Karen Cushman
Newbery award-winning children’s book author
I just read two books set in very different places, but both about pain, courage, and survival. Between Shades of Gray exposes us to the brutality of Stalin’s Soviet Union and his forced labor camps. Fifteen-year-old Lina, with her mother and younger brother, are sent to a brutal camp in the frozen far north, well above the Arctic Circle. Lina endures
Spring is here, which means it’s time for School Library Journal‘s Battle of the Kid’s Books, a competition among 16 of the year’s very best books for young people, judged by some of the biggest names in children’s books. Have you been following? If not, I won’t give away the winner. You’ll want to check it out yourself from the very first
Almost 43 years ago, Phil and I built this table top from assorted pieces of wood—burana, olive, rosewood, koa. It sat on two clay sewer pipes temporarily, until we could have legs made, and we made it big enough to seat all the children we thought we’d have. As it turned out, we chose to have one child and a
Last night Philip and I went to 12th-century Korea, care of the amazing Seattle Children’s Theater‘s production of A Single Shard. It was an extra special treat to sit next to the books’ author, Linda Sue Park, and watch her face as she watched the play. I know from experience the awe you feel at seeing your characters and your
I am attempting to bend my historiclal-fiction mind into fantasy shape and so, to inspire me, I’ve been reading fantasy. The results? Feh, ugh, eww, eh, and, finally, wow! The wow book is Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey, and I loved it. It’s mysterious and romantic, about truth and friendship, loyalty, courage, and trust. Tess, half human and half fey, longs for
We have been living in a winter wonderland. Today was the first day I left the house in a week. Snow that piled up on the driveway and the street kept us pretty much snowed in, and then freezing rain hit, but at least we had electricity. Without it, we would have no food, no heat, even no water since the well
Here for your enjoyment is the cover art for Will Sparrow’s Road, due out in fall 2012. I think it’s quite wonderful and hope all you readers are intrigued enough to watch for the book. Will Sparrow, liar and thief, is running away—from the father who sold him for beer, from the innkeeper who threatened to sell him as a
See, this is why I shouldn’t have a blog. I cannot be trusted to post with any regularity. I hope you had a splendid holiday and that we all have a great New Year. 2012 is the year Will Sparrow’s Road will be published so I anticipate much excitement and quite a lot of anxiety during the months to come.
Can you see the two deer in the yard? I couldn’t get closer without scaring them away. The island is home to many deer families. My favorite is a mother with her two fawns. We often see them at the side of the road and pray they avoid cars, bicycles, and people. Unfortunately deer like to eat what people like to
I am sitting in the lobby of Chicago’s Palmer House, nursing a glass of wine and staring at this fabulous ceiling. There’s no way I can capture its glory. I’m in Chicago at the annual National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference, on a panel about revision with Randy Boomer and Nancy Roser from the University of Texas. We
