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Eight Penguin Group (USA) Books Named Finalists for the 2008 Edgar Awards

Eight titles from Penguin Group (USA) have been nominated for the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Awards:

• 
• In the Woods by Tana French (Viking) for Best First Novel
• Arthur Conan Doyle by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (The Penguin Press) for Best Critical/Biographical
• The Birthday Party by Stanley Alpert (G. P. Putnam's Sons) for Best Fact Crime
• Relentless Pursuit by Kevin Flynn (G. P. Putnam's Sons) for Best Fact Crime
• Sacco & Venzetti by Bruce Watson (Viking) for Best Fact Crime
• Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Dial Books for Young
• Readers) for Best Young Adult
• Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault (Berkley Prime Crime) for the Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award
• The First Stone by Judith Kelman (Berkley Prime Crime) for the Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award

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I am a very lucky teacher. It's fantastic taking students around the country and meeting so many passionate, caring, and talented people who make a difference in children's lives. It is interesting hearing the questions of both beginning teachers and skilled veterans. My students have noticed a few repeatedly asked questions in every city we visit. One of them happens after an audience has watched the Hobart Shakespeareans, aged ten, perform music and Shakespeare. The inevitable question comes up: are all of your students gifted and talented?

When I explain that there are all kinds of children in Room 56, there is always a teacher or two who doubts that to be true. I wish they could have accompanied me recently when my students and I flew home from Chicago after two weeks on the road. We got up at 4:00 a.m. that morning to catch an early morning flight. I made it back to Room 56 around 11:00 a.m. Los Angeles time. The kids who had not been with me on the trip were studying the Industrial Revolution with Mr. Toliz, a terrific young teacher who has been kind enough to teach my class while I was on tour. The kids were excited about my return, and I took over the lesson.

Once the children began working on some written work, a tall 5^th grader named Felipe quietly came up and asked to speak with me. He told me he had an accident. That morning he had wet his pants and there was a puddle on the floor under his seat. This was a remarkable moment. He had enough trust in me to tell me about a very embarrassing moment, and I excused him to go to the nurse so he could call home and get a change of pants. While the kids were out at lunch, I was on my hands and knees cleaning a fairly large pond of urine off the floor.

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The extraordinary grassroots effort that has begun on behalf of Patry Francis has turned into "The Liar's Diary Blog Day" which is taking place today on January 29^th.

After Patry blogged on her own site about her cancer diagnosis, not only was she flooded with gifts and well-wishes, but fellow writers decided that they would promote The Liar's Diary on her behalf.

The list of bloggers and reviewers continues to grow, and is currently over 300 people. The updated list is available in the post on the LitPark blog and as of present, includes:

Mario Acevedo
Susan Adrian
Samina Ali
Christa Allan
Anne-Marie
Joelle Anthony
Jorge Argueta
Melanie Avila
Tricia Ares
Backspace
Backstory
Terry Bain
Gail Baker - The Debutante Ball
Anjali Banerjee