A Caribbean Christmas

The following posts were done in segments during our trip and posted together because Internet access on board is difficult at best!


Day One:
Sailing from San Juan

Greetings from Puerto Rico. We arrived in San Juan last night, and the pictures above are the view from our room at La Concha this morning. Each time I come to San Juan I gain more appreciation for the city. Its Spanish colonial flavor reminds me of home (San Antonio) and yet the beaches, the Caribbean vibe, and the laid back atmosphere make for a unique and wonderful experience. It’s the perfect place to begin an adventure.

I’m writing from our cruise ship. We sail out tonight for St. Martin. Before leaving yesterday, I mailed off the (mostly) final version of The Last Olympian to my editor, so I think we’re very close to the text that will appear when it’s published on May 5. Revision is a long and delicate process, but I’m satisfied that Percy fans won’t be disappointed in the ending of the series. I know I’m happy with it. Once you finish The Last Olympian, I also think it will be fairly clear where the next series is heading – a whole new set of adventures and problems for Camp Half-Blood! But of course, that’s all I can say about that for now.

Have a good holiday, everyone! I’ll try to post again later in the cruise.

Day Four:
Somewhere off the coast of Venezuela

Christmas Eve Day, and we are sailing for Bonaire, a tiny island north of Venezuela and near the island of Aruba.

Sunday we arrived in St. Maartin and drove to the French side of the island for a glass-bottom boat ride around Creole Rock. We saw tons of fish, sea urchins, and fire coral (look, but do not touch). We’ve been to St. Maartin twice before, but for such a small island there is always more to see. I had never been to the French side before, and it is beautiful. Orient Bay is definitely on my list of places to see next time. The planes come in for a landing right over the beach – so low it’s almost scary. We saw the oldest church on the island, constructed of ballast stones from the days of sailing ships, and learned that St. Maartin used to be known for the production of salt, back when it was the only way of preserving food. Refrigeration put an end to that industry. Now, it’s all about tourism.

Monday we sailed into Dominica. Gorgeous, wild island. If I was King Kong, I would definitely live here. The interior is all cloud-covered mountains, most of it still inaccessible by road. I had no idea that the last 3000 Carib Indians (from whom we get the name ‘Caribbean’ and who Columbus first encountered) live on the north part of Dominica. Above, you can see some pictures of the port city Rouseau and the mountains behind it. We took a whale and dolphin safari during the morning, and were about to give up hope when we came across a pod of seven sperm whales that were socializing off the coast. There was a baby (very cute) and one whale who’d picked up some green algae, so his skin was a strange color blue. We also saw some false killer whales, and don’t ask me what makes them ‘false.’ I have no idea. The sail out from Dominica at sunset was a site to behold. Another place I definitely want to visit again.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we arrived in Grenada (pronounced Gre-nay-da, unlike the Gre-nah-da in Spain). The old fort looks down from a hill, and seemed to be pointing its antique cannons right at our cruise ship. A leftover from Ronald Reagan’s invasion of the island in the 1980s? Well, okay, probably not, but it was a cool sight. The harbor at St. George is really picturesque. We took a catamaran to Flamingo Bay to do some snorkeling, and then got to spend some time on the beach making sandcastles and swimming. The boys had a great time. Tonight, Santa will visit our stateroom. No chimney, but we have a nice big deck where he can land the reindeer.

Right now, I’m looking out at a rainstorm over the Caribbean. Hopefully it will clear up by the time we arrive in Bonaire! Merry Christmas Eve.

Day Six: Christmas in Aruba

Merry Christmas from the island of windmills and cacti. Aruba, a desert island, only gets 14 inches of rain a year, and I think we got most of that this morning. It was pouring when we arrived, and continued to rain throughout the morning. Fortunately by this afternoon it had cleared off, so we caught a taxi to the Occidental Resort for a little beach time. Iguanas run free around the Occidental pool, which was very cool, but we had to be careful not to step on the little guys. Aruba reminds me a lot of South Padre Island in Texas, but with nicer beaches and bluer water. We are sitting on the balcony now, watching a warm steamy afternoon fade over the city. Tomorrow, we have a sea day as we sail back to San Juan. All in all, it’s been a great Christmas. During the week, we’ve been enjoying the Bone series of graphic novels by Jeff Smith. I started reading them. Then Haley got interested and devoured them. Now Patrick is just finishing book three. Unfortunately, we only brought the first three, so we’ll have to get more when we get home. It’s a great series with adventure, humor, and romance – and the coolest red dragon ever. Check it out if you haven’t yet.

The Demigod Files approach!

This week I learned that pre-orders have been exceptionally strong for The Demigod Files, a Percy Jackson auxiliary book which will be published on February 10. For those who are curious, the book will include three short stories: "The Bronze Dragon," "The Stolen Chariot," and the new fifty-page story "The Sword of Hades," (which will be published as a separate title in the UK). The Demigod Files also includes a map of camp, a look inside Annabeth's camp chest, and portraits of many of the main characters. You'll also get interviews with the characters. What is Grover's favorite song for the reed pipes? What does Annabeth really think of Percy? What magic weapon would Percy want if he had to trade for Riptide? All these questions and more will be answered. Plus the book will include a sneak peek at Percy Jackson 5: The Last Olympian, which will be published in May. I hope you enjoy it when it comes out!

Newbery Article in the Washington Post

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article about the direction of the Newbery Award. Must be the season for these, I guess.

A segment, as reported in Publishers Lunch:

St. John's University John Beach "studied 30 years of book lists chosen by children and adults. He found that less than 5 percent overlap between the Children's Choice Awards -- named every year by the International Reading Association -- and the library association's annual Notable Children's Books list, which includes many Newbery and Caldecott winners. Beach asserts, "The Newbery has probably done far more to turn kids off to reading than any other book award in children's publishing."

Pat Scales, president of the Association for Library Service to Children, defends the Newbery as follows: "It is about literary quality. We don't expect every child to like every book. How many adults have read all the Pulitzer Prize-winning books and the National Book Award winners and liked every one?"

(Which makes me wonder, 'Yes, but do you care if any child likes any of the books?' Apparently not.)

Anita Silvey replies: "Quality and popularity are not mutually exclusive concepts. They can be found in the same book. . . . If you don't think of children at all in the equation, what you get are books that work for adults."

Bingo. It's interesting to me that we talk about challenging young readers and trusting their skills to tackle difficult novels, which is admirable, but we don't trust them enough to determine the quality of books for themselves. "Oh, if the kids like that," we seem to say, "it can't be any good."

Perhaps we should just relabel the Newbery, 'Best book for adults who like to read literary books about children.' The debate is not likely to go away, but it is sad that things haven't changed much since I was a kid, when I learned very quickly that the little gold sticker means, "Run away!" Oh, there are some wonderful exceptions on the Newbery list. It's just too bad they are only exceptions.

Demigod of the Week

Thanks to several fans who alerted me to an interesting flurry of comments on Evan Smith's blog, which featured our recent video interview for Texas Monthly Talks.

14-year-old Kay begins the conversation with this observation:

"Ok, really. I love the Percy Jackson Series! Guess what I’m 14 and a girl. I’m so tired of people referring to these books as for pre-teen boys. Please stop! All my friends (Who also happen to be girls) love it as well. It’s great for all genders and ages!"

Several other girl readers chimed in, agreeing with Kay.

Thanks for the comment, Kay! While I'm proud to have my books being recommended for boys, I have to say that fully half of the fan mail I receive comes from girls. In fact, the first time an interviewer asked if I'd written my series for girls or boys, I wasn't sure how to respond. It had never occurred to me. As a teacher, I always taught in a co-ed environment, and I couldn't conceive of fashioning a story that only appealed to one gender. It's true, I'm a guy, and I have two sons, so I tend to like stories that appeal to guys. But I hope my books never get labeled as "guys only" because that's just not the case.

For speaking up on behalf of all the girl Percy Jackson fans out there, Kay is our demigod of the week. Annabeth would be proud of you!

My Talk with James Patterson

Recently I did an interview with James Patterson for his new website, Read Kiddo Read. If you haven't yet discovered the site, check it out. You can also hear an interview with Riordan family favorite, Jeff Kinney. Very cool!

The Last Visits of the Year

I just returned from Killeen, Texas, where I had my last school visits of 2008. I realized that I’ve visited exactly fifty schools since the academic year began. I’m not sure how that happened, since I only booked twenty days for the whole school year, but I guess when you add on all the publisher-sponsored events, it makes sense. Boy, am I tired of hotels and suitcases!

Nevertheless, I had a wonderful time in Killeen. It’s a small town north of Austin, closely associated with Fort Hood army base. A large majority of the kids I spoke with have one or more parents in the army, and many have parents overseas. The wars have hit this community hard. The students at all three schools were great to work with. I got to do a writer’s workshop each day with selected kids, and it was probably my favorite part of each visit. This sort of presentation is a luxury, since I’m usually talking to several hundred or more at a time. In smaller groups, we get to talk about writing and books, compare ideas, brainstorm silly characters, and basically have fun. It always reminds me why I loved being a classroom teacher.

A good school visit is made up of wonderful moments, and one of the reasons I blog is so I can record them before I forget them. One student named Nick made his own Greek vase from clay, elaborately decorated with mythology scenes. Another student Chloe brought me some candy because she thought I might be hungry and told me about her poetry. A beaming teacher came up to me after a presentation and said, “You know, I was grumpy coming into your presentation because I’m missing classroom time, and my kids were grumpy too. Now, we are SO glad we came!” Braden, a sixth grader, gave me a letter asking for help writing the details of his own stories. He wrote that he is ADHD like Percy, but “when I read your books I feel like I’m in control 100%. I think that is because I can relate to the story.” An anonymous seventh grade girl wrote me a thank you note after one presentation: “I have read only a few books in my life. I really don’t like to read. But after reading only three chapters of your book, I felt the need to read more.” Taylor came in to get his books signed and quietly slipped me a letter to read later. Taylor writes: “I must confess I simply HATE to read. Reading for me is like having to eat broccoli or floss my teeth. I know that both of these things are good for me, but I simply HATE them. And then the first day of seventh grade, I finally found something I like to read.” He goes on to describe how he discovered Percy Jackson, has read the whole series, and is now giving them as gifts to his friends. As an author, I can’t think of anything I’d rather get for Christmas than notes like these.

Thanks to the librarians who hosted me in Killeen and throughout 2008. I hope Santa brings you all a huge library with movable shelves for author presentations to come, because as we all know, the person who invented the cafetorium deserves a huge lump of coal. Thanks to all the dedicated teachers who gave up classroom time to read Percy Jackson with their students. I hope Santa fills your stockings with extra time, great parents, understanding administrators, and all the classroom supplies you could ever need. And if Santa could get rid of that monumental lump of coal known as ‘No Child Left Behind,’ that might be nice too.

Finally, I hope all the families in Killeen and elsewhere who have family members serving overseas will have a good holiday season and can look forward to a safe and quick reunion with their loved ones.

My family is off to the Caribbean for Christmas to hang out with Poseidon. Yes, I know, more suitcases and hotels, but we’re traveling as a family, which is totally different. I will keep you updated on our adventures!

The 39 Clues -- the Hunt Continues!

Yesterday marked the release of 39 Clues #2: One False Note, by Gordon Korman. I got to read the manuscript early and loved it, so I'm not surprised that early reviews of the book have been raves. I also found out that Scholastic has added some new content to the web game, including Arena 39, which sounds awesome.

Just this morning I was browsing for books on the Internet and was pleasantly surprised to find that the cover and title for 39 Clues #3 have been made public! I've copied it above: The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis. The cover may give you some idea where Dan and Amy are headed on their third adventure. This book comes out April 1. Book #4 will be written by Jude Watson, which by the way is a nom de plume for Judy Blundell, who just won the YA National Book Award for What I Saw and How I Lied. I'd say Dan and Amy are in good hands.

Meanwhile, book 1, The Maze of Bones, enters week twelve on the New York Times bestseller list and is going strong. I'm glad so many kids are enjoying the series!

Texas Monthly Talks

Last month at the Texas Book Festival, I got to talk with Evan Smith, editor of Texas Monthly, for his PBS television show Texas Monthly Talks. The program aired on Thanksgiving, but if you missed it you can watch it at this link.