• Readers Write Viola’s Next Chapter

    Megan, 9th grader, Gorham High in Maine, wrote "College." She is from Burundi.

    Megan, 9th grader, Gorham High in Maine, wrote “College.” She is from Burundi.

    Heather Flanders, ELL Specialist at Gorham High School in Maine sent me two stories.  She wrote, “I hope you are as moved as I was,” and I was. The stories were written by her students Amna and Megan, their own visions of the next chapter in my novel The Good Braider.   Amna is from Kharotum, Megan is from Burundi. In their chapters, they imagine Viola supported by her grandmother’s “power to believe” and as a high school senior on her way to college and willing to take on the hard task of writing essays. Amna and Megan have their own bright futures.

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  • Wings for a Flower author interview

    Cut-paper illustration, Chenai, India street scene, by Ellen Gaffney

    Cut-paper illustration, Chenai, India street scene, by Ellen Gaffney

    Ellen Gaffney’s picture book WINGS FOR A FLOWER tells a story of disability and freedom. I have a friend so close he is like my brother. He has never walked and from the time he was a toddler he got around in a Lotus Dreamingwheelchair.  I had not thought about what a person would do if they couldn’t get a wheel chair which I’ve learned is true for 100 million people around the world. Ellen tells the story of a child in India named Lotus who becomes ill and loses her ability to walk. READ MORE

  • “Children of War”

    I’m shaping  a new program I offer in schools and communities. Through documentary photos, oral history of refugees, reports of on-the-scene war correspondents, and readings from The Good Braider,  I takes listeners on the journey of children and their families out of war in South Sudan. The program is called  ”Children of War”  & captures the larger picture of contemporary displacement of populations due to conflict. Some documentary photographers and have granted permission to show their stunning photos in schools.

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  • Librarians on Verse Novels

     

    For a School Library Journal  article,  I interviewed many librarians about their recommendations of verse novels to kids and teens in their libraries.  And I interviewed many writers about their process in writing verse novels.   A new direction was given to the article by SLJ and a lot of these wonderful speakers are not in the final piece.  The editor’s advice – Librarians know all that.  Tell them some inside story  about you,  something only they will know if they read this piece. So I scratched my head and tried to imagine that.

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  • Children’s Literature and Adult Literacy

     

    Terry Farish and interpreter Nilhari BhandariFor five year it has been my great joy, and challenge, to direct the adult literacy program of the New Hampshire Humanities Council. The NH Humanities Council Newsletter features an article  I wrote on bringing children’s literature to adults learning English.  I wrote about our work with adult students and the goal of the book discussion program that is the cornerstone of our literacy work.  The  article is a reflection on bringing children’s literature to adults.  As of  July, I am not longer on the staff of the Humanities Council but I support the ongoing work   and cheer on my colleague every day.