Bartography Express, May 2020
Hey there!
I sure hope you could use some good news about books (and about a certain dog with an eighth birthday today), because I've got lots to share.

First off, nothing makes me happier than to tell you about Worser , the new middle-grade novel on the way from My Favorite Author in the Whole Wide World . Jennifer will be working with Margaret Ferguson (editor of Christina Uss' The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle , among other titles) at Holiday House.

Worser follows a socially awkward, word-loving boy whose life has been upended by his single mom’s recent stroke, but who finds glimmers of hope when it turns out there are friends to be found who also share his love of wordplay.

I’ve been over the moon about this book at every step of its existence, and I can’t wait to see the end result. More than that, I can’t wait for you to get to meet Worser. His story is going to be Jennifer’s best book yet.
Every couple of years, the American Library Association and the Children’s Book Council offer Reading Beyond recommendations for kids reading above their grade level — 75 books in all.

The just-announced Reading Beyond list for 2020-21 includes two of my titles: Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions (for kindergartners and first graders reading at a third-grade level) and What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (for second- and third-graders reading at a fifth-grade level).

And I've just learned that by summer 2021 What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? will become available in a Spanish-language edition. Ramping up my Spanish-speaking abilities had already been part of my shelter-in-place routine, but now I have myself a goal: to be able to read Barbara Jordan's story to an audience en español by the time a translated copy lands in my hands.
Now, honestly, that should be plenty of good news for now. And it is. But that doesn't mean there's not still more to share.

I'm delighted that  the word is now out about a pair of upcoming nonfiction picture books that I wrote : Alton Yates' Movement Forward , to be illustrated by Steffi Walthall and published by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster; and How to Make a Book (About My Dog) , which will be illustrated by Sarah Horne and published by Millbrook Press/Lerner Publishing.

I've used this space before to show off cute photos of Ernie-the-birthday-dog (and oh, look, I just happen to have this previously unseen picture that photographer Heather Gallagher took of us a few months ago), but this is the first time you've heard anything from me about Alton Yates.

I'll have plenty more to say about him and his story. For now, and by way of introduction, I thought you might enjoy listening to the brief interview that Alton did with his daughter, New York City TV journalist Toni Yates, that first caught my attention . (Two words: "rocket sleds.")
Next week I'll be recording presentations for my final pair of author visits for this school year. It's not at all what my hosts and I originally had in mind, but we're going to make the most we can out of the situation we're in.

The same goes for my author visits for the 2020-21 school year. I typically make in-person visits to around 100 campuses per year, sharing my books and know-how with students of all ages. My connecting with these audiences engages, informs, and inspires them while supporting and reinforcing the work of their teachers.

While looking forward to the day when those in-person visits can resume, I'm now offering customized video presentations that I can securely share with schools from a distance, and which will work whether students are back together in physical classrooms or continuing to learn from home on their own schedules.

Details are available in this flyer I've made for Texas schools and adapted for North Carolina educators . If you could use a flyer geared toward a different audience, please let me know and I'll get right on it. And if you need more details than the flyer offers, ask away!

Meanwhile, there are a few other resources that I thought might come in handy for someone you know who is teaching or learning from home:

Now it's time for my monthly Q&A and new-book giveaway. My guests are Meredith Davis and Rebeka Uwitonze, co-authors of the narrative nonfiction middle grade title Her Own Two Feet: A Rwandan Girl's Brave Fight to Walk .

Her Own Two Feet chronicles Rebeka's experiences traveling to Texas from her native Rwanda to live with Meredith's family while undergoing a long series of procedures to correct her curled and twisted feet.

The book was an NAACP Image Awards nominee, an NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People honoree, and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year.

If you’re a Bartography Express subscriber with a US mailing address and you want to be the winner of Her Own Two Feet , just say so in a reply to this email before midnight on May 31 , and I’ll enter you in the drawing.

In the meantime, please enjoy my two-question Q&A with Rebeka and Meredith .