Blog

Thoughts on writing, reading and life...

  • October 4, 2012
    "Los Ninis," youth from a border town in Mexico, those ages 13-24 who neither work nor study, are the ones most vulnerable to violence. Few can escape, but some do. In Bangladesh many of the schools...
  • September 21, 2012
    "It was a long, lonely fight," Amnesty's Suzanne Nossel said in her introduction of Aung San Suu Kyi. "Long it was, but not lonely," she answered. "I knew there were people out there rooting for me,...
  • September 14, 2012
    Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan have just been named the 2013 winners of the Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award. They write about art and dance and their subjects include Van Gogh, Jackson...
  • August 27, 2012
    This summer Pulitzer Center Student Fellows from the Pulitzer Center covered everything from fast-food establishments (and the health consequences) in Dubai to the cholera epidemic in Haiti and the...
  • August 9, 2012
    On August 8, 2012, Hillary Clinton speaks to students and staff at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. In a heartfelt speech, filled with powerful images and tender recollections, she...
  • July 20, 2012
    Else Minarik, author of the Little Bear stories—beginner books with heart—dies at age 91.
  • July 13, 2012
    Washington, DC set a record last week: The hottest summer in 140 years. Eleven consecutive days with highs over 95. Five days with the average high of 99.5. (The highest temperature reached 105, one...
  • June 26, 2012
    IN SEARCH OF HOME: It’s an iBook published on iTunes and released this week by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I helped edit the manuscript and only a few days after finishing the process...
  • May 24, 2012
    A year ago I visited a 7th grade class at the Two Rivers Public Charter School to talk about my book Freedom Calls: Journey of a Slave Girl. Now 7th graders at Two Rivers respond to the question, "...
  • May 24, 2012
    From the May issue of School Library Journal: Gr 8 Up–Mandela’s life and career have captured the imagination of millions, and this biography does nothing to detract from his heroic image....