When I was teaching sixth grade, two of my students skipped class to go sledding. They had my blessing. This was the only way they could learn to read.

We were dissecting Lois Lowry’s The Giver. A critical scene in the book describes the protagonist, Jonah, sledding. But these students could not comprehend what the chapter was about, no matter how many discussions we had. Why? Well, as our school reading specialist discovered, these kids had never been sledding in their lives, despite the fact that they lived in Boston.

What to do? The reading specialist went home, got two red sleds, came back to school for our students, and made a bee-line for the snowiest hill she could find. Problem solved: reading tests aced.

Dana Goldstein’s article “How to Make American Teens Smarter” on The Daily Beast. Goldstein explores the impact prior knowledge and experience has on the development of readers.

Her article also highlights several other scary facts that were recently disclosed in the “nation’s report card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress–facts that underpin why our nation may be losing its competitive edge:

…only one-third of American kids can read at the “proficient” level. Over the past two years, no national gains have been made in closing the achievement gaps between rich and poor, white and black, white and Hispanic, or girls and boys.

Goldstein says, “The overall picture of literacy in America is bleak–a decades-long achievement plateau.” Clearly we need to think outside the box…or at least outside the classroom. So what ideas do you have for closing the achievement gap and melting our nation’s literacy deep freeze?

This gorgeous picture book took home the Caldecott Honor.

So much has been happening in the Austin Children’s lit scene that it’s hard to know where to begin. First off, our city swept the ALA awards. Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee took home a Caldecott Honor for All the World, Jacqueline Kelly got the Newbery Honor for The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, and Chris Barton was awarded the Siebert for The Day-Glo Brothers. Not bad for a day’s work!

Next up, Destination Publication, our Austin Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference that was held January 30th. I was thrilled–thrilled!–that my agent Andrea Cascardi came into town to speak about 13 things every writer should know about getting and working with an agent.

Andrea was joined on the all-star conference faculty by a host of well-known authors, agents, and editors, including Kirby Larson, author of Hattie Big Sky. Kirby gave a terrific talk about her journey to publication. I was reminded that even when we think we’re not writing, we’re collecting information from the world that will become our material later.

Fans are giddy now that Cynthia Leitich Smith's vampire romance thrills in paperback!

In other news, Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Eternal has gone paperback! This book is a must-read for vampire fans. But as I blogged in my post “Bitten and Smitten”, even non-vampire fans will soon be converted to the dark side. Eternal is the second in a series. Rumor has it that due to the incredible popularity of Tantalize and Eternal, Candlewick has asked for more books than originally planned, so stay tuned.

And finally, this past Saturday morning, the Austin chapter of SCBWI held its monthly meeting at our rocking independent bookseller, BookPeople. It was the first time in three years our Tim Crow could sit back and relax. After the outstanding job he’d done, he passed the reigns of resident advisor to the wonderful Debbie Gonzales.

Bethany Hegadus was the speaker at our meeting. Bethany is the author of Between Us Baxters and Truth with a Capital T which will be published by Delacorte Press in the fall. Bethany captivated us with a talk about plot structure and the six key scenes every manuscript should have.

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’m so thankful to be part of this awesome children’s writing community.

Today marks the paperback release of A Thousand Never Evers (Yearling, 2009)! I’m so excited to report that the Interactive Reader Guide is up and running on my site as well. Please check it out!

The Interactive Reader Guide features chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, links to 1963 newspaper articles, and riveting video interviews with people who lived through civil rights history. There are also many current-day  photographs of the Mississippi Delta.

I designed the guide especially for educators using the book in the classroom or anyone leading a book club discussion about A Thousand Never Evers. You can access it through the Home page or Educator page of my website. If you want to go straight to the video interviews, click on “All Video Clips” at the bottom of the table of contents. Enjoy!

I just got a copy of the Yearling paperback edition of A Thousand Never Evers in the mail. I love this new cover!

Yearling paperback release date is December 22nd!

Now I’m furiously working to get a comprehensive and interactive reader guide up on my website by the new year.

The reader guide will also feature chapter by chapter discussion questions and important weblinks. The guide is designed so teachers either can use it in class, or assign sections for nightly homework if all students have internet access outside the classroom. Also, anyone leading a book club discussion will find a lot to yap about. Please check back at the start of 2010 to check it out!

So you know how sometimes you meet someone and you just instantly click? That’s how it was with me and Maya, my teen guide for the morning. We had breakfast together and talked about everything from middle school to books. I loved hanging out with her, and we could have talked all day except it was time for the keynote address from Libba Bray.

I hate when people say, “You had to be there.” So sorry, but you really had to be there, because I’m afraid I just can’t give over to you how fantastic this keynote was.

Libba talked about lots of things but what really got me was when she talked about what she was like as a teen and how teens are perceived by the world: frightening due to their excellent ability to call out any inauthenticity Read the rest of this entry »