New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and has written over seventy books for kids who wonder, too. Her titles include award-winning picture books like Over and Under the Snow , The Next Scientist, and The Scariest Kitten in the World as well as novels for older readers like Breakout and The Trouble with Heroes. Kate also writes the popular History Smashers graphic nonfiction series and the Ranger in Time historical adventures, and she leads the multi-author team behind The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class chapter books. Kate lives on Lake Champlain and is a proud Adirondack 46er.
New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner is passionately curious and writes books that encourage kids to wonder, too. Her titles include award-winning picture books like Over and Under the Snow, Over and Under the Wetland, The Next Scientist, and The Scariest Kitten in the World; novels like Breakout and Chirp; the Fergus and Zeke easy readers; the popular Ranger in Time chapter book series; and the History Smashers graphic nonfiction series. Kate also leads the multi-author team behind The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class chapter books.
Kate’s titles are frequently selected for One School, One Book and One School/One Author programs and other community-wide reads. Her books have been New York Times Notable, Junior Library Guild, IndieBound, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections. Her novel The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. won the E.B. White Read Aloud Medal, and her science picture books have been finalists for the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences/Subaru SB&F prize for excellence in science writing.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Kate was a TV news reporter as well as an educator who spent fifteen years teaching middle school English. She lives on Lake Champlain with her family and is a proud Adirondack 46er. (from author's website)
Up in the Garden and down in the Dirt
by
Read Aloud from KIP TV (10:16 minutes)
Farmer Al reads from Jones Farm in Shelton CT (6:20 minutes)
All the Answers
by
(14:08 minutes)
Questions for Engaging with All the Answers by S. Gault
How would you use a magical pencil? What questions would you ask it?
Is there anyone you would particularly like to help, with the assistance of your pencil?
Are there any questions you would not want the answers to?
Do Ava’s worries feel familiar to you? What things do you worry about?
Where do you turn when you are looking for answers?
Are there any particular people in your life you turn to?
The Trouble with Heroes
by
The Trouble with Heroes (p.153)
(This sonnet is revised intro for the Poetry Project)
A hero's work is never really done.
They save the kid or douse the raging flames
and then they get their moment in the sun
with grateful people calling out their names.
They ride on floats in holiday parades,
forever honored by old high school friends
who play their parts in every last charade
until the hero's moment finally ends.
And when the spotlifht dims, the ghosts are real
and piercing cries wil haunt the bravest heart.
But heroes learn to hide it, to conceal
the pain that grows until it bursts apart.
The nightmares never leave. They never dade.
And heroes aren't allowed to be afraid.
The Trouble with Heroes (p.348)
It's not the way they go around saving
everybody or even the way they keep running
into burning buildings.
It's the way we look at them.
The way we tack them to bulletin boards
and never let them rest.
Because maybe being a hero
isn't about doing the right thing
all the time -- the brave thing -- the running
into buildings thing. Maybe it's about choosing
a path, even when there's no good one.
Choosing anyway.
And sometimes choosing wrong.
And being brave enough to try again.
(4:52 minutes)
Kate Messner and Kim Douillard (36:18 minutes).
Begin at minute 2:35
(46:40 min.)
Ethan (14-year-old) interviews Kate Messner (40 minutes)
Candlewick Press (5:54 minutes)
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CASCADE-AND-PORTER COOKIES
p.81
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet.
½ cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 stick of butter, softened but not melted
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 ½ cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup toffee pieces (or chopped Heath bars)
16 chocolate-covered orange peels, cut in half the long way, into thin strips
Mix together sugar and wet ingredients until smooth.
Stir in salt and baking powder.
Stir in flour.
Add chocolate chips and toffee pieces, and mix.
Scoop balls of dough onto cookie sheet two inches apart.
Bake at 350 degrees for seven minutes.
While cookies are baking, cut the orange rinds in half the long way.
After seven minutes, remove baking sheet from oven and press half an orange find gently into the middle of each cookie.
Return to oven and bake for another two to five minutes, until cookies are golden brown and eggs are beginning to look crisp.
Cool on a baking rack before eating.
BIG SLIDE COOKIES
p.101
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix up the usual chocolate chip cookie dough recipe but leave out the chocolate chips.
Bake chipless cookies for nine minutes.
Then remove from oven.
Add three chocolate chips on top, all in a row
Then plunk down one big Hershey’s kiss at the end.
Bake for another minute or two.
Let cookies cool before eating.*
*Eat these cookies chocolate chips first, and save the big one for last.
STREET AND NYE COOKIES
Featuring pretzel sticks as fallen trees and gooey chocolate mud) p.123
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Start with basic chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, but substitute milk chocolate chunks for chips.
Spoon dough onto a greased cookie sheet.
Before baking, break up a bunch of thin pretzel sticks into one-inch pieces.
Poke five to six into each cookie so they’re sticking out from the dough.
Bake for ten minutes until brown around the edges.
Remove from oven and let cool before eating.
WRIGHT, ALGONQUIN AND IROQUIS COOKIES
p.152
Grease a cookie sheet and preheat oven to 375 degrees
Ingredients:
½ cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened but not melted
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 ½ cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped up peanut butter cups
Mix together sugar, peanut butter, and wet ingredients until smooth
Stir in salt, baking soda and baking powder.
Stir in flour.
Add chocolate chips, peanut butter cup pieces, and mix.
Scoop balls of dough onto cookie sheet two inches apart
Bake at 375 degrees about ten minutes, until edges are golden brown.
Cool on a baking rack before eating.
ALLEN MOUNTAIN COOKIES
p.189
Bake regular chocolate chip cookies. Then pour a few gallons of water on them. And some melted butter, so they’re good and greasy. Then try to frost them with vanilla frosting. It won't work but try anyway. Drizzle on some red food coloring for the slime. The cookies will be a hot mess and so will you.
Ta-da!
You have captured the spirit of Allen Mountain.
(I’m just kidding. Don’t really do any of that. Just make some chocolate chip cookies and call it a day.)
DIX RANGE CHOCOLATE COCONUT ENERGY BITES
P.224
When you’re climbing five mountains in one day, you need all the extra energy you can get. Mix up these no-bake cookies the day before your hike so you can chill overnight and roll into energy balls for trail snacks.
Ingredients:
1 cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup toasted coconut flakes
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
⅓ cup honey
Mix all ingredients together. Chill in the fridge overnight or for an hour or two, until mixture is cold and easy to handle. Roll into one-inch balls.
