Kate DiCamillo's Blog, page 6

Remember the raccoon I received as a Christmas gift?
This fox belongs to a friend.
I���m thinking that the fox (Manfred?) and the raccoon (Marcel?) need to meet.
I���ve got a writer friend who is fond of saying that there are really only two basic plots:
A stranger comes to town.
Someone goes on a journey.
So, we will begin.
Here is Manfred setting out on his journey.
He doesn���t know it yet, but he is in search of a friend.
He is looking for Marcel.

If you had told me when I was a kid that two characters from a book I wrote would appear on a poster celebrating the joy of reading, I would not have believed you.
But here is the poster.
Here are Flora and Ulysses.
Stories are superpowers.
Read.

From the Candlewick team - Big news for summer readers, Kate has been appointed the National Summer Reading Champion by CSLP: http://bit.ly/1y7znq5


www.publishersweekly.com
Kate DiCamillo has been named the Collaborative Summer Library Program's National Summer Reading Champion.

Speaking of hope--on my winter walks, I have happened upon a wire tree that is festooned with fake birds: yellow ones and white ones and brilliant red ones.
The tree and the birds always manage to tug my heart upward.
Does it matter that the birds aren���t real?
All I can tell you is that they provoke a burst of joy, hope, and longing every time I see them.
Yesterday, when I was out walking with Henry (who is now mostly blind), we came right up next to a real male cardinal sitting in a bush....

Here are four rubber-stamped faces of Charlie Brown: cheesy grin, hopeful smile, doubtful look and good-grief-i-ness.
My brother gave me the stamps a long time ago, and every time I open the desk drawer and see Charlie Brown���s face, I feel a small wave of comfort, recognition.
In his introduction to The Complete Peanuts 1975 to 1976, Robert Smigel writes that ���Charlie Brown is a compulsive hopeaholic.���
Yep.
Me too.
I can���t help it.
I hope, I hope, I hope.
I hope and I work.
And I stam...

A letter from Maya in Monticello, Illinois:

���I want to write a letter to you so I am. I love your book Flora and Ulysses. I love it because there was adventure and sadness. I think about your book a lot and it gets me through some rough times. It is good to know that someone���s been through that too . . . My favorite part of your book is when William Spiver held Flora���s hand.���

Maya, that is my favorite part, too.
I believe that books and words and stories can make us feel less alone....

I���ve got a story that I���ve been carrying around for years, a story that I keep coming back to, without ever figuring out how to tell it the right way���I���ve tried first person, third person. I���ve tried starting in the middle of the story, or at the end. I���ve tried writing it in diary entries, in letters.
I���ve tried all kinds of things, and I���ve never cracked the code.
But yet the story haunts me.
I think that what I need���what is missing���is the voice of the story.
For me, fi...

From the Candlewick team:

Congratulations to Kate on having two books included in the TIME magazine 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time list! (This list includes both YA and middle grade titles.)

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and
The Tiger Rising

http://time.com/100-best-young-adult-books/


The 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time
time.com
We rank lasting favorites for young readers, from "Little Women" to "Harry Potter"

This raccoon was a Christmas gift.
His arms and legs and tail all have bendable wire, so with some careful arranging he can stand on his own.
I���ve taken to keeping him beside me when I write.
He looks at me with clever, expectant eyes.
I say to him, ���Yes, yes, I will tell you a story. But you must be a patient raccoon.���
He is keeping me company.
I am working on a story.
And that is the news from here.

In the New York Times Magazine last week--a tribute to Walter Dean Myers by Dashka Slater.
These words, in particular, struck me:

���Once when a child asked him what the hardest part about writing was, he said: ���There are no hard parts. It���s all work, and you have to put your mind and heart in it. It���s work. It���s all good.������

I can���t think of a truer, more beautiful, more heartening answer.
Thank you, Walter Dean Myers.
We miss you.