http://www.klday.com/blog Welcome to my blog! I'd love to hear your comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:00:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en            In the late 1980s I started a dog walking service in Chicago called The Tootsie Roll Stroll. My husband and I had just moved there from Connecticut for a three-year-stint with his job. My dog business was a way to make money while I went to graduate school.             On ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=116 I've been thinking a lot about how to teach creative writing to kids. Several weeks ago I gave a presentation/workshop to a group of fourth and fifth graders.  I started off by talking about my books, rejections, inspiration. And then I had them all do a writing exercise about place. ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=112 I had one of the best school visits last week when I talked to the seventh graders at this wonderful middle school nearby. This was my third visit to the school; each year Ms. Matlaw, English teacher extraordinaire, makes my experience better and better. This year we had about 50 ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=110 It's so personal and so subjective, isn't it? People read for many different reasons, escape, enjoyment, adventure, to experience something "other" (a foreign land, a personality type, themselves...). Sometimes I read for all of those reasons, but mostly I read to learn. About writing. And I find that often I'm drawn to the same ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=107 Last night I joined 40-some other pubished and unpublished writers, editors, agents, librarians and illustrators at Boston's first ever Kid-Lit Pie Night. Organized by Mitali Perkins and friends, Pie Night was designed to bring together Boston's kid lit community for a few hours of talk and good cheer. It was ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=106 Curriculum Connections, a supplement to School Library Journal, featured NO CREAM PUFFS in an article looking at recently published "top-notch sports stories." Titled Batting 1000, the article suggests that the "first-rate" titles they review make for exciting reads but also encourage readers to thinkabout how "sports" might also help kids cope with emotional, peer or other ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=104 If you live in Newton, are in middle school and like to write fiction, well, you've come to the right place. On Monday, March 30, at 4pm, Mitali Perkins and I will hold a fiction writing workshop for middle school kids at the Newton Free Library. No experience is necessary. ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=103 I've seen many versions of this novel as Mitali Perkins and I are in the same writer's group. But I have to say how impressed I am with the final version! Writing a "historical" novel isn't so easy (and yes, setting the novel in 1974 means it's historical fiction). You must make sure ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=102 Wonderful Newton sixth grader Madeleine Lundberg featured me in an article on the front page of The Daytimer, Day Middle School's award-winning newspaper, earlier this month. Last month she e-mailed me questions and the result was a pretty nice article, with big pictures, too. I really like doing these interviews. I remember being a ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=101 This coming Saturday, February 14, I will be at Village Books in Roslindale, MA, taking part in Kids Heart Author Day in New England. This event was the brainchild of Mitali Perkins and Deborah Sloan who wanted to plan an event in support of New England independent bookstores. Between 10-noon on Saturday 40 ... http://www.klday.com/blog/?p=100