Here in New York, my wonderful friends brought a Hoedown to the Bronx New School.  

We celebrate the New Year --  I thank all of you who entered the contest to win a Parrots and Pirate Book with a parrot.    

But mostly I just want to say thank you!

What a weekend!  I love Halloween, anyone who's written "DRACULA IS A PAIN IN THE NECK!"  definitely would. And my editor at Roaring Brook, Nancy Mercado, even said that we could launch the book on HALLOWEEN! I had my parrot and pirate hat all ready for a book party at BOOKS OF WONDER with wonderful other writers.  A little rain -- that's okay -- but we had snow, sleet, Slush!   Mordicai was snowed in.  

But friends showed up.  Here are  Jerry Rodgers and Marsall Marcovitz.  Jerry is an actor and makes a great pirate.   And Mordicai showed up on Tuesday just to wear the hat! 

Then it was down to the Halloween Parade!  My friends "Broadway Bodies" dance in the parade so we got to go watch the start!   New York Loves Halloween! And my cousins, Melba and Hugh Levick came in from Paris.  Melba and Marshall took great photos.   And the best thing was that the snow had melted! 

So Happy GHOULS!  And Happy Parrots and Pirates

When I was two...

Atlantic City 1944 before the hurricane

View of a hurricane from outer space

Atlantic City streets post hurricane 1944

Our house after the hurricane

You can download the whole story here.  I wrote it in 1973, years ago when I was just getting started as a children’s book writer.

I always thought it was funny that one of them most exciting things that ever happened to me happened before I really could remember it.  I was in Atlantic City with my mother, my brother and my cousins, and the storm was so bad that soldiers had to come and help us out.  Everyone told the story how I crawled onto the kitchen table and ate a whole birthday cake in the middle of the storm.  One of my cousins also turned out to be a children's book writer, Robie Harris.

So if you have any pictures and stories from Hurricane Irene…remember to write them down and keep the pictures.   And if you’d like, send them here---and we can all share them.

Stay safe and have a wonderful time seeing all your friends and going back to school this September and sharing your stories of this summer.

Liz Levy


There is absolutely nothing more fun than creating something from something—except perhaps celebrating that creation with a party.

And it’s even more fun when you are creating and partying with kids who are authors and artists.  Every year, I work with two amazing teachers, Emilyn Garrick and Dinah Krosnick and a wonderfully supportive principal, Paul Smith. 

We turned the classroom into a cruise ship (see Writing your Own…) and sailed to the homelands of each of the students- Cambodia, China, Ghana, the Dominican Republic…well read for yourself.

The children’s illustrations were amazing.

Thanks to Ryan Stansky (my personal computer and website wizard) we were able to scan all the drawings and give each child the book.  And it does take a village.   My friend, Marshall Marcovitz, took the photos and Marshall and several of my other friends contributed so that each student got his or own book to take home.

 Ryan working on my computerMarshall Marcovitz, Ryan Stansky, Liz, and Elizabeth Gerber, part of our publishing team   

The book is now online for you to read—and for all the families in Ghana and around the world to read the amazing adventure the children read.

DOWNLOAD AND READ THE BOOK HERE.

 My great niece and nephew were staying with me -- We polished the silver (thank you Montessori schools) and got the brisket ready by dressing up as Black Bart and Wonder Woman, thanks to my friend across the street, Elizabeth Gerber, who cooks with me and whose oven is big enough to take most of the 17  pounds of brisket it took to feed all 26 of us.  

Here's a picture of me hunting and gathering "New York Style.."  

The Haggadah, the book that we read on passover literally means "To tell..."  This year, it has even more meaning for me because of my recent trip to Egypt, and also because of my deep respect for the Egyptians who are  fighting for their own freedom, and the wonderful people I met, including my guide Ahmed Ramadan. (See the blog post below) Anyone going to Egypt please be in touch with me and I'll get you in touch with him.  He is the best, and took such good care of me and Bruce Coville.  During Passover, Bruce called and we sang him Louis Armstrong's version of Let My People Go..."

Listen to it now.

And here's to two eternals -- story telling and freedom.....

Alexandria Library, Liz, Bruce Coville, Kathy Coville and Carrie Danziger

The Sphinx and me -- with very few tourists around.

Many of you know, but perhaps some of you don't, that I was in Egypt when the country erupted.  I was there to do an author visit with Bruce Coville, the wonderful children's book author, and his wife Kathy, an illustrator. We went to the  Schutz School in Alexandria Egypt. In some ways it was a children's book festival, because we were there to visit Carrie Danziger, who teaches at the school.  Carrie is the niece of Paula Danziger, and the original model for Amber Brown. After Paula's death, Bruce and I both adopted her as our own.,  School Library Journal is publishing an article on our thoughts that we are home and I will post it when it comes out.  

I want to thank so many in children's book community who let us know how concerned they were for us.    

We arrived in Alexandria on January 21st, and although the Tunisian revolution had broken out, there was very little tension.  We explored the city, including one of the world's most beautiful libraries. In ancient times Alexandria was famous the world over for it's library and it's scientists. On January 24, the first graders and I wrote a wonderful story, "Lions and Tigers" go to Mars. The third graders turned their classroom into a cruise ship and we went to Zambia and one the African Cup (Soccer Championship, or as they call...Football).

But then on Tuesday, January 25, the first of the protests began, and school was closed for two days.  We did reopen and on Thursday, wrote wonderful stories (two classes ended up in the Bermuda Triangle) but even with the tension there was wonderful humor from the kids and their teachers.  We did get to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx.  From then on the fast moving events over took us as we had to try to figure out how to get out of Cairo  We had great respect for the courage of the people....and the protesters themselves were mostly peaceful.  We actually were worried about the military who soon moved tanks in front of our hotel.

I will add more thoughts later....but I just wanted to post a few pictures.....and to tell you how many people  in Egypt, in the middle of everything, worked so hard to keep us safe.

And we were!!! We flew home on February 2.

Yes it was scary!   But so many people helped us out.  Here is a picture of a Tank outside of our hotel, and then a picture with our wonderful guide, Ahmed Ramadan, who took us to his home in order to keep us safe and helped us get to the airport and out safely.

More to come....

Tank in front of our hotelOur wonderful guide Ahmed Ramadan, Bruce Coville, Kathy Coville, and me

Every year I do a writing project with the 5^th Graders at The Bronx New School with two of my favorite teachers.  When we begin in the fall, we never know exactly what we’re going to write about, but this year, the theme at the school is taken from the Marvin Gaye song, “What’s Going on!”

The kids were excited about my new book, Danger and Diamonds and I wanted them to write their own stories onboard a cruise ship.  While we were brainstorming, we played the song:

Mother, mother

There's too many of you crying

Brother, brother, brother

There's far too many of you dying

You know we've got to find a way

To bring some lovin' here today – Ya

What’s going on….what’s going on…..

We decided that the sound of that song could turn the classroom into a cruise ship. Stay tuned while we levitate over the Bronx. Each of the students is going to study the country where their family was from --- they are going to sing “What’s Going on” to their parents, and write me a few lines. They tuned as we begin our ports of call, and let me know what stories you think could write if your school turned into a cruise ship.

In the 21^st Century, the Gladiators of Rome are mostly out-of-work actors who would be very at home as part of the entertainment crew on a cruise ship.   I’m not sure whether these guys are going to make it into my next book, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

            Keith Richards, from the Rolling Stones, is one of my rock-and roll heroes. He says that as a songwriter, he is always watching people, looking for ‘ammo” – the idea for the next song.  That’s what it felt like when I was traveling in Europe for almost a whole month.  I was traveling in the waters where pirates once roamed….and I felt like a pirate, not quite writing, but still searching the horizon for what might just by chance turn into the next story. 

As a writer, you are always looking for ideas, the problem is that you don’t know exactly which one of them is going to be good.   But there is something about traveling that makes history and stories come alive. History is full of mistakes and going in the wrong direction and yet, thinking you are right, just like Columbus thought he had sailed to the Indies.   Just like Columbus I got lost lots of times, making wrong turns and thinking I was somewhere I wasn’t.

But that’s all good practice for being a writer.            

TEA AT THE PLAZA:  ELOISE LIVES FOREVER

“I am Eloise.  I am six.  I am a city child.”

Eloise would be actually 55 in human years, and I am sixty-eight, but I felt such joy when my seven year-old great-niece wanted to come to New York City for her birthday.  I asked if she would like to have tea at the Plaza with her friend who was also coming in from the small town in New England where they live. YES!  She answered.  What power fiction has!  A girl born in the 21^st century realizes that Eloise is anything but boring! 

As Eloise says,  “Getting bored is not allowed…”  We can all learn from Eloise not just about how not to be bored but to embrace all our moods – even the black ones.

 “”Sometimes I throw a temper fit….But not very often,”  says Eloise. Actually one of my best friends was the model for Eloise throwing a temper fit…and if I look closely I can see a little of Eloise in her…and in all of us.

My New Year’s resolution is to channel Eloise when I write and when I live my life.  She’s a wonderful role model.

No, much as I love mysteries, I haven't solved the mystery of the Sphinx. But I am hoping to set my next cruise mystery in Egypt.   Thanks to Photo shop I am at the King Tut exhibit in Times Square New York. (Life it seems is one long research project.)  I am going to Alexandria, Egypt with Bruce Coville  to visit Carrie Danziger, Paula Danziger's niece in January.  Carrie is teaching at the American school there.

And the boy is not sleeping in the hammock.  He and his brother and I just finished a mystery in which mummies took over their beach house...and they invited him into the hammock to pretend he was a mummy.  

So even in the summer, there's time for imagination -- but what there doesn't seem to be time for is to actually write.  But that's what summers are for -- to recharge and to come up with ideas.  Let me know if you've had any adventures over the summer that could turn into a good mystery...

Stay tuned....

Cheers,

Liz