Wednesday, March 28, 2012

GLORY BE Winner!!!!!!!

WE HAVE A WINNER FOR THE COPY OF 

GLORY BE 

BY 

AUGUSTA SCATTERGOOD!!!



THE WINNER IS!!!

BARBARA WATSON!

Please email me at kglittle@msn.com to claim your prize! 

Congratulations!!!

Thank you, everyone, for reading and entering, I appreciate it! We had some great comments and *love* for all things Southern. Happy sigh!

Hope you enjoy a great middle-grade book today!
 
I'm currently reading: 


And there are some other terrific, starred and award-winning middle-grade books in the sidebar . . . 

Not that I'm biased or anything . . . LOL!


Monday, March 26, 2012

Winners and More Cool Book Club Stuff!

Spellbinders Logo
March 26, 2012
Caroline's Classroom Connections
AND
The Winner of Dr. Fred's three books!
The winner of Dr. Fred's Seven Wonders of Space Technology, Seven Wonders of Exploration Technology and Astrobiology is . . .

GARY BODMAN!! Middle School Science Teacher!

Congratulations!!! We hope your students enjoy the books! Happy Reading! (Gary, please email Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com to receive the books by mail to your school or home address.)

Thank you everyone for entering! And stay tuned for more giveaways in April and May! 


Book Clubs, Part Five: What Works
This is the last installment of the Book Club articles. To see parts 1-4, be sure to stop by our Spellbinders blog.


Classroom Involvement
In an ideal world, you could post information about your meetings in classrooms and school libraries. Teachers would mention your group, provide titles, remind kids of meeting times, and possibly offer incentive / create some sort of tie-in to curriculum. Or better yet, you as the organizer could approach teachers to learn what books or topics they'd love to see their students read about. You could enhance what goes on in the classroom by selecting authors and titles that compliment school work.

Guiding Discussion
Some kids will come prepared to talk. And talk a lot! Others won't really be sure how to begin. Even if you've given them idea starters, know not everyone will remember or even know how to get a book conversation going. Part of your role is to model how this works by coming with your own observations and questions. When kids hear you sharing a quote you think is key to the story or the obstacles a character had to overcome, they learn how to do this for themselves. Discussions naturally start to grow. Kids begin to read with ideas toward what they might share later. It's an amazing process to watch.

Sometimes talks get so animated, everyone wants to talk at once. I found it helpful to have a way to visually show whose turn it was to speak. We passed around pencils, stuffed animals, and even a Kleenex box to show who currently was in charge. The kids loved this and were (usually!) willing to wait their turn.
Regular Attendance
To make regular attendance happen, you'll need a combination of the following: committed kids, involved parents, a regular meeting time and place, consistent communication, a planned-out book schedule, and an easy way for children to get their hands on books. Be willing to be flexible, too. If something isn't working, evaluate and determine how things could improve. Ask kids and parents for input. Be willing to cancel titles hard to find or add a new book everyone is anxious to read. Plan ahead but be willing to change, if necessary.

And don't forget: Cookies are always a great draw!

Ultimately, we want kids reading and responding to literature. There's no perfect way to have this happen, but I can tell you this: when an adult is excited about books and shares this regularly with kids, it's almost impossible for them not to get enthusiastic themselves.

There is nothing like loving children. There is nothing like loving books. To experience the two together is a gift indeed.
 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose
Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New

Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time. 

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to her website.

  


 
Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a

Comfort Paperback Cover
speech-language pathologist.

Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Take Me There Cover

She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."


 Follow me on Twitter 
  
  
  

Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.
  
She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences.

Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 
  
Follow me on Twitter 
  

Upcoming Author Events


Saturday, March 31
Caroline presents at the
Jambalaya Writing Conference
Houma, Louisiana


Saturday, 14 April
Alamosa Bookstore, Albuquerque, NM
Carolee and Caroline discuss verse novels for poetry month

Sunday, April 29th 
9-5 Preconference Session  
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
  
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose 
  
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories"
Carolee Dean


November, 2012
YALSA Literature Symposium 
"Author Research Panel"
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
and two other authors
St. Louis, Missouri


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

GLORY BE Giveaway! And I'm chattin' it up with Augusta Scattergood!

Augusta Scattergood and I became online friends a couple years back and have bolstered and supported each other on our book publishing journeys so I was thrilled to pieces when she sold her Middle-Grade novel to Scholastic Press and we became Scholastic *Sisters*! (After you read this very entertaining interview, be sure to see the details about the giveaway of Glory Be, including a Signed Book Plate and bookmark down below!)




Kimberley: Before you became a published author, what other careers did you have and how do you think they prepared you to become a writer?

Augusta: Other than college stints as a lifeguard and earlier as a doctor's office assistant, I had one career my entire working life. The best career a writer could imagine! I was a school librarian. When I was in sixth grade, I was asked to be a library assistant at my elementary school. As a kid, I loved lining up the spines of the books just so. That little ink date due stamper. Sigh. Such power.

I decided right then and there to be a librarian.

I held various library positions, including a year as a medical library assistant when I was in graduate school at Simmons College, five years as a reference librarian (tax forms, anyone?), and a college summer working for the Mississippi Library Commission. Parts of GLORY BE are actually based on that summer’s experience.

Kimberley: Can you give us a timeline of the writing and publishing of Glory B? When did you start, how long did the process take?

Augusta: This is going to sound very depressing, but I started this story when I left my school library to write, in the spring of 2001. Yes, I know. Pitiful.

Kimberley: Nope - it happens to all of us! That was the year I began drafting The Healing Spell! See, we're sisters in many ways!

Augusta: I had an idea of a short story about two girls and their babysitter who was a wedding planner at their daddy’s church. Sent to their rooms for their afternoon “rests,” (as we all did in the Deep South, pre-air-conditioning), they invented a game they called Junk Poker. It was so not a story. Just a memory. Pretty soon, I realized it needed that elusive plot thing. 

Although my own town didn’t close a swimming pool, I knew of and researched stories of towns that closed pools rather than integrate them. Plowed them under. Made them private. It was a sad, serious time in many places, not just the South. Once I had an historical time and event to tie my memories, characters and setting to, the plot developed.

I met my agent via a regional SCBWI conference in 2009, and she took me on about a year later when I submitted the manuscript for Glory Be. She sold my first novel to Scholastic in the summer of 2010. The book was ready about a year later.

Signing stacks of books on tour!!

Kimberley: What was your favorite scene/chapter to write?

Augusta: That would have to be the Elvis's house in Tupelo chapter! I had a huge crush on Elvis when I was about Glory's age, maybe even younger. And I'd visited his little house way before it was a shrine. At first my amazing editor thought it might be something we should cut. We talked. I made some changes that tied it into the story better. I confessed to my brief stint as an Elvis impersonator. We left it in.
Kimberley: Love that! (When you desperately want to leave something in your story, just incorporate it into the plot in new and creative ways!) 

What's your favorite Southern Supper?

Augusta: Supper wasn't a big deal in my childhood. But dinner, in the middle of the day, sure was. Sunday dinners at my house were something to behold! Fried chicken, field peas, brown butter beans, asparagus casserole topped with lots of bubbling cheese, sweet tea, homemade rolls, always dessert. I get hungry just writing that!

Kimberley: Oh, my gosh, Augusta, can I come to dinner at your house sometime?

Augusta: But the best part of Sunday dinner was the storytelling. How my daddy loved to tell the tales! About once a month, we had the preacher and his wife for Sunday dinner. Almost always my grandmother came. Often her entertaining best friend who was a daughter of the governor of Tennessee, I think—a world traveler who smoked cigarettes from a long holder. Those people knew how to talk. I can still see us around the table, passing the stories around.

Kimberley: How fascinating! I used to love to listen in on the adults talking more than I did playing with the other kids or cousins.
Augusta: I'm  reminded of a story Eudora Welty wrote about her childhood. Driving around Jackson with her mother and her mother's friends, she'd sit between them with great expectations. "Now talk," she'd order, and she'd sit to listen.

Young children weren't supposed to talk much around the Sunday dinner table, but I sure did listen.

Kimberley: Favorite Book as a child?
Augusta: I loved Nancy Drew. When I was a little older, I adored Little Women. My other grandmother was a 4th grade teacher until she retired (mandatory!) at age 75 or so. She gave me books on every occasion. I was an avid, eclectic reader.


Kimberley: I knew we were *sisters* in more ways than one! I read Nancy Drew like a fiend. And I have boxes of copies from the original printings from the 1940s that I got from my orthodontist assistant who saw me reading Nancy at an appt one day. Next time they tightened my braces, she brought out a whole box for me to take home! 

What are you working on now?

Augusta: I have a very tiny idea for a new middle-grade novel that I'm noodling. I love writing about the South. I love the intriguing characters that pop up when I listen.

I've been in Mississippi almost two weeks sharing GLORY BE. My brother-in-law and his brother, two great storytellers, told me about a character from their childhood hometown, a bootlegger named Taxi Jones. Don't you love that?


Kimberley: Next time you go to Mississippi, let me stow away in your suitcase!  
Augusta: I'd better not put a bootlegger in a middle grade novel. But I'm saving that name for something.


Kimberley: You get first dibs, girl! 

And now Dear Readers, leave a comment below to get a chance to win a copy of GLORY BE!!! 

If you can Tweet, Blog or Facebook this interview and contest, Augusta and I would be much obliged! (And give you extra entries, too!)
Now go enjoy one of the Best Middle-Grade Novels of 2012!
***
Contest is Open until Tuesday, March 27th Midnight Pacific Time! 
Winner announced Wednesday, March 28th.

Monday, March 19, 2012

MELTDOWN Winner! And Giving Away 3 MORE books!!!

Spellbinders Logo


March 19, 2012
    March Book Buzz and WINNER of MELTDOWN!

PLUS another Giveaway! More Books by Dr. Fred! Nonfiction rocks the house!
On March 5th of this month we featured children's nonfiction writer, Dr. Fred Bortz, author of outstanding books in the fields of science and technology.
 
If you missed it, go here to read: Dr. Fred Bortz SPELLBINDER Interview 
 
Lerner Publishing generously donated copies of his books as prizes.  
 
The WINNER of Dr. Fred Bortz's new book MELTDOWN is . . .  
 
 
 
Janet Schoentrup, a great librarian in Kansas!!! 
 
Congratulations!!!  
 
Please email Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com to claim your prize!  
 
***AND because your SPELLBINDERS are so excited about non-fiction we are giving away MORE of Dr. Fred's books!!!***
 
One lucky person will win
these THREE BOOKS below!!! 

Please email Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com to enter.  
Or go to the SPELLBINDER blog to enter by leaving a comment.  

 
 
 
 
  

Next Month we've got some fascinating pieces about Historical Fiction coming up and how to get your students and kids excited about it! Plus Historical Fiction Book Buzz! Don't miss it! 
      
 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

Kim Bio Photo
Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secrets
as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing
workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please
to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 


Follow me on Twitter 

 Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a Comfort Paperback Coverspeech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Take Me There CoverActs of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.

 Follow me on Twitter 
  

Caroline Starr Rose
Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New 
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
May B



Blog   
  

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS
         

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Pre-conference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 9 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders:
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose   

*Kimberley will be signing at the
Scholastic Booth in the IRA Exhibit Hall
Monday, April 30 from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.*
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean 
      

  
  

Monday, March 12, 2012

Story Poems By Carolee Dean

Spellbinders Logo
March 12, 2012
THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF STORIES -Need a Break from SBA?
STORY POEMS
by Carolee Dean

I would like to start by welcoming all of our new subscribers from School To World.

If your school is like mine, then your primary focus right now is one of two things, either SPRING BREAK or SBA testing. You may not be spending much time talking about stories or poems at the moment, unless it's to explore the types of literary devices that might be found in the SBA, or to practice skills (like skimming and scanning) that are related to the SBA, or to teach your kids how to become a whiz at answering multiple choice questions of the sort that might be found on the SBA.

But don't despair. Something exciting awaits you at the end of SBA.

April is poetry month.

Of course, after spending all of your time preparing for the SBA, you may be behind on all those other benchmarks and standards. You might not think you have time to explore poetry, and yet poetry offers more literary bang for your buck than just about any other form. Consider the story poems that not only offer a complete plot in one to two pages, but also explore literary devices like metaphor, simile, and personification (things often addressed on the SBA). Trudging through a novel or even a chapter would take days or weeks, while a story poem may be presented and discussed in detail in an hour or less. Unlike poems whose meaning may be unclear to students, a story poem at least tells a story they can understand.

Consider some of these great story poems:
"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes
"Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer
"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe

While writing my upcoming verse novel, Forget Me Not (Simon Forget Me NotPulse, October 2012), I took the poetic structure of "The Raven" and wrote a story poem about the rapper, 2Pac, showing up in a class as the substitute teacher. The poem is found below.

If you and your students need a break from the SBA, you might have them read the poem and then skim and scan (important SBA skills) to find the 2Pac song titles hidden in the lines.

If you happen to teach in the Albuquerque Metro Area, you have a special treat in store. I have partnered with Alamosa Books, along with another Spellbinder, Caroline Starr Rose, to bring a free workshop to students, teachers, and writers on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 2pm. Winners of a special poetry contest will be announced at the time. Poems may be submitted to Alamosa until April 10th at 8p.m. The elementary school in the Albuquerque area with the most submissions will win a free author visit by Caroline, and the secondary school with the most submissions will when a free author visit by me.

If your students are not in the Albuquerque area, they may still enter to win a cool poster containing the poem by finding at least four of the eight 2Pac song titles hidden in the poem below. If they email those titles to Alamosa, they will automatically be enterred in a drawing. For more information visit Alamosa Books. You may also contact me for additional information or for ideas about how to set up your own local poetry contest at my email.
  
Here is the poem:
  
DEAD RAPPER RAP by Carolee Dean (from the Paranormal Verse Novel, Forget Me Not- coming October 2012 from Simon Pulse)

Once upon a Friday morning, almost all the class was snoring.
Our teacher left a vocab worksheet for a sub who was a bore.
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
followed by a man's voice rapping, rapping lines I'd heard before.
"I'm Skandalouz," the voice he muttered, rapping at the classroom door.
"Open up, or I'll kick in this door."

Ah, distinctly, I remember, it was a bleak day in September.
Dude told the sub he came to send her to a class on the second floor.
She grabbed her books and packed her bag, running past the man in black.
And then I saw it was 2Pac, standing at the classroom door.
"All eyez on me," yelled the man, standing on the cold tile floor.
"I'm your new sub, Mr. Shakur.

"I'm here to wake you from your dreaming, give your simple lives some meaning."
He smiled at us, his white teeth gleaming, then he pointed at the door.
"If you're thinking about jetting, don't want to get caught here abetting
someone who'll have you forgetting what the h--- this class is for.
If you get out now, I won't detain you, block you, trap you, or restrain your
exit." No one touched the door.

"Ah, I see you've all decided to listen to your uninvited
guest get down. I must confide that I've got a special treat in store.
Forgive me if my words are cryptic. Guess I'm just 2Pacalyptic.
Get off your butts, we're gonna kick it, like you've never kicked before."
And soon he had the whole class rapping and break-dancing on the floor.
Dancing on the classroom floor.

He rolled his sleeves and there I saw it, a tattoo of a black bird on his
arm, and then I heard the haunted whisper of the raven's words:
"Keep ya heads up, no regrets, don't know if heaven's got a ghetto,  
but only God can judge what debt you'll have to pay forevermore.
He don't care if you scream and shout, 'cause big G knows there's no way out.
Once you've crossed the line-you're down, and you won't be getting up no more.
Hope you're open to suggestion, 'cause there only is one question
left. I'm pretty sure you've guessed it. Heard it many times before."
Ah, distinctly, I remember, it was a bleak day in September,
when I heard the raven whisper    
"What are you willing 2 die 4?"  

To learn more about the twelve step story analysis I use to teach writing and to plot my books, visit my blog at Carolee Dean Books.

 Black Stripes

Meet the Spellbinders
CaCarolee Deanrolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a
Comfort Paperback Cover
speech-language pathologist.

Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Her upcoming paranormal verse novel, Forget Me Not, will be published by Simon Pulse in October of 2012.
Take Me There Cover
 
She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."Forget Me Not


 Follow me on Twitter 
  
  



  
Caroline Starr RoseCaroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time. 
 


To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.

  







Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.
  
She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences.

Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 
  
Follow me on Twitter 
  

                Upcoming Author Events



Saturday, April 14
Novels-in-Verse
at Alamosa Books
8810 Holly Ave. NE
Albuquerque, NM

Carolee and Caroline will be presenting a workshop for teachers, students, and writers.

Sunday, April 29th 
9-5 Preconference Session  
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
  
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose 
  
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories"
Carolee Dean


November, 2012
YALSA Literature Symposium 
"Author Research Panel"
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
and two other authors
St. Louis, Missouri


MY PUBLISHED BOOKS

MY PUBLISHED BOOKS

Winner of The Southwest Book Award!

Time travel, war, love, rattlesnakes, magic . . .

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