The latest Author Visit Podcast is now up on podbean.com. Patricia McKissack reads from her book, Goin’ Someplace Special, a story about the injustices of segregation in the South in the 1950s.

Pat’s podcasts include reading excerpts from her books Tippy Lemmey and Clone Codes.

To listen to Patricia McKissack’s newest podcast, click on the photo below!

In this new podcast, enjoy a sneak peak of acclaimed author Patricia McKissack’s new science fiction novel, Clone Codes.

Patricia is a New Links to New Learning content provider; she’s been conducting interactive videoconferences with K-12 students for over ten years from Cooperating School Districts.

This year, in addition to her three-part writing series, she’s adding three, 60 minute story hours for elementary students, and two Talk Shop programs on either historical fiction or science fiction, for middle school and high school students. (More details will come later on the secondary school programs!)

To read more about Patricia and what she offers students and teachers, please scroll through this blog.

What winter holidays do your students celebrate? Here’s a great chance to explore the different religious and cultural celebrations throughout the winter months!

Award winning author Patricia McKissack shares with students over videoconference her expertise when in comes to writing, and tells participants about her holiday book, Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters. This illustrated book, for children ages nine and up, compares the preparations between the plantation mansion and the slave quarters leading up to Christmas celebrations.

Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters
Patricia McKissack and Fredrick McKissack
Illustrated by John Thompson
Details of holiday observances practiced by the wealthy residents as well as the slaves who lived on a large Virginia plantation in 1859 are shared through narrative, songs, recipes and glorious illustrations. The love of family and the bonds of traditions are made bittersweet by the tumultuous changes wrought by the upheavals inherent in the lives of the slaves and the impending wrenching changes wrought by war. The book is meticulously attendant to historical accuracy and never descends into an overly sentimental view. Detailed notes follow the text, with further interesting tidbits (for example, the phrase “sleep tight” refers to the rope slats supporting a mattress which must be tight to avoid uncomfortable sagging). Winner of the 1995 Coretta Scott King Award.

During the first videoconference, Pat will talk with the participating teachers about what they are doing in class and how this videoconference relates to their curriculum. In the second and third videoconferences, Pat interacts directly with the students. In the final connection, students will have an opportunity to share their work with their peers and Pat. Pat offers her praise and critique of the work, though often encouraging students to revise and rewrite!

Students in past videoconference connections have written about several winter holidays, including (but not limited to) Chinese New  Year, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa.

To have your class sign up for this interactive videoconference series, contact Rebecca Morrison at Cooperating School Districts to learn about costs and expectations. Each videoconference should have no more than 30 students per class, and we never connect more than three schools at one time. Pat works with students of all ages, but we work to schedule to make sure the right groups are working together (a second grade class would never work with a seventh grade class, for instance).

We hope to see you this holiday session! Here are the dates for 2009’s programs:

Teacher Session: Thursday, November 5 at 4 pm CT
First Student Session: Tuesday, November 24 at 11 am CT
Second Student Session: Tuesday, December 15 at 11 am CT

For over 10 years, acclaimed St. Louis author Patricia McKissack has taught students the writing process over videoconference. During hands-on & highly interactive sessions, students discuss plot, themes, character development and more. In a series of three videoconferences, Mrs. McKissack customizes for any grade level and any part of the writing process. In the first v/c, the author meets with the teachers to discuss the goals of the author visit and what books they would like her to present. In the second, the author dialogs with students, and in the third v/c she gives feedback on the writing & illustrations they have done.

This year, we’re excited to announce a new take on a favorite offering: Creative Writing – Science Fiction. This videoconference is open for 4th-12th grade students; if both elementary and high school teachers respond, we’ll most likely add another time to split the groups up. For 2009-2010, Science Fiction will be offered:

Teacher Session: Thursday, April 15, 2010 @  4 pm CT
Student Session I:  Thursday, April 29, 2010 @ 11 am CT
Student Session II:  Thursday, May 12, 2010 @ 11 am CT

Cost for the series of 3 v/c is $650 for New Links members; non-members $750. Please register by April 1.

As part of Read St. Louis‘ month-long baseball celebration, St. Louis author Patricia McKissack will discuss her baseball-themed books including Miami Jackson Makes the Play and Black Diamond: the Story of the Negro Baseball League on Saturday, July 18, 2:00 p.m. at St. Louis County Library Headquarters’ Auditorium, 1640 S. Lindbergh Boulevard.

Read St. Louis is a community-wide initiave developed by St. Louis County and St. Louis Public Libraries to encourage St. Louisans to read and discuss books.

Authors Patricia and Fredrick McKissack are included on the NAACP’s list of “100 Most Inspiring St. Louisans,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

‘Patricia C. McKissack is on her soapbox. It’s the one she gets on time and again when she has a chance to talk about the importance of reading.

“It is the doorway to freedom. If you can read, you can overcome about any obstacle,” said McKissack, who has been writing children’s books since 1981, including last year’s “Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters and other Wily Characters.”

Sometimes her husband, Fredrick McKissack, serves as co-author. Often, he is researcher. In some fashion, they have collaborated on about 100 books, many of them well-received and well-reviewed, notably, “Black Hands, White Sails.” Patricia McKissack said there was a void in children’s literature — the African-American experience.

“People ask me: ‘Do you write about anything else?’ I still could not write all the books that could be written. Things have been marginalized. Our work is cut out for us.”

They work out of their Chesterfield home, shouting ideas from one room to the next. Their next book will probably have a science fiction story line. Their son, John Patrick, an engineer, is serving as a consultant.

Who inspires McKissack? The children she writes for. “They keep me going. They keep me grounded, open up doors that we as adults closed long ago.”‘

Award winning author Patricia McKissack has sound advice for would-be writers, particularly African Americans: “Today I would be appalled if a teacher told a child that he or she can’t make a living as a writer, because you can. It’s hard work, but you can make a living. And we need more black voices; we need different points of view.” (http://www.eduplace.com)

Another book we’d like to feature in the McKissack book collection is Red-Tailed Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Co-authored with her husband and writing partner Fred, Pat tells the story of Tuskegee Airmen.

Product Description from Publishers Weekly:
The McKissacks (Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters) add to their distinguished explorations of African American history with a well-researched, informative look at the only all-black flying unit to serve in WWII. Established in 1941, the pilot-training program at Tuskegee, Ala., had been designed as an “experiment,” without full military support to ensure its success and with many officers predicting utter failure. Despite segregated facilities at the base, hostile reactions from the locals and other demoralizing conditions, the aviators trained at Tuskegee went on to fly hundreds of missions over North Africa and Europe. They were known as Red Tails for the designs on their planes; they earned the nickname Red-Tail Angels with their reputation for staying with the bomber planes they escorted. The pilots of the 332nd division, the McKissacks point out, never lost a bomber-a record unmatched by any other group in the Army Air Force. As the McKissacks outline the history of the squadron, they also tell the larger story of racial tension and bigotry in the U.S. Numerous photos, from both military archives and individual fliers, depict the pilots and their deeds. Ages 8-12. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: WALKER AND COMPANY (Sep 17 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802782922
• ISBN-13: 978-0802782922

To learn more about the Red-Tail Angels, visit http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/.

Patricia McKissack

The New Links to New Learning author of the Newbery Honor Book, The Dark Thirty, describes her life, how she became a writer, how her family helps with her writing, and how she gets her ideas.

This is a very unique book- Can You Imagine? - in Patricia McKissack’s collection of over one hundred books- it is a book by her, on her! She chose to name this blog after it, too.

Can You Imagine? was published in 1997.