GOING OVER is on the 2015 TAYSHAS Reading List and Props to Sister Kim

Can we give it up this morning for Sister Kim of Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls? Who has ignited her students with a love for stories. Who drives them to their super stars. Who gives them book projects that yield stunning results. Who makes videos that make writers cry. Who puts together a massive and massively successful Little Flower High School Teen Writers & Readers Festival.

(Look for the 2015 festival on April 18, 2015, when I will join a fantastic cast of area writers for a day of workshops, panels, and signings.)

Who writes to me last night to say that 42 copies of Going Over have arrived at her classroom and will be taught this spring.

Who tags me this morning to say:

Going Over is on the 2015 Tayshas Reading List. This was a dream I had. But. I hadn't dared to dream it fully.

Props. To Sister Kim. To the so-generous TAYSHAS committee. To Chronicle Books, whose glorious team members have opened more doors for me than any publishing house ever.

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oh, my! headed to Texas to do time with Nina LaCour, Andrew Smith, Blake Nelson, Dana Reinhardt, and the Good TAYSHAS and Texas Teens and Texas Tea Folks

I love when this sort of thing pops up on Facebook. Me and the Real Writers. Headed to Texas. Here's the caption, in case you are going to be near:

Join Nina LaCour, Andrew Smith, Blake Nelson, Dana Reinhardt, and Beth Kephart for Tayshas Reading List & Authors on Thurs, April 10th, 10am in 103 AB, Street Level at #txla14

I'll be at other events as well, in dear San Antonio with dear Chronicle. My schedule:

April 9:
3:00pm  
Going Over Book Signing

April 10:

9:30am

Texas Teens 4 Libraries (TT4L) ARC signing

Grand Hyatt Hotel

10:00am                   

PANEL: “Tayshas Reading List and Authors”

Moderator Susan Schilling, Chair, Tayshas Committee 2012-2013

12:00pm

Texas Tea with YA Authors

Good Glory. I'm going to also make some time for some barbeque, even if that occurs at 4 AM in the morning. All thanks to Tayshas, Texas Teens 4 Libraries, Texas Tea, and Chronicle Books!

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Happy News

"UNDERCOVER," Jill Santopolo, my editor, writes, "just got chosen for the 2009 Texas Lone Star Reading List AND the 2008-09 Tayshas Reading List."

And because that makes me happy, I post the news here. I have heard from other schools (my alma mater, even) that UNDERCOVER is sneaking onto recommended reading lists, and not long ago, while giving a talk, the dear librarian from Upper Darby High School (proud secondary ed proving ground of Tina Fey) made mention of this delightful fact: UNDERCOVER is sometimes being coupled in classrooms there with the original "Cyrano de Bergerac," which inspired some of the story.

I send, then, a virtual hug to these librarians who have so generously made room for UNDERCOVER. In NOTHING BUT GHOSTS, due out in June, I play out my admiration for librarians in full.

For now, right now, I can only say thank you.

Oh, and maybe this would be a good time to mention that an UNDERCOVER paperback is due out in May with a supplement I've loved writing. In that supplement, we meet Elisa a few years on. We read some of her new poetry. We learn the fate of her burgeoning romance with Theo. And Dr. Charmin remains within view.

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