Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Historical Fiction Giveaway Winners!

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April 25, 2012

Historical Fiction Giveaway Winners!

The winner of FAIRIES! A True Story by Shirley Raye Redmond is . . .     Chris Victor!!!


The winner of Lady Macbeth's Daughter by Lisa Klein is . . . J. R. Poulter!!!


Congratulations and Happy Reading!

(Please email Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com to receive the book by mail to your school or home address.)
 

Thank you everyone for entering!

And please spread the word about SPELLBINDERS to the teachers and librarians and friends in your life.

Signing up by email is super easy.

Just click the link below: Join Our Mailing List!  


 Black Stripes

Meet the Spellbinders
  Comfort Paperback CoverForget Me Not
Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a
speech-language pathologist.
  
Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Her upcoming paranormal verse novel, Forget Me Not, will be published by Simon Pulse in October of 2012.
  
  
Caroline Starr RoseCaroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time. 
 

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.
  
  
  
 Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.
  
She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences.
  
Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 
  
Follow me on Twitter 
     

Monday, April 23, 2012

Caroline's Classroom Connections!

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April 25, 2012
Caroline's Classroom Connections
Historical Fiction in the Classroom: THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS
 
Setting: America, 1896
Age range: twelve and up -- would work perfectly with an eighth-grade US history course

Winner of the SCBWI Sue Alexander Award for Most Promising Manuscript

Included on the ALA's Amelia Bloomer list (best books for youth with significant feminist content)

The journey in itself is amazing, but Dagg's tender portrayal of a mother and daughter who learn to appreciate and forgive each other makes it unforgettable.
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
  
 
Please tell us about your book.
One day in May, 1896, Clara Estby and her mother packed satchels with maps, compass, canteens, a pistol and a curling iron.  They strode east along the railroad tracks, determined to walk 4,000 miles to New York City by their November 30 deadline to win a $10,000 bet which would save the family's farm. 
  
Since Helga Estby was a suffragist, they were also out to prove what women alone could do, as they battled blizzard, bandits, flash flood and days without food or water, sometimes walking nearly fifty miles at a stretch.   
  
What inspired you to write this story? 
Great-aunt Clara and Great-grandma Helga meant to write a book, but because of the way their trip ended, all their travel journals were burned and they agreed never to talk about the trip again. I met Clara for the last time in 1950 as she lay dying in Sacred Heart Hospital. Forty years later, when I read two newspaper articles that had been saved from the burn barrel that had destroyed all their other records, I vowed that I would tell their story for them.   
  
Could you share how you conducted your research? 
Since I am a retired librarian, I started with about six million words of background reading, including biographies of people they met, places they passed through, frontier treatments for blisters, and the eating habits of cougars. From the Internet I found details I needed for various scenes, such as the elevation of the pass through the Blue Mountains and the history of Underwood typewriters. 
  
I drove part of the route with my daughter, poking in at little history museums along the way, studied old railroad maps to work out a plausible day-by-day itinerary for the whole 232-day trek, put on white gloves to turn the fragile pages of women's magazines of the 1890's, and scrolled through microfilms of newspapers which chronicled their walk.  
  
I found patterns for clothing of the 1890's and sewed a Gibson Girl shirtwaist and Victorian under-drawers. I prowled antique stores to find items, such as a curling iron, that were similar to the ones they carried. I bought reproduction Victorian shoes and carpetbag. I even went on eBay to buy period postcards of people they met and places they passed through.  
  
Details from those cards -- such as one of Mrs. William McKinley in her rocker -- found their ways into various scenes. Ninety-eight per-cent of my research never made it directly into the book, but helped pull me into each scene as I wrote.   
  
What are some special challenges associated with fictionalizing a true story?
I originally intended to write non-fiction, but I couldn't find enough verifiable facts to work with. Newspaper articles often disagreed on details, such as how many shoes they wore out or how many miles they had walked. Articles mentioned in passing that they had to shoot a man, demonstrated the use of their curling iron to Native Americans they met, encountered a blizzard in the Blue Mountains, nearly died when they got lost in the Snake River Lava Fields, and were almost swept away by a flash flood in the Rockies.  
  
Those brief facts hardly conveyed what it must have been like to walk through a blizzard in spring clothing or show Native Americans how to use a curling iron. If I was going to bring readers into the adventure, I'd have to fill in the missing details with imagination. The hardest part was putting words and thoughts to Clara and Helga.  
  
I had twenty-nine rejections on the book in its original variations of a straight adventure story. My acquiring editor said that without Clara and Helga's feelings added to the adventure, the readers wouldn't care about them. But how did I know what Clara thought when she was seventeen years old?   
  
To try to get into Clara's head, I took a year off from writing and immersed myself in the 1890's. For that year I read only what Clara might have read for school, like the classics, or dime novels and popular literature of the era that might have passed from hand to hand. I read period newspapers and women's magazines and diaries of Victorian women.  
  
After that year I was ready to start over and add heart to the story. By then I had decided that although I didn't know what Clara and Helga thought, I felt I could use them to represent all the New American Women of the era -- bold enough to demand the vote and take part in affairs outside the home.   
  
What topics does your book touch upon that would make it perfect fit for the social studies classroom?  
  • Women's suffrage: the movement itself and the price paid by people around anyone obsessed with a cause.    
  • Changing women's roles: using the contrast between Mrs. William Jennings Bryan, who was an attorney herself and often accompanied her husband on the campaign trail, and Mrs. William McKinley, who was a more traditional woman-aside from daring to cut her hair.   
  • Presidential Campaigns: Contrasting campaign styles of Bryan, who covered thousands of miles, and McKinley, who ran his campaign from his front porch. Compare to campaigns of today.   
  • Native Americans in a period of transitionsome of whom still roamed and some of whom were thoroughly brought into the white man's world, like Luke Fletcher.   
  • The Economy: The Financial Panic of 1893, compared to the Great Depression and the current economy.  Contrast 1893, when the government did not intervene, to 1930 and 2011.   
  • Bicycle craze of the 1890's and how it influenced women's clothing and women's feelings of independence.   
  • Contrasting reporting styles of the New York Times and New York World; compare accounts of Clara and Helga's trek.   
  • Changed levels of trust and security -- think of walking right up to the president-elect's door and being invited in for a visit!    
  • Acculturation of immigrants - contrast between Clara's father Olaf, who spoke little English, and his children.  Compare to today's new Americans.

 
 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

Caroline Starr Rose
Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New

Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time. 

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to her website.

  


 
Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a

Comfort Paperback Cover
speech-language pathologist.

Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Take Me There Cover

She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."


 Follow me on Twitter 
  
  
  

Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.
  
She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences.

Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 
  
Follow me on Twitter 
  

Upcoming Author Events



Sunday, April 29th 
9-5 Preconference Session  
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
  
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose 
  
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories"
Carolee Dean

Wednesday, May 16
Bloomers, Buckboards, and Buffalo Chips presentation
7:00pm 
The Library Center
Springfield, MO
and
Saturday, May 19
3:00pm
George Washington Carver National Monument
Diamond, MO
Caroline Starr Rose


November, 2012
YALSA Literature Symposium 
"Author Research Panel"
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
and two other authors
St. Louis, Missouri

Monday, April 16, 2012

Historical Fiction to Devour - AND TWO GIVEAWAYS!!!

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April 16, 2012
    April Book Buzz - Historical Fiction to Devour!
AND TWO BOOK GIVEAWAYS!!!
 April is Historical Fiction Month here at SPELLBINDERS.
If you missed the MOST EXCELLENT Feature Article two weeks ago, please go to this link:

Sassy Historical Fiction!! (and Why Historical Fiction is just as exciting as Fantasy - maybe even more so because it really happened! 
  
One of the most unforgettable memories I have of a book I read when I was about eleven years old was a story about a young woman who was a Confederate Spy during the Civil War. One day as she was coming home with a note hidden in her pocket containing secret information, she discovered that her home was surrounded by Union Soldiers. She knew that if they found the note on her, she'd be arrested. Quickly, she memorized the note, stuck it in her mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it! I thought that was the most thrilling and daring thing I'd read!   
  
YOUNG READERS TITLES (and a Giveaway!): 
  
FAIRIES! A True Story by Shirley Raye Redmond
  
This chapter book is a Random House Step Into Reading, Level 3, about the myths and legends surrounding Fairies--as well as a historical based on the true story of two sisters in 1917 who saw fairies and took pictures of them--and became a world-wide sensation!  
  
Shirley Raye, the author of FAIRIES! has donated a copy of this brand new book for us to Give away here on SPELLBINDERS! Thank you!!!   

If you'd like to enter to win FAIRIES! please email Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com OR leave a comment at our SPELLBINDERS BLOG here at this link: Spellbinders!    

 

I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic! By Lauren Tarshis






   
 
I Survived Pearl Harbor! by Lauren Tarshis

Look for other "I Survived" Easy Reader Titles at your local bookstore, library or at Amazon.  




       
MIDDLE GRADE TITLES
  
Sarah Miller writes beautiful and gripping historical fiction:
   
 

Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller

The remarkable story of Annie Sullivan told in first person.  
  
  

 
The Lost Crown by Sarah Miller 

This is a gripping, well researched story of Anastasia, the Russian Czar's daughter in 1914 Revolutionary Russia. (Pictures of the royal family included in the Author Notes). 




     
YOUNG ADULT TITLES (and a Giveaway!): 

For a bit older readers, you simply must thrust Lisa Klein's books as well as Julie Hearn's books into their hands.  

 

Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein 

Two Girls of Gettysburg by Lisa Klein 

Ophelia by Lisa Klein 

Lady Macbeth's Daughter  by Lisa Klein (I have a copy of this book to give away to one of our readers! Please email Kimberley at kglittle@ msn.com or leave a comment at Spellbinders!    
     
 

The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn

A gripping Salem Witch Trials Story!  






My Favorite Historical Fiction Title of 2011:

Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys   

This is simply breathtaking and heart-wrenching, based on an unknown, but true story during WWII about the Lithuanian people invaded by Russia. The book has received numerous starred reviews and awards, and will be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. 

       

Enjoy a great read today!  
Book Buzz by Kimberley Griffiths Little

      
 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

Kim Bio Photo
Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secrets
as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing
workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please
to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 


Follow me on Twitter 

 Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a Comfort Paperback Coverspeech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Take Me There CoverActs of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.

 Follow me on Twitter 
  

Caroline Starr Rose
Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New 
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.
May B



Blog   
  

UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS
         

Sunday, April 29th, 2012
9-5 Pre-conference Session
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
Join us for this all day session
featuring 9 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders:
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose   

*Kimberley will be signing at the
Scholastic Booth in the IRA Exhibit Hall
Monday, April 30 from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.*
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories: Beyond Story Grammar"
Carolee Dean 
      

  
  

Friday, April 13, 2012

The Secret Language of Stories AND a Free Writing Workshop!

Spellbinders Logo
April 9, 2012
THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF STORIES -The Verse Novel HOME OF THE BRAVE
Exploring HOME OF THE BRAVE
by Carolee Dean
 
 
In honor or April, which is poetry month, Caroline and I will be offering a free verse novel workshop at Alamosa Books on Saturday, April 14th at 2:00p.m.  See "Upcoming Events" for more details. 

Home of the BraveAlso in honor of Poetry Month, I will be discussing the verse novel, HOME OF THE BRAVE by Katherine Applegate. It is the story of a teenage boy named Kek, a Sudanese refugee who saw his father and brother killed in Africa and then came to America to live with his aunt. The spare verse is accessible for students ages 10 and up, yet the themes of relocation, ostracism, and political oppression make this book of interest for high school students as well, especially low readers (high interest-low readability). It fits well with themes of African studies. The variety of poetic and literary devices found in this story make it a good resource for covering those topics in preparation for SBA testing.
I will be using the 12 steps of my story analysis method to talk about the plot. Kek, a young Sudanese refugee receives a CALL to adventure to leave his refugee camp and come to America. As the story begins, he is making his CROSSING from the OLD WORLD of the camp to the NEW WORLD of Minnesota in the dead of winter by way of a "flying boat" or airplane. He is met at the airport by Dave, a man assigned to help him make the transition to America. Dave serves as a MENTOR as he gives Kek advice about adjusting to his new live. The boy was reluctant to come to America without his mother and hopes that she will soon join him. Dave takes Kek to live with Kek's aunt and cousin Ganwar who lost his hand the same night Kek's father was killed.

On their way to his aunt's apartment, Kek sees a cow standing alone in the snow and asks Dave to stop so that he can pet the animal. Back in Africa, cattle meant life to Kek and his family who were herders.

Kek faces many challenges in making the adjustment to America. The language is totally confusing to him. He uses terms like "the fast-car road" to describe the highway and "the don't-move belt" to describe the seatbelt. Nothing is like it is back home. He looks up to his older cousin, Ganwar, who has already gone through the male initiation rite and bears the scars on his forehead that prove he is a man. Kek very much wants to become a man, but does not know how to do that in this strange new place. Ganwar is a very flawed and embittered role model.

A PROBLEM arises when Kek tries to wash his aunt's dishes in the washing machine in the basement and ends up breaking them. He makes a PLAN to repay her by going back to the farm where he saw the cow and asking the owner, a woman named Lou, if he can have a job. At the MIDPOINT of the story he does just that. He asks Lou for a job. During the DOWNTIME he enjoys his new employment and even PURSUES a position for his cousin Ganwar. Kek names the cow Gol which means family. Gol symbolizes both his family and his search for manhood because of the responsibility he assumes in caring for the cow.

Unfortunately, Lou is getting old and she decides to sell the farm. She's not sure what she's going to do with the old cow. Kek becomes despondent with this news and quits going to the farm. Shortly thereafter he receives news that Dave was able to track down the people who made it to the second refugee camp and Kek's mother was not with them. He then has a flashback about what happened the night she disappeared. Their camp was attacked by gunfire and they ran. His mother hurt her leg and couldn't go any further, but instructed him to keep running and return for her when it was safe. When he returned, she was gone. This is the DEATH and TRANSFORMATION point in the story, because all hope seems lost. At first this desperation just causes Kek to run away, to try to make it back to Africa to look for his mother, but as he passes the farm and Lou's house, he wants to tell her thank you and goodbye, so he gets off the bus. Lou shows him pictures of her and her husband and the farm when they were young. Then she shows him a picture of her sister's house in LA. She says she is hopeful because even though her sister's yard is tiny in comparison to the farm, she can grow things year round. Kek realizes that like him, Lou must leave the home she has always known. He remembers his aunt's words, "Kek finds sun when the sky is dark," and he realizes that finding the sun wherever you are is one way to be a man. His transformation occurs when he decides to go back to work for Lou as he stays in Minnesota and waits for his mother and tries to make the best of his new life.

At the CLIMAX of the story Kek, with Lou's permission, walks Gol, the cow, all the way to the zoo. He and Ganwar stop traffic and end up getting a police escort. When they arrive at the zoo the "zoo boss" is reluctant to accept the cow. This is not the way animals are usually acquired. Kek finally persuades him and as Gol is taken into the petting zoo, he makes the analogy the she is going to her new land to begin again. The REWARD is that he has found a place for Gol, but another reward awaits him. In the epilogue, his mother finally meets him in America.

I have created a 17 page teacher's guide that focuses primarily on exploring the poetic and literary devices found in the novel. It is geared toward low readers and may be found on the Teacher Resources page at My Book Blog.

  
To learn more about the twelve step story analysis I use to teach writing and to plot my books, visit my blog at Carolee Dean Books.

 Black Stripes

Meet the Spellbinders
CaCarolee Deanrolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a
Comfort Paperback Cover
speech-language pathologist.

Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Her upcoming paranormal verse novel, Forget Me Not, will be published by Simon Pulse in October of 2012.
Take Me There Cover
 
She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."Forget Me Not


 Follow me on Twitter 
  
  



  
Caroline Starr RoseCaroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New
Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time. 
 


To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.

  







Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.
  
She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences.

Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 
  
Follow me on Twitter 
  

                 Upcoming Author Events


Saturday, April 14
Novels-in-Verse
2 pm
at Alamosa Books
8810 Holly Ave. NE
Albuquerque, NM

Carolee and Caroline will be presenting a workshop for teachers, students, and writers.

Sunday, April 29th 
9-5 Preconference Session  
Author's Panel at the
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"
  
Join us for this all day session
featuring 11 authors including
all 3 Spellbinders
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Caroline Starr Rose 
  
Tuesday, May 1
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
International Reading Association Conference
Chicago, Illinois
"The Secret Language of Stories"
Carolee Dean


November, 2012
YALSA Literature Symposium 
"Author Research Panel"
Carolee Dean
Kimberley Griffiths Little
and two other authors
St. Louis, Missouri


MY PUBLISHED BOOKS

MY PUBLISHED BOOKS

Winner of The Southwest Book Award!

Time travel, war, love, rattlesnakes, magic . . .

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