Meet Karen Cushman and step inside the world of ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN

Next week is sort of a huge one in publishing, people. HUGE. Like a minivan in a parking lot full of Matchbox cars.

That's because April 26 marks the official release date of Karen Cushman's latest, ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN (Clarion), about a girl, her goose, and their magical transformation in a gritty London world.

Karen is one of the Truly Great Figures in children's literature, with a Newbery Award and a Newbery Honor to her name.

She also happens to be one of the warmest, most generous authors I've met. Seriously. I love her.

On May 11, she's headlining at our final Professional Series meeting of the year, telling us how she finally came to write after years of talking about it a speech titled IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES.

We're incredibly lucky to have her, and so that you can be ready to get the most out of the evening, we put together a blog book tour.

Whether you write middle grade, historical fiction, nonfiction or just love to read, you'll learn a lot from the answers Karen shared with our team.


Kim Baker, our assistant regional adviser, writes about middle-grade fiction at Wagging Tales. She first met Karen last summer, and asked her some questions about her writing process. Read up on them here.

Laurie Thompson, our co-regional adviser, has a blog about nonfiction--something that overlaps plenty with the historical fiction Karen writes so beautifully. Read it here.

Kirby Larson, a colleague and Newbery honor winner, has both a review of the book AND an interview AND she is giving away an ARC to the person who invents the best Meggy Swann-style curse. Here's her review. And here's her interview.

Emilie Bishop--who contributes to the historical fiction blog Damsels in Regress--has a great interview tailored to people working in that genre. Here's a question I loved:

2.  What was your favorite period word or phrase that you got to include in the book?
I pick gallimaufry though beslubbered, dampnified, and gorbellied come close.

You can read the whole thing here.

And finally, Allie Costa, a California gal who writes the popular book-review blog Slayground, has an interview with Karen about all of her books. You'll find that one here, along with a hilarious anecdote about bosoms and school uniforms. (You'll probably also get ideas for what you want to read next, both from Karen, and from the publishing world at large).


More good stuff:

• Read an excerpt of the book here.
• Mark your calendars for the May 4 webcast from Seattle's TOPS K-8 school.
• Get details about our Professional Series Meeting.