Garrison Forest School

Last month, my mother and I visited the Garrison Forest School in Owings Mill, Maryland to share The Year of Goodbyes.  It was a chilly, cloudy, blustery day, but everyone we met was so inviting we felt as though we were basking in sunshine all afternoon.  Much to my delight, I've learned, the students were so taken with the tradition of the poesiealbum that is central to the book (and to my presentations about the book) that they subsequently created their own poesiealbums, which they shared with one another in an exchange described in this dispatch from the school's website.  (Read to the end of the article to learn about their poesiealbum exchange.)

I wanna be a Garrison Forest girl!

Have a look. . . .



Mom and I with a few of the many students we met

Display of student poesiealbum pages

A Bee In My Bonnet

If I wore a bonnet, I would have a bee in it today.  I've learned that The Year of Goodbyes is a 2012-2013 Nominee for the Beehive Book Awards, sponsored by the Children's Literature Association of Utah (CLAU).  The Beehive Book Award winner will be chosen from the nominated books by the children of Utah, who will vote for their favorites.  I'm really happy that, thanks to its place on this list, The Year of Goodbyes will find new readers among the young people of Utah.

Click here to link to the nominees; look in the Poetry category.  Thank you, Utah!

Reading for Lent

Last month, author Mitali Perkins (Bamboo People, Secret Keeper, and more) announced on her blog an interesting and thoughtful idea she was putting into practice for Lent:  "During this season," she wrote, "I strive to impose a new discipline that slows me to see and hear more clearly.  What better practice than enjoying a book from cover to cover, especially in an age when I'm mostly reading in the 'shallows' instead of deeply?"

I'm really honored that Mitali chose to read The Year of Goodbyes as part of her book-a-day-for-Lent project, and appreciate her generous review, which you can read by clicking here. 

If you haven't read Mitali's Bamboo People, maybe you'll want to put it on your own book list for this season! 

Highlights!

It's always fun to come home and find an unexpected package at the front door, isn't it?  Especially when it's your birthday.  This happened to me the day before yesterday, and when I looked at the return address, it wasn't Amazon.com, which would not have surprised me, but Highlights magazine.  And inside:  a letter from the editors telling me that my latest story for the magazine earned their "Author of the Month" award--and a shiny engraved pewter plate to seal the deal!  The story, called "Lunchtime at the Hot Pot" is in the January 2012 issue of the magazine, and the plate is on my bookshelf.  Thanks, Highlights!

Miami On My Mind

It's cold and blustery here in Maryland today, which has me thinking of Miami, where it isn't.  These photos and links from the Miami Book Fair--which I attended in November--aren't exactly news flashes at this point.  But I have Miami on my mind, so here goes:

First, while at the fair, I did a radio interview with Marc Bernier of WNDB radio of Daytona Beach.  Who knew a video of it would be posted on YouTube?  Click here, if you wish:  Debbie Levy - The Year of Goodbyes.  Question:  Will anybody who is not closely related to me listen to a 20 minute interview?  (Will anybody who is closely related?)  Maybe if I were to throw a contest with prizes. . . .

Second, I talked to hundreds of students and teachers as part of my book fair events, and visited two schools, Rockway Middle and Glades Middle. They could not have been more hospitable. And a bonus: Swag! Have a look:

That, in case you can't tell, would be a Glades M.S. briefcase and a Rockway M.S. jacket. I love them both.

Third, I shared a podium in Miami with the talented and personable Linda Urban and Tom Angleberger.  The photo gives a small inkling of what a KID MAGNET Tom is!  He calls everybody "Larry," and this just cracks the kids up.  

That's Linda on the right in the photo, looking on, as I did, in awe and delight.  I hope you'll check out both Linda's and Tom's books.

Texas Tidings

I've just learned that The Year of Goodbyes has been nominated for the 2012 Texas Lone Star Reading List--welcome news.  Wouldn't I just love for the nomination to lead to a place on the final Lone Star List!  There are plenty of great books on the nominations roster, including one of my favorites, Kathy Erskine's Mockingbird (read it if you haven't yet!), so I may well have to be satisfied with the nomination alone.  And that wouldn't be bad--whatever spreads word of this book, so close to my heart.

Out and About

I've had a fine time recently talking about The Year of Goodbyes at a variety of events.  The audiences have been wonderfully engaged, which is any speaker's dream.  And a bonus for me has been sharing the podium with other writers who have great stories to tell, and the talent to tell them. 

Last month, for example, Jan Elvin and I did a joint reading at the Fall For The Book Festival in Virginia.  Jan is the author of The Box from Braunau: In Search of my Father’s War.  We hadn't met before the festival.  Jan and I were amazed at the parallels our journeys to publication shared, including most notably the discovery of an artifact of personal history--in my case, my mother's poesiealbum; in her case, a tin box her father brought home from World War II.  In her presentation, as in her book, Jan addressed the demons of war that dogged her father for the rest of his life as a veteran, a subject that is painfully relevant today as we welcome soldiers home from today's wars.  And on a lighter note, Jan and I discovered that we share a passion for all things Eastern Shore--that's Maryland's Eastern Shore, where she and her husband just moved, and where my husband and I spend as much time as we can.  I'm hoping to see her out and about on the Chesapeake Bay.

And last week, at the Brandeis National Committee's Book and Author Luncheon in the Washington, D.C. area, after talking about The Year of Goodbyes with a very warm audience, I was captivated by Lisa McCubbin and Clint Hill when they discussed The Kennedy Detail, the story of the Secret Service agents who were with President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.  What a slide show!  Mr. Hill, the agent assigned to Mrs. Kennedy, was just a fount of fascinating detail and insight.  After lunch, we heard from James Zogby, whose book, Arab Voices:  What They Are Saying To Us, and Why It Matters, was the springboard for his passionate talk about the importance (and difficulty) of listening, really listening, across cultural, religious, and physical boundaries.  When the day was over, I wasn't quite ready to go. . . .

Here's a photo from the Brandeis event; to my right is Mr. Zogby with his book: