Download - November 2012 McConnell Newsletter
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Interview with
Martha Bennett
Stiles
Dan Yaccarino
Upcoming
McConnell Center
Events
McConnell
Conference
Author Spotlight
McConnell Board
Game Night
Angel Tree
Donations
Teens Choose
Divergent
Connecting with
Characters Contest
National Book
Award Finalists
2012
Student Section
On the Blog and in
the Center
About Us
What is your favorite thing about
being a writer? Half–well, five, of my 12 books are
historical novels, and I enjoyed the
reading they required tremendously.
Being allowed to consider reading
“work,” and therefore not feeling like a
self-indulgent slouch as I spend week
after week just reading, is lovely.
Learning why we do some of the things
we take for granted doing is another
bonus.
I know that’s only half an answer, but I
can’t pin down the other half. Once I
accepted, first, that I couldn’t draw, and
second that I couldn’t have at least 3
children, writing is all I’ve wanted to
do. I simply enjoy crafting sentences,
making up stories.
Occasionally a book will have a more
than casual purpose. Darkness Over the
Land was written as I was trying to
make sense of the Third Reich, which
had baffled me since childhood.
Sarah the Dragon Lady is about coping
with loneliness and was written for the
sake of a niece who’d been moved
from state to state to state and was real-
ly unhappy. Kate of Still Waters result-
ed from my hearing a counselor say
how rust belt farm children's school
performance was suffering from their
worry over maybe losing their homes;
from their getting less sleep and having
less time for schoolwork on account of
having to pitch in around the house for
a working mother, or doing more farm
chores as their fathers took on outside
jobs. I meant Kate of Still Waters to be
an encouraging book, though some
chapters are grim. Some chapters, like
the one about wrapping Lexington's
tallest building with silver-sequined
burlap, are just for fun.
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Do you have a certain process for writing? I majored in chemistry, and have had to remind myself from time to time that
Louisa May Alcott didn’t have the benefit of writing classes either. In the begin-
ning, I made my story up as I went along. This makes for an episodic narrative. I
have grown more systematic through the years. Having a plan in the first place is
both more efficient and more apt to result in esthetic success, and, as I used to
reassure my students, one hasn’t to regard this plan as the tablets of Moses. If my
story starts willfully surprising me, I permit it some leeway. When I began Lone-
some Road, I had no idea where the disappeared child, Lang, was, and didn’t aim
ever to say. As I wrote, I realized how cruel this was, to the parents, who had be-
come real to me, and to any readers. So then I had to stop and figure out what
had become of Lang. Well, where was he last seen? By the mailbox. Well, the
neighbor boy says Lang didn’t come to his house, so Lang was most likely
picked up at the mailbox, most likely by someone he knew. And so on for more than a dozen chapters I hadn’t
expected to write. Sailing to Freedom was conceived with just one hero, a 12-year old cabin boy who is afraid
for awhile that he is going to get chucked overboard, but who winds up a dazzling hero. Urged to give him
even more adventures, I considered that you can have too much of a good thing, and instead invented a second
hero, ashore. Ogun, 11, is an escaping rice plantation slave, bits of whose story alternate with the Massachu-
setts cabin boy’s. Island Magic, a gentle story about a boy and his grandfather on Grosse Ile, Michigan for
which Dan San Souci painted such beautiful watercolors, began as a parody of Carl Sandburg’s Fog. Some-
times all I have at the beginning is a question. How could the country that produced Brahms, Beethoven, Mo-
zart, Heinrich Heine, my family’s creche, produce the SS? My husband’s Guggenheim gave me a year in Mu-
nich, allowing me to pursue that question, and write my most seriously intended book, Darkness Over the
Land.
Which of your books did you enjoy writing the most? The character whose story gave me the most pleasure writing it is Sailing to Freedom’s runaway slave, Ogun.
Certain facts had to be got across in Sailing to Freedom, and I had Cook’s helper, Ray, help me deal with them
all in his chapters. I was free, then, in writing Ogun’s parts, to concentrate on Ogun–what is he feeling, think-
ing, remembering. I am naturally therefore strongly attached to Ogun. For dearest female character, maybe Sa-
rah the Dragon Lady. I permitted Sarah to deal imaginatively, successfully, with problems which bulldozed
me when I was her age.
Do you have a favorite children’s book? Gracious no, I am attached to far too many. Naming the first half dozen favorites that spring to mind will I
hope be acceptable–The Sword in the Stone; The Wind in the Willows; Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone; all the Louise Andrews Kent He Went Withs I could lay hands on; Johnny Tremain (though it does
some whitewashing); Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant, my first book--
huge, in French, and I nine months old–my first Christmas gift from my writ-
er grandfather, John Bennett. My memory of Babar begins at two, I on my
stomach on the floor, poring over every detail in every picture, who knows
how many times. Today the only French I know, aside from the snatches a
tourist must learn to survive, are lines that my patient mother read to me many
times. Ce n’est pas un joujou, monsieuer l’ éléphant is never much use in
Paris, but it brings back happy memories of my mother, my grandfather, my
treasured first book.
Is there a particular genre that you most enjoy? I have published 5 historical novels, and, with modern settings, 3 picture
books, 2 middle-grades, one young adult and one adult novel. I guess I am
Browning’s last duchess incarnate, she who liked whatever she looked on,
and her glance fell everywhere. This has not quite cost me, like her, my life, but certainly had I settled on one
age of reader, one time period, I would be less obscure. For me, the sacrifice would have conclusively out-
weighed the benefit, which is why I didn’t make it, but I do confess to wistfulness.
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You have lived in Kentucky for a long time. What is your favorite thing about Kentucky? Kentuckians are grand, but I have found grand people absolutely everywhere, so let’s choose something only
our own, our wonderful landscape. I float along the Paris Pike and appreciate that I am among the world’s
privileged. And I remind myself that this countryside will disappear if horse racing fades. We took a visiting
Swiss couple for a picnic into Kentucky’s mountains and they were soberly enraptured. “There is nowhere in
Switzerland,” they said, “where we can have this experience.” As we knew them for skiers, we were puzzled,
but they continued: “Nowhere in Switzerland can we stand and see nothing made by the hand of man. Even
where there is no house, no road, there is always a wire...” Forgive me for not leaving that perfect moment
perfect: please, please inform yourselves about mountaintop removal.
Can you tell us about your newest book Sailing to Freedom? The major narrator, Ray, a twelve-year-old whose clipper ship-captain father gave him a monkey to console
him for not getting to sail on said clipper, works for the cook on a coastal schooner which is smuggling the
cook’s infant granddaughter to a Canadian island. Ashore, the infant’s mother and 11-year-old brother are
making their way by any means to the said island. Nobody has it easy.
Are you currently working on any new books? I am always working on new books.
Do you have any upcoming events? First, Kentucky’s marvelous, Carl West-inspired Novem-
ber 9-10 Book Fair that manager Connie Crowe and her
staff work on so selflessly every year. Then a talk to Lex-
ington’s Transylvania DAR, who are kindly interested in
One Among the Indians, it being about a real Jamestown
boy who was a hostage to Pocahontas’s father for 3 years,
and like Pocahontas, has identifiable descendants living in
this country to this day.
Look for Martha Bennett Stiles at the McConnell Conference 2013. She will be signing!
Kate and Nate are Running Late is the newest
book by Dan Yaccarino.
Check out this book from 2013 McConnell
featured presenter
Dan Yaccarino!
http://bit.ly/Dan2013Presenter
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November 3 at 7:00 pm
Discussion of Michael Grant’s BZRK
http://bit.ly/McConnellBZRK
November 24 at 7:00 pm
Discussion of Veronica Roth’s Divergent
http://bit.ly/DivergentMcConnell
December 1 at 10:00 am
Wrapping for the foster children of
Fayette county.
http://bit.ly/HolidayMcConnell
Please RSVP on our Facebook pages or
the form found here for these events so
we know approximately how many are
coming or if we need to reschedule.
~Thanks!
McConnell Conference
March 1-2, 2013
Embassy Suites Hotel, Lexington,
KY https://ci.uky.edu/lis/mcconnell-
conference
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Is love a curse? Can you love your family too much? Jack Gantos address this dilemma in The Love Curse of
the Rumbaughs. This is a dark gothic story about Ivy Spirco, a girl who is caught up in a curse. The curse
makes the love she feels for her mother dark and disturbing at times. She is part of three generations of a
family who are doomed to love their mother beyond reason. The story follows Ivy’s growth from childhood to
adulthood. Her family is made up of a cast of strange characters. The Rambaugh twins teach Ivy how to
taxidermy and provide semi-father figures. Ivy’s mother dresses her in the same outfits and parades her around
town. Ivy is obsessed with her mother and even more obsessed with her mother’s future death. As Ivy learns to
taxidermy she starts to question her mother immortality. She also starts to ponder dark thoughts. This book is
for readers, who like macabre environments, dark plots, and twisted characters. A moral discussion about love
in all its forms, follows after a reading of this book. This is defiantly a unique book in the world of young adult
fiction. For those who like physiological thrillers this might be for them.
Gantos, J. (2006). The love curse of the Rumbaughs. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Read A-Likes
Hartnett, S. (2006). Surrender. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Sebold, A. (2007). The almost moon: A novel. New York: Little, Brown and Co.
Werlin, N. (2006). The rules of survival. New York: Dial Books.
Every month leading up to the
McConnell 2013 Conference, the
McConnell newsletter will feature a
new book review from one of our
2013 featured presenters. These
reviews will introduce you to our
authors and some of their work. If
you have any books from our 2013
presenters you would like us to
review, please send suggestions to:
The Love Curse of the
Rumbaughs
By Jack Gantos
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Thanks to everyone who came to the
McConnell Board Game Night!
Look for the next McConnell event on
November the 3rd at 7:00pm. http://bit.ly/McConnellBZRK
Above: Chris Walz, Jessica Herrington, and
Mary Mayfield.
Above: Jesse MacLean, Caleb Dunaway,
David Senatore, and Tyler Anderson
To the Left: Andrea Johnston, Aaron Palmer, and
Heather Burke
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In the annual Teens’ Top Ten poll
sponsored by YALSA, teens
choose Divergent as their favorite
book. Below is a list of the top ten
books teens choose.
1) Divergent by Veronica Roth
2) The Fault in Our Stars by John
Green
3) Legend by Marie Lu
4) Miss Peregrine's Home for
Peculiar Children by Ransom
Riggs
5) What Happened to Goodbye by
Sarah Dessen
6) Across the Universe by Beth
Revis
7) Cinder by Marissa Meyer
8) The Scorpio Races by Maggie
Stiefvater
9) Where She Went by Gayle
Forman
10) Abandon by Meg Cabot
Be an Angel!
This holiday season the McConnell Center is
taking donations for three Fayette county
foster children. We have a wish list for the
two boys and one girl that you can check out
here
http://bit.ly/TR5jvv.
We hope to make this a great holiday for
these children. Donations can be dropped off
at the McConnell Center. We will be
wrapping their gifts at the center on
December 1st, 10:00am.
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If for you, NBA has nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with books, then
check out the National Book Award finalists for the Young People's Literature
category: William Alexander, Goblin Secrets “A boy joins a theatrical troupe of goblins to find his missing brother.”
Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach
“A girl searches for her missing brother who is an addict.”
Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down
“A child of war tries to stay alive in Cambodia against all odds”
Eliot Schrefer, Endangered
“One girl tries to save a group of bonobos from destruction.”
Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build---- and Steal-- - the World's Most
Dangerous Weapon “A fascinating story about how one split atom changed the course of history.”
We are excited to announce the 2013 Connecting with
Characters Contest. All kids in preschool through
12th grade in Kentucky or a neighboring state can
enter. Sponsoring libraries and schools must register to
participate by November 30, 2012. Entries must be
received by January 18, 2013. The Contest is in
conjunction with the 2013 McConnell Conference for
Youth Literature, which will feature Jack Gantos, Dan
Yaccarino and Selene Castrovilla. We hope that the
Contest will provide an opportunity for the youth of
Kentucky and the surrounding states to connect with
the works of these wonderful contributors to the world
of literature for youth.
Participants could win a signed copy of Jack
Gantos’s Dead End in Norvelt, the 2012 Newbery
Medal Winner! There are also great titles available by
Dan Yaccarino and Selene Castrovilla. More
information is forth coming but be sure to check out
our website at https://ci.uky.edu/lis/mcconnell-contest-2013
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Are you in LIS 610 or LIS 613 this
Fall? Come use the McConnell
Center! We can help you find books
to use for your class.
Hours Monday & Tuesday 10 am - 3 pm
Wednesday & Thursday 12 pm - 5 pm
Or by appointment contact
STUDENT SECTION INFORMATION FOR SLIS STUDENTS
Krista King has a new article in the
Fall 2012 Young Adult Library
Services journal. Krista King is an
alumna of the School of Library and
Information Science. She was also
the McConnell Graduate Assistant
from 2008 to 2009.
Krista’s article is called “Advocacy,
Teens, and Strategic Planning.” She
talks about how libraries can utilize
teens in their strategic planning.
Check out her article in the newest
issue of Young Adult Library
Services this month!
King, K. (2012). Advocacy, teens, and
strategic planning. Young Adult
Library Services, 11(1), 24-26.
Picture by Krista King
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On the Blog:
ARC Read & Review 2012! We
have the following titles available
for anyone who wants to read and
review them for the McConnell
Center blog at http://
youthlitmatters.wordpress.com/
New Books in the Center:
Juvenile Fiction
The Peculiar by Stefan
Bachmann
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Young Adult The Crown of Embers by Rae
Carson
A vital gathering place for books
and ideas, the McConnell Center
is committed to identifying
excellent literature for children
and adolescents and to bringing
this literature to the attention of
those adults who have an
academic, professional, career, or
personal interest in connecting
young readers with books.
We maintain two main, non-
circulating collections:
Our Current Collection includes all
books sent to us for review by
publishers during the current year.
The Permanent Collection is
several collections of books
maintained in the Center as a resource
for students and librarians. It includes
the Basic Collection, the Award-
winning Collection (Caldecott,
Newbery, Printz, Morris, Pura Belpré,
Sibert, and Orbis Pictus Awards), the
Kentucky Collection (notable
Kentucky authors and books about
Kentucky), the Reference Collection,
and the Periodical Collection.
Our Fall 2012 hours are Monday &
Tuesday 10 pm - 3 pm and
Wednesday & Thursday 12 pm - 5 pm
Please visit our website for more
information:
https://ci.uky.edu/lis/mcconnellcenter
Under the Never Sky by
Veronica Rossi
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn
Anderson
A Confusion of Princes by Garth
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Picture Books
In the Land of Milk and Honey
by Joyce Carol Thomas,
illustrated by Floyd Cooper
Everything Goes in the Air by
Brian Biggs
In the Center:
Join us for the a discussion of
Michael Grant’s BZRK!
Our next event will be a
discussion of Discussion of
Michael Grant’s BZRK on
November 3 at 7:00 pm Find us
on Facebook to RSVP for this
event.
http://bit.ly/McConnellBZRK
You can find the McConnell
Facebook Group here:
http://on.fb.me/
McConnellReadingGroup
You can now RSVP for Center
Events via the following form:
http://bit.ly/McConnellRSVP
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