A Mountain Welcome!

While I haven't yet traveled to exotic, faraway places for school visits, I was fortunate this past spring to have my book, ROAD TO TATER HILL, used as part of a partnership between education students at Appalachian State University (Boone, NC) and 5th graders at Freedom Trail Elementary School in rural, mountainous Avery County. In April I visited the students in both sets of classes (5th graders and college students) to talk about my writing process and "turning truth to fiction." What a joy to know that my own childhood experiences in the mountains of NC are relevant to today's readers.

ROAD TO TATER HILL is on the NC middle school Battle of the Books list for 2011/2012, and I look forward to making more trips to NC schools in the next year!

School Visits!

This has been a crazy year for me and school visits. In addition to schools around my area of Oregon, my trips included Brazil, China, Florida, and Texas three times. I did ages Pre-K through 12, but this year was unique because of all the time I spent in middle schools because of my novel The Compound. And here is how one librarian in Texas went all out to welcome me:



I saw all kinds of schools. From a one room school house in French Glen, OR with 8 students k-8:



to an international school in Guandong, China:





I have traveled by car, bus, plane, ferry, train, and on foot: all together about 35,000 miles. Whew. Yesterday I got the terrific news that The Compound won the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award for Grades 6-9. And yep, a school visit trip to Maryland is on my docket for fall. I think I'd better unpack first...

FUN FAMILY PROGRAMS

I have fun at schools sharing my books with kids. I talk about my subject and process, show materials used, and invite students to do a related art workshop. Sometimes I participate in events which include all generations, like school literacy nights, and family programs offered through the community and museums. Here is a picture from last summer at the Norton-Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA, where I gave a 45 minute auditorium talk about Isamu Noguchi, followed by an outdoor art project (collage with recycled materials) and book signing. I design my talks and projects to appeal to all ages. Below some children at the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) in Oakland, CA hold mini-gardens they made, inspired by a reading of The East-West House: Noguchi's Childhood in Japan.









Currently there is a large Noguchi exhibit starting at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. Families, I hope you will join me on Sunday, July 17th, at 1 pm, for a talk about Noguchi followed by an art project and book signing.

http://lagunaartmuseum.org/childrens-art-workshop-and-book-signing-with-the-east-west-house-author-christy-hale

Breaking news;)

I just learned that The Compound made the 2011-12 Oregon Battle of the Books list for grades 9-12. Here's a photo of the finalists.

And yes, there is The Help, the book I recently read and blogged about. I never expected to have a book of mine end up on the same list as that. Very cool.

The Book I Just Finished Reading by Betsy Woods

I have just finished a novel by British author, Sarah Dunant, titled Sacred Hearts. The read was a time-machine. The novel is set in 1570 and is set inside the walls of an Italian covent. It was a treatise in part on the shackles young women had to bear then, and how those bindings limited their life experiences. The novel also revealed the interior workings of the covent and how, it both thwarted the off-cast women, and encouraged their passions and intelligence.

The intricate Renaissance world is exposed admist a passionate love story, stories of love and friendship, horror, and the biting political climate of the Counter-Reformation. It is also a story that at its core is about secrets.

Studying the Master of Barnyard Fantasies

Like others on this blog, my recent reading list has consisted of titles thematically related to the story I’m currently writing—in my case, a chapter book involving barnyard animals. And so for inspiration I naturally turned to the books of Dick King-Smith, dubbed the “Master of Barnyard Fantasies.”

King-Smith is most famous as the author of Babe: the Gallant Pig, but with over a hundred titles to his credit, he wrote many other great books. Some of my personal favorites, all of which I have reread this spring, include The Fox Busters, Pigs Might Fly, Martin’s Mice, and Three Terrible Trins. I also discovered a book I had not read before, Clever Duck, which is now on my list of favorites.

When you delve into a King-Smith book you are assured of a funny, thoughtful, and entertaining read. My only qualm is that he sometimes sacrifices character development in favor of plotting—but his plotting is frequently so brilliant that there is still plenty to inspire me and also to study.

Do you have a favorite King-Smith book?

What I just finished and What I am currently Reading...

I have just finished reading SPARROW ROAD, a new middle grade novel by the author, Sheila O'Connor. It is her first middle grad novel. She has published two adult novels that are brilliant. Sparrow Road takes place over a summer at an artist's colony somewhere in the midwest. Raine, the 12 year old main character, meets artists and writers, a composer, and even a spirit of an orphan boy who used to live there when the artist colony was an orphanage. The blend of writing, visual arts, history of the colony and Raine's own mysterious past make for one of the most colorful, heartfelt books I have read in a long time. I cannot recommend it enough!

Currently I am reading THE FAR CRY, by Emma Smith. It is one of the Persephone books-- a publisher I recently discovered and am completely in love with. This wonderful tale begins in England, post WWII and follows a 14 year old Theresa on a boat journey to India. When the boat docks at Bombay, Smith's descriptions of not only the visuals, but also the emotional intensity of her main character brings this world alive so vividly, I cannot stop reading it-- but I have a book deadline and it is killing me!