With a Little Help from My Friends (Part One)

When you have a new book come out, as I did this month, the best part is sharing it.  Nothing would make me happier than beaming myself all over the country - nay, the WORLD - to hand When Life Gives You O.J. to readers and talk to them about it.  However, for a variety of reasons (trying to write other books, trying to spend quality time with my family and the nest of robins on my front porch, and the fact that beaming oneself is NOT as easy as they make it look on Star Trek), I have to rely on others to help get the word out. And that is where my wonderful book friends come in.  Let me pay homage to a few...

Mr. Schu (a.k.a. Johnny Orangeseed!)

Yes, the fabulous Mr. Schu has been the hardest working man in cross-country-literacy these days (competing with reining champ Jennifer Frances a.k.a. Bess the Book Bus), taking his Schu on the road - get it? - and talking up his favorite books, including When Life Gives You O.J.!  He's even wearing his When Life Gives You O.J. backpack and snapping photos of it in cool places.  I was so thrilled to get to meet John in person at ALA. I'm sure it will comes as no surprise to learn that he is every bit as nice as you think he's going to be, and then some (this is true of Travis Jonker, too).  Those kids at his school are super-lucky, that's for sure.  As am I to have him taking O.J. down many new roads!

Katie Davis

I actually met Katie Davis, as well as Dianne de Las Casas, at ALA last year.  And I'm so glad I did, because they were instrumental parts of my most fun experiences at ALA this year!  Both Katie and Dianne are forces of nature in their own rights.  Dianne is an author and storyteller who can only be described as captivating (on stage and off), and who has the best shoes on either bank of the Mississippi.  Katie does everything (and does it well, too!) - writing, illustrating, keeping up on all things interactive and keeping the rest of us in the loop.  I would be hugely grateful for her contributions even if she didn't do cool and kind things like read my books and tweet her love for them and put me on TV.  What?  Oh, yeah, you heard me right!

There have been lots of new friends who have found me recently, thanks to When Life Gives You O.J.  I'm going to try to put all the fabulous blog reviews up on my website.  But since there have been so many great ones, please forgive me, bloggers, for not listing all of you by name and accept my deep thanks for reading and sharing.  Special thanks to Slate's Double X blog, which made O.J. its Book of the Week!  And thanks to all the folks who have posted Amazon reviews (keep 'em coming, please!), especially the kids who have posted theirs - how cool is that?  And not just girls -- boys, people, boys!

My last shout out du jour goes to a very special group of friends - my dear pals in the 'hood who cheer me on, day in and out, and who have kindly offered to throw me and O.J. a book party (foolishly, perhaps, for the one who offered her house) this weekend!  It will be a grown-ups and kids and "practice dogs" affair, with a practice dog show and prizes and, thanks to my friends at Politics and Prose, books available and happily signed on the spot.  If you live within shouting distance of me and are just learning of this, let me know.  Your evite is probably in your spam filter.  I know mine is.

Happy Birthday to O.J.!

Ah, it seems like only yesterday that When Life Gives You O.J. was just a germ of a crumb of an idea for a story. And here he is, all grown up and PUBLISHED!  Yes, that's right:  today's his pub date, better known as his Book Birthday.  So happy birthday to you, little O.J.  May you wag your way into the reading public's heart, even without benefit of an actual tail.

Here's an old illustration I did for him (back with his original title!)

It seems only fitting that I should take a moment today and thank SO many people who joined me and O.J. on this journey.  First and foremost, everyone I thanked on pages 197-198 (two pages? what can I say?  I'm a thank-er!): my family, friends, wonderful agent, fabulous editor, etc.  In addition, I would like to thank everyone who has cheered O.J. onward since I finished writing, namely my dedicated publicists (official and unofficial!), and the bloggers and booksellers and librarians and teachers and parents and grandparents who are now starting to perk up their ears at the sound of the book... thank you, thank you, thank you!

I also want to thank someone who has no idea that he inspired me to write this book, and that's Andrew Clements.  He came and spoke to the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC (a fabulous group of which I am a proud member) and he talked about being a picture book writer before he ever wrote word one of a novel. He explained how he submitted a book as a picture book, and had it rejected repeatedly because the idea just wasn't a picture book story.  He went on to re-envision it as a middle grade novel and sold the book.  That book was Frindle.

I would never be so presumptuous as to compare my work to Andrew Clements'.  However, hearing him tell that story about Frindle changed the way I had been thinking about a picture book I had been working on.  It was about a girl and her grandfather, and how he promised her a pet and then delivered an orange juice jug instead.  It was cute and funny as a picture book, but something was missing.  I suddenly realized why I was so stuck.  There was a lot more to the story I wanted to tell.  It wasn't a picture book; it was a middle grade novel.  Only problem was: I hadn't written one of those yet.

So I started digging in the one place I don't usually go:  my own story.  I'm a writer of fiction, after all, so I generally make stuff up.  But for some reason, this fictional story about a girl named Zelda "Zelly" Fried seemed to be rooted in my own experiences, and in the time when my grandmother was sick and my grandfather came to stay with us.  Once I realized that and, as Andrew Clements encouraged in his speech, I allowed my story to take up whatever space it needed, it was pretty clear to me that I wasn't writing a picture book.  Which was fine, because it freed me up to go back to who I was and what I was struggling with at the age of ten-going-on-eleven while writing a book intended for kids around that same age.  My issues, like Zelly's, also had to do with being Jewish in a predominantly Christian place, but I believe that kids of all backgrounds will relate to Zelly.

I hope kids - boys and girls - find O.J.  And if you have anything to do with them finding him, I thank you, too!

Hope for Henry Reading Party

I think that smile says it all. 

But I'll say it anyway:  What a fabulous reading party Hope for Henry threw at Georgetown Hospital's Lombardi Cancer Center!  This is me with my new pal Devan, and I also got to meet Sean, Maddie, Lily, Saeed, Destinee, and many, many other terrific kids (a thousand pardons for not remembering every single name, since I definitely remember every single adorable face!) and parents and doctors and social workers and art therapists and nurses and volunteers.  Thanks so much to Laurie Strongin for inviting me, and to all of you for welcoming me, and for all you do -- you guys totally rock, and you totally made my day.

And you guys made Chicken Butt's day too.  He decided to become The (Un)official Spokes-chicken of Hope for Henry!  And he decided to stay!  So if you are ever at Georgetown Hospital, stop by the Lombardi Cancer Center and give him a squeeze.  I think you know where.

Hope for Henry

Who could resist an organization with the motto "Live well and laugh hard"?

Certainly, not I.

Today I am having the honor of spending my lunchtime with Chicken Butt, O.J., Dotty, and all of their friends at Georgetown University Hospital's Lombardi Cancer Center.  Courtesy of Hope for Henry, an incredible organization founded in honor of Henry Strongin Goldberg, a cute, fun-loving and courageous little guy who was diagnosed with Fanconi anemia at the age of two weeks and lived life to the fullest for every day of his seven years.  He was, according to those who had the pleasure of knowing him, "the master of living well and laughing hard." I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to meet Henry.  He was clearly my kind of person.

Henry's mom, Laurie Strongin, is a major hero.  She and her husband founded Hope for Henry and they pull out all of the stops to bring joy and laughter (and books! and toys! and superhero parties!) to the lives of kids who are staring down long hours, days and weeks in the hospital. Check it out:

This is not Chicken Butt's first trip to the hospital (although, unlike a certain curious little monkey, he never broke a leg jumping off a fire escape to end up there), and I hope it isn't his last.  Because, like Henry, he is a live-well-laugh-hard kind of guy.

Chicken Butt Day with Justin

Sorry for the delay getting this video up, but it is worth the wait. 

Please enjoy the youngest bookseller at One More Page bookstore (don't you just love indie book stores? One More Page sells books, wine and chocolate! run, don't walk!  ooh, and they have free parking) as he handsells one of his favorite books... wait, make that two favorite books...