Author, Reader, Dreamer
I am perhaps the luckiest author on the planet to have been paired with Kelly Murphy to illustrate Together We Grow, my very first picture book. So far we’ve gotten starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist.
Kelly’s illustrations are magical, and make me want to write new picture books based on each of the animals she created.
Like this pig. This pig definitely needs her own story!
Scenes from ALA’s Printz Award ceremony:
Children’s bookstores are magical places. Books of Wonder is simply amazing. The original artwork from children’s books, the signed novels–the place is both a landmark and a treasure, and like walking back through the history of children’s literature. If you go to New York City, don’t miss this place, especially if you have kids or grandkids!
Also, their Edgars panel for Juvenile and YA nominees is a total blast.
I feel so fortunate to be back for a second year, with Things Too Huge to Fix By Saying Sorry a nominee in the Best Juvenile category, alongside so many other amazing novels!
Once again, the Mysterious Bookshop offered nominees and readers a lovely (and of course, mysterious) reception, this year complete with dark skies, driving rain, and howling winds to increase the spooky ambience. Truly, it was the perfect scene for a murder, but per my understanding, no bodies were discovered.
Yet.
Super Max the Mighty Invincible can see a haunted house from her bedroom window. Thornwood Manor is excellently creepy, and legends say the ghost of mean old Hargrove Thornwood is just biding his time until he can exact revenge on the town of Blue Creek.
Twelve-year-old Max tries not to worry about those spooky stories. She’s a whiz with electronics, she’s turbo-charged her wheelchair, and she’s ready for just about anything. Then a hacker starts a slanderous Facebook page about her grandfather. Max investigates even though she isn’t sure she has the skills to take the electronic bad guy down.
As the messages grow increasingly sinister, lights begin to flicker in the ruined manor. Someone—or some thing—is definitely stirring within Thornwood’s rotten walls. Max knows the attacks on her grandfather and the activity at Thornwood are connected, and she’s afraid that this could really be Thornwood’s Revenge.
If it is, the awful messages are just the beginning. Max’s grandfather, her friends, and her whole town could be in serious danger.
