#AtHome learning using my books

The inspir­ing image above is a spread from my upcom­ing pic­ture book, ELIZABETH WARREN’S BIG, BOLD PLANS, illus­trat­ed by the amaz­ing Susan­na Chap­man and releas­ing on May 5 (hooray!). These days, it often feels hard to con­ceive of big, bold plans. I’ll admit, some days just get­ting out of my paja­mas feels like a vic­to­ry. And for those of those par­ent­ing or teach­ing young­sters and attempt­ing #AtH­ome learn­ing for the first time? Hats off to you!
To try to help you with your big, bold plans–or even the just-get­ting-through-today plans–I’ve been work­ing to cre­ate and assem­ble what­ev­er mate­ri­als I can that might be of assis­tance. I’ll con­tin­ue to add to this list as I get more requests (feel free to reach out if there’s some­thing spe­cif­ic you’d like!), ideas, and time. Hope­ful­ly, you can find access to the books via an online read-aloud, ebook down­load, inde­pen­dent book­store, or your own book­shelves. I hope these resources are help­ful for your #AtH­ome learn­ing efforts!


Emmanuels Dream cover with sticker
EMMANUEL’S DREAM: THE TRUE STORY OF EMMANUEL OFOSU YEBOAH


Two Truths and a Lie coverTwo Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries coverTTL3 Forces of Nature coverThe TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE series


Be a Changemaker coverBE A CHANGEMAKER: HOW TO START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS


MY DOG IS THE BEST-coverMY DOG IS THE BEST


Again, my goals here are to be as help­ful as pos­si­ble for YOU to con­tin­ue lead­ing #AtH­ome learn­ing, so please email me if there is any­thing spe­cif­ic I might be able to do, includ­ing ways to con­nect with your stu­dents. We’re all in this togeth­er, even while we’re apart. So, until we meet again, stay safe, #Stay­Home… and stay sane. xoxo

Happy book birthday to Forces of Nature!

Animated GIF of TTL Forces of Nature cover
Animated GIF of TTL Forces of Nature cover

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: FORCES OF NATURE, the third book in the series, is final­ly here! So, what’s this one about? Here’s an overview:

Crazy-but-true sto­ries make this acclaimed non­fic­tion series per­fect for fans of curiosi­ties and wonders—and any­one look­ing to explore ways to sep­a­rate fact from fiction.

Did you know stud­ies have shown that too many fid­get spin­ners spin­ning in the same direc­tion could poten­tial­ly have an adverse effect on Earth’s grav­i­ta­tion­al field? Or that there’s a com­pa­ny that can turn your deceased loved one’s remains into a dia­mond? Or that the loud­est record­ed sound in his­to­ry was made by the erup­tion of a vol­cano in 1883, whose echo­ing blast cir­cled the plan­et at least three times?

Wel­come to Two Truths and a Lie: Forces of Nature! You’ve heard of the game: Every sto­ry in this book is strange and astound­ing, but one out of every three is an out­right lie. Pick­ing out the fakes isn’t as easy as you think, how­ev­er. Some false sto­ries are based on truth, and some of the true sto­ries are just plain unbe­liev­able! Don’t be fooled by the pho­tos that accom­pa­ny each story—it’s going to take all your smarts and some clever research to fer­ret out the truth.

From a man who gave him­self an appen­dec­to­my to radio sig­nals from oth­er plan­ets to eagles that have been trained to take out spy drones, the sto­ries in this third install­ment in the Two Truths and a Lie series will amaze you! Just don’t believe every­thing you read.…

(Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins, June 2019)

Cre­at­ing a book is a high­ly col­lab­o­ra­tive process, and this book has had an incred­i­ble team work­ing on it from day one. Many, many thanks to my co-author, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte; our agent, Erin Mur­phy; our edi­tor, Jor­dan Brown; and all the won­der­ful folks at Walden Pond Press and Harper­Collins. It’s been an hon­or and a joy to work with you all on this book and the entire TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE series!

Buy it now, at your local inde­pen­dent book­store, or any­where books are sold! 

What I’ve Been Up To This Month

The month isn’t even over yet, but so much has been packed into the last few weeks it feels more like two months already! That’s not exact­ly an excuse for neglect­ing the blog, but, you know, life hap­pens. Anyway…

Beachside Nonfiction Workshop

I start­ed out the month at the Beach­side Non­fic­tion Work­shop with Can­dace Flem­ing & Jen­nifer Swan­son. It was amaz­ing! The fac­ul­ty were all stel­lar, the loca­tion was gor­geous, and the atten­dees were love­ly. It was fun hang­ing out with oth­er non­fic­tion geeks for an entire week­end. We all strug­gled to answer the “So, what do you write?” ques­tion, how­ev­er, since we can usu­al­ly just get away with “Non­fic­tion,” and have that be the end of it! I did­n’t take near­ly enough pho­tos, but here’s the view from my hotel balcony…

Yes, it was hard work. There were a lot of ses­sions, and they were most­ly mas­ter lev­el, plus net­work­ing and cri­tiques. I came away with so much use­ful infor­ma­tion and new ideas to apply to my works in progress. There were obvi­ous­ly some oth­er perks, too! 

Seattle Reading Council Appearance

In the mid­dle of the month, some of the mem­bers of my cri­tique group (and all agency-mates at Erin Mur­phy Lit­er­ary, as it turns out!), did an appear­ance at the Seat­tle Read­ing Coun­cil. It was a billed as a “Books and Choco­late” event… what could be bet­ter?! We each talked about our books and process and then took ques­tions. The crowd was most­ly teach­ers and librar­i­ans, so it made for a won­der­ful evening of shar­ing book love (and choco­late!) among like­mind­ed new friends. 

School visits

I had an ele­men­tary school vis­it where I got to talk to sev­er­al third-grade class­es about my writ­ing jour­ney, grit, and writ­ing with emo­tion, as well as sev­er­al fifth-grade class­es about eval­u­at­ing sources and spot­ting fake news. It was an awe­some vis­it with super-engaged audi­ences, but alas, no pho­tos. You’ll have to take my word for it!

I have anoth­er vis­it com­ing up ear­ly in June (the last one of the school year!), so I’ve been mak­ing sure every­thing is ready for that one, too. 

SCBWI-WWA Spring Conference

Final­ly, I attend­ed and helped with the SCBWI West­ern Wash­ing­ton’s spring con­fer­ence, Imag­ine That! It was a great week­end: hear­ing from inspir­ing speak­ers, get­ting feed­back on one of my works in progress from a pow­er­house edi­tor, and catch­ing up with author and illus­tra­tor friends in the indus­try. I’m still soak­ing it all up and pro­cess­ing what was said! Good stuff.

Book Releases!

Along with all of that I’ve been get­ting ready for the Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies paper­back release on May 21 AND prepar­ing for the upcom­ing new release of Two Truths and a Lie: Forces of Nature on June 25th! I’ve designed and ordered post­cards and swag, sched­uled social media announce­ments, and made oth­er plans to get the word out. 

TTL: Histories and Mysteries cover
TTL: Forces of Nature cover
 

Works in Progress…

And, of course, there are those works in progress, too! Ear­li­er this month I sub­mit­ted both a non­fic­tion pic­ture book revi­sion and a graph­ic nov­el pro­pos­al to my agent. I’m cur­rent­ly revis­ing a non­fic­tion pic­ture book, a fic­tion pic­ture book, and a mid­dle-grade non­fic­tion man­u­script. I’m also work­ing on a brand-new non­fic­tion pic­ture book draft and a young-adult non­fic­tion pro­pos­al. Busy, busy!

Yes, I do love my job. More so every day, in fact! =D

Happy National Trivia Day!

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
It may itself be a lit­tle-known fact, but Jan­u­ary 4th is Nation­al Triv­ia Day! To cel­e­brate, I thought I’d post some triv­ia tid­bits from Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies. Remem­ber, ONE of the claims in each set of three below fol­low­ing is false. Can you fig­ure out which one in each trio is the fake triv­i­um? (Did you know triv­ia is the plur­al of trivium?)
 

A.

  1. There’s an aban­doned cruise ship loaded with crazed, can­ni­bal rats drift­ing around some­where in the Atlantic Ocean. Beware!
  2. A banyan tree in Pak­istan was put under arrest by a British army offi­cer in 1898 and is still in chains today. Par­don, anyone?
  3. It’s ille­gal to chew gum in Singapore.

 

B.

  1. Ben Franklin wrote a trea­tise on why sci­en­tists should try to find a way to make farts smell better.
  2. Dog Island is an island oasis ded­i­cat­ed to let­ting dogs live out their wilder natures, undis­turbed by humans. Be free, Fifi.
  3. There’s an annu­al fes­ti­val in Spain cen­tered around throw­ing toma­toes at peo­ple. Food fight!

 

C.

  1. The old­est known den­tal fill­ings date back to between 12,740 and 13,000 years ago, and they were filled with, essen­tial­ly, tar. Ew.
  2. It’s ille­gal to own a pet tur­tle in Ice­land, and 1 in 10 chil­dren there grow up to become authors.
  3. I was once trapped in an ele­va­tor, alone, overnight. Scary!

 
If you don’t know all of the answers, go do some research and see if you can fig­ure them out! But be care­ful… things might not always be what they seem at first glance, and truth often is stranger than fiction.
For even more triv­ia fun, check out this post from Men­talFloss on Nation­al Triv­ia Day last year. I espe­cial­ly love the one about Ben & Jer­ry’s ice cream. (I’m a huge fan of their new Urban Bour­bon flavor!)
If you enjoyed these true (and not so true) triv­ia facts for Nation­al Triv­ia Day, or want to check your answers, make sure to check out the book: Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies!
Do you have any favorite triv­ia tid­bits? Please post them in the com­ments below (and be sure to warn us if they might not be 100% true)!

Happy holidays (and a gift idea)!


Are you buy­ing any of my books to give as a gift this hol­i­day sea­son? If so, thank you!
I’d be thrilled to send you a signed book­plate and some book swag for you to include with your gift. Just send an email to laurie@lauriethompson.com with the details (which book, to whom it should be per­son­al­ized, and what mail­ing address you’d like it sent to), and I’ll pop them in the mail for you ASAP.
And, again, thank you! It’s like giv­ing a gift to me, too. =D
Be a Changemaker gift wrapped

The Histories and Mysteries blog tour roundup

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
Our lat­est in the Two Truths and a Lie series, His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies, has been out for a few weeks now, and we were lucky enough to have it hit the web for its offi­cial blog tour right around pub­li­ca­tion day. Now that the dust has start­ed to set­tle a bit, I want­ed to share all of the in-depth reviews, edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als, and bonus con­tent that appeared over the course of the tour.

Many, many thanks to the hard-work­ing blog­gers who help share the book love and get the word out to book buy­ers and read­ers! Also, thank you yet again to the excel­lent folks at Walden Pond Press who put this event togeth­er. xoxo
You can find out more about the book and grab your copy here or here.

Launch party recap for Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries

Bookstore window display

I want­ed to share some of my favorite pho­tos from the Two Truths and a Lie: His­to­ries and Mys­ter­ies launch par­ty last Sat­ur­day at Brick and Mor­tar Books:

Bookstore window displayThis is the win­dow dis­play that greet­ed us when we arrived at Brick and Mor­tar Books! So nice!!

Bookstore table displayThey had loads of books ready for sale!

book signing The sign­ing line starts to form.

Laurie Ann Thompson signing a bookFun sign­ing books!

signing lineSign­ing line in progress.

Bookstore endcap displayBrick and Mor­tar even had a full end cap display!

What a great day! A huge thank you to Brick and Mor­tar Books for being such an amaz­ing host and to every­one who was able to make it. Brick and Mor­tar Books still has signed copies of all of the books, so feel free to stop in if you need any for your col­lec­tion! =D

Happy book birthday to Histories and Mysteries!

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES is final­ly here! It takes a lot of peo­ple work­ing togeth­er to cre­ate a book, and this book had such an amaz­ing team behind it. Many, many thanks to my co-author, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte; our agent, Erin Mur­phy; our edi­tor, Jor­dan Brown; and all the won­der­ful folks at Walden Pond Press and Harper­Collins. It’s been an hon­or and a joy to work with you all!
So, what’s this book all about? Well…

Did you know that a young girl once saved an entire beach com­mu­ni­ty from a dev­as­tat­ing tsuna­mi thanks to some­thing she learned in her fourth-grade geog­ra­phy les­son? Or that there is a per­son alive today who gen­er­ates her own mag­net­ic field? Or how about the fact that Ben­jamin Franklin once chal­lenged the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Brus­sels to devise a way to make farts smell good?
You know the game: Every sto­ry in this book is strange and astound­ing, but one out of every three is an out­right lie. Some false sto­ries are based on truth, and some of the true sto­ries are just plain unbe­liev­able! Don’t be fooled by the pho­tos that accom­pa­ny each story—it’s going to take all your smarts and some clever research to root out the alter­na­tive facts. Don’t believe every­thing you read! (Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins, June 2018)

Reviews:
“With the phrase ‘fake news’ being tossed around a great deal these days, this col­lec­tion of sto­ries in which one out of every three is a lie is both time­ly and enter­tain­ing…. Read­ers with a taste for triv­ia and the strange-but-true aspects of geog­ra­phy and his­to­ry will find much to enjoy.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Even dyed-in-the-wool skep­tics will be hard put to spot the ringers: foot­prints embed­ded in sand­stone on the roof of Kentucky’s Mam­moth Caves, den­tal fill­ings more than 12,000 years old, or a trove of lead tiles embed­ded with ancient Roman curs­es? Along with sug­ges­tions for side projects and dis­cus­sions, the authors offer fact lists con­tain­ing one false fac­toid as extra chal­lenges to read­ers’ creduli­ty. Hap­pi­ly, the back mat­ter includes expla­na­tions that iden­ti­fy the baloney, as well as a savvy guide to eval­u­at­ing infor­ma­tion sources.” —Book­list

Amazon logo Barnes and Noble logo indiesRed1_161x41_10-26-15 Powell's logo HarperCollins logo

Signed copies are avail­able from Brick and Mor­tar Books! 

GIF of Peanuts celebrating
 

Launch party for Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries

Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover

Please join me for the West Coast Launch Party for

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES

Saturday, June 30th, 2 PM **


A trivia-style game-show challenge… with prizes!

Q&A, exclusive behind-the-scenes gossip, and outtakes!

Book swag!

Charitable giving!

Free snacks and drinks!

Books, books, and more books!

Brick & Mortar Books
7430 164th Avenue Northeast
Redmond, WA 98052

To RSVP, please visit the event invitation here. Thanks!

** Come ear­ly to enjoy the fab­u­lous Red­mond Sat­ur­day Mar­ket before the event!

And, if you can’t make the par­ty but would like to order a signed copy, please call Brick and Mor­tar Books at 425–869-0606.

Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! (now in paperback)

Two Truths and a Lie cover

And I want to be a paper­back writer
Paper­back writer!
(cue music by the Beatles)

Two Truths and a Lie: It's Alive! cover
Now in paperback!

I’ve tech­ni­cal­ly already had one paper­back release, since Be a Change­mak­er: How to Start Some­thing that Mat­ters came out in hard­cov­er, paper­back, and e‑book all at the same time. That does­n’t make it any less excit­ing that Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive!, which came out in hard­cov­er last year, is now avail­able in a paper­back version!
Even bet­ter is that the paper­back ver­sion is awe­some, IMHO. Some of the things I love most about the hard­cov­er of this book are the vivid col­ors of the pho­tographs and graph­ics and the high-qual­i­ty paper they are print­ed on, so I won­dered how the paper­back would mea­sure up to that high bar. I need­n’t have wor­ried, because the paper­back is every bit is beau­ti­ful and sturdy.
In fact, the only dif­fer­ence is that it’s sig­nif­i­cant­ly cheap­er. And that is great news, because it means more kids will get a chance to own it! 🙂
Two Truths and a Lie: Histories and Mysteries cover
Avail­able June 26, 2018!

You can pur­chase the brand-new paper­back ver­sion from your local book­store, or find infor­ma­tion about order­ing the new paper­back ver­sion here.
In case you missed it, there’s a short inter­view with Ammi-Joan and me over at the Cybils blog, fol­low­ing our win in the Mid­dle Grade Non-Fic­tion cat­e­go­ry. You can check that out here.
And, if you’re so inclined, you can now pre-order TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES, which will be avail­able on June 26, 2018. You can get all of that infor­ma­tion here.
Final­ly, just for fun, here’s our SCBWI West­ern Wash­ing­ton play­ers, a.k.a. Band: Books, per­form­ing Pic­ture Book Writer (our spin­off ver­sion of the Bea­t­les’ song above), last May 10, 2017, fea­tur­ing Vikram Madan and Mike Cressy on gui­tar; Janet Lee Carey, Kather­ine Grace Bond, and Karen Lewis on vocals; Dana Sul­li­van on drums; Dori Hillestad But­ler on key­board; myself on bass (low­er right-hand cor­ner); and Dan Richards as pro­duc­er, stage man­ag­er, and road­ie. Many thanks to Vikram Madan for cap­tur­ing us on video!

NEWSLETTER
SIGN-UP