1. I was thrilled, THRILLED I say, to see this review of ME WITH YOU, not only because the reviewer seems to really "get" the book as a celebration of those who love children unconditionally, but also because the reviewer is Esmé Codell. You know? Esmé? Codell? Professional "Readiologist" and otherwise Amazingly Insightful Children's Lit Reader and Extoller? Yes, THAT Esmé Codell. She read ME WITH YOU and blogged about it. She even sniffed the pages a bit. I mean, I bet she did. WOW.

2. During ALA on Saturday, July 11th, I am going to be reading and signing ME WITH YOU at Magic Tree Bookstore from 1:30 to 3:30 pm (Happy 25th Birthday, Magic Tree!) . Also signing is Jon Scieszka (Yeah. He's only the NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE), Gennifer Choldenko (Yeah. Her book Al Capone Does My Shirts won a Newbery Honor), Ingrid Law (Yeah, Her New York Times Bestselling book, Savvy, won a Newbery Honor this year), Jerry Pinkney (Yeah. His awards are too many to mention and include words like "Caldecott" and "Coretta Scott King Award"; not to mention I have been in love with his ilustrative style since...oh, forever), and Richard Peck (yes, that Richard Peck) only one of the most important authors in my writerly heart and with whom I can't even imagine sharing breathing space. I'm afraid I will tear up and make a fool of myself. Yes, I have already asked someone to have the smelling salts at the ready.

Needless to say, I feel very privileged to be able to take part in such a wonderful celebration of Magic Tree's 25th anniversary with so many of my children's literature idols. (Oh. And did I mention it will be my very first signing for ME WITH YOU? Boy howdy. What a way to kick it off.)

I'll also be signing Sunday morning, July 12th at ALA at 10am at the Penguin Putnam booth (#2120). Hope to see you there!

Way back in May when I mentioned that I wouldn't be in the States to see my book born into the world in bookstores across America, and I decided to hold a contest to give those who would be willing to send me a picture of my book in a bookstore or in their hands at home, I never imagined how many tears I would shed and how many smiles it would bring to my face to see you guys tracking down my book and sending me pictures. I'm so grateful to have had the chance to see what feels like years of labor, even though I'm not there to see it. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. And thank you, too, to those who sent me news of "sightings" even if they didn't happen to have a camera with them at the time.

To all who entered by sending me pictures, I am SO grateful you were willing to share in my joy. And some of you were entered in the contest even if you didn't send me the link. If you posted a picture of my book here on LJ, or on Facebook, or on Blogger or anywhere that I saw it, I entered you in the contest!

We wrote down each of the names on a piece of paper...if you posted the pic to your blog or Facebook AND sent me the link, you received two entries...we put all the names into my son's cowboy hat and then my husband (to whom the book is dedicated) did the honors....

And without furthor ado, the winner of a copy of ME WITH YOU is MARY WOODFIN BOGGS, a sweet friend from our college ministry days in Carrollton, Georgia! She found the book at Barnes and Noble in Hampton, Va.



Congratulations, Mary! I'll be in touch!

You have till midnight to get those pics of ME WITH YOU in bookstores or in your hands at home in order to get a chance to win a copy. Last call!

Don't forget you can win a copy of ME WITH YOU! See details here.

And if you need any incentive to run out to your nearest book emporium and snatch it up, here's a little preview. Or need a gift for Dad or Gramps for Father's Day? See below!

I've shared this poem before, one I penned a couple of years ago as my own take on hope after reflecting on Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the Thing with Feathers". It seems that the euphoria *and* the pain of hope are recurring themes in my life, and sharing this poem again only serves to echo that cycle. Perhaps you can relate?


HOPE

Hope refuses to perch
as if she had arrived for only a visit,
            like so many flitting wings
            on the branches of a bloodwood tree,
weaving instead feathers from her breast
into the fabric of my soul.

 

Her fussing brings pain,
reminding me of a presence I’ve tried
to ignore, preferring instead

            a familiar landscape of barren desert,
averting my eyes from the want within,
            growing as if shielded from sun, protected

from possibilities until they would

weigh my branches with promise.

But hope, feathered hope, is already here,
nestled so sweetly for laying,

and I await with the pain
of expectation.

--Kristy Dempsey (2007, all rights reserved)





ETA: Oh! I forgot to say that ME WITH YOU is the Poetry Friday Picture Book of the Day over at Anastasia Suen's six traits blog!

Shield your eyes for an onslaught of cuteness, people! This is my high school friend's son, S, who found ME WITH YOU at the Pickens County Library in South Carolina.

(CUTE + plastic wrapping and a library tag) X CUTER = AMAZING!!!!!!



Awesome, right?

tamarak felt the need to warn you... But let's just get this straight, for the record: I think this is just GAWGEOUS:

And here's a little love from a fellow Highlights Chautauqua 2005 conference alum, Gwendolyn Hooks:

Who needs Vanna when you've got these two?

I've had a really rough night and day with some crazy stomach virus going on. Not feeling much better, but wanted you to see these pics that brought me joy on a not so joyous day. There's still time to enter the contest if you find ME WITH YOU on your bookstore shelves!
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Sweet friend Laura; you can see *   *  Hanging out with Tim McGraw and *   *   Friend and Critique Partner Becky Gomez
Mouse was Mad and Two Boys Have                       Brooke Shields in
the Best Week Ever and several                                      Auburn, AL
other friend's books

Two dear friends in GA In Borders* * * * * * * * * at Mall of GA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** Pam Ross in Long Island!
Ed and Carol Hogan


The Cute Little Display that Penguin Putnam
sold to some stores. If you have a Wegman's,
it's there! This one was at Quail Ridge Books in NC.

Thanks to Laura Flynt Clum, Mom and Tim, Ed and Carol Hogan, Pamela Ross, Becky Gomez, and Kelly Starling Lyons for the pics!

In other news, I blogged today at the Author's Now website about what being 6,000 miles away from my first book's debut has taught me about writing for children. Click here to read it. And please leave me a comment!

Look who's watching over me at the Barnes and Noble in Destin, FL... A very adorable, mad-when-he-needs-to-be mouse. :)



Edited to Add:

Two very lovely blog reviews of ME WITH YOU

The Happy Nappy Bookseller

and

HollyBookNotes.

annemariepace was at Barnes and Noble last night in Charlottesville and look what she found!




Okay, and do you see that woman in the background with a stroller? (You can't see her face so I feel okay about posting her picture without her consent.) annemariepace saw THAT WOMAN, someone we don't even know, BUY A COPY of ME WITH YOU! She just picked it up off the shelf and read it and then bought it! Whoo-hoo!

ME WITH YOU's esteemed illustrator, Christopher Denise, is the guest for breakfast over at Jules' and Eisha's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog. And let me tell you, you are in for a treat. Not only can you study the beauty of spreads from ME WITH YOU (and some of the text), you can also study Chris's process for other books, to the tune of 84 (!!!!) images.

The amount of work Jules puts into her interviews is amazing and you seriously will not want to miss her conversation with Chris. My favorite quote: "Suffering as an artist is vastly overrated." Considering what a joy it has been to work with Chris, I couldn't agree more. :)

I truly can't believe I caved to the peer pressure. :)


For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

In honor of the release date of ME WITH YOU, a picture book tailor-made for cuddling in an arm chair for a read-aloud fest, I wanted to talk a bit about reading aloud to kids. Jen Robinson at Jen Robinson's Bookpage said this far more eloquently back in January than I could ever hope to, but it's an important enough issue that more of us need to jump on the bandwagon. Jen called for an international initiative to encourage reading aloud to kids. How can we make this happen? I don't know that I have the answers but I think I can echo her call and perhaps together we can all come up with some ideas.

My own three children are growing up in a household where we speak English, but a school system where they speak Portuguese. All three have learned to read "officially" in Portuguese first because of the efforts of their 4 year old kindergarten teachers. But all three have learned to read English informally because of our efforts at reading aloud to them. I would even say that we did not do enough. We did not read out loud every day. But they've grown to love books and words and have incredible vocabularies in English simply because they were read to. They feel at home with books and settle down easily to read a story, on their own or out loud. Perhaps they love to read the books we have in our home so much simply because they were not required to read them. It's all been purely for pleasure, a free choice free-for-all. No homework assignments, no grammar lessons, no requirements. Their reading has allowed them to experience worlds different from their own, emotional experiences they haven't yet gone through, and to begin to make the emotional connections they will need when they later face these or similar situations in the real world.

Not only this, but we bond as a family over literature. Mem Fox mentions this in her book, Reading Magic, in which she advocates reading out aloud daily:

This is my older sister, Diana. Get this. She had already ordered ME WITH YOU and is waiting for it to arrive but when she went to the bookstore today in Florence, SC, and found it there too, she paid FULL PRICE just to be able to buy it and photo document the whole thing for me. She took pictures. Her with the book. The sales clerk with the book. The book on the shelf. The credit card machine as it said "please wait". The credit card machine as it lit up with the total. Can you believe her? She shared every step of the process with me. I cried!

Also, I'm the guinea pig interview guest today at Rebecca's Writing Journey. For deets on how ME WITH YOU came to be, check it out!

This is my mom holding a copy of her newest grandchild ME WITH YOU.




Mom is currently on vacation in Destin, FL. But do you know what she has been doing every day since she arrived? She has been visiting bookstores to see if she can find a copy of ME WITH YOU on the shelves. Is this some kind of mother or what?

THIS is the mother who, before I had an agent, received emails from me with explicit instructions on how to fold, or not to fold, and what order to place things in an envelope, and who, with joy in her heart, mailed out all my submissions from her SC address because I live overseas and have an unreliable mail system. And she never once complained.

THIS is the same mother, who when she came home after a long day of work and checked her mail, would call me immediately to tell me we'd received another rejection, or thank God, an acceptance, BEFORE she got a snack. Heck, probably before she even peed.

THIS is the same mother who every time that I asked her how much I owed her for the submissions she had sent out on my behalf, hemmed and hawed and couldn't remember and said it wasn't important.

THIS is the mother who believed in me when I was too afraid to believe in myself.

And this is the stepfather who is just as excited as my mother.




ME WITH YOU is about grandparents and I had a teary-eyed, sniffly moment the other day when I realized that my first book, this celebration of the grandparent/grandchild relationship, would be coming out the week of the anniversary of my own father's death. My daddy died 24 years ago today. My own children never knew the love of my sweet daddy. They did not know their own maternal grandfather. But as you can see from the pictures above, they are not lacking for love. They are not lacking for people who celebrate them for who they are and who love them unconditionally. If my mom and stepdad are as happy as they are to see this book on the shelves of a bookstore, you can only imagine how much more they love and celebrate my children.

I could not be more blessed.

Edited to add: DON'T FORGET THE CONTEST! We've already had a winner on the first sighting but I'll be drawing a name from everyone who sends me a picture thereafter up until June 15th!

It's Children's Book Week and for the first time ever I will have a book available to be part...well, for part of it anyway. Three days until ME WITH YOU releases!


HOORAY!

Final report: 4 excellent picture book drafts, 3 stinky ones.
7 different picture books total. 4 ready to revise and sub for crit, 3 that truthfully have bones but no skin.

And I'm so glad this week is over with. I don't think I'll be ready to open any of these files for a month. I'm taking a break!

1. A wonderful review from Booklist. Two particularly nice bits: "The rhyming text is delightful" and "readers [will] want to climb right into the pages to participate in each charming episode."

2. ME WITH YOU will be carried in the Chinaberry Holiday catalog which will go out in early September.

3. Penguin Putnam just ordered another printing!

These days are one of those times when I wish I could be in two places at once. For example, I live in Brazil and not in Vermont, so I couldn't attend Linda Urban's signing of her new picture book, MOUSE WAS MAD. I have heard Linda read MOUSE in manuscript form. (And as an aside, Linda is the BEST reader. Seriously. Next time we're all together, I'm going to have her read the Financial Section of the newspaper out loud just to show how talented she is.) Anyway, back to MOUSE. You can't really talk about a picture book without seeming like you're talking about its main character. MOUSE is funny and endearing and so real. I want to do a proper celebration of MOUSE when I actually have my very own copy in my hands after July. Right now, I can't even talk about the art because, well, I haven't seen it, though I've heard, dear reader, I've heard of its wonderful adorableness.

For now, I'm going to join Linda's contest and weigh in on what makes me mad and what makes me feel better. Truth is, I don't often get mad, really, really foot-stompin' mad. It's most often disrespect and injustice that make me mad, and most often in relation to the way someone else treats my children. But truth is, though I will speak up for myself and my children, what most comforts me is similar to MOUSE in that I like to crawl under the covers and stay as still as possible for a while. Just snuggle up until the adrenaline and anxiety fade away.

What about you, readers? You can weigh in on your own blog or here at Linda's for a chance to win a copy of MOUSE *and* chocolate. (Chocolate is in 2nd place for me as a comfort. And a nap coupled with chocolate = no longer being angry at all!)

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

ME WITH YOU has been found at Books-a-Million in Birmingham, AL on Lakeshore Drive, by Amy Dowdy.

Don't forget to continue to send me pictures between now and June 15. I will draw a name from the entrants for a second winner of a copy of ME WITH YOU. And if you post it to your Facebook or blog and send me the link (at kristy (at) kristydempsey (dot) com, you get TWO entries!

And I'm such a dork that when Amy sent me the picture, I gasped, and then began to sob, mostly because I am happy, but also because Amy and her family lived here in Brazil for ten years and are very dear to my heart and she has been one of my cheerleaders from when I began writing.

(Yes, I posting this on the 1st of May. After poetry month is over. But it is before many on the West Coast wake up and start their May. So I'm counting it!)

I can tell you that I'm positive I've never had a conversation about poetry with my brother-in-law, but I recently read a poem on his blog that cracked me up. It's probably not considered literature; it's a little more on the absurd side of the spectrum. But my brother-in-law liked it enough to post it, and I laughed enough that I had to ask him about it. And guess what, dear readers? His answers to me revealed something about how unexpectedly a poem can get into your head, or your heart, when you hear it out loud.

The poem my brother-in-law David shared was "A Fat Man's Prayer". He'd heard it performed by Victor Buono, one of his favorite actors. David says, "my relationship with poetry is exactly what I said on my blog. I heard it. I liked it. I shared it." Suffice it to say, David isn't searching for poetry to connect with. But hey, sometimes poetry finds us. You hear it, you like it, you share it. Which makes me think we should read more poetry out loud. From the street corners. From the rooftops. On top of our chairs in crowded restaurants. More chances for people to fall in love with poetry.

Ahem. Okay, I digress.

So, here in all its glory, is the poem that caught my brother-in-law's attention, and that made me laugh out loud. And reader, though it might be considered doggerel by some, if you can keep yourself from laughing out loud by the time you reach the Jujubee line, well, then, you just might be hard-hearted. :)


A Fat Man's Prayer

by Victor Buono


Lord, my soul is ripped with riot,

Incited by my wicked diet.

We are what we eat, said a wise old man,

And Lord, if that's true, I'm a garbage can!

I want to rise on Judgment Day, that's plain,

But at my present weight, I'll need a crane!


So grant me strength that I may not fall

Into the clutches of cholesterol.

May my flesh with carrot curls be sated

That my soul may be polyunsaturated.

And show me the light that I may bear witness

To the President's Council on Physical Fitness.

At oleomargarine I'll never mutter,

For the road to hell is spread with butter.

And cake is cursed, and cream is awful,

And Satan is hiding in every waffle.


Mephistopheles lurks in provolone,

The devil is in each slice of bologna,

Beelzebub is a chocolate drop,

And Lucifer is a lollipop!


Give me this day my daily slice -

But cut it thin and toast it twice.
I beg upon my dimpled knees,

Deliver me from Jujubees.

And my when days of trial are done

And my war with malted milks is won,

Let me stand with the saints in heaven

In a shining robe - Size 37!


I can do it, Lord, if you'll show to me

The virtues of lettuce and celery.

If you'll teach me the evils of mayonnaise,

The sinfulness of hollandaise

And pasta a la milanese

And potatoes a la lyonaise

And crisp fried chicken from the south!

Lord, if you love me, SHUT MY MOUTH!

Just a quick note to say that I edited the contest post to say that if you post the picture of ME WITH YOU-in-a-bookstore to your own blog, and send me the link when you send me the picture, you get two entries in the contest!

I just decided to do (Inter)NaWriPiBoWee. (The Inter part being that I live in Brazil. International.) Seven picture books in seven days. You can find the info here. (Big shout out to Paula Yoo for getting this thing started.) I am a lunatic. In order to do this, I MUST get caught up on my crits today. Seriously, my critique partners are the most forgiving people I know.

Also, I have one more Poetry Conversation to get posted. Going out of National Poetry Month with a bang. Missed a few days, but the days that I was able to have a poetry conversation with people and get it posted here were well worth it, I'd say.

Also, did you see the post about my CONTEST? Wanna help me see my book in stores and possibly win a copy? Check out the details in the link.

Okay, I'm going to do my crits. Write my notes for (Inter)NaWriPiBoWee. Exercise. Take a shower. And at some point, post my last Poetry Conversation.

But first, maybe I need another cup of coffee.

I think ME WITH YOU is just about to hit stores. It's no longer listed as a pre-order at Barnes and Noble. AND my author copies came today. So here's a little contest fun for you.

I am in Brazil.

My book is in America.

I long to see my book in bookstores. And I cannot until I arrive in July. But YOU can help me!

First person to send me a picture of ME WITH YOU in an actual bookstore wins a copy! Photo must clearly show you holding my book with bookstore image in background (inside or outside, I'm not picky).

Attach the photo to an email (and let me know the name of the bookstore and city you found it in) and send to kristy (at) kristydempsey (dot) org.

BUT WAIT! Not only that...

If you miss being the first to get me a photo, send anyway! Because between the first photo and June 15, I'll enter everyone who sends me a photo of my book in a bookstore, or in your hands at your house, into a drawing for a giveaway of another copy. (Edited to add: if you also post it to your own blog --or Facebook-- I'll enter you twice! Just send me the link when you email me the picture.) Okay, so June 15 is a long time, I know. But it gives all the stores time to get the book in, and gives you time to run by and give it a gander and send me a picture!

Tell everyone you know!

Fine print: Booksellers are excluded from winning the contest, because you know, of the obvious fact that their hands are the ones that open the boxes. :)

ETA: First copy has been sighted but you can still be in the running for a copy by sending me a pic and/or posting it to your blog or Facebook. See the details above.

Today was a treat. A couple of weeks ago I sent my husband Neruda's "Ode to my Socks". He had agreed to have a Poetry Conversation with me and I debated several days as to which poem I would send him. I finally chose and told him to take as long as he needed.

Every couple of days he would bring it up (or I would, in a "when are you going to get the poem back to me" kind of way). He'd mention something that he loved as much as Neruda's socks. His pen. His pajama pants. "I like comfortable things," he'd say. And I'd giggle. Because, you see, that is EXACTLY why I sent him this poem. Since we married, I've learned that there are certain things -- it might be because of the perfect size of a thing that fits right in the crook of his hand, or the feel of a fabric against his skin, or even the visual appeal of a certain item -- that get into his brain and make him feel like everything is right in his world. He's difficult to buy for, because you just never know what that "thing" will be. For Neruda, it was socks made by the shepherd's hands.

Ode to my Socks

By Pablo Neruda


Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
knitted with her own
shepherd's hands,
two socks soft
as rabbits.
I slipped
my feet into them
as if
into
jewel cases
woven
with threads of
dusk
and sheep's wool

Read the rest here in English or in Spanish.

And for my husband, ONE of his "things" is his beloved office chair. Here is his version of Neruda's poem, bordering on satire in places, but it most definitely made me laugh and brings me to admit that I am one lucky girl indeed to have such a good sport for a husband, as well as one who values words as much as myself. (You might enjoy comparing it to the original, in which case you will marvel as I did at his manner of thought.) And I promise if you read it all the way through, you will laugh. In more than one place. :)

Ode to my Office Chair

by Demps Dempsey


Sam Walton brought me
a leather office chair
crafted by the sandpaper hands
of nickel and dime Banana republic laborers,
one chair
like a big friendly bear.
I slipped
my butt into it
as if
into
a billowy cloud
covered
with the fabric of
fog
and supple Italian leather.
Triumphant chair,
my butt became
one leathery
marshmallow
one huge confectionary delight
of mahogany brown
shot
with a khaki thread,
one ginormous haystack
one monarch's robe
thus honored
was
my butt
by
this
regal
chair.
It was
so comfortable
that for the first time
my butt seemed
a stranger to me,
a dream
of a promised love,
encountered
but not recognized.
A haunting
by the espresso
echo
of that stately
chair.
However,
I quelled
the overhwelming urge
to shake away
the cobwebs of the dream
at rising,
the way a dog sends
water flying from its fur,
the way
a pencil erases its trace.
I resisted
the call
to set the chair
across the room
and silently stare
as at a beautiful girl
with olive hue
and hazel eyes
pondering what she must
be like.
Like Indiana Jones
spanning the chasm
with his whip
with delight,
I stuck out my butt
and eased it
into
the fluffy
chair.
So this is
the moral of my odes:
Most honored
is hope enountered
and what is comfortable
is truly comfortable
when it is the case of one
supreme office chair
at work time.