Historically Speaking

Thirteen years ago today an immeasurable tragedy occurred in our country. We all came away changed and scarred. Amidst all the horror of that day were the heroics of the first responders and the SAR workers. I heard their stories while I worked on Sniffer Dogs: How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save the World . It was an honor to speak to Shirley Hammond about her time at Ground Zero with her dog, Sunny. A volunteer, Shirley went without question. I heard about Sunny's discovery of a fallen firefighter and his confusion of how to alert to a deceased person after being trained as a live-find dog. I also heard about brave little Sage, a border collie, who took part in her very first deployment at the Pentagon that day. She was the one who located the body of the terrorist who flew the plane into the Pentagon. On this day of remembering I encourage you all to set aside a few dollars to contribute to the National Search Dog Foundation and the Sage Foundation for Dogs Who Serve ....

If you haven't read The Little Prince today is the day! Take the book outside to a quiet picnic table or rock by a lake and enjoy!  The Morgan Library recently held an exhibit of The Little Prince. It showed all of the revisions that went in to the writing and the illustrations. Seeing the author's process was fascinating.  I knew I loved the book, (my childhood copy sits on desk's bookshelf!) but that exhibit made me love it even more. I wanted to bottle it all up and take it home so that I could savor it. Unfortunately, the Morgan did not publish a guide to the exhibit.   That brings me to Peter Sis ' new book -- The Pilot and The Little Prince.     NPR did a fabulous interview with Peter Sis about the book, making me want to read it all the more. The life of aviator/author Antoine de Saint-Exupery is intriguing. I am thrilled that Sis took up the subject!  Please let me know how you like the books. I have a feeling they will be equally u...

 Abandoned Hudson Valley

Yes, I finally did it. I joined a book club! I was in a fantastic mother/daughter book club when my daughter was younger. We had some great discussion, but it's been awhile.  That isn't to say I haven't had book discussions. Oh, I've had plenty!  And good ones!  And not so good ones! As the Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Eastern NY region I co-host a monthly meeting. We include a short book discussion at each meeting. But, it's short and we always find that many folks haven't read the book yet. Recently we discussed The Book Thief. Our plan was to hold the discussion so that we could include a conversation about the movie as well. That didn't happen. The movie came and went so quickly that  many of us were unable to get to see it - including me!  By the time I did see it I was ready to talk about it again -- but with who? As my luck would have it a book group was meeting at my church that month and ...

It was fun to see Google celebrate British paleontologist, Mary Anning today on her 215th birthday! My first encounter with this historic woman was through Jeannine Atkins picture book, Mary Annng and the Sea Dragon . Jeannine had traveled to Lyme Regis in England where Mary was born. She walked along the beach where 11-year-old Mary found a 17-foot fossil that made her famous. Jeanine captures Mary so beautifully in this book, which is why it was the Society of School  Librarians International 2000 honor book.  It is a great addition to a classroom library and fits in well with Common Core standards!

Author and school visit specialist, Alexis O’Neill  is here today to talk about her latest award-winning book, The Kite That Bridged Two Nations.  Alexis, this is a great nonfiction picture book that introduces readers to a historic kite contest and Homan Walsh, who dreamed of flying his kite across the wide Niagara. Can you tell us about the research that went in to writing this book? Nancy – thanks for your invitation to share! For pleasure years ago, I had read David McCullough’s book, The Great Bridge , about John A. Roebling’s building of the Brooklyn Bridge. McCullough mentioned Homan Walsh and the kite flying contest because Roebling finished the Niagara Suspension Bridge project when the original engineer left. When someone suggested to me that that incident might make a good kids book, my research began. Internet. I searched Wikipedia to get overviews of the event, people and places; collect key words and images; and examine biblio...

Here are some great reads to share with the young people in your life on this Holocaust Remembrance Day.  

Fiction and Non-Fiction for Young People Take a Look at  War Veteran’s Coming Home Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific is a little-known true story about 79 women who were captured POW by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942. The Japanese attack on American forces in the Philippines came shortly after the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it caught the U.S. army and navy unprepared. Nurses rose to the occasion though they had not been trained in combat nursing. They helped set up field hospitals in the Bataan jungle and worked day and night trying to save the lives of American and Filipino soldiers. When Americans were forced to surrender to the Japanese, the nurses were sent to internment camps where they remained captive for three years. They bravely faced the horrors of prison camp—disease, starvation and humiliation by their guards. Finally liberated near the end of WWII, they came home ...

Yuck! Ick! Eew! by Lois Huey is disgusting!  And that’s what makes it a wonderful read for middle school kids interested in how people really lived in history. As a reader who loves to read historical fiction and imagine myself in those flowing gowns riding inside carriages and walking through heather-filled fields, Lois Huey’s book shatters that dream by shining a very bright light on the reality of those days.  Lois has done an amazing job on her research and so much of this information will be new to readers. This is a great book for classes studying Colonial America.   I’ll leave my dreams inside those romantic book pages and be thankful I can put on a gown for Halloween and still live in 2014 America!  Lois, can you tell us more about how you conducted your research for this book? In addition to information from excavations, I consulted original sources, that is, accounts from the time period. The people who lived then had little to say; they w...

Augusta Scattergood ’s debut middle grade, Glory Be , perfectly captures life in a Mississippi town during the Freedom Summer in the early 1960s.  With the same sensitivity and beauty of Kathryn Stockard’s The Help , Scattergood, gives us a story of civil rights and friendship. I had the pleasure of serving on the faculty of a Highlights Foundation Workshop with Augusta and am happy to share this conversation with you.  Thanks, Augusta, for writing such a beautiful novel and for talking with me today. Thanks for having me, Nancy!  Glory Be is wonderful.  As authors, I'm not sure if we choose our stories or if they choose us. What was the case with Glory Be? I think I chose this one! I've always loved to write, but writing a novel seemed like a daunting task. I first tried to write it as an adult short story about a wedding planner who loved Elvis. Well, thank goodness that didn't work out! I love middle-grade novels, especially historicals. I really fel...