This is not a donkey. This is a mule. When17 teachers went to Ethiopia this summer on a Fulbright Hayes study journey, they found out that mules are still a common way to reach villages, monastaries, new water projects. When I was growing up in Maji, mules hauled the mail up the mountain from the Ethiopian
Part of the thrilldom of choosing an author’s path is a lifetime of being a student. While I was working on Lanie’s stories, for example, I learned all kinds of things about orangutans. Did you know they eat hundreds of different fruits, and may have a “botanical repertoire” of as many as 4,000 plants? That’s a lot
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! My cell phone poked me at 6:30 a.m. today–Saturday–(because I forgot I had the alarm set for my dentist appointment yesterday). Groan. Moan. The good thing, though, was that getting up early got me to the Lawrence Farmers’ Market in the fairly early morning. Early mornings–before Kansas gets hot and
Even kids who give little ew shudders for bugs in general usually have a soft spot for two citizens of the bug world. One? Ladybugs. When I was doing research for the Lanie stories, I was startled to discover that non-native ladybugs are crowding out native ladybugs–and there’s a very cool citizen science project (as
After my summer travels, the see-saw has tipped, once again, and I’m back to remembering what Lanie discovers: the joys of one’s own back yard. A Lanie friend sent me this picture of her back yard and wrote, “We have alot of milkweed. I got my first milkweed plant in butterfly camp, when I was five! Now its a
For years, I’ve gotten emails from parents of adopted Ethiopian kids thanking me for my books that show beautiful Ethiopia and asking if I’ve considered writing a book for the thousands of children who were born in Ethiopia, adopted into families in America. In my return emails, I say thank you thank you. Those families (and their school
In theory, I’m all for the joys of staying in the moment. Tuning myself to the sensory details of right-now. Remembering to breeeeathe. In practice, I’m often pretty lousy at it. When I got to Ethiopia, I was sucked right in. Smells always do that. Bere bere spice–red pepper and black pepper, allspice and fenugreek, cardamom
You know how you felt at the end of summer camp? YAY. I’m going home. WAAAHHHH. I’m going home. Yesterday, I was packing by 7:00 a.m. At 8:40, I was trotting this path to shiny, elegant College Hall at Vermont College–for the very last workshop of the summer 2010 MFA residency. For the next two hours
When I headed for Ethiopia at the end of June, my grandkids headed for their new life in Alabama, saying goodbye to Lawrence, Tree Frog and Prairie Dog classmates, the cat from upstairs…Waaah. I told them I’d be seeing their other grandma and grandpa–and I did (along with their great-grandma). It’s mud season in Ethiopia
What’s the fun of being a children’s book author if you can’t be silly? Ever since my first faculty residency, I wait for what silliness the different classes at the Vermont College MFA in children’s and YA literature will unleash upon this portrait every semester. (That first time, he was Pippi Longstocking, and it was blazingly clear to me he’d
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