Update on Jackson Minteeng Liaram

Good news! On July 23 Carl and I will toast our wedding anniversary and also the birth of a wee one 7,500 miles away. We missed his 5:30 a.m. phone call but Jackson followed up with an e-mail that the night of July 23 his wife, Susan Nekwama, presented him with a second child, a boy, to join daughter Mereso. He said I could post a picture of the baby for all of you to see.

ALA Conference in Chicago

Wendie Old, with the all-black cat she takes to schools when speaking about her Halloween Book of Facts and Fun, Gwendolyn Hooks and Amy Hansen , just before we spoke, and Christine Taylor-Butler taking some photos. I'm sorry I don't have more photos, especially of Anastasia Suen, who kept us on task online and worked so hard on the PowerPoint presentation and other logistics.
I have been home over a week and very busy but want to say how great the American Library Assoc. conference in Chicago was. Laura Purdie Salas, Gwendolyn Hooks, and I had an excellent writer chat one afternoon. Gwendolyn and I joined 16 other writers and, amazingly, almost 300 attendees at the Nonfiction Bookblast. None of us expected the crowd to hear us to be so huge! Nonfiction is definitely a hot topic in the world of children's lit. these days. It's also fun to meet old friends I don't see too often, like Marilyn Courtot, who also belongs to the Children's Book Guild of DC and for whom I review books for her database.

A wonderful trip!

Speaking about The Leakeys book

This will be short, as I'm off to pack and fly to Chicago to join a panel of other nonfiction writers at the American Library Association conference. Meeting fellow writers face-to-face that I now know only online is exciting and seeing old friends, like Amy Hansen and Wendie Old, will also be fun.

I hope Wendie has her camera. For my booktalk, I'm wearing a gorgeous necklace and cape in the Maasai colors of black and red that the Liaram family gave me when we visited. Hopefully, my next post will include some photos.

If you're at the ALA, join us at the "Non-fiction Bookblast: Booktalks for Reluctant Readers"
Sunday, July 12, 2009, 10:30 a.m.-noon
ALA Annual Conference, Chicago Convention Center, room W181
Wiki at http://nfbookblast.pbworks.com/

Great Migration in full swing!

Today's e-mail from the Mara Triangle said "Not very professional video, but gives you a small sense of the spectacle." That's understatement! True, it's not professional but the sheer drama of huge wildebeests tumbling over each other to get down a ravine and across the Mara River, with a lion twitching its tail in gleeful anticipation of a fine dinner is amazing! For more, see the Mara Triangle blog.

Wildebeest Crossing Mara River - Oh **** there's a lion! from Stood in the Congo on Vimeo.

Weather and watching the Mara change

I keep a weather app on my iPhone that tells me the temperature at various spots where family live. I check Dexter, MI, where my daughter and family live -- colder in winter than Maryland. I check Ocean City, MD, and think how great it would be any time of year to walk along the beach.

Nairobi has a consistent temperature. It may be snow-cone cold or Hades hot in Maryland but it's usually between 70 and 80° F. (21-27° C.) in Kenya year-round. Despite minimal swings in temperature, the Mara has a rhythm of rain that changes patterns of animal travel. More animals when rain makes green grass and easy grazing then means more animal watchers. I had an e-mail from Jackson. He wrote: "We are getting busy and the Wildebeests Migration has just spread all over the Mara. This year they have come early, perhaps the Serengeti is very dry."

So the greatest wild animal show on earth is beginning early this year! Check out Paul Kirui's Mara blog to see some fantastic photos of lion and cheetah in trees!