1. It’s shiny. 2. The cover has Christmas colors. 3. Mistletoe is romantic. So is the book. 4. Sprinkle it with seeds and water, and it becomes a ChiaBook. 5. […]
A few years ago I attended Kate Messner’s Swinger of Birches writing retreat on Lake Champlain for the first time. Many authors I met there have become writer pals for […]
Since 2010, I’ve visited Chenery Middle School in Belmont, MA every year to give author presentations and creative writing workshops to the fifth grade. […]
Hannah Barnaby, acclaimed author of Wonder Show (2012, Houghton) was my first graduate school writing mentor. She slogged with me through the jungle of the first novel I ever wrote, […]
What do picture book The Day the Crayons Quit and middle grade novel Counting by 7s have in common? Absolutely nothing. Except that they’re both published by Penguin, and that […]
I was lucky to attend the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, IL June 29-July 1. It was my first ALA trip. Big thanks go to Penguin’s school and […]
I love giving away bookmarks at signings, school visits, and events. I insist on illustrated bookmarks, because beautiful illustrations are one of the chief delights of children’s books. There’s no […]
Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby (Houghton Mifflin, 2012) is a young adult novel as engrossing as its Depression-era carnival freak show backdrop. Portia Remini watches as the adults in her […]
This week I attended Book Expo America at the Javits Center in Manhattan to promote my fall YA release, All the Truth That’s In Me. It was my first time […]
A useful and highly readable point of entry into the history of the Albigensian Crusade, a less-known chapter in 13th Century history wherein Pope Innocent III and his successors authorized […]