Fall 2005
 

Stephanie S. Tolan
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Notes from the Author – Fall 2005

I’d planned to write these notes every month, but that just hasn’t worked out. It’s mid-October as I write these, so I’ve decided to call this the “Fall Edition.”

I’m about to go off to Vermont, where Katherine Paterson and I are writing a stage adaptation of Surviving the Applewhites, which has been commissioned by the Columbus Children’s Theatre, Columbus, OH. We have collaborated previously (along with composer Steve Liebman) on stage versions, with music, of Katherine’s books, Bridge to Terabithia and Tale of the Mandarin Ducks, (both published by Samuel French) and Beatrix Potter’s Jemima Puddle-Duck (published by Dramatists Play Service) as well as writing an original musical, Good King Wenceslas, a Christmas Carol, which has yet to be produced. (Plays)

Since Surviving the Applewhites will be a play and not a musical, we will sadly not be working with Steve. The intention is to have a staged reading of the script at Columbus Children’s Theatre in the spring of 2006 and a full production the following season. Now we get to decide how to handle the fact that the book has two goats, one Bassett hound, and a swearing parrot, none of which are easy to put on stage!

Other news since the last Author’s Notes is that Surviving the Applewhites won the Kentucky Blue Grass Award for books written for 6th through 8th grades and the William Allen White Award in Kansas (also 6th-8th), both awards voted on by students. Trips to Louisville, Kentucky and Emporia, Kansas were, therefore, added to my fall schedule. In Kansas, which began the idea of a children’s choice award 53 years ago, the award ceremony drew nearly 900 students from around the state in support of reading. It was great good fun all around!

Once the draft of the script is completed, I’ll be coming back to continue work on the third book of the Ark trilogy, Beyond the Dark.


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Last modified: March 05, 2007