I want to share a story with you - a picture book I wrote while I was doing research for my Ranger in Time 9/11 book. I never sent it out so it's unpublished & there's no art - except this photo from NASA, a view of Manhattan from the International Space Station on 9/11. (thread) This is a true story - about something that happened after the September 11th attacks. It's a story about space, old friends, and the power of music to make terrible things bearable. It's called "A Song for Captain Burlingame." Here it is...

Teachers & librarians! I'm offering a series of $15 virtual author visits this fall & hope you'll join me! (thread)

On 10/5 - "History is Happening" is for grades 3-7 & challenges kids to read and write like historians!

Learn more & sign up here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist… On 11/3 - Join @tracisorell & me for our virtual author visit "Rethinking Thanksgiving: History, Holidays, and Gratitude." We'll look at the TRUE story of the Mayflower & Wampanoag people and talk about Indigenous traditions of gratitude.

Sign up here:us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

I'm seeing a lot of questions from educators about how to talk about the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks with young readers. Stories are always the best starting place - and the good news is that we have really great books for all different ages now. (thread) One of my favorite novels that deals with the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks is TOWERS FALLING by @jewell_p_rhodes - it's a wonderful choice for grades 4-8. bookshop.org/books/towers-f…

Now that our Dr. Fauci picture book biography is officially out, I want to share some behind-the-scenes stories about how this book came to be. Writing a kids' book about a current public figure is a fascinating process - and a bit of a whirlwind. (thread) I first had the idea for this book while I was working on another project about the childhoods of famous scientists. When I heard the story about Dr. Fauci riding his bike around Brooklyn to deliver prescriptions for the family pharmacy I knew his story would make a great pb bio.

I'm going to gush for a little while about a book I just finished. Ready?

It's STARFISH, a novel-in-verse by @AuthorLisaFipps. And it is wonderful. (thread) The main character Ellie (nicknamed Splash from an unfortunate swimming pool incident) has always followed Fat Girl Rules, facing bullying at school and even in her own family. This is a story about how she learns to stand up for herself.

I'm seeing a lot of educators and parents online tonight, wondering what we should tell the kids about all of this. The answer, as always, is the truth. (thread) That something unprecedented and awful has happened, like some of the things they've read about in their history books. Tonight, we are all the people from those history books.

Our voices matter. Their voices matter. Democracy and leadership matter, too.

Teachers - Here's a thread with some extension activities to go along with this video...

https://twitter.com/KateMessner/status/1325570744206626821

First - ask kids what they'd write about Biden's teen years to be added to p. 33. What scene from his life should Adam illustrate? Practicing reading in a mirror? Playing football? Being class president? Here's a @nytimes piece kids can use to get ideas: nytimes.com/2008/10/24/us/…

There's been a push in certain circles for "patriotic curriculum" that discourages kids from looking at American history through a critical lens. Educators should be pushing back on that. Hard. Many of us grew up learning an incredibly whitewashed version of American history from older social studies textbooks. Our kids deserve better than that.

In a recent review of The Next President, someone objected to the page that discusses America's first presidents because it includes the fact that most of them enslaved people. I'd like to unpack that idea a bit... (thread) The reviewer suggested that this fact somehow doesn’t belong in a book for kids, that a children’s book about presidents should include only positive things about each one.

I'm teaching a workshop on virtual events for authors this week, but I want to share some thoughts w/ visit hosts here, too. If you're hosting an online event, it's essential that you understand the security features - or lack thereof - in whatever platform you're using. (thread) Hosting a virtual author event without setting up security, controls, and ongoing monitoring by a host is akin to putting your panelists out on a street corner to be harassed. It's not okay.

Part of dismantling white supremacy in America involves changing how we teach history, telling the truth about things like colonization & racism in the women's suffrage movement. That's a major goal of my new series HISTORY SMASHERS. (thread)
penguinrandomhouse.com/series/RLD/his… It's important that we teach kids the value of primary sources - but also teach them to question those sources. Much of the Pilgrims' writing, for example, aims to justify the taking of land that had been home to Native people for thousands of years.

So I'm sharing a series of history quizzes leading up to the launch of my new series HISTORY SMASHERS next week. Yesterday I asked you to finish this sentence:

In July of 1620, the Pilgrims sold off most of their possessions and boarded a ship. That ship was called...

(thread) Of the 440+ Twitter friends who answered that question, 57% chose the Mayflower.

2% chose the Nina or the Pinta (one of those tweeted to let me know she clicked the wrong thing by accident)

And 41% figured I was being sneaky; it was none of the above. (They were right!)

I’ve been getting questions lately from people who are just hearing about the Ranger in Time series, so here’s a thread about that – including the newest title, Escape from the Twin Towers. The series is about a time-traveling search & rescue dog…a golden retriever who’s been trained in modern search and rescue techniques. And he can time travel, so he can go back in time to any historical disaster where his skills might be helpful. These were the first two books:

I just got an email from a Catholic school librarian who told me she purchased BREAKOUT but won’t put it in the library because she doesn’t like the way it discusses bias in the criminal justice system. I have some thoughts on this… Here’s the deal… There are some racist characters in BREAKOUT. Some of them are police officers. There are also characters working hard to fight racism and build community. Some of them are police officers, too.

Please inform yourself about the refugees who are traveling north right now seeking help. According to UNICEF, roughly two thirds of them are children. cnn.com/2018/11/01/opi… There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the group is full of gang members or criminals or anything other than people who need help. Suggesting otherwise is the same sort of fear-mongering that the world has seen at some of its most shameful moments in history.