Yay! A shiny sticker!

On Monday, the American Library Association announced this year’s children’s literature awards, which are basically the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmy Awards in my profession.  I hadn’t given even a passing thought to winning anything this year, because I have been trained by a lifetime of non-winnerhood.  But then, on Sunday, while I was frying up some parsley potatoes to go along with dinner, the phone rang.  My son answered, and told the person on the other end that I was too busy to come to the phone.  She replied, “Your Dad will want to take this call …”

She was right — I did want to take that call, because she and the rest of the Schneider Family Book Award committee were there on speakerphone to tell me that After Ever After was this year’s middle grade winner of the award:

http://www.ala.org/template.cfm?template=/CFApps/awards_info/award_detail_home.cfm&FilePublishTitle=Awards,%20Grants%20and%20Scholarships&uid=A839B3A9DB37CD78

which is given to “honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”  Thrilling for me, because it gets right to the heart of what I was trying to do when I wrote the book.

I’m not kidding about the non-winnerhood, by the way.  I mean, I have never found anything larger than a one-dollar bill on the sidewalk.  I’ve never won even a measly buck on a scratch-off lottery ticket.  And when I was a kid, I went to a small summer camp that had maybe 60 campers.  At the end of the summer, the counselors gave out something like 40 trophies to the campers who were good at anything from archery to waterskiing.  I was a camper there for six years, and became probably the only long-term camper in the place’s history who never won a trophy.

Hence, my excitement at this phone call.  Now and forever, I have won a national award.  Bestowed by experts.  For something about which I care with a burning passion.  The best part?  I didn’t even burn the potatoes.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6727442.html?industryid=47067

BUT I have to write about something else, because this is just too weird.

See that (excellent and well-reviewed) book called Shade, by Jeri Smith-Ready?  See how it’s shelved right near several of mine?  Well, Jeri and I studied abroad at King’s College London   together 20 years ago, and both went on to be published authors.  We hadn’t seen each other in a couple of decades, and neither of us had any idea that the other even wanted to be a writer, until we met up randomly at Book Expo America two years ago.  Now our books will be neighbors forever.  Kind’a cool!

I just got back from my first-ever official book tour (see my publisher’s blog here for details: http://feiwelandfriends.typepad.com/feiwel_and_friends/2008/05/jordan-and-dodg.html ).

While I was gone, DODGER got a rave review in the Kirkus ALA/BEA Big Book Guide:

“Dodger and Me is a love letter to my late father, my dear

son and our almost sacred love of baseball,” says Jordan

Sonnenblick. The book is also a magical tale of affection,

family and a boy’s imaginative (imaginary doesn’t do it justice)

friendship with an inspired, demented blue chimpanzee,

Dodger. Willie has a few wishes, a couple ill-considered:

That that girl Lizzie would leave him alone, that his

mother would trust him with his own safety and that he

would be a baseball star. “I can relate,” says Sonnenblick,

“not to the chimp part, but to baseball and the desperate

wish to succeed on the field. I was a miserable little leaguer;

I just could…not…hit…a…fastball.” Dodger has

lots of smart patter and perhaps a few wishes to grant. With

cool style and throat-tightening panache, Sonnenblick

sends a screamer Willie’s way.

Thanks, Kirkus!

Also, I just got the details of my first-ever official multi-city book tour:

http://us.macmillan.com/Tour.aspx?id=84&publisher=feiwelfriends

Please come and visit if you live in Seattle, Portland, Denver, or Chicago, OK?

I am really, really excited about these books — now I can’t wait for the first one to come out so I can start telling everyone in the world about the second one.

In other news, I’m currently doing heavy research for my next young adult novel for Scholastic Press. I can’t spill any beans about the plot, the title, or anything. However, I will tell you that the research for this book has entailed interviews with a child-abuse expert, a criminal-defense lawyer, and a gravedigger.

Hmmm . . . I think I’m getting mysterious in my old age!

Oh, one last thing.  The Italian translation of NOTES FROM THE MIDNIGHT DRIVER recently won a big children’s literature award there: The Premio Cento.  AND there was a cash prize in Euros, which means a family trip to Europe is in my future.  The Italian version’s title is UNA CHITARRA PER DUE (A Guitar for Two).  Cool, huh?  The translator, Roberta Magnaghi, was awesome.  She contacted me several times during the process to ask me subtle questions about my intent.  Her hard work really helped me out, obviously — mille grazie, Roberta!!!

So I’m traveling far and wide to promote the release.  You can see my calendar page for the details, but basically I’ll be visiting at least 11 states between now and the end of June, including FIVE different trips to Texas.  Yikes, that’s a lot of frequent-flyer miles.  Of course, it’s also a lot of carbon emissions, so I’ll be planting a ton of trees to offset the pollution.

I also have another book coming out in the spring.  It’s called DODGER & ME, and it will be published by Feiwel & Friends.  I’ll write more about this project as the release date gets closer, but for now I’ll just say that I am REALLY, REALLY proud of it.

It’s hard to believe that something I typed up in my kitchen has travelled around the world . . .

Also, my best friend from high school called the other day to tell me that Muhammad Ali’s wife held up a copy of _Drums_ on national TV: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/eveningnews/main2207050.shtml

She was being interviewed by Katie Couric about a new literacy initiative that she and her husband are sponsoring with Scholastic, and — BAM! — she held _Drums_ up in a close-up shot. The other book she brandished about during the interview was the excellent _Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time_, by my friend Lisa Yee (www.lisayee.com), so I was in good company.