So evidently some conservative nutter has read The American Story and -- who knows? didn't like the story about Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs? Thought I was "soft" on Native Americans?
Why am I so tickled?
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Nutty comment on the Colbert Nation official site
Somebody is suggesting Colbert have me on the Colbert Report, as I am "the biggest liberal who could ever be spawned in this good country. She claims that she loves America but we all know she is lying."
So evidently some conservative nutter has read The American Story and -- who knows? didn't like the story about Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs? Thought I was "soft" on Native Americans?
Why am I so tickled?
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So evidently some conservative nutter has read The American Story and -- who knows? didn't like the story about Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs? Thought I was "soft" on Native Americans?
Why am I so tickled?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Barre (Vermont) Read Steal Away
This was back in early May, but I forgot to post this picture of the banner hanging from the public library. I spent two days in Barre middle schools and being feted. Like I always say, being feted is much nicer than being fetid. It was a little weird to discuss a book I wrote fifteen years ago -- the kids I was talking to were more familiar with it than I was. I meant to reread it before I went, but for some reason I didn't. And I couldn't remember many of the details. I said something about one of the characters, and the kids in the classroom all said, "Huh? No she didn't!" Ooops.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Tom Brokaw endorses The American Story -- Again
Tom Brokaw is in town for Skidmore's graduation -- I think he was a speaker. My friend Emma does the photos. Bada boom, bada bing, and he has an autographed copy of the book in his hands.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The Banana strikes again
This teacher blog describes the pre-reading activities inspired by Once Upon a Banana.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Magnus at the Fire a nominee for Missouri Show Me Readers Award
With 50 states its hard to keep up with state book awards, but I just found this listing for 2007-2008 nominees.
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Monday, April 23, 2007
What's the Korean word for banana?
I don't know, but a Korean publisher has bought translation rights to Once Upon a Banana. I know David painted all the signs blank, with the sign text an overlay for just this reason -- so that translations would be possible. But wow, Korean? If they are able to make it all rhyme I'll be amazed!
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Monday, April 16, 2007
Live Radio Interview on Tuesday, April 14
This will be at 2:15 EST on a program called "Awaken With Grace" and she'll be interviewing me about In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. You can listen in by clicking the link above -- it will take you to the radio station and then if you just click "listen" -- it will open in iTunes or your MediaPlayer.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Children's Literature Assembly 2007 Notables in the English Language Arts
Phew, that's a mouthful, but the relevant info is that Once Upon a Banana is on this list.
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Monday, March 26, 2007
Tasting the Sky, by Ibtisam Barakat
Some months ago I mentioned that my friend Ibtisam had written a memoir of her Palestinian childhood. Here it is, now published. Please click on this entry title to see the full description of the book, plus blurbs by Naomi Shihab Nye, Suzanne Fisher Staples, and me.
Friday, March 23, 2007
The American Story in action...
Here's a blog entry from a mom (and fellow writer) whose son has connected current presidential scandal mess to Nixon's devolution, courtesy of my Watergate store in The American Story.
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Friday, March 16, 2007
The Winner's Circle running now in New York Post
This is chapter one of my Saratoga racing-themed serial novel, The Winner's Circle. It's been running in newspapers around the country for about three years, as part of the Breakfast Serials program. It's a ghost story. It's a horse story. Enjoy!
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Sunday, March 11, 2007
The American Story named one of 2006's best by Chicago Public Library
According to Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, Children and Young Adult Services,
"Many elements come into play in this selection of the most outstanding
titles for children and young adults that belong in every library and home.
Throughout the year we look carefully for:
* Books that meet high standards of writing and illustration
* Books that have a significant curriculum link
* Books that reflect living in an urban, multicultural society
* Books that present a topic not previously available in a juvenile
format
* Books that add zip to programs and special projects"
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"Many elements come into play in this selection of the most outstanding
titles for children and young adults that belong in every library and home.
Throughout the year we look carefully for:
* Books that meet high standards of writing and illustration
* Books that have a significant curriculum link
* Books that reflect living in an urban, multicultural society
* Books that present a topic not previously available in a juvenile
format
* Books that add zip to programs and special projects"
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
They're gonna love me in Estonia...
I got an email yesterday from a publisher in Estonia, enquiring about the availability of Estonian language translation rights to The American Story.
They are, shall we say, extremely available.
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They are, shall we say, extremely available.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Columbia Tribune says "A book every family should own."
"The American Story: 100 True Tales From American History by Jennifer Armstrong is one of the best timelines of our history that I’ve come across," says their columnist.
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Jennifer, where have you been?
Okay, to begin with, I was supposed to be in Sarasota, Florida. I had a book signing lined up at Circle Books, and a visit to a school called Open Door Academy. In the time not spent signing books or talking about books, I was going to be playing at a duplicate bridge tournament. See, this article from the Sarasota Herald Tribune says so.
Then the blizzard happened. I was supposed to fly on Wednesday. HA! By 5:30 a.m. my 10:00 a.m. flight from Albany had already been cancelled. Forty minutes waiting on hold with the airline produced the information that there was no way -- and I mean no way -- to reschedule me on another flight before Saturday. And my return ticket was for Sunday. So I didn't go to Florida. Bridge partner James, scheduled to leave the next day, figured he wouldn't get out either, and why go anyway if I wasn't going to be there? And it snowed and snowed and snowed.
So on Wednesday afternoon, Valentine's Day, with the snow coming down at a rate of about 3 inches per hour, the Scrabble tournament convened at my house in front of the fire. There were interludes of shoveling, pushing cars, etc. More Scrabble. More snow.
Then on Thursday, James and I drove to Connecticut to play in a bridge tournament there. We figured we had planned on spending three days playing bridge, so why not just do it at another tournament? It wasn't quite like going to Florida, but when you're playing bridge in the stuffy ballroom of a convention center, it doesn't much matter what's happening outside.
With a break on Friday morning for me to be the guest speaker at an on-line conference, a webinar on Bringing History to Life, we played five matches, approximately 135 hands. Surprisingly there were a number of junior players and college aged players. Wow. A sign that the game is not dying out completely. For the first time James and I were not, at 45 years old, the youngest players in the room.
Saturday morning we watched me on C-SPAN 2, a horrifying experience. If you've never watched yourself on t.v. let me just say that if you have the opportunity to see yourself on t.v. don't take it.
Now I am back in front of the fire, regarding the snow piled up outside. Come on, spring. Come on.
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Then the blizzard happened. I was supposed to fly on Wednesday. HA! By 5:30 a.m. my 10:00 a.m. flight from Albany had already been cancelled. Forty minutes waiting on hold with the airline produced the information that there was no way -- and I mean no way -- to reschedule me on another flight before Saturday. And my return ticket was for Sunday. So I didn't go to Florida. Bridge partner James, scheduled to leave the next day, figured he wouldn't get out either, and why go anyway if I wasn't going to be there? And it snowed and snowed and snowed.
So on Wednesday afternoon, Valentine's Day, with the snow coming down at a rate of about 3 inches per hour, the Scrabble tournament convened at my house in front of the fire. There were interludes of shoveling, pushing cars, etc. More Scrabble. More snow.
Then on Thursday, James and I drove to Connecticut to play in a bridge tournament there. We figured we had planned on spending three days playing bridge, so why not just do it at another tournament? It wasn't quite like going to Florida, but when you're playing bridge in the stuffy ballroom of a convention center, it doesn't much matter what's happening outside.
With a break on Friday morning for me to be the guest speaker at an on-line conference, a webinar on Bringing History to Life, we played five matches, approximately 135 hands. Surprisingly there were a number of junior players and college aged players. Wow. A sign that the game is not dying out completely. For the first time James and I were not, at 45 years old, the youngest players in the room.
Saturday morning we watched me on C-SPAN 2, a horrifying experience. If you've never watched yourself on t.v. let me just say that if you have the opportunity to see yourself on t.v. don't take it.
Now I am back in front of the fire, regarding the snow piled up outside. Come on, spring. Come on.
Friday, February 09, 2007
2007 Scrabble Challenge
Some readers may recall my description of a literacy fund raising event last fall where I played team Scrabble with some friends. These same three friends, regulars at my weekly Game Night, have been my constant adversaries on the great board. 2006 was marked by trash talk and competing claims of Scrabble supremacy.
In the interests of proving once and for all who is the best Scrabble player among us, Rumara proposed a tournament to last for one year. Rules would be official National Scrabble Association; scads of data would be recorded in a spreadsheet. Rumara actually joined the NAS in order to get the OFFICIAL world list (referred to as OWL). She prepared a binder for each of us with rules, strategies, useful word lists (the two-letter words, the three-letter words, the u-dumps, the i-dumps, etc.).
After a few weeks of play, usually on Sunday night but often at other times (for example, for five hours on Wednesday afternoon this week; what a good thing we're all self-employed) we have honed our techniques and policies.
1. In the interests of random seating and avoiding cries of "She always sets him up!" we take N,S, E, and W from the bag, lay them face down, and draw for seating at the start of each match. We then draw for who goes first, in the usual manner.
2. "Style points" are noted on the spreadsheet, although we don't have a way to quantify them yet. They may come in handy in the final accounting, perhaps as a tie-breaker, if necessary. Style points are awareded for any especially clever play on the board, such as forming a box, bridging two particularly problematic letters, making a long side-by-side word, etc. Style points are awarded by consensus.
3. Because there are a variety of ways to determing who is "winning," we've begun analyzing the spreadsheet to figure out the best measurement. Right now we are trying a sum of average score + number of wins + number of points (based on first, second, third and fourth place finishes) + number of bingos (7-letter words). By this method, I'm winning right now; however, if we use median score + number of wins + number of points + bingos, then Rumara is winning and Mike is in second place, with me in third. James is last right now, although last week he was first in scoring. Once we figure which method (average or median) gives us the truest picture of Scrabble mastery, we'll create a function for that calculation in the spreadsheet.
This week my bingos were: BESTING, SILLIER, LOUSIER, RECOUPED, and FALTERER. Michael had one bingo, COSTING, and Rumara tried to play RENAMERS and was forced to retract it after a successful challenge.
Stay tuned for further updates. There will be some breaks in the action -- James and I are going to Florida to play in a bridge tournament, Mike is going to Europe to play hockey, etc. -- but we try to squeeze our sanctioned matches in as often as possible as schedules allow.
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In the interests of proving once and for all who is the best Scrabble player among us, Rumara proposed a tournament to last for one year. Rules would be official National Scrabble Association; scads of data would be recorded in a spreadsheet. Rumara actually joined the NAS in order to get the OFFICIAL world list (referred to as OWL). She prepared a binder for each of us with rules, strategies, useful word lists (the two-letter words, the three-letter words, the u-dumps, the i-dumps, etc.).
After a few weeks of play, usually on Sunday night but often at other times (for example, for five hours on Wednesday afternoon this week; what a good thing we're all self-employed) we have honed our techniques and policies.
1. In the interests of random seating and avoiding cries of "She always sets him up!" we take N,S, E, and W from the bag, lay them face down, and draw for seating at the start of each match. We then draw for who goes first, in the usual manner.
2. "Style points" are noted on the spreadsheet, although we don't have a way to quantify them yet. They may come in handy in the final accounting, perhaps as a tie-breaker, if necessary. Style points are awareded for any especially clever play on the board, such as forming a box, bridging two particularly problematic letters, making a long side-by-side word, etc. Style points are awarded by consensus.
3. Because there are a variety of ways to determing who is "winning," we've begun analyzing the spreadsheet to figure out the best measurement. Right now we are trying a sum of average score + number of wins + number of points (based on first, second, third and fourth place finishes) + number of bingos (7-letter words). By this method, I'm winning right now; however, if we use median score + number of wins + number of points + bingos, then Rumara is winning and Mike is in second place, with me in third. James is last right now, although last week he was first in scoring. Once we figure which method (average or median) gives us the truest picture of Scrabble mastery, we'll create a function for that calculation in the spreadsheet.
This week my bingos were: BESTING, SILLIER, LOUSIER, RECOUPED, and FALTERER. Michael had one bingo, COSTING, and Rumara tried to play RENAMERS and was forced to retract it after a successful challenge.
Stay tuned for further updates. There will be some breaks in the action -- James and I are going to Florida to play in a bridge tournament, Mike is going to Europe to play hockey, etc. -- but we try to squeeze our sanctioned matches in as often as possible as schedules allow.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Houston Chronicle
This story is about the writer-in-residence program I was doing at Annunciation Orthodox School in Houston last week. It was an interesting program, where I helped students take research on a historical subject or person and turn it into fiction. Some kids were really receptive and wrote like maniacs, and some were extremely reluctant to make logical inferences about the facts they had discovered. It was a long week, but a good one.
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