Happy Moon Festival!

Tonight is officially night of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and though I plan on celebrating it again this weekend with friends, I already had a lovely time celebrating it with my book this past weekend at the Museum of Chinese in America. Not only did I get to meet awesome author Lenore Look for the first time:
It was a great turn out and Thanking the Moon was very warmly received by the audience (people even tried the mooncake with the egg inside it!):
And, appropriately, I am very thankful! Not to just all who came, but to all who read my books--especially those who have stuck with me all these years, those wonderful readers who have grown up with my books! One such reader came to my event this past weekend and while Mom hasn't changed at all, look how much this reader has grown:

On the night of the Moon Festival, you are supposed to send a wish up to the moon that you want granted. But when I see photos like above, I kind of have a hard time thinking about what more I could wish for.

Happy Moon Festival, all!

Desmond spotting

I love it when your book shows up in unexpected places. Below is a recent sighting of Disappearing Desmond at MOMA in NY (thanks Kirsten!).

Speak Loudly

Over the weekend, the Twitterverse exploded with the news that an associate professor called books such as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer immoral, demeaning, and basically "soft core pornography."

Read his rant here. His official, 29-page complaint to the school board can be read here. My response? Ugg. And maybe also "Eff you." Luckily, everyone else has responded much more intelligently and eloquently. The blogosphere and Twitterverse immediately lit up with protests (you can view everyone's posts by searching the #SpeakLoudly hashtag). Laurie Halse Anderson responded by saying:

My fear is that good-hearted people in Scroggins’ community will read his piece and believe what he says. And then they will complain to the school board. And then the book will be pulled and then all those kids who might have found truth and support in the book will be denied that. In addition, all the kids who have healthy emotional lives but who hate reading, will miss the chance to enjoy a book that might change their opinion.

Read her entire blog post here.

Sarah Ockler responded on her blog as well:

I’m not going to spend a lot of time defending my book other than to say what those who’ve read it already know — despite its lighthearted title, TBS is not about parties and sex. It’s about two girls struggling in the aftermath of a major tragedy, with grieving parents and unfamiliar situations and secrets that threaten to kill their friendship. It’s a scary world for them, and my job as a writer is to tell their story honestly, without judgment. And I know I’ve done my job because I hear from teens who’ve experienced devastating loss, and they tell me how much the book meant to them or how they could relate to the characters more than they can relate to their own friends somtimes. One email like that is all I needed to know that I did what I set out to do.

Her blog post is here.

There have also been some beautiful, supportive blog posts in response. One powerful, moving post is by C.J. Redwine who says:

But here's the truth. Rape happens to girls in high school and younger all the time. Ignoring it, silencing it, refusing to look at the terrible consequences doesn't make it go away. I'm a Christian and am passionate about my faith, and I cringe when I see things like this because there's a difference between being outspoken about SINS, like rape, and being outspoken against something that might help the victims.

And this is the part of this post that has me feeling like maybe throwing up would be preferable to typing, but I'm a big girl now and it's time to exercise my right to speak.

I'm a rape survivor.

Read her entire post here.

There are more amazing blog posts here, here, here, and here, the latter with additional links.

Fittingly enough, next week is Banned Books Week. Let's celebrate the freedom to read! Speak Loudly, everyone!

new book sneak peek

This is a photo I took of the cover and title page for my new book. It's carved wood, which is something totally new for me that I thought I'd try out. Why not take a chance?

Moon Festival craft!

As I mentioned earlier, in celebration of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival at my personal blog. Here's the one I posted today! Make sure you catch the rest of them! And don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me Sunday the 19th in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

No Moon Festival is complete without the soft glow of a lantern. Children often parade their lanterns of different shapes and colors. Nowadays lanterns can range from modern cartoon characters to rocket ships, but usually they are round (like the moon) or in the shapes of rabbits (because of the Jade Rabbit that lives on the moon).

Which is why I decided to create a bunny lantern craft! This bunny lantern is easy, fun and (I think!) extremely cute:

When I was a child in school we had a paper lantern craft, but I was never quite satisfied with it because those lanterns could never be lit. So when I created this bunny lantern, I made sure it could really GLOW:


Isn't that fun? But before it glows, it has to be made. To make this bunny lantern you will need:


1. a sheet of tracing paper at 8.5 x 24 inches (my sheet is 19 x 24, I cut it to the right size)
2. a ruler
3. a pencil
4. a pair of scissors
5. scotch tape (invisible/not shiny is better)
6. markers, colors of your choice (mine are peach, black, brown, light blue)
7. 4 inch lightstick necklace, any color (mine is yellow)
8. cord (should come with your light stick necklace)
9. a chopstick
10. bunny template, download and print HERE




STEP 1. Fold your tracing paper in half, to make an 8.5 x 12 inch rectangle:

STEP 2. Using the ruler, measure and make a line .75 inches from the edge of the long (12 inch) side. Fold on the line:

STEP 3. Repeat on other long side:

STEP 4. Tape both folds down. Make sure you tape down the entire length:

STEP 5. Fit the bunny template under you paper. Trace the thick black lines:

STEP 6. Cut out your markings, as indicated by the template:

STEP 7: Draw your bunny face. My bunny face uses 2 simple black ovals for the eyes, a brown circle for the nose, blue whiskers and a peach color in the ears. But you can make your face anyway you wish!

STEP 8. Poke a hole through the top of your bunny's head (both layers of paper). You can use a small hole punch if you have one. I did not, so I just used my pencil:
STEP 9. String your lightstick inside the bunny using the cord. Tie it loosely:

STEP 10: Tie the other end of the cord to a chopstick. Tie this tightly, perhaps wrapping around the chopstick a couple of times to keep it secure:

And your bunny lantern is complete:

Now all you have to do is wait until nightfall, activate the lightstick according to the lightstick's instructions (you may have to untie & retie the cord) and let your lantern GLOW:
Make one for all the kids on your street and have a Moon Festival lantern parade!

Brooklyn Book Fest 2010

The Fifth Annual Brooklyn Book Festival was held yesterday, and it was a success. However, the coldish, rainy, Fall-like weather was a far cry from last year's beautiful, summer day.

I spent most of my time at the Youth Stoop (with a quick bathroom break/snack at the nearby Chipotle). Here is my Brooklyn Book Fest in pictures:

Author/illustrator Shane Evans signing books

Mary Kole and TS Ferguson

A long signing line for Rebecca Stead

Barry Lyga moderating the panel on "About a Boy" with Torrey Maldonado, Jacqueline Woodson, and Charles Fuller

I sat behind two reading gals

Kirsten Miller moderates the "Happily Ever After?" panel with Jenny Han, Sara Shepard, and Lauren Oliver

Tiger Beat performs! (Danile Ehrenhaft, Libba Bray, Natalie Standiford, and Barnabas Miller on drums)

Tiger Beat groupies (aka Stacey Barney, Nancy Mercado, and Barry Goldblatt) cheer them on

Here are two excerpts of songs that Tiger Beat performed. First, the original song, "YA Song". David Levithan is holding up the lyrics, but they might be too small for you to read.


And they closed with the appropriate for the day, "Purple Rain":

The walk home in the rain at the end.

Till next year...

Sunday Paper!

I just recently began a weekend subscription for the NY Times and since then my books have been mentioned in it, not just once, but twice! Yes, Thanking the Moon was mentioned in today's paper! Yay! I'm planning a string of posts to celebrate its release this week, at my personal blog, so this was a great way to start. Make sure you tune in there for Moon Festival crafts, recipes and more!

Also notice my friend Barbara O'Connor's book The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester is also mentioned. I wonder if she just got a subscription, too?



In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival at my personal blog. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me Sunday the 19th in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

Photograph from September 11 by Wislawa Szymborska

In remembrance:

Photograph from September 11
BY WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA

They jumped from the burning floors—
one, two, a few more,
higher, lower.

The photograph halted them in life,
and now keeps them
above the earth toward the earth.

Each is still complete,
with a particular face
and blood well hidden.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

**********

At Wild Rose Reader, I have a review of Joyce Sidman’s wonderful new poetry collection—Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night.

Anastasia Suen has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Picture Book of the Day.

Minipage Me!

Last week, I was featured in the MiniPage! The MiniPage are the Sunday newspaper supplement for kids, inserted with the colored comics (oh, how I loved those!). I think my younger readers were more impressed with this than seeing Ling & Ting in the NYTimes.

Wasn't in your paper? It wasn't in mine either, but you can download the MiniPage issue HERE!

Another lovely Desmond review

This review of Disappearing Desmond just in from School Library Journal. Thanks guys!

ps Will have pictures and updates from our recent cross country move soon, once my office arrives from UPS (fingers crossed).


"Desmond the cat blends in with his surroundings. In fact, his entire family fades into the background in their portrait. Everything changes when Gloria, a rabbit, arrives at school. Not only does she take every possible chance to get noticed herself, but she also notices Desmond no matter where he hides. To his surprise, he likes interacting with others. He even coaxes someone else from his hiding place to join the playground fun. Young viewers will enjoy spotting Desmond in his ingenious costumes and identifying others trying to stay out of sight in the schoolyard. Alter’s animal characters will be familiar to those who know her previous books, including Abigail Spells (Knopf, 2009), featured in a library poster. This low-key story of how friendship can support and encourage others will be a welcome addition for most libraries."

-School Library Journal

A Teacher's Lament by Kalli Dakos

I’ve been retired from my elementary library position for six years. Before I worked as a school librarian, I was a classroom teacher for more than three decades. I stopped teaching a children's literature course at BU 1n 2008. Although I enjoyed my years teaching young children and college students, I have to say I love being retired! I can do whatever I want--whenever I want. I can blog, write poetry, go away on vacation, have lunch with friends when I choose to.

I thought Labor Day weekend would be a good time to post a poem about school—as many children will be heading back to class next Tuesday.

A Teacher’s Lament
by Kalli Dakos

Don’t tell me the cat ate your math sheet,
And your spelling words went down the drain,
And you couldn’t decipher your homework,
Because it was soaked in the rain.

Don’t tell me you slaved for hours
On the project that’s due today,
And you would have had it finished
If your snake hadn’t run away.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

********************

At Wild Rose Reader, I’m still in summer mode. I have an original poem titled Toasting Marshmallows.

Susan Taylor Brown has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.

Come to the Mid-Autumn Moon Family Festival!

Mark your calendars! I'm launching my book, Thanking the Moon:Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival at the Mid-Autumn Moon Family Festival at the Museum of Chinese in America!!

Description:

Mooncakes, lanterns and the Jade Rabbit in the moon! Join MOCA for a day-long series of activities in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (中秋节), including storytellings, drop-in arts and crafts activities, gallery tours and lantern making workshops with special readings by Asian American children's book authors Grace Lin (that's me!!) & Lenore Look.

WHEN: September 19th, 12pm reading and signing (other activites will be going on all day from 10-5)

WHERE: Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013

I hope to see you there! Please come!!

vacation

trying to hold onto the summer sun!

For the last ten days I've been on vacation! When you are a freelance author, vacations can be infrequent (just like how Libby said). Most of the time, my vacations are a mix of work and fun; places to help inspire my writing or illustrating. However, this vacation was planned for pure enjoyment, relaxation and fun. See:

Doesn't that look like pure fun? It was! Because that's me up there! Really! Here, we'll zoom up:


Because, I spent my vacation on the shores of North Carolina at Okracoke Island and Kitty Hawk and had a fun, fun time swimming, getting tan, looking for sea glass, and eating lots of bad (but delicious) things. We rented a house right on the beach. To live with the ocean as a daily companion was a new and magical experience for me. In the mornings I could watch the sunrise:


and at night I could see the moonlight on the water:


Even when it stormed, it was beautiful. A child was a bit careless with his large, clear beach ball and during a storm it was slowly washed out to sea. It looked like a giant bubble, delicately riding the waves:



There was something bittersweet and poetic about it. In fact, it gave me an idea for a book...ah! For freelance authors, there really is no such thing as a non-working vacation!