Avi's Blog, page 35

This summer we’ll be re-running my most-read blogs from the past year, in case you didn’t have an opportunity to read them the first time around. I’ve rewritten each one of these, so even if you’ve read them before, you may wish to read them again! Here is the first of those articles: Readers often […]

Over the years I have had countless visits with readers, teachers, and librarians in classrooms all over the country. My first such visit was in 1970. There is not a state into whose schools I have not walked. Such visits are rewarding, interesting, and often fun. My goal is for everyone to enjoy the session. […]

The first time I visited a class—in my capacity as an author—was in 1970. Since then, I have never stopped visiting classes, in person, and these days also by Skype. I won’t even begin to guess how many classrooms I’ve entered, or how many students with whom I’ve engaged. Still, one of the questions that […]

Poppy was first published in 1995. If you would like to read the story about how the book came to be, see my June 13, 2017 blog post. Over the years, the first book was expanded into a series. Writing forward and backwards, the books, in chronological fashion, provide the arc for Poppy’s life, along […]

Awards, starred reviews, and citations—when and if they come—and welcome as they are—need, I think, to be considered as gifts, not rewards. I suppose some people sit down and write book a book intending to win a Newbery. If they do, I’m willing to bet my bottom buck they don’t. I’ve won my share of […]

There are times when researching a book it becomes necessary to go to the places where your characters live and struggle. Going to England and France very much helped me write the first two Crispin books, particularly the second. Being in San Francisco, and on the island of Alcatraz, allowed me to write next year’s […]