The occasion was the 41st Annual Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Catherine Bomhold had heard a presentation of mine in Reno, Nevada, at an International Reading Association conference some years ago and kept my card on her bulletin board until she had a chance to choose the authors for this festival herself. She called to book me the minute she was made the organizer (about a year in advance of the event); she was so enthusiastic on the phone, I didn’t hesitate in saying “yes.”

I met other authors from everywhere, and attendees from a huge circle around Hattiesburg, Mississippi. There was no warm-up time conversationally – everyone launched into talk immediately, sharing their experiences, techniques, tactics, anecdotes. I especially liked talking to, laughing with and learning from Gerald Hausman from Florida and Vicki Cobb from New York. Pat Mora was the Medallion Recipient this year (a list that includes Lois Lenski, Ezra Jack Keats, Madeleine L’Engle, Maurice Sendak, Katherine Paterson, Eric Carle, Rosemary Wells, Lois Lowry and many other brilliant contributors to children’s literature). She pointed out to us that fourteen per cent of American children are now Latino, though only two per cent of American children’s books are by or about Latinos.

I was happy to be able to tell her that two of my rhyming picturebooks, Boy Soup and Cat Magic, are in Spanish, the work done by excellent translators, thanks to Annick Press. Pat Mora’s creation of excellent Spanish and bilingual books of stories and poems for children is ongoing.

Of course, coming from Toronto, I found it much too hot down there – the air conditioners are already on, and it’s muggy all the time. None of the fresh, crisp cold that we have up here – that we count on to keep us alert. I asked if they ever had bracing or chilly days, and they said oh sure they did, five of them a year, during their “winter.”

I’m looking forward to confirming some of the requests I received to do presentation in New Orleans, Alabama and Texas, as I’m thrilled to be back on the road again with my Titanium2007X Ultra-Deluxe new hip. This terrific trip reminded me how much fun it had been a few years ago to speak in so many places – Baltimore, Orlando, Victoria, Newfoundland, San Luis Obispo, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, South Dakota, Calgary, can’t name them all. It’s always both interesting and exciting to meet new people and to find out how similar the values are among passionate teachers, professors and librarians everywhere. I also get to hear innovative new ideas about education, literature, and publishing. Okay, so I get stranded overnight every now and then in Memphis, these things happen…

All for now, it’s time to unpack and sort out the inevitable p*a*p*e*r*w*o*r*k that goes with any trip, even the ones not all the way to the Gulf Coast (which is recovering, slowly but surely, from Katrina).

Loris

Here’s an interesting thing going on in grade seven classes: the teachers have their students take a look at Shoe Shakes and my earlier book, Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten, then give them the assignment of writing poems for very young kids. More fun than writing sonnets, but harder than it seems.

Wordplay, interesting rhythms, delightful sounds: all required. Now there’s a springboard idea I’d never have thought of myself. Teachers constantly surprise me.

Another good way to spend the winter is MOVING. I packed up everything I owned and moved it across town to the 18th floor of a big redbrick octagonal building that overlooks the whole city. It also looks right into the ballet school, which has glass windows from top to bottom. I could see men, women and kids doing their ballet exercises day and night.

And in between letters and dance-watching, I worked on my next book, with Michael Martchenko doing the illustrations. Here’s the picture that’ll go on the title page:

Back to the drawing board. Keep warm. Letters, questions, and inquiries about Author Visits, e-mail me anytime.

Loris

Sometimes walking through leaves feels like being in a giant bowl of cornflakes.

They can be very slippery, though, especially under runningshoes. And they leave marks on the sidewalk, even after they’ve disintegrated. So…here’s a poem I wrote about that. It was first in Nothing Beats A Pizza, now it’s shown up again in “I Did It Because…” with this extremely goofy illustration by Michael Martchenko:

Leaf poems, letters, questions, and inquiries about Author Visits, e-mail me anytime.

Loris