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Laurie Ann Thompson

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

#AtHome learning using my books

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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!

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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

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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!

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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)!

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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

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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

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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!

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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

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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)

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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!

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