Archive for the ‘writing colleagues’ Category

Once again, just photos. A full report will be coming soon:

I spent Wednesday through Friday at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. David Wiesner, author of classics such as Flotsam, The Three Pigs, and Tuesday, was this year’s medallion recipient. In his talk, he chronicled his artistic development and influences. Some he mentioned were: Charles Knight (the artist who conceived what dinosaurs looked like), Breugel (felt like you could travel into his pictures), Dali (“weird and strange was good in my book”), and MC Escher (breaking boundaries and going from one reality to another). The biggest treat in Wiesner’s presentation was a preview of his newest book, Art and Max, which will be released in October. It looks like a winner. Two engaging characters; dialogue is the only text; clever look at different art media (paint, pastel, water color, line, etc.); and fabulous art. See a video about the project here.

Here I am presenting my workshop “Finding Math in Your Own Backyard.” It is always a pleasure to be at the book festival. I saw lots of familiar faces. Many of the librarians told me how kids are reading Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator. I heard stories of 5th graders finding it on the shelves and making 100 percent for the first time on an AR quiz for a nonfiction book; grandsons who want it read over and over; a young girl library patron who took pictures of a snail she found and brought it to the library for a positive wolfsnail id. I am so grateful to the librarians who have embraced my books and are helping to get them into the hands of kids.

Interest in Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature was strong. During my session, I showed the Growing Patterns book trailer. Many in my session were learning about Fibonacci numbers for the first time or, if not, learning about their connection to nature for the first time. There are always a few exceptions.

Michelle Shelton, a graduate student in USM’s School of Library and Information Science, told me that her library in McAllen, Texas, is building a new building with a children’s department based on the Fibonacci sequence and its connection to nature. The town is turning an old Wal-Mart into a public library. Whenever I talk to graduates of art school, designers, or architects, they are all aware of Fibonacci numbers. One of my presentations later this month will be in the Evanston (Ill.) Public Library, where they have a fountain in the library with Fibonacci-influenced design.

Another great thing about this year’s CBF was that I shared a hotel room with two of my writer friends, Hester Bass and Irene Latham. Here is Hester during her session, “I think I can: A librarian’s guide to writing for children.” Hester, the author most recently of  The Secret World of Walter Anderson, shared ten things librarians can do to make the dream of writing for children a reality. From Number One, “Discard the misconceptions,” to Number Ten, “Don’t Quit. Submit,” she packed at least 100 useful tips into an entertaining presentation that left us all inspired. This has been a popular workshop for Hester since she wrote a paper on the topic and had it accepted at the 2009 American Library Association Conference.

Here’s Irene signing a copy of Leaving Gee’s Bend. Though Irene did not present at this conference, her book was very popular. I sat next to her at the signing table at the bookstore and I heard many people come back to tell her they had stayed up late the night before finishing the book. Many also came back to get another copy. Since we spent so much time together over the last few days, Hester, Irene, and I are cooking up a possible collaborative project. Stay tuned.
Other great speakers I was able to hear were: Richard Peck, Sharon Draper, and Maureen Johnson.

I have an interview with my new friend Joe D’Agnese, the author of Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci. Read my review of Blockhead, too. At the end of the interview, you’ll see where else Joe will be this week.

What is Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci about?
It’s a lightly fictionalized biography of Leonardo of Pisa, the real-life medieval mathematician who is best known for the number pattern called the Fibonacci Sequence. He lived during the 12th to 13th centuries, and details of his life are sketchy. But what we do know is very exciting (at least to me). He grew up in one of the great Italian cities during a time of upheaval and war, he traveled on behalf of his merchant father to Algeria, he studied accounting, and was amazed to discover that Algerian merchants used numerals that looked different from the ones used back home in Europe. Europeans used Roman numerals. The Arab nations used numerals they had borrowed from Indian mathematicians, and which looked like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. They also had the numeral zero, which is the key to understanding place value. Leonardo’s genius was recognizing that Hindu-Arabic numerals were superior to Roman numerals. He brought those numerals back to Europe, and led the way toward Europe’s conversion. Some people say that without his contribution to mathematics, the Renaissance as we know it would not have happened. His famous number pattern grew out of a word problem about multiplying rabbits that he put into his first book about the “new” math.

What (or who) turned you on to math?

When I was a kid, math and science were probably my least favorite subjects. I got okay grades in those subjects, but I wasn’t in love with them. Based on the choices I made when I was in high school and college, you could argue that I was prepared to avoid these subjects entirely for the rest of my adult life. But fate is funny. One of my first jobs out of college was as editor of a kids’ math magazine, called Scholastic DynaMath. And when I left the magazine, I embarked on a career as a freelance journalist, writing mostly for science magazines. So I guess the moral of the story is, you will end up fascinated with the things you try to avoid. It was while I was at DynaMath that I first learned about Fibonacci and starting writing the book. It was while I was a freelance journalist that I sold the book to Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.

Why did you decide to write about the man we call Fibonacci?

There are a couple of things that interested me in the story. One is that my mom was born and raised in Italy, and Italian culture has always been a source of curiosity for me. I was intrigued by the setting and time period. Who doesn’t love medieval times? And lastly, I loved learning about the Fibonacci Sequence. Believe it or not, I came to it late in life. I never learned about it in school as a kid, nor in college. I was genuinely fascinated by the number pattern, particularly its appearance in nature. As the whole, Blockhead just seemed like the perfect project for a geek like me.

Tell me about the research for Blockhead.

I feel like an old man when I tell this story because most of the research was conducted in the 1990s, in the days before everyone had high-speed Internet in their home and offices. So a lot of the research was old-school. I went to libraries, read encyclopedia entries, began collecting journal and magazine articles about the Fibonacci sequence, and tried to find books about Leonardo, mathematicians, and the origin of our modern number system. I also did a lot of weird things on my own to understand the Fibonacci Sequence, like draw lots of family trees of multiplying bunny rabbits. The biggest liberty I took in the book was to suggest in a whimsical way that Leonardo actually knew the significance of the Fibonacci Sequence. He did not in real life, but I saw no other way to incorporate the Sequence into his life story. You can’t tell Leonardo’s tale and then leave out the only reason most people remember him.

How did you overcome the challenge of writing about math and not being a mathematician?

During the writing of the book, when I encountered gaps in Leonardo’s life, I would call upon my background in journalism and simply phone or email professors, math teachers and mathematicians for advice. I was nervous about making those calls because my knowledge of Fibonacci’s contributions ends at the number 377 on the famous Sequence. But everyone was kind enough to listen and help me. I discovered that many of the questions I had about Leonardo’s life were genuine mysteries. For example, Fibonacci’s nickname seems to be “blockhead” or “bonehead” (hence the title of my book) but no one really knows why. A good theory is that his neighbors were poking gentle fun at him for being an absent-minded professor, and that he incorporated this nickname into his byline in his writings. Some famous ancient Romans embraced their nicknames. And this is somewhat typical in Italian culture, even today.

What was the path to publication for Blockhead?

Everyone tells writers that they need to be prepared for rejection. They need to be persistent, and someday they will have a finished printed book in their hands. Well, I’ve gotten rejections from editors since I started writing in my teens. Rejection is like a pal to me! But in this case, the story’s slightly different. I sold Blockhead to the first publisher I ever showed it to. I was elated. No rejection. But after that quick success came 12 long years of waiting for the book to be produced. We went through two editors and two illustrators. So now it’s out 14 years after I first started writing it. So guess what? A writer still needs to be persistent even after they’ve sold the book. And someday they will have a finished, printed book in their hands!

What are you working on now?

As a freelance journalist, I am always writing magazine pieces for kids and adults. The two audiences are always blending together for me, even in my book writing. Last year, my wife and co-author Denise Kiernan and I published a book called Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame & Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence. We wrote it for grown-ups, but many teachers and librarians use it in their classrooms. I am currently working long-distance with a mysterious European scientist to write a mysterious grown-up nonfiction book about a mysterious object. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait 14 years to read it!

See more Nonfiction Monday posts at Miss Rumphius Effect.

Tuesday: Q&A with Joe at the poetry blog of Gregory K, originator of “Fibs,” Fibonacci-poetry.

Wednesday: Q&A with John O’Brien, Blockhead‘s illustrator, at the blog of illustrator Carolyn Croll.

Thursday: Joe’s essay at I.N.K.

Friday: Joe’s book trailer at his blog.

Saturday: “Saturday Sketch” at Henry Holt’s blog: See before-and-after art of the book.

I first heard about Blockhead from the manager of the children’s section at my local independent bookstore: “There’s another Fibonacci book coming out this spring, too.” I was worried for a tiny little minute that someone else had had the same idea I had. Would there be enough room in the market for two Fibonacci books? I was relieved when my internet search revealed that the book in question was very different. It was an illustrated biography for a slightly older audience. I was really curious and interested.

About the same time I was finding out about Blockhead, its author was learning about my book. We got in touch and, in the way things often go in this business, I now consider Joseph D’Agnese a friend. We sent each other copies of our books; he hosted me on his blog during my launch week; and I am returning the favor.

I have one advantage over him in my part of this virtual tour: I got to read his book before this post. So, instead of only an interview, I can offer my informed opinion. I enjoyed this book a lot and I think it has serious kid appeal. Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci is an interesting hybrid between picture book biography and fable. D’Agnese, a freelance writer who used to edit a math magazine for kids, wanted to write about Fibonacci and the relationship between Fibonacci numbers and nature. The problem was there is no evidence that Fibonacci knew about this connection. So D’Agnese imagined a scenario in which Fibonacci does see the connection. In D’Agnese’s story, the young Fibonacci faces pressure from his schoolmaster and his father who aren’t sure he is applying himself to his lessons with sufficient diligence. What kid can’t relate to that?

It may be that I have more appreciation for D’Agnese’s text than the average reader; I know intimately the potential pitfalls involved in writing about: a) someone who lived so long ago (when names were not like our names) and b) a sequence that solved a number problem with more than a few convoluted conditions. I am referring here to the Rabbit Problem. Take my word for it, D’Agnese handles these problems with ease. Blockhead is a delightful tale about an important mathematician, his world travels, and his breakthrough ideas.

Come back tomorrow for the interview.

Today’s fifth stop on the blog book tour is on Dori Reads, written by my writer friend Doraine Bennett. She asked me about using Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature in classrooms with students of different ages.

We’re nearing the end of the blog book tour; I thank everyone who hosted and followed along. Tomorrow, the day of our book launch at Lemuria, I will post an interview with my oft-silent co-photographer, Richard Campbell.

Our tour included stops at Writing Snacks, Teaching Authors, Joseph D’Agnese’s Blog, Live. Love. Explore., Elizabeth O. Dulemba’s Blog, and My Log Cabin Life.

Today, the blog tour continues at My Log Cabin Life by Julie Owen. Because Julie and I share a passion for photography, today’s post centers on the images.

If you missed previous posts, check them out at:

Monday: Joseph D’Agnese’s blog.

Tuesday: Live. Love Explore. by Irene Latham.

Wednesday: Elizabeth O. Dulemba’s blog.

Tommorrow’s post will be at Dori Reads by Doraine Bennett.

In conjunction with the release of Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature (March 1), I have arranged some stops on a virtual tour. Today, I am visiting Mary Ann Rodman on Teaching Authors. I met Mary Ann when she came to Lemuria to sign her first novel, Yankee Girl. I invited her to Davis Magnet School a few times to talk about two of her books, My Best Friend and First Grade Stinks. She’s been an inspiration and generous with helpful advice and encouragement. I hope you’ll come over and read the interview. I included a few activities for using photography to teach writing.

This month, I am the featured guest on WritingSnacks.com, a website with lots of useful information for writers. Dana Cleveland Konop and Melissa Thomas-Dubois, two of my colleagues in the Southern Breeze region of SCBWI, created the site.

As the title would suggest, one of the things you’ll find out in the interview is my favorite writing snack.

Big news today for Hester Bass! Her book, The Secret World of Walter Anderson, won the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. This is wonderful news for Hester, for the book, and for the legacy of Walter Anderson. Many, many more people will learn about his extraordinary life and art. Way to go, Hester!

In November, I talked with Hester about the book and featured a video of her reading the opening lines. Click here to see that post. Hester also presented at my sons’ school, Power APAC, which I wrote about here. During Hester’s visit to Jackson, a crew from Mississippi Public Broadcasting filmed an interview for their online feature Don’t Lecture Me!

I am so pleased to learn that it’s good for the brain to learn new things. In order to keep up with technology, I have to learn new things all the time. Today, I am figuring out how to use tiny urls so I can put internet links into my tweets. I also linked my tweets to my facebook page. They will appear as status updates. I read a recent New York Times article, suggesting that twitter is here to stay and also very useful. I am still learning how to put it to good use. I’d appreciate any tips from my readers.

My blog traffic surged on the day I posted the interview with Irene Latham. When I mentioned this to her, she said she had tweeted about it. Perhaps that drove some of the traffic. I also have a hunch that video is a draw.

Even though I have a Google alert set up for Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator, I still miss things. The staff at Horn Book magazine printed a list of Mind the Gap Awards, a humorous awards list, in the July/August 2009 issue. Wolfsnail won in the category of Scariest mollusk. In this case, I missed it in two formats: online and in hardcover. I am a subscriber and I know I read that issue because it included the acceptance speeches for the major ALA awards.

In unrelated news, Richard, who designed my website and blog, just finished re-designing a website for zata3, a political consulting firm that specializes in phone services like polling, virtual town halls, and get-out-the-vote.