Fun and Games
It’s so much fun to imagine libraries all over the U.S. filled with eager girl ninjas figuring out rope puzzles, finding clues in the stacks, and eating Pocky! Download your copy of the ninja library game for Deadly Flowers!
Deadly Flowers Giveaway!
Deadly Flowers
Twenty-four lucky libraries got a free copy of Deadly Flowers in a giveaway created by the awesome and entertaining Curious City. They also got a chance to try a great interactive game that uses the book to help readers find their way around the stacks. Here’s what some had to say:
“A perfect book for the age group about making decisions.”
“Excited about this book!”
“How cool is this kit? I can’t wait to use it for a back-to-school event!! :)”
“I already know my kids are going to be interested in this book! Thank you for this opportunity!”
“I can’t wait to play this game with the library tweens!”
“I have students who will LOVE this!”
“I know just the right students for this book!”
“I know some kids that would enjoy this book!”
“I think my students will love this book!”
“Kids will love this!”
“Looks like a great book for our library!”
“My students love this type of book.”
“Nice to see a female taking the lead in an action adventure.”
“Our middle school students in our after school students would love this book!”
“Sounds great for my middle schoolers!”
“Sounds like a book the kids (and I) will love!”
“Sounds like a Great MS read for my students & pre-service teachers!”
“Sounds like an awesome story for our middle school readers!”
“The activity kit looks great.”
“This is a great giveaway! We have a really active manga patronage, and I think this would be a great book to entice them to the traditional print format.”
“This looks like a great book club title. Thanks!”
“This looks like a really great book! Thanks for the opportunity to share it with my patrons.”
“This looks like a very interesting read and I think it would be a big hit in our library!”
“This sounds so interesting!”
“This would be a great book to feature this summer when we have free lunch and could spend all afternoon running a ninja school training!”
“This would be great for my ninja fans!”
“This would be great for our bookclub!”
Ninjas In the Stacks!
My awesome publicist, Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, has created a thrilling ninja activity for bookstores and libraries! Readers will become book ninjas as they use their wits and dexterity and perhaps a card catalog to uncover clues and solve puzzles and perform challenges. Great, fun, and active–fabulous for grades 5-10. Check it out!
Mean Girls and Elementary School
So it happened a while back. Probably it happens to most kids eventually. My daughter was friends with a Mean Girl. You know, there were the promises of friendship and the gifts and the insults and the “I won’t play with you if you don’t do what I say.”
I told my brother and he yawned and said, “You can’t choose your kid’s friends.”
I told my writers’ group and we spent a good twenty minutes reviewing who said what to whom and hashing out the power dynamics. I mean, it’s material, people.
I promise, I don’t try to fight my daughter’s social battles for her, despite heavy temptation. And who knows, maybe this other kid’s mother also thought her daughter was friends with a Mean Girl. Probably they will both go to college despite all of this and grow up to live productive lives.
But I wonder–is it even harder for those of us who create children’s literature to keep that bit of distance that lets our kids become themselves? I swear, I had to bite my tongue when my girl came home from school so I didn’t ask breathlessly, “What did she do TODAY?” Oh, the bitter politics of the playground, the crushing anxiety about whether a friend of today is a friend for tomorrow, the dance of who sits next to whom. It’s not just my memories–it’s my work life. I take a pen in my hand and relive it over and over again.
(In my latest book, however, I made my main character a ninja who can solve social issues among her peer group by kicking people in the head. So there.)
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews