Congratulations to one of our #TrueFriends

Teachers, Parents, Librarians of readers fifth grade and up. Or thereabouts.
Are you still searching for that perfect book for holiday giving?

If she loves a great heroine, if he's read every single Harry Potter book, if they're fans of magical settings and a hint of romance, look no farther than this terrific tale.

Here's what her publisher's website has to say.
(I love the twisty-turny part!  There are many twists and turns and all sorts of side trips, near misses, dangers-  and of course fun- for Maggie along the way.)

About The Magic Mirror 

The twisty-turny journey of a girl searching for her heart’s desire—glimpsed in a magic mirror. Perfect for fans of Rump or Catherine, Called Birdy

And everybody knows what smart book pickers those folks at the Texas Library Association are, right? They just named THE MAGIC MIRROR to their Long Star Reading list. You can find the link to the books for grades 6-8 right HERE.

Congrats, Susan Hill Long. Those Texas librarians are right!
Such a good book! 

Reading the Story/ AKA Readers Theater

Teachers- do you do Readers Theater in your classrooms? Are you gearing up for next year?
How about you camp counselors out there? Drama camp?

If so, here's a terrific resource from one of my favorite blogs.

 Reader’s Theater puts the kid INTO the story, inhabiting his favorite hero, villain or sidekick. Words on a page literally come to life when real kids stand up to act out a scene.

That's from Tami Lewis Brown over at FROM THE MIXED UP FILES, a blog every writer/ reader/teacher of Middle Grade novels should bookmark right now.

Here's the link to Brown's post about Readers Theater:

http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/2012/05/put-show-readers-theater-middle-grade-reader/

And I posted a page with the Readers Theater script from GLORY BE.
Here it is, ready for your reading/ acting/ dramatic pleasure.

CLICK THIS  for a short description of the Readers Theater a funny, hammy, dramatic group of writers did together at the Texas Library Association.

Texas!

The Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List was revealed yesterday in Austin. (My friend Lee tells me the big Texas Book Festival is the place to be this weekend.)



Batman and Robin made the announcement!
That would be Batman (Jon Scieszka) and Robin (Adam Rex).

(Photos courtesy of the Texas Library Association's website: http://www.txla.org/TBA-release-TBF)

GLORY BE was named to the list of twenty books for grades 3-6.

Here's the link. An excellent reading list, lots of variety.  I'm honored and awed.

Thank you, Texas!

I love Texas!

If anybody ever invites you to the Texas Library Association's annual conference, go.

And if you ever hear of a breakfast sponsored by Scholastic, don't miss that either.
Writers get to act! A lot of writers are true hams.

The amazing team from Scholastic created Readers Theater scripts from our books. We read them, with feeling, while 200 librarians enjoyed a fabulous breakfast and got free books. What could be better?

Glory's team rocked! Elizabeth Eulberg was a sassy Jesslyn. She flounced with the best of them. Maggie Stiefvater's Glory = perfect! Of course, she had an advantage, being from Virginia.
And Michael Northrop killed with his lines, "Now, girls..." (Or rather noaw girrrlllsss.) and "Lemme think on it."

With very little practice, they perfected their drawls. Way to go, Yankees (and Maggie)!

We all have books just out or coming out, with Scholastic. Check them out!

And for those of you who may be contemplating casting a play that requires a bit of South Speak.
Resources here:

USA Deep South

And how about this?

TEXAS, here I come!

I'm really getting excited about next week's TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION  conference.

I'll be on a panel, sign books at the Scholastic booth ( #1518 from 3 to 4 on Wednesday) and have a special opportunity to fire up my acting skills, long since retired (stay tuned for pictures and details, unless I fall on my face).

If you're near Houston and like bookstores, or just want to say hello, please pop into our Wednesday night bookstore event. We'll each do a short intro and then have lots of time to Meet and Greet.

See you there, Houstonians!

7:00, Wednesday, April 18^th

Blue Willow Bookshop: Five Fabulous Authors

14532 Memorial Drive

Houston, TX 77079

(281) 497-8675

Authors Participating:

Jennifer A. Nielson (The False Prince)

Sarah Mlynowski (Whatever After)

Chris D’Lacey (Fire World & The Fire Ascending)

Augusta Scattergood (Glory Be)

Michael Northrop (Plunked)

 

Baseball: Plunked

Okay. Maybe I just lost some of my usual followers.
Baseball? Plunked? What tangent is she off on this time? But stick with me here. This is a book. A very funny one.

Our publisher, Scholastic, sent me an Advanced Readers Copy of Michael Northrop's new book, PLUNKED. I don't know Michael but we are going to meet at the fabulous (so I'm told) TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Meeting in just two weeks. Can't wait. More on that later.







Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't love baseball. I lived shouting distance from the old Memorial Stadium, home of the Orioles. Sigh.

So I get the Cal Ripkin references. Now I cheer loud and long, even in person on occasion, for my new home team. Go Rays!

But I don't often pick up a book I assume is so obviously going to appeal to middle-school boys, or at least sports fans. One so obviously about baseball. I thought I'd page through the book quickly. Just to be able to say, "Hey, Michael, nice to meet you. I liked your book" when we're sharing in Texas.

By page 35, chapter 6, I was laughing my head off. There's more to this book than baseball.

Don't take my word for it. Check out these funny passages.

Narrator Jack's parents are off to an Awesome Eighties concert.  

The show features not one, not two, but three bands I know nothing about. The funniest thing about it is seeing my parents getting all dressed up...Mom emerges from the bathroom with a hair cliff above her forehead and a faded T-shirt that says "The Go-Go's" on it. Her sneakers could not be any pinker.

And what does she say to her son?  

"I've got the beat!"

Yes, I know. Mortification. (And really, these parents are very nice, not that weird. Quite well portrayed if you're a parent reading and wondering.)

Jackson's dad's dressed in a polo shirt the color of pistachio ice cream. Can't you just see a kid wincing over these parents? Truly, this Northrup guy is really funny.

I also love the beginning of Chapter 12.
A kid's view of Friday night:

There are all of those songs and stuff about Friday night, but there's not much to it when you're twelve. I guess the big thing is that there's no school for two days, so you don't have to do any homework... No homework is good, but I don't' think anyone has ever written a song about it."

I totally enjoyed this book. In the words of Jack, Yeah. He aced it. And I haven't even touched on the baseball stuff, which I also loved.

And I somehow miraculously received TWO copies of PLUNKED, and it's your lucky day.
I'm sharing.

Kids who love sports--girls and boys, readers who like to laugh, teachers and librarians, check it out!
Leave me a comment on the blog or on this FACEBOOK post, and I'll enter your name for the ARC of Plunked.

I leave for Texas on April 17th, so let's give this Freebie a week to play out. Contest ends April 10th.