American History

You’re Right, Books Are Dangerous

Posted by on Feb 2, 2023 in American History, Childhood, Children's Literature, Educators & Librarians, Politics | 0 comments

FLClass

Blue paper covers shelves of books that students are being denied access to.

This just breaks my heart.

In a classroom–a classroom–books are being kept away from students. Students want to read, to learn, to feed their curiosity, to enlarge their sense of the world, to simply have fun, and they’re being told NO. Are being told that’s not what school is for. Are being told that curiosity and openness of mind and heart must be controlled. Are being told that THEY must be controlled, that they and their teachers cannot be trusted to make choices about their own reading. About their own minds.

The people who made these laws are right about one thing–books are dangerous. They tell facts. They explain ideas. They make change. They are change.

And if that scares you–you might do something like this to children.

But it’s about your weakness and your fears, not about the books. And not about the students. The only thing on display here is the cowardice of lawmakers who don’t deserve the title, don’t deserve their jobs, and who are cowering in fear of chapter books.

Shame, shame, shame.

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StoryCorps

Posted by on Dec 8, 2022 in American History, BOOK: Storycorp, Nonfiction | 0 comments

100 year old photographs

Our stories are our history and our identity.

I’m so excited to announce that I’m going to working on a graphic novel–no, a piece of graphic nonfiction–boy, do we need a better term for this genre!–anyway–a work of historical nonfiction in a graphic format based on the wonderful, touching, and uplifting stories collected by StoryCorps.

I’m thrilled to get to work with such great material, and also excited to be tackling my first script for a graphic work. So far in my career I’ve published novels, picture books, chapter books, early readers, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry–delighted to add graphic work to the list!

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Vampires, Viruses, and (Im)mortality

Posted by on Nov 1, 2021 in American History, Book: Mercy: The Last NE Vampire | 0 comments

By Mercy's gravestone.

By Mercy’s gravestone.

Just because it’s one day after Halloween doesn’t mean we can’t still be thinking about vampires. Jason Zinoman in The New York Times has a great article about the connections between vampire legends and times of plague and pestilence…at one time, vampires were seen as creatures who spread deadly diseases rather than pale, sparkly romantic antiheroes. He didn’t mention, but he could, the vampire legends of 19th century New England, in which the undead were blamed for the spread of the white plague–tuberculosis.

Those legends and the true story of how belief in vampires affected the life and death of a nineteen-year-old Rhode Island girl named Mercy Brown became the basis for Mercy, my one and only horror novel to date. (More eerie than horrible, really.)

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Amanda Gorman

Posted by on Jan 22, 2021 in American History, Poems, Politics | 0 comments

Amanda Gorman recites "The Hill We Climb," during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)

Amanda Gorman recites “The Hill We Climb” during the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Take note, young writers–she is 22 years old. Start practicing now–this could be you!

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