Why I write for Children

I recently had this email from a fellow author of books for children. Here is what she has to say about My Name is Sangoel and her experience using it in the classroom. The second part give me shivers:

I really do love that book. When schools ask for modeling on response to

literature, that's one of the three books I always grab off my shelf.

Some of my favorite responses have been the character responses. Sangoel is

brave and then they offer up 3-4 examples from the text where they thought

he acted in a brave way. Or, Sangoel was clever, and again they provide

evidence from the text.

One of the most powerful responses I read was a personal response from a 5th

grade boy who said how his brother had given him a nickname that now

everyone knew and used and how it made him feel on the inside whenever he

heard it. This student offered to share what he had written and when he

completed the response several kids in the room looked at him and said,

"I'll never call you that again. Promise."

A Beach Tail Now a Recorded Book

A Beach Tail is now available on Recorded books performed by Dion Graham. Unabridged with a second track included with page turn signals.

Check it out on line or from:

Recorded Books

270 Skipjack Road

Prince Frederick, MD 20678

1-800-638-1304

A Birthday and an Obituary

It is a good thing to google yourself once in while. I try to do it regularly. It is a great way to procrastinate and also to find out where you stand in the world arena. Do you come up first on the search engines? Is that person really you? How many pages of you are there on Google?

The last time I looked I was amazed to find out they were celebrating my birthday in Australia. And this really was me. I think this is a great idea and everyone should be celebrated in this way. Also everyone should celebrate my birthday and forget my age ;-).

Happily the next entry on Google after the birthday was an obituary for well.... not me, but Karen Lynn Williams. I was relieved to find out that it was an article about the death of a different KLW and I am still around to write and celebrate more birthdays although I did give a moment of silent thought to the family whose lost another Karen Lynn Williams. It seems there are many of us out there.

See below for the blog that describes my birthday celebration in Australia! Perhaps we should all celebrate a Harmony Day ...everyday.

KINDERBOOKSWITHEVERYTHING

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2011

22nd March Karen Lynn Williams (1952)

Yesterday at school we celebrated Harmony Day with a visit from a wonderful group of people from the Torres Straits. Harmony Day is celebrated around Australia on 21 March each year. It's a day where all Australians celebrate our cultural diversity. The day is also the United Nation's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The message for Harmony Day in 2011 is that Everyone Belongs, which means all Australians are a welcome part of our country, regardless of their background. Our school has extended this message to become Harmony Week. This is extremely fitting given that the school community is quite homogenous and needs to be made more aware of cultural diversity.

Today is American author Karen Lynn Williams'birthday. She is the perfect author for this week as she has lived and worked in developing countries and worked tirelessly with refugees in her own country. She has written widely based on her experience and her books certainly help in the quest to eliminate racial discrimination. We have three of her books (pictured) in our library perfect for discussion on a variety of topics from racism, sexism, inclusion to family similarities if it is with very young children. You can read blurbs, reviews and teaching suggestions for the books on her website.

Dying wool in the canyon

It's still all about writing. On Monday I drove my little black jeep through mounds of sand with Winnie Henry. We picked the leaves from a black walnut tree,the same one her mother used to pick from for dye, snake weed and rabbit bush.

Back at her old stone Hogan we stoked up the ancient propane stove and set the water to boil while we picke the leaves off the branches and sat outside sharing stories. Two old grannies outside the Hogan in the canyon. Drop the wool in, stir it around. It is very exciting to see what color it will be. Winne has created a monster. I walk on the mesa an eye every plant as a potential dye for wool for my next rug.Sharing stories and dying wool. The wool will end up in a rug. I hope the stories end up in a book or many books. Maybe not what we did and how we did it but the place, the sense and the feel of it all, the details. I am learning the place and the people. It is all research, all life. This is the place where Spider woman gave weaving to the Navajo and I am connected, honored to have this opportunity.

Beatrice's Dream Reviewed by IBBY

A nice endorsement from and important organization in the world of Children's books:

Beatrice’s Dream
Karen Lynn Williams, photog. Wendy Stone, London: Frances Lincoln Children’s
Books, hb. 978 1 8478 0019 0, £11.99, 2011, 32pp.
A heart-warming and down-to-earth look at the life of Beatrice from the Kibera slum in
Nairobi, Kenya.
The matter-of-fact tone of the book enables readers to be grateful for their own style of
living and at the same time admire Beatrice’s determination to better her life and give
back to her community. Issues that affect children the world over are handled in a
sensitive manner, enabling teachers and children to explore their own feelings. We were
surprised at the insightful and thoughtful comments the children made as a result of
sharing the book together. The gentle humour in the book made us smile.
The photographs encourage the reader to be curious and to want to learn more about
Kibera. Children can easily draw the parallels between their lives and that of Beatrice,
the similarities and differences. Unlike Beatrice’ s description of parallel lines ‘never
meeting even if you follow them up to Heaven’, in this book there is a sense of hope that
we can work towards a future where our parallel lives do meet through education, both
in the Kenyan slums and around the world.
An uplifting, sensitive and thought-provoking book much enjoyed by Years 4 and 6.
Vicki Willingham

This is the International Board on Books for Young people. Check out the site: http://www.ibby.org/

One Thing I'm good At on E-books

I have a sony Reader. My husband gave it to me for Christmas two years ago. He has many books on that reader. I have not even opened it yet. This is in part due to the fact that I love books, real books made out of paper, the ones where you turn pages. I have piles of them unread at my bedside, on the coffee table, at my desk so that is another reason I have not turned on the reader. I need to read those books first.

But now I have have a book on e-books. Will e-books bring Julie and Bean back to life? Does this mean I can drag out the manuscript for the sequel to this book and complete it? Will schools invite me to speak because one of my YA books is back in print (sort of). Who will have access to this book now? Only those with enough cash to buy a reader? There are some opportunities out there and I guess I had better get used to them. On the other hand does this mean that now the author must write the book PUBLISH IT herself and promote it too? And will she be paid? It remains to be seen how the dust will settle after this shake up in the publishing world. For now I guess I can celebrate entering this new phase of publishing. But I will still read that stack of books at my bedside before I open my reader unless it is to download ONE THING I'M GOOD AT. :-).

Enlarge Image One Thing I'm Good At By Karen Lynn Williams On Sale: 1/4/2011 Formats: eBook Single-Click Shopping: See More Retailers Book Description Nothing seems to be going right for Julie Dorinsky. Her best friend, Abby is hanging with the gifted crowd, while Julie's struggling to keep up in school. She can't even read the notes Abby passes her in class. It seems as if everybody, from her snooty older sister, Alexia, to her baby brother, Bean, is smarter than she is. There must by one thing she's good at. In One Thing I'm Good At, Karen Lynn Williams has created a warm and winning portrait of a young girl discovering her hidden talents.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Julie Dorinsky believes she is "a dumb kid who couldn't do anything right." In fact, little seems to be going right for this fourth-grader. A shaky speller and slow reader, she's afraid to show her parents her stack of "poor work" school papers and she is losing her best friend to the class snob. Things are equally rocky on the home front. Julie's father is recovering from a heart attack, so her mother has taken a secretarial job and often seems "tired or upset or busy." Once Julie's confidante, her older sister, Alexia, is now dismissive and condescending ("You are so stupid!... You can't even take a phone message!" she screams when Julie takes down a caller's name and number incorrectly). At times, the girl's ineptitude is overblown, and most readers will quickly pick up on the ways Julie positively influences her bright and likable four-year-old brother. She patiently teaches him to write his name, make a kite and dial 911. When their father passes out and the boy phones in a life-saving call for help, it becomes clear to everyone--especially Julie--that the one thing she is good at is teaching. Williams (Galimoto) delivers an encouraging message for any middle-grader short on confidence and self-esteem. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Grade 3-5-Fourth-grader Julie thinks of herself as a real loser. She has trouble reading and she can't spell. She has "poor work" papers that need a parent's signature, but she doesn't want to upset her father, who has recently had a heart attack. She finds herself leading a life of lies, pretending that she's capable of reading difficult books, saying that she has finished her homework, and telling her sister that their father has already seen the test she failed. Then her teacher assigns an essay on "One Thing I'm Good At." Julie is discouraged, believing there is nothing she excels in, but when her father passes out, her four-year-old brother credits Julie with having previously taught him to call 911. She begins to feel better about herself, knowing that what she did helped to save her father's life. Williams has created a cast of realistic characters that includes a crabby teenager, a frustrated substitute, and a teacher's pet. A satisfying story with an important message about self-image.
Anne Knickerbocker, Cedar Brook Elementary School, Houston, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

More Awards and Connections

Four Feet and Sangoel (A Beach Tail too)still making friends and connections around the country and winning awards:

Khadra, founder of the Pittsburgh Refugee Center and coauthor of Four Feet Two Sandals and Sangoel reports on a teacher in North Carolina whose classroom read Four Feet Two Sandals. She said they were so inspired by the book that they wanted to donate sandals to PRC. We were pleasantly surprised yesterday when a huge box of brand new sandals came to our door with a note that had been signed by all the students. It was so sweet, we were all very happy about it. There are so many sandals!(photo Khadra and office manager).

And this from Arkansas: Congratulations, your book "My Name Is Sangoel" has been chosen for the Arkansas Diamond Award List for K-3 students in the 2011-2012 school year. There are a total of 14 books on this reading list. Students must read at least three of these books before they are eligible to vote for 'book of the year' in April 2012. For nearly 20 years we have over viewed this list of books with the librarians and some teachers before the next school year. We prepare an overview document covering each book, something about the author.

Check it out here: http://apsd.k12.ar.us/~murphyk/Diamond%20Award%20Page.htm

Bravo to all those teacher and librarians and parents who work so hard to make reading and books a priority for children everywhere. And Bravo to Sangoel!

And this note from a reader and talented author:

Hi Karen,

Yesterday, I bought your picture book A Beach Tail from BBGB children’s book store in Richmond VA where I live. It’s so beautiful like all of your work. I’m a huge fan of yours and especially love Tap-Tap and Circles of Hope. I treasure my copies dearly! I only spent any time in Haiti once for a few weeks in 1990.

Your view of the world just makes me happy. (I especially like this part ;-) ) I’ve recently completed my first historical fiction about the blacksmith Gabriel who organized a slave revolt here in Richmond in 1800. Candlewick will publish it next year. I wanted Gabriel’s story to subtly entwine with Haiti’s story and Circles of Hope helped me see how to begin to trace that connection.

Just wanted to say Hi and thank you for your writing.

Yours truly,
gigi

Gigi Amateau
web: www.gigiamateau.com
blog: www.bufflehead.wordpress.com

Check out Gigi's Web and blog! This is a great example of how the creative writing process works and it is all about connecting. And problem solving. "I wanted Gabriel's story to subtly entwine with Haiti's story and Circles of Hope helped me see how to begin to trace that connection." Thanks Gigi!