Karen Cushman

Karen Cushman

Newbery award-winning children’s book author

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Karen Cushman

Karen Cushman

Stories of Arrival 

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The Colors of My PastIn honor of Poetry Month (I know I’m late to the party, but it’s still April). I would like to share a poem from the Immigrant and Refugee Youth Voices Poetry Project at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington. Poet and teaching artist Merna Hecht works each year with refugee students from war-torn countries as they struggle to find words to express their longing, their courage and resilience, and their hopes for the future. Hau Sian Khai is from Burma. He hopes he never forgets his home.

Where I Grew Up 

by Hau Sian Khai

Sometimes I wish that my city in Burma was surrounded By cheerful green trees
weaving in the wind Fresh, bubbling blue water Clean, healthy air floating.

There are white, shiny bright tunics
Wondering around my city in Malaysia,
Long hairy beards like spider webs
Hurrying to the mosque for prayers.

Other times I think of
The smell of sea fish,
The smell of dead animals from hunger and cold, The smell of burning flames from
outdoor fires, The smells from garbage, awful funky animal smells.

The struggle of hunger,
The struggle of sickness
And dying, needing a cure,
The struggle of war,
People forced to move away from home,
Carrying their belongings and valuables
Like heavy, giant rocks.

For more information or to order a copy of the anthology, see Merna Hecht’s website.

Thanks to A Mighty Girl

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I appreciate the shout-out about Catherine, Called Birdy. It’s a thrill to find my book on your wonderful site. Readers, be sure to visit A Mighty Girl for more book recommendations.
 

Post by A Mighty Girl.

Signs of spring

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deerAn early sign of spring here on Vashon Island is the number of hungry, pregnant deer. I love to see them, as long as they eat only our meadow weeds and nothing that blooms.

 

 

 

 

 

racoonThe raccoons are less welcome visitors because I worry about them menacing Otis, who is almost 18 and not as spry as he used to be. They sure are cute, though. From a distance.

Busy Weekend

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Zane and the Hurricane and The Shadow ThroneIn the past three days I have battled hurricane and pirates, floods and evil kings, false friends and kind strangers. I was angry, frightened, discouraged, and determined. All this while I rode a train from here to Portland and back. Yup, I was reading—two amazingly good books.

Rodman Philbrick, author of the entirely splendid Freak the Mighty, took me to New Orleans in Zane and the Hurricane, just in time to to be trapped by Hurricane Katrina. Zane and his dog, Bandy, also encounter a feisty young girl and an elderly musician, dangerous drug lords, uncaring officials, and generous strangers. I could feel the wet and the cold and the hunger. Great book. 

Entirely different but equally compelling is The Shadow Throne, the third book in the Ascendance trilogy that started with The False Prince. Jennifer Nielsen has done it again, given us a rip-roaring adventure about good and evil, courage, loyalty, and love. I read this one much too late into the night. Great book.

I recommend you get these titles from your local independent bookstore. What would we do without them?

I love to do research.

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There is no one reviewing or editing or criticizing my research. It is just me and a hundred thousand interesting bits of information. And I discover things I love knowing, like the fact that an unknown Egyptian laborer invented beer when his bread fermented. Or that Saint Simeon Stylites lived for thirty-seven years atop a pillar. Or that in the eighteenth century, children were punished for not smoking, it being thought that tobacco smoke warded off plague germs. 

Oxford Dictionary of SlangAlthough I now can do much of my research online, a shelf in my study still holds the basics: The Oxford Book of Slang, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England, The Oxford Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms, The Oxford Historical Thesaurus, and, of course, the invaluable Oxford English Dictionary. 

And here are the books I used frequently to research my medieval books:

Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages, Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, Ian Mortimer

Growing Up in Medieval London, Barbara A. Hanawalt

A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, William Manchester

A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the14th Century, translated by Tania Bayard

Lost Country Life, Dorothy Hartley

Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony, Madeleine Pelner Cosman

Gerard’s Herbal: A History of Plants, Marcus Woodward, editor

Castle, David Macaulay

Oxford Dictionary of Saints

Medieval Reference Books

My Bedside Table

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Bedside TableI thought you might like to see what I’ve been reading (when I should be writing): 

Mrs. Hemingway (Naomi Wood, Penguin): Insightful fictional look at Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. There’s a lot to admire in the women but I still don’t get Hemingway’s appeal. 

The Bear (Claire Cameron, Little, Brown): Two children must find their way out of the wilderness after their parents are eaten (really!) by a bear. I can’t say I enjoyed it—so violent and tragic—but I can’t forget it either. Not for children or the faint of heart. 

Under the Wide and Starry Sky (Nancy Horan, Ballantine): Fanny Osborne meets and marries Robert Louis Stevenson. The novel follows the couple as they travel the world, Louis writing and Fanny nursing him. I found it engaging. 

The Invention of Wings (Sue Monk Kidd, Viking): 19th century abolitionist Sarah Grimke struggles against her upbringing, her family, and other abolitionists as she insists also on rights for women. It’s a lovely, moving book and I enjoyed it wholeheartedly. 

I lucked out—all four were excellent and worth reading. Watch for them. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for advance reading copies.

The Hollywood Ten

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The Loud Silence of Francine GreenBackground: The Loud Silence of Francine Green: From reading the book, you know that Francine’s friend Sophie’s father was a screenwriter in Hollywood, which is a factor upon which the plot turns.

You may find it interesting to learn more about Ring Lardner, Jr., a writer who won Academy Awards for M*A*S*H and Woman of the Year. In 1947, he was one of the Hollywood Ten, actors and writers from Hollywood who were questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee for suspicions of having left-wing or Communist sympathies. He refused to answer questions about his political status and was sent to prison for 12 months and fined $1,000. He was fired as one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood and blacklisted from working there again. 

Here’s a 90-minute reading by various actors from Ring Lardner, Jr’s, memoir, I’d Hate Myself in the Morning. 

You can listen to an audio clip from The Loud Silence of Francine Green here.

My Own Favorite Medieval Novels

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Favorite Medieval BooksHappy Birthday, Birdy

2014 is the 20th anniversary of Catherine, Called Birdy. There will be celebrations all year, there will be hoopla, there will be cake. Here for your reading pleasure is a list, in no particular order, of my own favorite medieval novels for young people.                       

Crossing to Paradise — Kevin Crossley-Holland

Gatty, the engaging peasant girl from Crossley-Holland’s Arthur trilogy, accompanies her mistress on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When tragedy hits, it is Gatty who leads the group to the fulfillment of its pilgrimage and, by the time she returns home, she is much changed. The story is compelling, and the writing is gorgeous.        

Blood Red Horse — K.M. Grant

Will and his brother Gavin follow the king on crusade to the Holy Land. Blood is shed, lives are changed and lost, but two things are constant—his love for Eleanor and the blood-red horse called Hosanna. Lovely, thoughtful depiction of the Muslims and their side of the conflict.

Book of the Maidservant — Rebecca Barnhouse

Johanna, serving girl to Dame Margery Kempe, a renowned and difficult medieval holy woman, accompanies her mistress on a pilgrimage to Rome. But Dame Margery abandons Johanna, who must journey through fear and anger and physical hardship to find her own way. 

Knight’s Fee — Rosemary Sutcliff

A game of chess, a brave minstrel, a kind old knight, and a friend lead the orphaned Randal to squirehood, and his own courage paves his path to becoming a knight.

The Puppeteer’s Apprentice — D. Anne Love

Mouse, a timid orphan, joins the company of a master puppeteer, and she, too, learns to make the puppets dance. Searching for her own identity, Mouse ultimately receives a name and experiences great joy and great sorrow on her way to fulfilling her dreams.

The Ramsay Scallop — Frances Temple

Eleanor and her betrothed, Thomas, are sent on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James and come to realize the glorious possibilities of the world around them … and within each other.

The Wicked and the Just — J. Anderson Coats

Cecily’s family moves to Wales, where the king needs loyal Englishmen to control the rebellious Welsh. The Welsh Gwenhwyfar, struggling to survive under the hostile English, is taken as servant to the bratty Cecily … until tensions explode and the tables are turned.

My writing future

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Copyright-free image of Elvis Presley from the Library of Congress collectionI was asked not long ago if I plan to write in other formats—plays, poetry, screenplays, or picture books. My short answer was good grief, no! but here’s more. I think I wrote all the plays, poetry, and screen plays that I had inside me before I was fifteen. I still have boxes of them: plays like “Jingle Bagels,” the story of Santa Claus going down the wrong chimney on Christmas Eve and finding himself in a Jewish home; a notebook called Plots for Elvis Movies; and of course poetry, poetry I wrote when I was happy, angry, frightened, in love, broken hearted—even a series of poems based on the life of Elvis (do you see a theme here?). No, I believe I’ll stick to middle-grade novels. They have gotten me this far.