Books and Bears

We’ve just returned from a week in Denali National Park where we were surrounded by immense beauty. I feel fortunate to live just a couple hours away from a jewel of a National Park.

Denali, the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet was visible for part of our trip.

We also got to watch—from a safe distance—a grizzly bear nurse her cubs.

Then, we arrived home to surprise. Author copies of Follow the River—my follow-up novel to Surviving Bear Island. It’s an adventure/survival story with the same main character (Tom Parker) from Surviving Bear Island, but can be read as a stand-alone novel, and is a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Follow The River comes out August 20^th but you can pre-order it now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local Indie bookstore.

I’ll be spending my writing time the next several months working on Book 3 of the Surviving Bear Island Series. In a few weeks when school starts and I’m back in the classroom, I’ll be back to more of an early morning, write-a-chapter-before-work schedule which I hope to sustain four mornings per week and then let the writing spill into other time slots as well.

Thanks for reading.

Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection and Hostile Territory (Macmillan Jan. 28, 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020. Forthcoming is Follow the River (Move Books August 20, 2021) . You can order all of Paul’s books here.

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Follow The River: A JLG Selection

After a few pandemic-related delays, I’m thrilled to announce that my newest middle grade adventure novel, Follow the River, is a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2021. Follow the River hits the shelves on August 20^th but you can preorder it now.

From the Jacket Flap: When Billy and his dad are injured, Tom summons the courage to get back on the water to save them. This time, he must travel in a rickety old homemade canoe through the Alaska wilderness to get help. But it’s not just the canoe and the terrain he has to worry about—he’s surrounded by adversaries. Are his skills enough to fight them off or will his journey be cut short and Billy and his father left stranded?

Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection and Hostile Territory (Macmillan Jan. 28, 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020. Forthcoming is Follow the River (Move Books 2021) . You can order all of Paul’s books here.

Thanks for stopping by.

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The ALAN Workshop: What it means to me

 

From 2003 to 2007 I attended the ALAN Workshop, which is a two-day affair where up to 80 Young Adult Literature Authors give talks, sign books and make themselves available to converse with the 500 teachers and librarians who attend. I looked forward to the ALAN Workshop every year for two reasons.

1. The participants bring home a large quantity of some of the best of the year’s Young Adult Literature provided by publishers. As a teacher, I added these books to my Classroom Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s me on my treadmill desk where I’ve done a lot of writing over the years.

 

 

2. As a writer, it provided inspiration for me to keep plugging away at my own young adult novel manuscripts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flash forward eight years and countless rewrites of several manuscripts, and the publication of Surviving Bear Island, and I got an invitation to speak at the conference that provided endless books for my students and ongoing inspiration for me as a writer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was on the Debut Author Panel at the 2015 ALAN Workshop. I was both nervous and excited in the days leading up to the Conference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But arriving at the Conference and being among all these people who love Young Adult Literature, some new acquaintances and some old friends, I really felt like I had come full-circle, that I had come home as a writer and a teacher after an eight year journey.

 

Meeting Christine Taylor Butler, author of The Lost Tribes, and another Move Books Author.

Reuniting with Daria Plumb, an amazing Alternative Education Teacher and ALAN President.

Reuniting with Kelly Sassi, former Fairbanks Teacher who is now a Professor of English and Education in North Dakota. Meeting her son, Max, for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, thanks ALAN for providing a supportive home for writers, teachers, and librarians to return to year after year. We may not all make it there every year, but just knowing that its there, carrying the torch of keeping relevant books in the hands of teens, is reassuring.

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A letter of Appreciation

I was totally surprised this week when I got this letter in the mail regarding Surviving Bear Island. I feel fortunate to have a Representative who supports education and the arts.

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First Bookstore Sighting: Surviving Bear Island

The people at Barnes and Noble in Mishawaka, Indiana were kind enough to send me this photo. It’s my first official Bookstore sighting of Surviving Bear Island. And, it’s in a bookstore just a few miles from where I grew up. I’ve had a flurry of activity the last couple of days setting up three events: A school visit in Fairbanks on April 29th, a reading in Fairbanks on May 2nd, and a book signing in Indiana on June 27th. Details can be found here.

If you spot Surviving Bear Island in a bookstore or library I’d love to see photos. Or, if you have a copy I’d love to see a photo of you with the book in your hands.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

   Purchase at Amazon or Barnes and Noble

 

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