In the fall of 2024, my new book, A DINOSAUR FOR WASHINGTON: THE TRUE STORY OF SUCIASAURUS will be published by Sasquatch Books/Little Bigfoot Books in Seattle. It's been a long but lovely journey bringing this adventures story to life. 

It begins with fossil hunters Jim Goedert and David Starr as they land their seaplane in Fossil Bay on Washington State's Sucia island. They are in search of more common fossils when they find the only dinosaur fossil ever unearthed in the Evergreen State. 

As promised, they turn the important fossil over to the Burke Museum in Seattle, where Dr. Christian Sidor and Dr. Brandon Peecook set out to prepare and identify just what prehistoric creature left the fossil behind. 

It's been such a joy to create a new dinosaur book--my sixth paleontological title. I have loved dinosaurs since I was seven and I never outgrew the passion. 

Thankfully, my good friend Rick Spears is illustrating this new book--a man I trust to do dinosaurs accurately. Plus he's great fun to work with.  

So look for notices soon on the publication dates. And thanks for caring about my blogs, whenever you do.  : ) 

PS  The image is a rough Rick Spears sketch we didn't wind up using in final layouts. But I love it, so I am sharing it with you. 

 BOOK REVIEW

Dear Mothman

Robin Gow. Amulet, $18.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4197-6440-0

When transgender 6^th grader Noah (born Nora) looses his first love Lewis (born Ella) to a fatal car crash, he is lost. Gone is the only person who really understood him—the only person who knew who he really was. Emotionally scrambled, Noah turns to the Mothman for comfort—Lewis’s favorite cryptid.

In journal entry letters disguised as science fair research, Noah explores more than a mysterious creature. He explores grief, loneliness, gender confusion and his need to fit in, without losing his true identity.  Each day, Noah writes a note and leaves it at the edge of the forest, hoping Mothman might read it, missing  Lewis as much as he does.

Through his letters, we understand that Noah didn’t ask to be a girl or a boy but found himself out of sync with his female body. Lewis was also mismatched but felt more at ease with the transition. Lewis’s courage gave Noah hope, until Lewis passed away.

A kinship with the monster people didn’t believe in helped Noah find the courage to risk new friendships and new love. That love, helped him share his truth with the rest of the world.

Being a transgender kid in today’s political environment can be hard. But Gow’s tender revelations just might help readers understand the need for compassion and the desire for acceptance…no matter how different they might think they are.

Top notch storytelling with heart and importance.  I loved it. 

NF4NF Conference in Rosenberg, Texas

Thursday night, September 22, 2016, I landed at Houston's Hobby International Airport and met my volunteer driver from the NF4NF team, Balaka Ghosal.

Balaka had a warm smile and a face beaming with kindness and intelligence.  She put me at ease instantly, then introduced me to the couple who would be riding with me, Jeff and Nancy Sanders, and I realized I'd noticed Nancy before.

As she walked past me on the flight from Las Vegas to Houston, I noticed that Nancy, like Balaka, had an infinitely warm smile -- and a really neat t-shirt.  Her husband was just as kind.

I thought, something rare was about to happen.  And I was right.

Earth mother and author Pat Miller had invited me to be a part of the NF4NF Conference, so I'd been adopted into a very special writing family -- the tribe of Neffers.

I've done other conferences before, many of them, like Highlight's legendary Chautauqua events were exceptional.  But there was something about this intimate gathering in Rosenberg, Texas that drew warm people like moths to a life giving flame.  That something was the tone Pat Miller so clearly set.

We were all equals, and we were all at the conference for the exact same reason -- to share what we had with one another.  The workshop teachers -- Pat Miller, Candace Fleming, Peggy Thomas, Nancy Sanders and I may have been a little better published than some of the conferees, but that wasn't the point.  The point was, we all cared about writing nonficton, and we all wanted to do better.  We were there to elevate the art form and each other.

By lunch Friday, I had more than 30 new friends.  When I left Sunday I had a new family.

If ever you have the chance to join Pat Miller's Neffer family, don't hesitate.  You'll learn a lot about succeeding in the world of nonfiction writing and you'll understand, in the realm of Neffers, you're never alone.

Thank you, Pat and all my Neffer friends.  I am beyond grateful for you all.

Whale Talk BANNED in 2005

Whale Talk has actually been banned -- yes BANNED -- in several communities. But this one was especially frustrating. From the First Amendment Center:
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14960

Alabama school bans children's book, Whale Talk
By The Associated Press 03.11.05

ATHENS, Ala. — The Limestone County school board voted 4-3 to ban the book Whale Talk last week from the Ardmore High School library after a parent complained that it contained offensive language.

Superintendent Barry Carroll had recommended the book be left on the library shelves, citing a countywide panel's finding that its message was more important than the language used.

The book by Christopher Crutcher is about a 17-year-old boy confronting his multicultural heritage while creating a swim team at a high school that has no pool.

Board members Earl Glaze and James Shannon said they opposed the superintendent's recommendation because the book included several curse words.

"We can't allow students go down our halls and say those words, and we shouldn't let them read it," Shannon said. "That book's got a lot of bad, bad words in it."

Board members Bryant Moss and Darin Russell joined in voting to remove the book from the library.

Board President Roger Whitt and members John Wayne King and Charles Shoulders Jr. voted for it. A countywide committee of teachers, parents and administrators reviewed Whale Talk after a parent requested removal of the book in February.

According to a memo, the committee recommended keeping the book in the library for several reasons, among them that it highlights the importance of forgiveness over revenge. It also provides a realistic view of life and the "consequences of prejudice, outspoken and malicious people," the memo said.

Carroll and King said they wanted the book to stay because they trusted the committee's review.
"I'm not saying I approve of everything in the book," King said. "But there are a lot of things in life that you can't hide from kids. The language is not the whole idea of what the books says. Censoring a book is pretty extreme, and it needs a lot of thought put into it."

Shoulders said he opposed the book after reading excerpts, but changed his mind after a friend informed him about its message. He suggested putting an age limit on the book.

Carroll expressed concern that banning one book could lead to banning others.

Girl Interupted is BOWDLERIZED, 2008

Man, this one introduced a term I'd never heard of before -- bowdlerizing -- but what a dangerous practice.

According to New Rochelle's Talk of the Sound, in 2008, the New Rochelle Board of Education decided certain passages in the novel GIRL INTERUPTED were inappropriate for high school students. So they did something worse than banning the book. They tore out or blacked out the bits they considered "bad." The quote:

"The material was of a sexual nature that we deemed inappropriate for teachers to present to their students," said English Department Chairperson Leslie Altschul, "since the book has other redeeming features, we took the liberty of bowdlerizing."

What is "bowdlerizing?" My hero Joan Bertin explained in the same article:

"Bowdlerizing is a particularly disturbing form of censorship since it not only suppresses specific content deemed 'objectionable,' but also does violence to the work by removing material that the author thought integral," said Joan Bertin, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. "It is a kind of literary fraud perpetrated on an unsuspecting audience."

Fortunately, the board reportedly backed down and promised to replace the damaged 50 copies of the book, though I have not found confirmation that the books were actually replaced. More information when I find it.

The Well BANNED in New Jersey, 2006

According to the First Ammendment Center:
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16381

N.J. school board pulls book with racial slur from reading list By The Associated Press 01.29.06
ABSECON, N.J. — Bowing to a parent's complaint, school officials have stricken a book from an elementary school's Black History Month reading list because it contains a racial slur.

"The teachers may see this as an example of something they can help fix, but we believe at fourth grade the children do not have the maturity to truly understand it," said parent Lisa Rex, whose complaint prompted the action.

Published in 1995, The Well by Mildred D. Taylor is about a black family in early 20th-century Mississippi that has the town's only working well and shares their water with neighbors, including members of a white family who use the racial epithet.

The Well had been included on a list for students at the H. Ashton Marsh School. The Board of Education voted on Jan. 24 to remove it pending a review by a committee of faculty members and citizens about whether it is appropriate for use at all, The Press of Atlantic City reported on Jan. 25.

"We will respect the concerns presented and hold off on reading the book," said Schools Superintendent James Giaquinto.

Fourth-grade teacher Terry Maher said the students who were to read it had already been taught about the mistreatment of certain groups of people.

"The word is not taught in the book, the word is hated in the book," Maher said. "The book has gotten rave reviews. We would be sorry to lose it."

But one parent who turned out for the board meeting said it was wrong to let children read a book containing the slur.

"If children hear it, and are allowed to read it in class, it legitimizes it," said Robert Preston. "It gives them ammunition to tease others, without really understanding."

Taylor's novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which won the prestigious Newberry Award in 1977, also has been challenged in other school districts because it includes racial epithets.

Final Exit BANNED in several states

Final Exit: Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying by Derek Humphrey has been BANNED in several states, according to this Missouri news brief.

EXCERPT: The third edition of the book has been banned in several states, and now a group of parents are trying to file a class action lawsuit to ban the book.

Admittedly, this is a tragic story. A woman's son used an idea from the book -- written for terminally ill patients -- to take his own life and referenced the book in his suicide note. It's a horrifying story for any parent, and I'm a parent. But the book didn't cause her son's dispair, even if it did direct him in finding a way out. I regret her loss, more than I can say. I'd be a pool of nothing if I lost either of my children this way. But banning the book won't ease one child's pain.

Free speech isn't always easy. This was a tough one. But if books on suicide prevention exist, books on assisted suicide also have their place, even after they're misused.

I do ache for these parents, though. Truly.