How to use this Page

At the recent conference for the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media, I did a session on book trailers for use in the library. As part of that session, I asked librarians to participate in making a video. Those interested in become a YouTube star answered this simple question:
What do you do when you get lost?

Here’s the video:

*|YouTube:1NZmSXuxynA|*

Great fun!

NonFiction BookBlast Sunday, June 26, 2011. 8-10 am. ALA Conference in NOLA.

I’m speaking today at the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media (AAIM) conference about using Book Trailers in the Classroom and Library. So, at the same time, I am rolling out the trailer for the paperback release of my novel, THE WAYFINDER.


*|YouTube:_LlJirZt2Tk|*

Please pass it on!

I hail from Arkansas and until now, we’ve been known for the Clinton Presidential Library, the US’s only diamond mine (Crater of Diamonds State Park), and the headquarters of Wal-Mart. But this year we’ll be known for the Arkansas Teen Book Award, established by Arkansas Librarians. (Facebook page.) The reading list was announced in December, 2009 and this year’s winners will be announced in December, 2010.

Two days ago, we looked at opening lines from 100 top novels and categorized them to learn how to open a novel. Yesterday, we looked at the opening lines from the teen novels on the 7-9th grade, 2010 Arkansas Teen Book Award reading list and challenged you to identify the novels. Today’s opening lines are from the 10-12th grade reading list for the Arkansas Teen Book Award.

Identify These Teen Novels from Their Opening Lines, #2

OK, TRY to identify these without any help. They are all 2008 copyright books. Need help? See the tip below.
(Actually, many of these are graphic novels and there’s at least one non-fiction on the list.)

• I look at my fingers again, the ones that trembled and shook just a few days ago at Mr. Bender’s kitchen table.
• Willow Creek Camping Ground, Willow Creek, Montana.
  Daddy?
• Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon, Himalayas – 1938.
  See anything?
• You have never been so hungry; you have never been so cold.
• As with the banking industry, the Russian political system and the romantic liaisons on the Gossip Girl, all is not as it seems in the world of food and drink.
• Time 6:13:10 four minutes earlier…
  Readings look good, Annie.
• No doubt with all those grapes, Aristotle, the world’s first naturalist, passed gas.
• We live in a world where medical miracles and high-tech marvels are almost commonplace.
• In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind.
• Needle doesn’t know which way to point.
• twenty-two years la
  Add a Comment

I hail from Arkansas and until now, we’ve been known for the Clinton Presidential Library, the US’s only diamond mine (Crater of Diamonds State Park), and the headquarters of Wal-Mart. But this year we’ll be known for the Arkansas Teen Book Award, established by Arkansas Librarians. (Facebook page.) The reading list was announced in December, 2009 and this year’s winners will be announced in December, 2010.

Yesterday, we looked at opening lines from 100 top novels and categorized them to learn how to open a novel. Here, I’m taking the opening lines from the teen novels on the 2010 Arkansas Teen Book Award reading list and challenging you to identify the novel.

Identify These Teen Novels from Their Opening Lines, #1

OK, TRY to identify these without any help. They are all 2008 copyright books. Need help? See the tip below.

• Conner Broekhart was a remarkable boy, a fact that became evident very early in his idyllic childhood.
• The day I broke up with my boyfriend Evan was the day he wrote the song.
• We can hear someone screaming as soon as we get off the elevator.
• They’d stolen a march on the day.
• The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up.
• When my father died, I thought the world would come to an end.
• December 14, 2007
  To: Headmaster Richmond and the Board of Directors, Alabaster Preparatory Academy
• Ten minutes after the last class of the day, Lucy got a text message from her best friend Sarah Hebert, “Need u,” it said.
• Pugg Brothers. . .Please report to the principal’s office.
• . . . Gino Michelini on KLS-FM, 92.3 on your FM dial!
• Decatur, Alabama
  August 12, 1993
  Kevin Gardner was not home, even though it was way past his eleven-o’clock curfew.
• Long ago and far away in the land of ice and snow, there came a time when it seemed that winter would never end.