Of Books and Boys and Other Stuff » events

Heading to ALA

W.H. Beck — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:07:22 +0000

Yes, I am! In fact, I’m presenting there. And signing books (Lerner booth, Sunday 12:15). Come see me! Here’s the scoop on the presentation:

Nonfiction Book Blast!

Sunday, July 12, 2009
Convention Center Room W181
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
ALA Annual Conference, Chicago

wiki at http://nfbookblast.pbworks.com/

Track: Children & Young Adults; Literature & Collection Development

Despite the emphasis on fiction for leisure reading in schools, many reluctant readers are often more drawn to reading nonfiction. Expand your nonfiction repertoire as 17 authors booktalk their latest work.

Panelists include award-winning and acclaimed authors April Pulley Sayre (Vulture View), Kelly Halls (Albino Animals), and Carla McClafferty (Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium), as well as many additional prolific or brand new authors. Their booktalks, plus new ones crafted by audience members, will be yours to take back home to excite your students about reading nonfiction.

The Nonfiction Book Blast speakers (click on name for author website and title for book description) who will join moderator Sharon Mitchell, include:

Lisa Rondinelli Albert, Stephenie Meyer: Author of the Twilight Saga (Enslow Publishers, May 2009), So You Want to Be a Film or TV Actor (Enslow Publishers, 2008)

Mary Bowman-Kruhm, The Leakeys: A Biography (Prometheus Books, 2009)

Laura Crawford, In Arctic Waters (Sylvan Dell Publishing), The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving From A to Z (Pelican Publishing), Postcards From Chicago (Raven Tree Press)

Jeri Chase Ferris, With Open Hands: The Story of Biddy Mason (Lerner), Arctic Explorer: Matthew Henson (Lerner)

Kelly Milner Halls, Dinosaur Parade (Lark/Sterling Publishers, 2008), Saving the Baghdad Zoo (HarperCollins/Greenwillow, 2009), Tales of the Cryptids (Darby Creek Publishing, 2006)

Amy S. Hansen, Bugs and Bugsicles: Insects in the Winter (Boyds Mills Press, 2010), Touch the Earth (NASA and NFB, 2009)

Gwendolyn Hooks, Makers and Takers (Rourke Publishing, 2008)

Katherine L. House, Lighthouses for Kids: History, Science, and Lore with 21 Activities (Chicago Review Press, 2008)

Patricia K. Kummer, The Great Barrier Reef (Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2009), The Great Lakes (Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2009), North Korea and South Korea (two books) (Scholastic/Children’s Press, 2008)

Suzanne Lieurance, The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and Sweatshop Reform in American History (Enslow Publishers, Inc.)

JoAnn Early Macken, Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move (Holiday House, 2008)

Carla Killough McClafferty, In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)

Wendie Old, The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun (Albert Whitman), The Groundhog Day Book of Facts and Fun (Albert Whitman)

April Pulley Sayre, Honk, Honk, Goose: Canada Geese Start a Family (Henry Holt, 2009)

Anastasia Suen, Wired (Charlesbridge, 2007), The U.S. Supreme Court (Picture Window Books)

Christine Taylor-Butler, SACRED MOUNTAIN: Everest (Lee and Low Books, 2009)

Rebecca Hogue Wojahn and Donald Wojahn, Follow That Food Chain (Lerner, 2009)

Out and About

W.H. Beck — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:35:03 +0000

Working full time in a school means it’s hard to visit other schools and events as an author. At least during the school year. But I’ve squeezed in a couple this spring.

Here I am at the WEMTA Authors Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. (That’s Kashmira Sheth next to me.) I attended as a media specialist, but moonlighted as an author Sunday night. It was a great event (and conference), with over 40 Wisconsin authors and illustrators. And we got to watch the ice go out on Lake Monona from the huge windows of the Monona Terrace Convention Center!

In April, I was part of a local reading celebration for university students and their elementary-age reading partners and the middle school Literacy Leaders group, hosted by Reading Partners Coordinator, Lucianne Boardman. We talked writing with students, signed books, and even put on a readers theater of Where the Wild Things Are. (Photos thanks to Julie Bowe.)

Katie McKy, Julie Bowe, Marybeth Lorbiecki, me

(from left) Marsha Qualey, Pat Schmatz, me

I think I scared off more would-be writers than encouraged them when I shared the amount of research we did for our Follow That Food Chain series!

Look, our act made it in the Publishers Weekly’s Children’s Bookshelf newsletter!

Next up, a presentation and signing at the American Library Association conference in Chicago!

Write by Night

W.H. Beck — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:24:56 +0000

Eek! There’s an interview with Don and me about our Last Night for Dinner series in our local arts/entertainment newspaper, Volume One. It’s out now so you can pick it up when you’re out and about. Or go read it here. (But only if you promise to promptly erase any memory of what I look like in that first photo.)

Also, if you click on the pink “Related in Print” link to the right of the article online, you can see a couple pages from the Temperate Forest book.

Got Any Spare Change?

W.H. Beck — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:32:46 +0000

Whew! After a whirlwind week of hosting our school’s bookfair and rejoicing in the ALA Awards news (besides RULES, we were really excited FLOTSAM won the Caldecott), I’ve been gearing up for the Big Penny, the district-wide fundraiser for our public library’s extension of the children’s room that starts next week. We’re trying to collect a million pennies! Here’s a photo is of me and some of the fabulous youth services staff at the public library. It went out in a press release last week.

I’m in the photo because, besides being the guardian of the penny jug at my school, a chapter of my forthcoming Dr. Kate book has been distributed to all the participating schools as an accompanying read aloud. (Read along!) Yesterday I shared it with the 4th grade classes–it was the first time I’ve read my writing aloud to kids who aren’t related to me. Gulp. But–what fun! They didn’t get too squirmy, had great questions, and are now primed to dive into their couch cushions for extra coins.

Let me know if you want to send some coins our way. We’ll be mapping “exotic” postmarks.