BORN TO FLY nominated for Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Award

Had some exciting news yesterday that "Born to Fly" is among the 20 books on the Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award shortlist for 2013.

It's an annual award given to a book voted most outstanding by students in grades 4-8 in participating Illinois schools.

Here's a list of all 20 nominated books.

Book trailer for BORN TO FLY

A student at an international school in Japan created this cool book trailer for BORN TO FLY.

Check it out.

Born to fly Book Trailer from Labrarian Laleman on Vimeo.

She also did a video book review on this page.

Born to fly Student Review from Labrarian Laleman on Vimeo.

Born to Fly is one of the books nominated for the Sakura Medal, a book award started by a network of international schools across Japan. Books in a number of different categories (chapter books, YA, picture books, etc.) are nominated by librarians and then the winners are chosen by student readers.

New BORN TO FLY Review on Next Best Book

There's a nice review of BORN TO FLY on The Next Best Book blog

Pre-Air Show Party at the International Women's Air and Space Museum

Did you know that in 1961, thirteen women pilots underwent secret astronaut testing, passing the samephysical tests as the men of the Mercury 7? The "Mercury 13" hoped to become America’s first female astronauts (though they never got the chance).

I learned about the Mercury 13 when I had the privilege of attending the annual Labor Day Pre-Air Show Party and Wine Tasting at the International Women's Air and Space Museum. There was a lot of great food, delicious wine from around the world, and wonderful exhibits about women in aviation.

Guess who?

A number of the guests dressed up in period costumes as pilots, mechanics, 20s era flappers, and baseball players.

I had a great time getting to know my fellow author, Claudia Taller who has written a fascinating book on Ohio wineries (did you know Ohio used to be the number one wine-producing state in the country?)

Here's the flight suit worn by, Harriet Quimby, the first woman pilot licensed in the U.S. who crossed the English Channel.

If you've never been to the International Women's Air and Space Museum, you should check it out. Thanks to Museum manager Heather Alexander for inviting me.

Memorial Day trip and visit to The Hill School

Last weekend I travelled to Middleburg, Virginia to visit The Hill School during their spring book fair to talk about writing and my book, BORN TO FLY.

Along the way I was passing a cemetery with civil war headstones and though I was running late, I couldn't help but stop and pay my respects on our nation's Memorial Day holiday.

I enjoyed these cozy accomodations...

...and had a great visit at the beautiful Hill School.

The students had great questions and were so enthusiastic.

They made this great display for my visit and the 6th grade even read me some of their stories which were very imaginative and fun.

The 5th graders in Mr. Daum's class had recently done storyboard posters for book reports.

Two of the students had even made poster storyboards for Born to Fly!

It was great to hear all the nice things they had to say about the story.

Here I am with Jack Tyler and Taylor Justice and their poster storyboards.

It was very cool to see their visualizations of the story.

Like a page from a giant comic book version of my book!

Young Author's Night at Menlo Park Academy

A few weeks back I ran a writing workshop for some young writers at Menlo Park Academy where Tammi Belko teaches (Tammi is in my writing group).

Last night Tammi read from some of their finished books, and parents and family (along with myself and writer/illustrator Deborah Perez-Stable) got to see what they had produced over the last month.

These are some examples of the fun and imaginative work these future authors created!

(pictured on this page :The Day I Found Out My Sister Was a Vampire by Katie Munro,

French Fries That Talk by Sathya Sundaram, and White by Olivia Wenzel)

Book Dads review: Born to Fly

I found a great site for Dads who like to read to their kids called Book Dads.

They read a copy of Born to Fly and really "got it". Here's their review by Chris Singer.