I know I've been under a rock for the past six week, but I had no idea there were discussions about eliminating the Best Books For Young Adults List. Argh!

Liz B. explains what's going on and gives her excellent opinion.

A quick bit of noodling came up with the responses of Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan.

They said what I am thinking, only in a more articulate way. Plus, I'm an author with a vested interest in the process. They are Super Librarians and have bother served on the committee.

What do you think?

Today is June 38th. Time is still not moving as slow as I'd like!

Yes, somehow it is time for ALA again. My speeches are almost done, but I haven't started thinking about what I'm going to wear. This might be the year I show up in my pajamas. You have been warned.

If you are headed to Chicago for ALA this weekend, and you are curious about my attire, or have a bet with a friend about my shoes, here is where and when you can find me.


Saturday, July 11th (aka June 41st)

10:30 am AASL President’s Program: Literacy Leadership and Librarian  (McCormick Place West, W-184)


Noon - 2pm - Margaret A Edwards Award Luncheon (Hyatt Regency – Ballroom)


2:30pm – 3:30pm Penguin Autographing  (Booth #2120)


3:30pm – 4:30pm   Simon & Schuster Reception and Scott O’Dell Award Presentation (Booth #3326)


7pm       Anderson’s Bookstore Author Appearance w/ Sarah Dessen (yep - BOTH of us!)

                        123 West Jefferson  Naperville IL 60540  Phone: 630-355-2665


Sunday, July 12th (aka June 42nd)

8:00am – 10:00am        Amelia Bloomer Breakfast (Chicago Hilton Hotel - Boulevard C Room 720 South Michigan Avenue)

11:00am – noon  Simon & Schuster Autographing – booth #3326

Noon – 1pm        YALSA / BBYA Teen Pizza Party (McCormick Place West (convention center) – Room W 475)

evening - super-fancy dinner


Monday, July 13th (aka June 43rd)

10:00am – 10:30am       Interview with Roger Sutton - Junior Library Guild booth #2256

afternoon - meetings

evening - fancy dinner              


For those of you playing along with your scorecards at home, there are 3 official signing times, and I'll be giving three speeches. I'm not sure if the speeches will have audience overlap, but I am trying very hard to make sure they are distinct.

Will you be in Chicago this weekend??

Not-so-random link of the day: My daughter Stef (aka Bookavore) and is interviewed at Wired.com about bookstores and e-books.

I was planning on repeating last July's Write 15 Minutes A Day Challenge (WFMAD), but between my mother's death and some other complicated family business that needs to remain in the family, it's not going to happen this month.

As a matter of fact, I am not ready for July at all.

Therefore, I declare today to be June 31st in the Forest. Tomorrow shall be June 32nd. Friday? Right, June 33rd. And there will be fireworks on June 34th.

If all goes, well, I'll be ready to hold the Write 15 Minutes A Day Challenge the day after June 61st, also known as August 1st. Want to join in? Check out last year's details and tell me what you think.

In the meantime, get yourself over the Penguin Books new video site, loaded with oodles of authors videos, including moi.

I am happy to announce the debut of my newest book, The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes To School, a very silly picture book with astounding illustrations by Ard Hoyt:



This is how my publisher describes it: "Mom and Dad Fleefenbacher think their daughter Zoe's hair is wild and beautiful. And for her kindergarten teacher, Zoe's vivacious tresses were a comfort. But Zoe's about to start first grade, and her new teacher doesn't fool around....
"School has rules," she says. "No wild hair in my class!"
So what are Zoe and her free-spirited hair going to do now?
With exuberance and humor to spare, Laurie Halse Anderson and Ard Hoyt, the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, tease up a terrific tale of hairy hijinks, classroom chaos, and the importance of teachers and students learning to work together."

Kirkus calls it "a well-coiffed winner"!

And here's a quick review from Market Block Books in my Dad's old stomping ground, Troy, NY.

I have been rather absent from the blogosphere of late. Has anyone else seen blog reviews for Zoe?

I'll give you the background about the writing of the book next week. The publication process of this one is itself worthy of a book.

(Yes, it is something of a relief to be able to talk about a silly picture book.)

(Apologies to MySpace blog readers - a few of my blog posts the last couple of weeks did not make it to MySpace. My mother's obituary is here:http://obits.syracuse.com/obituaries/syracuse/obituary.aspx?n=joyce-holcomb-halse&pid=128514216)

I've been trying to figure out how to start this post all day. And I couldn't come up with a good idea, so bear with me.

Many thanks for the countless emails, comments, and cards you've sent in the last couple of weeks. The love and support are very much appreciated. 

I'm not ready to write very much about the last week of my mother's life. I don't know if I will ever be. But I am comfortable saying this; being able to care for her as she died, being a part of the gathering of our family, and honoring her wishes to die in dignity and at home was one of the most profound experiences of my life. 

Hospice does not sweep in and take care of everything. Hospice provides medical oversight and guidance, and an hour or so of care a day. But because of the Oswego County Hospice program, my mother got to die on her own terms. Her last week was filled with flowers, grandchildren, friends, the music of Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, and Henry Mancini, and wet kisses from our dog, the Creature With Fangs. And ice cream. Lots of teeny-tiny tastes of ice cream.

There was one moment I'd like to share with you. After my mother died, I removed the oxygen tube that she had worn for the past six years and turned off the machine that provided her oxygen. My mother suffered for decades and died much earlier than she should have because she smoked cigarettes for nearly her entire adult life. (She quit the day the doctors put her on oxygen 24/7.)

When I was a kid I was angry at her for smoking. Watching her struggle to breathe as she got older, the anger melted into compassion. My heart goes out to anyone fighting their addiction to cigarettes.

If you are thinking of quitting, please do it today. If you fail, try again tomorrow. And the day after that and the day after that - as many times as it takes.You deserve the ability to breathe deep, to walk with your grandchildren, to take ten steps without stopping three times.

If you don't smoke, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT start. Cigarettes are not cool or hip or remotely wonderful. They are a tool to steal money from your wallet and kill you.... but kill you slowly, breath by breath, so the cigarette industry can extract as much money as possible from you.

.........

OK, I wrote more than I had planned on. Thanks for listening.

File this one under "Things Laurie Never Dreamed Would Happen, Even When She Was Dreaming Absurdly Big."

I am the June cover girl for School Library Journal.

If you have to be plastered on a magazine cover, this is definitely the classiest and coolest. Thankfully, the only cover image you can find online is sort of small.

The article, however, is huge.

I was interviewed by the all-knowing and insightful K.T. Horning, director of the Cooperative Children's Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, AND the 2010 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer. She asked extremely good questions and was very patient with my rambling, long-winded answers. Have a peek and tell me what you think.

And those orange sneakers? Stay tuned.... they have Deep Significant Meaning.

I finally finished Hermione Lee's biography of Edith Wharton. I probably won't reread it, but it was interesting enough to slog through all 800-plus pages.

I copied out two quotes for you.

The first one has to do with the books in Edith's library. She frequently wrote in the books she was reading and had no time for people who believed that books should be treated like fragile objects. She was fond of this quote, from W. N. P. Barbellion's Journal of a Disappointed Man, "A Book is a Person and not a Thing."

The second quote is one of Wharton's diary entries from 1934, when she was working on her novel The Buccaneers.

"What is writing a novel like?
1. The beginning: A ride through a spring wood.
2. The middle: The Gobi desert.
3. The end: A night with a lover.
I am now in the Gobi desert."

When Edith Wharton wrote these words, she was 72 years old. She had published 20 novels, more than 85 short stories, and won a Pulitzer.

I think this gives all of us permission to grumble a bit when stuck in the Gobi desert, but then we have to go back to work.

Scribblescribblescribble...

I am getting ready to beam back to the 1740s. Am bringing my own toilet paper.

I will answer the questions that came in over the weekend upon my return. While I'm gone, can you please post links to the best blogging done about BEA this year?

Also, if YOU were beaming back to the American colonies in the 1740s, what would you bring?

I forgot to pout this morning because I got so caught up in my research! ARGH! Bad self! Bad self!

But then I read a bunch of blogs where everyone wrote all glowy about BEA. Now my lower lip is jutting out again, creating, as my grandfather used to point out, the perfect perch for a bird to land on.

(This made me afraid of birds for a long time. It did not cure my pouting. Thanks, Grandpa.)

If you are in NYC, but are sick of BEA (right) or can't get in (more likely), you should go to the best bookstore in New York City and ask questions of the smartest and best-read bookseller and maybe score a free donut.

Seriously. LEAVE RIGHT NOW.

I am headed out to my garden which needs weeding. I also need to sow more veggie seeds and start to cut away the wilderness that is growing up around the berry canes.

For today's Pout-a-Thon activity, ask me a question in comments. I'll answer, I promise, as soon as the gardening is done.

::poutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpoutpout::

I picked the first crop of lettuce from my garden for today's salad. Threw in fresh chives, too.




What are you having for lunch?