From: Susan Taylor Brown <susan>
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 21:12:06 -0800

I want to thank Lee Bennett Hopkins for his endorsement of my verse novel, Hugging the Rock. It is such an honor to have Lee praise my book! I thought those of you not familiar with the book might appreciate a little bit of information about it.

Hugging the Rock is for every child who has ever been let down by a parent. I never knew my father but I have spent most of my life wondering about him, wondering what kind of person he was, and what kind of person I might have been had he stuck around. Even though I learned how to pick up and go on, when there is a hole like that in your life it colors everything you think and do for the rest of your life. You can't help it. I wrote Hugging the Rock to give myself the father I wish had raised me. In it, I imagined a young girl and her father discovering each other after the mother (who is bipolar) leaves the family.

You can read an excerpt from the book (and download a teacher guide) on my website:
<http://susantaylorbrown.com/mybooks.html#readrock>http://susantaylorbrown.com/mybooks.html#readrock

There are some books that break your heart as you write them. This was one of those books for me. But I also found that writing it helped heal parts of me that had been broken for most of my life.

Susan Taylor Brown

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hugging the Rock (Tricycle Press, September 2006) Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom (Millbrook, January 2006) Oliver's Must-do List (Boyds Mills Press, October 2005)
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Received on Tue 07 Nov 2006 11:12:06 PM CST