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Sep 27, 2011 
The Mixed-Up Middle-Grade Skype Tour bus is full of gas, motor running, ready to take off. Post a comment HERE by October 3 for your class, group, or troup’s chance to win a Skype visit from a Mixed-Up Middle-Grade Author!
Today we bring you two of those authors– Uma Krishnaswami and um…. me Tami Lewis Brown.
Last night Uma and I had a phenomenal time meeting kids, parents, and middle-grade book lovers at the Takoma Park Library in Takoma Park, Maryland. Thank so much librarian Karen MacPherson for inviting us. And HUGE thanks to Politics and Prose Bookstore for co-sponsoring the event and handling book sales. (And one of our best middle-grade writing buddies, Katy Kelly, the author of the Lucy Rose and Melon Head series was there, too. Yay Katy! We love your books and kids love them too!)
Would you like me or Uma to drop by your library, class or bookclub via Skype? It’s easy. Just enter by leaving a comment HERE.
This isn’t the first time Uma has dropped in on From The Mixed-Up Files. Read Sheela Chari’s interview of Uma here. But since we were in a library… talking about books…I asked Uma more questions about her favorite books and about visiting with readers.
Uma, what book did you love as an eight to twelve year old?
Just one? Surely you jest. I’ll cheat and name a series, the Adventure books by British children’s writer Enid Blyton (The Castle of Adventure, the Mountain of Adventure, and so on). I grew up in India and Blyton was big in the former British colonies! Here’s a post about her books by a fellow expat, Sandip Roy: http://www.firstpost.com/living/memories-of-enid-blyton-past-a-birthday-ode-58796.html
I love Blyton, too, but I’d never heard of her until I was an adult.
Tell us about your newest book, The Grand Plan To Fix Everything-
Eleven-year old Dini loves movies—watching them, reading about them, trying to write her own—especially Bollywood movies. But when her mother tells her some big news, it does not at all jive with the script of her life she has in mind. Her family is moving to India…and, not even to Bombay, which is the center of the Bollywood universe and home to Dini’s all-time most favorite star, Dolly.
I’ve read The Grand Plan and I can tell you right now Dini is one special kid… and yes she does fix just about everything, along with monkeys and chocolate. The Grand Plan to Fix Everything is a fabulous blend of realistic, modern, domestic and exotic. I loved it… and you will too. Watch Uma’s trailer and see for yourself–
As an eager reader pointed out last night, The Grand Plan and my new book The Map Of Me have some things in common. Number one is spunky girl protagonists who do what they need to do to get things done… even if that requires extraordinary measures sometimes.
The Map Of Me is the story of two sisters, one stolen car, and a whole flock of chickens. Who says twelve year olds can’t drive?
Realistic? Let me just say this…we had a ten year old at our presentation last night who claimed she already has her driver’s license… regardless Margie Tempest knows where to find the key to Daddy’s Faithful Ford and when duty calls she’s ready to save the day.
Get a flavor of The Map Of Me by watching my trailer.
Both Uma and I love author visits and we’ve both prepared activity kits to get readers more involved.
You can download the kit for The Grand Plan To Fix Everything here- Activity Kit for The Grand Plan
And you can download my kit for The Map Of Me here- Activity Kit for The Map Of Me.
Both are PDF downloads. If you don’t have Adobe Reader download a free copy here.
What’s that? The bus is ready? Hop on, Uma! It’s almost time to head out.
Don’t forget to enter to win a visit from a fantastic middle-grade author… and come back here on Thursday to meet more authors who’d love to visit your school, library, troop, or group!
Tami Lewis Brown is driving the Mixed-Up Middle-Grade Skype tour bus… between author visits, writing, and trying to do the laundry.
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