The Ladies are in the House!

Having your new book – the book you’ve worked on for years, dreamed about, fussed about, cried over, danced with, bored your relatives to tears with (“aren’t you done with that thing yet?”) – having that book arrive is the closest thing possible to the moment when you give birth to a child.

Without the mess and a room full of strangers wearing latex gloves and face masks.

Without further ado, meet INDEPENDENT DAMES: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic ::wipes tears from eyes::

Image and video hosting by TinyPic DAMES is a 40-page non-fiction historical picture book that highlights the revolutionary activity of 80 women and girls you’ve probably never heard of.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic The illustrator is Matt Faulkner, the same talented artist who worked on THANK YOU, SARAH with me.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Along with all of the illustrated pages, there are several text-heavy pages in the back, and this – a bibliography! Woot! The book can be read aloud to younger grades, but there is enough meaty information in it to make it useful up through middle school.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Even the back cover is fun. ::closes book and sighs with content::

INDEPENDENT DAMES goes on sale June 3. (Feel free to call your local bookseller today and bug her about it.) Kelly Fineman will be posting an interview with me about DAMES in the coming weeks, so I will save all of the juicy stuff for that. I’m also putting together supplementary material for my website, so stay tuned.

We have one more lady in the house.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Colleen Paratore was in Oswego this week for school visits and we snuck in time for a cup of coffee before she had to leave. (Do I look overcaffeinated in this picture or what?)

Thanks for the huge response to my July Writing Challenge (must come up with a better name for it). I’ll post more info about that soon. On Monday, I’ll give details about a few upcoming book signings I have. This weekend in Forest we have a very long run scheduled, revisions, gardening, and celebrating Mother’s Day. Not too shabby, eh?

31 Replies to “The Ladies are in the House!”

  1. Hooray for you and your Dames, Laurie! I can’t wait to get my hands on this one! 🙂

    And you and Col look fabulous! I’ll see her next weekend! 🙂

  2. The book looks awesome! I’ll tell my (children’s librarian) mom to order a copy. And ten years? Wow, that is dedication!

    Yup – you do look caffeinated, but I guess I’m used to that: finals week coming up!

  3. Congratulations on the birth of your most recent creation. She is beautiful. Of course you look overcaffeinated, aren’t all mothers? It’s what keeps us going.

  4. i have never been excited to read historical non-fiction before. this looks delightful. the speech bubbles (all i can read in these shots) are humorous, but give a feel of the era… very nice. and i love the fact that even though youve “made it” “youre there” etc, a new book still makes you giddy.

  5. congratulations! That is quite an accomplishment!

    This is exactly the kind of book I’d buy for my own kids! I guess I have to go do that now!

  6. Yay, Laurie! Your new book looks GREAT! We’re big fans of Thank You, Sarah! I use it as an example of kid-friendly, exciting n-f when I teach my writing class. Now I’ll have another book about strong women to share with the group AND with my kids!

    ~Della (from Poughkeepsie conference, remember me?) 🙂

  7. I kinda wanna give a copy to Linnea for her birthday, even though it comes out a good 2 weeks after her birthday. Don’t you think she’d love it?

  8. I saw this at my bookstore, and got all excited! It looks awesome, and what a great subject. Congratulations!

  9. OMG – that’s exactly the kind of book I was on the lookout for. Now, can you write one about Civil War ladies?!

    Congrats.

  10. maramouse, not signed in

    Wow! It looks FANTASTIC! Congrats! I’m so happy for you. ^_^

  11. You totally look caffeinated there. And blissfully happy. That is a good thing.

    The book looks even more awesome than the F&G, which is pretty spectacular in and of itself. I’m stoked for the interview!

  12. Congratulations on the book! It looks incredible, and I can’t wait to see it in person.

    Have a great weekend, and enjoy your very long run!
    🙂 Sarah

  13. Mazel Tov!!!!

    Congrats and Happy Mother’s Day!

    I think there may not be such a thing as overcaffeinated.

    Enjoy the day,

    J

  14. The book looks great! I can’t wait to add it to my very first classroom library when I start teaching in the fall… I love that there can be Laurie Halse Anderson books in my classroom no matter if I end up in elementary or middle school 🙂

    Also, Happy Mother’s Day to you!

  15. Aaaaahhhh!!!! I was so happy to hear there would be a companion book (so to speak) for Thank You, Sarah. I loved that book and can’t wait to see this one. Contratulations. AND a belated Happy Mother’s Day!

    Denise

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