Blog
Twitter, Book Nerds, and PD
Over at Choice Literacy, Franki Sibberson chats with Donalyn Miller, Colby Sharp, and Cindy Minnich about the power and reach of online reading communities. They also discuss the creation and evolution of "The Nerdy Book Club" (also, Donalyn ends by quoting me, so you know, my ears were burning and my head swelled a little when this was posted...amazing how pride is so much like the Ebola virus).
GeekDad!
One of my favorite blogs, GeekDad at Wired.com has a fun and thoughtful review of the Accidental Adventures series up. You can read the whole thing here, but I wanted to share my favorite part:
The Nerdy Book Club
Over at The Nerdy Book Club, I have a new post up about how (and why) I became a member of the community of readers (plus, at the end, there's a giveaway to enter):
Your Accidental Adventure in Six-Words. WIN A KINDLE!
“Surprise revolution took away my cartoons”
That Six-Word Memoir tells the true story of the inspiration for my first novel for young readers in the Accidental Adventures series, We Are Not Eaten By Yaks. To read the story behind it, click here.
To celebrate the publication of Book 2 in the Accidental Adventures series, We Dine With Cannibals, I’m teaming up with SMITH Magazine’s Six-Word Memoir Project and we want to know about your most accidental adventure.
Between November 10th-30th, share a Six-Word Memoir about your own most accidental adventure and you’ll be entered to win a Kindle (with special offers)!*
There are 2 ways to enter the Accidental Adventures Kindle Contest (AAKC!):
On SMITH Magazine:
Answer the Six-Word Question (in 6 words) on SMITH Mag: What was your most accidental adventure?
And you’ll automatically be entered to win.
Or, on Twitter:
1. Follow @ca_london
2. Tweet your Six-Word accidental adventure memoir with the hashtag #AccidentalAdventure
That’s all you have to do!
Come to my house this Fall! Skype in your Classroom!
This Fall, starting in September, I want to invite you over to my house!
Not literally. I don't have enough chairs.
But I do want your class of 4th, 5th, or 6th graders to visit with me via Skype.
I guess I could have said that I'll visit your classroom, but it seemed rude to invite myself over.
Boys Don't Read. Except When They Do.
My latest piece is up on the Huffington Post. It's about Boys and Literacy.
The Worldwide Reading Decree
This Wednesday. March 9th, is World Read Aloud Day, when people in all 50 States and in over 50 countries will share the power of reading with their communities and acknowledge the 774 million people around the globe who cannot read or write. Two-thirds of those people are women.
They are not merely statistics. They are not all far away. They are our neighbors and our fellow citizens, people we see on the street as well as on the news. They are 774 million people who cannot access their basic political rights or discover the means for better health outcomes. They are isolated from the information economy. They are unable to share a private tear as Charlotte the spider passes away or a laugh as Harry Potter wins a Quidditch match. We can cut that number, giving all people access to free and full expression, to information and to the sanctuary of story.
Literacy is a key component for achieving every single one of the Millenium Development Goals and it all begins with sharing stories.
Awesome Adventures Await!
I want to tell you a secret about my new book, We Are Not Eaten By Yaks.
It's autobiographical. It's about me.
I've never actually been thrown out of an airplane or battled an angry Yeti, but I thought of the idea while I was on a flight between Rangoon and Mumbai on the other side of the world, having my own accidental adventures. In Rangoon, the capital of Burma, thousands of red-robed monks were battling with hardened government soldiers, and I literally walked into the middle of it. There were peaceful protests and prayers and then there was chaos and violence. Within days, the government had sealed off the country, shut down the internet and scrambled all foreign television stations. No CNN. No Cartoon Network.
And I really missed it.
Sharing Reading with the World
It's an exciting moment when a new book comes out.
As a writer you spend hours and days, months and years working on your book, hoping that you're telling the story well, hoping that once you've told it, others will care to read it, and hoping, even more, that when they read it, they will like it. Actually, you hope they will love it, they way you loved those first stories in which you could lose yourself, whether it was Jim Hawkins trying to outwit Long John Siliver in Treasure Island or Harry Potter enduring Professor Snape's withering attention or Wilbur the pig discovering the magic of writing and the power offriendship in Charlotte's Web.
But as my first novel, We Are Not Eaten By Yaks, comes out, I can't help but think of the 774 million people around the world who cannot read or write and who can't yet experience that private moment between a reader and book, when the world outside melts away and you are there with Jim or with Harry having exciting and wonderful adventures, or with that good and friendly spider, Charlotte, learning what it means to love someone so unlike yourself. I wish everyone could experience that magic. On March 9th, World Read Aloud Day is one step toward giving everyone that chance. People all over the world will share the power of stories with each other. You can too.
