The Case of the Pen Gone Missing: A Mickey Rangel Mystery

So, here is the cover for sure this time. It looks awesome. The bilingual chapter book will be out in May of 2009. Soon. Ya merito.

I'm also working on a revision of a novel my editor's looked at and sent five pages worth of notes on.

And on getting a collection of stories, selected and new, to a really cool indie publisher in Texas.

And researching conjunto music to keep working on another novel I've got going.

And another publisher in Texas is looking at a novel too.

So it's a busy time.

Oh, and this Tuesday evening, my students at Texas Tech are meeting with graphic novelist Dwight MacPherson in a chatroom sponsored by ALAN. It's open to whoever wants to show up for the hour-long event, but try to read his KID HOUDINI & THE SILVER DOLLAR MISFITS so you can participate fully. Check out his blog as well, posted below in another entry to check out all he's up to. To join the chat, follow the links posted on ALAN's website, also posted below. 9-10PM EST/8-9PM CST.

Can't Wait to Read, Etc.

You've got to know I'm a big fan of Matt de la Peña in the writing world and without. He's a very cool and hep cat (and obviously I'm not for using such language in public, but whatever, it's my blog and not yours--he he he), and soon, he promises me, I'll be getting an advanced copy of his next novel for teen readers: We Were Here (Delacorte). I'd also like to watch the movie based on his first book, Ball Don't Lie (Delacorte). If for no other reason than to catch his stretching what should've been a few seconds into several. I understand from reviews of it that it's a solid flick. To read an interview with Matt, find a copy of MultiCultural Review (Vol. 18, No. 1; Winter 2009). I'll see if I can get permission to post it on here.

Kid Houdini and the Silver Dollar Misfits, a graphic novel

by Dwight MacPherson

First, check out Dwight's blog at http://dwightmacpherson.wordpress.com/. He's the author of one of the coolest graphic novels aimed at the young struggling reader, though I'd also have high school-aged struggling readers pick it up, it's that good. As a matter of fact, I like the book so much that I've asked him to do an author book chat with my students, and he's agreed. Another cool thing is that C.J. Bott, through ALAN (that is, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents/NCTE) is setting up the chat, and will likely open up the chat to folks interested in Adolescent literature, graphic novels/comic books, or MacPherson himself. Check out ALAN's site for updates: http://www.alan-ya.org/. Also check out C.J.'s very informative book on bullying in YA literature titled The Bully in the Book and in the Classroom (Scarecrow Press, 2004) and its more recent follow-up, More Bullies in More Books (Scarecrow Press, (forthcoming) June 2009).

Reading Life

Just finished Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser. The story is compelling. It's a challenge to write about violence in the schools, especially gun violence, especially after so many instances of school shootings. Even the way it's told (short snippets of either written or oral interviews from various perspectives) wasn't a distraction. As a matter of fact, I think this sort of distancing from the main characters (in this case, the "shooters") helps tell the hard story. My concern is that the story is weakened by the obvious anti-gun sentiment as expressed in the footnotes. Sure, the studies have shown all this stuff that is quoted in articles and books, but it seems skewed to me. That a shooter trained for a summer with the Boy Scouts how to shoot targets then ends up pointing that weapon at humans later is factual, but where are the countless other stories untold of the many more thousands of Boy Scouts who go through the same training, have access to guns, and don't kill with them? It is not in the access and ownership where the problem lies, nor in the production and importing of said weapons, but in the person. True, no amount of training will help a kid not point it at another human with ill will when he's aiming to anyway. Same as with sex ed: no matter how much we tell kids about unwanted pregnancies and STDs, and how to prevent them, girls still get pregnant, boys get girls pregnant, and STDs are passed from one to another. I'm not saying there aren't things we can do to keep school shootings from happening, but there has to be more than saying guns are bad.

Valentine's Day Book Sale

The Friends of the Library in Lubbock have done it again, they've sponsored another successful book sale. This one on Saturday, Feb. 14. Doors opened at 9AM. My wife and youngest boy were there at 8:30 and Lukas and I went to church to pray with some of the men. Then I dropped Lukas off at around 10:10, and a friend and I went to dump an upright piano we'd found for free at a garage sale. It was fun to see the huge front loader take it up and drop it, mostly in pieces now, into the oversized bin. Then I set out to meet the family at the book sale at Mahon. Here's a list of what I got (I'm not even going to try to list even a quarter of what my wife and boys got):

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman (pbk)
Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser (pbk)
Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales, edited by Deborah Noyes (hdbk)
The Truth or Something by Jeanne Willis (hdbk)
American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults, edited by Lori M. Carlson (hdbk)
Sky by Roderick Townley (hdbk)
Claws by Will Weaver (hdbk)
Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Humble ISD's Teen Lit Fest '09: Expression!

Okay, as if it wasn't just about the coolest hanging out with Terry Trueman, Sonya Sones, Gail Giles, Neal Shusterman, Deb Caletti, Judson Roberts, and Cortnee Howard, throw in some very cool and hip middle and high school librarians (from Texas! Whooeee!), an auditorium full of young adult readers, and you've got yourself a party. And cooler yet: each author was assigned one of the district's school mascots (I walked alongside a colt and a mustang), then we did a panel Q&A session first thing: a modified Inside the Actor's Studio, where we were asked various questions and each of us gave our answers: questions were student-supplied. Then we went our separate ways to our break out sessions. Like I've done before, my breakout session was sitting side by side with Terry Trueman, entertaining student questions. He's the funny man, to my straightman bit. And he is hilarious! At least this time he didn't spill his bottle of water on me. Three sessions like that, then a signing, and a great dinner. Great conversation on top of that later that evening, and getting to read Sonya Sones' Stop Pretending on my flight home: not a bad way to end an already fantastic weekend! (An aside: next time you see Sonya, ask her to tell the story about her pen; what a find!)

Be There or Be Square!

Texas Tech University's Fifth Annual College of Education Literature Festival is quickly approaching: Feb. 29. Some very awesome authors are coming to visit with our students: Monica Brown, Amjed Qamar, and Dana Reinhardt. For more details: http://www.educ.ttu.edu/edll/fifthliteraturefestival/