Literacy Now

Some things just go together. Peanut butter and chocolate. Summer and reading. Johnny Depp and eyeliner.

And of course, when you encounter one of these pairings, you think, Well, duh! That’s a no-brainer. It seems so obvious that Fred Astaire should be matched with Ginger Rogers, that Katherine Hepburn belongs with Spencer Tracy, that Oreos were made for vanilla ice cream.

But somebody had to come up with that first brave combination before it solidified into something so obvious and right.

And while I wish I could lay claim to the brilliant idea to pair my book THE LEMONADE WAR with the mission of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation—nope, I can’t. I wasn’t the smart one who made that connection. It was Tracy Weniger, the School Programs Manager at ALSF, who contacted me and suggested a partnership.

Well, at least I was smart enough to say, “Absolutely! Let’s do it.”

A little background. THE LEMONADE WAR tells the story of a brother and sister who make a bet about who can sell the most lemonade in the five days before summer vacation ends. In the end, the sister donates her money to a charity. So it’s a book with strong elements of competition and charitable giving.

The book was published in 2007, and pretty soon after that I began hearing about Alex’s Lemonade Stand—a non-profit organization dedicated to ending childhood cancer. Kids would write to me and say, “I read your book, and it inspired me to have my own lemonade stand. I donated the profits to Alex’s Lemonade Stand.” Cool, I thought.

What I didn’t know is that Alex’s Lemonade Stand has been raising money for over ten years. The founder and creator of the organization was Alex Scott, who was diagnosed with cancer just before her first birthday. When she was four, she decided to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer. Her first lemonade stand raised over $2,000 in just one day.

The idea grew, and soon children all over the world were holding lemonade stands to raise money for childhood cancer research.

When Alex passed away at the age of eight, she had helped to raise more than $1 million toward finding a cure for cancer. Alex’s parents, Liz and Jay Scott, continue her inspirational work through the Foundation. Since Alex’s first lemonade stand in 2000, the Foundation has raised over $50 million. Double cool.

When Tracy emailed me in the spring and suggested we start an initiative to promote reading and charitable giving among kids, I was pretty excited. The idea they presented mirrored the plot of THE LEMONADE WAR: Schools all over the country would participate in a contest to see who could raise the most money. Then the money would be donated to Alex’s Lemonade Stand. Every school that signed up would receive a free copy of THE LEMONADE WAR, along with lesson plans and a study guide; a program guide and lemonade stand materials to get started selling lemonade; a personal fundraising webpage; and a certificate of appreciation from the Foundation.

The idea was to link reading and charitable giving—two important lessons, both with lifelong benefits. Everyone in the school would read THE LEMONADE WAR to get revved up, and then the school would have one month to raise money. The grand prize? A visit from me and Alex’s dad, Jay Scott, to the winning school, along with a hundred autographed copies of each of the next two books in The Lemonade War series: THE LEMONADE CRIME and THE BELL BANDIT.

I love it when whole schools come together to read a single book. It creates an energy and excitement around reading that can’t be matched. And I really wanted this initiative to be a success. What else could we offer? “How about I do Skype visits with the three runner-up schools?” I suggested. “And let’s give audio books of THE LEMONADE WAR and THE LEMONADE CRIME to three honorable mention schools, as well.”

And so The Great Lemonade War was launched.

You don’t need me to tell you how amazing kids are. Or what they can accomplish when they put their minds to a task.

In just one month, kids across the country raised over $40,000. The winning school—Poinciana Elementary School in Naples, Florida—raised more than $10,000 on its own. The kids at Poinciana—a public school with 60% of its student population receiving reduced-fee lunches—set up lemonade stands at a local supermarket; they brought in their birthday money and tooth fairy money; they asked friends and relatives to make on-line donations through the specially dedicated web page.

Alison Bringardner and Leslie Marshall, the two teachers who spearheaded the effort, were flat-out floored by the effort and determination of the kids. Their school had been raising money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand for the past five years, but they’d never seen an all-out, take-no-prisoners fundraising drive like this. “It just sort of snowballed. All the kids were trying to outdo each other,” said Alison. Leslie added, “One girl insisted on bringing in all her birthday money and giving it to kids with cancer.”

It just goes to show what a little healthy competition can do.

Can I tell you how much fun my visit to Poinciana was? There was homemade lemonade, yellow t-shirts, a garden dedication that included the planting of a lemon tree, a chorus of first-graders singing “Born to Be Somebody” (complete with choreographed moves!), inspirational quotes read by the kids as they released yellow balloons into the blue sky, a carnival and book fair, local news crews covering the event, and two raucous assemblies in which the kids and I celebrated their contribution to making the world a healthier place.

Does it get any better than that?

Congratulations to Poinciana and to the three runner-up schools: Earl Slaughter Elementary School in McKinney, Texas; Fox Elementary in Kersey, Pennsylvania; and Plymouth Elementary in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Congratulations also to the three honorable mention schools: St. Michael the Archangel in Overland Park, Kansas; Harmony School in Middletown, New Jersey; and Westminster Christian School in Miami, Florida.

And if you’re thinking that you’d like to engage the kids at your school in a win-win-win school-wide effort that promotes reading, builds community, and joins in the effort to wipe out cancer in kids, then it’s not too early to sign up to receive information about next year’s contest. I’d love to come to your school and applaud your students as they discover what it means to be a good citizen of the world.

After all, some things just go together. Like learning and giving. Like open hearts and open minds. Like lemonade and curing childhood cancer.

Yep. That’s a no-brainer.

Jacqueline Davies is the talented author of both novels and picture books. She lives in Needham, Massachusetts, with her three children. THE BELL BANDIT was released by Houghton Mifflin earlier this month.



A Book is a Friend for Life

Secrets of the School Lunch Superheroes

When I was in fourth grade, our teacher assigned an author’s study. We chose an author, read several books, and researched details about the author’s life. As the culmination of the project, we composed a letter to our chosen author, asking questions, and offering opinions about the author’s books.

I remember Miss Porter helping each one of us locate the publisher’s information on the copyright page of our books and using a phone book-sized directory of publishers, find the address. I carefully composed my letter to Marguerite Henry (I was in my horse phase at the time), asking her about horses and sharing my secret wish to attend the annual Pony Penning roundup on Chincoteague Island, just like the Beebe children in MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE. I waited expectantly through the spring for my letter from Ms. Henry to arrive, but it never did. Crestfallen, I decided that authors probably never saw the hundreds of letters they received from the readers who love their books.

Thirty years later, authors and the details of their lives and work still intrigue me. Gone are the days, though, of sending off letters to a publisher and hoping for a personal reply from my favorite writer. Many published authors host their own websites and blogs, and fans have greater access to authors than we dreamed possible.

For the past few years, when I stumbled onto a blogsite by an admired author or reviewer, I usually tagged it or signed up for an RSS feed so that I didn’t miss a post. Not one for moderation, as far as reading goes, my RSS feeds ballooned to an unmanageable amount—more posts than I could reasonably read. What I needed was an efficient way to track reviews and author’s blogs without overloading my e-mail inbox or spending hours reading blogs.

So, after noticing that many of the writers whose blogs I read post to Twitter, I jumped into the Twitterverse three years ago. My tweet ID is @donalynbooks.

Twitter, the free social networking and micro-blogging service, allows its users to send and receive messages, known as tweets. Tweets are messages of up to 140 characters that appear on the user’s profile page and the user’s friends, known as followers.

In addition to writing tweets, users resend (retweet, or “RT”) posts they enjoy, or send direct messages to each other. Users’ names, beginning with an @ symbol, appear in front of their posts. Users search for tweets about topics grouped under hashtags like #NWP and #IRA12. Users access Twitter through its website, Short Messaging Service (SMS), or cell phone applications like Tweetdeck.

While Twitter became popular due to the Twitterati, celebrity Tweeters like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, the service has moved beyond the navel-gazing posts of the rich and famous. During the corrupt Iranian Presidential elections, protestors used Twitter after the government shut down other modes of communication. Word of Osama Bin Laden’s death flooded Twitter before President Obama formally announced it. Astronaut Michael Massimino sent tweets about repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope from space. There is still a lot of narcissism on Twitter, but the site’s role as a communication force is without question.

Instant access via Twitter to book reviews, author appearances, and links offers teachers and librarians opportunities for finding books, resources, and like-minded colleagues beyond the walls of our schools, and streamlines the unwieldy process of following blogs and bookmarking review and author websites. I discovered that Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) raises honeybees and followed the announcement of his Hugo Award win live from his tweets. I scored an advanced reader copy of Kate Messner’s (@KateMessner) book, THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z, when she offered copies to her followers.

Want to know about Libba Bray’s (@libbabray) next book, the newest Reading Is Fundamental initiative (@RIFWEB), or read reviews of new titles (@sljournal)? Just like the social networking sites Facebook and Goodreads, begin by following a favorite or two and then add other people you notice through your friends’ tweets.

And yes, if you want the inside scoop on our favorite celebrities, children’s and young adults’ writers, you can do that, too. Follow the hilarious exchanges between Eoin Colfer (@eoincolfer) and Mo Willems (@The_Pigeon), laugh out loud when YA author Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnson) mistakenly eats the Styrofoam packaging in a box of German wafer cookies, or celebrate when John Green’s (@realjohngreen) A FAULT IN OUR STARS hits THE NEW YORK TIMES (@nytimes). Peering into authors’ mundane moments reveals how magical their writing is when it springs from people whose lives are as ordinary as our own.

In addition to the people mentioned already, add these outstanding literacy tweeps and children’s authors to your must-follow list:

Tom Angleberger	@OrigamiYoda
Laurie Halse Anderson	@halseanderson
Katherine Applegate	@kaauthor
Sharon Creech	@ciaobellacreech
Jenni Holm	@jenniholm
Travis Jonker	@100scopenotes
Sara Kajder	@skajder
Jarrett J. Krosoczka	@StudioJJK
Kirby Larson	@kirbylarson
Teri Lesesne	@professornana
Anne Mazer	@Annemazer
Barbara O’Connor	@barbaraoconnor
Dan Santat	@dsantat
John Schumacher	@mrschureads
Colby Sharp	@colbysharp
Franki Sibberson	@frankisibberson
Laurel Snyder	@laurelsnyder
R.L. Stine	@RL_Stine

Donalyn Miller is a sixth grade language arts teacher in Keller, Texas. In her popular book, THE BOOK WHISPERER: AWAKENING THE INNER READER IN EVERY CHILD, Donalyn reflects on her journey to become a reading teacher and describes how she inspires and motivates her middle school students to read 40 or more books a year. Donalyn currently writes a blog, The Book Whisperer, for EDUCATION WEEK TEACHER and a monthly column for Scholastic Book Fairs’ PRINCIPAL TO PRINCIPAL e-newsletter. She co-hosts the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk, and facilitates the biannual #bookaday event.

Those who know me personally know that the 2011-2012 school year has been quite a journey for me. I have made so many drastic changes with my teaching, most of which I attribute to the incredible educators I’ve interacted with on Twitter.

One of the biggest changes I’ve made is to integrate more technology into my practice. This does not mean that I’ve dumped the good teaching I’ve done without technology, but it does mean that I’ve changed the way I do many things because of technology. It’s been quite a journey for me, and through my journey I feel that I am now a lot closer to being digitally literate.

To me, being digitally literate means that I understand how to use technology in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes. It is not so much about the tool—iPod, iPad, laptop, or desktop—but more so about what I am able to do now because I am using more technology. I am trying to make the most with the technology that I have available to me, and see the impossible become possible because of it.

Digital literacy also means being able to get and share information through technology. I understand the lingo associated with Twitter, I can read articles online, and I can electronically interact with like-minded individuals. But can I fix a computer if it breaks down? Can I talk about gigabytes or ram? Most definitely not.

There are still many areas where I am not digitally literate, but every day I ask more questions, I learn a little bit more, and I feel more and more comfortable with technology. I am continually exploring new ground and it is exciting.

But am I content with my digital literacy? In some ways I’d say yes—but in many other ways I’d say no. Being digitally literate means that I can do things a bit differently with technology than I could previously do without it. However, at this stage in my professional growth, that’s not good enough for me. I want to be digitally fluent.

The best way for me to describe moving from being digitally literate to being digitally fluent is to compare it to learning a new language. When you learn a new language, you need to learn all the components of that language. With a lot of hard work it is possible to learn the components to the level that allows you to have a conversation with a native speaker. You can read, write, and speak in that language, but you still think in your original language. In my mind that is a comparison to being digitally literate.

But to be digitally fluent (in this analogy), not only can you read, write, and speak in the new language, but you can also THINK in the new language. It is the complete transformation of my thinking that I’m looking for to make me more digitally fluent.

In my mind, being digitally fluent means using the tools of technology to do things completely differently than I’ve ever done before. It is less about using technology to make a routine task more exciting, and more about transforming how I think about teaching and learning with technology and how it applies to my students.

I recently read a quote by Gord Holden:

Technology IS just a tool, like a stick. Many new technological developments made sticks more effective as a weapon (barbs, bows, attachments, etc) but as long as the stick was still being used to harm other people, I would argue that there was nothing truly transformational about the technology. But when sticks became a way to create fire, THAT was innovative and progressive. I would argue that the same could be said of modern technology.

I want to make fire with technology.

So how am I getting there?

To begin with, my Personal Learning Network (PLN) that I have found on Twitter continues to completely inspire me on a regular basis. As I watch them push their boundaries, I think about and act on ways that I can use technology to push my boundaries too. While they may not be making me digitally fluent, they are certainly helping me make my transformation towards it.

In addition, I have had countless deep-thinking conversations with fellow like-minded individuals. I am constantly questioning how and why I am doing what I’m doing with my students. If I find flaw in what I’m presently doing, I look for ways to change and improve. It’s a constant struggle, unfortunately, because as I fix one aspect of my program, I notice a flaw in another. But with changes and learning I am becoming closer to digitally fluent.

I am also ferociously reading blogs, gaining knowledge, and looking for ways to tweak the growth of others to better suit my own growth. I am trying to be the innovator instead of the follower. It isn’t an easy process.

I feel quite confident in the fact that it will be a slow and painful (although exciting and invigorating) process to move from being digitally literate to digitally fluent. And, to be perfectly honest I’m not sure if I’ll ever really get there. Things are changing so quickly these days that it pretty much is impossible to keep up. That’s not a bad thing, but it is what it is.

So, how are you becoming more digitally literate or digitally fluent?

Karen Lirenman (@klirenman) is a grade one teacher in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. She has been teaching for 20 years and discovered Twitter for educational purposes in July 2011. Her interests include utilizing technology, improving her teaching, and sharing with others. Karen spent the 2009 school year teaching in Melbourne, Australia. She loves to travel and is a five-time Ironman finisher. Karen's professional blog can be found at LearningandSharingwithMsL.blogspot.com.



In Other Words: Harnessing the Educational Power of Twitter

Engage: Plugged In

Have you ever met Dave Barry? Yes, THAT Dave Barry, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, author, comedian, and modern-day Will Rogers? Well, neither had I.

Until IRA.

And what a disaster.

Picture this. IRA’s Annual Convention is in San Antonio and I am a first time attendee. But not just a first time attendee; I’m a first time author. My very first novel had just been published, THE HOOPSTER, and I’d been invited as a guest of Disney Publishing to speak on a panel, sign books, and generally get introduced to the reading world at large wearing my brand new hat of YA author.

Cool, huh?

If you are familiar with San Antonio, you know that one of its hot spots is The Riverwalk. Basically, there’s a river and there’s a sidewalk around the river and someone in the city’s marketing department decided to name it The Riverwalk. Of course then, in the spirit of capitalism and exploiting tourists, they put a bunch of restaurants and bars around the thing and made it a “must visit” destination if you are ever in “The Tone.” (Okay, I just made that name up, but it sounds kinda cool, no?)

Actually, I’m joshin’ … The Riverwalk’s kinda cool. Especially if your new publisher hires a dinner boat, puts you on it, and seats you right next to Dave Barry for a fancy-schmancy banquet of epicurean delights as you cruise the high seas of people-watching pedestrians as they walk beside the river and overpay for margaritas and guacamole.

I think there were 12 of us on this vessel. In addition to Dave Barry, we had Ridley Pearson, another author extraordinaire, and all kinds of very high-ranking publishing executives from the world of Disney/Hyperion.

I wore a sport coat. All of us did. Like I said, it was fancy-schmancy.

To my way of thinking, my maiden voyage as an officially published author was getting off to one heck of a metaphorically apropos start, being that we were literally “on the water,” and my career was “setting sail” and all. Basically, I was over the moon. This was the big time. I’d arrived. Years of dreaming about becoming a “published author” were being realized. Let there be wine, right?

And wine there was. The nauti-waiter (nautical waiter) poured a nice red for all of us. One of those deep reds, too, the kind that came from a splendiferous estate where fat, bearded men ambled through their vineyards with walking sticks.

“A toast,” one of the execs cried out. After all, Dave and Ridley were sitting on the New York Times bestsellers list for their new book PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, IRA was destined to be a magnificent affair, and The Tone was roarin’ like a 1920s outdoor speakeasy.

We all reached for our glasses. Unfortunately, however, one the book editors sitting across the table accidentally knocked hers over.

And totally drenched Dave Barry.

This wasn’t one of those “little spills” either. This was one of those “your tan colored sport coat, white shirt and beige slacks were just drenched to the hilt with a bold cabernet sauvignon and, since the boat departed the dock just eight minutes ago, you’re going to be stuck at sea in soaking wet clothing for the next two hours without a chance in hell of even one piece of your attire being saved from absolute ruin by this, the Stain of All Stains.”

Mortification struck. The whole boat froze. Slowly, eyes turned, a burn in the gaze of all the top brass, only one thought on their collective minds for the female member of their team who had made this tragic gaffe.

“You couldn’t spill it on the freakin’ new guy?”

I recoiled. International Celebrity, Pulitzer Prize winner, Library of Congress Hall of Fame nominee doused. Me? Totally bone dry. The math just didn’t add up. In truth, I felt like pouring a bottle of red wine over my own head just so I could handle the guilt and shame of not having been the victim. It should have been me who took the bath. Everyone on the boat knew it should have been me.

But Dave, such an unflappable gentleman and nice guy extraordinaire cracked a joke about how “if I knew you were gonna take me swimming, I would have worn a bathing suit,” and off we sailed to a dinner which was not ruined (very much unlike Dave Barry’s clothing).

Classy guy, top to bottom.

Of course, the next day at IRA was my book signing. My first book signing for Disney. Ever. I’d seen the lines for Dave and Ridley earlier that day. I’d seen how Avi had people snaked around the building waiting for his Avi Hancock. I made sure to bring two pens in case one ran dry, and did a series of hand-stretching exercises preparing to meet the forthcoming challenge.

It was the loneliest hour of my life.

And the loneliest hour of my life was made only more miserable by the fact that they weren’t even charging for my book—they were giving THE HOOPSTER away for free!

Sadness gave way to despair when my first “customer” (if I can even call her that) came up. She picked up my book and I smiled with the glow of ten-thousand watts. She read the back cover and I reached for my pen. For sure a signing, right?

“Ehh,” she said, setting the book back down. “Nah.”

And then she walked off.

THE HOOPSTER wasn’t even good enough for her to take as an autographed freebie? My career was a sham… and it was ending before it had even gotten out of the gate. Riverwalk Margaritas and I were about to share a long night together.

Of course the wonderful folks at Disney tried to cheer me up. “Don’t worry, you’re new. One day, you’ll have lines, too.”

I didn’t believe them at the time, even though later that night I did sign a few books at a publisher’s dinner. But ya know what? That prognostication came true. Now, people do wait in lines for me to sign their books. And they even pay for my books, too.

Just incredible. But that first IRA, it taught me to keep the faith.

And every aspect about my career since has proven that there are scores of readers out there who need us. They need the writers, they need the teachers who play match-maker between kids and books, they need the media-specialists who are so tragically under fiscal assault in this day and age, and they need the book publishing peeps who work so hard to bring the printed word to the page (and e-page, as the case may be).

Yep, times are certainly changing in the world of books. But one constant remains: kids need books to build their brains, and I am not sure if there is a better place to learn more about how to tackle this task than IRA Annual. Fact is, I am sad that I won’t be able to make it to Chicago this year. (It’s for good reason, though. My wife is due to deliver Baby #2 on April 25th, and some things in life ya just can’t miss!)

So spill some wine on a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, if you happen to see one… and have a great conference! Remember, the young’uns need ya.

Alan Sitomer was named California's 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Alan is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English, the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy, the 2007 Educator of the Year award by Loyola Marymount University and the 2008 Innovative Educator of the Year from The Insight Education Group. He’s the author of six young adult novels, three children's picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called THE ALAN SITOMER BOOK JAM. A Fun Look at Our Serious Work appears quarterly on the Engage/Teacher to Teacher blog.

“Lumatere had always been a feast for Froi’s eyes. Even during the years of little rain, it was a contrast of lush green grass and thick rich silt carpeting the Flatlands and the river villages. But Charyn was a kingdom of rock and very little beauty. Here the terrain was a rough path of dirt, pocketed with caves and hills of stones.” —FROI OF THE EXILES

Landscape is just about everything in a fantasy novel, and when I decided that I was going to write one, I knew I had to travel to get the setting right. Most of my FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK research took place in the Dordogne area of France as well as Umbria, Italy. I wanted the kingdom of Lumatere to look lush, much the same as the French and English country side. But when I sensed there would be a sequel, I knew that the neighbouring kingdom would have to be the complete opposite.

My research for a setting usually begins with Google or a travel book. I picture a place in my head and then I go searching for it. I found the town of Matera in the editors’ picks of a Lonely Planet guide. I instantly fell in love with the idea of my characters living in caves, so in March 2009, when the first spark of Froi came to me, I went to Central Italy in search of Charyn, the enemy kingdom where most of the action of FROI OF THE EXILES takes place.

Two important words came to my attention while I was in Matera: one was the Citavita (in Italian the words mean “city and life”) and the other was the Italian word for ravine—gravina. My photos don’t do justice to how mighty the gravina that splits Matera into two is, but I knew that somehow that chasm had to feature in the geography of the enemy capital and act as a gulf between people, brothers, lovers, and dreams.



In the photo above, you can see a church made of rock. On one side it looks over the ravine and on the other side you can see people’s homes. Across the ravine is a winding road. For my novel, I made the gravina much more narrow. Across from it, where the road curves, I placed a castle where Froi lives for part of the story.

“Froi walked to the door that opened to the balconette. Across the narrow stretch of the gravina, the outer wall of the oracle’s godshouse tilted toward them.” —FROI OF THE EXILES

Despite my trip in March 2009, FROI proved to be a difficult novel to write and I plotted it in my head for a long while before I began physically writing it. In September 2010, I was ready to truly get started. The action between the palace and the godshouse in the Citavita only takes up part of the novel, and I had to work out the rest of Charyn’s physical landscape.

Years before, in a FINNIKIN scene, I wrote about a view in France having ten shades of green and it took my breath away. We were in the middle of a drought here in Australia and I hadn’t seen that type of lushness for a while. But in Turkey, especially in Cappadocia, I got to see 10 shades of grey and it was equally as breathtaking. I wanted to contrast the kingdoms of both novels, and especially use the description of Charyn as a way of describing the spirit of its people. When Froi’s revulsion towards the Princess of Charyn turns into something more, he describes her as being every shade of Charyn stone.



Cappadocia was also used to describe the beautifully decadent province of Paladozza. I remember being on one of the flat roofs trying to Skype my sister back home and holding up my lap top so she could see what I was looking out at. It was a bad connection, but she caught a glimpse and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“In Paladozza a peculiar world of color existed on the roofs of people’s houses. Unlike Lumatere, with its lush greens and golds, here the strange landscape of stone cones and cave houses was coloured in shades of light pink and soft brown and white. Once upon a time stone had been stone to Froi.” —FROI OF THE EXILES

One of the major settings of FROI is a valley between Lumatere and Charyn. It was easy to visualise, but difficult to write and I was desperate to find the real thing. As usual, I found bits and pieces of it and created my own idea of the valley. Most of the detail comes from the Valley of Ihlara outside Cappadocia.

“...The valley between them had always fascinated him. Lucian caught sight of the gorge below. On the side where the mountain met the stream was woodland and a world that looked easily like Lumatere. But on the other side of the stream was a strange landscape of caves perched high.... He reached the stream and could see the Charynites up in their caves looking down at him suspiciously.... Farther along Phaedra of Alonso was bent over in what looked like a vegetable patch....” —FROI OF THE EXILES

This is how I imagine the stream seen from the Lumateran side.



This is where the Charyn refugees were camped in caves on the other side of the stream.



This photo shows the type of vegetable patches that still thrived in such terrain. As haphazard as they look, they still managed to feed people in hiding. I loved the true stories about how those who hid in the Ihlara Valley thousands of years ago had to find a way to fertilise the soil. So they carved little holes in the outer cave walls for pigeons and then each day they’d collect the droppings.



This final photo is a fun one. I was in Troy and they had this re-enactment photo of the invasion and apart from the fear of what the second man was forced to see looking up the first man’s skirt, it gave me an idea of how to get Froi into a room I was desperate for him to get into. And just to prove that not all research comes from the most profound of places.

“He climbed out to stand on the ledge with his face pressed to the outer walls, his fingers feeling for grooves, his toes gripping stone. Slowly he made his way up to the window above. Despite the short distance and Froi’s expertise...in climbing all things impossible—all things impossible took on new meaning when there was nothing beneath him but unending space and the promise of death.” —FROI OF THE EXILES

Melina Marchetta is the acclaimed and award-winning author of JELLICOE ROAD, which won the Michael L. Printz Award; SAVING FRANCESCA, and its companion novel, THE PIPER'S SON; and LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI. She lives in Australia, where FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK, her first fantasy novel, won an Aurealis Award. Her latest novel, FROI OF THE EXILES, was released in the U.S. earlier this month. You can visit Melina online at http://www.melinamarchetta.com.au/.



5 Questions With... Melina Marchetta (JELLICOE ROAD, FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK)

Flights of Fantasy Book Reviews