Listen Up! and a Giveaway!

True confessions.
It's very strange hearing your own book read by somebody else.

But I'm excited about the new audio versions of GLORY BE and THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY.

Glory's narration is read by Cassandra Morris whose CD of A SNICKER OF MAGIC won an Odyssey Honorable Mention for the best recorded book from the American Library Association.

CLICK HERE for a little sample of her reading my own book.

If you buy the entire audio version, at the end you'll hear ME reading my Author Note and Acknowledgements. Thanks to my friend, Kirby Larson, and my editor Andrea Davis Pinkney, I was brave enough to ask if I could do that. 
(Because they did it on their own awesome audiobooks and I loved it.) 

And the Scholastic audio guy, the fantastic Paul Gagne, said yes.

THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY is available as a real 4-disc CD.
Michael Crouch is reading. A sample is here.
A quite nice School Library Journal review is HERE.

(I love what it says on the front cover. I'm a BONUS!)


Thanks, Scholastic audio and your great actors. Thanks Paul for your super work.

I gave away a handful of the CDs last week via Twitter. But I have at least one more I can share. I'll pick the winner soon. In a few days. When I think I can get to the post office! Sorry to be so random but it is almost July 4th.
:)

Leave me a comment and let's see what happens.

Ruby Holler

One of my all-time favorite books to recommend to kids was RUBY HOLLER.
As a librarian, I thought it had everything. I loved to book talk it, read from it, share it.

But that was a while back, as we say. And this is now. Sadly in some ways, I don't always read books just for the sheer enjoyment. I often tear them apart and put them back together to figure out why an author told a story that way or this.

I've probably read RUBY HOLLER at least three times. But I'd never listened to it. Till now.

(True confessions- I don't listen to books that often. This may be the third, ever. The last book I listened to while driving many, many miles to school visits this year was ELEANOR AND PARK. Another true confession. I did not love that book as much as I hoped. I totally didn't get the guy reader of Park's chapters.)

I was a little worried about the Ruby Holler audiobook. Would the story be as amazing as my memory of it? Under my sharp writer eyes, would the writing still sing?

OF COURSE! Hey, it's Sharon Creech. What was I even thinking.

The character nuances. Like Florida telling Dallas he's bossy. (Ha. Who's bossy?)
The character names. Mr. Trepid? Really? Yes, really!

The villains are so very villainous! And yet, Zee turns out to be not who we think he is.

I picked up this audiobook from our public library's Main Library branch. As I was chatting with some of the teachers and kids who'd come to hear me speak there recently, the discs caught a teacher's eye. "Oh, you've got RUBY HOLLER," she said. "My all time favorite book to read aloud."

Well, I'd second that and say it may be my all-time favorite book to HEAR read aloud.
Way to go, Sharon Creech.

And of course, I also checked out the REAL book. Ahem, the print book. So I could go back and re-read my favorite parts, a real disadvantage of an audiobook.

Very Special Editors: WITH THE MIGHT OF ANGELS

True confessions- I don't listen to books. Well, not too often. I can count on one hand the books I've actually heard.

My problem?
1. I'm not in a car long enough to listen there.
2. I keep wanting to take notes, go back and forth, underline. Doesn't work for an audio book, does it?
3. I haven't taken the time to figure out how, except on the CDs from the library, and my new computer doesn't have a disc drive.

So I'm not an expert on audiobooks. But when my friend Kate Swanson told me I HAD to listen to this one, I did.
And now, I'm telling you the same.

WITH THE MIGHT OF ANGELS, by Andrea Davis Pinkney.
(Click on that link and you can hear a sample from audible.com)

Yes, she's my editor. And one could not have a more amazing mentor to guide her through the ups and downs of writing a book.

Guess what? Andrea Pinkney will be at Miami SCBWI.  Soon. January 17-19, 2014, to be exact.
There's still time to sign up, people!

And if you listen to this remarkable book, read by Channie Waites (I know nothing about audiobook readers, but she's got to be a star), you'll know Andrea a little better. The author material at the end, shared by none other than the author herself, made me feel like Andrea was riding in the car with me.

Reading it on a seven-hour drive from NJ to VA, where the book just happens to take place, was an unexpected and wonderful surprise.

Another confession, I'm not a total fan of the Dear America books. For no particular reason, I just haven't read enough of them to find one that really grabbed me. But this one did. No matter who had written it, I would have appreciated Dawnie Rae's story.

If you can't get your hands on the audio version of With The Might of Angels, with Andrea's author interview, and want to get to know her a little better, try this:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/andrea-davis-pinkney-interview-transcript

or her fabulous speech:

Andrea's Coretta Scott King Acceptance Speech
http://www.hbook.com/2013/07/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/coretta-scott-king-author-award-acceptance/#_

Seriously, don't miss this tribute by her son, husband, and brother:
http://www.hbook.com/2013/07/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/a-profile-of-andrea-davis-pinkney/

One of my favorite photos, with two of her authors at the Library of Congress's Book Festival this fall.

I suspect Kathryn Erskine feels the same way I do about Andrea's remarkable editing skills and her ability to help us turn our books into the best they can be. And isn't that what the very best editors do?
The part about being funny and nice and smart is just icing on the cake.