fortune cookie friday

"Over a long distance, you learn about the strength of your horse; over a long time, you learn about the character of your friend."
-Chinese Proverb

rumors are true...

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon won the Massachusetts Book Award for the Children's/Young Adult category! Yippppeee!

nostalgia

My school visit whirlwind is continuing. Before heading to Albany for the weekend, I did a quick talk with superstar author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka at my alma mater RISD. I admit, going back to the ol'Illustration Studies Buildings made me feel...
OLD!

And while the imparting of any of my knowledge to future illustrators was questionable, what was quite certain was how much the school has changed. Not only did the students seem to already know the business basics which took me years to figure out after graduating, the campus itself was transformed. When I went to the ISB, the view looked like this:
(not real photo of the landscape, but accurate in its ambiance! Providence was doing major construction for the whole 4 years of my attendance).

But now, the landscape looks like this:
Jarrett, I think we were gypped!

Regardless, I think we were both glad we went and came back. We look happy, don't we?

book talk tuesday

Rufus M, by Eleanor Estes

Indiebound Description: You've never met anyone quite like Rufus Moffat. He gets things done, but he gets them done his way.
When he wants to check out library books, Rufus teaches himself to write...even though he doesn't yet know how to read. When food is scarce, he plants some special "Rufus beans" that actually grow...despite his digging them up every day to check on them. And Rufus has friends that other people don't even know exist! He discovers the only invisible piano player in town, has his own personal flying horse for a day, and tours town with the Cardboard Boy, his dearest friend-and enemy.
Rufus isn't just the youngest Moffat, he's also the cleverest, the funniest, and the most unforgettable.

My Thoughts: Wonderful companion book to favorite The Moffats! This may be sacrilegious, but I actually think I might like Rufus M more. Rufus is such a likeable character and the episodic adventures were extremely fun & charming! This book was another great classic which has held up well.

on my desk monday

proofs for "Thanking the Moon," my book about the moon festival coming out in the fall. Remember the sketches and the paintings the winners of my contest for my last booklaunch? They are getting closer and closer to being in a published book everyday!

Save the date!

Yes, that's right, I'm having another book birthday party. I wasn't going to as it is getting close to the summer, but I am just SO excited about my new book. Ling and Ting is my very first early reader and not only did it get an amazing review from the famous fuse#8, it was chosen for the Junior Library Guild and got a starred review from Booklist! That deserves some celebration! I haven't worked out all the fun (though there will be a polka-dot theme) but mark your calendars and please come!

Saturday, June 19th at 3 pm
Porter Square Books
Porter Square Shopping Center
25 White Street
Cambridge, MA 02140 (directions)

I'm hoping to have lots of fun contests & prizes like last time so you don't want to miss it! More info to come!!

E-mail me your e-mail address at: gracelin.manager@gmail.com if you want to be on the official evite invitation list (aka the goody bag list)! But, of course, even if you are not on the evite you are still more than welcome to come (the list is just to help me make sure I have enough goodies for everyone, but I always make extras).

fortune cookie friday

"A person whose heart is not content is like a snake which tries to swallow an elephant."
-Chinese Proverb

wowee!

Hey look, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is on the shortlist of the EB White Read Aloud Awards! I'm especially excited about this because I think the sticker is especially awesome. Inspired by perhaps the #1 children's novel of all time, Charlotte's Web it is a thrill to think this sticker could decorate my book...though I won't get my hopes up too high. The other authors promise pretty stiff competition, including the the lovely and talented Kate Messner who coincidentally just blogged about my book today!

apologies

I am embarrassingly tardy with my thank-you notes from my wedding. I received so many lovely wishes that I'm ashamed it's taken me so long. One of the nicest gifts I received was a surprise. At my PO Box, I received a box, which when opened revealed a bamboo plant with warmhearted wishes for the wedding:
Isn't that just so nice?

Now, I am very sorry to say that since it has taken me so long to send thank-you notes, I have misplaced (I think Squatchie threw out the box as it was lying around for so long) the address of this kind giver. I'm sorry! Lovely person (I won't post your name, just in case you want to be internet-anonymous), please contact me again so that I can express my gratitude!

TLA Express

I had a quick visit in San Antonio last week at the Texas Library Association Conference. And I mean quick. I arrived just in time to have a delicious dinner hosted by Little, Brown & Co (publisher of my novels):
The amazing food (there was sticky toffee pudding!) put me right to sleep and when I woke up it was time for me to give a small talk on a panel with authors RL Lafevers and Suzanne Selfors before signing and then quickly catching that plane back home! I think I was in TX for just 24 hours, and most of that was at the airport!



I was a little sad not to stay longer, I missed most of the exhibits, as well as catching up with a lot of friends. I have a lot of nice memories of San Antonio, as I did many school visits there last year and it was even the first place that I launched Where the Mountain Meets the Moon!

But I was glad that I did get to see some familiar friendly librarians:


And Suzanne and I ran into famous author/bloggers Cynthia Leitich Smith & Greg Leitich Smith as we were dashing off to the airport. We didn't have much time to say more than hello and snap the picture.


TLA was fun, but fast. The whole thing was quite a rush! I guess that is why all the photos are so blurry!