By: Jerry Beck,
on 2/13/2012
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BREWMASTERS NOTE: This week Cartoon Brew takes a closer look at each of the five Academy Award nominated animated shorts. Each day at 10am EST/7am PST we will post an exclusive interview with the director(s) of one of the films. Today, we begin with The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore:
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is the first film from William Joyce’s Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana. Co-directors William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg spoke with Cartoon Brew on January 25th.
Jerry: First things first. Your studio is in Shreveport, Louisana. Why there?
Bill Joyce: That’s where I grew up, it’s a great little Southern Shangri-la. Not that far from Dallas, about 2-3 hrs away. Brandon was working at Reel EFX and started contacting me about working together, and then Lampton (Enochs, co-partner in Moonbot) moved out here after Hurricane Katrina. The movie industry is actually pretty big in Louisiana. In this weird way, Shreveport has become this film making mecca. (laughter) That sounds too kind of ludicrous to say, but it’s sort of true.
Jerry: It IS true, you can make movies anywhere, everywhere today. Now, I’m a little fuzzy on the whole origin of this project. I’m under the impression that it started as an app, or designed to be something else other than a film?
Bill: It started out as a book that I wrote a few years ago in response to my mentor at Harper Collins. His name was Bill Morris and he had been there since they were called Harper Brothers, since 1949. He was just a great old publishing titan, and a real gentleman… but he was dying and I was really bummed out about it. One of the ways I deal with the good things and the crummy things in my life is I write a story. I was flying up to see him and on the way this title just kind of tumbled into my head, called “The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore.” It was a play on both Bill’s name and his actual physical stature… he was a diminutive guy, though a giant in the industry. And he loved books and everything about publishing. So I got to read him the story which was really sweet. He was a kind of crusty old guy but he would respond to outreaches of emotion in his crusty old way. I was going to make it into a book but then Brandon and I started working together in animation, and we wanted to create a short film around same time I was working on the book. It was then Lamptin suggested we form a company.
Jerry: I love how the film combines CG with hand drawn and miniatures…
Bill: Well, we kind of decided early on we wanted to play with all different kinds of animation, and it seemed that just to think of it in terms of computer animation seemed too limiting. Brandon and I were just so stoked about building miniatures and having CG characters, and doing 2D for some of it, and just doing everything we loved. It just seemed to apply to the story.
Brandon Oldenburg: And we love those old Popeyes, man. You know, we just wanted to just see if it would work. We had gotten a taste of building sets back in 1998 on a test film that we did called The Man In The Moon, where we built miniatures and took them down to New Orleans to an old vaudevillian theater that had been converted into a sound stage. And you know, that short test piece actually evolved into the upcoming Dreamworks project, The Rise of the Guardians.
Jerry: It seems you really put what you wanted into this film and you weren’t aiming for it being a 6 minute short, a 12 minute film, or a 22 minute TV special.
Bill: Going in, we were all “OK. We can’t afford anything over 7 minutes. We have to make this work for 7 minutes.” (laughter) And then we made an animatic completely disregarding time frame. “OK, how long does it time out? Oh! Oh crap! It’s 16 minutes!�
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 11/15/2010
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This is St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, connected to the lovely private school where I taught in Houma, Louisiana.
During Christmas break, my mother and I took my boys on a nature hike. The trail was "across the bayou," just a few miles from home. (In South Louisiana, there are three directions: up the bayou, down the bayou, and across the bayou).
This part of the country has a beauty all its own.
The Louisana wetlands, made up of swamp, marsh, and bayous, are home to a variety of plants and animals. (To you Aussies, bayous are just like billabongs). The wetlands function as a natural water filtration system. Louisiana's salt marsh barrier islands serve as a natural speed bump for hurricanes. According to
LaCoast.gov, "approximately 40 percent of the coastal wetlands of the lower 48 states is located in Louisiana.
This fragile environment is disappearing at an alarming rate. Louisiana has lost up to 40 square miles of marsh a year for several decades - that's 80 percent of the nation's annual coastal wetland loss. If the current rate of loss is not slowed, by the year 2040 an additional 800,000 acres of wetlands will disappear, and the Louisiana shoreline will advance inland as much as 33 miles in some areas."
I wrote my picture book, OVER IN THE WETLANDS, last summer, focusing on the unique plants and animals that make up this place.
Here's a glimpse:
Over in the Wetlands
24 Comments on OVER IN THE WETLANDS, last added: 1/7/2010
Today I share the blogging with my son, Evan, age nine, who earlier today wrote an update of our time in the deep south (see below). Evan's comments will be in a bigger font. We just arrived in Bryan, Texas a moment ago, so I don't have much to say about Texas yet except that it is big and dark and rainy. [Oh, I just realized that as I type this, it is techincally by 41st birthday! :-) ]
EVAN: Ok, so yesterday we left Atlanta (we got up at 7:00) and did a 2 and a half hour drive to Alabama, and all Of a sudden, we see this sign that said: ENTERING ALABAMA CENTRAL TIME ZONE . What?! We shouted. Then the clock that before said 9:49 (which was when we were supposed to arrive) went down to 8:49. We could have slept an hour later! Well, at least we get to relive the past hour, said my dad. On the road we made up a game. The game was, if you saw a water tower and shouted torre de agua (that’s Spanish) first, then you would get a point. At the end of the trip, whoever had the most points, won. To me, the driving wasn’t very long, but that’s probably because I was waching tv.
MARK: I love the south. It's green and lush, and the people are friendly and the weather has been beautiful. I also love that it has a chain of grocery stores called Piggly Wiggly. Whevenver we see one, we Hugheses are all about the Piggly Wiggly! I took this picture through the windsheild of our car on our way to Birmingham, AL:
Oh yes, Piggly. I will follow...
One thing I do miss about Massachusetts, though, is the availability of Starbucks. In fact, I've been on a daily quest to find one anywhere near where we go. On the way to Birmingham I found one! I was so pleased, I took a picture of my grande Gazebo blend.
Evan: We went to the Alabama welcome center and my dad and me got Hank Williams posters. Hank Williams is like an Elvis to country music. My dad was very happy. I was happy too, except I had never heard of Hank Williams before this. But I'm sure he must be pretty good.
Mark: Because of the unexpected time-change (what? did we miss a memo or something?), we arrived in Birmingham earlier than planned, which allowed us time to look around. Since Birmingham metal-working played a big role in the city's history, they have a huge statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of the fire and forge.
EVAN: Later, we had lunch with Hester Bass the author of So Many Houses, and her family (father Clayton, kids Anderson and Miranda) in Birmingham. We ate at a Cracker Barrell, a southern place I'd never eaten before. It was good. My mom and dad ate southern food. I ate grilled cheese. It was good. Hester gave us copies of her book, which was very nice of her.
Mark: In addition to being the author of the early reader So Many Houses, Hester is also the author of a soon-to-be released picture book biography of American artist, Walter Inglis Anderson, to be illustrated by the acclaimed E. B. Lewis and published by Candlewick Press. Hester and her family were amazingly kind to drive all the way down to Huntsville to meet with us. It's lovely to meet such wonderful people when you're far from home. Many thanks to the 'Bama Basses, our new friends!
EVAN: Next, we had dinner with the Campbell family In Jackson, Mississippi. I played with three boys named Graem, Nathan and Douglas. They had a big snail called a wolf snail. I let it crawl up my arm. It was so cool!
Mark: Sarah is the author and photographer of an upcoming picture book about wolf snails, snails that eat other snails -- an amazing creature I'd never heard of before. Her photographs are absolutely beautiful and her book will be published in the Spring. Although we were total strangers, Sarah and Richard and their boys fed us and treated us like family. We had a wonderful Mississippi evening which we will never forget -- complete with fireworks set off by neighbors. Thanks you, Campbells, our other new friends in the south!
This morning (actually, yesterday morning now) we stopped by at Lemuria Books in Jackson, a cool independent bookstore with a relaxing atmosphere. Here we are with a very nice bookseller named Ciel.
Lots of traffic problems on the way through Louisianna to Bryan, TX, so it took us much longer than it should have. Still, we're here safe, sound, and happy. Soon I'll actually go to bed.
A big, Texas good night to y'all.
-- Mark
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Congratulations; what a wonderful write-up! I can't wait to see your awards start pouring in...
I don't know how to reply to this other than a heart-felt thank you, Faith. You are very kind.
Wow, this is wonderful, Caroline! Congrats! Is there a link where we can see the list of books for 2011-2012?
Great question! I really don't know, but I can try and track one down.