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Darien (CT) Library
Connecticut friends–this coming Monday, October 12th, I’m going to be speaking about my book, Why’d They Wear That? at the Darien Library at 3 pm in Darien, Connecticut. Here’s the link. Please stop by...
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Visits, Real and Virtual
This past week has been full of opportunities to meet with and talk to kids, both in person and via Skype. On Monday I gave a talk in Darien, Connecticut, at the library, about my latest book, Why’d...
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Whirlwind Weekend
My whirlwind of author visits and festivals continued through this past weekend. On Friday, I visited the Friends Academy in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Janice Griffin is the librarian there, and she...
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Puff Piece
I’m working on two different projects at the moment, one about poison, the other about colonial America, so I’ve been reading a lot about tobacco.By the middle of the seventeenth century, when the...
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Retro Recipes
Need some new ideas for dinner? I am here to share recipes from an eighteenth century book that was popular in colonial America. Published in 1737 by William Kendrick, it’s called The Whole Duty of...
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Death by Voting?
Update: Today is election day, and although most people are focusing more on the Presidential election next year, there are many important state and local decisions to be made. In honor of Election Day...
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Author Events
I will be doing a lot of traveling over the next two weeks. On Friday, November 6th, I will be copresenting with Loree Griffin Burns at the American Association of School Librarians’ Annual Conference...
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Underwear Under There
I stumbled across a magnificent illustrated manuscript from around the year 1500. It’s exciting because it shows men in their underwear. Wait, that might have sounded a little wrong.What I mean by...
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More Author-izing
In the past week I’ve visited four cities, attended two book festivals, given three talks, and conducted eight writing workshops. I love my job. Last Friday I attended the American Association of...
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NCTE 15
Hello, friends, I’m off tomorrow to Minneapolis and the annual NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) convention. Here’s where I’ll be Friday afternoon at 4 pm:And here’s where to find me on...
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Back in the Saddle
This is my son Sam.This is Napoleon:What do they have in common, besides a predilection for tight pants? (To be fair, Sam’s are made of Lycra and he wears them under his uniform.) On Wednesday, Sam...
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Bark Like an Egyptian
Thinking of acquiring a new dog? In a past blog, I helpfully provided you with suggestions for what to name it, based on a medieval hunting manual. Today, I provide you with further suggestions, this...
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That’s Classic
This is poison hemlock, or Conium maculatum. Its leaves look a lot like flat-leaf parsley, don’t they? That was too bad for one man, a Scottish tailor named Duncan Gow. In 1845 his children made him a...
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Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays! As today is the official first day of Chanukah, I have decided today is the perfect day to begin my holiday blogging break. I’ll be away for the next couple of weeks, because I have a...
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Motor Trends
I just stumbled across a fascinating book called The Woman and The Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor by Dorothy Levitt, written in 1909 (and available on Google...
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That’s Classic
This is poison hemlock, or Conium maculatum. Its leaves look a lot like flat-leaf parsley, don’t they? That similarity was unfortunate for one man, a Scottish tailor named Duncan Gow. In 1845 his...
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Scarred for Life
I find the coolest stuff doing image research. Often it has nothing to do with the book I’m researching at the moment, but it’s what makes my job so awesome. Case in point: I stumbled across this...
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Keeping the Wolf at Bay
Back in medieval times, most of the northern parts of Europe, and big swaths of the British Isles, were covered with dense forest. So close encounters with wolves were quite common. Packs of wolves...
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Margin Notes from a Master
As a kid, I loved detective stories. My favorites were Agatha Christie (I can’t wait to read this new bookabout poisons in Agatha Christie stories). I also devoured Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock...
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Visiting Mount Vernon
Last week, my history-teacher-husband and I traveled to Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, for a research trip. The staff at Mount Vernon were beyond amazing. Gail Cassidy gave us an...
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