Newsletter
Laurie Ann Thompson

BE A CHANGEMAKER

Summer 2015 roundup

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The days are (final­ly) get­ting cool­er and damper here in the Pacif­ic North­west and most of the kids are back in school, so it seems like a good time to reflect on the summer.
I typ­i­cal­ly don’t get to do much writ­ing-relat­ed work over the sum­mer, since the kids are home from school and the sun is shin­ing, but this sum­mer was filled with fun and excit­ing author events!

2015-07-11 Andersons Bookshop kids books extravaganza 2First, I got to par­tic­i­pate in a huge author pan­el at Ander­son­’s Book­shop in Naperville, IL. The kids’ books extrav­a­gan­za on July 11th includ­ed some of my best friends in the indus­try, includ­ing Chris­tine Hayes, Ruth Bar­shaw, Lyn­da Hunt, Keyan Atte­ber­ry, Jen­nifer Cham­b­liss Bert­man, Tara Dair­man, Janet Fox, and Amy Finnegan. It was even more won­der­ful because I got to meet the very spe­cial some­one who wrote one of my all-time favorite reviews Emmanuel’s Dream, Kee­gan Knott, and it was her birth­day, too! I got a hug. It’s a day I won’t soon for­get, let me tell you. Thank you Ander­son­’s and Kee­gan for the won­der­ful mem­o­ries! =D

EMLA costume partyNext I head­ed to the Erin Mur­phy Lit­er­ary Agency client retreat at The Abbey Resort at Lake Gene­va. I can’t even begin to explain what a pow­er­ful, amaz­ing this annu­al event is for me, and this year was no dif­fer­ent. We do lots of fun, sil­ly things like the cos­tume par­ty, but we also do a lot of learn­ing, net­work­ing, shar­ing, con­nect­ing, grow­ing, and more. I feel so blessed to be a part of this community!
2015-07-12 Mustard Museum2015-07-12 St LouisIMG_2675From there I con­tin­ued on down to St. Louis to sign books at ILA and con­duct a research trip. Our first stop was the Nation­al Mus­tard Muse­um.

What am I research­ing there, you ask? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see! St. Louis was beau­ti­ful, ILA was a lot of fun, and I even got to go to
Cyn­thia Levin­son’s book launch par­ty for Watch Out for Fly­ing Kids while I was there. Plus, the research trip was a huge suc­cess. I can’t wait to get back to work on that manuscript!

I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to appear at sev­er­al sum­mer camps, includ­ing one on being a change­mak­er and anoth­er on ear­ly lit­er­a­cy, which I loved, and I did inter­views on two dif­fer­ent live radio programs.

IMG_2956Last but cer­tain­ly not least, I also spoke at the Pacif­ic North­west Library Asso­ci­a­tion (PNLA) annu­al con­fer­ence in Port­land with two of my favorite non­fic­tion authors, Mary Cronk Far­rell and Eliz­a­beth Rusch, and I did my first sto­ry­time for My Dog Is the Best at Uni­ver­si­ty Book­store in Bellevue.
It was a busy, ful­fill­ing sum­mer, and now I’m look­ing for­ward to some qui­et writ­ing time!
 

Be a Changemaker wins COVR Book of the Year!

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BaC at COVR awards-DSC_5012-2Each year the Coali­tion of Vision­ary Resources gives Vision­ary Awards to win­ners select­ed from the best prod­ucts in the Mind/Body/Spirit mar­ket­place. The 18th Annu­al Vision­ary Awards were announced at the INATS Awards Ban­quet on June 27, 2015.BaC at COVR awards-DSC_4627
I’m beyond thrilled to share that Be a Change­mak­er: How to Start Some­thing that Mat­ters was select­ed not only as the Best Chil­dren’s and Teen’s Book, but it was also named COV­R’s Book of the Year!

BaC COVR BotY

 

Whit­ney Dif­f­endor­fer, Mar­ket­ing Direc­tor at Beyond Words, with the award

Radio Interview: Sister Jenna’s America Meditating

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I had the great good for­tune to be on anoth­er radio show a cou­ple of weeks ago, this time with Sis­ter Jen­na on Amer­i­ca Med­i­tat­ing.
I come on at about 15:28, talk­ing about my writ­ing jour­ney, Be a Change­mak­er, and Emmanuel’s Dream.
I hope you enjoy listening!

Check Out Self Help Pod­casts at Blog Talk Radio with Amer­i­ca Med­i­tat­ing on BlogTalkRadio

 

Thank you to Sis­ter Jen­na and her assis­tant, Anto­nia, for the inter­view and also for their won­der­ful, pos­i­tive ener­gy through­out. It was a plea­sure to participate!

 

Radio Interview: Brooke Taylor’s A Special Connection

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I recent­ly had the hon­or of being inter­viewed by Brooke Tay­lor on her inspir­ing radio show, A Spe­cial Con­nec­tion on WHKW AM1220 in Cleve­land, Ohio. Brooke just hap­pened to have stum­bled across one of my books at her local pub­lic library and was moved by it, so she reached out to me to talk about it.
The whole show is fan­tas­tic, but if you’re in a rush, we start dis­cussing Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Sto­ry of Emmanuel Ofo­su Yeboah at about the 31:58 mark, and Be a Change­mak­er: How to Start Some­thing that Mat­ters at about 45:37.
I hope you’ll enjoy listening!
https://soundcloud.com/living-the-word/a‑special-connection-with-brooke-taylor-july-25th-2015
What fun! Huge thanks to both Brooke and her pro­duc­er, Brett Crowe, for mak­ing it such a pleasure.
I’ve got a cou­ple more radio inter­views in the works as well, so please stay tuned for more audio in the com­ing weeks!

Be a Changemaker wins a Crystal Kite Award!

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Be a Changemaker cover

Be a Changemaker coverIt’s a huge hon­or to announce that Be a Change­mak­er has won the Soci­ety of Chil­dren’s Book Writ­ers & Illus­tra­tors’ (SCBWI) Crys­tal Kite Award for the West divi­sion, which includes Washington/Oregon/Alaska/Idaho/Montana/North Dakota/South Dako­ta! This award is vot­ed on by oth­er SCBWI mem­bers, who are also authors and illus­tra­tors, so it’s espe­cial­ly reward­ing to be recognized.
Win­ning is a bit bit­ter­sweet, though. First, there were so many great books in the over­all list of eli­gi­ble titles (includ­ing the one I vot­ed for, which did­n’t make the finals). Sec­ond, the oth­er three final­ists are all fan­tas­tic books, writ­ten by a trio of love­ly authors whom I’m glad to call my friends. I hon­est­ly would’ve been just as hap­py to see any of these fine books win as I am to see my own. If you haven’t seen these yet, please check them out!

This year’s Crys­tal Kite Award announce­ment was excit­ing for anoth­er rea­son, too. My friend and agent-sis­ter Tara Dair­man won the South­west divi­sion with her book, All Four Stars! I love All Four Stars, and I’m thrilled to see it get this recog­ni­tion. Con­grat­u­la­tions, Tara!

It was also pret­ty great to see so many awe­some non­fic­tion books mak­ing the list this year. Here are some of my favorites:

California/Hawaii New Eng­land New York

 
Thank you to all who vot­ed! For a com­plete list of all the 2015 win­ners, click here.

How has volunteerism impacted you–what’s your story?

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Hap­py Nation­al Vol­un­teer Week!CelebrateService logo
Accord­ing to the Points of Light web­site, “Nation­al Vol­un­teer Week, April 12–18, 2015, is about… tak­ing action and encour­ag­ing indi­vid­u­als and their respec­tive com­mu­ni­ties to be at the cen­ter of social change – dis­cov­er­ing and active­ly demon­strat­ing their col­lec­tive pow­er to make a difference.”
That sounds a whole lot like the mes­sage behind Be a Change­mak­er, don’t you think? I thought so, so I decid­ed to help spread the word about an ini­tia­tive asso­ci­at­ed with Nation­al Vol­un­teer Week called “What’s Your Sto­ry?” The pur­pose of that effort is to cel­e­brate peo­ple who are doing awe­some things and encour­age oth­ers to get involved. You can play along by shar­ing your sto­ry, tag­ging friends and ask­ing, “What’s Your Sto­ry?” and use #NVW2015 in hopes of get­ting #NVW2015 to trend on Twitter.
As for me per­son­al­ly, my most recent vol­un­teer work was yes­ter­day, help­ing to stuff 370+ attendee fold­ers, orga­niz­ing hand­outs, and get­ting pre­pared for the SCBWI West­ern Wash­ing­ton’s annu­al con­fer­ence for writ­ers and illus­tra­tors. It was hard work, and the group of a dozen or so of us were focused and busy for four hours, yet there were hugs, and laugh­ter, and dough­nuts, and it felt absolute­ly won­der­ful to be a part of. The con­fer­ence itself kicks off on Fri­day, and I’ll be busy par­tic­i­pat­ing in and vol­un­teer­ing at it for three days straight. It’s an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence every year. I can’t wait!
For more infor­ma­tion on Nation­al Vol­un­teer Week, the “What’s Your Sto­ry” cam­paign, or how you can play along on Twit­ter, Insta­gram, and/or Face­book, vis­it the Points of Light web page here.

 
 
 

Announcing the book giveaway winners!

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Be a Changemaker cover

A cou­ple of weeks ago I announced give­aways here and on Goodreads for both Be a Change­mak­er and Emmanuel’s Dream. We have winners!
From my list of newslet­ter sub­scribers, cho­sen by Random.org, the win­ners are…
Be a Changemaker coverJim McGin­ley wins a signed copy of Be a Change­mak­er! I swear it was com­plete­ly ran­dom, but this is just so per­fect. Jim was one of the very first peo­ple to help and encour­age me on my quest to write this book, and his ear­ly sup­port meant a lot to me. He’s even men­tioned in the acknowl­edge­ments. Some­times fate is hard to deny, you know?
Emmanuel's Dream coverThe win­ner of a signed copy of Emmanuel’s Dream is Lind­say Fouts! This seems like a great fit, too, since Lind­say is both a pic­ture book writer and the moth­er of a young son. I hope they enjoy the book.
And on Goodreads, the win­ners were far flung: Adage from Roma­nia won Be a Change­mak­er, and Jessy from India won Emmanuel’s Dream. Yes, it’ll cost me a lit­tle extra in postage, but it’s excit­ing to know that my books will be trav­el­ing around the world!
Final­ly, in case any­one is curi­ous, some give­away stats from Goodreads…

  • 1004 peo­ple request­ed Emmanuel’s Dream and 464 added it to their To-Read shelf, and
  • 1441 peo­ple request­ed Be a Change­mak­er and 610 added it to their To-Read shelf.

 
 
 

Let’s celebrate with a giveaway (or four)!

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MY DOG IS THE BEST cover

I’m so hap­py about the recent acco­lades my books have received that I’ve decid­ed to host not just one giveaway–but FOUR!
To cel­e­brate the fact that BE A CHANGEMAKER: HOW TO START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS was a final­ist for the Cybils awards, I’ll be giv­ing away a signed copy of the paper­back edi­tion on Goodreads, here:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Be a Changemaker by Laurie Ann Thompson

Be a Changemaker

by Laurie Ann Thompson

Give­away ends April 02, 2015. 

See the give­away details
at Goodreads. 

Enter to win


To cel­e­brate the starred review from School Library Jour­nal for EMMANUEL’S DREAM: THE TRUE STORY OF EMMANUEL OFOSU YEBOAH, I’ll be giv­ing away a signed copy on Goodreads, here:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson

Emmanuel’s Dream

by Laurie Ann Thompson

Give­away ends April 02, 2015. 

See the give­away details
at Goodreads. 

Enter to win


AND, I’ll give away a signed copy of either one (win­ners get to choose!) to two ran­dom sub­scribers to my mail­ing list. If you’re not a sub­scriber yet, just sign up below. (I only send a short newslet­ter once/month.)

Subscribe to my mailing list

* indi­cates required



Email For­mat

MY DOG IS THE BEST coverFinal­ly, School Library Jour­nal recent­ly called my upcom­ing release “well-exe­cut­ed and charm­ing.” I can’t give this one away just yet (it will release on June 9, 2015), but feel free to share the MY DOG IS THE BEST love by adding it to your Goodreads shelf and/or pre-order­ing it at one of the fol­low­ing links:
My Dog Is the Best


Be a Changemaker is a Cybils award finalist!

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I woke up this morn­ing to news that Be a Change­mak­er made the list of final­ists for the 2014 Chil­dren’s and Young Adult Blog­ger’s Lit­er­ary Award, bet­ter known as the Cybils, in the Non­fic­tion for Young Adults cat­e­go­ry. What a way to kick off 2015!
The nom­i­na­tions in this cat­e­go­ry were var­ied and impres­sive, and the books that made the final­ist list are tru­ly among the best I’ve read all year. It’s an incred­i­ble hon­or to have my book in such amaz­ing company!

Alice + Freda cover Alice + Fre­da For­ev­er: A Mur­der in Mem­phis by Alex­is Coe
Be a Changemaker cover Be a Change­mak­er: How to Start Some­thing That Mat­ters by Lau­rie Ann Thompson
Beyond Magenta cover Beyond Magen­ta: Trans­gen­der Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Popular cover Pop­u­lar: Vin­tage Wis­dom for a Mod­ern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen
Family Romanov cover The Fam­i­ly Romanov: Mur­der, Rebel­lion, and the Fall of Impe­r­i­al Rus­sia by Can­dace Fleming
Freedom Summer Murders cover The Free­dom Sum­mer Mur­ders by Don Mitchell
Port Chicago 50 cover The Port Chica­go 50: Dis­as­ter, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civ­il Rights by Steve Sheinkin

Thanks, Pat Ziet­low Miller, for nom­i­nat­ing it in the first place. Thanks, Stephanie Charlefour at Love. Life. Read., for the final­ist write-up, and to the entire pan­el (also includ­ing Aaron Mau­r­er from Cof­fee for the Brain, Michelle Lock­wood from Blogs Like a Girl, Karen Ball from Mrs. B’s Favorites, and Danyelle Leach from Book­shelves in the Cul-de–Sac) for read­ing, con­sid­er­ing, and ulti­mate­ly select­ing it. I’ve been a first round Cybils judge twice and am a sec­ond round judge in a dif­fer­ent cat­e­go­ry this year, so I know what a lot of hard work and ded­i­ca­tion goes into it! Final­ly, thanks to the peo­ple who keep the Cybils run­ning. It’s one of my favorite awards in chil­dren’s books as a read­er, author, and judge. I’m always glad to be a part of it, so hav­ing my own book make that final­ist list means even more to me. Kidlit blog­gers ROCK! 🙂

Need a gift idea for a teen in your life?

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Be a Changemaker gift wrapped

Last Fri­day, I had the great plea­sure of par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Annu­al Hol­i­day & Ben­e­fit Par­ty at Park­place Books, a love­ly inde­pen­dent book­store in Kirk­land, WA. The event was fes­tive and well attend­ed, and I had the chance to talk with some of my favorite local authors as well as many of the cus­tomers who came in to see us.
I also got to sign a lot of books: it seems Be a Change­mak­er is a hit for hol­i­day gift giving!
Be a Changemaker gift wrapped
For the teens (and adults) on your list, you can buy BE A CHANGEMAKER at your local inde­pen­dent book­store (find them on IndieBound), or online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Powell’s.
And, if you need more book­ish gift ideas for teens this hol­i­day sea­son, check out this post from the Teen Librar­i­an’s Tool­box on how to buy books for the teens (or any­one, real­ly) on your shop­ping list.
Hap­py holidays!

Bow image originally from Joanne, on Flickr: “02/05/2014: Brown bow tied onto package”.

 

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