Fire & Ice, the YA imprint of Melange Books, will be publishing White Pine: My Year as a Lumberjack and a River Rat in January of 2014.

White Pine is an historical fiction set at the end of the nineteenth century. Sevy Anderson's father breaks his leg in a sawmill accident, and so the fourteen-year-old has to take his place with the lumberjacks and river rats who harvested the forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The men of the Northwoods live hard and on the edge, and Sevy must prove his worth in the company of legends. The novel is also about first love and dreams that endure, and it is in the tradition of Harry Mazer's novels for boys.

This novel is near and dear to my heart and written in honor of Wisconsin, a state to which I moved as an adult and which has become my home. As a family, we were geocaching on a summer's day many years ago when we came upon a building along the river that had once housed a lumber company's offices. It is one of the few remaining edifices in our town that date back to the lumberjack era. It inspired a family conversation about the history of our region, about the rivers, sawmills, and lumberjacks and about how traces of what has gone before can still be seen by looking closely.

I am so excited to see this book in print!

http://www.fireandiceya.com/authors/index.html

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen is my current favorite Golden Archer nominee and, possibly, one of my favorite children's picture books of all times. Klassen's assumes his readers possess a certain level of sophistication that allows them to appreciate dark humor. C.S. Lewis said "No book is worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty." This is so true of this picture book. Like Mo Willems, Klassen understands that the adults who read the stories to the children truly appreciate humor as well, and so he doesn't dumb down his book or tame it to make it palatable for children. There are many examples in children's literature of books in which their very darkness is part of their appeal. This is one of those books. I read it to all of my kindergarten and first grade classes with the other Golden Archer nominees. While reading the book, some of the children loved it. Others were horrified (spoiler) that the rabbit was eaten. But those boys and girls who have a little bit of  Sendak's "Wild Things" in them loved it. Just this morning, I counted up the votes. I Want My Hat Back won. This book is pure genius and a delight. Just be prepared with an alternate explanation for the rabbit's fate if you have any tender hearted children in your audience.

I have been doing a lot of writing lately. I have a completed middle grade historical fiction about a boy in the lumberjack era in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and a Young Adult dystopia that still needs some polishing. So, of late, I haven't been out looking for reviews. I was pleasantly surprised to get a letter in the mail from the Midwest Book Review. They have featured A Horse Named Viking in the January 2013 issue of their Children's Bookwatch. Thank you MBR for your interest in small press publications and thanks for the lovely review which appears on their Pet\Wildlife Shelf.

Midwest Book Review - January 2013 Children's BookWatch

Great new review for A Horse Named Viking: http://www.learn-about-horses.com/horse-books.html! Look below Black Beauty.
Thanks to learn-about-horses.com!

Recently, a second grade teacher used A Horse Named Viking to teach about reading strategies. She sent me the following comments from her students.

 

Quotes by kids:

" I was amazed at how well you PULLED ME in to the book"

"Your story touched my heart"

"I CONNECTED with your story because I am a horse back rider"

"Your book made me sob and cry at the end.  Maybe you and I could talk horses someday since we have that CONNECTION"

"I cried when Viking was put down because it reminded me of when my aunts dog was put down". 

"I wish Viking would have won the World Cup.  I'm QUESTIONING why he couldn't go out on a good note". 

"Your book made us cry and cry.  Mrs. P had Avery read the last Chapter because she and Olivia couldn't stop crying"

"I still QUESTION if Carpia's husband also had a bad blood line". 

"If Humfriend could not handle Viking, then I am INFERRING that Anne is really the BEST rider". 

 

To Mrs. P, thank you for sharing these wonderful comments with me and thank you for sharing Viking with your students!

Another letter from a young reader of A Horse Named Viking

Letters from 2nd Grade Readers of Viking