Adventures at Wilder Farm

Lita is in snowy New Hampshire but I’m back in California where the poppies are in full bloom. And with the coming of spring, our good friend, Howard Mansfield, has a new book out next month—Hogwood Steps Out: A Good, Good Pig Story. Check out the good, good review today at Just One More Book.

Lita and I love pigs. Last year at the IRA conference in Toronto, we made a special trip to visit a pig farm just north of the city. This wasn’t just a pig farm—these pigs had been rescued from precarious situations (I’m sure you can imagine what I mean) and are now living in luxury accommodations on the side of a large pond with nice clean mud and shade trees. Look how happy they are…

Good luck to Hogwood!

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A teacher at New Palestine Elementary sent these pictures and story to Becky Gaines, the publisher of the New Palestine Press. Thanks to Becky for sending this to me. And congratulations to the students at New Palestine Elementary for working on a great service project!

“One Thousand Tracings,” by Lita Judge, gave a glimpse of time in the 1940’s and of the need for people in the war stricken countries for shoes.

(…) This year’’s event included a special service project. New Palestine Elementary students donated good used shoes to aid Indianapolis children in need. Two books the children read helped give an understanding of other’s’ needs. “Those Shoes”, written by Maribeth Boelts, gave a warm understanding of how important a good pair of shoes can be. It can bring pride and dignity to many children. The second book, “One Thousand Tracings”, by Lita Judge, gave a glimpse of time in the 1940’s and of a need for people in the war stricken countries for shoes. They would trace their feet and send them to a family that would search to find their size and send them back to them. The students each traced both of their feet, making over 1,000 Tracings.

The feet tracings are hanging up at New Palestine Elementary to represent their wonderful service project. They had a special opportunity for school spirit, good exercise and, most of all learned how to give to others with their community service.”

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Lita visited the 1st and 2nd graders at Pompositticut School in Stow, MA yesterday. A lot of the presentation was about dinosaurs so we wanted to post a link to Lita’s dinosaur coloring pages.

They’re also available here.

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Andrea and Mark at Just One More Book (JOMB) did a wonderful podcast review of One Thousand Tracings in January at the JOMB coffee shop. I also read this Q&A interview about JOMB and I find their story and partnership quite interesting.

Lita did an interview with Mark in early February—they discussed books and blogs and the topic of partnership. The interview was just posted on JOMB yesterday—you can listen to it here.

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Lita has several presentations in Michigan next week so she’s been preparing some slide images to go along with her talks. I thought these pictures of Lita in Alaska were great.

Lita is a twin, and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska on Revillagigedo Island. Her dad worked as a soil scientist for the US Forest Service on the Tongass National Forest.

This spot is Totem Bight State Park. Here’s a recent picture.

Ketchikan is in the southeast part of Alaska. It gets a yearly average rainfall of 152 inches, and also 40 inches of snow. Ketchikan is one of those places where they have rain storms with 100 mph winds, but they don’t call them hurricanes. And they have thousand foot tall hills, but they don’t call them mountains.

Lita’s family lived in Alaska for 2-3 years and then her dad got transferred (to Utah, then Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin, and back to Oregon).

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Lita and One Thousand Tracings were featured on New Hampshire Chronicle in September, 2007. They filmed this last August, right after Tracings was released. Part 1 is about 8 minutes and part 2 is about 5 minutes. Here’s part 1:

And here’s part 2:

Thanks to Jennifer Crompton of NH Chronicle for sending us the video (with permission to post it), and for doing such a good job on this program!

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Lita visited Northwest Elementary School (NES) in Manchester, NH last November. I remember she was so impressed with the school and the teachers and the kids after that visit. NES created a Lita Judge page on their school website with some notes from the visit. And the NES kids have been working on their own writing and illustrating - they just sent us their first issue of The Eagle’s Nest.

The cover artwork is by Monique Staples.

We were so impressed with the writing and illustrating in The Eagle’s Nest. Everyone at NES has done a great job!

NES added a dedication to Lita:

The inspiration goes both ways. Thanks NES, and keep up the good work!

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Our friend Melissa Stewart just gave us information on a Picture Book Festival she is organizing in Belmont, Massachusetts. This is much more than just a group book signing! Each author and/or illustrator has developed a short presentation, performance, or activity to entertain attendees, especially the children. And the entire event will be filmed and made into a documentary. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Belmont Children’s Picture Book Festival
March 29, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
First Church in Belmont, 404 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA
Free and open to the public

Six local authors celebrate the release of their new picture books with an afternoon of fun for the whole family. Meet the authors and illustrators, hear them talk about their books, and enjoy a variety of performances and activities. Wellesley Booksmith of Wellesley, Massachusetts, will make books available for purchase and signing.

Here are the web sites of the participants: Sarah S. Brannen , Anne Broyles, Timothy Basil Ering, Leo and Laura Jaffe Espinosa, James Kaczman, Melissa Stewart

For more information, contact Melissa Stewart at 978-263-7279 or hbeeprod@msn.com.

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Thank you to the International Reading Association for honoring One Thousand Tracings as the winner of the 2008 IRA Children’s Book Award! I’ll be going to the IRA Convention in Atlanta this May to accept the award. I’m so excited! The conference falls on the week of our planned vacation to Santa Fe. Dave and I rarely fit vacations in these days, but decided to take the plunge for my birthday. Now Santa Fe will have to wait for another birthday. Dave is being a great sport about it all. He’s as excited about the award as I am (perhaps more). I’ll be traveling to Atlanta with my close friend Sy Montgomery. She’s speaking on a panel—Growing up Green: Environmental Conversations with Authors—with Nic Bishop and Melissa Stewart. Sy received this same award in 2000 for her book, The Snake Scientist. We’re looking forward to the conference, and to sneaking off to see the whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium between events!

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One of the envelopes used in the collage on the back cover of One Thousand Tracings was this one:

Nothing in the book mentions that the story takes place in Michigan. But it does. Lita’s grandparents lived in Pinckney Michigan during the time they organized the relief effort. They didn’t move to Plainfield Wisconsin until1949. Michigan readers found the subtle clue and the Library of Michigan contacted Lita last summer stating that One Thousand Tracings was nominated for the 2008 Michigan Notable Book selections. Hyperion sent off a pile of books to the committee. We didn’t expect to hear back—about 300 books were nominated—but in January it was selected as one of twenty Michigan Notable Books! Only two of the selections were children’s books—the other was Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.

So Lita’s excited for two upcoming trips to Michigan this spring. On March 15-18 she’ll be doing two presentations at the Michigan Reading Association Conference in Detroit, and then she’s visiting 5 different elementary schools, including one in Pinckney Michigan. On April 26 she’ll be at the “Night for Notables” which starts at the governor’s mansion and then moves to the Library of Michigan. Then she’s doing library visits and events in the Detroit area through April 29. I’ll stay home and feed the cats.

(Click here - PDF of Michigan Notable Book Poster - if you want to download the full sized pdf which is about 1MB.)

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