Author Event Recap: Angeline Boulley

Last night, for the first time in over two years, I attended an in-person author event. I could have cried from happiness. 

And to have the author be the current Printz award winner, Angeline Boulley, made it that much better. Hearing Angeline speak tonight made me even all the more certain that Firekeeper’s Daughter was the perfect choice for the 2022 Printz Award. 

The first thing she told us that blew everyone's minds was that the inspiration for the story was actually a small kernel of something that happened in her own life... when she was in high school, she had a friend in another town that kept trying to set her up with this guy because she thought he was her perfect type. For some reason though, it never worked out that they could meet. A little while later, Angeline was like, "Oh, it's too bad you were never able to set me up with that guy," And her friend said, "Oh yeah... that wouldn't have worked out. We found out he was actually an FBI agent posing as a student." That moment always stayed with her and she always wondered, "What would have happened if I HAD been set up with that guy?" which led her to write Firekeeper's Daughter. 

Something a lot of people question about reading this book is the time period in which it is set: the early 2000s. She talked about three very specific reasons for why she set it in that time period: 

1) Meth was starting to explode across rural America

2) Casinos were starting to become an important business for native communities across Michigan

3) She needed GPS to exist but still be imprecise

Finally, I loved what she said about writing as an indigenous author, not for the white gaze, but as a way to honor her community. So for example, she pushed back on her editor's request to include a glossary in the back of the book and said that if she did her job as an author then the reader could pick up those meanings in context while also recognizing that we shouldn't always assume that the default reader is white. She also said something really profound that I had to write down in my notes app on my phone: 

I write to preserve my culture. 

I edit to protect it.

I think it is safe to say that she has both preserved and protected her culture in this beautiful book and I can't wait to read more of her work in the future. 

Josh Funk author event at Bookbug

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a book event for Josh Funk's newest book The Case of the Stinky Stench at Bookbug in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Josh is one of the nicest authors you will ever meet. He cares passionately about children's literature and is a huge supporter of teachers and librarians. As evidenced by him buying a copy of Timmy Failure for me and my Nerdy friends Kathy Burnette, and Niki Barnes when he discovered not only had we not read the series, but it wasn't in our school libraries either.

So if you're not familiar with Josh's books, let me get you up to speed:

Pirasaurs


Dear Dragon


Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast


The Case of the Stinky Stench



Josh's books just beg to be read aloud, so if you don't have any of them in your classroom or school library, get on that right now.

A few pictures from Josh's author event:

Josh reads from Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast

With my Nerdy pals Kathy and Nikki

Pancake cupcakes

Nikki, Kathy, me, and Carrie with Josh

A Sick Day and a Visit with One of My Favorite Authors: Just What the Doctor Ordered

I've been feeling very overwhelmed, tired, and rundown lately. So it's probably no surprise that has resulted in a compromised immune system and me trying to fight off a cold for an entire week. Every day I kept telling myself, "Tomorrow I'll feel better." But tomorrow never came so on Friday I decided I needed a day to do nothing and try to recover. I took a sick day and just sat around the house, cuddled with my two pugs, and read books.

Books & pug cuddles: my sick day Rx

That proved to be just what the doctor ordered because by late afternoon, I was starting to feel human again. And that was lucky because one of my all-time favorite author/illustrators, Adam Rex, was coming to town to do an event at Nicola's Books for his new book School's First Day of School and I had made plans to meet up with him after his school visits were over that day.

And so, my friend Mitch Nobis, a fellow Adam Rex fan, along with my husband met up for tapas and drinks at one of my favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor and had a lovely evening discussing everything from picture books (what REALLY happens at the end of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole?) to politics (how do we help students to think critically when everyone seems to be getting their news through a partisan lens these days?). And suddenly I'm reminded yet again why I love living in Ann Arbor.

Great conversation and great company over tapas

Oh and Adam even came bearing gifts. :)

Barf bag art. It's a thing.

On Saturday Adam along with Christian Robinson, who illustrated School's First Day of School, held their author/illustrator event at Nicola's Books. Adam is an illustrator himself, but decided he wanted to try something different by just writing the book and finding someone else to do the illustrations. I'd say he hit the jackpot with the newly crowned Caldecott honor illustrator Christian Robinson.

Reading from School's First Day of School

Christian reads from Gaston, a book he illustrated and Michigan author Kelly DiPucchio (who was in the audience) wrote.

Christian and Adam drawing Pikachu and The Hulk playing football

So despite the fact that most of this past week has been rather rough and tumble for me as I've tried to resurrect my compromised immune system, it turns out that a sick day, pug cuddles, books, and conversations with friends new and old over dinner was just what I needed to return to the land of the living. Thanks Adam and Christian -- and of course Macmillan -- for bringing your book tour to Michigan and to Nicola's Books.

So ummm yeah... I got a lot of books signed

Read my reviews of Adam Rex books:
The True Meaning of Smekday
Chloe and the Lion

Read my interview with Adam Rex back in 2011 for The True Meaning of Smekday

And who could forget this amazing and hilarious gesture Adam did for my students back in 2012: 


Read my review of Christian's Caldecott honor book (and also Newbery medal-winning):
Last Stop on Market Street

Book event: Kathleen Flinn talks about Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good at Nicola's Books

Kathleen Flinn is the bestselling author of The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry as well as The Kitchen Counter Cooking School. This week her newest memoir, Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family, hit shelves. Since Flinn is from Michigan, she did an event at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor on Wednesday and regaled attendees with stories from her life as a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris as well as her family history and how her love of food and storytelling came about.

What I loved so deeply about Flinn's newest memoir, is that it really speaks to this idea of food being a catalyst for storytelling. I envision using this book as a mentor text with my students to get them thinking about telling their own family stories. They could bring in a family recipe and not just talk about the dish, but also the story behind it, because truly, all family recipes have a story. And each chapter of this book is Flinn doing just that: taking family recipe and sharing its story with great panache, love, and humor. If I can transfer that love and humor somehow to my students' writing, I envision a classroom full of students with open hearts and watering mouths. 

Author, chef, and maker of balloon animals, Kathleen Flinn shares a lovely, intimate evening at Nicola's Books

Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family by Kathleen Flinn
Published: August 18, 2014
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 267
Genre: Memoir
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher

90 Second Reads at Nicola's Books

On Tuesday evening, I attended an awesome YA author event at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor. Gae Polisner, author of The Summer of Letting Go and The Pull of Gravity, was visiting Michigan for a sports event her son was participating in, and so she reached out to Nicola's to do a group author event that she calls 90 Second Reads.

The way 90 Second Reads came about stems from an experience when Gae was invited to attend an event with a group of authors and was asked to prepare a 4-minute reading. Her reading lasted the obligatory 4 minutes, but the other authors went way beyond the 4-minute mark, which got her thinking, "Do people really want to listen to an author read out of context for ten minutes?" Thus 90 Second Reads was born. The 90 seconds are timed by an audience participant and if the author goes over their allotted 90 seconds, they receive a ding with a bell until they stop.

The brave souls who participated along with Gae were Beth Neal, Carrie Harris, and Lara Zielin. It was a fun, interactive evening, and best of all, a group of Nerdy Book Club friends were lucky enough to hang out with Gae and Carrie afterwards.

The 90-Second Reads crew: Lara Zielin, Beth Neal, Gae Polisner, and Carrie Harris

Carrie Harris gives me the best signed book in my collection, an homage to my famous maple bacon ice cream

The Nerdy Book Club crew: Sarah Andersen, me, Jessica Crawford, Gae Polisner, and Brian Wyzlic - I find the pig mural in the background quite amusing (photo credit: Gae Polisner)

Carrie Harris and Gae Polisner (Photo credit: Gae Polisner)

Whaley, Reynolds, & Kiely event recap + a giveaway for teachers and librarians

Last night I attended an event at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor that included authors John Corey Whaley, Jason Reynolds, and Brendan Kiely. All three of them talked about their current books, read for a bit, and then answered questions.They were very conversational with the crowd and so it felt like we were just sitting around talking in a living room together rather than attending a reading at a bookstore. More importantly, each author made me want to immediately read their books as I listened to them give background about the story and characters, and then read a snippet from the book.

John Corey Whaley, Jason Reynolds, and Brendan Kiely + their books

After their talk, I went up to get books signed from all three authors, and as I was talking to Jason about the intriguing cover of When I Was the Greatest (which I happen to love), he mentioned that the cover is actually preventing his book from getting into schools due to zero tolerance policies (you know the ones -- where kindergartners who point their finger to mimic a gun get suspended). Nevermind that these people doing the censoring haven't even read the book. The fact that there's a gun on the cover makes it nonnegotiable.

So I decided, in some small way, I want to do something to help get this book into schools.

This is what I propose: I am going to give away a signed copy of Jason Reynolds's book When I was the Greatest here on my blog. But I'm only going to offer the giveaway to teachers and librarians with the hope that I can help get this book on a classroom or school library shelf. In order to enter the giveaway, you will need to provide a work email address that proves you work for a school, which is the email address I will use to notify you if you win.

A Spindiddly Blackberry Sunrise Evening

Yesterday afternoon I gassed up the Mustang and headed for Ohio to attend an event for author Natalie Lloyd at the Delaware County Library, sponsored by Fundamentals Parent-Teacher Store. But even better than meeting Natalie for the first time and hearing her speak, was unexpectedly getting a chance to attend a dinner with her and some of my Nerdy Book Club friends thanks to the wonderful owner of Fundamentals. And better still, I even got to sit next to Natalie at dinner and gush about what a beautiful book A Snicker of Magic is. So needless to say, yesterday's events will rate high on the list of Awesome Things That Happened in 2014.



Hearing Natalie talk last night made my heart happy. She was clearly meant to be an author. And when she said to the crowd, "Sometimes I have to stop myself and remember I'm in the middle of a dream come true," it just made us love her even more.



One of the best parts of finally getting the opportunity to meet Natalie yesterday was that I have been tinkering with a very special flavor of ice cream since I read the book back in January. That flavor would be Blackberry Sunrise of course. Well I couldn't meet her for the first time and NOT bring her my manifestation of the flavor she imagined. If you've read the book you know what a very special flavor Blackberry Sunrise is to the story: it's a flavor that conjures up memories. Sometimes they're happy memories and sometimes they're sad, depending on the sweetness of the blackberries in the batch you happen to be eating. It's also a flavor the protagonist, Felicity Pickle, has a difficult time mustering up the courage to try.

When I came to the part of the story that talks about how Blackberry Sunrise came to be, I immediately had a vision for how to make it.

"[Abigail] was kin to the Smiths -- so she knew all sorts of wild recipes -- cookies that gave people laughing fits, and punch that turned shy people feisty. Her most famous recipe had to do with memory; she baked homemade biscuits with blackberries and sugar stirred into the dough. Her blackberry biscuits helped people remember things; sometimes the memory was good and sometimes it was bad. but it needed to be remembered."

"Like the Blackberry Sunrise," I said, staring down at that infernal carton in Jonah's hands. The carton I refused to touch.

"Exactly," said Oliver. "That's where the idea for the ice cream came from."

Oliver continued, "The Honeycutts were older than most folks are when they had their baby, so they doted extra special on little Burl. He had a real creative soul, helped them name all the ice-cream flavors. Every year on Burl's birthday, his parents took him on a trail walk down by Snapdragon Pond. They'd sit on the banks beside the tall reeds and watch the sun creep higher and higher above these sleepy old mountains. One day, the sun turned the sky lavender and gray and then silver metallic. The morning glories fanned their petals. The wind blew ripples across the water. And Burl told his parents he'd never been happier. He said he wished every day could be a blackberry sunrise." (230)

Because the ice cream flavor was inspired by blackberry biscuits, I immediately knew I would try to stir some crumbled up biscuits into the ice cream base. And since the memory that inspired Blackberry Sunrise involved a lavender sky, I thought about the perfect ice cream base: Honey Lavender.

So this is a rough approximation of my version of Blackberry Sunrise (I'm very bad about measuring what can I say). Keep in mind, I make very small batches because it's only me and my husband in our house, and ice cream ends up going bad before we eat it all. I feel as if I haven't perfected this recipe yet, but it's my hope that someone else out there will also be inspired and make it better -- and if you do, please share it with me! 

Beth's Vision of a Blackberry Sunrise

Special equipment needed: ice cream maker

• 2 cups half and half 
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons dried, edible lavender flowers
• 1 carton fresh blackberries
• 1 biscuit or scone (I shamefully admit I bought a berry scone at Whole Foods for this because I am a terrible baker)

In a medium saucepan, heat the half and half, lavender, honey, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl until light yellow. Ladle some of the heated half and half mixture into the egg yolks and whisk vigorously to temper. Then add the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan. Whisk constantly (if you don't it will surely curdle -- it's happened to me on more than one occasion) on medium heat until thickened. Allow mixture to cool a few hours in fridge before churning in the ice cream maker.

Before putting the base into the ice cream maker, strain out the lavender flowers (unless you want the added floral flavor, but enough has seeped into the mixture without the actual flowers in the base). Churn the ice cream for 15 minutes and come back and check on the consistency. When the ice cream is mostly set up, this is where you add in the crumbled up biscuit and blackberries.

The first time I made this, I used whole blackberries and it was a little too overly textural for me, especially with the biscuits, so the second time I made it, I put the blackberries in a saucepan with a little bit of water and simmered them down to sort of a compote so I wasn't biting into giant pieces of blackberry. Depending on your preference, you could do either. The compote adds an extra step but makes for a smoother bite. The picture below is of my first attempt at Blackberry Sunrise where I just mixed whole blackberries into the ice cream.


Natalie tweeted a picture of the empty container this morning. I hope that means she liked it. :)

Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads welcomes Ruta Sepetys

Every year the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti district libraries choose one book for a program they call Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads. The purpose of choosing one book is "to promote reading and civic dialogue through the shared experience of reading and discussing a common book."

This year the committee chose Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray, which if you know me at all, you know how much I adored this book. And not only did I love it, but despite the fact that historical fiction is a hard sell to students, this book got passed around like a hot potato last year in my classroom (and I'm sure it would this year too if I had a classroom). Kids couldn't read it fast enough to pass it off to the next reader. It was never on my shelf.

I heard Ruta speak in 2012 when Between Shades of Gray won the Amelia Elizabeth Walden honor at the ALAN conference at NCTE in Las Vegas. Her speech moved me to tears then as it did on Tuesday night when she addressed a full auditorium at Washtenaw Community College for almost two hours, talking about how the book came to be, and what it has meant to readers all over the world.

Ruta talked about some of the difficulties she had researching the book and all the emotions that

came along with it, how the voice of one woman she interviewed, Irena, came back to haunt her as her agent was looking for a publisher. One publisher passed on the book because they said, "Well surely if this really happened someone else would have already written about it." Irena's words suddenly rang in her ears: "Ruta, this book will never be published. History has forgotten us."

As Ruta talked about the difficulty of the process of interviewing survivors, eventually she realized she needed to stop asking questions and just ask, "What would you like to share with me?" One man said to her, "I have seen hell and it is white." That's when she discovered she would never get   responses that telling by asking specific questions and just had to let them tell their stories.

Other important takeaways from Ruta's talk:

• "I wrote the book, but it's not my story." Meaning, this story belongs to history and to the people of Lithuania.
• " Together, we're adding a chapter to history books."
• "History divided us, but we're united through reading." Referring to the fact that this book has helped bring conversations among cultures that might not have ever happened before.
• Good fiction has us ask questions but doesn't force answers.

The people in attendance asked such wonderful, thought-provoking questions, such as the man who wanted to know if the book, which is published in 30 languages and 46 countries, is published in Russian. It is not. Rather telling, don't you think?

I know I tend to say this at the end of every author event recap, but I always mean it: if you ever have a chance to hear Ruta speak, please do it. She is a passionate, dynamic speaker who will get you thinking about reading and history in new ways. Despite the fact the Between Shades of Gray is a work of fiction, it has helped bring an era of history out of the dark and into our consciousness.

Read my review of Between Shades of Gray.

Watch Ruta's heartfelt interview:

Laurie Halse Anderson visits Michigan

Last night I had the privilege of attending a Laurie Halse Anderson signing at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor. If you didn't already know this about me, I am a huge Laurie Halse Anderson fan. Her books transcend age, gender, and genre preferences. Her middle grade novel Fever 1793 is the reason I was able to get so many of my students to find enjoyment in historical fiction, which most kids find mind-numbingly boring.

Last night she was here to talk about her newest book, The Impossible Knife of Memory, which I have reviewed here on the blog. As always, her words were heartfelt and judging from the standing room only crowd as well as the variety of ages in attendance, worthy of her rockstar author status.

Standing room only for Laurie Halse Anderson

Some of my favorite moments from last night

• When, after Laurie had mentioned that people have criticized Wintergirls as being a trigger for girls with eating disorders, a young girl raised her hand and said, "I just want you to know that my sister had an eating disorder and she read Wintergirls and it helped her." 
• Listening to young people tell Anderson how much they hated historical fiction until they read her books. 
• Hearing Anderson's story of why she hated English class and why she was never supposed to be an author is the perfect case for why choice reading in the classroom matters.
• When I went up to the desk to get my books signed, Laurie said without any hesitation, "Hey Beth, how are you?" Ummm... Laurie Halse Anderson knows who I am. When did this become my life?

Favorite quotes of the night

• "I tell English teachers to ease up on the dead rich white guys."
• "Teenagers don't like to read books that suck."
• "I want to be known as the queen of the elephant in the room."

If you ever have a chance to listen to Laurie Halse Anderson speak, do yourself a favor and make sure that happens. You absolutely will not regret it. And if you haven't read any of her books, make sure that happens too.

A.S. King visits Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor

Last night I had the privilege of attending the A.S. King event at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor with a group of teacher and writer friends. It was by far one of the best author events I've ever attended. Amy is not only thought-provoking and entertaining, but she is downright hilarious too. She had our group of seven in the front row laughing so hard we were crying and snorting at the same time.

A.S. King snippets of awesome:

• Amy chose her author name because it spells out "asking" and also because she wants her books to be viewed as gender-neutral.
• She wrote her first four novels on a Swedish typewriter that had four a's on it.
• Every book she writes has a prologue out of sheer stubbornness. To mess with the people she's encountered who insist on never reading a book's prologue, Amy decided that every book she writes WILL have a prologue and unless you read it, you will be totally confused.
• Every book she has written has pieces of her life in them. Most recently, with Ask the Passengers, she does send love to the people up in planes.
• If you ever get a chance to meet Amy in person, ask her to tell the story of when she received the phone call telling her she had won a Printz honor. It's by far the best award phone call story I've heard from an author, like something out of a movie. 
• Based on the prologue that she read to us last night, Amy's newest book, Reality Boy, set to come out in October, is a "Go directly to the top of the TBR pile" kind of book. It's about the aftermath of being a child of reality TV and the implications that has on the main character's life as he grows up. Talk about thought-provoking and a commentary on our fame-obsessed society!

Amy reads from Ask the Passengers and Reality Boy

 Brian Wyzlic, Beth Neal, Stephanie Feldstein, A.S. King, Lindsay Grady, Sarah Andersen, Katelynn Grady, and me

It was such an awesome event that we stayed until the staff at Nicola's had to practically kick us out so they could close.

In between meeting Amy and practically getting kicked out of Nicola's, we did have another moment of awesome: an impromptu story time with Brian Wyzlic reading Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. We were pretty much rolling on the ground from laughing so hard. Brian is quite an expressive reader. I wish I had recorded it instead of taken pictures.

Good times at Carrie Harris's Bad Hair Day launch party

Carrie reads from Bad Hair Day

On Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for Carrie Harris's second book, Bad Hair Day, which is the sequel to Bad Taste in Boys (read my review of Bad Hair Day and Bad Taste in Boys) at my favorite indie bookstore in Ann Arbor, Nicola's Books.

Carrie is so personable and funny, and if you've read her books, you immediately realize that hanging out with her in person is like hanging out in one of her books (but without the zombies and werewolves). And because she is so awesome, she's even visited my classroom twice, the most recent time being a month ago.

Since she recently visited my classroom, I had a rather large pile of books for her to sign for my students. For that reason, I made sure to hang out at the back of the signing line so I didn't have to listen to grumbling fans complain about me holding up the line. :) I didn't mind waiting until the end though. That just meant I had more time to hang out with and talk to awesome bookish people. I was able to talk to Aimee Carter (author of The Goddess Test), Courtney Allison Moulton (author of Angelfire), and Laura Zielin (author of The Waiting Sky). What's better than getting to rub elbows with YA authors for the evening? :)

I do particularly love how Carrie signed the copy of Bad Hair Day I purchased for my class:

If you want to know the inside story behind this inscription's epicness, read the following posts:
Laini Taylor event at Nicola's
Carrie Harris classroom visit take 1

Overall, this launch party was full of fun and laughs, but I would expect nothing less from Carrie. :)

Author Event: Laura Ellen's debut novel, Blind Spot

Last night at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, local author Laura Ellen debuted her YA mystery novel, Blind Spot. I attended this event with a couple of my Nerdy Book Club friends, Brian Wyzlic and Jessica Crawford and we had a great time.

It's always interesting to hear what inspires authors to write their novels and with Laura Ellen it was no different. As per usual, author inspiration so often comes from personal experience. Like her main character, Laura Ellen also suffers from macular degeneration and relates a great deal to the poor choices of her protagonist, Roz.

This was the first book signing I've been to at Nicola's where there were literally no more books left on the shelf. Clearly Laura Ellen has a loyal fan base and loads of supportive friends and family who came out to celebrate her new success as an author. It was wonderful to see. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books in the future!

Brian, Me, and Jessica with debut author Laura Ellen

Check out my review of Blind Spot from earlier this summer: the only book I've read in recent months that kept me up until 2 a.m. finishing.

Check out the awesome book trailer, which Laura's son and his guitar teacher wrote and performed

Christopher Paul Curtis event at Nicola's in Ann Arbor

Last night I went to Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor to hear Christoper Paul Curtis speak, the author who wrote Bud, Not Buddy along with some other great works of historical fiction for kids: The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, Elijah of Buxton, and now, The Mighty Miss Malone.

I was so honored and thrilled to meet this Newbery-winning author and even more excited to hear him speak. The man has an enthralling speaking voice. I could listen to him talk all day. Not to mention the fact that he was funny and engaging to both adults and kids alike. It was a standing room only crowd there last night.