Archive for Current Events

Together We Can Change the World

I took these snaps last week at an airport in Florida. I also took a similar (though less successful) photo at middle school in CT, which is not included here.

I love this movement with our public drinking fountains: A place to easily fill water bottles. The counter was a new one on me, and I liked that, too.

Do you have one in your public school?

As a visiting author, I’m always asked what I’ll need on my visit. If I have dietary restrictions, what kind of technology I’ll be using, and so on. And I always ask for water. Because of all that talking.

And because I’m a hypocrite. 

So when I visit, I’m provided with an endless supply of plastic water bottles. This year, I’m finally trying to put an end to that by bringing my own reusable bottle. A simple thing, a small thing, and long overdue. 

But that’s where I’m at these days. Whoever you are, whatever you believe, do what you can do to be a little bit better than yesterday. No judgment. Nobody’s perfect. And no matter where you stand, just trying pointing those feet in the right direction. You don’t have to become an entirely new person. You don’t have to become the best and the most. Every little bit helps. Think of the planet and do what you can. Make that small shift.

Together we can change the world.

Children’s Signs at the 9/20 Climate Change March

The good folks at The New Yorker, still my favorite magazine after all these years, put together a selection of signs made by children and carried at the September 20th climate change protest in NYC.

Here’s a sampling . . .

The Awesome Genius of BookFaceFriday

I’m not on Twitter. Basically I’m afraid I might like it too much. Lose hours, days, weeks. Scrolling and scrolling. Forget to brush my teeth, stop eating, die. So I’ve stayed away. But I realize that I’m missing out on some clever stuff, and dazzling opportunities for self-promotion and impossible wealth. There’s also probably a lot of things about it that would annoy the heck out of me.

So, whatever, I’m good.

Anyway, I’ve been aware and amused by the BookFace concept for many years. It started as an RecordFace thing, I believe, and the book variation was an obvious outgrowth. At the publication of the new book by my pal Peter Lerangis, I saw this . . . created by the good folks at Blair Memorial Library.

 

. . . and then wandered down the rabbit hole. Here’s a few BookFaces I particularly enjoyed.

Aren’t book people the best?

Of all my books, I can only think of one candidate that could lend itself to the BookFace treatment. Six Innings, anyone?

(Don’t make me beg, people.)

 

 

As always, God bless the interwebs!

Hope to See You Tomorrow at the Warwick Children’s Book Festival!

 

 

Have you ever been to Warwick? What a cool little town. Worth a visit. Been doing this book festival for 4-5 years now. Great scene. Please stop by and say hello. And bring your credit card! Then I’m driving down to an Elks Club in Massapequa, home of the Long Island Lolita, for my 40th Wantagh High School reunion, proud that I still have my original hair.

Among other books, including the new Jigsaw Jones, the new “Big Idea Gang,” and The Courage Test, possibly others, I’ll be signing copies of my brand-spanking-new middle grade thriller, Blood Mountain. So proud of this one.

Come to The Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival: Saturday, Oct 5

 

I’ll see you on Saturday . . . if you come out to the incredible Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. I’ll have advance copies of my new book, BLOOD MOUNTAIN, a 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection. It won’t be available anywhere else on the planet until October 10th. Thank you, Dawn Evans Greenberg, for the love & support & tireless advocacy, and to all the unheralded folks who work so very hard to make this event happen. Good times, good times.