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… [Read More]
Revolutionary Friends – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
February 4, 2013 By
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… [Read More]
Elizabeth Starr Academy School Visit
January 28, 2013 By
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… [Read More]
The Doorway to High Society
January 21, 2013 By
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… [Read More]
What Writers Do Right
January 14, 2013 By
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… [Read More]
Diana Morón Meets Edith Wharton
January 7, 2013 By
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… [Read More]
Ericsson and da Vinci – A Conversation Across Time
December 31, 2012 By
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… [Read More]
The Year of the Book – Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
December 22, 2012 By
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… [Read More]
Connie To Be the Guest of Honor at Author Day – Elizabeth Starr Academy in Richmond, Indiana
December 12, 2012 By
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.
Build a Book Christmas Tree
December 6, 2012 By
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… [Read More]