Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Newsletter Spring 1999. Page 6.

by Carol Hurst and Rebecca Otis.

Behind the Desk

It was fun seeing some of you at the IRA Convention in San Diego recently. The convention was quickly followed by a day at Knoxon School in Poughkeepsie. That's my third visit there. I told stories all day to the kids and did a teacher workshop after school. Two days later I was at Fausey School in West Springfield, MA.-- storytelling with the kids again and then an evening workshop with parents and teachers. Such experiences reassure me that kids haven't changed that much -- there's something about a story that captures us all.

The big news this quarter is that my first novel, tentatively called Through the Locks, has been accepted by Walter Lorraine at Houghton Mifflin. Although I've published a lot of professional books, this is my first foray into an original work of fiction. To have it accepted so readily, astonishes me. I've just completed a rewrite and now it's the publisher's turn. I'll keep you posted as to re-vamped title, if any, and publication date.

The other good news is that my book Open Books: Using Literature in the Early Grades is out and available from Amazon.com as are most of my other books. It's also available from Linworth Publishers (800 786-5017). You'll find one chapter from it in the newsletter this month. I think it's a good strong book that should be useful to teachers, librarians and parents.

I'm currently in the process of updating our U.S. History book and that will be a monumental task but I'm also playing with a couple of fiction ideas.

See you next quarter.

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