Friendship Bracelet: A Poem

Photo by eef-ink (thank you!)

This is the season of the
friendship bracelet.
You've seen them: twisted threads
knotted by a girl at summer camp.
Or the plain red ones that mean
something meditative. Mine is
crafted from four strands: black, white,
purple, gold. And made by Caroline.
I like to watch her working, her dark eyes sparkling,
her fingers deft -- who taught her this?
A friend in the back seat on the long road
to skating camp? A girl sharing her snack
behind the horse barn? She measured
my wrist, insisted that I choose my own colors.
An hour later, she asked for my arm.
She tied a careful double knot. "If it wears out,"
she told me, "I can make you another."

(Beth Kanell, 2011)

[How to make a friendship bracelet: one link here.]

A Book and Its Cover

Here are some photos taken by Harman Clark at the wonderful book launch party that greeted The Secret Room on Sept. 9 at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. I especially like the one that shows local student Maggie, with the cover for which she was photographed in the spooky basement of the publisher's house in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, months ago. (On the back of the book, Maggie is joined by her friend Katherine.)

Making the party especially exciting were 35 middle school students from the St. Johnsbury School, invited and chaperoned by librarian Beth Mallon and her team of volunteers. Mrs. Mallon, you rock! Thanks, all of you students and readers whoo hiked to the Athenaeum to join the fun (and solve some codes!).

"Story" and "History"

2010 photo courtesy of origamidon (thank you!)

It's been grand in the past two weeks to see The Secret Room reaching readers, with its lively adventure story of two Vermont eight-graders, Shawna Lee and Thea Warwick, who stumble into the controversial and rapidly changing landscape of Northern New England's Underground Railroad in the midst of a math project for school. The hiding place that they discover, as well as the secrets of their village and the strengths of their friendship, are in your hands. Thanks for the wonderful welcome to the book!

I promised that today I'd mention how to find out whether the "hiding place" in your own home or neighborhood is linked to the Underground Railroad. Here are two directions to try:

1. If you are IN VERMONT, your best resource is Rokeby Museum, which you can visit while the gentle weather lasts. Director Jane Williamson and her knowledgeable staff will welcome you to the evidence that history provides there. If you can't go in person, check out this report from the director, an essay on Rokeby's website.

Also available at Rokeby are copies of "Friends of Freedom." This 99-page spiral-bound report was issued by the State of Vermont in 1996. It's a history detective's treasure, because the investigators involved tracked down the evidence for 174 people and places around the state that thought they had ties to this most exciting history adventure: the effort before the Civil War to make sure that black Americans leaving the slaveholding South could find freedom and safety, whether in other parts of the United States or in Canada. Check the lists in this report to find out whether your location, like Rokeby, is well supported as "really truly" part of the Underground Railroad effort. And brace for the possibility that, like the cave at Hildene (a Lincoln family home in Manchester, Vermont), connections may be more based in oral tradition and wishful thinking, without real evidence.

2. If you live OUTSIDE VERMONT, check this site provided by the Smithsonian Institution, providing good facts and exposing a lot of myths. For instance:

The reality of the Underground Railroad was much less romantic. Escaping enslaved individuals often had no help or guidance from anyone throughout the majority of their journey. While it is a common belief that white Northerners were going into the South and bringing slaves from the farms and plantations into the North, the truth is that most enslaved individuals left on their own. When the enslaved did have assistance, the aid they received varied from being given a place to rest in barns and sheds to being provided with a small amount of food and sent on to the next location. Those seeking freedom would have had to place a good amount of trust in the people who were assisting them, for at any moment their safety could be compromised, leading to recapture.
It is also a common misconception that all people working to assist escaping individuals were white Northerners. The fact is that the majority of the conductors on the Underground Railroad in the South were Black, often still enslaved themselves.
You can also check with the National Parks Service, which answers questions on specific sites and also invites you to share information you might have. Here's the website for help from this group.

More comments and questions? Leave a comment here on the blog. I'll get back to you, time permitting!

A Universe of Books at The Galaxy Bookshop

Hold on, let me catch my breath -- it's been a whirlwind of wonderful events with readers, librarians, teachers, students, bookshop staff  ... actually all of those are readers! ... all over the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and in gracious Littleton, New Hampshire. Tuesday evening's visit to The Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, VT, capped the delights, with an Underground Railroad game created by owner Linda Ramsdell, and the presence of a little angel of a bookseller, baby Ivy, keeping her mom Sandy company.

Handouts included secret codes (solved right away by Adrienne, who should receive her historic postcard from the author -- me -- in tomorrow's mail) and a researcher's "code sheet" of 19th-century abbreviations for names and accounts, often found in record books. Four historians added extra details from the audience, too!

My one regret was not being able to slip away into the children's book room, where I always find good books to bring home. But I'll be back, to browse!

What a wonderful evening; thank you, Linda and Sandy and guests. One of the bookstore cats came out to say goodbye.

Jem the cat, at The Galaxy

Tomorrow: How you can check whether your favorite "hiding place" or 1850s activist in Vermont was involved in helping fugitives on the road north to freedom. What's the difference between "story" and "history"? Huge. Shawna and Thea in The Secret Room are after the truth. You can be, too.

It's Finally Time -- THE SECRET ROOM Debuts This Week!!

Yes, that's why I've been a little quiet online lately, with a LOT to do to get ready. The brand new novel is coming out at the end of this week. It's THE SECRET ROOM, a Vermont adventure set in a fictionalized version of North Danville. Here's the scoop:

Shawna and Thea are working together on a math project for their eighth-grade class. But the numbers don't add up, and they make a startling discovery: a secret room in the basement of Thea's house, an old Vermont inn. The code on the walls makes the girls and everyone in town wonder why there was a secret room. Was it part of the Underground Railroad, or perhaps something less, well, heroic? Discovering the truth is harder than they would have thought, especially when the truth is not what some people want to hear.

The first review for the book came from New England novelist Howard Frank Mosher, whose books Disappearances, Where the Rivers Flow North, and A Stranger in the Kingdom are much-appreciated classics on our shelves. Mr. Mosher wrote:

American history, friendship, family ties, nature, community. These are some of the themes that Beth Kanell explores in this beautifully written and ever-so-timely novel. The Secret Room is at once a superb, young-adult suspense story, and one of the best, and most realistic, literary mystery novels I've ever read. At its heart are two wonderful young friends and not-so-amateur detectives, Thea and Shawna. What they learn about themselves, their community, and their state and country, past and present, will astonish and delight you. The Secret Room is a masterwork in which every sentence is lovingly crafted and written straight from the heart.

And as you can tell, this is an author who quickly recognizes work "straight from the heart" because that's what he does in his own novels. Thank you again, Howard!

If you're a Goodreads fan, you can find teacher Tim Averill's appraisal of the book online there; if you like Amazon, you'll see what MamaBear wrote.

Best of all, find an independent and order the book there. Or, in New England, come to one of the celebrations that begin this week:

New North Danville Adventure Story!

THE SECRET ROOM

by Beth Kanell

Meet the author:

Fri. 9/9, Open Party, St. J. Athenaeum, 4 p.m.

Sat. 9/10, Cobleigh Library, Lyndonville, 11 a.m. (sponsored by Green Mountain Books)

Sat. 9/10, Boxcar & Caboose, St. J., 2 p.m.

Mon. 9/12, Danville Inn, Danville, 9:30 a.m., with coffee and donuts provided by Steve Cobb, who appears in the book!

Sat. 9/17, Davies Memorial Library, Waterford, 10 a.m.

Sat. 9/17, Littleton (N.H.) Library, 2 p.m.

Tues. 9/20, Galaxy Books, Hardwick, 7 p.m.

Books can also be ordered at www.thesecretroombook.com

from the publisher, Voyage/Brigantine, St. Johnsbury, VT

Autumn in the Air! Research on the Desk ...

After a sweaty day yesterday, and a warm bright start to the morning today, the wind has shifted and it's now a sweater day. The robins nesting under my window finally persuaded their second brood to fly last week. I suspect the small-ish ones still pecking their way across the backyard are the newly grown flyers, feeding up before heading south next month.

Life's been wildly busy. Three more writers in my "circle" are celebrating plans for Voyage -- the Brigantine Media fiction imprint that's published The Secret Room -- to publish their books next year. It's exciting to see fiction taking off for press owners Neil and Janis.

Meanwhile, we're just 18 days from the launch party for The Secret Room (at St. Johnsbury Athenaeum on Friday Sept. 9, at 4 p.m. -- come if you can!), and lots of other events are lining up. The Amazon page for the book is "live" and I've started a discussion there; there's a review button, too, for those of you with advance copies. So far, the page has some small frustrations, including how long Amazon claims it would take for a copy of the book to ship. Neil will try to straighten that out, but meanwhile, if timing matters, please take advantage of the "Buy the Book" button in the right-hand top corner of this page, and Neil and Janis's team will get your copy right out to you, directly from the publishing house.

More busy-ness: F.D. (my collaborator on this summer's novel) and I are probably in the last stretch of the first draft of Opal of the Mountains. And I'm using some careful study of other authors' choices around character depiction, to polish Cold Midnight (that's the novel set in 1921).

Most important of all, I've found online the journal of an African American man who lived in Vermont in the 1700s, and whose experience of "freedom" here was mixed, to say the least. It's an important baseline for The Secret Room and other books that deal with the Underground Railroad in Vermont, because it sheds a vivid light on the declaration heard so often here, "Vermont was against slavery from the start. In fact, Vermont's state Constitution even banned slavery."

Well, yeah -- it did. But you know about fine print, right? Vermont's fine print was, "no adult slavery." Look at what that meant for Boyrereau Brinch when he settled down in Vermont with his wife and had children ... http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brinch/brinch.html -- oh, my aching heart. There's a lot of injustice in the world, even in the places we think are most fair and free.

Three Moons of Summer

Photo taken in Finland by rosipaw -- thank you for letting this photo be reused!

Last month, for a poetry reading north of here, I wrote a poem in the voice of Thea, Shawna's best friend in The Secret Room. The poem "takes place" in the summer after the year described in the book; it will be part of how the sequel opens up. (Yes, that's the real writing life -- The Secret Room will finally be available for purchase on 9-10-11, and if the sequel's going to come out appropriately, it has to get written this fall!) I'm sharing the poem today because it fits into some discussion we're having on the Facebook teacher group for the book, but it's a bit too long to place in a Facebook post (smile!). Here it is:

The Three Moons of Summer

There are more than three, of course: one for tonight,

its faint sorrow hanging over the cornfield,

one for the next night, slim and pale,

as though throwing up dinner made her into

a waxed princess, faint but glowing. Thea knows

there are more than three moons in summer. 

Summer lasts almost forever.

Across the road, close enough to hear

if she yelled from her window, her best friend sleeps.

It’s so unfair. Shouldn’t your best friend know

when you’re crying? With wet eyes, the moon doubles.

Great. Now there are two moons in one night.

And the stars blur, and Thea’s chest aches,

her nose is dripping from crying.

What can you do when nobody comes

to hold you when you cry? Thea blows her nose.

Wipes her eyes. Counts, the way her friend says

some people count their blessings.

One moon for June, the strawberry moon,

when school ended. The moon tide pulled

the peepfrogs into song, pulled summer into place.

One moon for hope and swimming in the lake.

The second moon is July: round and golden,

heavy, thick, like something you eat for dessert

that lingers in your stomach all night. Thea sits straight

at the windowsill, pinches her arm, silver with moonlight,

pinches the places he didn’t kiss. Another tear

leaks down her cheek. Ignore it.

One more moon, the one for August. Corn on the cob,

and clothes for school. Everyone comes back

from their vacations. So will that boy.  Dry now,

Thea takes a long breath. Decision settles

light as moonshadow in her hands. She’ll tell.

She’ll tell her best friend what happened.

But only when the night is dark, when rain-clouds cover

the way-too-beautiful stars and moons of summer.

Beth Kanell

2011

Fiction and History in the Classroom

An unusual view of Stamford, New York.

While I'm revising The Long Shadow and Cold Midnight, and writing a first draft of another book, I'm also counting down the days until THE SECRET ROOM is released, on 9-10-11 (I love that date! perfect for number lovers everywhere).

Because Shawna and Thea explore a mystery with roots in their town's history, the publisher (Janis and Neil at Voyage) and I have been corresponding with teachers about using this book in the classroom.

Here's a Middle Grades suggestion from Candice Gockel in Stamford, NY, a 5th/6th grade teacher: "I see this novel as a great jumping off point for a local history project. I think my students would be swept up in the excitement of possibly uncovering local mysteries, as well as providing great hands-on research and learning opportunities for my students."

I took a quick look and found a history of Stamford -- whose early settlers had ties to Stamford, Connecticut.  There are some intriguing gaps in the history I found: enlistment for the Civil War, but what was happening in town during the Underground Railroad years? Why was the first newspaper founded in 1851? I can imagine a mystery taking place that relied on who was publishing the paper and what his motives were! And another that takes into account the villages of the town, the differences between them, the way families settled. Plus, because the town is in the Catskills, there must be stories of the tourists and summer residents, including some from various ethnic groups that could be surprising. Wow!

If you're looking for possible "local mysteries" for your class to investigate, let me know where you are and I'll suggest some possible "mysteries in history" for your students.  Same offer for book groups -- tell me where you are, and I'll "investigate" and report!

Beyond the Myths, Beyond the Assumptions

When I wrote The Secret Room (it will be released on Sept. 9, 2011 -- hurrah!) and its sister volume, The Long Shadow, I was following a trail marked out by scholar and museum director Jane Williamson at Rokeby. Ms. Williamson uses real letters and diaries to show that the Underground Railroad in Vermont was very different from the myths of heroes, victims, and rescues that commonly occur to people when you say the words "Underground Railroad." Vermont's history and its independence created a Green Mountains world where black people -- often called Africans -- formed communities early in America. Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, another dedicated researcher, gives us a vivid picture of Africans as Vermont immigrants and settlers in the 1700s, in her book Mr. and Mrs. Prince.

Fergus Bordewich's book Bound for Canaan gives a broad-brush picture of American's Underground Railroad years, the lead-up to the Civil War. But it's the details that Williamson, Gerzina, and others bring forward that shows us the reality of, say, 1750 or 1850 in Vermont.

One reason this is so important is that "myths" continue to flourish. I often hear people around me describe Vermont as a "white-bread place," a place where people have "always" been white-skinned, of Protestant faith, and of English and Scottish heritage. But that's about as far from the truth as possible. Still, it gets woven into the eyes and ears with which people meet this landscape and its heritage.

For instance, the photos here show an "open house" at the 100-year-old barn labeled "Locust Grove Farm" that took place yesterday. We say that "the camera doesn't lie" and it is easy to assume the people at the farm are of that "New England" image from the myth. Actually, many of them are relatives of people who built the barn (one great-great-grandson and his wife and son were there), or settled the farm -- Charles Johnston Wark, born in 1866, with both his father and mother born in Ireland, and his wife Lizzie Ellen Owen  --  or those who worked it most recently, the Patenaude family, whose ancestors came from Quebec (Patenaude may be a later-day version of Patenotre). Neighbors include many of Native American descent, especially among those whose roots are French Canadian. And through this town passed people from Syria, Russia, and China -- and by this, I mean "passed through" in the 1800s. Some stayed, like Sam Wah, born in northern China, whose stone in a nearby cemetery marks his death at age 75, in 1921.

By all means, let's celebrate summer in New England. The real New England -- with all its diversity of heritage and thought. We can only be richer for seeking and valuing the truth.

An Endless Summer ...

One reason that I write novels called "young adult" -- novels in the voice and view of someone around thirteen to sixteen years old -- is the magic of that time for me. Summers were endless, a long stretch of time until the next schoolday. From the throngs of peepfrogs chanting in the damp hollows, to the flurry of nearly identical robins rising up from the lawn, to the nights sparkling with uncountable stars, summer wrapped me in amazement. And there were "people things" in summer that delighted me: savoring the movement from "new girl" to "here I am again" at a summer camp; taking the bus into a city with a girlfriend, to walk the bustling sidewalks, explore museums, discover startling green parks and waterfalls tucked between tall buildings; riding with my family (even when they didn't understand me!) to the distant lake with its swimming beach and old rowboat with the creaky oars.

Endless.

Today, summer is three moons long. I try to pay attention to each of them. The golden luminous full moon last night, rising above the crest of the hill, stopped my breath for a moment.

In The Secret Room the story unfolds through Shawna's eyes. But in this start of a poem, it nestles in the words and thoughts of Shawna's best friend Thea, also in eighth grade:

THREE MOONS OF SUMMER

There are more than three, of course: one for tonight,

its faint sorrow hanging over the cornfield,

one for the next night, slim and pale

as though throwing up dinner made her into

a waxed princess, faintly glowing. Thea knows

there are more than three moons.  Especially now.

Summer lasts almost forever.

Across the road, close enough to hear

if she yelled from her window, her best friend sleeps.

It’s so unfair. 

Want to hear more? I'll be reading the finished poem tomorrow in Brownington, Vermont, as part of the "Kingdom Perspectives" poetry gathering at the Congregational Church, sponsored by the Old Stone House Museum and the Orleans County Historical Society. 

Classroom Use of THE SECRET ROOM

Sorry to have been so quiet lately; the garden of ideas has been so active that I've been weeding, trimming, even harvesting, but not talking much! Here's a sample of what I've been up to, as requested by VOYAGE, the imprint publishing The Secret Room this September:

As a kid who "hated" history and nonfiction, but who woke up to the excitements of "detection" in history thanks to a gifted Advanced Placement high school teacher, I've envisioned all of my YA novels as potential classroom tools to engage students in the flow of history and in critical thinking, through their hunger for narrative. Here are some of the threads for classroom learning woven into The Secret Room.

HISTORY DETECTIVE WORK

What is the history problem that Shawna and Thea investigate? Why does it interest them?

What are the tools they use to probe what really happened in their town during the Underground Railroad years? Are some tools better than others?

How can you find out what the Underground Railroad looked like and what it meant to the Civil War?

How can you find out what the Underground Railroad was like where you live now?

Many "history" moments focus on important people, like a President or a hero. The Underground Railroad was different: It depended on the courage and planning of many ordinary people. What evidence is there for this in The Secret Room? Do you think it could be harder to find out what "ordinary people" did a hundred and fifty years ago, than finding out what a President did? How could you find out more?


MATH IS FUN

Not everybody thinks math is fun, but Shawna and Thea do! Why is it fun for them?

Here are some of the math ideas that Shawna and Thea explore: measuring rooms and recording their perimeters; finding out areas and adding them; looking for multiples of numbers like 2, 6, and 12; what prime numbers are; creating scale drawings; creating timelines; exploring how the ages and birth years in a family fit together; and squaring numbers. Can you find each of these in the book? What would they look like if they were imagined in your own life, or your best friend's life?

ISSUES AROUND THE CIVIL WAR

Shawna and Thea discover that people in different parts of the country react in different ways to "current events" in politics and to their history. Some of the issues that led to the Civil War included enslavement of people who were captured in other places, like African countries; expecting people who look different (skin color) to be and act differently; whether the states of America needed to handle things the same way; and how people's beliefs about human dignity and faith affect their decisions to take a stand and help others.

FAMILIES ARE DIFFERENT -- AND MAYBE THAT'S GOOD!

Families differ in terms of what they think is most important in life; how they show love to each other; how they get enough money to support each other; and what they think kids should do and be. List the differences between Shawna's family and Thea's family, and add columns for your family and your best friend's family.

How do Shawna and Thea find ways to feel OK about being different from each other? How do they choose to be more similar to each other?

Who is Shawna's real mother? Why? Who loves Shawna? How can you tell?

BEING FRIENDS TAKES WORK

(I don't have time to write this part today, but ... you know where this is going!)

FOOD IS SOMETHING WE ALL ENJOY -- AND IN DIFFERENT WAYS

What decisions have Shawna and Thea made, before they met, about food? What habits do they have about food? How can you tell what their favorite foods are? Do Shawna and Thea talk about food? Do their ideas and actions change in terms of what and how they eat during the story?

PROJECTS and CLASSROOM EXERCISES

(This will have to wait for another day for me to start the list, but there are a LOT that spring out of what Shawna and Thea do.)