Newsletter
Laurie Ann Thompson

Awards

Good news for You Are a Raccoon!

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award flyer page 1

You Are a Raccoon cover image
I’m so excit­ed to share that YOU ARE A RACCOON! has won the Mary­land Blue Crab Young Read­ers Award for Begin­ning Nonfiction!

Each year, a com­mit­tee for the Mary­land Library Asso­ci­a­tion (MLA) selects  one win­ning book and up to three hon­or books to receive an award in each of the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories: Begin­ning Read­er Fic­tion, Begin­ning Read­er Non­fic­tion, Tran­si­tion­al Fic­tion, Tran­si­tion­al Non­fic­tion. The purpose of the award is to iden­ti­fy and pro­mote the best fic­tion and non­fic­tion books pub­lished at the K‑2nd grade read­ing lev­el (ear­ly read­ers) and at the 2nd-4th grade read­ing lev­el (tran­si­tion­al read­ers), both for chil­dren read­ing at grade lev­el and for reluc­tant old­er read­ers; to provide teach­ers, librar­i­ans, and care­givers with a resource list of excel­lent books for begin­ning read­ers; and to encour­age pub­lish­ers, authors, and illus­tra­tors to cre­ate high-qual­i­ty books for begin­ning readers.

Here are this year’s win­ners in all categories:

award flyer page 1 award flyer page 2

It’s a huge hon­or to win, and I’m so grate­ful to the com­mit­tee for select­ing YOU ARE A RACCOON!

Emmanuel’s Dream wins CA Young Reader Medal!

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A few weeks ago I was hon­ored to trav­el to Pasade­na, CA, to the Cal­i­for­nia Library Asso­ci­a­tion con­fer­ence to receive the Cal­i­for­nia Young Read­er Medal for Emmanuel’s Dream. This is a very spe­cial award because the win­ning book in each cat­e­go­ry is cho­sen by the kids themselves.
First, the award tea itself. There were teas and sand­wich­es and all kinds of yum­mies, and look at the love­ly decorations:

stage decorations
The edge of the stage, with the book cov­ers and oth­er images inspired by the stories.

cup and saucer with tiny bicycle and horse
Bicy­cles for Emmanuel’s Dream, hors­es for The War that Saved My Life.

It was fun hear­ing the oth­er speak­ers and get­ting to chat with the librar­i­ans dur­ing the book sign­ing. And it all came with an hon­est-to-good­ness medal!

front of medal
The front of the medal.

back of medal
The back of the medal.

After the cer­e­mo­ny, I had some time to walk around and explore the city. The weath­er was per­fect, and Pasade­na is lovely.

Quote on electrical box
I loved the quotes paint­ed onto the elec­tri­cal boxes!

I stum­bled upon a street fair in hon­or of Day of the Dead. There were many tal­ent­ed artists sell­ing their wares, ven­dors, music, danc­ing, a pup­pet show, and chalk art! There were a lot of peo­ple out and about enjoy­ing the fes­tive atmosphere.
chalk artist at work
A chalk artist at work dur­ing the street fair.

A beard­ed drag­on named Robert, enjoy­ing the street fair with his pet boy.

I, of course, had to vis­it the local inde­pen­dent book­store, Vroman’s!

bookstore shelves
A nice dis­play at Vroman’s

The nice young women work­ing there rec­om­mend­ed Tre­jo’s Can­ti­na for din­ner, and it was so delicious!
Mexican rice bowl
Deli­cious din­ner at Tre­jo’s Cantina!

The Vro­man’s gals also told me not to miss the new ice cream shop in town, Wan­der­lust, which fea­tures fla­vors based on exot­ic trav­el des­ti­na­tions. They had me at ice cream! It was well worth the walk. I chose hon­ey laven­der, and it was divine.
So many inter­est­ing flavors!

As you can see, it was an amaz­ing trip. Thank you so much, Cal­i­for­nia young readers! 🙂

Good news for Emmanuel’s Dream

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It is so hard for me to believe that I’m still get­ting good news about Emmanuel’s Dream more than three years after it was pub­lished! I thought I’d share some of the most excit­ing bits with you here:
LittleFreeLibrary Action Book Club logoFirst, you’ve heard of lit­tle free libraries, right? Have you heard about the Lit­tle Free Library orga­ni­za­tion? If not, def­i­nite­ly check them out, here. They are doing all kinds of great things, but per­haps my favorite is their Action Book Club™. In a new twist on the tra­di­tion­al book club, this part­ner­ship between Lit­tle Free Libraries and Read­ing Is Fun­da­men­tal (RIF) invites par­tic­i­pants to read books on time­ly top­ics, engage in live­ly dis­cus­sions, and take part in meaningful—and fun—group ser­vice projects to ben­e­fit their com­mu­ni­ties. How is that for com­bin­ing two of my favorite things: read­ing and social engage­ment!? Plus, Action Book Club mem­bers can share their expe­ri­ences online, which helps spread a rip­ple effect of pos­i­tive activ­i­ty across the coun­try and around the world. I love every­thing about this idea, so it was super excit­ing to learn that Lit­tle Free Library select­ed Emmanuel’s Dream for their cur­rent Action Book Club theme of Every­day Heroes, “which cel­e­brates acts of brav­ery, char­ac­ter, and kind­ness that trans­form our world in ways big and small.”
Illinois Monarch Award logoSec­ond, the Illi­nois School Library Media Asso­ci­a­tion (ISLMA) announced that Emmanuel’s Dream is includ­ed on their 2019 Monarch Award Mas­ter List. This means that stu­dents and their teach­ers in par­tic­i­pat­ing schools will be encour­aged to include Emmanuel’s Dream and the 19 oth­er titles on the mas­ter list in their read­ing or lis­ten­ing expe­ri­ences dur­ing the school year, and then stu­dents will vote for their favorite! The author and illus­tra­tor of the book receiv­ing the high­est num­ber of votes in the statewide bal­lot­ing will be declared the win­ners of the Monarch Award and will be invit­ed to attend the ISLMA con­fer­ence and par­tic­i­pate in pro­grams to fea­ture and hon­or him or her. Squee! I love the ones where stu­dents get to vote. Every­one wins!
El Sueno de Emmanuel coverLast, but not least, I’m thrilled that the Span­ish edi­tion of Emmanuel’s Dream is not only avail­able, but it’s avail­able for read­ers of Span­ish who live here in the U.S., too! A huge thanks to Men­sajero for mak­ing this edi­tion pos­si­ble and spread­ing Emmanuel’s inspir­ing story.
That’s all for now. Thanks so much for read­ing. =D
 

Great news for TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE!

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2018 is off to a great start so far with a bevy of awards and acco­lades for Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive!, and I’m so excit­ed to share the lat­est good news with you here!

TLA Topaz list logoFirst, the Texas Library Asso­ci­a­tion include it on their 2018 Texas Topaz Non­fic­tion Read­ing List. Accord­ing to TLA, the Topaz List “high­lights recent­ly pub­lished non­fic­tion gems for read­ers of all ages. Adult ser­vices and youth ser­vices librar­i­ans serve on sep­a­rate com­mit­tees that con­sid­er hun­dreds of non­fic­tion titles for adults and youth respec­tive­ly. The librar­i­ans debate the mer­its, appeal, and impor­tance of the works to curate a list of engag­ing non­fic­tion titles intend­ed to reveal new or lit­tle-known infor­ma­tion, open doors to oth­er worlds, or intro­duce fresh voic­es. With titles for adults and chil­dren PreK-grade 12, there is some­thing for every­one on the Topaz list!”
Texas librar­i­ans ROCK, and being on this list is an incred­i­ble honor! 
Nerdy Book Club bannerNext, the Nerdy Book Club announced their 2017 Nerdies for Long Form Non­fic­tion. I love read­ing this blog, and their pas­sion for chil­dren’s books real­ly comes through. Plus, some of my favorite books and authors are on this list, so I lit­er­al­ly gasped out loud when I scrolled down far enough to see the cov­er of Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! Thank you, Nerdy Book Club! So exciting!!
Cybils 2017 bannerThen, the Cybils announced their 2017 Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fic­tion Final­ists, and Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! was on their list, too! Again, there are some amaz­ing books here (includ­ing Zoo Sci­en­tists to the Res­cue and Fred Kore­mat­su Speaks Up, which I reviewed in past posts here), and I have been a Cybils judge in the past (so I know how seri­ous­ly they take their work!). Being a Cybils final­ist is an unbe­liev­able thrill!
Booklist Lasting Connections bannerFinal­ly, Book­list shared some love, in both their Spe­cial Fea­ture: Last­ing Con­nec­tions 2017 and Edi­tors’ Choice: Books for Youth, 2017.
Last­ing Con­nec­tions high­lights their top 30 choic­es for the K–8 class­room, all pub­lished in the pre­vi­ous year and all select­ed for their nat­ur­al con­nec­tions across the cur­ricu­lum and to the Com­mon Core State and Next Gen­er­a­tion Sci­ence Standards. 
Booklist Editors' Choice bannerAnd the Edi­tor’s Choice list is select­ed by the Books for Youth edi­to­r­i­al staff, who are “com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing a broad selec­tion of out­stand­ing books that mix­es pop­u­lar appeal with lit­er­ary excel­lence,” as best-of-the-year non­fic­tion and fic­tion books and pic­ture books. Wow!

Hav­ing a book that you’ve worked hard on appear on lists like these is tru­ly a dream come true, and I could­n’t be hap­pi­er with this news. Cheers to 2018!

More good news for Emmanuel’s Dream!

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Great news: Emmanuel’s Dream has been select­ed to the 2017 IBBY Out­stand­ing Books for Young Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties!
2017 IBBY Selection catalog cover
Every two years, the Inter­na­tion­al Board on Books for Young Peo­ple (IBBY) choos­es out­stand­ing books for and about chil­dren and young peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. This bien­ni­al selec­tion draws atten­tion to books pub­lished around the world, in an exten­sive vari­ety of lan­guages and for­mats, that address spe­cial needs and sit­u­a­tions and which encour­age inclu­sion at every lev­el. Books select­ed as 2017 out­stand­ing titles are fea­tured in a print cat­a­logue that will be launched at this year’s Bologna Chil­dren’s Book Fair in Italy on Mon­day, April 3rd. Out­stand­ing titles become part of The IBBY Col­lec­tion of Books for Young Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties, a one-of-a-kind resource. Con­sist­ing of 4,000 mul­ti­lin­gual books, the IBBY col­lec­tion is locat­ed at North York Cen­tral Library in Cana­da, part of the Toron­to Pub­lic Library.
Thanks, IBBY!!

Great news for TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE!

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Two Truths and a Lie cover
Two Truths and a Lie cover Junior Library Guild Selection seal

I’m thrilled to be able to share that the first book in the TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE series, IT’S ALIVE!, has been cho­sen by the Junior Library Guild as a Fall 2017 selec­tion for the Ele­men­tary Non­fic­tion cat­e­go­ry (for grades 2–6).
This is very excit­ing news, because it means the book will be head­ing to libraries across the coun­try for kids to check out and enjoy!
It’s also real­ly encour­ag­ing, because, accord­ing to their web­site, the JLG edi­to­r­i­al team reviews over 3,000 new titles each year and selects only around 800 for the pro­gram. The Junior Library Guild Selec­tion des­ig­na­tion is unique in that it is typ­i­cal­ly award­ed far in advance of pub­li­ca­tion. As one of the first awards giv­en through­out the life of a book, it is often viewed as a bell­wether of future suc­cess, with more than 95 per­cent of JLG selec­tions going on to receive awards and/or favor­able reviews!
So, keep your fin­gers crossed. Here’s hop­ing for even more good news yet to come!
 

Emmanuel’s Dream a WA State Book Award Finalist!

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Washington State Book Awards logoThe Wash­ing­ton Cen­ter for the Book announced the Wash­ing­ton State Book Award final­ists for 2016, and I’m hon­ored to say that Emmanuel’s Dream is among the three final­ists for the Scan­di­uzzi Chil­dren’s Book Award in the Pic­ture Book category!
The Wash­ing­ton Cen­ter for the Book at The Seat­tle Pub­lic Library announces the Wash­ing­ton State Book Awards final­ists in eight cat­e­gories for out­stand­ing books pub­lished by Wash­ing­ton authors in the pre­vi­ous year. This is the 50th year of the pro­gram, for­mer­ly called the Gov­er­nor’s Writ­ers Awards. The book awards are giv­en based on the strength of the pub­li­ca­tions’ lit­er­ary mer­it, their last­ing impor­tance, and their over­all qual­i­ty to an author who was born in Wash­ing­ton state or is a cur­rent res­i­dent and has main­tained res­i­dence here for at least three years.
Win­ners will be announced at the awards cel­e­bra­tion, held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, Oct. 8, at the Cen­tral Library. The awards pro­gram will fea­ture emcee Frances McCue, an award-win­ning poet and arts admin­is­tra­tor who received the Wash­ing­ton State Book Award for poet­ry in 2011 for “The Bled.” The pro­gram also fea­tures brief read­ings from 2016 win­ning titles. A recep­tion and book sign­ing will fol­low in the Liv­ing Room on Lev­el 3 of the Cen­tral Library. The awards and cel­e­bra­tion are spon­sored by The Seat­tle Pub­lic Library Foundation.
Con­grat­u­la­tions to all of the final­ists, espe­cial­ly to friends Deb­o­rah Under­wood, Martha Brock­en­brough, Kel­ly Jones, and Jes­sixa Bagley!

ALA Schneider Family Book Award… and photos!

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It may have been announced more than six months ago, but the ALA Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Book Award was­n’t actu­al­ly pre­sent­ed until the end of June, at the ALA Annu­al Con­fer­ence in Orlan­do. I final­ly have some pho­tos to share from this won­der­ful event hon­or­ing Emmanuel’s Dream, along with three oth­er won­der­ful books by fab­u­lous authors.

None of my flights went as planned, but I final­ly arrived late at night and went straight to bed. I spent Sat­ur­day find­ing my way around the exhi­bi­tion hall and chat­ting with oth­er kidlit folks who I hap­pened to bump into, like these love­ly agency-mates!
Peter Salomon, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Nancy Day, and me
Peter Salomon, Lyn­da Mul­laly Hunt, Nan­cy Day, and myself

Laurie Ann Thompson and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Lau­rie Ann Thomp­son and Olugbe­miso­la Rhuday-Perkovich

Me, Nancy Day, Chris Barton, and Peter Salomon
Me, Nan­cy Day, Chris Bar­ton, and Peter Salomon
Then, that evening was the Ran­dom House “fam­i­ly din­ner.” I love these events, because they’re often the first time you get to meet–and thank!–many of the peo­ple who’ve been work­ing hard to make your book suc­cess­ful. This one was extra spe­cial, because it was the first time I got to meet my edi­tor, Anne Schwartz. Squee! She is just as love­ly in per­son as over email, and we all had a won­der­ful evening.
After­ward I met up with the fab­u­lous Miran­da Paul and we hung out at the We Need Diverse Books par­ty, the Simon & Schus­ter par­ty (I got a copy of Scraps signed by Lois Ehlert!!!), and the Nerdy Book Club par­ty. There were great peo­ple all around, and at every stop I was remind­ed that this is a very good busi­ness to be in. I could­n’t stay out too late, though, because Sun­day was the busy day!
First thing Sun­day morn­ing, I ran into the huge poster in the hall­way of the con­ven­tion cen­ter, and yes, I total­ly teared up, and yes, it was right before our signings.
Schneider award poster
The ALA Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Award poster

We start­ed out with back-to-back sign­ings on the exhi­bi­tion floor on Sun­day morn­ing, first for Ran­dom House, then for Follett.
Sean Qualls and I
Sean Qualls and I get­ting ready to sign

Then we went to the pho­to ses­sion for the Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Awards…
ALAannual2016 3440 Sean and Laurie
fol­lowed by the cer­e­mo­ny itself!
ALAannual2016 3138-stage
Shneider stage from audience
Then it was off to the Pres­i­den­t’s Recep­tion. (Thank you, Krista Mari­no, for the wine!)
That was fol­lowed by the New­bery Calde­cott Ban­quet. What a treat! Every one of the speech­es was pow­er­ful and mov­ing, and I got teary all over again. After­ward, I got to catch up with one of my favorite kidlit blog­gers, Michele Knott! 🙂
Michele Knott and Laurie Ann Thompson
Michele Knott and Lau­rie Ann Thompson

Still, Mon­day was arguably the best day yet. We were treat­ed to the inti­mate Schnei­der Fam­i­ly Award lun­cheon, where we got to meet the award com­mit­tee, ALA rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the oth­er win­ners, and the agents and edi­tors asso­ci­at­ed with the win­ning books. The high­light of the lun­cheon was when we got to con­fer­ence call with the award’s spon­sor, Dr. Kather­ine Schnei­der. She told us she’d read, and loved, all of our books, and shared why the award was so impor­tant to her. We were all moved by the con­ver­sa­tion, and I’m extreme­ly grate­ful to have been able to participate.

Schneider winners and committee
Flights were a bit of a stress-induc­ing mess on the way home, too, but I did­n’t real­ly care: The whole ALA expe­ri­ence was 100% worth it! Huge thanks to ALA, Dr. Schnei­der and the com­mit­tee mem­bers, Anne Schwartz and the whole out­stand­ing team at Ran­dom House, Ammi-Joan Paque­tte and every­one at Erin Mur­phy Lit­er­ary Agency, the tal­ent­ed and classy Sean Qualls, and the inspir­ing Emmanuel Ofo­su Yeboah join­ing me on this incred­i­ble journey. 

Good news for MY DOG IS THE BEST!

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MY DOG IS THE BEST cover

MY DOG IS THE BEST cover
I’m tick­led to share some good news about MY DOG IS THE BEST with you today:

 
First, it was list­ed in the CCBC Choic­es 2016 by the Coop­er­a­tive Children’s Book Center!

 
Sec­ond, it was also award­ed a 2015 Blue Rib­bon from The Bul­letin of the Cen­ter for Children’s Books (BCCB)!

 
My Dog Is the Best activity kit coverThird, I worked with Curi­ous City to devel­op a free sto­ry­time and canine craft kit for edu­ca­tors, librar­i­ans, and par­ents, and I think it turned out beau­ti­ful­ly. Just down­load and print, and you’ve got a ready-made activ­i­ty plan to go along with the book. Enjoy!

 
Final­ly, I can’t remem­ber if I men­tioned this or not, but now that the date is approach­ing, I’m get­ting more and more excit­ed… My Dog Is the Best will soon be pub­lished in Japan! It is expect­ed to release this sum­mer, and in an even small­er (and cuter!) trim size. I’ll keep you posted!

 

Wonderful news for Emmanuel’s Dream!

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There’s been a bunch of excit­ing news regard­ing Emmanuel’s Dream late­ly, and I want­ed to share it all with you…

First, it was recent­ly select­ed as a Notable Book in the Children’s Africana Book Awards! One of my all-time favorite pic­ture books—One Plas­tic Bag by Miran­da Paul—was sim­i­lar­ly rec­og­nized, which makes this hon­or even more special.

 
Emmanuel’s Dream was also list­ed in the CCBC Choic­es 2016 by the Coop­er­a­tive Children’s Book Cen­ter and in the Bank Street Col­lege of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year for ages 5–9!

It was a final­ist for the 2015 CYBILS (Chil­dren’s and Young Adult Blog­gers’ Lit­er­ary) Awards in the Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fic­tion cat­e­go­ry. I’ve helped judge this cat­e­go­ry sev­er­al times, but obvi­ous­ly had to bow out this year! Since I know first­hand what a thor­ough, care­ful job the judges do to select the final­ists, it was tru­ly a thrill to have my book rec­og­nized for this award.

 
Emmanuel’s Dream has start­ed show­ing up on some state lists around the coun­try, too, which means even more kids will be read­ing it. That’s super excit­ing! Some of the state hon­ors I’m aware of so far include:

 
Last, but cer­tain­ly not least, I’ve learned that Emmanuel’s Dream will be pub­lished in Kore­an! One thing I always dreamed of was hav­ing my books pub­lished in anoth­er coun­try, and now I’ve got two (a Japan­ese ver­sion of My Dog Is the Best should be com­ing soon, too).

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