On my bookshelf, I have all sorts of outdated Rick Steves guidebooks from the days my husband I roamed around Europe with our kids. In one of his books, he recommended that parents have their kids watch movies to help get them excited about different locations before they arrived. I remember picking up the Italian-dubbed … More A Few International Reads
How do you pick out a Christmas present or birthday gift for a young reader? There are all sorts of ways to choose, but sometimes I like to pick out a book set in a place where those readers live or featuring characters from the same locality. Readers have enjoyed recognizing places from Suspect, my … More Regional Reads for Christmas
My librarian friend Sondy Eklund wrote a review for THE GRIFFIN AND THE DINOSAUR. Looks fascinating!
I’d like to thank Ann Finkelstein for asking me to participate in this blog hop. I’ve been neglecting my blog, and this gave me a reason to get back to it. Ann is a talented writer and photographer whose YA fantasy is now out on submission. You can read about her writing process here. I’m … More Blog Hop!
It was such fun to see SAVING THE GRIFFIN turn up on a master list of fifty or so books for kids to read before and after Harry Potter. Susan Fichtelberg and Bonnie Kunzel pulled this list together for their June, 2011 ALA presentation. A quick cruise through Susan’s website, Encountering Enchantment, made it clear that she’s … More Before and After Harry Potter (Grades 3-5)
Many writers like Google alerts. It’s a great way to see what’s going on with their latest book, especially for those of us who aren’t New York Times bestsellers. After all, people don’t feel the need to put up a bad review for relatively unknown authors. But today a review of SAVING THE GRIFFIN popped … More Narnia in Reverse
You’re invited to the launch party for SUSPECT at Literary Life! WHEN: Thursday, October 7 from 6:00 to 8:00 WHERE: 758 Wealthy Street SE Grand Rapids, MI Things should be lively since the Wealthy Street Autumn Stroll will also be going on. I’m hoping to have coloring pages available from SAVING THE GRIFFIN as well. A … More Mix and Mingle
The Grand Rapids Griffin mascot posed with SAVING THE GRIFFIN and Diana Wynne Jones’ YEAR OF THE GRIFFIN. It was pretty fun to see my book next to one by DWJ even though the only real link was the fact that we both had the word “griffin” in the title.
Whoa! I got some exciting news this morning. Peachtree decided to feature SUSPECT on the back cover of their fall catalogue! Very cool. I suspect that some of that ‘love’ has to come from the truly eyecatching look. This is one of the times when I’m really hoping that potential readers judge my book by its cover. I … More Peachtree
Sometimes books are challenged in libraries. There might be a word, phrase, character or situation that people object to. But one parent really took objections to the next level when he paged through a book by Dan Gutman. Mr. Gutman wrote about this surprising correspondence in an article for School Library Journal. (Note: Link updated.) His experience … More Self-censorship?
Kristin Wolden Nitz 