Awards

American Library Association Best Book for 1994
ALA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
Michigan Library Association's Best Book of the Year
California Young Readers' Medal.

A New York Public Libraries' Prestigious Book for Young Adults
Texas Lone Star, Nebraska Golden Sower and Corn Huskers' award and recognition lists. A nominee for the Dorothy Canfield Fischer (Vermont), Utah Children's Choice, New Jersey Garden State Teen Book, Rebecca Caudill (Ill), Volunteer State Award (Tenn) and Iowa Teen Awards.

The Only Alien on the Planet is now published by PonyMoon Press and can be purchased at the PonyMoon Press Bookshop

If you are a student or an educator, or if you represent a book club, please write Schools (at)ponymoon(dot)com for educational pricing.We are also offering a packet of educational materials for classroom use. If you would like to be included on a mailing list for news about discussion groups or these materials, please write to ponymoon press: list (at) ponymoon (dot) com

The two covers you see here are from the Italian edition and the Norwegian one, the existence of which is delightful to me. (Why the Norwegians included a cat on the cover is beyond me, though.)

It's odd to me that my book is being read in schools all over the USA, and in countries outside of my own. I remember hating a lot of the books I had to read in school; I'm kind of hoping my book doesn't have that effect on its readers.

The book is not about any actual person I have known. I think my characters tend to be composites of all sorts of people and ideas. My stories seem to come out of a mosaic of memories and observations, pictures mixed with meaning. Sometimes people ask me how I go about focusing the mental mess that eventually becomes a book --- the truth is that my books usually start with a person and whatever it is in his or her life that might catch our attention. Everything else spins out from there.

If you have questions you think I might be able to answer, I'd be glad to try. I like hearing from folks. It's always kind of a surprise for me to realize that people I don't know yet are reading something I've written - people who live in places I've never even been.

I worked with a wonderful editor at Scholastic, Tonya, who listened carefully to what I was carrying around in my head, and then made sure what I had written lined up with what she'd heard.