Two months after a failed suicide attempt, seventeen-year-old Ellie Reid is home from the hospital and trying to cope with the aftermath. Everyone at school looks . . . → Read More: Other News]]> I’ve just finished a YA Contemporary novel called How To Be, about a teenager trying to balance her bipolar disorder with the pressures of high school. Here is a brief summary:

Here is a link to the California readers Association Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8843496.htm

During the summers growing up, we would always spend a couple of weeks . . . → Read More: In loving memory…]]> This is for my GG. She always referred to herself that way—with the possessive pronoun. “Hello Melaine,” she’d say when she called, or write when she emailed, “this is your GG.” Like somehow she belonged only to me.

During the summers growing up, we would always spend a couple of weeks with GG and Grandpa in Portland. When I was maybe nine-years-old, I begged her to let me watch The Amityville Horror, which I had heard about at summer camp. As grandparents are wont to do, she obliged. I spent the rest of my visit convinced that she and grandpa were going to murder me with an axe.

Not all my memories are so…strange. There were the baths I took with her when I was very young. She would step into the tub, and the water would go up to my neck, and I’d feel as if I were floating. There were two royal weddings she and I stayed up late to watch together, thirty years apart. The first was that of Charles and Diana, the second that of their son four months ago. For that one, GG kept me up until four a.m. Every time I dozed off, she would say, “Wake up!”

There was the mind-numbing boredom of watching her play golf, a hell made endurable only by the promise of hot dogs and milkshakes at the club house after she was done. There were movies, during which she’d always fall asleep and snore; there were visits, where that same snoring would drive you from your bed. There was the certain dread as a teenager that as soon as she saw you she would call attention to the thing you were most self-conscious about—such as the gargantuan zit on your forehead. And there was the absolute certainty that when you opened her glove compartment, there would be candy.

GG is picking blackberries, and making jam and pie, and roller skating at the Oaks. She is rum balls for Dad at Christmas time, and those round white cookies with powdered sugar that I never know the name of. She is pink shag bath rugs with matching toilet covers. She is cleaning wearing only her underwear. She is playing the organ while my brother and I sing the Woodpecker song. She’s the kitchen cabinet in the corner where the ice cream toppings and parfait glasses are kept. And for the last seventeen years she has been the senior of four generations of women, which included my mother, my daughter, and myself, and which was pretty extraordinary, but that now is only three.

So this is for my GG, from me, her favorite, albeit as I would always remind her, only, Granddaughter. I love you and I miss you and I wish there had time for us to be five.

El Camino Real High School

5440 Valley Circle Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367

The following is from a press release, which can be found here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/11/prweb4756514.htm

Northridge, CA (PRWEB) November 9, 2010

Each year a California Readers’ committee reviews over 1,500 books, all written . . . → Read More: The Good News…The Prophecy Keepers Selected for the California Readers 2011 Middle School Collection]]> The Prophecy Keepers is one of twenty-five fiction books included in the 2011 Middle School Collection.

The following is from a press release, which can be found here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/11/prweb4756514.htm

Northridge, CA (PRWEB) November 9, 2010

Each year a California Readers’ committee reviews over 1,500 books, all written or illustrated by California authors and artists. Each of the three committees – representing teachers and library staff from California elementary, middle, and high schools –selects 100 fiction and nonfiction books that they believe will create balanced school library collections and support classroom curricula. The books are judged for general excellence in their genre and for their appeal to children and young adults.

Said Fran Oberman, Chairman of the California Collections Committee for California Readers, “My colleagues and I are proud of the distinguished new 2011 California Collections. The announcement of the list each year encourages publishers nationwide to present talented California authors and artists to students and inspires young readers to support local talent. These collections play a vital role in stimulating reading, writing, speaking, and illustrating skills of young Californians.”

Said Karla Forbes, President of California Readers, “These three collections of books should be the first purchase of books for school libraries in all of California’s schools. They should be a high priority purchase for all school libraries in the United States. When these collections are used in implementing our annual Ed Pert Award, students become familiar with local authors, and these writers and artists are encouraged to come to our schools and work directly with the kids.”

Added Oberman, “We are particularly honored to include three of Sid Fleischman’s books in the collections: DREAM STEALER, SIR CHARLIE, and TROUBLE BEGINS AT 8. Sid, Brooklyn born but a longtime resident of Santa Monica, passed away on March 17, 2010. He was truly California Gold. “

The other members of the 2011 California Collections Committee have many years of teaching and library experience: Chair Fran Oberman is a retired English teacher who spent 30 years working in middle and high schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District. She currently supervises student teachers for California State University, Northridge. Laura Graff, a teacher librarian at Sun Valley High School, chairs the High School Committee; Mark Bobrosky, a teacher librarian at Reed Middle School, heads the Middle School Committee; and Candy Dardarian, a retired teacher from Harding Elementary School, chairs the Elementary School Committee.

California Readers, the state’s premier literacy and school library advocacy group, is a not-for-profit organization located in Southern California. Its mission is to connect California children, young adults, and their school communities with California authors, artists, and their creative works. Since 1996, California Readers has provided more than 4,000 books to budget-starved California school libraries and brought living authors and artists to meet in person with students at over 50 schools, changing the lives and attitudes towards reading, writing, speaking, and illustrating of over 30,000 young Californians. California Readers publishes three California Collections each year and maintains a website of resources.

Contact

For more information on California Readers and its work, or to become an active sponsor of reading and school libraries in your community , visit http://www.californiareaders.org on the web or contact Bonnie O’Brian at bobrian@lafn.org or at 818-360-9314.