Another celebration of Laurie Halse Anderson's visit to St. Louis

There's no way I can top Shannon's account of Laurie's visit, but I do have a few more images to share.

Laurie has been on book tour since October 14th.  Does she even look tired?  She began her talk last night by showing us pictures of her chickens on the "focus" slide shown here.  "I hope I won't offend any vegetarians out there," she said, "but those chickens will become dinner in a few weeks."  Later in the talk, Laurie showed us a picture of a skinned rabbit that she was roasting oven an open fire in order to experience eating like a Revolutionary War soldier.

If I was a better photographer, I would have gotten a shot when Laurie turned her right hand to show the inside of her wrist.  "Mama, she has a tattoo!" my nine-year-old son Ethan whispered.  In the book signing line, we heard Laurie tell some kids ahead of us that her tattoo is the word "Hwaet," which is the first word from Beowulf, and which roughly translates from Anglo-Saxon to mean "Listen to my story."

Try to ignore my underwhelming photography skills, but check out the slide to Laurie's left.  It reads, "George Washington is my homeboy."  Laurie talked for a good while last night about her love of history; her disillusionment when she learned that Benjamin Franklin, her favorite founding father, had owned slaves; and her conviction that a lot of the problems we still struggle with in America regarding racism and hatred stem from the fact that we don't know our own history.  But she touched on these subjects at the same time she was making us laugh.  "Benjamin Franklin was the kind of guy I would have dated in high school," she said.  "He must have had ADD."

The quote that moved me to get out a piece of notepaper was this one:  "We read literature to prepare for life's challenges."  Laurie said that if she wore a hat, it would have a big elephant on the front, because as an author, she chooses to write about the elephant in the room, or things that people would prefer not to talk about.  Then she gave a hats off to Missourians because so many of us wrote to her after the Wesley Scroggins editorial that called Speak pornography.  Laurie said she loves George Washington because he fought for us to have a country where people like her and Wesley Scroggins have the freedom to publicly disagree.

I'd say these last two shots illustrate how readers are made.  Thank you, Laurie.

Jennifer Buehler

Laurie Halse Anderson: Queen of Awesome

This semester, we've gotten to talk to a lot of author's on the phone. Tonight, I got to hear Laurie Halse Anderson Speak in person, and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. Laurie came to St. Louis County Library to promote her latest book, Forge, the second in a series about escaped slaves in the Revolutionary War. As she started her talk with cute and funny pictures of her as a child, I was instantly captivated by her charisma and humor. Unlike the author's in our phone interviews, Laurie spent some time telling us about her background, which was really interesting to hear. As she continued, she dispensed some of the wisdom she's gained as a writer (revise, revise, REVISE!) and told us about her writing process. Let me just say, she has so much passion and love for what she does it's absolutely inspiring. Just in her research for Chains and Forge, Laurie read secondary sources, studied primary sources, road tripped to Valley Forge, cooked like Revolutionary soldiers at her sustainable home, and even took a walk in the snow with wool socks and a blanket as her only real sources of warmth. For Wintergirls, she dropped 25 pounds (under doctor
supervision) and experienced the constant hunger of her character Lia. I was awestruck by her passion and knowledge, and can't say enough how amazing it was to hear her. After her talk, Laurie stayed for ages to answer questions, sign books, and take photos with fans. I have to admit, even I became a total fangirl when it came to my turn to have my book signed. Even now, I'm so excited to have gotten the chance to meet her and I can't believe what a truly beautiful soul she is. As I reminisce about the great experience, I'm left with my signed book, blurry cell phone photo, and amazing memories.

-Shannon Hunt

Author Visit!

Next Tuesday night, November 15th, Laurie Halse Anderson will visit the St. Louis County Library in Frontenac on book tour for her new historical novel Forge.

I hope some of you will get out there to see her!  The event starts at 7 p.m., and the county library is across the street from Plaza Frontenac mall.  Puddnhead Books is one of the tour stop sponsors.

Forge is a great Revolutionary War page-turner featuring an escaped child slave named Curzon and scenes from the long winter at Valley Forge.  There's humor, grit, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, a great narrative voice, and many, many cool historical epigraphs that link each chapter to voices from the time period.

Jennifer