Good inuksuit

In the last post I mentioned going to the AASL in Minneapolis. Sharron McElmeel , Jeni Reeves, Carol Gorman and I spoke on how to foster curiosity in young readers and how librarians can become an important part of the collaborative process with teachers in helping students to become better readers.

Our session had a good audience. We saw some long-time friends, including Toni Buzzeo, shown here with Sharron (Sharron on the left, Toni on the right).Toni was at the AASL speaking on a topic similar to ours--how librarians can become visible and essential collaborators in their schools. We know they are essential, but we are the choir. We-writers and readers--want school boards, parents, community people to realize that excellent schools, even just good schools, require trained librarians.

I also had a chance to spend some time with Phyllis Root, which is always a treat. Phyllis and her daughter Ellen have recently built this inuksuit, a trail marker like the ones built by Alaskan natives to mark the way. Rocks were what they had to build with and what they used.

Every writer needs to run into an inuksuit once in a while. Wandering is good. We find what we didn't even know we were looking for by wandering. But once in a while it's good to see an inuksuit that reminds us that we are on the path, a path.


Seeing friends, spending time talking about shared writing problems, seeing librarians talking about shared purpose-good inuksuit.

Out and About

A visit toThe Cloisters in New York City with Kate, Justin, and one year old Ella--our Brooklyn family--was a powerful reminder of the urge we humans have to make art, to make meaning in our lives with art, to express ourselves in wood (I am still in awe at the depth of emotion in that face--in wood!) stone, metal or tapestry.

We are all tied together over the centuries by this urge and our appreciation of what artists have done in service of this urge.

And whatever our chosen way of expressing ourselves, places like The Cloisters fill the "well" the space, the place we draw our stories from. (I did not invent the notion of the "well." I got it from my friend Carol Gorman, who says she got it from Ray Bradbury.) But wherever it came from, it is our job to fill the well every now and then. The long days of summer allow us all time to write and time for outings that renew our spirits. Such outings might be a walk down a trail on the other side of town, a visit to a public garden, a baseball game, an outdoor concert, a sit-down by a little waterfall, a balloon launch, a bird walk, an art show, an afternoon in a coffee shop, or a shoe store. I'd love to know where you are going this summer to fill your well.