ALA 2010

I’m preparing today to leave the sweltering, muggy weather of Brooklyn, New York to attend the American Library Association Annual Conference in the sweltering, muggy weather of Washington, D.C. (I learned something about library budgets years ago when I realized that the January conferences are always in places like Boston and Chicago, and the July conferences are always in places like Washington, D.C. or Anaheim, CA.) I’ll be signing Moonshot at the Simon & Schuster booth on Sunday, from 1:00 to 2:00, and advance copies of Ballet for Martha at the Macmillan booth on Monday, from 12:30 to 1:00. And on Monday morning, I’ll be happy and honored to receive a Sibert Honor Award for Moonshot. I’m looking forward to seeing old and new friends and to a weekend full of librarians, authors, illustrators, editors, publishers, and books. If you’re going to be in D.C., I hope I’ll see you there!

More Martha

Some recent good news for Ballet for Martha: last week Elizabeth Bird, aka Betsy, alias Fuse #8, posted some generous thoughts about the book in her recap of a Macmillan preview for librarians, here. And now there’s word that Booklist’s July issue will give the book its second starred review. Ilene Cooper’s review says: “The book as a whole beautifully captures the process of artistic creation…what readers will surely want after putting this down is to see and hear Appalachian Spring for themselves.” An interview with authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, editor Neal Porter, and myself will run with the review.

Thank you, Fuse and Booklist!

Horn Book

Jump for joy! A starred review of Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by yours truly, will appear in the July/August Horn Book Magazine. Thanks, Horn Book!