Loree Griffin Burns: A Life in Books

Five Things on Friday (Florida Edition)

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:59:50 GMT

I thought about doing Four Hundred Things on Friday and sharing a lot more photos, but that would just be cruel. So I edited myself. Below are a great white heron, a pair of alligators, an insanely huge grasshopper (if I had thought to put my pinky finger in for scale, the grasshopper would have been longer and twice as fat!), a lizard/anole type creature that was also quite big, and a wild honey bee hive.

© Loree Griffin Burns

© Gerry Burns

© Loree Griffin Burns

© Samuel Griffin Burns

© Loree Griffin Burns

It was nice to take this trip while my mind was between projects. I have a new book brewing, but the major research for that particular project won't begin until February. And so I had the luxury of time to think and read and watch and wonder about anything at all while traveling. I wondered about all the creatures pictured above, each native to the Florida Everglades, but I found myself especially drawn to stories of non-native species: Burmese pythons and Brazilian pepper plants and the like. Now, back home, I find myself pulling books and articles that I've collected over the years and realizing that this is a topic that has interested me for quite a while ... and not for the reasons one might think. And so I am reading and wrapping and researching and decorating all in equal measure. I love this part of my work, thinking and exploring without obligation, without deadlines, purely because a topic interests me.

Happy Friday!

Holiday Craziness

lgb@loreeburns.com — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:58:47 GMT

© Gerry Burns

The holidays make me a little crazy. So when my husband first suggested the family join him on a business trip to Florida in December, I told him he was a kook. Who would get the tree? Who would cross items off the shopping list? Who would write the holiday letter and select a photo for the card and print the cards and buy the stamps and address the envelopes? Who would order the lamb, prepare the sweet potato biscuits, and bake the cookies? Who would wrap the gifts and layer them around the tree? Who? Who? Who?

The answer, of course, was that no one would do these things if we went away. And it would be okay.

Now we are back from our surprise winter trip, and my husband was right. None of those things are done yet … and it will be okay.

What's more, I came home with intense feelings of gladness, thanks to a few days in the Everglades. I’d now like to give everyone I know—and everyone I don’t know, too—the gift of a day kayaking through the swamps of the Big Cypress National Preserve. Our journey through red mangrove tunnels (pictured above) was one of the most peaceful and joyful experiences of my life. Oh, how I wish I could wrap that up and put it under the tree.

(Not my tree, of course, because I don't have one yet. But I would put it under your holiday tree if I could!)

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults

lgb@loreeburns.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:04:23 GMT

The first ever list of finalists for this new nonfiction award has been announced. Check it out. Read the books. Spread the word.

Congratulations to Candace Fleming (The GREAT AND ONLY BARNUM), Deborah Heiligman (CHARLES AND EMMA), Philip Hoose (CLAUDETTE COLVIN), Tanya Lee Stone (ALMOST ASTRONAUTS), and Sally M. Walker (WRITTEN IN BONE)!

Snow Days Are Also For Little Green Men

lgb@loreeburns.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:08:26 GMT

Who knew?

Today, in between shoveling and birdwatching, I read. A lot. And much to my surprise, there was an unusually high frequency of little green men. You know the ones I mean, don't you? The plastic army guys? Little Green Men.

First, I finished the delightful OPERATION YES, by my friend, the equally delightful Sara Lewis Holmes. I was so moved by what Sara did with this book, and especially by its closing challenge to readers: Step Up. Step In. Say Yes.

In the afternoon, I picked up Jon Sceiszka's KNUCKLEHEAD, which has been sitting on my bedside table since my son placed it there months and months ago and said, "Mom, you have to." I finally did. Darn near killed myself laughing, too. (That's a KNUCKLEHEAD joke.)

Little Green Men were featured prominently in both books. In Sara's, they were art and inspiration. In Jon's they were melted in the toaster. It was enough to get me thinking about another Little Green Man I know:

© Betty Jenewin

I found him on a beach in Grayland, Washington while I was researching TRACKING TRASH. The photo never made it into the book, and I haven't seen it in a long while. Oh, the places a single snow day--and a couple great books--will take you.

Snow Days Are For the Birds

lgb@loreeburns.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:39:05 GMT

© Loree Griffin Burns

Spotted in our yard today:

white-throated sparrow (pictured above)
dark-eyed junco
cardinal
blue jay
red-bellied woodpecker
downy woodpecker
grackle
mourning dove
goldfinch
tufted titmouse
black-capped chickadee
white-breasted nuthatch
mystery brown bird with curvy bill (A Carolina wren? a creeper? I'm not sure. And it is being shy.)

Here's to enough seed in the feeders to get us all through the storm!

What A Girl Wants: Redwood Books

lgb@loreeburns.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:08:03 GMT

Colleen Mondor has asked all of the panelists for her 'What A Girl Wants' series to recommend a gift book or two for teenaged girls. I went with non-fiction (of course) and a theme (redwood trees) and, I suppose, on the assumption that the girl in question has an interest in science and nature. You can read this week's list of holiday picks (including the five books pictured above) here, and you can read last week's list here.

Enjoy!

Edited to Add: And here is the final What A Girl Wants list of recommended titles, published just today at Chasing Ray. Enjoy again!

good morning, good morning, good morning

lgb@loreeburns.com — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:04:02 GMT

© Loree Griffin Burns

I woke early this morning, hoping for some quiet time at my desk before the busyness of our Sunday began. But a few, dusty inches of first snow fell last night, and with a tiny bit of prodding from my boys (who also wake early), I opted for the quiet outside instead. Is there anything as lovely as first snow before sunrise? The feeling brought to mind the poem Why I Wake Early, by Mary Oliver. Do you know it?

Happy Sunday!

Monarchs In Space

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:52:24 GMT

Photo courtesy Monarchs In Space

So, back in early November I got an email about a neat opportunity for citizen scientists to participate in a project sponsored by MonarchWatch, the folks who run the monarch tagging programs I’ve written about here and in my upcoming citizen science book. The new project was called Monarchs In Space. Of course, in early November I was trying to meet a book deadline and my only response to the email was:

I CANNOT POSSIBLY MAKE TIME FOR MONARCHS IN SPACE THIS MONTH!

A few weeks later, the book is written and I’m sitting at my desk watching actual monarch butterflies emerge in actual outer space, and I have to take a moment to say to myself:

DUDE, ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU SHOULD ALWAYS MAKE TIME FOR MONARCHS IN SPACE!

Anyway, here’s the abridged version of what has been going on with the Monarchs in Space program:

*Scientists have sent three monarch caterpillars to the International Space Station, where they were allowed to grow and develop in a zero gravity environment. The rearing cages were monitored by video and the pictures coming back are stunning.

*All three caterpillars have molted, pupated, and as of last night, two of the three have emerged as adult butterflies. In space! Where there is no gravity!

*All along the way, the monarchs dealt with interesting issues resulting from the lack of gravity. For example, you can’t hang in a J form when there is no gravity. In fact, you can’t really ‘hang’ at all. The space caterpillars adopted a C form, heretofore undescribed, and somehow managed to undergo metamorphosis anyway. Also? Two of the pupae didn’t stay attached to the silk pad the caterpillar spun as an anchor … and so they floated around the rearing cage for the entire 10 days of the metamorphosis!

You can learn absolutely everything you might want to know about this project at the Monarchs in Space website. Pictures are added daily, and videos more randomly. Because the folks at MonarchWatch are some of the coolest scientists on (or off!) the planet, a huge emphasis has been placed on giving kids and their adults a front row seat to these experiments. Hundreds of schools across the country have been rearing control caterpillars on the same timeline as the space caterpillars … you can read what the kids are finding at the website, too.

Bugs, Birds, Frogs, and You

lgb@loreeburns.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:57:21 GMT

That right there is a picture of my citizen science book in manuscript form. This first draft (it's actually my third draft, but the first that feels good enough to meet its editor) logged in at 69 pages, 14,392 words, and 101 images. This was definitely the most challenging of the three books I have written. It took me a long time to figure out the best way to tell this story, and I feel as if I dove much deeper (from a craft point of view) than I have before. It was an excellent and SCARY dive, I must say, and although I am pleased with the results, I am glad to have a few weeks to sit back and catch my breath.

How will I catch my breath? Well, I've got a book launch to plan, a picture book to noodle with, and a whole lot of lost blogging time to make up for. And a research trip to think about. Oh, yes, and holidays to celebrate.

Happy December!

ps. The post title is what I am calling the citizen science book these days: BUGS, BIRDS, FROGS, AND YOU: A YEAR OF CITIZEN SCIENCE. Any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear them.

Non-fiction Tidbits

lgb@loreeburns.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:48:44 GMT

Wonderful news! Phillip Hoose has won the National Book Award in the Young People’s Literature category. I am a fan of his THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD-GOD BIRD and am anxious to get my hands on this latest masterpiece, CLAUDETTE COLVIN: TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE. Congratulations, Mr. Hoose!

Another writer of nonfiction whose work I admire, Sy Montgomery, was interviewed by Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray this week. Sy shares her thoughts on working with Nic Bishop, launching the Scientists in the Field series, and the emotional side of science. The interview is broken into two parts, and you can read them here and here.

Enjoy!

NCTE

lgb@loreeburns.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:57:21 GMT

NCTE Convention 2009

I’ll be at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual convention in Philadelphia later in the week. I’m looking forward to catching up with old writer friends, and even to making some new ones. Will YOU be there? Here’s my schedule for the trip …

Friday, November 20
4:15pm-5pm
Convention Center, Room 107B, Street Level
Stories and Standards: Pairing Fiction and Nonfiction for Interdisciplinary Connections
Moderator: Teri Lesense
Author Panel: Kate Messner, Tanya Lee Stone, Jenny Moss and Loree Griffin Burns

Saturday, November 21
10am-11am
Convention Center, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Booth (#500)
I’ll be signing copies of TRACKING TRASH*

12:00pm-2:30pm
Books for Children Luncheon
Marriott Grand Ballroom, Salon A
I’m told I am hosting a table at this event. From what I can tell, this means that a dozen of the teachers who come to hear a keynote by the amazing Brian Selznick are going to be stuck with, er, me. But I plan to be very nice to them as we sit together and admire Mr. Selznick, and each will leave my table with a signed copy of TRACKING TRASH, compliments of Houghton Mifflin.

Hope to see you there!

*I’m not sure that F&Gs of THE HIVE DETECTIVES will be ready, but my amazingly talented photographer/partner-in-bookmaking, Ellen Harasimowicz, turned final color proofs of the book into a gorgeous preview, and I’ll be bringing that along. Do stop by and have a look if you are in the vicinity!

Happy News

lgb@loreeburns.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:21:01 GMT

© Loree Griffin Burns

THE CITIZEN SCIENCE MANUSCRIPT IS DONE!

It is done and I am happy with it and it will soon be off my desk and onto the desk of my editor at Henry Holt. This means I am free to blog again … to read and write on other topics again … to traipse in the woods with my camera (see above) … to sleep in the middle of the day!

Okay, maybe not that.

But I am feeling lighter than I have in months. And not a moment too soon: I am leaving shortly for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual conference in Philadelphia. Details first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, anyone recognize the image above? I'm pretty sure it's a vireo nest. My son spotted it after the leaves fell from the trees along our driveway. Isn't it lovely? The shiny, silvery material woven along the outside may very well have been stolen from a paper wasp nest. Can you imagine? Here's an inside shot:

© Loree Griffin Burns

Mean Girls

lgb@loreeburns.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:47:31 GMT

Today at Chasing Ray, Colleen Mondor and the 'What A Girl Wants' panelists discuss mean girls in youth literature and in the world. Why are they so damned popular, anyway? The WAGW women, as usual, provide much to ponder in their thoughtful responses. Please check it out!

(Notice I did not participate in the discussion this month. See? It is not just my own blog that I am neglecting. It is everything outside the citizen science book. Seriously. But the deadline is creeping closer, the manuscript is nearly finished, and I hope to be back here more regularly soon.)

Polka-dotted Inspiration

lgb@loreeburns.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:11:07 GMT

These windows peek into my office, where I worked all day yesterday on the ladybug chapter of my citizen science book:

© Loree Griffin Burns

Can you see what I saw? (You may have to click on the image to enlarge it.)

Ladybugs! Hundreds and hundreds of ladybugs. One of the scientists I interviewed for the book told me that this particular species, Asian Multi-colored ladybug (Harmonia axyridris), spends the winter tucked into tiny crevices in the face of enormous cliffs that are common where they evolved. Here in North America, they fly instead to the biggest vertical structures they can find, usually houses, and crawl around looking for a place to tuck in. That's why so many of them end up in my bathroom every winter. And that's why the back of my house was covered with them yesterday afternoon.

Judging by the clip on my local news station last night, this behavior annoys people. Obviously these people are not writing about ladybugs! Here's a bonus photo, and here's to inspiration arriving on your doorstep (or office window) today, too.

© Loree Griffin Burns

Five Things on Friday (Ladybug Edition)

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:49:36 GMT

My kids and I surveyed ladybugs for the Lost Ladybug Project this summer, and what you see above is a sampling of the nine species we found. Finding and photographing them was fairly easy ... figuring out which was which was not. We *think* these are, from top to bottom, the polished ladybug (Cycloneda polita), the checkerspot ladybug (Propylea quaturodecimpunctata), the three-banded ladybug (Coccinella trifasciata), the spotted pink ladybug (Coleomegilla maculata) and the Asian multi-colored ladybug (Harmonia axyridris). This last is the ladybug that so often invades homes this time of year, and it was by far the most common in our surveys (66 of our 100 specimens).

I am showing amazing restraint here ... I could go on and on and on. And I could post photo after photo after photo. Ladybugs are interesting creatures and I am completely smitten. Lucky for you, I have to get myself--and our CD of ladybug data--to the post office.

Happy Friday to you and yours!

Balance and Trust

lgb@loreeburns.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:35:22 GMT

© Loree Griffin Burns

Did I really announce on my blog that I would finish the frog chapter over the weekend? What was I thinking? For the record, I didn't even come close. How could I? There were hikes to take and vistas to admire and apples to pick and books to read and, yes, even chipmunks to photograph. I fiddled with the frog chapter here and there, but couldn’t call it finished until an hour ago. It’s now in the hands of trusted readers, and I’m left asking the same old question:

Why is it so hard to balance my personal life and my work life?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Feel free to step in here, because I got nothing in the way of an answer. Nothing. Well, I do have a poem (of sorts) to share. It was sent to me by a friend, and it helped me reframe the balance question. Karen Maezen Miller's Parent's Little List of Trust starts like this:

Trust accidents and coincidences; trust imperfection and the unforeseen.
Trust the milk to spill.
Trust confusion as the child of clarity; trust doubt as the mother of confidence.

The piece is subtitled Not So Little, Not Just For Parents, and you can read it in its entirety here.

Anyway, as I plunge into the next chapter, I am no longer asking for balance; I’m simply trusting that my perpetual lack of it is okay. Just to be safe, I'll not make any predictions about finishing that chapter. It'll be done when it's done. Trust me.

Quick Unexpected Frog

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:36:54 GMT

I'm leaving the pages of my citizen science book briefly--just briefly!--to share some froggy delights. Here's a photograph from earlier in the season, and a haiku from earlier in the millenium. Enjoy!

© Loree Griffin Burns

Old dark sleepy pool
Quick unexpected frog
Goes plop! Watersplash.

Basho

I'll be finishing my work on the frog chapter, I think, over the weekend. Then it's on to ladybugs. If I put on my glasses and squint just right, I can almost see THE END!

A Snafu and a Quiz

lgb@loreeburns.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:57:47 GMT

First, the snafu. For some reason LiveJournal has stopped sending me emails to let me know when someone has posted a comment on my journal. This is very annoying. I don't want y'all to think I am ignoring you ... but I also don't want to check my LiveJournal even more often than I do already. (I'm trying to write a book, man!) Any other LiveJournal users having this problem? Any of you know how to fix it?

Now, the pop quiz. I'm combing through butterfly images for the citizen science book this week and I came across these three members of the royal family: a Viceroy, a Queen, and a Monarch. Do you know who is who?

© Loree Griffin Burns

© Loree Griffin Burns

© Loree Griffin Burns

I'll post the identifications in a comment later today.

Happy Wednesday!

Nonfiction Monday: Some Thoughts and Some Books

lgb@loreeburns.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:15:08 GMT

Marc Aronson, who blogs about nonfiction for young people at the School Library Journal website, recently asked his readers what they love about reading nonfiction. I’ve been mulling the question for days, and my answer is this: the stories are true.

Before anyone gets outraged, let me state, for the record, that I adore fiction. I read an awful lot of it, and I react strongly and emotionally to made-up characters and situations all the time. (For a fine example, ask my three kids how I handled Dumbledore’s death.) But my reaction to fiction is always tempered, just the tiniest bit, by the knowledge that the stories and the characters and the situations are not real, but instead dreamt up in the mind of a working writer.

Conversely, the emotions stirred when I read non-fiction are boosted, sometimes imperceptibly and sometimes by leaps and bounds, simply because the stories and characters and situations I have just discovered are real. The people existed in flesh and blood. Their deeds are a matter of historical or personal record. I could learn more, should I choose to, without the author’s knowledge or consent, because the story is not his or hers, but ours; it belongs to you and to me and to all of humankind.

Corny, I know, but that's my answer.

Here are two works of nonfiction I read recently and adored. These are not reviews, mind you, but hearty recommendations.

WRITTEN IN BONE
By Sally M. Walker
Carolrhoda, 2009

Category: YA Nonfiction

Sally M. Walker’s meticulously researched and sparklingly rendered young adult standout, WRITTEN IN BONE is perfect for any person of over the age of ten with an interest in history or science or real-life mysteries. In fact, I suspect persons over the age of ten heretofore uninterested in these topics, upon reading the book, will be inspired to wonder about history and science and real-life mysteries and, perhaps, why they hadn’t wondered about these things before.

THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS
The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
by Chris Barton
Illustrated by Tony Persiani
Charlesbridge, 2009

Category: Picture Book Nonfiction

In THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS, Cris Barton and Tony Persiani share the story of Bob and Joe Switzer and their somewhat accidental discovery of colors that glow in the dark AND in the light. The spotlight here is on serendipity, the unique strengths of two very different brothers, and how the road to our childhood dreams is often circuitous, eye-popping … and not so very hard to navigate after all.

Do YOU read nonfiction? What books have you adored lately? Do tell! And for a roundup of web-wide posts on nonfiction for children, check out today's post at Wendy’s Wanderings.

Seeing the Chrysalis, Finding the Spine

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:56:23 GMT

© Loree Griffin Burns

That right there is the pupal stage of a Monarch butterfly. The jade green chrysalis with golden accents is hard to spot in the wild, so blended is it with the surrounding plants and bushes. I told my daughter this during a walk last week. We were in a milkweed meadow in the late afternoon and conditions weren’t good for our butterfly tagging mission. I suggested she look for ladybugs or caterpillars instead, but she wanted to look for a chrysalis.

“They’re pretty hard to find,” I warned her. “I know adults who have searched for years and never found one.”

She was walking behind me at the time, and she gave her patented Whatever laugh.

“It’s really not that hard, Mom,” she said.

I turned to disagree, to tell her about the man I know who has been watching and raising Monarch butterflies for more than twenty years and never, not once, seen a chrysalis in the wild. And there was my daughter, nose to pupa with a chrysalis, right there in our immediate wild. She was studying the golden threads, the droplets of dew, the silken pad holding the whole thing up.

And there you go. This is the thing about kids and nature that has so captured my imagination lately. This is the very beating heart of my citizen science book, in fact: young people see the world differently than us older people do.

Why?

Well, for starters, there’s physical stature. My daughter is four feet tall and was looking up at the chrysalis; I am five feet seven inches, and it was so far under my nose I didn’t even notice it. The physical geography of place is different for her; she was quite literally closer to the meadow around us.

There’s also the sensitivity issue. At almost forty years old and I don’t perceive sights, sounds, smells, touches and tastes as well as I once did. My daughter’s senses, on the other hand, are still developing. Each day she sees and hears and smells and feels and tastes a little better than the day before. She is coming into her prime just as I pass mine.

And then there is the matter of focus. As I breezed past that chrysalis, my eyes were on the place around me but my head was only partially there. I was thinking about chrysalids, but also about my daughter, how nice it was to spend time with her; and what I would make for dinner and how badly I needed to remember to stop and buy a gallon of milk on the way home; how soon we should leave the meadow in order to pick up my boys from soccer practice; how well (or not) I had rendered this magical place—the milkweed meadow—in my writing earlier that day; and so on and so on forever and a day. I live in several moments at once. My daughter lives in the one and only moment at hand. And so she finds the magic.

This little meadow incident, coupled with the timely and wise words of my friend Linda, has helped me re-focus myself and my book in progress this week. The spine is clear. I need only grip it tightly and keep writing.

What A Girl Wants: Books That Keep It Real

lgb@loreeburns.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:15:14 GMT

Another installment in Colleen Mondor's "What A Girl Wants" series is posted over at Chasing Ray. This time we are discussing socioeconomics in teen literature. Check it out.

Working, and Worrying About Beastlets

lgb@loreeburns.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:04:59 GMT

Still here. Still writing the citizen science book. Still not so good at blogging about the writing process while I am wrestling mano-a-mano (mano-a-keyboard-o?) with it. I did take some time off over the weekend, though, and there were adventures …

On Saturday, my husband and I turned this:

(Otherwise known as our newly dug 900 square foot garden plot
planted with a cover crop of buckwheat.)

Into this:

(Otherwise known as our newly dug, enriched 900 square foot
garden plot now ready for a late-season planting of oats.)

We had planned to rent a tiller, but our experience with that particular garden machine has not been good. And so we turned the garden by hand. It was a surprisingly pleasant way to spend an afternoon … heart-pumping work, kids nearby (but not near enough that we could stick a spade in their hands), lazy chit-chat, lots of water breaks in the shade.

Things took a turn toward scary, though, about halfway through the plot. I slid my spade into the soil for the millionth time and a GIANT FURRY BEAST shot out of the tangle of buckwheat stems at my feet. It charged me! I was not terribly level-headed about this … at least not until I figured out that the GIANT FURRY BEAST was an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit. A baby Eastern Cottontail Rabbit:

(Otherwise known as the cutest furry beastlet on the planet.)

Sadly, the mother rabbit has not returned to the garden. We’ve moved the babies into an open cardboard box, retrofitted with their previous fur-lined burrow/nest, and left them in the garden, hoping for the best. We’ve had the “they are wild animals and not pets” talk, and the “survival of the fittest/Darwinian evolution” talk, and—when we found one of the rabbit babies dead on Sunday morning—the “circle of life” talk. Still, the kids and I are rooting hard for the three remaining beastlets:

(Can you blame us?)

A Bookish Weekend

lgb@loreeburns.com — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:42:20 GMT

I kicked things off on Friday at Wellesley Booksmith, where I watched Kristy Dempsey and Christopher Denise entertain a gaggle of preschoolers with stories and art. These two are a pair beyond compare (so to speak), and it was fun to see them interact with their readers. You should totally check out their new picture book:

ME WITH YOU
by Kristy Dempsey
Illustrated by Christopher Denise
Philomel, 2009

On Saturday I was supposed to hold my raffle drawing. But I forgot! When I finally remembered, my husband drew the name cloudscome from my bowl of entries. Please get in touch with me via email (lgb (at) loreeburns (dot) com, cloudscome, because you have won a brandy-new copy of this delightfulness:

THE BIRDS OF CENTRAL PARK
by Carl Vornberger
Harry Abrams, 2005

And on Sunday, my boys turned eleven. ELEVEN! Among their birthday gifts were books from Mom. For Sam, older by one minute and puzzler extraordinaire:

WHEN YOU REACH ME
by Rebecca Stead
Wendy Lamb, 2009

And for Ben, younger BUT BIGGER (as he explained over and again yesterday), and my military guy:

OPERATION YES
by Sara Lewis Holmes
Scholastic, 2009

In the books department, it was a lovely weekend!

Cricket Crawl

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:40:23 GMT

Katydid
© Loree Griffin Burns

One more Friday thing...

If you live near New York City and you like the idea of listening to animal calls in the dark, then you should know about this weekend’s Cricket Crawl. Hearty citizen scientists are taking to the leafy jungles of the Big Apple in search of crickets and katydids … and they will be finding them by listening to and recognizing their various sounds.

(I am not making this up!)

It is a very good thing that I do not live near New York City, because I could totally get into this sort of thing. And then my book would never get written.

Listen Up

lgb@loreeburns.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:35:53 GMT

American Toad
© Loree Griffin Burns

So, this week I’ve been writing about frogs. And toads. And their crazy mating calls. I have a CD called FROG CALLS OF RHODE ISLAND, and have been playing it on an endless loop, trying to describe the calls in words. It would be maddening if it weren’t so fun. My favorite call by far belongs to the American Toad; it’s the easiest to imitate, and doing so totally impresses the neighborhood kids.

(Wanna try it? Come on, you know you do. Okay, press your lips together. Now blow air through them so that you make your lips flapperate (a new word) … sort of like making a raspberry, but without using your tongue. Great. Now flapperate while screaming. I kid you not. Just try it. If it were mating season there would be an American Toad stampede outside your window right now.)

Anyway, I’ve been working hard. Chapters have been written. Frog call quizzes have been aced. I deserve a break. And, so, I am heading off to Storytime at Wellesley Booksmith, where Kristy Dempsey and Christopher Denise will be celebrating their new picture book, ME WITH YOU, later today. I promise to take pictures. And I promise not to do an American Toad imitation while I am there.

Hey! Don’t forget to enter my little raffle: chances are VERY good that you will win a copy of the fabulous BIRDS OF CENTRAL PARK, by Carl Vornberger Seriously. Good. Odds.