What To Read When
Pam Allyn’s What to Read When is a great resource for parents and teachers trying to find that just-right book for a certain age or interest. What a thrill to find one of my own books included! Amazing Snakes is listed under “Research Books” for five-year olds. I love the idea of my books helping to inspire a love for science and a fascination with the natural world.
Allyn says, “What better way to introduce our kids to the value of exploration and research than to seize their interests and passions early on and and introduce them to books that will help them puzzle out the answers to their most fervent wonderings.” I couldn’t agree more!
Read MoreThe Speech
Deadly Flowers won a snazzy award from the Wisconsin Library Association, which I am so very happy about…but maybe we can all sit around in a circle and read the book instead of me having to get up and talk about it?
It is so weird that I can happily work away at a novel for years, but ask me to write a speech about how or why I wrote said novel and my insights into the writing process and what it makes me think about the human condition, and all I want to do is crawl under my desk whimpering. Why is that?
Read MoreImagine a Classroom
The creative and thoughtful and marvelous second graders of Barrett Ranch Elementary School created a wonderful project–their own version of Imagine a Day. Theirs, however, is Imagine a Classroom. Now I want to go to school where there is a giant waterslide on the roof and giraffes in the classroom, where magic paper instantly corrects my mistakes and no one ever feels left out!
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Funa Yurei
These funa yurei are more robust and less skeletal and spooky than the ones Kata meets in Deadly Wish. Note the headgear, however. A white, triangular headdress such as that used in an ancient Buddhist funeral ceremony is a dead giveaway (pardon the pun) of a funa yurei.
If you are sailing off the coast of Japan and the fog sweeps in, beware…you might be approached by a funa yurei.
The spirits of sailors who have died at sea, funa yurei sometimes try to sink boats and sometimes to snag an unlucky soul to take their own place on a ghostly ship. Often a funa yurei will demand a bucket or a ladle from its victims. If they refuse the ghost will sink their ship in vengeance. If given a bucket, the ghost will pour water into the ship, swamping it. How to get out of this hopeless situation? Hand the ghost a bucket or ladle with the bottom removed. It will futilely try to scoop water up with the bottomless vessel, leaving you free to sail quickly away.
(Kata, the heroine of Deadly Wish, did not know this trick. She was forced to try and come up with other ideas to defeat the funa yurei she encountered.)
Read MoreOut of the Fog
I went for a sail on Portland Harbor last week, and this is what loomed up out of the fog. It looked just like a scene from the upcoming Deadly Wish. Next thing you know we’ll hear a drumbeat booming across the water and funa yurei will show up, demanding a new soul to take their place on their ghost ship….
(What are funa yurei, you ask? Stay tuned!)
Read MoreImagine an Art Project!
The students at John Norquay Elementary School in Vancouver, Canada did something truly extraordinary! Classes often do art projects based on the Imagine series of picture books, in which my poems were paired with magical realistic art by the remarkable John Gonsalves, but rarely are they are stunning as these enchanting sculptures. The effect is of a magical forest. How I’d love to stroll through it!
What I’ve Been Reading
Delightful fan art of Monty and the love of his life, Percy.
Or rather, listening to–a stunning audiobook, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (such a great title) by Mackenzi Lee, and narrated superbly by Christian Coulson.
It’s the 1700s, and Lord Henry Montague–Monty to his friends, of which he has many–is a rake. A charming and delightful rake, who loves wine and cards and women and boys and who won’t let anything, including his stern father, get in the way of a good time. Especially if the good time involves his best friend, Percy.
Monty and Percy are off on their grand tour of Europe, and Monty is determined to make Percy fall in love with him by the time they head back to England. Events intervene, of course, as they always do, and there’s a villainous French duke and a spooky Catalan alchemist and some truly marvelous pirates, plus a tender and hilarious love story. The ending contains some supernatural elements that I had a bit of a hard time with–I was quite prepared to accept that these 18th century characters believe in alchemy, but startled to discover that alchemy actually works. Still, I’d forgive any author anything for the relationship between these two boys, who flirt and fight and break each other’s hearts from England to France to Spain to Italy. Can’t wait to listen to it all over again.
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Thomson focuses on newfound connection, magic, and suspense to conjure a fast-paced, heartwarming mystery. Thomson’s world is populated by resourceful protagonists, fanciful creatures, and quirky supporting characters.”
—Publishers Weekly