Truck Stop Blog Tour, Giveaway & A Special Guest Post

Yes, Anne Rockwell has a new book out.  Truck Stop was released on yesterday, May 16, 2013 by Viking Juvenile.  As a new teacher, many of my first books for my young students were written by Anne Rockwell.

One of my favorites was Apples and Pumpkins which was prominently featured in several lessons and projects that I did with students.  I probably have several paperback copies of this book that I took apart, ran through the laminator, and re-stapled so that little hands wouldn't damage the books.

Imagine how thrilled I was to discover that not only would I get to be a part of the blog tour for Truck Stop, but Anne Rockwell along with illustrator Melissa Iwai would be stopping by to share their responses to my Children's Book Week prompt "Books can take you anywhere..."?!  Thanks to Blue Slip Media for helping to coordinate the blog and a giveaway of Truck Stop.   

Anne Rockwell answers "Books can take you anywhere..."

Anne Rockwell - Photo credit @2013 Oliver Rockwell

It’s true that books can take you anywhere, including that cozy diner off the highway heading north or south, deep in the woods, where the truck stop is ready with a good-smelling cup of hot coffee, and whatever you are hungry for.

Sullivan - Photo credit @2013 Oliver Rockwell

I love to travel, and have seen a lot of the world, including most of the United States. But no matter where I go, there’s still a yearning for the safety and comfort of home. The American truck stop mom and pop diner is as worthy of tribute as the French sidewalk café, the Italian trattoria, the British pub, or those many Chinese 24-hour open restaurants lining Ghost Street in Beijing or a mountain road inn that’s been nestled in the remoter parts of China for centuries. I’ve spent a good deal of time in the last three years in such places because my son, my Chinese daughter-in-law, and Littlest Grandson, Sullivan Wong Rockwell, live there. When I saw Chinese patrons rinse their chopsticks in their green tea before using them I was reminded of our own roadside home places and the seemingly essential need humans the world over have for familiar food and companionship. TRUCK STOP is the story that came out of this. And of course, there was also Sullivan’s love for big trucks and work machines, a love he shares with so many children.

Note: Sullivan Wong Rockwell reading his first book not yet knowing that his NaiNai (Mandarin Chinese for paternal grandmother) wrote and illustrated it many years ago for another little boy who grew up to be Sullivan’s BaBa.

Ilustrator, Melissa Iwai answers "Books can take you anywhere..."

“Jamie? Jamie…? Hellooo?”

When I am being ignored by my 8-year old son, Jamie, my emotions can range from annoyance to exasperation. But there’s one occasion where he gets a free pass: When he’s reading a book. I can tell he’s in another place and time. And I fully understand and appreciate that. A great story can have that effect on a reader. Fortunately, I grew up experiencing the same wonderful feeling.

My favorite thing to do from the time I was 4 or 5 years old was visiting the library (we didn’t have a bookstore back then in our small town!). Looking at the collection of picture books there, I would be transported to other worlds. We’d check out a collection to bring home, and I’d look forward to many hours of visiting those places again and again. My favorites at that age were Maurice Sendak’s books, Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever (I could pore over the text and pictures for hours every day), the Lois Lenski book series of the “Small” people, and many others.

Through the years the list has grown and changed of course, but I still get the thrill of anticipation of “story travel” when I begin a new book.

So the next time my son isn’t responding to me asking him something, and his nose is buried in a book, I’ll save it for later and let him enjoy the journey.

Stop by Melissa's blog for activity sheets: http://www.melissaiwai.com/fun/activity-sheets/

For the next blog stop, check out As They Grow Up on Saturday, May 18, 2013. 

Enter below to win a copy of Truck Stop.  US mailing addresses only: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Children's Book Week - The Top Five Books That Transport Me to a Different Time by Hannahlily Smith

To celebrate Children's Book Week, I asked teachers and librarians to respond to the prompt - "Books can take you anywhere..."  Over the course of the week, I will be sharing their responses.  Hannahlily Smith is the Teen Librarian in a Public Library in Eastern Tennessee.

I admit it. I am one of those strange people who will ask you the question (usually shortly after I have met you for the first time) “If you could live in any point in history, when and where would it be?” Responses to the question have ranged from the purely annoyed to the absolutely fascinated, but I am consistently intrigued by the answers. What makes us choose a particular era over any other? What does this say about our personality? And would we want to change our mind if we could actually live in the time we have chosen?

Your wonderful blog administrator sent me the prompt “Books can take you anywhere” and I immediately thought of my favorite get-to-know-you question. Because my favorite place books take me is to different times. I am a huge Historical Fiction fan. Books let me live, for a moment, in the skin of people, long dead (if they ever lived to begin with) and allow me to experience cultures and eras so vastly different from my own. So the following list of five children’s books are my personal top five books that transport me to a different time: books that show me what life could have been like if I really got my wish to live during another point in history.

5. ANY HISTORICAL FICTION BY JENNIFER L. HOLM So first I was going to put the May Amelia books. Then I was going to put Boston Jane. Then I remembered Penny from Heaven…and Turtle in Paradise. How could I choose? I feel like each of her historical fiction novels show me what life was like for an American girl in different decades of history. Of course, Jennifer L. Holm’s characters are stupendously done, but it’s her little details of setting that truly make me feel like I am in 1930s Key West…or 1850s Washington…or so many different times and places.

4. Once by Morris Gleitzman OH HOW I CRIED reading this book. As anyone who can claim to be somewhat widely read, I’ve encountered my fair share of Holocaust stories. This is the one that made me feel like I was THERE, suffering with Felix and Zelda. It is not a nice feeling. This is not a book I want to ever read again, but I feel like it is such an important book. It’s crucial for our future to have people like Gleitzman who can vividly make us experience the horrors of our past.

3. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken I was an English major in college. I read so many Victorian novels (loose, baggy monsters, we called them) that I’ve lost count. I LOVE Victorian novels, (you are looking at the #1 Sherlock Holmes obssessee in high school), and I think they have a very identifiable style of prose; one that is terribly difficult to replicate for a late 20th or early 21st century author. The only author I’ve read that truly made me feel like I was IN a Victorian setting is Joan Aiken. I don’t know how she did it, but this tale of two spunky girls who undergo some harrowing circumstances reads just like a Sensational Novel from 1865 to me. Plus, unlike many Sensational Novels from 1865, Wolves is tons of fun.

2. The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean If I were talking about ALL books instead of just children’s books, my #1 book that transports me would be by this author: her Printz Award-winning The White Darkness. Just thinking about that book for this post made me so cold I had to go put on a sweatshirt. Effective stuff. This book is equally effective, just in a different way. The Booklist review says it’s full of “Plucky Misadventures” which, I think, is just about the most perfect two word synopsis I’ve ever read. I don’t remember any of the characters with great detail (Although I remember that I thought they were brilliant) and I don’t remember much about the episodic plot, but I can still remember the setting of 1930ish France running about, escaping ordeals, with Pepper Roux.

1. The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope. Here it is. My number one book that transports me to a different time. I first encountered this book at my local library when I was in middle school and I loved it so much I literally hand-copied every word so I could have my very own copy (the book was out of print and this was long before one could buy no longer published books on Ebay). I used to dress up and pretend I was these characters. I have not read this book since I was probably 14 (even though I own 3 copies). I am scared to; scared to change my fond memories of it. But, if I close my eyes, I can still imagine myself in Revolutionary War Era New England, with Peaceable Sherwood and Barbara Grahame.

Thanks Hannahlily for sharing your top 5 books that transport you to a different time!  I knew there was a reason I liked you - we both love Jenni Holm and historical fiction.

You can follow Hannahlily on twitter: @hannahlilys and on pinterest, here. 

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - Miss Moore Thought Otherwise

Author: Jan Pinborough
Illustrator: Debby Atwell
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Young Children (March 15, 2013)
ISBN: 978-0547471051
Source: Personal Copy
Audience: 2nd to 5th grade
Biographical * History * Libraries  

Description from GoodReads:
Once upon a time, American children couldn’t borrow library books. Reading wasn’t all that important for children, many thought. Luckily Miss Anne Carroll Moore thought otherwise! This is the true story of how Miss Moore created the first children’s room at the New York Public Library, a bright, warm room filled with artwork, window seats, and most important of all, borrowing privileges to the world’s best children’s books in many different languages.

My thoughts on this book:
When I was thinking about which book to feature this week for Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday, I immediately knew that I had to feature MISS MOORE THOUGHT OTHERWISE: HOW ANNE CARROLL MOORE CREATED LIBRARIES FOR CHILDREN by Jan Pinborough.  Along with Franklin K. Matthiews (Librarian of the Boy Scouts of America), and Frederic G. Melcher (Publishers Weekly), Anne Carroll Moore founded Children's Book Week. 

Children's Book Week Poster

When I saw this poster for Children's Book Week in 1921, I couldn't help but think that the slogan "More Books in the Home!" is relevant today for many of our children in impoverished communities.

In 1906, Anne Carroll Moore became the Superintendent of the Department of Work with Children at the New York Public Library.  Pretty impressive title, especially when you realize that Moore was responsible for the children's programming throughout the NYPL branches.  She was also instrumental in the opening of the Central Children's Room at the NYPL in 1911.

NYPL Children's Room 1913

Pinborough's Miss Moore Thought Otherwise focuses primarily on Moore's work at NYPL.  The text is readable and allows children to grasp the beginnings of something that many of them take for granted - Children's Rooms in their local libraries.  Readers will also develop a clear sense for the strength, passion, and beliefs that propelled Moore in her life's work.  Atwell's folksy illustrations pair well with the tone and time frame of the story, as well as, reflect on Moore's place of origin (Maine).

Have fun celebrating Children's Book Week and the next time you step into your local library's Children's Room take a moment to thank the amazing women who helped start it all.


For more information about Jan Pinborough: website | facebook | twitter | book page

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction book reviews:

Children's Book Week - Guest Post - Tammy Blackwell

To celebrate Children's Book Week, I asked teachers and librarians to respond to the prompt - "Books can take you anywhere..."  Over the course of the week, I will be sharing their responses.  Up first is Tammy Blackwell.

When I was a kid, I lived in the middle of nowhere. This isn't an exaggeration. Our farm was roughly thirty acres and was surrounded by fields of corn and soy beans and cows. I don't know how close our nearest neighbor was, but it was far, far away. On the upside, my parents were fully onboard with me wandering for hours in the fields, woods, and creeks since it wasn't exactly like someone could wander up and snatch me. On the downside, I wasn't really an outdoorsy kid. Miles of nature didn't appeal to me, which left me feeling more like a trapped loner than a free explorer.

My salvation during those years came from the Bookmobile. My parents both worked, and my aunt who babysat me didn't drive much. She did, however, live in the actual little, tiny, we-have-five-houses-and-a-store town where once a month a big truck filled with books would set up at the Methodist church. I lived for Bookmobile days. While my cousin and her hooligan friends were swinging off grape vines behind the church (and breaking their arms, I should mention), I climbed up those metal steps with my aunt and entered a magical world. In reality, the Bookmobile can't hold many books, but to my tiny eyes it was an endless buffet of one-way tickets out of my country bumpkin life. Thanks to the Bookmobile, I was able to hang out with friends who actually understood me (the Babysitters Club), solve mysteries (Nancy Drew), and live a glamorous life in California (Sweet Valley). I may have been physically stuck in rural Kentucky, but those books took me all over the world.

Now, as a library employee for the same system whose Bookmobile was my salvation all those years ago, I can always spot the kids who are looking for that same escape. It's in their eyes when they walk through the door; it's in the way they caress the spines of the books with reverence, carefully selecting their next destination. Our world changes rapidly, and places that were once empty fields are now the location of overly full subdivisions. Even the farm where I grew up now has visible neighbors. But having people in sight doesn't mean you're not alone and isolated. Books will always be there for those kids, and for that, I'm truly grateful.

Thanks Tammy for sharing your thoughts about how books can take you anywhere!!!

For more information about Tammy:
Tammy Blackwell is the Young Adult Services Coordinator for a public library system in Kentucky. When she's not reading, writing, or cataloging books, she's sleeping. She is the author of the YA Novels Destiny Binds, Time Mends, Fate Succombs, and At First Sight. Her newest book All We See & Seem will be available on May 21, 2013.

You can follow Tammy on twitter: @miss_tammy or check out her website: www.misstammywrites.com

Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop - May 13-19, 2013

Children's Book Week is finally here and I am honored to be able to host the Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop with Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, and Ella from Mymcbooks.

What is Children's Book Week?

Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running literacy initiative in the country. Each year, books for young people and the joy of reading are feted for a full week with author and illustrator appearances, storytelling, parties, and other book-related events at schools, libraries, bookstores, museums, and homes from coast to coast! - www.bookweekonline.com

The theme for this year's Children's Book Week is "books can take you anywhere".  As a child, books were the best way for me to visit other times and places, real and imaginary.  I learned about what is was like to live on a prairie in the mid to late 1800's and I went on adventures to magical lands with hobbits and dwarves.  In a book, I could do anything or be anything.  Books are magical and wonderful.

To celebrate, I am giving away to one lucky reader a free picture book, middle grade novel, or young adult novel of your choice ($15 or less on Amazon).     

Please enter below to win:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check on the other Blogs participating in this Giveaway Hop: