Drumroll Please….

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I woke up this morning to a call from my favorite editor (@EditorK) informing me that The Rock and the River and I have won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. This is a huge honor in the world of children’s literature and I’m so pleased!

More on this to follow later today as I get it all figured out….and stop randomly shrieking. (The yappy dog that lives next door is not very happy with me for stealing his thunder. He’s responded to each of my “woohoos” with a resounding triple yap.)

In the meantime you can check out the list of award recipients here:

Thanks to the American Library Association and the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee. Yay!!!

NAACP Image Awards

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I always get good news when I’m in the library.

When I saw my book cover for the first time, I was in the library. When I heard I was getting a NYTimes Book Review, I had just come from the library. And today, I was sitting oh-so-decorously in the library when I got the news that The Rock and the River was nominated for an NAACP Image Award!!!*

Yeah, baby. I was so excited, and it was not the kind of excitement that’s conducive to the library environment, so I quickly checked out all the books I was holding (only two of which I actually needed to check out, I realized later…) and ran out of doors so I could celebrate properly. By running through the streets of New York shrieking with joy. (Few people noticed. Random strange outbursts are the status quo here.)

This is the link to the NOMINEES LIST. I am under Literature. You will have to scroll down, but as you do so, peek at all the other authors. I’m so pleased to be among this group of names. Thanks, NAACP!!!!

What a great first birthday present for my book. Thanks, NAACP!!!!

*You would think this sort of track record would cause me to spend much more time in the library. Hmm…..

New Year’s Resolution

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If there was an award for worst blogger ever, I think I’d be in the running. It’s been, what…six months? since I posted anything. Ugh. Need to get back up on the horse, as they say.

New Year’s Resolution: Be a good blogger.

No, scratch that. I will never be a terribly good blogger. Umm…..

New Year’s Resolution: Be a better blogger. Be a better blogger than you were last year.

Yeah. That sounds doable.

We’ll see! Happy 2010, my dear followers!

ALA Adventures and Free Book Giveaway!!!

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Hello, friends. I’m having a magically fun adventure at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago this week. I’ve strolled the conference floor for hours, picking up books an information and talking to people. I’ve met tons of cool librarians, fellow authors and book lovers galore.

I will post pics and tell my tales when I get back home (and I’ve got some good ones). At that point, I will need to exercise my fingers and rest my weary feet….

Also…the folks over at ColorOnline are doing a summer book giveaway, so pop over there to enter to win a copy of The Rock and the River, or one of several other awesome titles!!!!

What A Girl Wants: Writing Multicultural Characters

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Okay….so I just wrote a long post about why everyone should pop over to Chasing Ray and read the latest “What a Girl Wants” conversation….then Blogger ate it. Grrr.

So, more on the why later, but anyone with an interest in multicutural characters in YA literature should pop over HERE for a peek.

Review at Color Online

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Susan at ColorOnline has posted a discussion of some of her favorite books of the year so far, including The Rock and the River! She gives it a nice review, too. Yay!

Susan also lists and reviews some other great titles, and she talks about why historical fiction is growing on her. See, there are plenty of excellent reasons why you should check it out HERE.