A visit with Claire Legrand



A few days ago, I was lucky enough to have Claire Legrand visit my library.  She is the author of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls (2012) and The Year of Shadows (2013), both published by Simon and Schuster.  An eclectic crowd of 5th-7th-graders, parents, and older adults attended the program.  Everyone was impressed.  Though Claire's books may be classified as middle-grade horror and the stuff of nightmares, Claire, herself, is a delight.  In fact, the most often asked question was "How did you ever think of that?!" "That" being something creepy, horrific, or downright terrifying.  (How could someone so nice spawn Miss Cavendish, one of the most frightening villains of children's literature?)

I'm holding Igor from The Year of Shadows
Ms. Legrand shared her earliest writings and drawings (horses, unicorns, more horses), her rejection letters (74), her publisher's edit requests (11 pages), passages from each book (creepy ones),  a bowl of candy (Starburst and Three Musketeers), and a bit of herself (as I said, she's delightful). She was inspiring, but took care to underscore the simple fact that writing is hard work; it takes time and dedication. After her presentation, she stayed on to sign books and chat with attendees. No one left empty-handed. Kids who did not purchase a book for signing were sent home with attractive autographed bookmarks (one featuring each book).

If you have the opportunity to have Claire Legrand visit your school or library, take it!
 (She Skypes, too!)

A Reading Guide and the first chapter of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls are available at the author's website. http://claire-legrand.com 

Reviews for The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls:

Reviews for The Year of Shadows:

Next up for Claire Legrand - an anthology of dark, short stories for middle grade readers, The Cabinet of Curiosities (Harper Collins, 2014), and Winterspell (Simon & Schuster), a young adult, dystopian retelling of The Nutcracker.  Find her on Twitter @clairelegrand

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holiday Swap Reveal Post!

Image
So I hope everyone had an awesome holiday. It reaaaallyy sucks that it is over. I always get so bummed after Christmas because it was such a big build up to an awesome day then BAM! Back to work and life and reality. Boo! I am too overwhelmed right now to post all about my holiday, so I will recap it on Monday.  Anyways, I just love getting packages in the mail, especially this time of year, so when I saw that  Janna  was hosting a Holiday Swap I had to participate ! I got partnered up with Megan and she's awesome! Check out her blog to see what I got for her. Alright, here's what you're all waiting for, what Megan got for me:  1- The cutest little tin with mint hot chocolate inside, yum! I already had some :-) 2- Essie Fishnet Stockings Nail Polish. So pretty and Essie rocks! 3- Burt's Bees hand salves, hand cream, foot cream, cuticle cream, and pretty colored lip balm. I used like half of this stuff right away, it is amazing! Thanks so much Megan, I seriously love...
Read more

To Fighting Irish, Francis Spikes the Ball... For the Bishops

Image
Nearly 11 months into the new Franciscan Rule, for all the shifts of style and governance Papa Bergoglio has indeed set into place, it's no secret that the new pontiff's treatment of moral issues has aroused the biggest interest on the wider front. Over time, the propagated notion of a Pope bent on "changing" those aspects of church teaching that conflict with secularized Western society has aroused increasing concern among Francis' team, spurring a new strategy of increasingly explicit rebuttals . The latest example came just yesterday amid the cover piece for the forthcoming Rolling Stone – the first-ever papal fronting on the iconic magazine – which included a sidebar on "10 conservatives who have gone liberal" and was promptly rapped by the VatiSpox, Fr Federico Lombardi, as having "disqualified itself" by "falling in the usual mistake of a superficial journalism." Today, the clarification of substance fell to Francis himself, ...
Read more