Betsy Franco
Children's Book Author
  Pond Circle, June 2009  Bees, Snails, & Peacock Tails  Birdsongs  Mathematickles!  Summer Beat  Counting Our Way to the 100th Day!  You Hear Me?  Things I Have to Tell You  Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming  Conversations with a Poet |
About the Author Tom Franco's illustration for the chapter called "Slam Dunk"in my YA novel, Metamorphosis
copyright 2009 Tom Franco  A Curious Collection of Cats inspired by my cat muses, Frida and Jada, is out in time for poetry month. I need to post some of the reviews because I feel like the reviewers really understand me and my amazing illustrator, Michael Wertz.  Falling Hard, 100 love poems by teenagers was reviewed in the NY Times! My fourth anthology with Candlewick Press, it's an ALA Quick Pick and on the New York Public Library list of Books for the Teen Age. I had a great time speaking about it on Boston NPR. The anthology is an uncensored discussion of love through poetry.  Metamorphosis, Junior Year, October 2009 is forthcoming from Candlewick Press in October 2009. My sculptor son Tom is the illustrator, and my actor sons, James and Dave, will read the audio version! NEWS: Met some great poet friends at a poetry reading in Houston. Look them up: Hope Anita Smith, J.Patrick Lewis, Georgia Heard, and Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. I've gotten into comedy these days--writing and acting in SNL-type sketches with a comedy troupe, Suburban Squirrel, that's an offshoot from my Stanford drama class. My son James even mentioned us on Letterman--twice! We've given two performances, and we're hoping to eventually be online. And...Judd Apatow's crew came over to film a comic video I wrote. It was so much fun, I'm moving to LA to become an actor...just kidding. But, honestly, it did get me a Hollywood audtion, which James also mentioned on Letterman. Some people have asked about that: I didn't get the part but had an amazing time doing it. In August, BEES, SNAILS, AND PEACOCK TAILS came out with Simon & Schuster. This is my second book illustrated by Caldecott Honor winnter, Steve Jenkins. I'm very lucky. See all five of my 2009 books in "Future Works." ABOUT ME: I've written over eighty books for children and young adults—picture books, poetry collections, and nonfiction. I also write young adult novels and compile anthologies of teenage writing from across the country and around the world. I particularly love to show how exciting, sassy, and creative math can be, and how wise, honest, and insightful teenagers can be. I live in Palo Alto, California, with my husband Douglas. We have three sons, James, Thomas, and Dave--two actor/ My publishers include Candlewick Press, Margaret K. McElderry/ Conversations with a Poet, Richard C. Owen Publishers, consists of my personal philosophy about writing and teaching poetry, along with samples and guidelines for writing 16 poetry forms "...must-have 21st century pathway to poetry..." Lee Bennett Hopkins See www.rcowen.com for ordering. (see image to left) Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming, stories and poems by American Indian teenagers and young adults, Candlewick Press Math Poetry, Goodyear Books, Arizona Book Award for best educational book My Pinkie Finger, Grolier Children's Press Counting Caterpillars and Other Math Poems, Scholastic See www.booksense.com and www.amazon.com for a more complete listing. For school visits, e-mail franco.betsy@ "Betsy Franco inspires trust in the various people she meets in the course of her work as writer, poet, and anthologist." Candlewick Press "very gifted and inspirational as a teacher of young children..." El Carmelo Elementary School "You were a big hit with my students." "I really liked it when you said you like working with teens." "You were very inspiring and your dedication to art is a great influence to me with my music." Los Altos High School "It was very inspirational...I found it helpful because I'm an artistic person and I plan to live my life in an artistic way." Stephanie, Palo Alto High School |
|
