Peg Kehret Blog

 Abduction! has won the Iowa Children’s Choice Award.  Whohoo! 

The Iowa award is an old-fashioned brass school bell, with a walnut handle. The bell is engraved with the title of the winning book, the author’s name, and the year.  My previous Iowa bells were awarded for Nightmare Mountain in 1993, Terror at the Zoo in 1996, and Escaping the Giant Wave in 2006.

Over the years, I have used these school bells as dinner bells. When my grandchildren were small, they loved to ring one of the bells when a meal was ready. We’ve rung the Iowa bells at midnight on New Year’s Eve, to celebrate the beginning of a new year.  Once, I even rang one of the bells to let a black bear know that I would appreciate it if he stayed off my front porch!

When the third bell was given to me I told the chair of the ICC committee that I really hoped I’d eventually win one more. “I want four school bells,” I told her, “so that each of my four grandchildren can inherit one.”

Along with the notification that I’m the 2009 winner was a note saying now there was a bell for each grandchild.

Good news: Yesterday I learned that The Ghost’s Grave has won the 2009 Sunshine State Award. This is the Florida young reader award, my third time to win that honor. Hooray!

Bad news: On my way to a charity dinner/auction on Sunday, I took a detour and saw, for the first time, Holstein calves in veal crates. I was sickened by the sight. I quit eating veal more than thirty years ago when I first learned of the cruelty involved in producing this meat. On line the next day I learned that the federal laws on this matter are changing, but slowly. Several states have made the confinement crates illegal.  Meanwhile I am haunted by the faces of these beautiful animals who were unable to stand or turn around.

More good news: I have some new bookplates that I love. If you have one of my books and would like to have a signed bookplate to put in it, send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I’ll mail one to you. Send it to: Bookplate, P.O. Box 303, Wilkeson WA 98396.

This Sat. at 11 a.m. I will be at Lindon Bookstore in Enumclaw, WA, for an early celebration of Earth Day. We’ll be introducing the book, Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children’s Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green.  I’m pleased to have a short piece, “Drinking Dog Water,” in this anthology. All proceeds from the book go to environmental causes.

The idea for Recycle This Book came from Dan Gutman, one of my favorite authors. Dan solicited contributions from other writers, found a publisher, researched the environmental groups, and edited the anthology. He put an incredible amount of time into this project and I am proud to have a small part in it.

After the book store event, I will be going to my daughter’s house to celebrate my grandson’s 17th birthday.  I love grandkids’ birthdays. I like to give presents and eat cake and remember the day that this wonderful person came into my life. This grandson’s middle name is Carl, after my husband. The name also honors another favorite author. Happy birthday, Eric Carl Konen.

Last month, Kenya and Uganda reported their first cases of polio in twenty years. Here in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control data shows drops in polio vaccinations in twenty states and ten large U.S. cities. Toddlers living in poverty have the lowest polio vaccination rates. The CDC estimates that more than one million U.S. toddlers have not received the polio vaccine!

Why is this? Partly, I think it’s due to confusion over whether or not a person can get polio from the vaccine. The oral vaccine (sugar cube) which contained live polio virus was discontinued in the U.S. in 2000. The only vaccine used now, given by injection, contains a dead virus. It is not possible to contract polio from a dead virus.

Polio is easily transported from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Africa by people who carry the virus but don’t know it. If a polio-infected person flies into the U.S. and lands in a city with low vaccination rates, America’s next polio epidemic could easily begin. It is unimaginable to me that the country which developed the Salk vaccine (dead virus) would, half a century later, allow its youngest citizens to risk a deadly, disabling disease that is completely preventable.

I attended my first Beginning Spanish class, and discovered that I was the only beginner. The other students greeted each other in Spanish, got out worksheets, and set their name tags on their desks. The class began with a review of numbers  followed by an exercise where the instructor asked each person, “What is your name? Where do you live?” with the questions and answers in Spanish.  When it was my turn, I tried to mimic the phrases the others had used but I didn’t remember everything correctly. We went on to even more complication interactions, in Spanish.  

After half an hour, I talked privately with the instructor and learned that, yes, it was a class in Beginning Spanish, but it’s a three-part class: Fall, Winter and Spring. The catalog listing didn’t say that. The other students had already taken two quarters of Spanish. I knew I could never catch up, so I told the teacher I would register next Fall, which I will do, and left.

He was a good instructor. The class was friendly and interesting, but I felt very uncomfortable. Everyone else could do the class exercises; I could not.  I realized this is how children feel when they struggle in school.

I’ve always been glad that my books appeal to reluctant readers. Each time I hear from a parent or teacher about a child who learned to like reading because of my books, I feel that my life’s work has been worthwhile. After my experience in Beginning Spanish, I have even more empathy for the students who fall behind.   

I was in Houston this week at the Texas Library Association convention. I talked about humane education, a topic dear to my heart, and after my speech I had several fine conversations with librarians about how their students can do service projects to help shelter animals.

I’ve long maintained that people who like animals make the best friends. Well, give me people who like animals and kids and books - and their ratings go off the charts!

I met many publishing folks who were new to me and enjoyed reconnecting with familiar faces. I did an autographing session for Penguin Young Readers Group, my sponsor at TLA, and another for Simon & Schuster. I also had lunch with the marketing director for Albert Whitman & Co. It was a busy time.

I was pleased to have Kathi Appelt sign a copy of The Underneath for me and I enjoyed a brief conversation with John Green in the hotel lobby.  But when I saw Roger Sutton in The Horn Book exhibit, I was overcome by a fit of shyness and did not introduce myself, even though his “Read Roger” is one of the few blogs that I follow regularly. I had just come from long lines of librarians who wanted me to sign their books or who asked to have a picture taken with me, yet I was as star struck as if I’d never met an author or editor before. I’ll blame my reticence on the fact that it was the end of the day and I was exhausted and ready to head back to my hotel.

The conference was great; the travel was not. A missed connection in Dallas didn’t help, nor did a thunderstorm in Houston that prevented take-offs. I am glad to be back home.  Lucy ran laps around the dining room table when she saw me; Mr. Stray was waiting on the porch; Molly looked up from her nap in the rocking chair and then went right back to sleep.