Will Rogers Medallion Award!

I was tickled to learn that The Year We Were Famous won the 2012 Will Rogers Medallion Award for young adults. It was a good thing I had Clara and Helga's true story to work with because I never could have made up such bold and persevering women, nor imagined that they could have survived the blizzards, blisters, flash floods, and everything else they encountered between Mica Creek and New York.

I am also lucky to have such great writing friends, among them the eight other YA authors I get to appear with at Northgate (Seattle) Barnes and Noble on July 27:

Megan Bostic, Never Eighteen

Jennifer Shaw Wolf, Breaking Beautiful

J. Anderson Coats, The Wicked and the Just

Helen Landalf, Flyaway

Kendare Blake, Anna Dressed in Blood

Diana Renn, Tokyo Heist

Marissa Burt, Storybound

I haven’t read all their books yet, but I plan to read them soon!  Helen, Megan, and J. Anderson (aka Jillian) and I will also appear together August 13 at Everett Public Library  where my daughter, Emily Dagg, is head of children’s and young adult services. We’ll be part of a series on dream jobs, and on days like the one I found out about the Will Rogers Medallion it does seem like writing is a dream job. 

Schedule of Events

July 19 Daughters of Norway National Convention
Lakeway Inn
714 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham, Washington
Program on The Year We Were Famous and Selling Books

 July 27 - Barnes and Noble, 6:30

 Northgate Mall, 401 NE Northgate Way # 1100

Seattle, WA

Program and book signing with 8 other YA authors

August 13 - Everett Public Library, 7 p.m.

Dream Jobs - a panel of YA/MG authors
2702 Hoyt Avenue Everett, WA 98201

Books to be sold by University of Washington Bookstore

Joint Book Clubs on Orcas Island

Darvill’s Book Store Details to be announced

September 23 - Northwest Bookfest

Kirkland, WA 

Panel on YA fiction - details to be announced

October 7 - Write on the Sound Writers’ Conference (9:15 - 10:30 a.m.)

Teaching a class: Fact into Fiction

Frances Anderson Center

500 Main Street, Edmonds, WA

Books sold by Edmonds Book Shop

October 19-21  - Women Writing the West Conference

Albuquerque, NM

 TYWWF has been submitted for their WILLA (Willa Cather) award

Author signing

November 16-17 - National Council for the Social Studies

Seattle, WA

Presenter - details to be announced

June Update

My Class of 2k11 colleagues are coming out with a passel of new books this year - what an inspiring group!

 Megan Bostic - Never Eighteen (Jan.)
 Julia Karr - Truth (Jan.)
 Caroline Starr Rose - MayB (Jan.)

 Jeff Herbach - Nothing Special (May)
 Sheila O’Connor - paperback edition of Sparrow Road (May)
Angie Smibert - The Forgetting Curve (May)
Alissa Grosso - Ferocity Summer (May)

Amy Dominy - Audition and Subtraction ( Sept)
Trinity Faegen - Mephisto Kiss (Sept)

 Kiki Hamilton - The Torn Wing (Oct.)
 Carrie Harris - Bad Hair Day (Nov.)

 Here’s my schedule for the next few months:

 
June 21-26 - American Library Association Annual Conference
 
Anaheim, California

 

July 19 - Daughters of Norway National Convention
 
Lakeway Inn

 714 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham, Washington
 
Selling Books on Cultural Day

 July 27 - Barnes and Noble, 6:30
 Northgate Mall, 401 NE Northgate Way # 1100
Seattle, WA
Program and book signing with 7 other YA authors

August 13 - Everett Public Library, 7 p.m.
Dream Jobs - a panel of YA/MG authors

2702 Hoyt Avenue Everett, WA 98201
Books to be sold by University of Washington Bookstore

Joint Book Clubs on Orcas Island
Darvill’s Book Store Details to be announced

October 7 - Write on the Sound Writers’ Conference (9:15 - 10:30 a.m.)
Teaching a class: Fact into Fiction
Frances Anderson Center
500 Main Street, Edmonds, WA
Books sold by Edmonds Book Shop

October 19-21 Women Writing the West Conference

Albuquerque, NM
 TYWWF has been submitted for their WILLA (Willa Cather) award

Author signing

Discussion Guide in Process

I've drafted a discussion guide for The Year We Were Famous - your suggestions are welcome!

Discussion Guide
THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS
by Carole Estby Dagg


WALKING IN CLARA’S SHOES
Clara and her mother Helga each had only seven pounds of equipment, including the weight of the satchel. What would you pack in a small satchel for a seven-month trek? What challenges did they have in 1896? What aids do we have now that were not available to Clara and Helga?

Clara worked her way through high school as a servant in someone’s home in Spokane. Would you be willing to do the same? How would working as a servant for your room and board affect your relationship with your high school classmates?

Is there any cause for which you would walk 4,000 miles?

How do the people Clara meets change her understanding of her parents and perception of the world and her possibilities?

POLITICS, THE ECONOMY, and MEDIA COVERAGE
In the Panic of 1893, people were losing homes, unemployment was above 10% for six years in a row, and 7 of 10 banks failed in Spokane. How is that situation like today? How is it different?

President McKinley ran his presidential campaign while seldom leaving home. Compare that to the presidential campaigns of today. (pp. 178-180)

The liquor lobby was reportedly against giving the vote to women because it might lead to prohibition. Does big business affect elections and legislation today?

How many generations back do you have to go to find the first woman in your family who might have voted in 1920?

Compare the articles that appeared in the New York World and the New York Times when Clara and Helga arrived in New York City. Can you think of current-day newspapers that are similar in tone to each? (copies of the news articles are available from the author)

SOCIETY and CHANGING ROLES
Helga knew her neighbors thought her place was at home but left the family for days at a time to attend suffrage meetings in Spokane and for a year to walk across the country to prove women could do it, as well as to win money to save the family’s farm. Can you think of other people who have gone against public opinion to effect social change?

Compare Mary (Mrs. William Jennings) Bryan and Ida (Mrs. William) McKinley, the wives of the two presidential candidates. In what ways do they represent traditional and changing women’s roles? (pp. 162-163 and 178-180)

Clara and Helga knocked on the doors of strangers for a place to stay and were even admitted to the president-elect’s home. Could they have done that today?

Compare the Native American Clara met on the Umatilla Reservation and those in Eastern Utah. (pp. 64-48 and 112-115).

Susan B. Anthony wrote:”Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” How do the bicycle and the bicycle skirt symbolize the New American Woman of 1896?


WRITING ACTIVITIES
Examine the pictures that appeared in the New York World before and after the walk. Make up your own story which would explain Clara and Helga’s transition from proper Victorian ladies in black silk dresses to the gun and dagger-toting adventuresses. (PDFs of photos available from the author.)

Pretend you are a journalist interviewing Clara and Helga and write a newspaper article describing their trek.

Interview your parents or grandparents for the most exciting or funniest event in their lives.

Essay prompt: Why I would/would not like to have lived in 1896.
Make up a short story about one of the postcards from Clara’s time, or pretend you are writing home about your adventures in the space available on a postcard:
Cayuse Indian babies in cradle boards
Boys on platforms across coal chutes in the breakers
Mrs. McKinley in rocking chair
Nellie Bly
(PDF images available from the author)

Take one of these newspaper quotes and expand it into a fully developed scene:

“They [Native Americans they encountered in Utah] took our small satchel and went through it, but oddly enough the only thing they could make use of was our curling iron. This puzzled them very much and we had to demonstrate its use.”
Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4

“At one time we got into a cloudburst, and it was only by holding onto shrubs that we escaped with our lives”
Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4

“…the only man who molested them was a Le Grand, Ore., dude…they shot him in the leg. They were not arrested for it.
New York World, December 25, 1896, p. 3

Re-write a scene as a script and act it out.

Make up a short story inspired by Emily Dickinson’s ‘Fame is a bee.’

Re-write one scene from Helga’s POV instead of Clara’s.

Find examples of how Clara’s background on the farm and her love of reading affect her word choices and images.

GEOGRAPHY/ART
Draw a map of their route, noting where various episodes took place.
Create a cover for the book.
Choose a quote from the novel and draw a sketch or cartoon to illustrate it.

MUSIC
Compose a song about Clara and Helga’s trek.

Amelia Bloomer - and New Schedule

Clara and Helga Estby would be so proud! The Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association will include The Year We Were Famous on their annual Amelia Bloomer list of the best books for youth with significant feminist content. About time Clara and her mother got the recognition they deserved for their 4,000-mile walk.

I’m laggard when it comes to keeping my own blog up to date – partly because I keep waiting for news that doesn’t come. Will there be a paperback or audio edition of The Year We Were Famous? Will the next book about Clara (working title: Good-bye, Mica Creek) be accepted as my option book with Clarion? I still don’t know. The waiting is hard, but I’ve been filling the time starting a third book, Northward, Ho, set in Alaska during the 1930’s.

I’m better at doing guest blogs for other people. Check out Readergirlz, where I’m now one of many hosts: readergirlz.blogspot.com
and Janet Lee Carey’s blog, Library Lions Roar, in praise of libraries:
http://librarylionsroar.blogspot.com/2012/02/librarian-turned-author-carole-estby.html

I can at least update my schedule:

March 2, 2012 Port Townsend Historical Society, 7 P.M.
Jefferson County Historic Courthouse
1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend, WA 98368
Program and book signing

March 5 Rose Hill Jr. High School, Lake Washington School District, 11:27 – 1:11
13505 NE 75th St., Redmond, WA 98052
Program for 8th grade social studies classes

March 6 Everett High School, 10:30 – 12:00
Judge for Everett School District’s Battle of the Books

March 12, 2012 Everett Woman’s Book Club , 1:00 p.m.
Everett Public Library
2702 Hoyt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201
Program and book signing

March 12, 2012, Classics Department, Everett Woman’s Book Club, 6:30 p.m.
Private home, Everett

------
A Series of events with The New Kids on the YA Block,
A group of six debut young adult authors:
Helen Landalf (FLYAWAY)
Kiki Hamilton (THE FAERIE RING)
Me (THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS)
Kathy McCullough (DON’T EXPECT MAGIC)
Megan Bostic (NEVER EIGHTEEN)
Kendare Blake (ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD)

March 14 Third Place Books 7 P.M.
17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
The six of us will form a panel moderated by book blogger Shanyn Day.
Program and book signing

March 15, Capital High School 12:40 p.m.
Olympia,WA
Panel

March 15, Timberland Library 7 p.m.
Olympia, WA
Panel

March 16, Garfield Books, 7 p.m.
(Affiliated with Pacific Lutheran University)
208 Garfield St., Suite 101, Tacoma, WA
Panel and book signing

April 11, Timberland Library, 7:30
Olympia, Washington
Program
Details to be announced

April 18, Everett High School
Details to be announced
Joint program with Mindy Hardwick and Megan Bostic for the
Everett High School Writing Club

April 21-22 SCBWI-Washington
Annual conference of the Western Washington chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Marriott Redmond Town Center
7401 164th Ave. NE, Redmond, WA 98052
Book signing

April 27 and April 28, 2012 Clarkston, Washington
Programs with Linda Hunt and Jane Kirkpatrick
Judi Wutzke of …and Books, too is partnering with the Clarkston High School, Walla Walla Community College and Lewis and Clark State College
Two or three programs and book signings.

May 8, 2012 Bellevue Chapter, D.A.R. , 6:00 p.m.
Bellevue Red Lion Inn
11211 Main Street, Bellevue, WA 98004
Program and book signing

May 18-19, SCBWI Oregon
Annual conference of the Oregon chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Shilo Inn Conference Center, Portland, Oregon
Book signing

April or May, Joint book clubs on Orcas Island
Darvill’s Bookstore – details to be announced
296 Main St., Eastsound, WA 98245

June 21-26 American Library Association Annual Conference
Anaheim, California

July 19 Daughters of Norway National Convention
Lakeway Inn
714 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham, Washington
Selling Books on Cultural Day

October 13 – 15 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
Tacoma, Washington
(Tentative; no program)

October 19-21 Women Writing the West Conference
Albuquerque
TYWWF has been submitted for their WILLA (Willa Cather) award.
Author signing