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It was late February this year when I decided to give a book to each kiddo, age 5 through late teens, who’d be coming to a family gathering. The plan was to return from a mid-March getaway and spend a day in the bookstore, going wild, picking out just the right titles. (Then I’d read… Continue reading The Escape I Didn’t Know I Needed – A Review

Almost never do I pick up books with animals in their titles or on the covers. I was one of those students who was inundated by that required dead-animal reading in school: Rascal, Sounder, The Yearling, and others I’ve since blocked out. In fact, one of the books I most relate to? No More Dead… Continue reading And Bears! Oh, My!

… years ago, during that decade when I envisioned myself as a picture book author, I checked out book after book after book from the library, reading and learning … and eventually learning I had way too many words in me to be a picture book author. But it wasn’t in vain. It had been… Continue reading Once Upon a Time…

Here’s a middle grade novel that scared me even before I read it. The Ghost in Apartment 2R by Denis Markell (Delacorte Press 2019). It’s not that the title or the thought of ghosts freaked me out. No. I blanched because I recently finished a full 70,000-word first draft of a book, and the concept… Continue reading One Scary Story (for two reasons)

So happy to be included on this list! The Gollywhopper Games has been in print for nearly 12 years, and I still get mail from readers who are discovering it for the first time. This is one reason why. Thanks so much!

If you’ve ever heard M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin speak, you’ll know that a collaboration between the two could only amount to something special. And highly intelligent. And different. And thoughtful. And … everything. Because their work on The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge has already garnered a mass amount of publicity, including a number of… Continue reading Not Just Your Average, Wild, Exciting Story

A few weeks before I was to appear at a school visit last month, the librarian asked if I would stay after for a pizza party. Invited would be the twelve 4th and 5th graders who had read every book on the Mark Twain list. I love pizza. I love parties. I love readers. And… Continue reading Save Me a Slice

I make it a point to review books that you may not have heard about. This month, though, I’m making an exception and I’ll always make an exception for a must-read. The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson is a must-read. I’d had so much fun reading an earlier book of his, The Great Greene Heist,… Continue reading Dessert Worth Waiting For

Confession #1: I have seen the movie Ocean’s Eleven, in whole or in part, at least 30 times. Probably more. There’s something about a great heist story that keeps me riveted to the screen or the book or my imagination. (I think I have a heist story in me; it just hasn’t come out yet.)… Continue reading Heist! Heist! Heist!

I can’t quite remember how I met Antony John. It was at some local writer’s get-together, I believe. Sure. Let’s say that was it. And it definitely was at the beginning of both of our writing/author careers. I may have cheered as loudly as his closest family and friends when he won the Schneider Family… Continue reading Yes, It’s Very Funny, Too