Stretchy Librarian

A few days ago, I spent a beautiful Saturday indoors sitting in the hard chairs of a 25-year old middle school auditorium, learning about What’s New in Children’s Literature from Dr. Peggy Sharp. Peg is the consummate professional speaker, delivering the entire workshop, (which she already seems to have memorized), without an “um” or a snafu with her huge pile of transparencies. She led us through her 152 page handout, touching on a title here and a title there. SO MANY GOOD BOOKS! I already have close to 500 of the 2006 titles upstairs in my writing room, and it was interesting for me to see what she left out as well as what was included.

 I’m reading the front of Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3, by Judy Freeman. The book is weighty with its 916 pages and terrific titles and book connections. Judy has a breezy but incisive writing style, and has recommendations for more than 1700 books! Her house must be edged with book cases the way a bird lines its nest with feathers. In fact, Judy would probably agree with the quote that Peggy headed her handout with:

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” Anna Quindlen, author

A grant from Fund for Teachers (thank you!) and part of my book’s advance are paying to have a mural painted in my school library of two pages from Substitute Groundhog. I will post photos soon.

What was once only mental images in my imagination are now six foot figures via Kathi Ember’s illustrations painted (with permission) by 3 artists from Trace of Art. They’ve been painting for six days now and are half finished. The layers of paint, the shading, the outlining with tiny brushes–it’s a complex process that the students get to see each day. Groundhog and all his friends will be a part of the Creech library long after I am gone, and that fills me with warm satisfaction.

Have you heard of them? Millenials is the name given to the generation born at the turn of this 21st century and later. Much research has been done already–scanning their eyeballs to see how they read a Web page, checking their use of their brain (they make better use of their gray matter), they cooperate and work together more but have less general knowledge and they are harder workers and better students than the Gen X that preceeded them. Or so this latest article in Texas Library Journal indicates.

For those reasons, it gives me a kick to see how many Boomer grandmothers are buying Substitute Groundhog for their millenial grandkids. Gen X parents are buying them for their kids. It’s reassuring that some things still cross the generations–like the joy of lap reading, sharing a humorous story, and rereading a book one loves. I am so new to hearing from my readers that the novelty and the praise really thrill me. This is definitely the fun part of the writing process!

I had the great joy of reading an advance copy of Substitute Groundhog to my students. I hadn’t told them anything about it, so when I began reading, they were caught by surprise to discover I wrote the book. They were delighted when I read the dedication, which is to my own chldren and to my students at Sue Creech Elementary They had so many questions. “Are you rich now? Are you going to write another one? How long did it take you to write it?” One boy yelled out indignantly, ”Why didn’t you tell me before now?!”

At our book fair a few days later, I sold 161 copies, and autographed them all. It was richly satisfying to sign the books, knowing each was going to one of my students or someone in their family. One copy was traveling back with a visiting former student to Australia.

Am I rich now? Financially–no. Yes in seeing my book develop a life of its own. One mom told me her daughter kept my book under her pillow to reread each night with a flashlight. Another mother said she read it to all the siblings in the bleachers at her son’s baseball practice and they loved it. An earnest five year-old told me it was the best book she ever heard. A first grader patted my hand and told me I was famous now. The 29 rejection letters; the many, many rewrites; and the years of persistence have all been worth the fun at the end.

I was preparing first grade to hear Oh No, Gotta Go! (Susan Elya, Putnam, 2003). To connect the book to their experience, I asked, “When you need a bathroom, where do you stop when you are away from home?” There were a number of expected answers before one of my earnest cherubs answered, “The grass”. I quickly opened the book and began, “We were out driving, down the camino…”

Before I read a story aloud, I activate student’s prior experiences and knowledge (schema). I sat in my rocking chair, talking with kindergartners before reading a large, appealing book called A Splendid Friend Indeed (Suzanne Bloom, Boyds’ Mills Press, 2005.) I was enjoying the session and the children seemed motivated and involved. Evidently it was all too much for one little girl, who suddenly yelled loudly, “Would you just READ the book?!”

I recently went to the Texas Library Association’s annual conference and entered most of the vendor contests. Two weeks later, I saw an e-mail from Junior Library Guild in my e-mail, so I thought I won one of their prizes. When I opened the e-mail, it asked me to please send a photo and autobiographical sketch for their catalog. WOW! I must have won some kind of special prize! Would someone come to my school with cameras and a giant cardboard check?

Wait–their grand prize was a basket of books, so that couldn’t be it. Why would they need info about me for their catalog? UNLESS…(!) I wrote to Wendy McClure, my editor at Albert Whitman, with a terse question. “I heard from JLG today. Is this what I think it is?” Her answer was even more terse, “Yes it is.”

Amazingly, my Substitute Groundhog has been named as a JLG book of the month for January 2007! It will be in the Primary Plus (love that Plus) category. Junior Library Guild is like Oprah books for the school crowd. JLG prides itself on its track record of picking Caldecott, Newbery and other winners long before they receive their medals. I am delighted that my first children’s book has been so honored. I see hundreds of new books and am still incredulous that mine was chosen from such a wide field of superior children’s books. It’s like getting a giant cardboard check in front of cameras.