Kimberly Newton Fusco Journal

A Nutmeg Nominee

2012-02-08T15:05:00.004-05:00

THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE has been nominated for Connecticut's 2013 Nutmeg Book Award!

It is very exciting to be nominated because students across the state of Connecticut read the nominees and then cast their votes for a winner. CHARLIE ANNE joins nine other books in the intermediate category. All will be displayed at public libraries, school libraries and book stores throughout Connecticut.

The Nutmeg Book Award encourages children in Grades 4 to 8 to read quality literature. Jointly sponsored by the Connecticut Library Association (CLA) and the Connecticut Association of School Librarians (CASL), the Nutmeg Committee is comprised of children's librarians and school library media specialists.

Here's what the committee has to say about THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE:

"Charlie Anne’s father leaves Massachusetts to find work during the Depression, leaving his family with their miserable cousin Mirabel and a farm full of chores. When another girl moves in next door, Charlie Anne is thrilled, but some townspeople don’t feel the same way. Can Charlie Anne and Phoebe help their town overcome prejudice? "

Congratulations to my fellow nominees:

Baseball Great
by Tim Green

Because of Mr. Terupt
by Rob Buyea

Born to Fly
by Michael Ferrari

The Mostly True Adventures of
Homer P. Figg
by Rodman Philbrick

My Life As a Book
by Janet Tashjian

The Potato Chip Puzzles
by Eric Berlin

Powerless
by Matthew Cody

A Tale Dark & Grimm
by Adam Gidwitz

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
by Grace Lin

A Little Gushing

2012-01-16T09:31:00.006-05:00

I loved this review from MUSINGS FROM A MODERN BLUESTOCKING: Book reviews and random ramblings about literary and historical matters:

THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE

"Charlie Anne is growing up during the Depression in a small farming community in Massachusetts. She has lost her mother and now her father and older brother have left to go build roads up North.

Charlie Anne and her siblings are left on the farm in care of her mother's bossy cousin Mirabel who is determined to teach the children manners, especially Charlie Anne. She doesn't give the children any time for fun - only chores and more chores, most of which go to Charlie Anne.

Whenever she can slip away, Charlie Anne heads to the hill overlooking the river to have a conversation with her mother who is buried there. She pours out her feelings on the tough times and her mother responds with kindness and sympathy, teaching Charlie Anne how to be deal with tough times.

When the neighbor, Mr. Jolly, remarries, his wife brings along color and kindness, along with her adopted daughter Phoebe, who happens to be "colored." Charlie Anne quickly finds a close friend in Phoebe. Rosalyn and Phoebe also help Charlie Ann gain the confidence she needs to learn how to read. Together, Charlie Anne, Phoebe and Rosalyn confront racism and classism in their small farming community.

I can't gush enough about this book. The writing is beautiful though the sentence structure is simple... I thought the book was set in the South but the cataloging information says it's set in Massachusetts, which makes it very different from most of the northern-set Depression era kids books. The plot is interesting and engaging though you wouldn't think so because it doesn't have any grand action or adventure. I couldn't put it down.

It teaches important life lessons a non-moralizing hit-you-over-the-head way. This is one of those MUST READS for everyone ages 10+. Some elements may be too harsh for younger children but it would make a good book to read to a 4th grade class. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time!"

For more great reviews, visit: http://bluestockingmusings.blogspot.com/

Huck's Twin Sister!

2011-11-30T18:38:00.010-05:00

I love this review of THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE by Ed Spicer, a reading specialist who regularly writes reviews for Michigan Reading Journal. Mr. Spicer has served on the Michael Printz Committee, BBYA, the Caldecott Committee, Notable Children's Books, the Morris Committee, and very soon he will be on the 2013 Margaret Edwards Committee.

"Charlie Anne’s mother has died and now her father is taking her brother Thomas far from home to build roads. The depression is forcing many families to sacrifice. Charlie Anne has eaten potatoes about a hundred different ways.

Charlie Anne will be staying with cousin Mirabel who attempts to civilize her by reading to her from a manners book. When Old Mr. Jolly takes a new wife, one who wears pants, red pepper red pants, Charlie Anne thinks she may have a friend. Rosalyn has an adopted daughter, Phoebe and Phoebe is "colored."

Mirabel won’t even think of allowing Charlie Anne to associate with this family. The
final straw is when her Aunt Eleanor from Boston takes her younger brother Peter to live with them, all the while making it clear that they have no need for girls.Charlie Anne, however, will just see about any attempt to turn her into something she is not!

The distinguishing characteristic in the novel is the voice of Charlie Anne.
Writers who attempt to depict conversations between dead people and the living
often sound, of course, stiff and unnatural. Fusco’s skill is that when Anna
May and Belle, the cows, comment on the events in Charlie Anne’s day or when
Charlie Anne hears the voice of her mother moving across the river, she makes
these voices seem natural and appropriate:

“When I get myself settled, with my back lying up next to Anna May and my eyes
feeling all happy to be filled up with the sight of my beautiful Brown Swiss
Belle, that’s when the two of them tell me how very sorry they are that I am
having enough troubles to fill a wheelbarrow.” (p. 105)

“When I get to the river, I am out of breath. I go up and sit by Mama and rest
for a minute, and I tell her about my awful day, and she tells me she already
knows about it all, but I can tell her some more if it will make me feel
better.” (p. 32).

Fusco waltzes between issues of race, poverty, education, religion, and
politics with skill and without ever having any of these issues muffle the
voice of Charlie Anne. It is no accident that Charlie Anne mentions the book,
Huckleberry Finn—she is definitely Huck’s twin sister.

Purchase this one for middle school and high school libraries."

Read more of Mr. Spicer's reviews at http://www.spicyreads.org/

Sweet Similes

2011-11-22T16:21:00.004-05:00

Writer and teacher Laurie Smith Murphy uses TENDING TO GRACE when she is teaching writing to her fifth-graders. This is what she wrote in a recent blog post ....

"Similes are like tiny jewels in a summer night sky. They help create a poetic portrait of a character or paint a scenic landscape in a reader's mind. They help take your writing to the next level. I love similes and I love teaching my students to use them in their writing. During read aloud, the students give the thumbs-up sign when they hear one. It's like discovering a secret or finding a stone with rings, and the students always get excited when they catch one. Or when they write one. They rush up to me or wave their hands feverishly to share. "Listen to my simile!" It's the same when they find one while they're reading. "Look what I found, Ms. Murphy!" It's like they've found a hidden treasure. And they have.

One of my favorite things to teach my 5th graders is writing. I use Kimberly Newton Fusco's book, TENDING TO GRACE, to teach about the use of language and, in particular, similes. I read it to them but they all have a copy so they can read along with me. When we hear how Cornelia, the main character, feels about her life, we stop and listen while I read a second time. Then we talk about how the author could have written how Cornelia feels lonely. But she doesn't, she writes, "I want to hide because my life, if it were a clothesline, would be the one with a sweater dangling by one sleeve, a blanket dragging in the mud, and a sock, unpaired and alone, tumbling to the road with the wind at its heel." What a lovely, haunting picture it paints of Cornelia's life.

One of the students' favorite similes discovered in Tending to Grace is the following: "The skin on her hand is thin, translucent, like china held up to the light." This compares Cornelia's mother's hand to china. Lenore is a fragile woman who leaves her daughter with her aunt because she is unable to take care for her herself. Another simile that describes Lenore is: "I want to tell her my whole life story in ten minutes, quicklike so the words tumble down fast and furious, like my mother's promises."

Give yourself, or your students, a path to more descriptive writing. Use similes."

Thanks, Laurie! And how lucky your students are to have a teacher who loves to write!
http://lauriesmithmurphy.blogspot.com/

Encouragement is Everything

2011-10-11T10:07:00.012-04:00

Thank you to author and friend Linda Crotta Brennan for her interview this morning on her blog at http://www.lindacrottabrennan.com/

Kimberly Newton Fusco's first novel, TENDING TO GRACE, won the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award. According to Booklist's review, “Like Katherine Paterson’s classic The Great Gilly Hopkins…this quiet, beautiful first novel makes the search for home a searing drama.”
THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE is Kim's latest title, and according to Kirkus, “Fusco’s mellifluous style often sounds like singing: “Go do this, the new mama tells me, and I do it, just because.”

When the story opens, 11-year-old Charlie Anne is furious that her papa and older brother are leaving to find work. It’s the Great Depression and times are tough and Charlie Anne, who has a supernatural way of interacting with the world (her recently buried mother, the river, the molasses-eyed cows and even the clothesline) is stuck at home with her siblings and the overbearing, much-older cousin Mirabel, who insists on ladylike behavior and “The Charm of Fine Manners.” But things begin to brighten for Charlie Anne when new neighbors move in — a white woman (who wears red pepper red pants) and her African-American adopted daughter, Phoebe. Two conflicts loom largest: dyslexic Charlie Anne’s battle with “jumbled letters” and her controversial friendship with Phoebe, which stirs up the town’s “backwater” hatred. “We’ll just see about that!” becomes Charlie Anne’s battle cry.

WELCOME, KIM! It's a pleasure to have you here. Could you tell our readers what drove you to write THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE?

I wanted to write something hopeful because I was very discouraged. I had published TENDING TO GRACE and it had done very well, but the years were passing. I had one novel sitting on my editor’s desk in NYC, but, despite two revisions, it wasn’t going anywhere. I started getting up at 5 a.m. and working on another novel as a way to get a positive start on my day before getting my children off to school. That draft was a study in sheer determination. Then spring came and the snow melted and I started hiking along the brook that ran behind my house and I got to thinking about a little girl who lived across the road from my grandparents' farm in Maine. She had a pony, which I wanted to ride very badly, but she had to watch her little brother and do chores from morning until night (or so it seemed to me). I thought a lot about all those chores and I knew how I would have acted: I would have REBELLED. That’s when I heard Charlie Anne's voice for the first time, and I scrapped that other draft because Charlie Anne's voice was so powerful and strong. She was a spirited, tough little nut. There was no looking back.

Charlie Anne's voice is so memorable. I loved listening to her speak. Her voice is lyrical, yet she always sounds like a child. How did you work such a miracle?

Thank you. When I heard her voice in my head I was so excited I ran to my computer and let her talk and start telling her story in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way. Each day when I sat down to write I would reread one of the early chapters, like the first chapter or the one about her cow, Belle, getting stuck in the brier patch. Sometimes I would retype whole sections of her feisty voice so I could absorb it and keep going.

You are also a poet. Does poetry feed your prose?

I read a lot of poetry for inspiration and I write poetry to improve my prose. I find that writing a poem is a wonderful way to delve deeply into my character’s emotions. The first page of THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE began as a poem. Most of the chapters in TENDING TO GRACE began as poems and then I rewrote them into prose. That’s one of the reasons the chapters are so short. One example comes from the first page. I could have written that my main character, Cornelia, had a really rotten life. But when I wrote a poem about what it feels like to have a hard life, this is what came out: “I want to jump out of the car as it rushes along and wrap myself in a row of sheets hanging so low their feet tap the grass. I want to hide because my life, if it were a clothesline, would be the one with a sweater dangling by one sleeve, a blanket dragging in the mud, and a sock, unpaired and alone, tumbling to the road with the wind at its heel.”

The river, Charlie Anne’s dead mother, the cow Anna May, and even the fence talk to Charlie Anne. This feels totally reasonable from Charlie Anne’s POV as the anthropomorphizing of a child. Yet it is more than that. It is real. Charlie Anne’s dead mother alerts her when Phoebe is hurt and leads Charlie Anne to her friend. Can you talk a little about this aspect of the book?

When I was writing I was Charlie Anne and in order to make the supernatural parts of the book believable I absolutely knew they were happening. Charlie Anne is talking to her mama and her mama is talking to her. I know no other way to approach a book.

Phoebe is African-American and one of the strands of your book is how Phoebe is treated when she arrives in this all-white northern town. As a white writer, how did you approach this issue?

I approached this as Charlie Anne would. She has an interesting and very smart girl her own age move in across the road. They have a great deal in common. They see their differences, and misstep many times, but ultimately learn to concentrate on their similarities. One of the themes of the book is when Charlie Anne tells the townspeople, “You can’t love somebody if you don’t know somebody.” She’s talking about empathy, about walking a mile in someone else’s moccasins, about how once we really get to know somebody, walls that separate us start crashing down.

The book is set during the Great Depression. Could yet tell us a little about your research for the book?

I read a lot of history. I scrolled through Library of Congress archives and listened to audio stories of the Great Depression. I love reading old cookbooks and sifting through old recipes. I think they are a window to another time. I found Dorothea Lange photos of girls from the 1930s who looked like my idea of Charlie Anne and Phoebe. I pasted these to the top of my manuscript so I could look at them every day. (The picture of "Charlie Anne" is posted at the top of this blog) As a former journalist, I know that the difference between a great story and a lousy one is research, and that the very best research usually comes from a great interview. I was thrilled when two women who attended a one-room schoolhouse in Rehoboth, MA, sat down with me and talked about life during the Great Depression. Where else could I have found the “standing in the trash bucket” punishment?

Your first book, TENDING TO GRACE, won the American Library Association's Schneider Family Book Award. Could you tell us a bit about this book? How did the experience of writing it compare to writing THE WONDER OF CHARLIE ANNE?

I wrote Tending to Grace after I met my editor, Michelle Frey of Knopf/Random House, at an SCBWI conference. I had submitted ten pages of a different novel and she told me that I had written a plot-driven novel, and that Knopf only publishes character-driven novels. “But I think you could write the kind of literary novel we publish. So if you go home and try again, I’ll take another look.” I don’t think my feet touched the ground for the next month. Then I started wondering, how exactly am I going to do this? I knew a character-driven novel features a protagonist who changes internally, and I was rather surprised I hadn’t accomplished this on my first try, but when I reread it, I knew Michelle was right. After a while I realized that if I had any hope of writing a character-driven novel, I needed a character that faced adversity and changed because of it. And then it hit me: I knew something about that! And that’s when I decided to write about stuttering, which is something I battled as a child. I remember the moment I walked over to my computer and closed my file that held that old novel, opened a new file, and started over. It took a lot of courage to write each day because I was writing about something I had tried to keep hidden. A lot of the things that happened to Cornelia in school happened to me. And then one day I wrote a scene where her Aunt Agatha says: “You know what I say? I say that when you got a voice, you damn well better tell the world who you are. Or somebody else will.” I realized that was exactly what I was doing by writing, and I better keep going. It paid off, because three months after I mailed the completed manuscript off to NYC, Michelle Frey called and offered me a contract and she’s been my editor since.

Are you working on any other books? Could you tell us a bit about them?

Yes, my next novel is scheduled for publication in 2013. The idea came from a little girl I met while I was writing about a carnival back in my reporter days.

Do you have any final thoughts for our readers?

Many people have asked for the recipe for vinegar pie. I found this one during my research. If you close your eyes, a “hard times vinegar pie” really does taste a lot like lemon.

VINEGAR PIE
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (8-inch) unbaked pie shell

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.

Posted by Linda Crotta Brennan at 1:00 AM 2 comments

Meet My Editor

2011-09-24T19:31:00.007-04:00

This is my talented editor, Michelle Frey, executive editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Michelle and I are about to begin revisions on my third novel. It is a story very loosly based on a little girl I met at a carnival during my reporting days. Publication is planned for 2013.

I can hardly believe enough time has passed for me to write three novels since I met Michelle at a SCBWI writer's conference in Sturbridge, MA, in 2002.
I'll tell the story of how we met (and how Michelle had me doing cartwheels all the way home) when author and friend Linda Crotta Brennan interviews me for her blog on Oct. 11. http://www.lindacrottabrennan.com/

Charlie Anne in Paperback!!!

2011-07-13T10:31:00.006-04:00

I now have the date! The Wonder of Charlie Anne will be released in paperback on October 11. Thank you to all my readers who have responded so warmly to Charlie Anne and Phoebe and all the other characters who people their world.

All That Summer Reading

2011-07-09T19:54:00.004-04:00

Thank you to all the teachers across the country who put Tending to Grace and The Wonder of Charlie Anne on their summer reading lists. And, thank you to all the students who are reading the books and will be doing reports over the next several weeks.

As a way to thank you, I will send a signed hardcover copy of Tending to Grace, or an audio CD version of The Wonder of Charlie Anne (read by the talented Ann Marie Lee) to the first 15 students (or teachers!!!) who email me a mailing address.

My email is knf@kimberlynewtonfusco.com

Happy Summer!

Letters About Literature

2011-06-20T20:44:00.000-04:00

I was recently asked to speak at RI Center for the Book's annual meeting where the 2011 Letters about Literature winners were announced.

It was an exciting evening, held at the State Office Building in Providence. John Cole, Director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, handed out awards to students from across the state who had written letters about their favorite books. Winners had been chosen by a selection committee made up of librarians and authors.

What an evening! The program is a national program where approximately 70,000 young readers from across the country write letters to their favorite authors.

Students are asked:

"How has an author's work--novel, nonfiction, poetry--changed your view of the world or yourself? What did you learn about yourself that you didn't realize before reading the author's work? Don't write a book report. The author already wrote the book and knows what happened. What the author doesn't know is how you reacted while reading the book. Write about that--your response in a reflective, personal letter to the author! That is the LAL writing challenge."

Winners and Honorable Mentions in Rhode Island were:
Level 1 Winner: Isobel McCullough, Wakefield
Level 1 Honorable Mentions: Maddy Murphy, Barrington and Alex Wilson, Hope Valley
Level 2 Winner: Jessica Bellows, Coventry
Level 2 Honorable Mentions: Delaney Burke and Julia DeAngelis, Scituate; Emily Gleason, Portsmouth
Level 3 Winner: Grace Perkins,Portsmouth
Level 3 Honorable Mentions: Danielle Kubicsko, Westerly and Katelyn St. Laurent, Smithfield
Read this year's winning letters at http://www.ribook.org/LALfiles/lal.html

Thank you to the RI Center for the Book for inviting me to such a special evening. And thank you for taking The Wonder of Charlie Anne to the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, last fall. I can tell you that Charlie Anne had a wonderful time!

Workshop by Region's Writing Women

2011-05-09T21:13:00.005-04:00

"Women's Words and Voices" was the topic of a day of writing workshops held recently at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. It was an inspiring day filled with writers from across the region. The event was held to benefit Daybreak, the YWCA's domestic violence service provider in Central Mass. I was asked to speak on fiction writing, my favorite topic!

We celebrated “the potential of all women to find and use their voice and self expression to build meaningful lives,” according to Virginia Navickas, director of domestic violence services for Daybreak and one of the coordinators of the day. Ms. Navickas read some powerful poems and essays written by women who have been helped by Daybreak.

Thank you to Jim Dempsey, who helped coordinate the daylong program. He is an instructor at WPI, an author, and a former reporter comrade of mine at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Charlie Anne is "Strong Girl" Role Model

2011-01-20T17:37:00.000-05:00

The American Library Association's AMELIA BLOOMER PROJECT announces its list of books each year that feature strong, powerful, capable, girls. The Wonder of Charlie Anne was named to the 2011 list!

Named for the women's rights activist and writer, The AMELIA BLOOMER PROJECT is part of the Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association’s Social Responsibility Round Table. Each year it offers a bibliography of books with significant feminist content intended for young readers from birth to 18.

The AMELIA BLOOMER PROJECT applauds books that encourage girls and young women to love themselves for who they are. It looks for books that move beyond merely “spunky” and “feisty” young women to characters who not only fight to protect themselves, but also further the rights of others.

The books on the list show girls and young women solving problems, gaining personal power, and empowering others. They celebrate girls and young women as a vibrant, vital force in the world. A book with a strong female character that does not demonstrate that an inequality exists may not be a feminist book, according to project committee. Strong female characters may be plucky, perseverant, courageous, feisty, intelligent, spirited, resourceful, capable, and independent–but the book’s presentation may still not be feminist.

I am thrilled that Charlie Anne has been named to such an important list. As she says so many times about the prejudice and inequality that face her daily, "We'll just see about that!"

Thank you to committee members Angela Semifero, Marshall District Library (MI); Beth Olshewsky, co-chair, Tulare County Office of Education (CA); Dana Campbell, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library (OR); Jennie Law, John Bulow Campbell Library (GA); Joy Worland, Joslin Memorial Library (VT); Linda Parsons, Ohio State University (OH); Maureen McCoy, co-chair, Brooklyn Public Library (NY).

For more information, please visit the Amelia Bloomer Project.

Isaac Paine School

2011-01-11T19:36:00.008-05:00

I have a dear friend, Laurie Smith Murphy, who teaches fifth grade at Isaac Paine School in Foster, RI.

Each year she reads Tending to Grace, my first novel, to her students as part of her writing curriculum. This year, her class also read The Wonder of Charlie Anne.

Laurie and I are both writers and we often share our writing projects with one another. As a past special education and current regular education teacher, she helped me describe Charlie Anne's reading disability correctly.

Each year her students are ready with dozens of questions for me about my books, about writing, and about the publishing world. Often, I will be asked a question I have never been asked before.

Here is what her students said about the visit:

"I never met a real author before. It was very interesting to find out what your inspiration was for Tending to Grace. I was also very pleased that you weren't afraid to write about being a stutterer. If Cornelia wasn't a stutterer, the book wouldn't be as good as it is."

"I was also amazed that you had an outhouse that was leaning to the side with one little window in it just like in Tending to Grace."

"You answered all my questions that I wanted to know. You gave me some facts about writing. Now I reread my writing at least twice to see if there are any mistakes."

"Tending to Grace is one of my favorite books. Our class is reading The Wonder of Charlie Anne. I am thinking that it's going to be my favorite book ever."

Touchstone Community School

2010-12-23T09:51:00.006-05:00

Students in the seventh and eighth grade classes at Touchstone Community School in Grafton, MA, recently invited me to talk about The Wonder of Charlie Anne.

What a delightful morning it was! Their teacher, Katy Aborn, asked students to take part in a Socratic Seminar, where they debated the effectiveness of the plot and different aspects of the book. For example, they discussed the friendship between Charlie Anne and Phoebe, the supernatural talks Charlie Anne has with her deceased mother, prejudice and racism, and the adversity rural people faced during the Great Depression.

What a gift it was for me and my mother (who often goes on school visits with me) to hear the articulate responses of students who so obviously understood the deeper meanings of the novel.

Here are some of the things they said about the visit:

"We were wondering so many things...."

"I loved hearing about how you came up with all the characters for The Wonder of Charlie Anne."

"Thank you for answering all of the questions about writing, because I love writing and your advice and strategies will help me become a better writer."

"I really loved the book. It was funny and really great."

"I also like writing a first draft because when I'm writing a first draft, so many ideas run through my head.

"Meeting you made me want to be a writer even more than I already do! I can't wait to start writing my book."

For more information on Touchstone, or to contact Katy Aborn, please visit http://www.touchstoneschool.com/

A PARENTS' CHOICE AWARD

2010-11-16T07:23:00.005-05:00

Charlie Anne has just received a Parents' Choice Silver Medal Award for Fiction!

The Parents' Choice Foundation, in Timonium, MD, is the nation's oldest nonprofit guide to quality children's media and toys. The Foundation's mission is to provide parents with the information necessary to participate wisely in their children's learning outside of the classroom.

Parents’ Choice reviews books, toys, music, television, software, videogames, websites, and magazines for children and families of all achievements and backgrounds.

Founding principles are:

* Children deserve material to sharpen young minds, not blunt them.
* Children learn most easily when they enjoy it.
* Knowledge gives parents confidence to teach their children.
* And above all, because learning is fun - and we want kids to know it.

Wow, thank you Parents' Choice Foundation!

And here is the review:

The Wonder of Charlie Anne

"Charlie Anne lives in difficult times. The book, Kimberly Newton Fusco's latest, is set during the Great Depression. Charlie Anne's mother has recently died in childbirth, and her father and older brother, like most of the men in town, move north to find work. Charlie Anne and her three siblings are left to the care of their mother's mean cousin Mirabel. Mirabel assigns a never-ending string of awful chores - making vinegar pies, shoveling muck from the outhouse - and nags tomboy Charlie Anne to be a proper lady.

Things seem pretty bad, until a stranger comes to town. Mr. Jolly, who lives across the road from Mirabel, marries. His new wife brings a girl the same age as Charlie Anne. The girls form a quick friendship. The new girl sings like an angel, reads Dickens, and wears "trousers", but she is ostracized by the neighbors of Charlie Anne's small town and church for being black. Charlie Anne is a feisty and gutsy heroine, though, and she makes a bold show of solidarity. Slowly, the rest of the town comes around.

This is a heartwarming story about human nature, survival and forgiveness. Fusco does a wonderful job pointing out treasures in even the hardest of times, and she has a lovely touch with language. Charlie Anne describes her dyslexia, for instance, as letters popping all over the page. Strong period details bolster the historical setting, and Charlie Anne's resilient spirit triumphs over everything. As poor as her family is, she still has old Anna May the milk cow, hen races with her siblings, and a tree swing that flies to the sky. She also has a good friend, and that's priceless."

Teresa DiFalco ©2010 Parents' Choice

For more information, and to view the other winners, please visit: http://www.parents-choice.org/award.cfm?thePage=books&p_code=p_boo&c_code=c_fic&orderby=award

A HOPEFUL STORY

2010-11-10T17:39:00.007-05:00

Thank you to the wonderful blog, CURLED UP WITH A GOOD KID'S BOOK for this lovely review. And thank you to reviewer Kristine Wildner.

"Bringing a fresh voice to Depression-era fiction, Kimberly Newton Fusco’s The Wonder of Charlie Anne is set on a rural farm. Charlie Anne’s mother recently died in childbirth, and her father and older brother have gone north to build roads for the government to bring in needed cash.

Mirabel, an adult cousin, has come to care for Charlie Anne, her younger brother, Peter, and sisters, Ivy and Birdie. Missing her mother terribly and now her father and brother, Charlie Anne resents Mirabel and her insistence on teaching her manners and household chores. She finds comfort in visits to the river, conversing with the spirit of her mother and in caring for the family cow and her calf.

When their neighbor “old Mr. Jolly” comes home with a new wife, Rosalyn, and their “adopted” African American daughter, Phoebe, Charlie Anne immediately bonds with the girl, forming a friendship which is looked down upon not only by Mirabel but most of the rest of the community. Charlie Anne experiences firsthand the cruel discrimination related to her good friend and family.

The girls’ friendship is not without conflict, as Charlie Anne struggles with her reading and becomes jealous of Phoebe’s academic abilities. Additionally, she must work through yet another family adjustment as Mirabel sends her brother to live in Boston with an aunt.The plot comes to a climax when Phoebe’s foot is caught in a neighbor’s hunting trap. Charlie Anne not only saves her life but also finally learns to read under the individual tutelage of Rosalyn during Phoebe’s recovery. Ultimately, this crisis ignites a change within their rural community as Mirabel finally recognizes the importance of Phoebe in Charlie Anne’s life and begins to help less fortunate neighbors at the same time.

Charlie Anne’s unique, strong voice reveals her thoughts and hopes most deeply through her mother’s voice – calling her to mature and make the right, albeit difficult decisions in her life. Other than Charlie Anne, Mirabel’s character undergoes the most dramatic changes. From the beginning, she is portrayed as a stereotypical strict “stepmother” figure. However, if the reader stops to consider the situation throughout the story, Mirabel is a selfless person struggling to do the very best for a family which most definitely needs her leadership to survive in hard times.

Recurring themes throughout the book will resonate with readers of today, including the importance of family, thankfulness and the ingenuity it takes to get by when times are difficult. The image of the cows, a mother and daughter, recurs throughout underlying the importance of the mother/daughter relationship missing from both Phoebe and Charlie Anne’s lives. Each girl recognizes something is missing - not forgetting the hurt but coping despite the loss.

Ultimately, Charlie Anne’s story is one of hope and change with subjects which are as important today as they were during the Depression. The plot is both reflective and active as each character reacts to change and crisis in a hopeful story centering on the values of family and friendship. "

www.curledupkids.com/yrbooks.htm

BEYOND THE MARGINS

2010-11-08T15:29:00.004-05:00

Dell Smith, over at the fabulous literary blog, Beyond the Margins, www.beyondthemargins.com
interviewed me recently about writing and publishing literature for young people.

Dell, a writer of short stories and novels, has published in J. Journal, Lynx Eye Quarterly, Grub Street’s 10th anniversary anthology Hacks, and will be featured in issue 56 of Fiction Magazine. He maintains a blog, Unreliable Narrator at dellsmith.com, featuring essays on writing, book reviews, and author interviews.
Thank you, Dell.

Kimberly Newton Fusco was an award-winning reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette for 15 years before turning to writing for young adults. Her debut novel, Tending to Grace, is about a girl struggling with a stutter that leaves her reluctant to talk, especially after her mother leaves her with a great aunt she’s never met.

Her latest novel, The Wonder of Charlie Anne, was published August 2010 by Knopf Books for Young Readers. It’s about Charlie Anne, a young girl growing up during the Great Depression, without her mother (who died during child birth) and whose father and brother must head north to find work.

Kimberly Newton Fusco sits down with Beyond the Margins to discuss writing for young adults, why she set her latest novel during the Depression, and the importance of research.

Your first novel, Tending to Grace, is a beautiful, honest, and lyrical story about a girl who stutters and features two other characters who can’t read. Your latest book, The Wonder of Charlie Anne, is set during the American Depression of the 1930s. While Tending to Grace and Charlie Anne are set in different eras, you tackle universal themes such as surrogate parents, children with learning disabilities, and, in the case of Charlie Anne, racism. In other words, the stories you choose both entertain and inform. Were these the types of books you were drawn to when you were younger?

When I was young, I loved books about strong girls. I loved how Harriet the Spy made sense of people and their absurdities by writing about them, and how Karana in Island of the Blue Dolphins learns to live alone – and survive! — on an island in the Pacific.

In my own writing, I am drawn to strong girls who face adversity and through their own determination, press on. In Tending to Grace, Cornelia must confront her stuttering and in The Wonder of Charlie Anne, Charlie Anne must confront her reading disability and the racism around her.

As far as entertaining and informing readers at the same time, I believe The Diary of Anne Frank is the best book ever written for young people. You read that book and you become a kinder and more compassionate person, even in small ways. A novel becomes bigger than itself and more universal when it takes on the larger world around it. I am very interested in writing about people who have been marginalized in some way, whether because of their religion, or by racism or because they talk differently, as Cornelia does in Tending to Grace.

Why did you set Charlie Anne during the Depression?

I was thinking about chores and what they would be like before electricity reached rural areas. Our road in Foster, RI, was without electricity until the 1950s. Imagine washing diapers without a washing machine, or sweeping and rug beating without vacuum cleaners, or cooking on a wood stove. The work seems endless.

I am very interested in what “women’s work” has been through the ages. When I heard Charlie Anne’s voice in my head for the first time, I was nearing the end of a first draft of another novel. I scrapped that book because Charlie Anne’s voice was so powerful and strong. She was a spirited, tough little nut. There was no looking back.

What was the publishing process like for Charlie Anne?

It took two and a half years from first sentence to finished novel on the bookstore shelf. I wrote the first draft pretty quickly once I got going because Charlie Anne’s voice was so strong and I wanted to capture it. I sent my editor the first three chapters in June 2008 and the whole novel five months later. Then my editor asked for two major rewrites and one smaller one. These were finished in July 2009. From there, the manuscript went through several rounds with copy editors and was printed into ARCs (advance reader copies), which were sent out for review. The first major review to come in was from Kirkus Reviews, and it was starred. That got everything off to a nice start.

How have young adult novels changed since you were younger? It seems like YA novels today tackle heavier themes than when I was a kid, with topics like addiction and teen violence. Have YA stories always reflected the times?

Some young adult novels do seem edgier. It’s wonderful that young people have so many choices today, from Harry Potter, to The Graveyard Book to this year’s Newbery Award winner, When You Reach Me. There are books out there for every sort of reader.

What draws you to writing for young adults?

I write for young people because books were such an important part of my life as a child. I would walk to my town library every few days and get a new stack of books and read them for hours in my tree house. To be able to give that gift to another child is what keeps me writing.

What is the difference between a story marketed as young adult and a story written from a young adult’s point of view that is considered an adult novel? For example, I just read David Benioff’s City of Thieves which takes place during World War II in Russia during the German invasion. The protagonist is seventeen, yet he is going through what can really only be described as intensely adult situations. So the book, from what I can tell, is not considered young adult.

I think lots of people are confused by this. I know I am. I tend to write for the younger end of the YA spectrum (Cornelia in Tending to Grace is 14, Charlie Anne in The Wonder of Charlie Anne is 11, which actually makes it a Middle Grade novel). Take Ellen Foster. Why wasn’t that marketed as a young adult novel, or The Secret Life of Bees?

Some people say the difference between YA and adult are the themes (adult themes = adult books) but that line is blurry. Some of the young adult books marketed to high school students take on very adult themes. A better answer I have heard recently is that a YA novel tends to have a quicker pace and the plot is more straightforward, while adult literature unfolds more slowly with more subtlety and ambiguity. Actually, I’d like to do away with some of the boxes we try and put writers into. I have many adults reading my books. It’s nice to have that cross-over.

You worked as a newspaper reporter in Worcester, Mass for years. How have your experiences working in a large, working-class city informed your fiction? Or have you incorporated more of your own life (including your early struggle with stuttering) into your books?

I was primarily an education writer in Worcester, and you will find evidence of that in my books. I would often spend one day a week for an entire school year with a class of students and then write a series of articles. For instance I wrote a series on ability grouping and what happens to the children on the bottom track, and I followed students in behavior disorder special education classrooms. I put Cornelia in remedial rooms and had her read a watered-down version of Tom Sawyer. When my former newspaper editor read the book, he said, “Hey, that sounds familiar!”

One thing I learned as a journalist is that the difference between a great story and a lousy one is research. I had the great fortune of meeting retired elementary teacher Beverly Pettine, who is volunteer schoolmistress at the Hornbine School, a one-room schoolhouse museum in Rehoboth, MA. She helped with a great deal of the research for The Wonder of Charlie Anne, including sharing primers used during the Depression. She also introduced me to two women who attended the school during the 1930s, and they shared their memories with me. Where else could I have found the “standing in the trash bucket” punishment?

What is your writing process like?

My writing routine is a lot different now that all my children are in school. When I was writing Tending to Grace, I wrote in half-hour blocks while one of my children was napping, but now I write after my children leave in the morning. I try and get in some exercise every day, either walking or running or riding my bike. This helps me work out plot problems. While I was writing Charlie Anne, I would hike each day out along the brook that runs in back of my house so I could listen to her voice.

You have a great website, incorporating your books and characters throughout the site. How important is it to have an author website in terms of publicity and staying available and current with readers? How about social media? Do you tweet or have a facebook page?

I do have a new website designed by an artist friend of mine and I keep a blog on that site, primarily to post events and news about Charlie Anne.

I have dabbled with social media, but mostly, I concentrate on my writing. It seems to me if the writing is good enough, everything else will take care of itself.

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

2010-10-22T08:27:00.004-04:00

This wonderful article ran recently in the New Bedford paper, South Coast Today.
Thank you to BookLovers editor, Lauren Daley

A REFRESHING YOUNG-ADULT BOOK

In an age when most young reader books are about vampires, cliques or vampire cliques, "The Wonder of Charlie Anne" by Kimberly Newton Fusco is a breath of innocence and fresh air.

Set during the Depression, Charlie Anne spends her days out on her family farm, talking to the cows, enjoying nature and visiting her mother's grave by the river, a special place where she can feel close to her mother's memory.

Times are tough, so when her dad and brother leave home to find work, Charlie Anne is stuck at home with her little siblings and her mother's overbearing cousin Mirabel. But things begin to brighten for Charlie Anne when new neighbors move in — a white woman (who wears pants!) and her African-American daughter named Phoebe.

Fusco of Foster, R.I., has been compared to beloved young-adult authors Patricia Reilly Giff and Patricia MacLachlan. She worked for 15 years as an editor and education writer for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. She's also written for The Providence Journal, The Boston Globe, The Newport Daily News and The Milford Daily News.

I talked to Fusco recently about "Charlie Anne," books — and vinegar pie.

Lauren: How did the story of Charlie Anne come to you?

Kimberly: I was hiking out through the woods behind my house and I was thinking about a little girl who lived across the road from my grandparents' house in Maine. She had to watch her little brother and do chores from morning until night or so it seemed to me "¦ I've thought about her a lot over the years, (and she) was the first twinkling of an idea that led to Charlie Anne.
The first page actually began as a poem for my writing group. I am very interested in what "women's work" has been through the ages. When I heard Charlie Anne's voice in my head for the first time, I was nearing the end of a first draft of another novel. I scrapped that book because Charlie Anne's voice was so powerful and strong. She was a spirited, tough little nut. There was no looking back.

Lauren: Why did you decide to write a story set in the Depression?

Kimberly: I was thinking about chores and what they would be like before electricity reached rural areas. Our road in Foster, R.I., was without electricity until the 1950s. Imagine washing diapers without a washing machine? Or sweeping and rug beating without vacuum cleaners or cooking on a wood stove? The work seems endless.

Lauren: Your other book, "Tending to Grace," is about a young girl, Cornelia, who stutters — you also stuttered as a kid. Is Charlie Anne in any way based on you, too?

Kimberly: Charlie Anne has my humor and a great love for the natural world, as I do ... Many of the scenes in the novel were taken from my own life and the lives of my four children "¦ They have all loved running through the woods and climbing trees and playing in the brook that runs behind our house "¦

Lauren: Who are your favorite young adult authors? Adult authors?

Kimberly: I love Karen Cushman. I have also recently enjoyed "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman and "The Underneath" by Kathi Appelt. I can't answer a question like this without saying that "The Diary of Anne Frank" is the best book for young people that I have ever read.

As for adults, I've read "Beloved" many, many times to figure out how she wrote it, so hand's down I'd say Toni Morrison is my favorite adult novelist "¦

Lauren: What are you reading now?

Kimberly: "Dreamer" by Pam Munoz Ryan. It is an extraordinary novel about the young artistic childhood of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet.

Lauren: Cousin Mirabel makes Charlie Anne learn how to bake vinegar pie that tastes like lemon pie for when "hard times" come. Where did you learn to bake vinegar pie? Does it really taste like lemon?

Kimberly: I love reading old cookbooks and sifting through old recipes. I think they are a window into another time. I found the recipe for vinegar pie during my research. If you close your eyes, a vinegar pie really does taste a lot like lemon. Here is the recipe.

VINEGAR PIE
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 (8-inch) unbaked pie shell
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. sugar
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.
If anyone makes and eats vinegar pie, please e-mail Lauren Daley to let her know what you think. Contact her at ldaley33@gmail.com.

Here is the response from one of Lauren's readers:

Hi Lauren, I did it! I made and ate the vinegar pie.

I didn't tell anyone what I was making since I figured the name of the pie would cause them not to want to try it. So, I just said it was going to be like a lemon custard.

I cheated a bit and bought ready made pie crust. I usually make my own pie crust but I figured that I didn't want to go through all that work for a pie that I might toss out. So, I preheated the oven and began to blend the ingredients. I poured the mixture into the pie crust. Of course, at that point I had to dip my finger along the side of the mixing bowl. It was good! I thought, I can pull this off - my husband and teenagers just might try this pie and like it.

I was a bit worried when it came out of the oven but it looked really good. I let it cool for about an hour and then we ate it at room temperature. I bought a tub of whipped topping for it, too. It was so good, my husband, Steve, had 2 slices. It really just tastes like a sweet pie. It's probably even better cold from the refrigerator.

We only have 1 piece left so we'll probably be fighting for it tomorrow. The only downside was that I didn't make the crust!

Charlie Anne's Big Night

2010-10-21T11:15:00.003-04:00

My favorite library in the world - Tyler Free Library in Foster, RI - hosted a beautiful reception for Charlie Anne recently. The library is a former one-room schoolhouse, so it was a fitting place for Charlie Anne to make her debut. Plus, it is the library our family has loved for the last twenty years. It may be small, but it is very big in terms of warm-hearted friendliness and in the love the librarians there have for books and readers.

The reception was filled with children and adults - old and dear friends and many new friends, too. It was a wonderful night, and I am very grateful.

Kristin Russo from the Valley Breeze Observer, followed up with this lovely article.

Foster author launches second novel

By KRISTIN RUSSO, Breeze Correspondent

FOSTER - According to novelist Kimberly Newton Fusco, it takes a village to write a book.

Author of the award-winning "Tending to Grace," which is read in classrooms across the country and acclaimed for its sympathetic characters and rich use of figurative language, Fusco credits her village, the town of Foster, with helping her bring her most recent story, "The Wonder of Charlie Anne," to life.

"Books are not written alone," said Fusco. "There are often many people behind the scenes helping out, as there was for 'The Wonder of Charlie Anne.' I had some people helping with research, so important in a historical novel, and others helped by encouraging me to keep going. Others read the novel at various stages. My husband helped me plot the whole thing out on index cards after the first draft was finished."

She added, "I'm also grateful for the town of Foster itself, for providing so much rural landscape and farmland that is such an inspiration to me. It truly is a wonderful place to live and raise a family - and write books."

"The Wonder of Charlie Anne" chronicles the life experiences of 11-year-old Charlie Anne, a girl growing up in hardship during the Depression and struggling with loss and loneliness. Charlie Anne clings to cherished memories of her mother, with whom she shares a unique connection, and finds solace in her friendship with Phoebe, an African American girl who moves to town.

As their friendship grows, the girls find themselves at the center of controversy in a town that values "good manners" but not necessarily openness and acceptance. When prejudice rears its ugly head, Charlie Anne learns that it's not enough to know, "That the fork goes on the left, or how to put on tea. Real manners are about love, kindness, and respect," said Fusco.

As Fusco launches "The Wonder of Charlie Anne," she discusses the happy but unexpected success she experienced with her first novel, "Tending to Grace," which earned a number of literary awards, including the American Library Association's Schneider Family Book Award for its empathetic portrayal of a young girl who struggles to communicate with a stutter.

"I never knew Tending to Grace would be so successful," said Fusco. "'Tending to Grace' is on summer reading lists and taught in language arts classes across the country. It is used every year in classes in Foster, Scituate, Johnston, and Cumberland. I've visited classrooms all over Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. It's even on YouTube. I am very grateful, because for me the best part of publishing a book is hearing from young people."

While "Tending to Grace" appealed to older readers, Charlie Anne's story will more likely reach younger readers who are closer in age to the 11-year-old main character. "In 'Tending to Grace,' my main character, Cornelia, is 14, and Charlie Anne is 11. There is an age difference there, and it shows in the voices of the characters. However, I hear from as many adults as children that they loved 'Tending to Grace,' and that seems to be happening so far with Charlie Anne. It's nice to capture readers of all ages. I have my fingers crossed," said Fusco.

A starred review from Kirkus Reviews indicates that Fusco's sophomore novel is off to an illustrious start after a nearly three-year process bringing it from its first draft to the book stores.

"It took two and a half years from first sentence to finished novel on the bookstore shelf," said Fusco. "I wrote the first draft pretty quickly once I got going because Charlie Anne's voice was so strong and I wanted to capture it."

She added, "I would write a chapter, send it to my editor, and she would say, 'Hooray!' and then I would write the next." The first three chapters were written by June 2008, and the entire novel was completed five months later. After two major revisions and one smaller edit, the manuscript was printed into advance reader copies and sent out for review, said Fusco. "The first major review to come in was from Kirkus Reviews, and it was starred. That got everything off to a nice start."

At a recent event at Tyler Free Library in Foster celebrating the launch of her new book, Fusco said she was delighted by the warm turnout of friends and family who had inspired her writing and encouraged her endeavors. "This town is filled with inspiration," said Fusco. "It was very rewarding to have so many people come out in support of me and my book. My husband counted more than 50 people."

For more information about "The Wonder of Charlie Anne," "Tending to Grace," and a third novel by Fusco currently in the works, visit http://www.kimberlynewtonfusco.com/

Through the Looking Glass

2010-09-12T12:32:00.002-04:00

The Wonder of Charlie Anne has received a fabulous review from Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews!

The Wonder of Charlie Anne

Charlie Anne has suffered a great deal in the last six months or so. Her mother died soon after giving birth, the baby died, and then cousin Mirabel came to live with Charlie Anne’s family. To say that Charlie Anne dislikes Mirabel is an understatement. The woman works Charlie Anne all day long and, if this is not bad enough, she also wants to help Charlie Anne to “become a young lady.”

Life is hard on Charlie Anne’s family farm because of the Great Depression. For a while they manage, but finally Charlie Anne’s father decides that he has to go north to work on President Roosevelt’s roads. Charlie Anne is furious because she believes that her mother would not want their family to split up. She cannot bear the thought that her father will leave her with Mirabel. It is just too terrible to contemplate. Unfortunately Papa and Charlie Anne’s eldest brother soon leave, and Charlie Anne is left with Mirabel, her annoying sister Ivy, her little brother Peter, and her little sister Birdie.

Somehow, Charlie Anne copes, taking every miserable day as it comes. Then the neighbor who lives next door, Mr. Jolly, brings home a new wife who is called Rosalyn. Not only does Roslyn wear honest-to-goodness flaming red pants, but she also has an adopted daughter called Phoebe who is African American. Most of the people in the neighborhood avoid Rosalyn because they don’t want to have anything to do with the “colored” girl, but Charlie Anne soon grows very fond of Rosalyn and Phoebe. Even though Mirabel does not want her to, Charlie Anne goes to see them and plays with Phoebe. Having these two people in her life helps makes things more bearable for Charlie Anne for a while, until her life unravels even more.

This incredible book will give readers a rich and often powerful picture of what it was like to live on a farm in America during the Great Depression. In addition, the author explores the nature of racism and she shows, through Charlie Anne’s eyes, how racism makes so little sense, especially when you are young and lonely. With inspirational flashes of humor and incredible sensitivity, the author tells a riveting and meaningful story.

***

Thank you to editor Marya Jansen-Gruber, who wrote the review. And here's a little information about Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Review.

"Through the Looking Glass Children’s Book Review has been in operation since October of 2003. Our goal is to provide parents, teachers, and others with a tool to help them find truly exceptional books for the young people in their lives. We do not sell books, we just review them, and we only review the books we like, so our reviews are always positive ones. Over time TTLG has expanded this fundamental goal to include doing what we can to review books published by small houses, to publicize organizations who work for children, and to publicize the work of new authors and illustrators."

Spend some time browsing the site. You'll enjoy yourself! http://lookingglassreview.com/

Such a Stunning Pie!

2010-08-30T19:47:00.003-04:00

Here's a post from a fellow writer, Stephanie Blake of Parker, CO. What a delight for me, because not only did she love the book, but she actually baked a vinegar pie. (See photo above!)

Book Love: The Wonder of Charlie Anne

If you or your little reader can't get enough historical fiction, she/he will love The Wonder of Charlie Anne by Kimberly Newton Fusco. The characters in this story feel so fleshed out. You'll laugh and cry. I loved the descriptions of all the icky housework. And I'm fascinated by one room schools. I think I'll bake a vinegar pie this afternoon.

Synopsis from the Random House website: Charlie Anne is devastated when her father must go north to build roads after the Depression hits. She and her siblings are left with their rigid cousin, Mirabel, and a farm full of chores. The only solace Charlie Anne finds is by the river, where the memory of her mother is strongest.Then her neighbor Old Mr. Jolly brings home a new wife, Rosalyn, who shows up in pants—pants!—the color of red peppers. With her arrives Phoebe, a young African American girl who has also lost her mother. Phoebe is smart and fun and the perfect antidote to Charlie Anne's lonely days. The girls soon forge a friendship and learn from each other in amazing ways.But when hatred turns their town ugly, it's almost more than they can bear. Now it's up to Charlie Anne and Phoebe to prove that our hearts are always able to expand.

*UPDATE*

I did bake a vinegar pie, and it turned out delicious. Here's the recipe on Ms. Fusco's website. And here's the pie. (see picture above) If you close your eyes, it tastes like lemon!

***

Congratulations to Stephanie because her debut novel, THE MARBLE QUEEN, is being published by Marshall Cavendish in 2012. It is a middle grade historical novel. Best wishes and good luck to my new writing friend!

Meet Evelyn and Frances

2010-08-18T20:29:00.004-04:00

A lovely article ran in the Rehoboth (MA) News recently about The Wonder of Charlie Anne. The article includes a picture of Evelyn and Frances, the two women who spent several hours with me one fall day answering all my questions about what it felt like to attend a one-room schoolhouse during the Great Depression.

Here they are:

And here's the article!

NOVELIST RESEARCHED HORNBINE SCHOOL

Rhode Island author Kimberly Newton Fusco’s newest young adult novel is set in a Massachusetts town during the years of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

As part of her research, Kim visited the historic Hornbine School in Rehoboth since a portion of “The Wonder of Charlie Anne” is set in a one-room schoolhouse. She first visited on a raw, overcast day in the fall of 2008 to meet with Evelyn Rose Bois and Frances Magan Jones as they recalled their lessons and adventures at Hornbine School during the 1930s.

Kimberly returned in the spring of 2009 with her mother, Priscilla, and her daughter, Laura, to experience the recreation of a day at the one-room schoolhouse. This historical school program is offered at the Hornbine School to area classes every spring and fall.

(my mom, my daughter, Laura, and me)

Much of what Kim saw and heard on both of her visits has been incorporated into her novel which is available in local book stores is already receiving outstanding reviews.

Don’t miss Charlie Anne and her friend Phoebe as they create a friendship that outlasts hardship, sadness and racial tension, reminding us all that courage and a heart that cares can overcome most anything.

The Hornbine School is open to the public from 2-4 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month between June and September. Please note: the School will be open on Saturday, September 25 rather than that Sunday to coincide with the Hornbine Church Bazaar.

(And this is the Hornbine School. Standing with her students (in front of door) is Beverly Pettine, who helped so much with my research. Thank you, Beverly.)

Book Launch!

2010-08-10T15:44:00.002-04:00

It's thrilling to be sending Charlie Anne out into the world today. I wonder how she'll do on her own? I have my fingers crossed....

There is a wonderful review on this very nice site for girls: www.girlslife.com. It was written by a young person, Kelly Myslinski. Thank you, Kelly!

"Take a step back to the 1930s. The Great Depression has hit and your Papa and older brother have left the farm to go up north and look for jobs building roads to send money home. Your Mama died during the birth of her sixth child and a new mom (cousin Mirabel, who no one likes) has come. Then there’s your younger brother, who has been sent to live with an aunt and uncle.

Whose life is that? That’s the life of Charlie Anne in The Wonder of Charlie Anne by Kimberly Newton Fusco.

Charlie Anne hates all the chores she has to do: baking pies, hanging out the laundry and cleaning out the compost among taking care of her younger sibs. But Charlie Anne is a good listener. She hears the songs of the river, the wind and of the trees. What she loves to do most is visit her Mama’s grave by the river, where she can feel her presence very strongly.

When Charlie Anne meets her neighbor, Mr. Jolly’s, new wife, she’s surprised. Her name is Rosalyn and she wears red pepper-red trousers. Trousers? On a girl? Maybe all women from Mississippi wear ’em. Rosalyn has ideas that are before her time. And Charlie Anne’s even more surprised to find out that they have a new daughter—a colored girl named Phoebe around the same age as Charlie Anne. She’s never seen a colored girl up close before.

Added on to all of the mayhem, Charlie Anne must deal with mean Becky Ellis ... and her sister, Ivy, who is also becoming mean and cousin Mirabel, who’s keeping her from visiting Mr.Jolly!

Nothing will ever be the same since Mama left, or the Great Depression, or since Rosalyn became the new Mrs.Jolly and she brought Phoebe with her.

Riddled with quirky old-fashioned sayings, courage and kindness, Kimberly Newton Fusco’s book, The Wonder of Charlie Anne, will make you think about the world differently. Available in bookstores Aug. 10, be sure to check it out and let us know your thoughts!

My First Charlie Anne Interview

2010-08-05T08:32:00.002-04:00

Margo Tanenbaum interviewed me for her wonderful blog, THE FOURTH MUSKETEER (www.fourthmusketeer.blogspot.com) She posted this morning:

Thanks so much to Kimberly Newton Fusco, the author of the terrific new middle-grade novel, The Wonder of Charlie Anne, for agreeing to this author interview!

Q: Charlie Anne has such a distinctive voice in this novel. What inspired you to tell her story?

A: There was a little girl who lived across the road from my grandmother’s house in Maine . She had to watch her little brother and do chores from morning till night, or so it seemed to me. This was very upsetting because she had a pony and I wanted to play with her and ride the pony! I have thought about her a lot over the years, about how she didn’t have time to play. So she was the first twinkling of an idea that led to Charlie Anne.

The first chapter actually began as a poem for my writing group. I am very interested in what “women’s work” has been through the ages. When I heard Charlie Anne’s voice for the first time, I was nearing the end of another novel. I scrapped that book because Charlie Anne’s voice was so powerful and strong. There was no looking back!

Q: I loved how the cows in this book were almost extensions of Charlie Anne, providing mirrors into her feelings, particularly her grief over her mother's death. I understand from your author's note that you spent a lot of time on a dairy farm as a young girl. Are cows a particular favorite of yours? And what is the story with vinegar pie? I was hoping for a recipe at the end of the book!

A: I loved being on family farms in Maine when I was young. I live with my husband and children in a rural town in Rhode Island now and although we don’t have cows (we have our sheep, Daisy and Wilbur) there are many cows on neighboring farms. While writing Charlie Anne, I rode my bike to the fields up the road, crawled through the barbed wire fence and watched them..

As for vinegar pie, I got that idea while I was researching the Great Depression. Here’s the recipe I found (and tried) while I was writing the book.

VINEGAR PIE
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 (8 inch) unbaked pie shell
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. sugar

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.

Q: Before turning to children's fiction, you spent many years as a journalist. How does your writing process differ writing novels vs. when you were a journalist? Are you still involved in journalism or are you writing fiction only now?

A: I only write fiction now, but journalism taught me that everyone has a story if you only take the time to listen. Journalism taught me that the difference between a great story and a lousy one is research. I was on cloud nine when two women who attended a one room schoolhouse in Rehoboth , Massachusetts, during the Great Depression shared their memories with me. Where else could I have found the “standing in the trash bucket” punishment?

Q: You have four children; do their personalities and experiences influence your writing? If so, how?

A: Many, many parts of my books come from ideas I get from watching my children. My sons and daughters have all loved climbing trees and fishing and running all over our six acres and splashing in the brook that runs across our land. The chicken races that Mirabel gets so angry about were actually something my daughters made up as a birthday party game when we had a flock of Rhode Island Reds. Also, the song that Rosalyn sings when combing Phoebe’s hair is a song that I made up so I would remember to brush my daughters’ hair gently.

Q: What writing projects are you currently working on?

A: I have just finished a draft of my next novel and sent it to my editor at Knopf.

Q: You mention on your website that Harriet the Spy, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Where the Red Fern Grows are particular favorites from your childhood. What current authors for young people do you particularly admire?

A: I love Karen Cushman. I have also recently enjoyed The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. I can’t answer a question like this without saying that The Diary of Anne Frank is the best book for young people that I have ever read.

Q: What books are currently on your nightstand?

A: The novel, Les Miserables. When I read it in high school, I knew that my decision in sixth grade to become a writer was the right one! The novel is amazing. The action is so fast-paced that I have to force myself to slow down and enjoy the prose. I am halfway through now and can’t wait to get back to reading it.

Q: Charlie Anne clearly suffers from dyslexia, although it's never named as such in the novel, and the heroine of your first novel, Tending to Grace, has a severe stutter. Could you comment on whether you are particularly drawn to characters with disabilities?

A: I was a child who stuttered, so yes, I am drawn to characters who have the courage to put on bigger boots and keep going, no matter what the difficulty.

Q: What is the funniest question you've ever been asked at a school visit?

A: “Do I really eat all the food that Agatha serves Cornelia in Tending to Grace”? The answer is yes! Or at least I have tried them all. My parents used to take us hiking and foraging for wild foods when I was a child. My father is very knowledgeable and we collected fiddleheads, dandelions, wild mushrooms, poke, sorrel and more. I can still brew a pretty good cup of sassafras tea!

A Wonderful Review

2010-08-04T08:32:00.004-04:00

Margo Tanenbaum at The Fourth Musketeer - www.fourthmusketeer.blogspot.com - has written a wonderful review of Charlie Anne. Here it is, and please drop by her blog for well-written reviews of current children's historical literature. Truely a treat!

The Wonder of Charlie Anne, by Kimberly Newton Fusco (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Kimberly Newton Fusco's new novel, her second book for young people, introduces us to the spirited Charlie Anne, who narrates this unforgettable story of family, friendship, prejudice, courage, and vinegar pie set in a small town during the Depression. An interview with Kimberly will appear in my blog tomorrow.

Charlie Anne's mama has just died in childbirth when the story begins. Her "new mama," come to take care of her and her four siblings, is her cousin Mirabel, who showed up with all her suitcases and her no-nonsense manner to take charge of her Papa and her whole family. Charlie Anne is saddled with all the domestic chores, from doing the wash to making vinegar pie, and only can escape when she visits the nearby river, where her mother is buried. At the river, Charlie Anne tells her mother all her news. Times are hard, with luxuries like lemon drops so precious that the kids take a lick and put the candy back in their pocket for later. But when Charlie Anne's beloved Papa tells her he has to take a job up north building roads, taking her brother Thomas along, she is so angry at his separating her family she won't even let him hug her goodbye.

Charlie Anne's town is small, so small that there's not even a school teacher--their school has been boarded up for over a year. Charlie Anne doesn't mind, because the letters dance around and make no sense to her, and the old teacher made her stand in a trash bucket because she couldn't read properly. But life changes for her when Old Mr. Jolly, her neighbor, who isn't really so old, gets a new wife, Rosalyn, who dresses in pants and arrives with an African-American girl, Phoebe, about Charlie Anne's age. Charlie Anne "never saw a colored girl up close before," and she's not sure "if Mirabel will let me play with a colored girl or not." And can Mr. Jolly really take care of a wife when he can't even take care of his cow, Belle, wonders Charlie Anne.

Mirabel wants Charlie Anne to stay away from Phoebe, instead making Charlie Anne listen to The Charm of Fine Manners, a book designed to teach Charlie Anne to be a proper young lady and succeed in life. With the arrival of Phoebe into town, prejudice rears its ugly head, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Hardly anyone will even eat the "glorious" chocolate cupcakes Phoebe and Rosalyn bring to the weekly after-church picnics. And when Rosalyn suggests during church services that, as an experienced teacher, she would like to re-open the town school, using Phoebe as her assistant to help with the younger students, the townspeople gasp in shock. No colored girl will be teaching in their town, they whisper. Pretty soon, things are "all riled up," with racial hatred turning things ugly. Can the school succeed? Can Rosalyn help Charlie Anne make sense of the dancing letters on a page...and what will happen to Charlie Anne and Phoebe's friendship? Will her family be reunited?

Charlie Anne's personality is so alive it pops off the page. I particularly liked her many moods, including her "mad-as-a-yellow-jacket face." Charlie Anne's unique relationship with family cow Anna May and her daughter Belle adds both humor and pathos to the story, as Charlie Anne translates for the reader what the cows are saying and feeling. "Their eyes fill with cow-sorrow," and "cow-worry," and "the two of them tell me how very sorry they are that I am having enough troubles to fill a wheelbarrow." Charlie Anne's charismatic voice narrates not only scenes of every day drama, such as bee stings, falls off swings, peeling potatoes, harvesting tomatoes, Christmas pageants, and kittens born in the barn, but also more profound problems, such as broken families and racism.

This is a book that made me laugh and made me cry, with a main character you won't soon forget. Highly recommended for school and public libraries, it would make a great selection as well for book clubs for young people since there is wealth of material for discussion.

2010-08-02T20:21:00.002-04:00

I am very excited about the publication of my second novel, The Wonder of Charlie Anne. Release date is Aug. 10 and already I am hearing from readers who have gotten a hold of one of my publisher’s advance reader copies, called ARCs. One question I am hearing, is “What the heck is vinegar pie, anyway?”

Charlie Anne is set during the Great Depression. I did lots of research into the time period. One of my favorite ways to bring myself back to the 1930s was to read old cookbooks. They are a fascinating peek into the past. Vinegar pie was actually a way to use something that rural people had a lot of – VINEGAR (all those apples) – to replace something that they were short of – LEMONS.

Vinegar pie actually tastes quite a bit like lemon pie and it shows up over and over in the book. Here’s what Charlie Anne says one day when Mirabel (who comes to care for the bereft family) teaches her the recipe:

“Mirabel shows me how to make a Vinegar Pie that tastes almost like lemon pie because you need to know how to make things better when the hard times come, and Lord knows, they come. They come for everyone. That’s what she tells me. I want her to stop talking about bad things.”

I baked one myself one day while I was writing Charlie Anne and my husband and children all thought it was wonderful. Try it and see how close you think it comes to lemon pie!

VINEGAR PIE
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 (8 inch) unbaked pie shell
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. sugar

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.

Enjoy!