Happy Leap Year Everybody!

Well actually, it's leap year all year. I guess today is Leap Year Day? Can I get a ruling on this?

Anywho, by now you should have READ's special Time Travel issue in your classroom. It's weird because we worked on that in the past.... and now, here you are, in the present, reading it. Whoa. Cosmic man.

Well, how do you like it? Feel free to give your two cents by clicking COMMENTS below or emailing us at word@weeklyreader.com.

We have already received one observation from a very intelligent class at Holy Cross Lutheran School in Wichita, Kansas. Their teacher, Ms. Vanwey, writes

"My 7^th  graders were in a tiz concerning Time Will Tell! How did the author add together 24 and 25 to come up with 60 as the age Jon was when he came back to 2008."

Well, that's a very good question. Our math is all screwed up! When Jon Pacone returns to 2008, he should be 49, not 60! Our only sorry excuse is that we stink at math. But someone on our end definitely should have caught this oversight. All apologies to time travelers everywhere.

Also, the question was stated of whether or not Jon would have been living two different lives at once. The first being the first time he lived through those years, and the second being his return to the past self living those years. Hmm... well... you see... um... time travel is a very tricky thing involving lots of compound theories and... um... holy cow! Look! Quick! Behind you! There's a flying cow!

Moo.

Well, at least Billy Pilgrim can time travel with class.
So it goes.

It happens maybe twice a year... I don't like it anymore than you do. I am sorry to say that our blogging skills, as of late, have fallen to the wayside. Sorry about that.

I'm trying to do my best with War & Peace. I got through Part One, barely. I will try to get back into Part Two tonight. But it's not easy, let me tell ya.

Some sad news, our resident Writer's Strike/pop culture blogger, Jessica, has left our fair company. We wish her well and will miss her bloggy presence.

Also, we've got magazines. Yes, as a side-job to blogging, we also put out these two magazines called READ and Writing. And next year, we are combining the two. So there's that.

All of this adds up to lots of work for the WORD bloggers here at Weekly Reader. But wah wah wah, right?

Where's the student writing? Where's the book and author news? Where is the bloggy we know and love? My friends, I tell you, a re-birth is coming. Please sit tight and bear with us during these slow times. We promise you... the best is yet to come.

Word.

The following interviews were conducted by Weekly Reader Senior Edition editor, Laura McClure.

This year’s Caldecott and Newbery medal winning books transport readers into the past. Newbery-winning book, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz, explores life in the Middle Ages. Caldecott-winning book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick takes place in the early 1900s in France. Weekly Reader talked with both authors about their success stories. Here’s what they had to say:

Q&A with Brian Selznick
Weekly Reader: Which came first--the words or the illustrations?

Brian Selznick: It started just as a written story. … I thought maybe [there would be] one drawing a chapter or some spot illustrations. While I was working on the book, I started watching all these old movies and I thought it would be interesting to try to tell the story [with images] like an old movie.

WR: How long did it take to finish the book?

BS: I worked on the whole book for about 2 1/2 years, [including] a year to do sketches. … On a good day I could finish two complete drawings. I made them all one-quarter the size that you see in the book. … When you blow up a drawing, … it makes everything softer and lighter, like old movie stills.

WR: Do you see yourself in Hugo, the main character?

BS: I definitely do. … When I was a kid, I really loved to draw and to make things. Hugo is actually much better with his hands then I was as a kid. I remember being frustrated with what my hands couldn’t do.

WR: What advice do you have for aspiring authors or illustrators?

BS: The most important thing is to just write about or draw the things that really interest you. … A reader or someone looking at pictures very often can tell whether or not the person making the thing loved it and was really interested in it.

Q&A with Laura Amy Schlitz

Weekly Reader: What inspired you to write this book of monologues and dialogues?

Laura Amy Schlitz: The children [at the school where I am a librarian] study the middle ages. … They give their imaginations to it and I wanted them to have a dramatic piece [to perform] so I wrote those short plays, those monologues for them and they’ve been performing them for many years now.

This book shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Middle Ages. Why did you decide to show all aspects?

I think when you know about the Middle Ages, you can’t help realizing what a dangerous and difficult time that was. … Suppose it’s winter and you get your feet wet. You don’t have another pair of shoes. If you get frostbite, you’ll go lame. … Those are facts [of life in the Middle Ages], but it doesn’t follow that the people were all miserable. They also had hope and good days and aspirations.

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

I would like to think that readers can imagine that time, but I think what I want most is for readers to be able to have the excitement of pretending to be somebody else. The thrill of performing the pieces in front  of the audience—I want the readers to get the applause.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a chapter book now, I’m on chapter 29 but I don’t yet know the end, I don’t know how far am I from the end and I’m just trusting that the end exists somewhere and that I will find it.