Can't Get There From Here named to 2010 ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults List

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/popularpaperback/popularpaperbacks.cfm.

"Hard Knock Life" category

A Stunning Book About Lives Wasted in War

After reading this book I cannot help but believe that no matter what President Obama thinks the goal or purpose of sending young men and women to die in the Middle East (I like Obama a lot, and I'm sure he believes he has good reason for sending them, but that doesn't make it right) is, these wars are not justifiable in terms of the young lives sacrificed.

A Nice Article From the International Thriller Writers

http://www.thrillerwriters.org/2009/10/wish-you-were-dead-by-todd-strasser.html

Coolest Wish You Were Dead trailer yet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUgS86Nw1D0&feature=player_embedded

Extra! Extra! Gannett Talks Todd Up; NYTimes Puts Him Down?

Is this a case of what goes up must come down? Or am I being overly sensitive?

http://www.lohud.com/article/20091031/LIFESTYLE01/910310304/1305/LIFESTYLE/Thrills%20and%20chills%20from%20a%20Larchmont%20author

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/nyregion/08bookwe.html?emc=eta1

Why We Do School Visits

For many reasons, not the least of which is a letter like this:

Dear Todd,

Thank you so much for your wonderful presentations at Derby last Wednesday. I've had terrific feedback from both teachers and students. The Writing Workshops were both practical and inspiring. Connie Chapin, our 6th grade English teacher (and Head of the English Department) was very impressed with how you related to the 6th graders at exactly the right level for them. The large presentations in Larson Hall were funny, informative and perfectly tailored to each of the groups you were addressing. I loved the way you mentioned books that you enjoy, written by other writers. I've had lots of requests from students, teachers and even a parent, for the titles that you mentioned.

Thanks again for a great visit! Your books are flying off theshelves--always the best sign that the visit was a huge success.

Best regards,Judy

Judy Simons
Coordinator of Library Services
Derby Academy
56 Burditt Ave., Hingham, MA 02043
781-749-0746 ext. 57

Petra and Pia Come for a Visit

My German editor Petra and her husband Joe and daughter Pia are living in Boston this fall. Joe had to go back to Germany on business so Petra brought Pia down here for a visit. We’ve taken walks, talked about books, and yesterday went to New York to meet Anne C. Voorhoeve, another one of Petra’s authors who was on her way back to Germany from a reading tour in Canada.

Anne is the author of, among other books, Liverpool Street, a fictionalized account of the Kindertransport rescue mission of 1938, when about 1,000 mostly Jewish children were sent from Nazi Germany to Britain. Many of the children were placed in foster care, but not all. Some as young of 14 found themselves completely alone, and unable to speak English, in London. Liverpool Street will be published in English by Penguin in 2011.

Imagine what it must have been like to be the parents of these children, putting them on a train in Germany, knowing there was a very good possibility that they would never see them again. I can’t fathom how the parents could summon the strength to do it.

It is shameful now to think that senior American officials apparently knew what was happening in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and did nothing to prevent the slaughter. (See The Abandonment of the Jews by David S. Wyman)

Petra, Pia, Anne, and I went to Central Park where we saw the Zen giant bubble man.

Then we joined Lia for dinner in a very small and tightly packed restaurant where we had to chain Lia’s bike and Pia’s stroller to a grate outside.