Kid Lit College, Halloween Pranks (+ Bakes), Puppy Birthdays, BOOk Parties and more!
My last email took a kind of unexpected turn into enlightenment philosophy, art history and historical disasters… so today I’m determined to keep things light!
Starting with these two Little Free Library regulars who dressed up as Batman and Spider-Man and tried to trick me into thinking it was Halloween last week:
About a year ago, Rachel convinced me to start chronicling my adventures in baking with this short video where I tried to make some pumpkin-shaped pumpkin bread that she saw on TikTok:
If you’re interested in making them for the holidays, they’re actually a lot easier than they look—and they taste kind of like pumpkin-spiced Hawaiian rolls!
A student recently interviewed me about Littsburgh (the literary community site I co-founded with Rachel in 2015) for a local university’s newspaper.
It was a kind of sweet conversation because beneath most of the questions was a frustration with not having a lot of time to read for “fun” anymore (with all the reading students are assigned for school). I didn’t have the heart to tell him that for the class I’m teaching—“Writing Youth Literature”—I had students visit our local library, sign up for a library card, and choose their own required reading!
We’re in the workshop phase of my class now, which is really interesting.
I never actually liked workshops (understatement of the year) so I’ve tried to set this one up so it’s less about critiquing—we don’t say critique or criticism in class—and more about suggestions, where everyone’s pitching in and brainstorming and helping an author work through their novel with what I’ve been calling “aggressive positivity.”
There was a little bit of a learning curve at first.
I think a lot of people are taught to critically engage with writing by reading it confrontationally, and I’ve never been a big fan of that energy or found it particularly useful as a writer—so it’s been a fun experiment to try to center our conversations on affirmations and collaboration instead. So far, everyone seems to be pretty excited about having their chapters workshopped (which is a first for me!) and about revising and finishing their books….
So I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m kind of hoping a bunch of fun published kid lit comes out of this course!
Side note: Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of introducing the workshop to the word “dinkus”—which is what you call those little asterisk section breaks authors sometimes use (everyone kept calling them “that section break thingy,” which felt a little sad considering: the dinkus). There’s a really fun “Ode to the Dinkus” in the Paris Review if you want to know more about dinkuses and fleurons and zarebas!
“Much like the stars, the dinkus is a point of navigation…”
If you’re in Pittsburgh: I’m going to be hanging out and signing books at City Books this Sunday (Oct. 23) from 1 - 2 pm.
I don’t usually post reels, but Chaely just celebrated her 6 month birthday… and I couldn’t help myself. If you click-through, turn up the sound for some full-blast puppy nostalgia courtesy of Nick Drake:
THANK YOU to all the teachers and librarians who are reaching out to schedule school visits for the fall, winter and new year!
My calendar is starting to fill up, but after a couple of years of virtual visits… I’m excited to schedule as many visits as I can (so if you’re interested in a visit, please do reach out through my website or by responding to this email).
If you’re new to this newsletter: I have a bunch of free resources and activities available to download on TPT and on my website (including novel studies, worksheets, and a coloring book illustrated by yours truly)!
Storm Blown is having a little bit of a surge right now, which I wasn’t expecting! Even though kids are always super-interested in extreme weather, cli-fi for kids (weirdly) still seems to be kind of churning in the background…
So THANK YOU for reading and recommending Storm Blown during hurricane season—and this just in: “A dozen states could see cooler than normal temperatures this winter, according to NOAA’s outlook released Thursday morning.”
Before I forget, my friend Caroline Carlson (the truly wonderful Middle Grade author who helped me launch Snow Struck with Penguin Bookshop) is starting her own newsletter: The Scuttlebutt!
I was so excited to hear about it that I think I was her first subscriber… if you want to join me, you can do that here!
Until next time,
Your friend,
