Batting Monday Clean-up

You know the sound a car engine makes at the RPMs are climbing and you are preparing to shift into the next gear?

Make that sound in your mind right now.

I’m getting ready to shift gears and go full throttle on a number of projects.

Before I can do that, though, I have to clean off a couple of desks and check off the last items on a few to-do lists. And close a bunch of tabs that have been open for weeks while I wait for the right moment to blog about them.

Here’s a short article about a recent Skype visit I did with 6th graders who had read CHAINS.

CHAINS also made the "A More Perfect Union" Bookself, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The chosen books will be distributed to 4,000 school (K-12) and public libraries. Why? The NEH says "As the American people begin observing the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, NEH seeks to promote reflection among young people on the idea of the United States as a “union.”" I was excited to see that my friend Pam Muñoz Ryan’s book, When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, is also on the list. I was honored that W.E.B. Dubois’s, The Souls of Black Folk, is on the list, too. Be sure to check out the whole list!

Over at YA BookSelf, they’ve posted an article comparing rejection letters to SPEAK. What do you think of it?

At last, but certainly not least, Wendy at SimpleThrift (a terrific blog about living a frugal and creative life while raising kids) has been naming her chickens after her favorite authors. She just posted a short and fun Good Egg Interview with me because….

  (photo credit Wendy Thomas)

she named this little girl "Laurie Halse Anderson."

5 Replies to “Batting Monday Clean-up”

  1. So happy about the NEH news! CHAINS definitely belongs on that bookshelf.

    And I think the news of the chicken naming is also very cool…at least right now. I do hope you’ll also blog on the day Wendy writes to tell you she had Laurie Halse Anderson for dinner…

  2. Ha! She says they only eat chickens that come from the grocery store. LHA Jr. is destined for a life of producing omelets.

  3. Laurie,

    I read an article today that infuriated me. Someone I follow on Twitter retweeted a story by Fox News Radio (http://radio.foxnews.com/2010/06/09/i-pledge-allegiance-to-la-bandera/#axzz0qNOtyxSA) about a principal in Wisconsin who encourages his young ESL students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish. A “concerned mom” (who called the Spanish recitation “offensive”) contacted her local Fox News affiliate, who ran with the story.

    The principal is quoted as saying, “It is my responsibility as a principal in a public school to give every student the opportunity to learn and grow as a student, no matter what their race or religion.” Awesome, right? I thought so too. So I emailed him and thanked him. He responded that he’s been hammered with angry calls and emails. I tweeted, encouraging my followers to contact him, and thought perhaps you could do the same.

    His email address is mierow@wrightstown.k12.wi.us, if you’re interested.

    Thanks!

    Leslie

  4. Chains

    Congrats on Chains becoming a Rebecca Caudill Nominee! I read it and all the other ones and I think it is the best by far.

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