CONNECTING THE WORLD: A BEACH TAIL

With the BP disaster the thick black oil threatening beaches on the gulf coast of the US and beyond, I got to thinking.  Oceans around the world connect us all and so my latest  picture book, A Beach Tail, suggests a new theme in light of that notion

Does the same water that touches Cape Cod Massachusetts also touch the shores of Europe and Africa? Asia? Did those Pelicans that we see so many images of, confused as they struggle to move, covered in a slick black death, once migrate from continent to continent?  And so too with much other wild life affected by the worst disaster in oil drilling history, the fish and sea weed.  Do some of them touch distant shores as the water does?

A Beach Tail presents a small adventure in a relatively untouched example of a one of Earth’s most important ecosystems.    What will happen to the star fish, the horse shoe crab and the ghost crab featured in this book, the sea grasses and the jelly fish?   How far reaching will the devastation be?    And for how long?  How will the fragile ecosystem and our world be changed by the torture of our oceans and beaches?

BEACHES I HAVE KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD WHERE I HAVE TOUCHED THE OCEAN:  New England, Cape Cod, Maine, New Hampshire Georgia, New York, Maryland, Spain, Italy, France, Haiti, Kenya...

From the Dump to E-Books

My good writing friend Leslie G. found a copy of my long out of print mid- grade novel,  Applebaum's Garage, at the dump in Duxbury Mass.   Am I upset about this?  Not at all.  I love the concept that a dump and have a book exchange.  

And to top it off the two main characters in my book love junk as much as I do.  I am sure that Jeremy and Mr.  Applebaum(a man after my Grandfathers heart who taught me to look at junk creatively) would enjoy the Duxbury Dump as much as Leslie and I do.

The D. Dump is a dump to die for.  It has the garbage sorted and an actual "library" of sorts for the the books that are...well... dumped there.  There is other stuff outside too..anything and everything that some might not want and people like me need.

Around about the same time Leslie found this treasure which I wrote, at the dump, I was offered a contract for three of my books to become e-books.  One of the books,  One Thing I'm Good At, is out of print, another midgrade novel(they are hot at the moment by the way).

The other two are picture books.  I am told that the technology is not quite ready for the PBs to go into e-book format.  But the novel can be available when I sign the contract.  

I have also been told that having my books on e-books will only make the interest in hardcopies of my books great....I am not sure about that.  

But I do worry about those of us who find great joy in treasures, especially books, found at the dump or junk shop or second- hand store.  How will we find the joy of "THE FIND" in cyber space?

Of course the author doesn't get paid for books sold second hand OR found at the dump but the pennies we make on an e-book are not going to make us rich either. 

In the meantime I am gearing up for another move.  I have to part with some books(to make room for new finds) and I wish I had the Duxbury Dump nearby in Pittsburgh.  But then I just might come home with more books than I dump...and one of them might be my own!  And who knows Applebaum's Garage might find it's way to e-book format.

Hey! What's that on Your Shirt???

My Name is Sangoel inspires students at one of my recent school visits.

And what would you share?  See how Four Feet, Two Sandals also inspired these students.

And Galimoto reaches new heights of creativity!

Something Like a Poem

In early May I took 12 students from the Chatham University graduate program in creative writing to Spain.  We stayed at Hort de Gloria near the village of Sella about 40 minutes from Alicante.  We hiked and rock climbed, kayaked in the sea, visited Grenada and worked on the organic farm.

We decided that pruning olive trees was much like writing a poem; a lot of hard work, all about paring down,  and shape.  You choose your cuts carefully.  Ultimately you have trimmed through the mess of branches and leaves to something that will yield a more satisfying harvest. Always a work in progress.

A Beach Tail Compared to Crockett Johnson!

See review below:

A BEACH TAIL by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Floyd Cooper. 2010

Fans of Crockett Johnson’s classic, Harold and the Purple Crayon, will find some of the same endearing exploratory themes in this realistic story of a young boy with a stick who takes a linear journey into the unknown and back. When Gregory draws a lion in the sand at the beach, his father gives him permission to play, but he cannot go in the water and he cannot leave the lion. Gregory draws the lion’s tail longer and longer, until he realizes he has strayed far from his father’s umbrella. He follows the tail back to where he started and where his father has been watching all along. This story will capture the imagination of young children longing to explore on their own. Gregory’s mild anxiety when he realizes he has strayed too far is resolved by his own resourcefulness, an ending young readers will find safe and satisfying. The close-up illustrations of Gregory carry readers along as if they are at his side, and the sandy appearance of the drawings reflects the beach setting perfectly. This is a reassuring tale of adventure. Recommended. Jennifer MacKay, Senior Content Editor, American Book Publishing. Salt Lake City, UT 

Two Chapbooks of Poems just published

The publishing class in the creative writing program at Chatham recently published two chapbooks of my poems.

One a book of nature poems and the other a book of poems about Haiti.

Contact me for more information.

Sangoel Nominated for the Carol W. Field award! And More....

My Name is Sangoel has been nominated for the Carol W. Field award by the Pennsylvania Library Association.  This is an exciting honor.  Check it out at http://palayouthservices.blogspot.com/2010/03/carolyn-field-nominees-selected.html.

And see this review of A Beach Tail in  Booklist.  Gotta love the line, " Williams always takes readers on a worthwhile journey...."

Issue: April 15, 2010

A Beach Tail.

Williams, Karen Lynn (Author) , Cooper, Floyd (Illustrator)

Feb 2010. 32 p. Boyds Mills, hardcover, $17.95. (9781590787120).

The titular tail refers here to a lion drawn in the sand by Gregory, an intrepid boy who, in extending the tail

with a stick, winds up exploring a broad length of beach without quite disobeying his dad’s directive to not

wander way. As the boy goes further and further, he comes across such common seaside sights as a

jellyfish, a crumbling sand castle, a horseshoe crab, and a ghost crab. Finally realizing the distance he has

traveled, he traces his tail, with its swirls and zigzags, back past the objects he has found. Williams, who

always takes readers on a worthwhile journey, accentuates her straightforward telling with the repetitive

sounds of the shore (“Swish-swoosh”), which also punctuate Gregory’s embellishments of the long tail.

Cooper’s warm, peachy-brown palette splendidly evokes the seaside setting, and his talent for expressive

faces and texture (he won the 2009 Coretta Scott King Award for The Blacker the Berry) works to draw in

viewers. A lovely collaboration suited for every collection.

— Karen Cruze