Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 6 (a message for the grownups!)

One more thought from Kate Klise (in her own words) ...

P.S. One more thing: And this is more to the adults than the kids: I wrote Regarding the Fountain when all I really had was time - and a library card. I didn't have a publishing contract. I didn't even have a job. Worse yet, I had no real prospects for a job. I had recently ended a relationship, and had no prospects in that department, either. I had very little confidence in myself or my writing because the newspaper editor who had fired me had done so in a letter in which he outlined all my faults as a writer. I didn't even have very much food in my house because this was during an ice storm, back before I had a four-wheel-drive vehicle. I couldn't get out of my little Missouri valley to buy food. All I had was coffee, Diet Coke, microwave popcorn ... and time. I also had a newspaper article I'd torn from the business section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about two guys who designed fountains. I wrote Regarding the Fountain book in one week for no other reason than that it amused me. Of course I had to spend a year and a half rewriting it, but I think there's something to the power of finding time, making time to do things that simply amuse us. Kids are better at this than we are. But I know I'm at my best when I stop thinking like a 47-year-old and start thinking like a 10-year-old who just wants to have fun and make a splash

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 5

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. Here's idea #5:

5. Start and Finish All Your Holiday Shopping.
Huh? It's only June. Why should you be thinking about holiday shopping now? Well, because next Sunday is Father's Day. And then it's the Fourth of July. And then a few weeks later the Christmas season kicks off. But I have a shopping tip for you. Go to the library and check out some books of poetry. Memorize a poem for your dad for Father's Day. Memorize a poem for your grandfather, too. Memorize ten poems this summer that you can five to your parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters and cousins next December. They can be funny poems or serious ones. Try Billy Collins or Jack Prelutsky. Copy the poems you think your friends and family might like in your own neat handwriting on fancy paper. You can deliver the poems on paper, but then be ready to recite them, too. Because that's the gift - the fact that you've memorized a poem in someone's honor. Do you think if you memorized ten poems this summer, you would make a splash with your parents? Yes, you would?

So those are just five ideas. If you have time and a library card, you'll find LOTS of ways to make a splash this summer. Have fun!  

Story Starter from Kate Klise!

Want to write a book this summer? Here's a prompt Kate left for us. See if you can write a book that begins like this:

For years my life was wonderful. I had __________________ and __________________ and plenty of ________________ . I even had _______________________. 

But then one day _____________________ came to town. And everything changed ... for the worse.

P.S. If you write a story and want to share, please put your story in the comments for others to read and enjoy! Thanks ... and have fun.

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 4

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for Splash making. Here's idea #4:

4. Fake It Till You Make It.

Speaking of stealing, do you know the saying, "Good writers borrow, but great writers steal"? Well, it's true. The first book I ever wrote was a gentle rip-off of Stuart Little. I was ten years old. I had just read Stuart Little. I loved it. So I wrote a book about a mouse who goes around the country stealing Cheetos. Okay, so it wasn't very good. But I know enough to imitate a master like E.B. White. My sister Sarah did the same thing. Sarah illustrated my first book and still draws all the picture for my books today. She's a terrific artist now, but when she was your age she wasn't. She just knew she liked to draw. So she went to the store and bought a pad of tracing paper. Then she went to the library and checked out Stuart Little - after I returned it. Then she sat on her bed with that book and tracing paper, and spent the summer learning how to draw a mouse. If you like to draw, get some tracing paper and some books from the library. I know sometimes kids think it's cheating to use tracing paper. But this is how you learn how to do it. You won't need tracing paper forever - just until you develop your own style. Writers do the same thing. We imitate the writers we like until we find our own style. Because once you find your own style, that's when you can really make a splash.

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 3

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. Here's idea #3:

3. Steal Someone's Identity.

 No, no, no. I'm not suggesting you steal someone's Social Security number and apply for a credit card using a false identity. What I am suggesting is that you start keeping someone else's diary. Why? Because let's face it: Keeping your own diary can be a bit dull. But you can write somebody else's diary. Write the diary of an 11-year-old prince who's been exiled from his native country and is forced to live with commoners. This is how you feel anyway, isn't it? "Awoke to another day of misery with these people who claim to be my parents. Can't they see I'm different? Don't they recognize my innate nobility? No, and so I'm forced to chew their tasteless porridge and clean out their appalling garage. But I have a plan that will put this injustice to rest once and for all." See how fun this could be? You can write The Diary of a Prince in Exile. It could be the first in your bestselling series. You could make a bigger splash than Jeff Kinney did with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Write it this summer.

Scenes from the 1st Youth Reading Across RI Celebration at the State House

Do you have pictures from June 12th? Email them to youthrari@gmail.com to add them to the slide show!

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 2

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. Here's idea #2:

2. Become an Expert.

Pick someone you like and read everything he or she wrote. Did you like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Then become an expert on the author, Roald Dahl. Read Matilda. James and the Giant Peach. The BFG. Read about Dahl's life in England. Or did you love Everything on a Waffle better? Then become an expert on the author, Polly Horvath. Or become an expert on the Beatles. Read and listen to everything you can find by and about them. Or how about that leaky oil well in the Gulf of Mexico? What if you spent this summer becoming an expert on that? Figure out a way to prevent oil spills in the future - or a way to move people around without using oil and gas. The answers are almost certainly buried somewhere in your library. Figure it out. If you do, you might win a Nobel Prize? How's that for making a splash?

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise

For the next five days, we will be posting Kate Klise's speech from the Youth Reading Across Rhode Island/Summer Reading Kickoff held on June 12th at Rhode Island's State House. If you missed the event, you can still hear her message. And she has some great ideas for how each of you can Make A Splash this summer with reading and writing!

Make A Splash by Kate Klise

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. "You don't need money or credit cards or a driver's license or even a swimming pool," Kate said. "All you need is time and a library card. And if you have tose two things, you can make a HUGE splash this summer."

Here are five fun ideas from Kate:

1. Get Funny.

Do you like funny books? So do I. Do you know that you can be funny, too? It's a trick you can learn. You just have to go to the library and check out the Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish. Remember Amelia Bedelia? When she's asked to dress the turkey, she puts a dress on the bird. When she's supposed to draw the drapes, she sketches the curtains. I loved those books when I was young. And so I re-read them all several years ago when I wanted to learn how to get funny. I realized that the secret to humor is often a misunderstanding. Mix-ups are comic gold - maybe not in real life, but certainly in books and movies. You can learn how writers use misunderstandings to make readers laugh. Because once you learn how to be funny, once you get funny, you can write a funny book. You could do it this summer. Whouldn't it be cool to go back to school in the fall with a funny book that you wrote? You would make a splash with your classmates!

Note: Click on the picture to enlarge.

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 8

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.  

Question (Emily Brown): Can you tell me how and why you wrote Regarding the Fountain?

Answer (Kate Klise):  I pounded out the first draft to Regarding the Fountain in one week when I was stranded in my little valley due to an ice storm. I didn't have anything to eat in the house other than microwave popcorn, Diet Coke, and coffee. I also had a newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. And it was in that paper that I read an article about two guys who designed fountains for a living. I wrote the first draft of Regarding the Fountain that week and faxed it to Sarah [Kate's sister, the illustrator] in the middle of the night. She didn't appreciate that part, but she was glad she picked the pages up off the floor as they fell from the fax machine.

Burning Questions from Rhode Island Readers

Do you have a question to ask Kate Klise? Put it here in the comments and we'll ask her to answer as many as she can when she comes to the RI State House on June 12th. Please hurry - June 12th is coming soon!

Here are a few questions from a mom who attended a Regarding the Fountain book discussion at the East Smithfield Public Library:

1.Do you know the ending of the book before you start?
2. What inspired you to write this book in letter form?
3. Is the main character based on someone you know?
4. Did you have to research the formats and styles for all of the different letters?

So, readers, what are your questions? Ask away!!

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 7

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.  

Question (Emily Brown): Is there a special place or time when you like to write?

Answer (Kate Klise):  I live on forty acres in the Missouri Ozarks in an old farmhouse I bought when I dropped out of graduate school. It's always quiet, but mornings are especially still and lovely. Most writers like to work in the morning hours before the cranky editor inside us wakes up. We all have an inner Sister Jan who we need to silence when we're writing first drafts and trying to make sense out of chaos.

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 6

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.
  
Question (Emily Brown): What other things, besides kids books, do you like to write?

Answer (Kate Klise):  Anything and everything. Letters, email, speeches for other people. If I couldn't write books, I'd be happy writing menu copy. I just like fitting words together. William Maxwell, a writer I adore, talked about the happiness of "getting it down right." That's exactly what it is.

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 5

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.

Question (Emily Brown): When did you know you were destined to become a writer?

Answer (Kate Klise): Maybe in college, when a kind professor took the time to pull me aside and say, "Hey, you're good at this." I wish more adults would do that. It made a big difference for a professor to not only give me a good grade, but to say, "This is your thing. Run with it."

Here's a link to Kate's Top Ten Tips for Becoming a Bestselling Writer. 

Kate Klise, how do you pronounce your name?

Click on over to Teaching Books.net to hear Kate Klise pronounce her name! She also talks about why her parents named her Catherine (spelled with a C) - - -  they were fans of this Saint:

You can also hear the illustrator, M. Sarah Klise (Kate's sister), talk about how she got her name. And, guess what? Her last name is pronounced exactly the same way as Kate's!

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 4

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.

Question (Emily Brown): What was the worst thing you ever got in trouble for at school?

Answer (Kate Klise): Well ... I led a rebellion in fourth grade when Sister Jan, the principal, decreed that chocolate milk would no longer be sold in the cafeteria. It was not an appropriate beverage, she said. I was outraged! So I started bringing chocolate powder from home in an envelope and adding it to my daily carton of milk. Naturally I was careful to drink it in such a way that produced a deep and lasting chocolate mustache, which of course led all the other fourth graders to bring chocolate powder from home to pour in their milk cartons and drink in such a way to produce chocolate mustaches, which of course made Sister Jan furious. But I could've died from happiness. I felt like Patrick Henry. Give me chocolate milk, or give me death!

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 3

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.

Question (Emily Brown): Ima Hogg? Was that what led you to start thinking up punny names for your characters?

Answer (Kate Klise): Yes! It all goes back to Ima Hogg. My dad also told me that Ima Hogg had a sister named Ura, which I've since learned is not true. But I spent a lot of time thinking about those poor Hogg sisters, wondering who would've had the harder life, Ima Hogg or Ura Hogg?

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 2

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.

Question (Emily Brown): Did you like school?

Answer (Kate Klise): I did. I had some wonderful teachers. But my best teachers were undoubtedly my parents. My mom read to us every night. And my dad told great stories about men like Mr. Hogg in Texas who named is daughter Ima. I could live for weeks on stories like that!

Note: Portrait of Miss Ima Hogg. Courtsey of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 1

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.

Question (Emily Brown): Did you go to a small-town school like the one in Regarding the Fountain?

Answer (Kate Klise): I grew up in a bigger city, Peoria, Illinois, where I attended Catholic schools and spent many long hours diagramming sentences and dreaming of someone like Florence Waters, who would swoop in and add some much-needed madness and mayhem.

What does Kate Klise look like?

Here she is! Meet her in person on June 12th at the RI State House. Kate will be speaking at 1:00 in the Governor's State Room. Then, she will sign your books.

Don't worry if you don't own your own copy of any of her books yet. You'll get a copy of Regarding the Fountain for free (courtesy of McDonald's Owners/Operators of RI)! Other books by Kate Klise will be for sale.

Welcome to YRARI

This web page will tell you everything you need to know about Youth Reading Across Rhode Island, a new One Book, One State program for students in Grades 4 - 6.

Our first book is Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise. You can meet the author and have fun at our kick-off on Saturday, June 12 at noon at the State House. There will be activities, a talk by the author, a book signing,  free books, Joe's Backyard Band, and food to purchase so you can have a picnic on the yard.

Mark your calendars and join us.