DINOSAUR PARADE, Koala style!

Just found out I WILL be able to get the Australian edition of Dinosaur Parade, published down under by Koala. I'm so excited. I've known since summer that the book was reprinted there in a new edition, but I only just found the right contact to buy a copy or two. I can't wait to see it. Hope Lark can tell me if those royalties will show up on the next statement, too. But for now, I'm just excited.

Here's the PDF of the Scholastic Australia sale of the Koala version. FUN.

http://www.scholastic.com.au/pdfs/June_2009_Parade.pdf

And here's the Koala Books PDF.

http://www.koalabooks.com.au/downloads/KoalaDraftCat2009.pdf

Word from the Creation Museum

Someone from Crevo Press emailed me to say:

FYI,Per your visit to the Creation Museum, one of your books is in their library: Dinosaur mummies : beyond bare-bone fossils

cp

I'm flattered that my book was included in their library, even if I didn't see it -- or a library. So I reviewed my original post and softened the language a bit. But our differences remain. I believe in geologic time, and I still can't embrace the "truth" served up at the Creation Museum, or its possibly negative impact on kids.

We need the next generation to fall in love with science if we have any hope of remaining a super power or an academic contender in this world, and that's hard to do if religious entities put up barriers. So yes, the museum worries me. But it is, without question, a stunning group of dinosaur exhibits.

Here's the library link CP included:

http://library.answersingenesis.org/opac/aig/FullDisp?&itemid=2904

Creation Museum in Kentucky

From November 1 to 13 I was in Northern Kentucky speaking at 10 elementary schools and it was WONDERFUL. The people in Florence and Hebron and Burlington and all those small communities were fantasticly welcoming and kind. I am beyond grateful.

While I was there a librarian was kind enough to take me to the Creation Museum -- a place I asked to see -- my idea. I was astonished by the quality of the museum and the exhibits AND I was frustrated at the same time. Because the museum teaches kids that paleontological science is wrong, then creates a fantasy to explain dinosaurs and fossils -- incorrectly.

To each their own. I respect and defend each of our rights to worship our own ways. But I hate the idea of kids being misguided by the stance of the Creation Museum. That said, Northern Kentucky DID invite me to speak in their schools even with my evolutionist mindset. So balance is clearly welcome in the region.

Thanks, Northern Kentucky, for having me, for showing me such kindness and warmth, and for showing me your museum. Agree or disagree, it was a magnificent place.

Kelly

School Visit Season...

...has officially begun. I spent three days at schools in Clarkston, WA, then two days in Yakima for the WLMA Conference (my boss Chris Crutcher and I did a censorship panel together, great fun -- thus the photo with this post) then three days in Louisville, Kentucky.

I'm headed for Northern Kentucky the first two full weeks in November, then on to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Texas, to name just a few of the destinations. And I'm doing a bunch of days in Washington cities including Spokane, Wenatchee and Yakima, along with the more distant destinations.

The work is demanding, I confess. I come home exhausted. But as I struggle to recharge, I am reminded of how remarkable all the kids I get to meet with actually are. Regions and races differ, but the kids -- they remain so much the same. Each of them simply want to learn and laugh and dream, and I feel as if I have the chance to move those things forward when I visit their schools.

School visits tire me out -- actually, airport travel tires me out a whole lot more than the school days do -- but the kids make every minute worthwhile. They love my books, and that enthusiasm means everything to me. As long as they want what I write, I'll keep writing -- and doing school presentations. I'll keep at it for myself and for those wonderful kids!

Publishers Weekly - SAVING THE BAGHDAD ZOO

Needless to say, I'm thrilled that SAVING THE BAGHDAD ZOO was included in this feature in Publishers Weekly -- The War, at Home: Military Conflict in Books for Children and Teens. Thank you, thank you PW. Thank you, thank you John A. Sellers.

"Both Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle and Saving the Baghdad Zoo pair soldiers with picture book authors to tell hopeful, true stories set in Iraq," said Sellers. "Saving the Baghdad Zoo: A True Story of Hope and Heroes by Kelly Milner Halls and William Sumner (Greenwillow, Nov.) is a photographic account of Army major Sumner's work helping rescue abandoned animals in this zoo."

Happy me. : )

DONE...well, almost! SASQUATCH ROCKS!

Well, I'm putting the last finishing touches on my manuscript for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, IN SEARCH OF SASQUATCH and MAN, what a great adventure this has been. When I first started this journey, I was excited but unaware of HOW thrilling the path would be. How was I to know I'd discover a linguistics expert with 30 years of U.S. Navy and academic experience convinced the audio tapes of Sasquatch vocalizations represented language, not just random sounds? How could I have imagined the compelling anatomical proof that Sasquatch footprints are neither fakes nor human, but rather ape-like? The book will reveal the credibility of the concept of a North American Great Ape and the people who believe in it.

Revisions will come next, and that's one of my favorite parts of this job. Editorial teams turn a good manuscript into a magical book, and it's a transformation that always excites me. But I'm a little sad everytime a manuscript is "finished." Not for long. The next project is usually calling me. Looks like ALIEN ENCOUNTERS may be next. Hooray. So I see a trip to Area 51 in my immediate future. But I'm still determined to get to Australia to write that book on the baby fruit bat rescue hospital. They've already agreed to let me stay for a week and help with the rescue effort.

Any editors out there dying for a great baby bat photo essay project? This one is a BEAUTY!

Back to work, then lunch with Crutcher and Trueman. Hope EVERYONE has a great day. I'm gonna do my best to do the same! : )

Kelly

White DUNNY -- FREE, but out of reach

DANG. I want this great DUNNY from Kidrobot...and they're giving 500 away free. But you have to be at the store in NYC and I'm in Spokane. How unfair is that? Sigh. He should have been in my ALBINO ANIMALS book, huh? He's so cute and angry-like. Anyone in NYC willing to snag one for me? I know, REALLY unlikely, but I thought I'd ask. Sigh...again.

Isn't he great though? Check him out HERE.