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- Books By Connie (38)
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Book Reviews
Just Fine the Way They Are Review - “Wooldridge’s story of America’s land-transportation networks—its roadways and railways—is folksy but panoramic. The informal, affable tone, something like a movie voice-over, works well here, conveying a sweeping amount of material—over a lot of ground and 200 years—as it chugs merrily along, hitting the high points, while Walz provides heroic imagery with a Thomas Hart Benton tang. Fittingly, the story has got real rhythm to it, helped along by the refrain—‘Things were just fine the way they were,’ thought those who benefited from a soon-to-be-diminished carrier—but most of all by capturing the surging, ever-evolving nature of the country’s transportation network."
— Kirkus Reviews - February 15, 2011
Author Archives: Connie Wooldridge
Suite Française Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky; translated from the French by Sandra Smith. Vintage Books, 2007. 403 pages; $15.00 (paperback); reading level: adult. Némirovsky’s novel is accompanied by some fifty pages of notes. If you read only the novel itself, you will take up a panoramic, camera’s-eye view of Paris in June of 1940. You will watch, fascinated, as a host
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Posted in Adult Book Reviews
Tagged Auschwitz, Catholic Convert, German Invasion, Germans, Holocaust, Irène Némirovsky, Jewish, Jews, Paris, refugee, Suite Française, World War 2, World War II
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The Republic of Childhood
Just inside the cover of an 1895 book by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin entitled The Republic of Childhood is a librarian’s note: “Attention Patron: This volume is too fragile for any future repair.” In the aftermath of recent shootings and bombings, it’s tempting to ask if the Republic of Childhood itself (that brief season of life when protective adults create
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Marmee & Louisa; The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Marmee & Louisa; The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlante; Free Press, 2012. 368 pages; $26.00 (hardcover). This book is a game-changer. As LaPlante points out, “the packaging of Louisa…along with the idea that her mother was irrelevant” began immediately after her death. The world was told that Louisa May Alcott was educated by
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Etched in Clay Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Etched in Clay; The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet by Andrea Cheng; illustrated with woodcuts by the author; Lee & Low, 2013. 143 pages; $17.95 (hardcover); reading level: ages 10 and up. Born into slavery in 1801, Dave should have lived an invisible life and died unknown. That he didn’t is due to an almost miraculous series of events. His
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Writing Nonfiction (Two Views!)
It would seem that, when you do something as solitary as writing, you probably never meet other writers. But that’s not true. We writers meet each other all the time at book events, presentations, online…somehow we find one another. I’ve known children’s writer Andrea Cheng for quite a few years and when she asked me to collaborate on a project for
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Posted in Just For Writers
Tagged Andrea Cheng, Connie Nordhie, Etched in Clay, Just Fine the Way They Are, The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, Writers Tips
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Reid Hospital Goes to the Library!
According to the preschool set, MONSTERS ROCK!!! When a group of Reid Hospital physicians’ spouses were invited to bring their children to Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana, for the morning, they created a monster craft, ate monster cupcakes, and listened to yours truly reading monster books. Those who participated (and you, If you’ve found your way to this blog) wouldn’t be surprised to learn
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Connie Wooldridge, Indiana, Morrisson-Reeves Library, parenting, preschoolers, Reading, Reid Hospital, Richmond
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USS Monitor Crewmembers Buried
The year 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of both the launch and the sinking of USS Monitor. The news continues in 2013. On Friday, March 8, 151 years after they went down with the Monitor, two unknown sailors were buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. In case you missed it, you can watch the full ceremony (courtesy
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Edith Wharton in the Magazine Popular Science
I’ve gotten used to seeing Edith Wharton’s name all over the place but when I found out she’d popped up in the magazine Popular Science, I really had to check it out. Before I hit the link, I took some guesses on what her scientific connection might be. One possibility: She was intrigued by Charles Darwin and his hot new
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Julian Fellowes on Edith Wharton
I know both Downton Abbey and Edith Wharton fans will appreciate this article from the Berkshire Eagle in which Julian Fellowes, the writer of Downton Abbey talks about how his late-in-life reading of two Wharton novels inspired first his failed writing venture, then Gosford Park and then, of course, Downton Abbey. “She observes but she does not judge…” is Fellowes’
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Posted in The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton
Tagged Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Downton Abbey, Edith Wharton, Gosford Park, Julian Fellowes, Lily Bart, The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
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Win a Complimentary Manuscript Critique by Connie!
I’m offering a free manuscript critique of a picture book or up to 3,000 words of a book for older readers. To be eligible to win this opportunity, simply sign up to receive my enewsletter and very occasional communications for writers and readers. Please share this opportunity with writers that you know! A winner to be selected on March 31st.
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Posted in Just For Writers
Tagged Complimentary Manuscript Critique, Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
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Anatomy of Nonfiction
If you click on the “Resources” tab on the home page of my website, you’ll find all kinds of helpful information I’ve gathered (and continue to gather!) for writers, readers, and educators. The most recent addition is a blog by Peggy Thomas called Anatomy of Nonfiction: Writing True Stories for Children. A wonderful nonfiction writer herself, Peggy is also the daughter of longtime
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Highlights for Children and Me
Late on a Saturday night a few weeks ago, a writer friend and I arrived at the Boyds Mills, Pennsylvania, homestead belonging to the family that started, and still publishes, the venerable magazine Highlights for Children. The editor, Kent Brown, and his family have been intertwined with the magazine for three generations and my writing life seems to have been
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged Boyds Mills, Highlights for Children, Highlights Foundation Workshop, Kent Brown, Pennsylvania, Wicked Jack
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Revolutionary Friends – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Revolutionary Friends; General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette by Selene Castrovilla; illustrated by Drazen Kozjan; Calkins Creek, 2013. 40 pages; $16.95 (hardcover); reading level: ages 7-12. The story of the reserved George Washington’s initially reluctant friendship with the young French officer whose heart “enlisted” in the American struggle for independence from Britain, is told in a spare, sprightly
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Elizabeth Starr Academy School Visit
If you think that national school standards are creating cookie-cutter schools, I wish you could have tagged along with me on my last school visit! The Elizabeth Starr Academy, which I visited for Author Day along with Josh Brown, Diana Medler, Randy Wisehart, and Natalie Goeke Proudfoot, has created a “Discovery Zone”: a micro-society with officers, a common council, and
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Posted in Events
Tagged Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Diana Medler, Discovery Zone, Elizabeth Starr Academy, Josh Brown, Natalie Goeke Proudfoot, Randy Wisehart, Richmond Indiana Schools
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The Doorway to High Society
In Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age New York, the new-money people were storming the gates of High Society and the Old Guard (people of birth, background, and breeding) were making a vain attempt to keep those gates firmly closed. Today, Society is open to all comers! The only requirement to entry is the desire to become immersed in a particular subject
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Posted in Teachers' Resources, Thank You Very Much Captain Ericsson!, The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton
Tagged Edith Wharton, Edith Wharton Review, JESNY, John Ericsson, John Ericsson Society, Leif Brisfjord
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What Writers Do Right
My eighth-grade English teacher was named Mrs. Crisick. She seemed like any old teacher way back then but I know, in remembering bits and pieces from her class, that she was extraordinary. Once, when we were assigned to write a story, she stood in front of the class with mine in her hand and said she wanted to read a wonderful sentence
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Posted in Just For Writers
Tagged Anita Silvey, aspiring writers, Childrenʼs Booka-Day Almanac, coaching of writers
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Diana Morón Meets Edith Wharton
When I wrote The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, I was hoping the book would be discovered by high school teachers and used to introduce a new generation of readers to Edith Wharton. You can imagine my delight when Diana Morón, a sophomore at Porterville High School in Porterville, California, introduced herself to me by e-mail last November and asked
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Ericsson and da Vinci – A Conversation Across Time
A group of Italian artisans (Niccolai Teknoart SNC) has undertaken a marvelous project: using the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci to create models of the very machines da Vinci imagined. When I attended one of their exhibits at the Denver Pavilions (which runs through January 31, 2013) I was struck by how much da Vinci had in common with the
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life, Thank You Very Much Captain Ericsson!
Tagged inventors, John Ericsson, Leonardo da Vinci, military vessels, Niccolai Teknoart SNC, Swedish-born, USS Monitor
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The Year of the Book – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
The Year of the Book by Andrea Cheng; illustrated by Abigail Halpin; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 148 pages; $15.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 7-11. Anna Wang is just beginning fourth grade and the word of the week is “perseverance.” “It’s when you don’t give up,” her best friend, Laura, tells the class. Both girls will learn, over the course of
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Posted in Children's and Young Adult Book Reviews
Tagged Abigail Halpin, Andrea Cheng, Anna Wang, Book Reviews, Children's Books, Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, girls
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Connie To Be the Guest of Honor at Author Day – Elizabeth Starr Academy in Richmond, Indiana
Date: January 23, 2013 Location: Elizabeth Starr Academy Connie will talk to students about her writing process, being an entrepreneur, and how she markets her books.
Posted in Connie In The News, Events
Tagged Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Coyotes, Elizabeth Starr Academy, Entrepreneurship, Writing Process
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Build a Book Christmas Tree
Of course I’m behind on my shopping, my Christmas cards, etc. and of course I have no time to spare so of course, when a friend sent me a link to a site where people were building Book Christmas Trees I just had to stop everything I was behind on and build one of my own. Books came down from
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged Book Christmas Tree, Christmas, Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
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Morrisson-Reeves Library Pre-K Reading Open House. See Pictures Inside…
I want to thank everyone who attended the Pre-School Reading Open House at Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana earlier this month. The Library has partnered with the K-Ready program whose goal is for pre-school children to read 1,000 books before they enter kindergarten.
Posted in Events
Tagged Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Read 1000 Books Before Kindergarten
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Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! Written and illustrated by Hyewon Yum; Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012. 32 pages; $16.99 (hardback); ages 4-6. The five-year-old hero of this tale is well-adjusted, brimming with energy, and ready for his first day of kindergarten. His mom? Well…not so much. As the illustrations (literally!) make clear, she feels small and blue.
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An Encore for Captain Ericsson – Now in Paperback!
When both the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virgina and the John Ericsson Society let me know they were having trouble finding copies of my out-of-print picture book, Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson!, I decided to spring into action. With permission from Holiday House, the original publisher, and Andrew Glass, the illustrator, I started a company and created a
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Connie to Read at Morrisson-Reeves Library on November 3rd
Morrisson-Reeves Library and K-Ready present a Preschool Reading Open House Saturday, Nov. 3rd from 10:00 am – Noon Morrisson-Reeves Library 80 North 6th Street Richmond, Indiana You’ll enjoy storytimes with… Local Children’s Author, Connie Wooldridge Pam Hancock, Amigos (reading in Spanish) Kathy Campbell and Holly The Therapy Dog >> View the Flyer
Posted in Events
Tagged Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Indiana, K-Ready, Morrisson-Reeves Library, Richmond, Storytime
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Congratulations To Donna & Ralph Weidenhammer For Winning The Signed Copy of “Just Fine The Way They Are”
There’s nothing like social networks to keep in touch with old friends and former neighbors, especially when you skip a year or two of sending out Christmas cards! Donna Weidenhammer and I lived next door to each other when our families were just beginning – lots of diapering, nap times and playground swings back then. She found me on Facebook
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Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson – Coming in Paperback & Video!
About the Video Soon to be available on the website: A reading of Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson! (by yours truly!) in its entirety, complete with the original illustrations by Andrew Glass. This should be a great resource for you teachers doing a Civil War unit OR for parents/grandparents of 7-10-year-olds. About the Paperback As stated, a paperback version of Thank
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Author Tip: Importance of Structure in Nonfiction
I’ve just finished reading Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a terrific example of creative nonfiction. Check out this link for some great behind-the-scenes information on the importance of structure in a nonfiction piece and on how Skloot decided to include herself in the very story she was researching. >> See My “Just For Writers” Blog
Teacher Resources & Lesson Plans Available For “Just Fine the Way They Are”
Since school will be starting soon, educators and parents who would like to engage their children in some fun learning activities can download lesson plans that accompany Just Fine The Way They Are; From Dirt Roads to Rail Roads to Interstates. Developed by two elementary educators who are also adjunct professors in the Department of Education at Earlham College, the
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The National Road Brings the Historic Road Conference to Indianapolis
The national non-profit group Historic Roads is holding their annual conference on September 20-22, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dedicated to identifying, preserving and managing our nation’s historic roads and scenic byways, Indy was specifically chosen because of the region’s unique transportation history, which includes the Historic National Road. Read more about the work of this important group and the conference. >>
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Get a Chance to Win a Signed Copy of Just Fine The Way They Are
To be eligible you must be subscribed to my mailing list. The winner will be randomly selected on July 31, 2012. Details In Celebration of Audiobook Month in June we’re giving away a signed copy of Just Fine The Way They Are, which is now available in school and local libraries on CD and cassette thanks to Recorded Books. To participate, please sign up
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My Dear Governess; The Letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
My Dear Governess; The Letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann edited by Irene Goldman-Price; Yale University Press, 2012. 296 pages; $30.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. On May 31st, 1874, twelve-year-old Edith Wharton (then Edith Jones) wrote to her beloved twenty-five-year-old governess, Anna Bahlmann, inviting her to come to the Jones’ summer home in Newport, Rhode Island: “…we shall have
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National Road Yard Sale
Beginning on May 30 and running through the early part of June, folks will be setting up shop along the National Road (US 40) and creating one of the longest yard sales going: from Baltimore to St. Louis! For 9 years now, beginning on the Wednesday following Memorial Day, churches, museums, stores, and plain old ordinary people have been selling
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Visit to Northwest Elementary School
The drive to McDermott, Ohio winds through the greenest, most idyllic countryside you’ll find anywhere. Northwest Elementary School sits 5 miles off of US-23 and is home to around 800 K-5 students. A step inside the front door brought me into a high-energy zone: several parents in the office, classes of students filing through the halls…the next few hours would
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More Letters From Edith!
Just as my Edith Wharton biography was going to press, a stash of letters from Edith to her governess (and later secretary) was discovered. How can I get my hands on those? I wondered. The answer wasn’t long in coming. In April of 2011, when I spoke at The Mount, I met Irene Goldman-Price who was hard at work editing
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Jane Thurmer Wins a Signed Copy of “The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton”
Congratulations to Jane Thurmer, the winner of our March Women’s History Month give-away! Jane will receive a signed copy of The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton (Clarion 2010), Connie’s YA biography about the iconic writer who would be 150 years-old this year! Thank you, Jane, and everyone who entered.
Writer’s Retreat
In February, I drove east for eleven hours, through Ohio and the very mountains of Pennsylvania I used to call home, to the town of Honesdale, Pennsylvania. I turned left onto the property of the family that created the magazine Highlights for Children and pulled up to a small cabin with two twin beds, a shower, a small refrigerator and
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Connie To Speak at Northwest Elementary School in McDermott, Ohio on May 11, 2012
Connie will be visiting the students at Northwest Elementary School in McDermott, Ohio, on Friday, May 11. She will meet with students in grades K through 5th at the school’s library. Librarian Alyssa Bach-Enz heard Connie speak at the Appalachian Conference at Shawnee State University and invited the author to visit her school. “We want students to love reading!,” she
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Connie Was the Featured Author at the Muncie Area Reading Council’s “2012 Young Author’s Conference”
Connie was the featured author at the Muncie Area Reading Council’s “2012 Young Author’s Conference” on April 23. This annual event is open to students in grades 1-8 to encourage young people to write creatively, provide opportunity for recognition, enhance student’s self-concept, stimulate interest in reading, and offer the experience of sharing manuscripts and/or writing talents with a published author.
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Just Check the Monitor’s Manifest!
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Monitor back in 1862, less than a year after its launch. As the most recent newsletter of the John Ericsson Society New York (JESNY) points out, the Monitor had a short life but left a long legacy, with Monitor class vessels actively deployed as late as World War
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Posted in Thank You Very Much Captain Ericsson!
Tagged 150th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Monitor, Cape Hatteras, Coordinator of Education and Outreach for the Monitor Sanctuary, John Ericsson Society New York, Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, NC, Remains of two sailors from the Monitor, Shannon Ricles
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A Response to Jonathan Franzen: Edith Wharton Was Hard (But Not Impossible) to Like
Responses to Jonathan Franzen’s New Yorker article “A Rooting Interest: Edith Wharton and the problem of sympathy” are flying fast and furious. He claims Edith Wharton is just plain hard to like as a person – hard to sympathize with as he puts it – and after spending years in her company while writing her biography, I would have to
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Win a Signed Copy of “The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton”!
You can win a signed copy of ”The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton” just by liking Connie’s Facebook page. It’s March and in the spirit of Women’s History Month and this year’s theme – Women’s Education, Women’s Empowerment – I am giving away a signed copy of The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton (Clarion 2010). 2012 is also the 150th anniversary of Edith’s
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Leif Brisfjord Won a Signed Copy of “When Esther Morris Headed West”!
Congratulations to Leif Brisfjord, the winner of our February give-away, a signed copy of Connie’s book about the first female US judge, When Esther Morris Headed West (Holiday House) by “liking” Connie’s Facebook page. Leif is President of the John Ericsson Society in New York City. Ericsson was the inventor of the ironclad ship the USS Monitor and the subject
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A Visit to St. Paul’s School
Late on a February Tuesday morning, I packed a pile of books and papers into the back of my car and drove south and then east along some winding Indiana roads that led me further and further into the country. An hour and fifteen minutes later, I arrived at one of the most charming little schools I think I’ve ever
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Posted in Events, Just Fine the Way They Are, Just For Writers, Scenes from a Writer's Life, Thank You Very Much Captain Ericsson!
Tagged Just Fine the Way They Are: From Dirt Roads to Rail Roads to Interstates, School Visits, Speaking, St. Paul Catholic School, Thankyou Very Much Captain Ericsson!
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The Elijah Door – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
The Elijah Door; A Passover Tale Written by Linda Leopold Strauss; illustrated by Alexi Natchev; Holiday House, 2012. 32 pages; $16.95 (hardcover); reading level: ages 6-10. Long ago, in a small village that was “sometimes Poland and sometimes Russia,” the Lippas and the Galinskys lived in “side-by-side houses.” They were fast friends whose children, Rachel Galinsky and David Lippa, would
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A Late Arrival at Downton Abbey
I confess. I arrived late to the Downton Abbey party. When season one began I was intrigued, but Sunday nights didn’t work for me. Then everyone was watching it and my contrarian instincts kicked in: Who wants to watch what everybody’s watching? When season two began I told myself I didn’t want to jump in to the thing midstream. And
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Connie to Speak at St. Paul School In Guilford, Indiana on February 28th
Connie will be speaking to the students of St. Paul School in Guilford, Indiana on February 28, 2012. Contact Connie if you would like her to to speak at your school.
Posted in Events
Tagged Guilford, Indiana, Presenting. Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Speaking, St. Paul School
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A Pocketful of Posies; A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
A Pocketful of Posies; A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes Illustrated by Salley Mavor; Houghton Mifflin, 2010. 64 pages; $21.99 (hardback); reading level: ages 2-6. The artwork for this nursery rhyme collection is stunning. Mavor has lovingly stitched a variety of materials (acorn caps, stones, driftwood, buttons) onto wool felt to create scenes which were then photographed. The result is
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Connie Wins Award at The London Book Festival!
On January 26, 2012, Connie accepted an award at The London Book Festival for Best Biography for The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, two days after Edith’s 150th birthday. The 2011 London Book Festival Awards dinner was held at Grosvenor House, London – formerly the estate of the Earl of Grosvenor (1732), renovated into a luxury hotel in 1927.
Posted in Connie In The News
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Tales of the London Book Festival and John Ericsson Events
If you want to find characters for a novel, there’s no better place to look than a writer’s event. Since the January 26 awards dinner for the London Book Festival was an international gathering the “characters” were even more colorful: A former Yugoslavian who spoke very little English, a tall-tale teller from Montana, a charming widow from South Africa, a
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life, Thank You Very Much Captain Ericsson!, The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton
Tagged Civil War ironclad ship, Greenpoint in Brooklyn, Grosvenor House, London Book Festival, Thank You Very Much Captain Ericsson!, Thankyou Very Much Captain Ericsson!, The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton, USS Monitor
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Win a Signed Copy of When Esther Morris Headed West!
You can win a signed copy of When Esther Morris Headed West! just by liking Connie’s Facebook page. 2012 is a big year for politics and in honor of Esther Morris, the first female judge in the United States, I’m giving away a signed copy of my book When Esther Morris Headed West: Women, Wyoming and the Right to Vote (Holiday House 2001), illustrated
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Where’s Walrus? – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Where’s Walrus? Written and illustrated by Stephen Savage; Scholastic Press, 2011.32 pages; $16.99 (hardback); ages 2-5. The gates to the zoo are open but, alas, there are no visitors. While the zookeepersnoozes, walrus sneaks away. In wordless two-page spreads, walrus eludes thezookeeper (belatedly awake) by donning various hats and blending in with a statue ona fountain, some workmen, some painters
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Preschool Day Hooray! – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Preschool Day Hooray! Written by Linda Leopold Strauss; illustrated by Hiroe Nakata; Cartwheel Books/Scholastic, 2010. 22 pages; $8.99 (hardback); ages 2-5. A simple, rhyming text follows a little boy through a day at preschool from the rush to get there (“Tick-tock clock/Makes Mommy scoot”), to various activities (“Painty hands and/Gooey glue”), to a tumble on the playground (“Rainbow Band-Aid,/No more
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The John Ericsson Society Celebrating The 150th Anniversary Of The Monitor Being Launched!
If you’re a Civil War buff, you’ll remember that, 150 years ago, under the direction of Thomas Fitch Rowland (owner of Continental Works located on the East River in Brooklyn) and John Ericsson (designer of the Union Civil War Ironclad USS Monitor), skilled craftsmen laid the ship’s keel on October 25, 1861 and worked feverishly to complete her within the
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Where’s My T-R-U-C-K? – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Where’s My T-R-U-C-K? by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by David Catrow; Dial Books for Young Readers, 2011. 32 pages; $16.99; reading level: ages 4-7. When Tommy loses his (don’t say the word or you’ll set him off!) t-r-u-c-k, the whole family’s day goes haywire. Tommy refuses help from Mom, Dad, sister, brother, and Grandma: “I don’t want jeeps or cars
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Mr. Mosquito Put on His Tuxedo – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Mr. Mosquito Put on His Tuxedo by Barbara Olenyik Morrow; illustrated by Ponder Goembel; Holiday House, 2009. $16.95; reading level: ages 6-9. When Mr. Mosquito puts on his tuxedo, arrives at a ball hosted by Queen Bee, and greets the other guests (gnats, lice, and fleas to name a few) he never suspects his particular talent will make him a
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Postscript to Just Fine the Way They Are
You might think that, when a book is published, the story it tells is finished. Not true! In the final illustration for the picture book Just Fine the Way They Are, Richard Walz reaches into a mythical future to imagine what a post-automobile era might look like. He envisions a jet-pack like invention – a personal flying machine – that
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Just For You Teachers
When I asked two educators to create lesson plans for Just Fine the Way They Are, I had no idea how far the term “lesson plan” had evolved since my days as a first grade teacher back in the 1970s. The “Social Studies/Transportation” resources they have written for home-school and classroom teachers are formatted just like the “Writer’s Craft” and
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Book Signing – Wayne County Historical Museum in Richmond, IN – Dec 10th
Please join Connie for a book signing at the Wayne County Historical Museum in Richmond, Indiana from 2pm-4pm on December 10th, 2011. Pictures from the event…
Posted in Events
Tagged Book Signings, Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Just Fine the Way They Are
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Book Signing – Indiana History Society’s 9th Annual Holiday Author Fair
What: Book Signing – Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, Indianapolis, IN Location: Indiana Historical Society’s Holiday Author Fair 9th Annual Holiday Author Fair December 3, 2011 – 12:00pm – 4:00 p.m. Connie will be one of the more than 60 authors featured at the Holiday Author Fair. She will also be a guest on Nelson Price’s radio show
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The Brave New World of Book Reviews
Many times I’ve compared this new world of websites, social media, blogging and internet radio to the Wild West! One new force in the book world is online book reviews, many of which are written by “MommyBloggers,” literature bloggers and online publications. I want to thank the many folks who are reading and reviewing Just Fine the Way They Are
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Posted in Connie In The News
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“Loud Voices”
Lucretia Jones could not have had an easy time raising her daughter Edith. She was a woman of average intelligence and superficial interests suddenly confronted by a child whose brilliance was apparent from the get-go. She probably tried valiantly to maintain her maternal authority and, if her daughter’s claim that pleasing her mother and pleasing God were at the top
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Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox; illustrated by Helen Oxenbury; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. 32 pages; $16.99 hardcover; $11.99 oversized boardbook format; reading level: ages 2-5. Fox’s spare, rhyming text spotlights pairs of babies from around the world, connected by the refrain, “And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten
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Maggie’s Monkeys – Reviewed by Connie Norhielm Wooldridge
Maggie’s Monkeys by Linda Sanders-Wells; illustrated by Abby Carter; Candlewick Press, 2009. 32 pages; $16.99; reading level: ages 4-7. Being the older brother of an imaginative little sister can be a trial – especially when her pink monkeys take up residence in the refrigerator and only Older Brother seems to know they’re not real. Dad tacks a DO NOT DISTURB
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Connie Speaking At “Appalachia from an Assets Perspective Conference” at Shawnee State University – November 21st
Connie will address the Morning General Session at the Appalachia from an Assets Perspective Conference at Shawnee State University on November 20 – 21, 2011. The theme for the 2011 conference is Enhancing Teacher Performance to Maximize Student Achievement. Attended by administrators, teachers and students from throughout Ohio, Connie’s talk, entitled “The Simple Elegant Act of Telling a Story: How Story Touches the
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Jack is Back!
You just can’t keep a bad man down. Connected, as he is to Halloween (ever wonder where the term “jack-o-lantern” came from?), October is Wicked Jack’s favorite month and he was invited back to Indiana by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. What were they thinking??? Aren’t symphonies stuffy organizations?? Evidently not! Five woodwind players from the orchestra were brave enough to
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Esther Morris Gets Some Company
“If you visit Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol,” I observe, in the Author’s Note to When Esther Morris Headed West, (Holiday House, 2001) “you’ll see fifty statues, one from each state, standing in a circle. Forty-nine of them are men. The fiftieth is Esther Morris…” That changed in 2009: Helen Keller, representing Alabama, joined Esther as the second
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On the Road
One of the joys of writing nonfiction is that your books take you places in the research phase and take you places again when people start finding out what you’ve written and want you to come and talk to them. So I was on the road or, more precisely, on The Road last weekend. Just Fine the Way They Are
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Posted in Just Fine the Way They Are, Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged Cobblestone Magazine, Comprehension Lesson Plan, Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, John and Annie Glenn Historic Site, Just Fine the Way They Are, Muskingum University, National Road/Zane Grey Museum, Social Studies - Transportation Lesson Plan, Teachers Lesson Plans, The National Road, Writer's Craft Lesson Plan
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The Good Company of Story
There’s a lovely sculpture by Victor Issa in the Frederic Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s called “Grandpa, the Storyteller” and it captures for me the essence of story: Story connects, it communicates across time and generations. As the novelist Graham Smith put it, “As long as there’s a story, it’s all right.” For me, a story is also
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Shakespeare
I’m just home from the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, reading through the “Twelfth Night,” and trying to pick up anything I might have missed when I saw it on stage. Shakespeare is a challenge and there’s no getting to the bottom of any of his plays. There’s no last word on what the bard was trying to say. There’s
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New Release: Just Fine The Way They Are
In this new historical non-fiction picture book children’s author Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge and artist Richard Walz worked closely with experts and firsthand accounts to tell a “just fine and accurate” illustrated story about how dirt roads of the 1800s turned into the U.S. highway system of today. >> Official Press Release Just Fine The Way They Are: From Dirt Roads
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Ship Ahoy!
A good illustrator will go to great lengths to make sure what s/he draws is accurate and matches the words in the text. Andrew Glass, who illustrated Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson! (my picture book about the inventor of the Civil War ironclad ship the Monitor) had a particular problem: the Monitor was at the bottom of the ocean
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Come For a Ride?
As the third set of lesson plans for Just Fine the Way They Are (“Writer’s Craft”) is posted and ready for you teachers out there to download, I realize how much I like the illustration my graphic designer chose for the “button” that clicks you to those lesson plans: A car in motion…a car obviously on its way somewhere…a car
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Celebrate!
I started thinking about The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton in 2001. It was published in 2010. It seemed to me that, when it officially hit the bookstores, a celebration was called for. First, I alerted my “staff” (a.k.a., the special events committee of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra from whom Carl and I had purchased a catered event at a
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Connie Wooldridge To Appear On ‘The Sounds of the Symphony’
Show: ‘The Sounds of the Symphony’ with Host Marci Asher-Whalen on Whitewater Community Television – Trailer Description: A new ‘The Sounds of the Symphony’ with Host Marci Asher-Whalen will air Monday, August 1 at 8:30PM on WETV, channel 20. This month’s guest will be Amy Noe & Connie Wooldridge. Start Time: 8:30pm Date: 2011-08-01 We will post Connie’s segment here
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If Kids Can’t Read
If kids can’t read, this writer is out of a job. Which is why this writer was up bright and early last Friday morning to greet 100 students who, at the end of their third grade year, were not reading at grade level. If kids can’t read by the end of their third grade year, there is a high probability
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Serious Research
Writing for children often means doing serious research. I brought my husband along on a research trip just last weekend. I carefully observed two little boys, one aged two, the other aged four. I observed as they woke from their naps, the older boy dapper and ready to meet the world, the younger temporarily speechless with hair looking like someone
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Posted in Just For Writers, Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged children, connie, imagination, Kids, Research, Tantrum
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Book Signing – National Road / Zane Grey Museum in Norwich, OH
What: Book Signing – Norwich, OH Location: National Road / Zane Grey Museum Description: Connie will be selling and signing books at the Antique Transportation Event. When: 10/1/11 – 1pm – 4pm
Book Signing – Books By The Banks in Cincinnati, OH on 10/22/11
What: Book Signing – Books By The Banks in Cincinnati, OH Location: Books by the Banks at Duke Energy Center Description: Connie will be participating in Books by the Banks at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. When: 10/22/11 – 10am-4pm
Fighting for Democracy in the Bagel Shop
My assignment: An article on the Development of Democracy covering ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the years surrounding the Revolutionary War in the U.S. Length: 1400 words First draft delivery date: Four weeks I commandeer my usual table at the Fifth Street Bagel Shop and set to work. I start with the ancient Greeks to whom I’ve alloted 600 words.
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Posted in Just For Writers, Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged Colonials, Connie Wooldridge, Democracy, Greeks, Romans, United States
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Twenty Years
Twenty years ago, my husband and I, our four children, and our basset hound, Wobegon closed the door to our house in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania for the very last time and drove to our new home in Richmond, Indiana. I was sporting a full leg cast (a skating accident…don’t ask!) so I had to sit in the back with my leg
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged basset hound, broken leg, Connie Wooldridge, Indiana, moving, Pennsylvania, Philipsburg, Richmond
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Backyard Stories
In 2004, I signed up for a Highlights Foundation Workshop on writing nonfiction and I grumbled silently for weeks before I set out for Honesdale, PA. The workshop leader, editor Carolyn Yoder, had asked each of us to bring a nonfiction piece about something “in our own backyard.” Up until then I had written about Greece and Rome and Korea
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Tree Calculations
When I was ten years old, I climbed a tree with my best friend every day of the summer. Its lower branches (all seven of them) began spreading within a foot or two of the the ground and each of them was thicker than the circumference of the two of us when we hugged each other. The branches grew in
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life
Tagged 10 year olds, children, Connie Wooldridge, trees
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Connie Wooldridge Will Speak to the National Stanley Family Association
When: Saturday June 25, 2011 Location: Earlham College – 801 National Road West, Richmond, Indiana 47374 Event Description: National Stanley Family Reunion – You are welcome to a weekend of Stanley family fellowship, entertainment, history and interesting family stories and historical sites. Topic: Saturday Evening: “The Story Behind the Stories” by Connie Wooldridge About the Reunion: “Back Home Again in
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Posted in Events
Tagged Connie Wooldridge, Events, National Stanely Family Renunion, Speaking
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Up and Coming Writers
Those of us involved with books – writers, editors, librarians, teachers – worry a lot about the whole reading and writing process. Will there be people in the next generation willing to read challenging literature? Will there be people in the next generation who can write articulately? I can name one for sure. She is Rachel Baumgarten, a high school
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Say Thank You
Anyone out there who thinks saying “thank you” is a lost art should visit an elementary school – any elementary school – and give a presentation. In response to my talk to the 3rd and 4th graders at Crestdale Elementary School last week, I received the most colorful, creative, effusive thank you notes ever: I really like your book (Just
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Posted in Scenes from a Writer's Life
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A Green Truck
When I traveled out to Wyoming back in 1998 to do research for When Esther Morris Headed West, I was stunned when I got off the plane in Cheyenne. It was so unlike anyplace I had ever been I thought I might have landed on the moon. I walked across a brief stretch of tarmac into the terminal and found
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Arguing With Friends
I met one of my oldest friends in Athens where we both attended a year-long college program. Together we studied the architecture of the Parthenon, flew to Cairo and rode camels, and spent endless hours deciding which Greek island we would sail to next. When the year came to an end, she departed for her home in Los Angeles a
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I Don’t Talk – I Just Write
Here’s something I didn’t consider before I got into this writing business: As soon as you’ve published something, various groups start wanting you to talk to them. My first invitation came from one of my sons’ classroom teachers. What I (terrified!) wanted to say was: “I don’t talk – I just write.” What fell out of m mouth instead was,
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Edith Wharton…Pleased
Connie & Emily Tarjick, poet Edith Wharton would have been enormously pleased at the event that took place at her former home – The Mount – on Saturday, April 29. She would have been pleased with the guests: aspiring high school writers who participated in the Edith Wharton Writing Contest, families and friends, published authors, and people from near and
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Mean Girls
There were some mean girls in my fifth grade class but I wasn’t one of them. I was a nice girl and I had nice girl friends. Four of us nice girls had formed a group to work on a school project and we had divided up all the tasks and figured out how we were going to get the
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Translating
The biography that first introduced me to Edith Wharton was Shari Benstock’s No Gifts From Chance (1994). From there, I worked my way back to R.W.B. Lewis’ Edith Wharton; A Biography (1975) and then forward to Hermione Lee’s Edith Wharton (2007). By the time I’d devoured these three books I was grabbing anyone I met by the lapels and insisting
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Fairy Tale
I taught first grade at an English-speaking school for foreigners in Seoul from 1975-1977. Korea was a poor country at that time and the walk each morning from my small, Korean-style house to Seoul Foreign School was dusty and colorless. Animal carts and bicycles pulling heavy loads shared the road with cars and it was hard to find even a
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A Place to Write
Here’s some advice I received years ago that I’ll pass along to you: Never let yourself get tied to one specific place where you write. It’s much better to be able to write anywhere. Here’s the truth about how carefully I followed have that particular advice: My absolute favorite place to write is the Bagel Shop on Fifth Street here
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Connie Wooldridge To Be Keynote Speaker at “2011 Edith Wharton Writing Competition” Awards
Edith Wharton Writing Competition April 30th 2011 – 3:00 PM -5:00 PM The Mount, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, MA 01240 Event is Free & Open to the Public More Information Writing Competition Winners (413) 551-5111 info@EdithWharton.org
Program at Helen Berube Teen Parent Program
April 29, 2011 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Helen Berube Teen Parent Program School Near The Mount (Edith’s Home in Lenox, Massachusetts), Helen Berube Teen Parent Program students participate in the annual “Edith Wharton Writing Competition.”
Program at Miss Halls School
April 29, 2011 12:35 PM – 1:45 PM Miss Halls School School Near The Mount (Edith’s Home in Lenox, Massachusetts), Miss Halls School students participate in the annual “Edith Wharton Writing Competition.”
Thinking Hard
At an early age, I came to the notion that there was something to be understood in the world out there and that it would take some hard thinking to get to it. I did my first thinking on a wooden rocking horse with metal springs. Things to think about would pile up, I’d climb on my horse, think them
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A Real Writer
It’s 1990, I’ve just had my first few stories published in Highlights for Children and Cricket, and I’m wondering if I’m a Real Writer now. The editor of a Cricket story about the legendary King Canute, who ordered the tide not to come in, is intrigued about a plaque in Southampton, England commemorating the event. It was mentioned in the
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The Library
When I was in elementary school, going to the library once a week ranked even above gym class as my favorite thing to do. My librarian’s name was Mrs. Southward. She had us list the names of each book we checked out on a small, white sheet of paper. The first thing she did when we came into the library
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Broken
When our third child Sean was growing up, he liked to know how things work, which my husband and I tried to encourage even when things got dangerous or destructive. Stellar parents have their bad days, however, and when Sean was in middle school and I found his brand new bike in pieces all over the garage I shrieked, “You
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Carsick
When I was in elementary school, my family lived in Ohio and we took frequent car trips to Galesburg, Illinois where my four grandparents and various aunts, uncles, and cousins lived. My parents would wake my younger sister and me up at 5:00 in the morning (my much younger sister and brother didn’t appear in my life until later), load
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Scenes From a Writer’s Life
Since this is my very first entry, I thought I’d start by describing what I imagine this blog will look like. The title “Scenes From a Writer’s Life” will give you something of an idea. I’d like to give you some snapshots – “wordshots” really – from my life: things I’ve been and done and thought, all of them relating,
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