Contest for Home Schoolers

If you are a home school family please follow this link.

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Gracie Thinks About Fighting the Lawnmower

Gracie is a typical bully -- she really only wants to fight if she knows she can win. This is the younger and fatter of my two dachshunds.

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Crow's nest at the track -- and how does it relate to my book?

When you live in a racing town you do get spoiled. For a few years now I've said I won't go to the races unless I have a box for the day. After today, I'm not going to track unless I get to watch from the crow's nest, high above the track.
These guys are the finish judges, and they call the race from this booth over the finish line. Last night I met one of these officials (Ralph, here in the white shirt) at a dinner party, and he invited me to watch a race from up here. Their focus is phenomenal -- as soon as the race starts they're watching through big binoculars and calling the race; they're the ones who watch the digital images if it's closer than half a length, and they call the official results to the stewards. They know most of the silks by sight, and can identify the horses even when they're on the backstretch. We took an old, rickety, little elevator to get up here. "Mr. Otis doesn't know about this one," Ralph said.
For the next race there was a horse called Watson I Need You. Now if that isn't a nice tie-in to The American Story (see the story called "Hard of Hearing -- East" to see how) I don't know what is.

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I may have to get this (click) before my author tour for Once Upon a Banana

And make sure to have someone call me on my cell phone in the middle of an autographing event at a book store...

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Today In Alternate History: Victory In Egypt

Today In Alternate History: Victory In Egypt

A very amusing site

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World History Blog: Forgotten Jamestown well holds centuries-old artifacts

World History Blog: Forgotten Jamestown well holds centuries-old artifacts

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The Kerlan Collection... and some thoughts on titles

I got a letter this week from the Friends of the Kerlan Collection, an archive of children's literature, requesting a donation for their 2007 fund-raising auction. Kate di Camillo and Emily Arnold McCully are honorary co-chairs of the event.
So I poked around in my boxes and files and found the manuscript for Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, complete with editorial notes and revision letter.
Also on the title page are the scribbled possible titles I toyed with when my editor, Simon Boughton, told me that my original title The Ice Men would have to be scrapped. (Crown was also publishing a book about the Alpine Ice Man, and it would have been confusing.) This book might have ended up with one of these titles:
Castaways on the Ice
Escape from the Antarctic
Captives of the Ice
Prisoners of the Antarctic
The Wreck of the Endurance
Enduring the Antarctic
Shackleton's Amazing Voyage.

Those are all in black ink. Separately, in red ink, is Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. At this far remove (almost exactly nine years ago) I can't say whether this was my idea, or whether I ran through my list on the phone with Simon and Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World was his idea, or one we came up together.
Titles always are a nuisance for me. Either one title immediately pops to mind and seems perfect, or I resort to something fairly prosaic and descriptive -- often with a subtitle. (100 True Tales from American History, for example...)

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It's on TV -- sort of

One of the fascinating things about the web is how it extends everything into the metaworld. For example, television stations in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Fresno have picked up the press release about my two fall books and run it on their websites. So it's not tv, it's meta-tv. And the best part about that is I didn't have to figure out what to wear...

The list of other meta news outets picking up the press release from the wire service includes LA Times, Dallas News, Hollywood Reporter, Las Vegas Business Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Wachovia Wealth Management (huh?).

I suspect that the coverage has less to do with the newsworthiness of Jennifer Armstrong's children's books and more to do with a fantastic splash quote from Tom Brokaw. But you know what? I'm okay with that.

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Nothing of note other than B&N sales rank

Which as of this afternoon is #101.
I had a late night. I don't have much to say, and not enough energy for my usual obsessive combing of the internet.

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Enter to win a copy of The American Story

Sorry I didn't know about this earlier -- it's good until the end of August, at which point, presumably, the selection of books you can win will change.

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Found this in Kirkus's "Big Book Preview" from earlier this year

"Armstrong’s latest book, The American Story, is a treasure. You can dip into the pages and emerge with a stand-alone gem of a tale, but it also follows a logical, linked narrative. “I tried very hard to make the stories that readers can infer greater and more complex stories as they make their way through the book,” says the author. Armstrong is a luminous storyteller, and the episodes she recounts will kindle a certain patriotic awe, but she doesn’t shy from tragedy either. Just as Paul Revere
electrifies the midnight air outside Boston, the Donner Party ushers readers into a particularly primal moment in the development of the nation. “The effort to be inclusive and comprehensive without at the same time being tediously general and simplistic—all in the course of just 100 stories—was an exhilarating challenge,” says Armstrong. She meets the challenge with aplomb by casting a wide net: Athletes share the stage with abolitionists, artists with explorers, astronauts with two crazy scientists on a windy beach in Kitty Hawk. As a satisfying whole, these 100 stories describe a tangible arc of American history."

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Press Release

My publicist, Susan Raab of Raab Associates, has been hard at work on branding me. I think that's the way to put it. Because I have this big Random House book, and also a big Simon & Schuster book (more on that soon), I felt it was time to bring in a pro to market me personally. Although the publicity and marketing departments at both houses are doing a fantastic job, I don't expect either one to help sell the other book. Having a publicist working for me directly seems the best way to magnify the impact of both books.
By the way, that photo is me at about age 10. She is the audience I usually have in mind when I write.

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First the Wall Street Journal, now Forbes.com - What's a Nice Liberal Girl Like Me Doing In a Conservative Place Like This?

Forbes.com Book Club is featuring The American Story. I'm beginning to get a little nervous... Fox news, Wall Street Journal. Where's Mother Jones? The Daily Forward? My liberal credentials are taking a beating. Shoot, at this point I would consider a bookshelf review in the New York Times as a left-wing triumph. Oh wait, there was that PBS.com teacher resource.

Phew.

But seriously, is an ostensibly patriotic children's book only attractive to the conservative media? Has patriotism become the exclusive property of the right wing? We're approaching the fifth anniversary of 9/11, and I feel very strongly that love of country can be reclaimed as a virtue by Americans like me: vegetarian, anti-war, atheist, mostly Democrat-registered, pro-choice, recycling, partially car-free, organic gardening defenders of secular education. And some form of universal health care would be nice too. That describes me. And I also think I live in a great and glorious country with an exciting and fascinating history. Surely there are others like me?

Aren't there? (p.s. you don't have to be vegetarian but it wouldn't hurt .)

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The Fall 2006 Book Sense Children's Picks

From the American Booksellers Association's online "Bookselling This Week."

"THE AMERICAN STORY: 100 True Tales From American History, by Jennifer Armstrong, Roger Roth (Illus.) (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $34.95, 0375812563) "Want to know more about American History? Here are 100 true tales and great illustrations that will help to tell the stories of our ancestors. If you're looking for a great historical nonfiction picture book for children, look no further." --Samanth Haldeman, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY"

The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza is one of the truly fantastic independent bookstores. I'll be doing a an autographing event there on October 24, the on-sale date for Once Upon a Banana.

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USA Today (Today)

Says USA Today -- "It's not as comprehensive as a textbook, but the storytelling is better." Click above for the mini (mini) review.

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The American Story reviewed in Booklist

"With 26 of the first 55 stories set in the northeastern states, readers may begin to suspect a certain regional bias; however, Armstrong restores the balance to some extent in the latter part of the book," is one of the less than entirely thrillingly enthusiastic comments in the review in Booklist. Without wanting to nitpick reviews I can only say, "well gosh, that's where the people were." And yes, I know, there were other people in the contiguous area that makes up the United States, but this book is about what made the American culture, if there can be said to be such a thing. The influx of European immigrants who displaced the Native Americans and created the American republic settled first in the east and then spread west, occasionally running into Hispanic settlers moving up from Mexico, etc.
And besides, I did the count myself and get a different number. East coast (original 13 Colonies) maybe, but not necessarily Northeast.
Well, let the book speak for itself.

This illustration, by the way, is from the story of the founding of San Francisco --- in 1776.

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Review in the Wall Street Journal -- "A wonderful torrent of storytelling."

I learned yesterday that WSJ reviewed The American Story on August 12, so I went to my public library and tracked it down. "At first it seems odd that a volume with such an ambitious title contains little about the Civil War and even less about World War II. Is it, one wonders, some sort of exercise in didactic revisionist pacifism? Hapily it isn't. These lively chapters do skip some best-known events of the past, but the only agenda at work seems to be the author's interest in exposing children age 8+ to fascinating historical events that are less often recounted... " and it goes on in a (mostly) favorable way. Interesting that the reviewer seemed determined to yell "Aha! Gotcha, you stinkin' p.c. lefty!!" at some point, but discovered that she really liked the book.

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Radiohead...Or How to Balance Dignity and Integrity in the Scales with Self Promotion

So yesterday I did a live radio interview with a talky-talk station in Texas, and although I've done radio before this one raised some interesting questions. Actually, I don't mean the host asked interesting questions. On the contrary, his questions were predictable. But after the thirty minutes were up, and thinking about the radio interview I did last week, I asked myself these philosophical questions:
1. When you are doing live radio to promote a book, and the interviewer says something incorrect but unimportant, do you eat up precious time correcting him?
2. When the host demonstrates the all-too-typical, patronizing assumptions about writing for children, do you take it on or just get back on topic to hawk the book? (My rationalization for not taking it on: a possibly futile endeavor! I can win by getting my book out there as a counterfoil).
3. When the host/hosts have some kind of schtick whose salient feature is a forced jocularity, regardless of the topic of conversation, is it okay to say something like "If you'd quit hee-hawing like a jackass for a moment I could answer your question."? (note: I didn't say this, but I entertained the idea for a moment.)

So far, the interests of self-promotion are winning the fight. All I can say is that it's a good thing these are radio interviews: on radio, nobody can see me rolling my eyes.

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Do you home school?

I've had some feedback from parents who are educating their children at home. The American Story is perfect for them, they say. It's true! A creative parent-teacher could do so many things with this book! I'm going to make sure that when my new site is up and has the classroom history contests it makes provision for a home school family or group to participate. Maybe a homeschooling family would even like to share some of the ways they plan to use the book. I'd love to hear from you.

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U.S. Annexes New Mexico: Taking by Force What Cannot Be Secured Through Diplomacy

On this date in 1846, General Stephen W. Kearney, on orders from the U.S. government, proclaimed New Mexico a territory of the United States. Thus began the Mexican War, a monumental landgrab justified by Manifest Destiny. When it was over the United States held dominion over California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, and by the time gold was discovered in California it was American gold. The rationalization of Manifest Destiny -- that we wanted and needed this resource and it was obviously ours by right -- is apparently one that still operates in some circles. Those people (dark skin, a different religion) have it, and we want it, and we're going to get it, and the end will justify the means.

This is just one of the many stories I regretted not including in The American Story. The hardest things about writing? It isn't not knowing what to include, it's deciding what to leave out. No doubt some readers will find expendable stories in the book, minor historical footnotes that could have made room for more weighty accounts. Ah well. Connsider this blog entry, on the publication date of The American Story, to be Addendum #1.

the above editorial cartoon is from the Library of Congress.

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For National Inventor's Month, a tip of the hat to Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park

Clicking on the title should take you to the Library of Congress, and one of Edison's early experiments in motion picture technology. This short film, titled The Kiss, was made 106 years ago. Remarkable. (Clicking tip -- it might take a moment for the film to download. Please be patient.)

To the man who lit the world, I salute you! Edison wasn't just the man who invented the incandescent light bulb. He was the inventor of reading under the covers.

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How are we doing with the history quizzes, my friends?

I'm sorry to tell you that you are not all doing so well. So far everyone seems to know what Harry Houdini's real name was, but not one person can correctly identify which of three listed men was not a co-author of the Declaration of Independence. Everyone knows the date of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire, but nobody knows what year the United States held its first presidential election.

From this statistically meaningless set of responses I conclude that 20th Century American history is somewhat less murky than 18th Century American history for many of you. Is it because the folks in the knee britches and frock coats seem too remote to speak to us? Are their voices so faint that we don't hear them speak? Or is their accent too strange to our modern ear?

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Click here for The American Story on PBS Teacher Source

This is a nice stamp of approval, eh? In my childhood PBS was always referred to colloquially as "Educational TV." That somehow discounted the fact that I was learning things from the other channels, too, like how to build a radio out of coconut halves on Gilligan's Island, or how to escape from the Wolfman and Dracula at the same time (Abbot and Costello movies, of course.)

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Alternate titles

Just spent the weekend in the Adirondacks, in a fabulous house on the Au Sable River, among the High Peaks. We had a bonfire last night in the pouring rain, and it was heavenly.
Now it's back to the midwifery of the Big Book, as I call it. Just like a child, this book has a number of nicknames, in addition to "The Big Book." I fooled around with anagrams the other day and have the following to propose. Blog readers are welcome to post their vote for their favorite anagram of The American Story:


Their Steamy Acorn
Any More Theatrics?
Meet Aaron Christy
A Toy Rancher Emits
Heartiest Acronym

Another way I have been referring to this book is Three and a Half Pounds of American History.

Best alternate title? You decide.

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Yes, for all of you who've been watching, I changed the format of my blog

Another grand illustration from The American Story -- and it's perfectly obvious who this story is about. I changed the palette of my blog because:
1. I figured out how to do it;
2. I thought the palette of the book called for a more colorful setting;
3. Once I learn something new my latent OCD kicks in and I fiddle with it for hours and hours and hours...

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Mutual interblogging on The American Story

So here's a blog reviewing The American Story, and it lists other blogs that mention The American Story, and now I've posted comments on those blogs, and so on.
I'm reminded of that game where a big group of people joins hands in a circle, and then one person breaks the chain and begins to weave through the line, pulling everyone after him. The chain gets more and more balled up until the whole gang is in an inextricable knot, laughing.

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Roger Roth, the illustrator of The American Story

No, that's not an illustration of Roger, it's Henry Thoreau, who was thrown into jail for failure to pay taxes. Why? It was his national poll tax he didn't pay -- he refused to pay taxes to a government that tolerated slavery. A fine example of civil protest.
Anyway, the work that Roger has done on this book is simply staggering. It dominated his life for about three years, I believe. Now that it's done he can get back to other projects.

I got word yesterday that The American Story will be featured in USA Today next week in a back-to-school feature. Circulation of over 2 million. That is a Good Thing.

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Spluttering indignation

Well here's a fine how-do-you-do! This person is selling an autographed copy of The American Story on Ebay for $55. The only place people have had a chance to get this book so far was at the ALA convention in July, where Random House gave away copies in the exhibit hall. I sat there signing books, smiling, being friendly and nice. This person got a free copy, got it autographed, and now wants to sell it before the pub date, and I will receive no royalty! Talk about hutzpah! If it isn't exactly theft it certainly violates the spirit of the convention, where books are given to librarians as a way to promote the title among the people most likely to want to share it with kids. Chances are this is NOT a librarian at all, but someone who looked at the entry price to the exhibit halls of the convention as a good investment.

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Another word about the quizzes (or two)

1. For ease of quiz answer collecting, I used a site called SurveyMonkey.com. Once you take the quiz you'll exit into the SurveyMonkey site, but you don't have to be registered. Just exit SurveyMonkey and come back to my blog.

2. So far two respondents have taken the dates quiz, and both respondents answered identically, getting six out of ten answers correct. One person has taken the non-dates quiz, and gotten six out of ten correct.

I regret that the survey tool I used to create these quizzes doesn't identify the quiz-takers, so I can't give individual results! Anyway, it's just supposed to be fun!

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Or for those of you who want a quiz but hate dates!

Okay, okay, someone said to me (alright, I'll admit, it was my editor) "this book is all about stories and people, why give a quiz on dates?"
So the question is, are dates imprtant? I used to think they weren't, but I've changed my mind-- it's useful to at least have a sense of when something happened in history. For example, if you know that Prohibition ended in 1933, you can assume that the liquor smuggling gangster heyday was before that. Or if you know that Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863 you can assume he wasn't assasinated until after that. I find that having a handful of dates very firmly fixed as landmarks in my memory helps me locate other events in time.
So is it critical to know dates? Being off by a year or so probably doesn't matter except on a test -- being off by a decade or two could lead to a serious misunderstanding of historical events.

Anyway, for those of you who don't have those landmark years firmly in place, try this multiple choice history quiz that has nothing to do with dates at all.

Cheers.

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Take a little history quiz

I'm adding a monthly history quiz to my new website, where classrooms can try to win a copy of The American Story. See how well your own knowledge of American History stacks up... I'll post results in a few days.

By the way, you won't win anything.

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Beginning to make its way into on-line retailers other than just book stores...

Found this this morning -- an on-line parenting site with a book shelf of recommended new titles uses the cover illustration of The American Story on its masthead!

And yes, I admit it, I was cruising the web again obsessively looking to see if anyone is talking about me, my new book, etc. I also found The American Story on the Wal-Mart website. I had no idea they sold books on-line. Of course that's naive of me. They sell everything. Why wouldn't they sell books? I wonder if I should go to the closest Wal-Mart next week and see if they have the book in the store. Would I be pleased or would my heart sink? Hmmm.... well, according to their corporate website they have 1,146 stores and 2,098 supercenters. The Barnes & Noble corporate website says there are "over 1,000" B&N's. Is it any wonder the local independent mom 'n pop bookstores are disappearing? Even the chain bookstores are outgunned by the megaretailers.

So: heart sinking or big grin? Honestly, I suspect that if I found my book at Wal-Mart I'd cry all the way to the bank.

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Hooray! The Dear Mr. President books are back!

Without getting into a long and complicated story about why these books were perched on the edge of oblivion, I will tell you that they are back with a vengeance. I always loved this series, and was proud to have written the first two books for it -- the one about Theodore Roosevelt, and the one about Thomas Jefferson. Hopefully there will soon be additional books in the line-up, and teachers will be able to use these fun and content-rich novels in their classrooms. Do go to the website (click on the header just above this entry) to get a flavor of this innovative series.

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One more comment about Amazon and then I'll shut up

In the last few days I have been gloomily tracking the sales rank of The American Story as it crept farther from #1, only to realize this morning that I've been tracking the sales rank of the reinforced library edition. The trade (retail) edition is at 1,426 today. Still a very strong figure, in my opinion. The gloom has retreated.

For those of you unfamiliar with the different bindings available, let me explain. Many children's books are expected to be used in an institutional setting, i.e. a school or library. Thus, an edition with a reinforced binding is often offered by publishers for those markets. Just as the term implies, this binding can stand up to a whole lot more wear and tear than the standard binding can. The edition sold in bookstores or to the average on-line buyer is not the reinforced one. A 3.5 pound book in a school library is going to have to withstand a lot of abuse -- pulled off a shelf by the top of the spine, dropped from the school bus steps, etc. Consider the force force exerted by 3.5 pounds of heavy book falling from the school bus steps onto its edge, or onto a corner: if it's not a reinforced binding it will begin to weaken. After all, a book is just paper, cardboard, string, and glue. These things aren't held together with Kevlar fibers and steel plates.

Because school and library buyers generally buy on the strength of reviews, the reinforced edition doesn't ordinarily sell until the trade magazines (Horn Book, School Library Journal, etc.) have given their stamp of approval for a book, or at the very least, brought it to the attention of the school and library purchasers. The edition sold in bookstores may be responding to very different buying impulses -- a great in-store display, or a print ad in a parenting magazine, or a mention in a newspaper (e.g. Parade). If the book looks gorgeous and is marketed to the general public as a great gift (i.e. good publicity), it won't matter what the reviews say. So these are some of the differences between what the publicity departments and the school and library marketing departments do in children's book publishing. So to finish up this tiresome explanation, the retail edition is off to a fine start. Hopefully the library edition will start hurrying along as well.

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Table of Contents of The American Story

I think it's normal (I hope it's normal) or at least it's not unusual (at least I hope it's not unusual) for an author to poke around the Internet looking to see if anyone is talking about her or her books. It's a classic procrastination technique, if nothing else. This morning I discovered that the entire table of contents for The American Story is on the Library of Congress website. You can't necessarily tell from the titles of the stories what the topic might be -- "The Knotted Rope," for example, is about the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. On the other hand, a title such as "The Devil in Massachusetts" is not too difficult to decipher. So this table of contents will give you a flavor of the book, while leaving some of it a little mysterious -- enough, I hope, to pique your curiosity.

The above illustration is from the story about Paul Revere, of course! It is copyrighted by Roger Roth.

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Teacher's Guide to The American Story

One thing I should have mentioned earlier is that there is a terrific teacher's guide for this book, created for Random House by Judy Freeman, a children's book conultant. The guide is on the back of a wonderful poster featuring the Statue of Liberty reading a book, as painted by the exceptional illustrator of The American Story, Roger Roth. The reason I thought to bring this up is because I'm working on a total revamp of my website, and it is going to include some teaching activities using The American Story. Part of my intent in the structure of the book was to make it something very very useful for teachers in the classroom. Honest to Pete, I think this should become every teacher's American history textbook!

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On the radio...

In the last two weeks I've had a number of radio interview requests come in through the publicity department at Random House. What's fascinating to me is the range of radio stations I'm hearing from -- everything from a Fox affiliate in Texas to an NPR affiliate in Wisconsin, AM talk, FM talk, Digital talk -- it's quite the gamut.
Granted, it's a small sample to draw conclusions from, but still, it's a range. I've speculated for some time now that The American Story will appeal to a very broad audience, and for now that seems to be true.

So, here's the lineup thus far:
August 17 10 minute taped interview on WDST Woodstock, New York to air on August 22 or 23
August 22 at 4:15 EST KOLE News Radio in Beaumont, Texas -- thirty minutes on Dan Gresham Live
August 24 at 10:00 EST WGTD-FM in Kenosha, WI -- thirty minute taped interview for The Morning Show -- maybe it will air the next day, I'm not sure.
August 26 9:45 EST live interview (brief) on WGY-AM Albany, New York on The Joe Gallagher Show
September 12 at 9:30 EST 10 minute live interview on CRN Digital Talk The AM Show

This image from the book is from the story called "The Gusher" about the Spindletop oil well in Beaumont, Texas, and is copyrighted by Roger Roth.

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Easy Come, Easy Go

So much for sales rank rocketing toward #1 -- today The Ameircan Story is at 34,000 something. Well, it was fun to see a low number yesterday, and perhaps it will head back in that direction in the next few weeks.

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Amazon sales rank, two weeks before pub date...

I think I must tip my hat to Parade Magazine. This afternoon I checked my ranking on Amazon and found The American Story at #790. That means that of all the books in the US market, only 789 are selling better than mine today. And it hasn't been released yet!

I'll say it again -- here's to 1 percent!

Meanwhile, more radio interview requests have been coming in over the last two days. Is it possible? Could it be? Am I about to be an overnight success after twenty years?

The above picture from the book is from the story about the infamous whaleship Essex, which was the inspiration for Melville's timeless (or is that endless?) Moby Dick; the image is copyrighted by Roger Roth.

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Authorlink.com

There's a long interview with me about The American Story on this website. The questions were sent to me a few weeks ago, and I answered them in whatever frame of mind I was in that day. Sometimes it feels as though answering interview questions is like a performance, and I sometimes try on different acting styles. The trouble is that when I revisist the questions and answers later on, I say to myself "what was I thinking of? I sound like an idiot!"

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Parade Magazine, August 6

I guess it doesn't much matter if a magazine with a circulation of 35 million only puts a small mention of The American Story in its pages.
As my dad pointed out when I told him there would be something on Sunday, "Let's hope 1% of the people who see it buy the book." My first thought was "1 percent? That sounds a little puny." Then I did the math.
Here's to 1 percent
"Here's history that reads like a yarn."

The above image from the book is from the story about the Goodnight-Loving Trail and the beginning of the cowboy myth that has been so important to our nation's self-image. The picture is copyrighted by Roger Roth.

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James Madison Book Award

Just before I left for a conference, I received word that my 2005 title, Photo By Brady: A Picture of the Civil War was named an honor book for the James Madision Book Award, founded by Lynne Cheney. This is a good thing. I hope it will open a few doors to my new American history book that might not otherwise have been flung wide open. My goal is to put The American Story in every household in the country, and many of those households are in the red states that I don't ordinarily reach -- or so goes my left-leaning assumption.

Check out the James Madison Book Award website for the announcement of this year's winners.

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