A very special thank you to all of the booksellers this holiday season. I wrote this poem for you!

Cozy Corners, Crowded Shelves

Frenzied readers find themselves.

You pitch and pull and count and lead,

You fill a hunger, feed a need.

Oh, Bookseller, I hope you know,

Your support is valued so!

And a very special thank you to Left Bank Books in Saint Louis, Missouri and Anderson’s Bookshop in Downer’s Grove, Illinois who sent me these photos of Laugh with the Moon their shelves.

Thanks for the love, Left Bank Books!

Excited to be on Anderson Bookshops’ Mock Newbery list this year!

Could I be any more thrilled? I doubt it.

This weekend’s Texas Book Festival included the announcement that LAUGH WITH THE MOON is on the Bluebonnet Master List for 2013-14! A heartfelt thank you to the TLA Bluebonnet selection committee, as well as to: my awesome editor at Delacorte Press, Michelle Poploff; my amazing agent at TransAtlantic Literary Association, Andrea Cascardi; research assistants Felicity Charity Mponda and Lovemore Nkhata; and all the other members of the team who helped with this book in some way.

Shana visits with student teachers at U.T.

My visit to Dr. Nancy Roser and Dr. Bonnie Elliott’s students at the University of Texas confirmed what I already knew: Teachers rock! These were the most inquisitive, motivated, and interesting students I’ve met in a while–and they are all studying to become teachers. There are lucky kids in the world, I tell you.

Dr. Roser with students

When Dr. Roser told me that the evening would begin with a Quaker meeting-style reading, I had no idea what to expect. Sixty students opened their copies of A Thousand Never Evers, which they’d spent the last month reading and discussing. One by one, they read out lines from the book that had grabbed them, or moved them in some way. Honestly, it was one of the most intense experiences of my life. To know that those sentences I had spent years constructing, changing, struggling with had actually been heard and appreciated was almost overwhelming.

When Gayle came up to get her book signed, I noticed it was…er….just a bit marked up!

I then told myself not to lose it, and I proceeded to talk about how to think like a writer. I must admit, I gave away some of my best writing secrets. And then they asked many questions, I signed books, and everyone enjoyed some pizza.

Signing books! One of my favorite hobbies.

Thank you students…I mean, teachers…I mean student teachers!

Best time ever! The librarians, teachers, parents, and booksellers who organized Tweens Read in Pasadena, TX sure know how to make authors feel special.

Does this take the cake or what!?!

We received hand-knitted coffee cup warmers, cupcakes with our books on them, hot plates with cover images, and super cool posters designed around our books. It was like a wedding without the wedding–believe you me, that much planning went into it.

The hundreds upon hundreds of tweens who attended were spunky, inquisitive, and all around awesome. I sat on a panel called From a Girl’s Point of View with authors Claire Legrand, Diana Lopez, and Lisa Schroeder. I can’t wait to read their books! And I met many other great authors too.

Heather Brewer delivered a powerful keynote about the horrors of bullying.

Thanks to all who turned out to make it an incredible day!

In honor of the awesomeness of this month (which includes my favorite holiday–Halloween), I’ll be raffling off a signed copy of LAUGH WITH THE MOON, along with a $25 gift card to the winner’s local independent bookstore!

Here’s how it works:

• If you leave a comment on my blog, right here right now, your name will be entered once.
• If you Tweet about the giveaway, your name will be entered twice.
• All fans who have liked ShanaBurgWrites on Facebook will be entered three times.
• Anyone who follows me on Twitter @ShanaBurg Writes will also be entered three times.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Leading up to appearances at the Tween Reads Festival on October 20th and the Texas Book Festival on October 28th, I’m excited to announce an October blog tour! I hope you’ll follow along:

Monday, October 16th, stop by Cynsations and read my guest post about how to give an author talk to a crowd of 300 eighth-graders in a cafeteria. Could it get any more challenging?!

Thursday, October 18th, I’ll have a guest post on The Fourth Musketeer. I’m chatting about how to engage kids in literature that deals with some pretty heavy real-world issues.

Monday, October 22nd, Mother Daughter Book Club.com will feature a review of Laugh with the Moon

Tuesday, October 23rd, Mother Daughter Book Club.com interviews me about writing my books and about how kids can create change

Friday, October 26th, the CBC Diversity blog of the Children’s Book Council asks me range of challenging and thought-provoking questions about diversity in children’s literature

Hope this tour will introduce you to some amazing sites. Please leave me lots of comments and questions.  And a big thank you to all of my wonderful hosts!

Feeling lost? Looking for a new direction? Check out the No Place Like Home GPS Shoes that will show you the right road to take–literally! The shoes have built in navigation and light up to lead you to where you need to go. Weird? Yes! Cool? Most definitely!

Here designer Dominic Wilcox shows how he worked his magic…one step at a time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Wednesday I’ll be posting weird pictures and videos sure to make you smile. Feel free to submit from your own treasure trove of weirdness. I know you have something strange somewhere that you’re dying to share.

To kick off the festivities, let’s take a look at Austin’s own Minor Mishap Marching Band:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Does everyone already know about this website beside me?

If you don’t, you should. I discovered it when I woke up at 2am last night, and unable to fall back asleep, I began surfing the web. (I know, mom, have a glass of milk and go right back to bed.)

First, I read about the poor man who nearly got his face chewed off by a cannibal in Florida. And I didn’t just read about it, I found myself reading the whole homicide unit deposition of the horror.

Next, I checked out what was going on in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. I had visited there many years ago and found it so peaceful. And now an offshoot of Al Qaeda was infiltrating and slaughtering.

Alas, it was only then, that I checked my Twitter feed, and feeling utterly hopeless and wide awake at 3:30am, I stumbled upon this website called HopeMob.org

So cool! People coming together to help other people. No twist. No catch. Just plain old goodness.

From what I can tell, you can post a good cause that needs funding or contribute to critical causes that other people have put online. People who contribute the most money get points and can elevate projects to the top five featured stories. As I write this, story number one is about helping 8-year-old Daisy Love Merrick beat cancer. In the middle of last night, the number one story was funding a specific group of 8th graders in Kenya go to high school. You could also rescue a North Korean refugee, or help a single mom get a car.

Sick of the regular news? Check out HopeMob, and I guarantee you’ll feel better.

Please check out this video of Dr. Kevin Bergman from World Altering Medicine. He helped me understand the medical situation in Malawi as I wrote Laugh with the Moon. Here he gives us a rare glimpse into a rural Malawi hospital.

I’m about to start on a new writing project–one that I refer to as Book #3.

The truth is I started on it a year ago. In the age-old writers’ debate about whether to outline first or travel in the dark without headlights (e.g. just start drafting), I opt for a combo style. I blow through a first draft as quickly as I can, and by then, I’m familiar with my world and the characters who inhabit it, even though the plot seems to be lacking. (That’s putting it mildly.) But then I’m ready to outline.

When I was working on Laugh with the Moon, I consulted author and friend Jennifer Ziegler, who showed me how she outlines. That helped a lot. I put my own twist on the outline and made a table and labeled for each chapter I wrote a one-sentence plot summary, sensory details that I want to explore, and any relevant facts that I wanted to include.

Now, four years later, I’m ready to outline again, and this time I’m turning to Scrivener for help. I’ve only been using it for two days, and already I’m wondering why I didn’t look for software like this sooner! I can already see that it’s going to save me oodles of time and bundles of frustration, because I’m able to keep all sorts of documents, research, character information, and scenes all in one place. I can outline or use the bulletin board feature.

I feel like I’ve just stepped out of The Dark Ages! Excited. More soon…

Thank you to all the bloggers who let me visit! I had a great time and met many new people. Here’s the roundup of all the stops I made in the last two weeks:

7/17- Mr. Schu Reads

7/17- Sharpread

7/20- Journey of a Bookseller

7/22- Nerdy Book Club

7/24- From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors

7/25- Read, Write, Reflect

7/26- The Musings of a Book Addict

7/26- Popcorntheblog

7/27- The Children’s Book Review

7/30- The Pirate Tree

7/31- The Pirate Tree

Dear Blog,

Today, I woke up feeling a little blah. But then I read about Joyce Banda, the second female president in Africa, who is kicking some serious you-know-what.

Little girls having fun at school in Malawi.

I ask you, how does a girl raised in one of the poorest nations on earth, who was sent to secretarial school, and then abused by her alcoholic husband end up one of the most powerful leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa? And even more importantly, what will she do for the millions of young girls in her country?

Less than a year into office, President Banda is already succeeding in luring international investors, curbing corruption at the top levels of government, and sending a message that is pro-human rights by asking the government to repeal laws making homosexuality a crime. Check out the article in The Washington Post, “Malawi’s Joyce Banda ushers in a new kind of African leadership.“

Blog, if you can believe it, our friends Sarah Greenberg of the Kabudula Education and Empowerment Project (KEEP) and Dr. Kevin Bergman of World Altering Medicine (WAM) got the chance to hang out with President Banda a few months back. President Banda told Sarah and Kevin:

It’s all about the girl child, and it starts in the village.

You can read about their meeting with President Banda here.

Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa cites a UN report to state that just 13% of Malawi’s girls attend secondary school and only a fraction of those graduate. The site asks this poignant question:

Can you imagine a world where less than 7% of the women have attained a high school education?

According to the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report:

Children born to educated mothers are more likely to survive and less likely to experience malnutrition. Universal secondary education for girls in sub-Saharan Africa could save as many as 1.8 million lives annually.

Blog, for the price of four Starbucks frappucinos, you could send a child in Malawi to high school for a year. A whole year! If you want to try that, I happen to know two people who can take your donations and make that happen. You can contact Sarah Greenberg: sarah @ worldalteringmedicine.org  or Erin Mwalwanda: erinmwalwanda @ aol.com .

How do you think a nation like Malawi will change when more of the girls are able to graduate high school? How would the U.S. be different if 90% of our nation’s high school graduates were male?

Shana

Dear Blog,

A boy from Malawi learns to write with a stick in the dirt. He copies the Chichewa letter ‘e’ that he made from termite hill mud.

You know how they say, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure”?

Well, that’s what I want to talk about today.

In this bad economy, what do you have that you can reuse or recycle? Have you ever thought about the impact of all the stuff we buy and throw out on our live? I know I just spent a week clearing out the play room to get ready for our new dog. It took me a week to decide where to put thousands of Legos, crayons, rocks, magic wands, swords, action figures, books, pencil stubs and other treasures that belong to my 8-year-old.

In my latest book Laugh with the Moon, the 13-year-old protagonist from the U.S. goes to Malawi, Africa and is amazed to see how her peers there–in one of the poorest countries in the world–use what they find in the environment to make their own toys and learning materials for school. In the story, Clare, who becomes a teacher for younger students, learns to use the mud of termite hills to teach them the alphabet. You can read more about that in today’s guest post on The Children’s Book Review.

You may have also heard about William Kamkwamba, who was a teen in Malawi, when he used the items he found in a junkyard–old bicycle parts, tires–to build a windmill. The windmill generated enough power to provide electricity to his whole village and ultimately, helped them to eat. You can read the whole story in William’s amazing memoir The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Someone else who talks about learning to live with less stuff is Katy Wolk-Stanley. Her motto is “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without.” Katy has signed The Compact, a world-wide movement where people make a one year commitment to stop buying new stuff. She writes about her fascinating journey on her blog, The Non-Consumer Advocate. Check it out.

A fascinating and controversial video about the impact of all the stuff we consume is called The Story of Stuff.

I’ve been thinking–what would my life be like without so much stuff? What would the world be like? Would you ever dare to sign The Compact?  I’d love to know what you think.

Shana

Dear Blog,

I truly missed you in the past year. I hope you don’t resent me for taking you out of my life for a while. Yes, I know you called me over and over. I heard the ring.

The truth is, it was just too much to bear–knowing you were there yet being unable to find the time to commit. Okay, maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s just an excuse. Still, now that we’ve reunited, I’m joyous! How will I fill your blank pages…well, not pages, but your blankness? (Don’t take that personally, please. I didn’t mean it that way. Really, I didn’t.)

As we become reacquainted, I feel the jitters. You do too? Oh! (Blush)  Well, I sort of  wonder, how will our new relationship develop? Will we talk about my new book, Laugh with the Moon? Will we explore the publications of so many other kidlit authors? Will we think about new project that the two of us might embark on together?

I’m sure you’ve noticed…it’s a whole new world since we last dated. Excited that we’re back on track!

Love (Don’t freak out now! We’ll take it slow…),

Shana

When I was teaching sixth grade, two of my students skipped class to go sledding. They had my blessing. This was the only way they could learn to read.

Let me explain. We were dissecting Lois Lowry’s The Giver. A critical scene in the book describes the protagonist, Jonah, sledding. Two of my students could not comprehend what this chapter was about no matter how many discussions we had. Our class reading specialist pulled them out of the room for some extra help.

That’s when the reading specialist discovered these two kids had never been sledding in their lives, despite the fact that our school was in Boston. She took the students out of school the next day, and made a bee-line for the snowiest hill she could find. It was the most effective reading lesson those two boys ever had. Problem solved: reading tests aced.

Well, I just read Dana Goldstein’s article “How to Make American Teens Smarter” on The Daily Beast. Goldstein explores the impact prior knowledge and experience has on the development of readers.

Her article also highlights several other scary facts that were recently disclosed in the “nation’s report card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress–facts that underpin why our nation may be losing its competitive edge:

…only one-third of American kids can read at the “proficient” level. Over the past two years, no national gains have been made in closing the achievement gaps between rich and poor, white and black, white and Hispanic, or girls and boys.

Goldstein says, “The overall picture of literacy in America is bleak–a decades-long achievement plateau.” Clearly we need to think outside the box…or at least outside the classroom. So what ideas do you have for melting our nation’s literacy deep freeze?

When I was teaching sixth grade, two of my students skipped class to go sledding. They had my blessing. This was the only way they could learn to read.

We were dissecting Lois Lowry’s The Giver. A critical scene in the book describes the protagonist, Jonah, sledding. But these students could not comprehend what the chapter was about, no matter how many discussions we had. Why? Well, as our school reading specialist discovered, these kids had never been sledding in their lives, despite the fact that they lived in Boston.

What to do? The reading specialist went home, got two red sleds, came back to school for our students, and made a bee-line for the snowiest hill she could find. Problem solved: reading tests aced.

Dana Goldstein’s article “How to Make American Teens Smarter” on The Daily Beast. Goldstein explores the impact prior knowledge and experience has on the development of readers.

Her article also highlights several other scary facts that were recently disclosed in the “nation’s report card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress–facts that underpin why our nation may be losing its competitive edge:

…only one-third of American kids can read at the “proficient” level. Over the past two years, no national gains have been made in closing the achievement gaps between rich and poor, white and black, white and Hispanic, or girls and boys.

Goldstein says, “The overall picture of literacy in America is bleak–a decades-long achievement plateau.” Clearly we need to think outside the box…or at least outside the classroom. So what ideas do you have for closing the achievement gap and melting our nation’s literacy deep freeze?

This gorgeous picture book took home the Caldecott Honor.

So much has been happening in the Austin Children’s lit scene that it’s hard to know where to begin. First off, our city swept the ALA awards. Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee took home a Caldecott Honor for All the World, Jacqueline Kelly got the Newbery Honor for The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, and Chris Barton was awarded the Siebert for The Day-Glo Brothers. Not bad for a day’s work!

Next up, Destination Publication, our Austin Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference that was held January 30th. I was thrilled–thrilled!–that my agent Andrea Cascardi came into town to speak about 13 things every writer should know about getting and working with an agent.

Andrea was joined on the all-star conference faculty by a host of well-known authors, agents, and editors, including Kirby Larson, author of Hattie Big Sky. Kirby gave a terrific talk about her journey to publication. I was reminded that even when we think we’re not writing, we’re collecting information from the world that will become our material later.

Fans are giddy now that Cynthia Leitich Smith's vampire romance thrills in paperback!

In other news, Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Eternal has gone paperback! This book is a must-read for vampire fans. But as I blogged in my post “Bitten and Smitten”, even non-vampire fans will soon be converted to the dark side. Eternal is the second in a series. Rumor has it that due to the incredible popularity of Tantalize and Eternal, Candlewick has asked for more books than originally planned, so stay tuned.

And finally, this past Saturday morning, the Austin chapter of SCBWI held its monthly meeting at our rocking independent bookseller, BookPeople. It was the first time in three years our Tim Crow could sit back and relax. After the outstanding job he’d done, he passed the reigns of resident advisor to the wonderful Debbie Gonzales.

Bethany Hegadus was the speaker at our meeting. Bethany is the author of Between Us Baxters and Truth with a Capital T which will be published by Delacorte Press in the fall. Bethany captivated us with a talk about plot structure and the six key scenes every manuscript should have.

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’m so thankful to be part of this awesome children’s writing community.

This gorgeous picture book took home the Caldecott Honor.

So much has been happening in the Austin Children’s lit scene that it’s hard to know where to begin. First off, our city swept the ALA awards. Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee took home a Caldecott Honor for All the World, Jacqueline Kelly got the Newbery Honor for The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, and Chris Barton was awarded the Siebert for The Day-Glo Brothers. Not bad for a day’s work!

Next up, Destination Publication, our Austin Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference that was held January 30th. I was thrilled–thrilled!–that my agent Andrea Cascardi came into town to speak about 13 things every writer should know about getting and working with an agent.

Andrea was joined on the all-star conference faculty by a host of well-known authors, agents, and editors, including Kirby Larson, author of Hattie Big Sky. Kirby gave a terrific talk about her journey to publication. I was reminded that even when we think we’re not writing, we’re collecting information from the world that will become our material later.

Fans are giddy now that Cynthia Leitich Smith's vampire romance thrills in paperback!

In other news, Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s Eternal has gone paperback! This book is a must-read for vampire fans. But as I blogged in my post “Bitten and Smitten”, even non-vampire fans will soon be converted to the dark side. Eternal is the second in a series. Rumor has it that due to the incredible popularity of Tantalize and Eternal, Candlewick has asked for more books than originally planned, so stay tuned.

And finally, this past Saturday morning, the Austin chapter of SCBWI held its monthly meeting at our rocking independent bookseller, BookPeople. It was the first time in three years our Tim Crow could sit back and relax. After the outstanding job he’d done, he passed the reigns of resident advisor to the wonderful Debbie Gonzales.

Bethany Hegadus was the speaker at our meeting. Bethany is the author of Between Us Baxters and Truth with a Capital T which will be published by Delacorte Press in the fall. Bethany captivated us with a talk about plot structure and the six key scenes every manuscript should have.

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’m so thankful to be part of this awesome children’s writing community.

Today marks the paperback release of A Thousand Never Evers (Yearling, 2009)! I’m so excited to report that the Interactive Reader Guide is up and running on my site as well. You have got to check this out!

The Interactive Reader Guide features chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, links to 1963 newspaper articles, and riveting video interviews with people who lived through civil rights history. There are also many current-day  photographs of the Mississippi Delta.

I designed the guide especially for educators using the book in the classroom or anyone leading a book club discussion about A Thousand Never Evers. You can access it through the Home page or Educator page of my website. If you want to go straight to the video interviews, click on “All Video Clips” at the bottom of the table of contents. Enjoy!

Today marks the paperback release of A Thousand Never Evers (Yearling, 2009)! I’m so excited to report that the Interactive Reader Guide is up and running on my site as well. Please check it out!

The Interactive Reader Guide features chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, links to 1963 newspaper articles, and riveting video interviews with people who lived through civil rights history. There are also many current-day  photographs of the Mississippi Delta.

I designed the guide especially for educators using the book in the classroom or anyone leading a book club discussion about A Thousand Never Evers. You can access it through the Home page or Educator page of my website. If you want to go straight to the video interviews, click on “All Video Clips” at the bottom of the table of contents. Enjoy!

Yearling Paperback release date Dec. 22nd!

I just got a copy of the Yearling paperback edition of A Thousand Never Evers in the mail. I love this new cover!

Now I’m furiously working to get a comprehensive and interactive educator guide up on my website by the new year.

It will feature video interviews that I conducted with Mississippi Delta residents who lived through the civil rights movement. I’m not the world’s best videographer, I’ll admit. But thanks to my interviewees, these video clips are riveting.

The interviews correspond with various chapters of my book. I have no doubt that students will get a much deeper understanding of  the history by watching them.

The eductator guide will also feature chapter by chapter discussion questions and important weblinks. The guide is designed so teachers either can use it in class, or assign sections for nightly homework if all students have internet access outside the classroom. Please check back at the start of 2010 to check it out!

I just got a copy of the Yearling paperback edition of A Thousand Never Evers in the mail. I love this new cover!

Yearling paperback release date is December 22nd!

Now I’m furiously working to get a comprehensive and interactive reader guide up on my website by the new year.

The reader guide will also feature chapter by chapter discussion questions and important weblinks. The guide is designed so teachers either can use it in class, or assign sections for nightly homework if all students have internet access outside the classroom. Also, anyone leading a book club discussion will find a lot to yap about. Please check back at the start of 2010 to check it out!

Maya and me

So you know how sometimes you meet someone and you just instantly click? That’s how it was with me and Maya, my teen guide for the morning. We had breakfast together and talked about everything from middle school to books. I loved hanging out with her, and we could have talked all day except it was time for the keynote address from Libba Bray.

I hate when people say, “You had to be there.” So sorry, but you really had to be there, because I’m afraid I just can’t give over to you how fantastic this keynote was.

Libba talked about lots of things but what really got me was when she talked about what she was like as a teen and how teens are perceived by the world: frightening due to their excellent ability to call out any inauthenticity anywhere. In other words, grownups get through their days with little lies, but teens spot these and call the big people out. The other thing is that Libba is beyond hilarious, and right when you’re laughing, she’ll zap you with some incredible truth about the world that you never thought of before.

After Libba spoke, it was time for the panels. The Delacorte Dames and Dude spoke to three different groups of teens, and we had three different terrific librarian moderators. The best question, I think, was whether we ever have to go to a place in our personal past that we don’t want to go to in order to write a scene. That, of course, forced me to describe how the love triangles in my books were born. Let’s just say my best friend growing up was the cheerleading captain and the president of the model U.N. So there actually weren’t any love triangles. It was more like a love line (her and the guy) and then the dot on the outside (me), if that makes any sense. Anyway, we had lots of hearty laughs while answering that question.

Zombies at West Lake High School dance Thriller!

In the middle of the day, the authors were entertained by the West Lake High School dance troupe’s rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The dancers were dressed as zombies. How fun is that!

Later, after the book signing, the speakers went to dinner at Hula Hut. We sat on the pier overlooking Lake Austin. It was a gorgeous night, and so much fun to talk to authors who came in from out of town like Lisa McMann, Carrie Jones, and Matt de la Pena.

Thank you Heather Schubert and the Austin school librarians who organized this amazing day. Thank you to the hundreds and hundreds of teens who came out for it. And also thank you to BookPeople. We love you people at BookPeople!