Pre-ordering books is an AWESOME way to support authors and illustrators you love. It signals to publishers that you’re excited about their books, and lets brick-and-mortar bookstores know how many copies they should order ahead of time and then expect to keep in stock.
To show my appreciation for such support, I am doing a Revenge of the EngiNerds pre-order giveaway! All you have to do is send proof of your pre-order to ROTEpreorder@gmail.com, and you’ll be automatically entered to win a class set (that’s 25 copies!) of the paperback edition of EngiNerds when it hits shelves in February!
And guess what? If you pre-order from an independent bookseller your name will be entered into the drawing TWICE!
Questions? Feel free to reach out here, via my Contact form, or on Twitter!
Much of the past few weeks of my life has been spent staring at spreadsheets. No, I didn’t suddenly become uber-organized. And no, I didn’t take up accounting as a new hobby. I’ve been playing “matchmaker” for authors and educators, helping pair them up for the 2018-2019 school year as part of the #KidsNeedMentors program.
#KidsNeedMentors is a project that author Ann Braden, 5th grade teacher Kristin Crouch, 5th grade teacher Kristen Picone, and I launched back in May. The idea behind it is simple: instead of having authors visit a classroom (either virtually or in-person) for 30 minutes or an hour and then say goodbye, why not have them return on a regular basis and form a deeper — and more beneficial — connection with students.
I’ve been wanting to create such a program for a while now, both after watching a similar (though somewhat less ambitious) program get launched across in the Atlantic in the U.K., and after learning about the wonderful results of such a longterm connection between teacher librarian Carrie Davies and author/illustrator Aaron Zenz.
However, it wasn’t until I’d met Ann Braden and worked with her on our #KidsNeedBooks project (in the process discovering that she is uber-organized, and that she can make spreadsheets like no other) that I thought launching such a program of our own might actually be possible. We discussed it a handful of times, including once up in Burlington, VT, at nErDcampVT, and then did so again one morning on Twitter. Kristin and Kristen — being the incredibly giving, creative, and student-focused individuals they are — immediately offered to be a part of the organizational team. We spent the rest of the morning hashing out ideas and talking about logistics, and after a few “Should we do this?” “We should do this.” “Should we do this?” back-and-forths, we finally said, Let’s do this.
The response blew us away. Within a couple of days, 300 educators had signed up, and nearly the same number of authors. We had to cap things there and start a waitlist just to make sure we could give our proper attention and support to those 500-something participants during the school year. The waitlist has been growing steadily since May, both on the educator and the author side — confirming that, yes, authors are eager to collaborate with teachers, librarians, and administrators in order to further connect with their young readers. For many of us authors, that’s the best part of the job!
This weekend, 300 educator/author pairs are receiving e-mails that begin like this:
Now the fun starts. Those educator/author teams will work together to design experiences that will most benefit, excite, and inspire the students they’ll work with. And several pairs have already hit the ground running! It’s been thrilling to see e-mail exchanges in which authors lay out loads of great ideas — Erin Soderberg Downing and Nancy Churnin have plans to give the kids they’ll be working with behind-the-scenes peeks at the book-making process, and are even willing to let them be a part of that process for books they have coming out during the upcoming school year. The possibilities are truly endless, and I cannot wait to see what these collaborations lead to.
Working with Ann, Kristin, and Kristen has been a dream (Go, TeamJAKK!). I’m beyond honored to call each of them a friend, and so excited to see where our collaboration takes us in the future.
. . .
To learn more about Carrie Davies and Aaron Zenz’s collaboration, check out this post by them at the NerdyBookClub.
To learn more about #KidsNeedMentors — and get yourself on the waitlist/included for next year! — check out this post on Ann Braden’s site.
And if you want to see how #KidsNeedMentors unfolds in classrooms around the world — we’ve got educators based in the States, Canada, Africa, and Asia! — follow the hashtag on Twitter, where participants will be regularly tweeting about what they’re up to.
It’s been a busy couple of months. Since I last checked in, I’ve been in Vermont, Kansas, Colorado, and Michigan. I took three of these four trips in order to attend those states’ nErDcamps.
nErDcamps are one-of-a-kind events where educators and creators come together to celebrate books and reading and, more importantly, learn from and inspire one another. The very first nErDcamp (a term built from “EDcamp” and the “nerd” of the online #nerdybookclub movement) took place six years ago in Parma, Michigan, and was labeled an “unconference” — instead of a day of pre-planned, scheduled sessions, participants showed up and organized a day of sessions on the spot, based on what they wanted to share and learn about.
Around 150 educators attended that very first nErDcamp. This year’s nErDcampMI had an attendance of nearly 2,000 (with a waitlist, one organizer told me, double that). There were also over 1,000 kids in attendance for nErDcampMI’s nErDcamp Jr., an evening during which local kids come to hang out with and learn from authors and illustrators and, amazingly, walk away with at least one, but often several, brand new books.
Michigan’s nErDcamp is by far the largest. But that first one six years ago launched a movement, and inspired others to organize nErDcamps of their own. Nearly a dozen have sprung up in the years since, and there are more in the works as I write this. The nErDcamp I attended in Vermont was that state’s first. The one I attended in Kansas was that state’s third. Each camp works a bit differently — some mix pre-planned sessions with the “unconference” style’s on-the-spot session creation — but they are all fueled by the same spirit, and by the same understanding: that by working together, kids’ educators and creators can more effectively make a difference in the lives of kids. And isn’t that why we’re all doing what we do every day?
If you are an educator, a creator, or otherwise involved in the process of getting books into kids hands and/or the promotion of reading, I cannot encourage you enough to attend a camp. I assure you that you will be warmly welcomed, make friends, learn loads, and leave feeling inspired and hope-filled.
Below you’ll find a list of all the nErDcamps I know of (if I missed any, let me know!). Follow the links to learn more, and find the various camp’s on social media (especially Twitter). Many of their accounts are active all year long, and do more than just share info about their camp itself. Also keep an eye out for new nErDcamps being launched in Central NY (follow Corrina Allen, Susan Sullivan, and Erin Varley on Twitter so as not to miss any info or announcements) and on the West Coast (follow Jennifer Druffel to keep in the loop about that).
And you can find ME at two more nErDcamps before the year is out: nErDcampNNE (up in Maine in September) and nErDcampLI (on Long Island in November). More info about both can be found on my Appearances page and at the camps’ websites/social media accounts. Hope to see you there!
In case you missed it, I recently revealed the cover of REVENGE OF THE ENGINERDS, the sequel to ENGINERDS, on Twitter and Instagram. Here it is, in all its fart-tastic glory:
I once again feel so, so lucky to have the incredibly talented (and utterly hilarious!) Serge Seidlitz doing the art for these books.
As you can see, there are some new faces in this next nerdy adventure. The girl front and center is Mikaela Harrington, and that green-tinged guy up top — well, I think you can see what he is.
Don’t worry, though: all your favorites will be back in this next installment — Dan, Jerry, John Henry Knox, and, of course, Kitty the dog.
REVENGE OF THE ENGINERDS hits shelves on February 19th, 2019, but you can preorder now wherever books are sold. Some links to do so are below.
A few weeks ago, my friend Ann Braden — author of the forthcoming MG novel The Benefits of Being an Octopus — did something pretty amazing. Inspired by a blog post from Donalyn Miller and moved by a flurry of tweets from educators expressing frustration, sadness, and even fear about the fact that their students were soon leaving school for summer break and wouldn’t have any books to read until they returned in the fall, Ann picked through her shelves and put together a stack of books that she was willing to part with. Educators interested in the books simply needed to retweet Ann’s tweet in order to enter the giveaway.
I saw Ann’s tweet, and was inspired to do what I could to help. That same night, I went home and put together a stack of my own. All the books were ones that I had read and enjoyed, even loved, and that I had purchased with the intent of having them on my shelves forever. But as soon as I considered the fact that there were a tremendous number of young readers out there who, for one reason or another, were facing the prospect of being book-less all summer long, it wasn’t very hard to part with even the most beloved of these books.
The next day, a couple more authors joined Ann and me. And the day after that, there were a handful more. Ann had got the ball rolling — and pretty soon the thing was just racing along. Up to a dozen new stacks were offered on every one of the following days. As of this post, nearly 90 authors have joined our little movement, and well over a hundred stacks of books have been given away. And these stacks were by no means small. Some contained 20 or even 30 books. Officially, the #KidsNeedBooks crew has given away over 500 books. But a huge number of books have been shipped out unofficially, and by my estimate, we’re closer to 1,000. (Below are the stacks I’ve so far given.)
As wonderful as this has all been, it is, sadly, not nearly enough. Our country is riddled with so-called “book deserts,” but all of us authors behind #KidsNeedBooks are committed to doing everything we can to continue flooding these places with books. We have been and are looking forward to working more closely with educators and librarians in a number of ways and on a number of projects, not only to get books into their students’ hands, but also to connect and engage with kids in other ways. As I’ve said before, kid lit authors and educators are colleagues, all of us united in our mission to enhance and enrich the lives of kids. When we work together, we can do more, and do it better.
Click here and here to read more about #KidsNeedBooks at Ann’s website. Click here to read coverage of the #KidsNeedBooks movement in the School Library Journal. And click here to sign up for the #KidsNeedBooks newsletter, through which we’ll keep you updated on our activities and alert you to opportunities to get involved.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here, but there are two pretty good reasons for that. The first reason is that I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on Revenge of the EngiNerds, the sequel to EngiNerds. The second reason is that my farting bots and I have been crisscrossing the States, visiting schools and bookstores all over the place!
Back at the end of March/beginning of April, I was out in California, where I visited a couple of great schools in the Los Angeles area.
While I was out there, I also had a chance to grab coffee with two California-based MGers — Dana Middleton (author of The Infinity Year of Avalon James and Open If You Dare) and Danielle Davis (author of Zinnia and the Bees).
After that, it was on to New Jersey — or should I say NERD Jersey. I was heading there to attend nErDcampNJ, but went a few days early to do some school visits. The visits were excellent — and were so even before one amazing fan gave me a box of EngiNerds-themed cookies and chocolates she’d had made!
Like all nErDcamps, nErDcampNJ was simply incredible. I learned so, so much, and left feeling more fired up and inspired than ever.
The morning after camp, I stuck around to visit a local Barnes & Noble with fellow authors Sally J. Pla, Melissa Roske, and Rob Vlock. The event was educator-focused, and our panel was moderated by one of the best educators out there: 5th grade super-teacher Nicole Mancini.
My time in New Jersey served as a powerful confirmation of the fact that authors and educators are colleagues, and that at the end of the day, we’re all working toward the same goal: to get the books that kids both want and need into their hands when they want and need them most. The more that authors and educators connect and collaborate, the better it will be — both for us and, more importantly, for the kids we serve.
After New Jersey, I was back home for just a couple days before I was on the road again — this time to Illinois. I visited schools in Northlake, Elburn, and Lisle, and also met up with some bookish friends in Chicago.
Next up is nErDcampVT, brand new this year! After that I’ve got a couple of events here in Massachusetts, and then I’m off again — first to Kansas for nErDcampKS, then to Denver for that city’s ComicCon, and then on to Michigan for nErDcampMI! It’s going to be a busy, nerd-filled summer. After which it’ll be time to gear up for the launch of Revenge of the EngiNerds!
Inspired by a story she heard on NPR, educator/author Pernille Ripp began the Global Read Aloud in 2010. Her idea was simple, but bold and beautiful: to get as many kids, in as many classrooms, to read the same book, and then connect with one another in order to share their thoughts and discuss.
The GRA began small — but quickly became enormous. Check out these participant numbers:
Last year, in 2017, it’s estimated that more than FOUR MILLION kids participated. The connections made — between kids and kids, between teachers and teachers, between human beings and BOOKS — are priceless, and are doing an enormous amount to help make the world a better, brighter, more hopeful place.
It is a tremendous honor to simply have my book nominated for such an awesome project — and the honor is all the greater considering the five other nominees are from some of my all-time favorite creators. If you haven’t read books by the other authors, I encourage you to do so. Like, today. Like put them on hold at your library RIGHT NOW or go out and buy them (or, in the case of THE UNICORN RESCUE SOCIETY, preorder it — that one pubs April 10th).
If you want to vote, you have until March 20th, and can do so here. And once again: a big, giant, enormous THANK YOU to Pernille Ripp for everything she does to help turn kids into lifelong book-lovers and readers, including creating and growing the Global Read Aloud.
Last weekend, I participated in Dedham, Massachusetts’s first annual Smack Dab in the Middle Author Festival.
It. Was. AWESOME.
The event was sponsored by the Dedham Public Library, the Blue Bunny Bookstore, and the Dedham Library Innovation Team, and thanks to the hard work of all these incredibly creative, highly organized individuals, the day was a tremendous success.
It all began with a handful of us authors running writing workshops for aspiring young writers. Though “aspiring” isn’t all that accurate a word — the kids in my group are already astoundingly talented. The story ideas they shared with me were so exciting, I made them promise to go home and start writing them so that I can read them all someday!
Next up were authors panels. We were broken up into three groups:
CONTEMPORARY, featuring Victoria Coe, Lee Gjertsen Malone, Peter Reynolds, Anna Staniszewski, and Susan Tan
SCI-FI, featuring Katie Slivensky, Monica Tesler, Rob Vlock, and me!
Photo courtesy of Rob Vlock.Photo courtesy of Melissa Lee.
Moderator Janet Reynolds got each panel going by asking a question, such as, “Where do you get your ideas?” Authors took turns answering, and also occasionally got into conversation with one another. After that, the audience had a chance to ask questions. There were some excellent ones. Scholastic Press Corps Kid Reporter Maxwell Surprenant asked us sci-fi authors what role our parents played in shaping our career trajectories, and also wanted to know the most important thing we’d learned from them. Middle Grade fiction fans not there in person could still take part in these panels, as each of them was live-streamed on Facebook. Throughout the day, there were well over one thousand out-of-town readers tuned into the event.
The final part of the event, however, was something that you had to be there in person to enjoy: a book signing! All of us authors set up shop in the main room of the Dedham Public Library. We signed books and, even better, got a chance to chat with local kids, parents, and educators. I also learned about a brand-new independent bookstore opening up in just a few weeks in West Acton, Massachusetts — the Silver Unicorn. The owner of the bookstore stopped by to check out the event and spread the word.
Photo courtesy of Rayna Freedman.
All in all, it was a jam-packed but totally fantastic day. There’s nothing better than connecting with young readers, and the Dedham Public Library, the Blue Bunny Bookstore, and the Dedham Library Innovation Team offered all of us authors a wonderful opportunity to do so. The event serves as a testament to the importance of public libraries and independent bookstores in our communities. Fun, inspiring, life-enriching events such as these would not happen without them. So make sure to get out there and support YOUR local libraries and independent bookstores — for your sake, for your community’s sake, and for the sake of the book and reading community at large.
For more on the Smack Dab in the Middle Author Festival, read Maxwell Surprenant’s write-up of the event here, or Ariane Komyati’s write-up for Dedham Wicked Local here.
. . .
If hearing about the Smack Dab in the Middle Author Festival got you fired up to attend some book events, you’re in luck! I’ve got a bunch of them coming up, and at each I’ll be in the company of some truly excellent authors. Below is a list of where I’ll be, when I’ll be there, and who I’ll be with for the rest of the month of March. I hope to see you out there!
Saturday, March 17: Barnes & Noble Framingham Spring Author Festival
with Jannie Ho, Diane Magras, Gina Perry, Heather Lang, Jen Petro-Roy, Sarah Jean Howitz, Rob Vlock, Lisa Rosinsky, Sara Levine, Gregory Katsoulis, and Carol Gordon Ekster
The application period for the Kid Lit Mentorship Project closed one week ago today. We received over 100 applications from kids all across the country, every one of them passionate about writing and eager to improve their craft with the guidance of an author-mentor. It is now up to Jenny, Jenn, Brooks, and me to review all of these applications and each choose a mentee to work with — and believe me, it is not going to be an easy task. These kids are beyond impressive. A few months ago, when I first launched this project, I said that I thought it’d be us, the mentors, who would learn the most from our mentees during the course of our work together. Looking over these applications, I’m more convinced than ever that this will turn out to be true.
If a child or student of yours applied to the Kid Lit Mentorship Project, please ask them to hang tight while Jenny, Jenn, Brooks, and I make this difficult decision. Once our mentees have been selected, ALL applicants will receive a note from us, and those young writers who did not get chosen will have an opportunity to either: (1) ask us a specific writing-related question or for some more general advice about writing, or (2) have a short sample of their writing critiqued by one of the four of us.
Thank you to all of you who encouraged the young writers in your life to apply to the project. I look forward to sharing more news and updates with you soon.
Today is World Read Aloud Day, and I spent it virtually visiting (via Skype) 15 different classrooms all across the country. I went to Missouri, to Illinois, to Wisconsin, to Illinois again, to New York, back to Illinois (they seem to really like me there!), up to Canada, back down to Michigan, over to New York, on to Iowa, BACK to Illinois (seriously!), and then finally way out west to California.
In every classroom, I did the same thing. Something so simple — but oh so wonderful and oh so very important. I read aloud. That’s it. I cracked open a book and I read it.
Kids who are read to every day benefit enormously from the experience. This has been shown by the academics, and is proven again and again on a daily basis in schools across the country and all over the world. To be able to spend this special day reading aloud to so many kids (by my count, somewhere between 300-400!) is a true honor — and also a tremendous amount of fun.
Thank you to ALL the educators out there who make reading aloud to their students a priority, an essential part of each and every day. And thank you especially to those teachers who invited me into their classrooms to read on this wonderful World Read Aloud Day. I am filled to the brim with gratitude and joy, and feel more inspired than ever to wake up tomorrow morning and continue to do everything I can to make a positive impact on kids’ lives.
Jarrett Lerner 