Summer Reading, Little Free Libraries, Book Battles, Crossword Puzzles and more!

Plus: new book news, coming soon :)

Hi, friends!

I can’t believe I’m sending another email so soon — I think my average is one every two years :) but I’m writing you again this morning because there’s kind of a lot happening here at Courage HQ:

• I’m building a Little Free Library with Rachel!
  
  We’re trying to make it look like our house (brown brick with white trim and a pointy roof) and we’re not using any templates or anything. We’re just having fun with power tools and measuring once and cutting twice . . . and we’re actually pretty far along now—farther than in these pictures—so I’m hoping to be sharing some process videos or final pics soon!
  

  

  (That book in the picture — Super Secret Super Spies — is coming out on June 1st and it’s SO FUN that I actually pre-ordered three different copies from three different bookstores so that we can stock up our Little Free Library for the kids in our neighborhood).

• School Library Journal’s Hot Reads round-up features Storm Blown in a list of “12 Riveting Middle Grade Adventures for Summer Reading 2021”!

  

• Storm Blown was also nominated for the State Library of Louisiana’s Young Readers’ Choice Awards!
  

• That happened a few months ago, but now it’s starting to show up in some Battle of the Books roundups in Louisiana (in excellent company!) — so that’s been a lot of fun to see!

  

Speaking of book battles, I haven’t done a lot of zooming or remote visiting because I was on deadline for Snow Struck for most of the year, but I spoke with a couple of schools in Pennsylvania about a week ago and the format was Q&A — so there were a ton of great questions about craft and research and inspiration . . .

But also a lot of questions about my “senior” cat, Murray.

So many questions, in fact, that I ran upstairs and woke him up so I could hold him up to my camera . . . and there was so much cheering! It was like a standing ovation, so I have to thank the readers in Beaver County and especially Hopewell JHS for giving my little friend Murray his moment in the spotlight!

• In my last email, I promised I’d let you know when I had more activity sheets posted. Right now on my website, you can download the free Storm Blown and Snow Struck coloring book, word searches, word matching worksheets, and crossword puzzles (scroll down after the jump for download links).
  

• I’m still expecting to be able to share the cover for Snow Struck any day now, and I can’t wait for that—but one more piece of older book news: Storm Blown recently got a very cool blurb from a very cool author . . .
  
  "Awesome. Super-intense, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat stuff." —Max Brallier, New York Times bestselling author of the Last Kids on Earth series
  
  So that’s a little bit of a Snow Struck cover reveal because that’s definitely gonna be on the cover :)

I think that’s it for me for now, but I’m sure I’ll be emailing again soon with more Little Free Library pictures and hopefully a cover reveal and maybe a few more videos on my new YouTube channel . . .

I hope you’re all doing well out there, and happy reading!

Your friend,

Nick