Two things have made it easier.

First, Can I See Your I.D.? has been named to the Young Adult Library Services Association’s 2012 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers. What’s that about? Well…

The Quick Picks list, presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting suggests books that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure; it is geared to the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read. The 2012 list features 117 titles; the committee also selected a top ten list, denoted here by an asterisk.

“There is something here for everyone, from our struggling readers in middle school to the overscheduled young adult looking for a really good read,” said Chair Heather Gruenthal. “I am really proud of this year’s committee for their work with teen groups from across the country and coming up with such a diverse list. Only on Quick Picks can you find zombies, superheroes, gangs, ghost hunters, murderers, monsters, goth girls, baby animals, gross facts, and sports heroes all in the same place.”

And then there’s this review of my book (combined with praise for Badass: The Birth of a Legend and The Oxford Companion to Beer):

In Can I See Your ID?, Barton cleverly places readers in the centre of the action by addressing them with the word “you,” as if they are the impostors. Whether writing about a slave posing as a slave owner to escape the Deep South or a penniless woman finding food and lodging by pretending to be an exotic foreigner, Barton captivates, in part because the stories allow him to explore the fascinating psychology of deceit. Each story ends with a sidebar explaining the fate of the impersonator or con artist. At about 120 pages, Can I See Your ID? is a slim but entertaining volume appropriate for middle schoolers and up.

A technical glitch kept this post from appearing for several days after it was written. In the meantime, another kind review of Can I See Your I.D.? popped up, so I’ll quote from that one, too. Many thanks to Kiss the Book!

Engaging and easy to read, Can I see Your ID? would be an excellent way to interest young readers in nonfiction or biographies.

I’ll be giving a presentation called — that is, I’ll be telling a bunch of stories that I collectively call — “My Books Go Into Libraries (But They Come From There, Too).” If you’re the kind of person who thinks that sufficiently funding libraries should be a bipartisan no-brainer, I think you’ll like it. (And if you’re not, I’d welcome the opportunity to try to change your mind.)

I’ll also read a profile from Can I See Your I.D.?, answer questions, sign books, and — with the most minimal of arm-twisting — read Shark Vs. Train. You don’t even have to go “GRRRRR!” and “CHUGRRR-CHUG!” along with the kids, but you’ll probably want to.

If you’re in the Dallas area on Tuesday, please join me at 7 p.m. at a Real Bookstore in Fairview as I read from, discuss, and sign Can I See Your I.D.? You can even ask if you can see my I.D. I promise you nobody else has ever done that.

And if you’re in Austin this weekend and in the Dallas area on Tuesday, please know that you’ve got an excellent chance to make me your best friend for life.

Here are the details on the Texas Book Festival events I’ll be participating in:

A Convergence of Souls
a collaboration with Austin Bat Cave featuring the Festival’s young adult writers
Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 9:00 – 9:45
Location: Lit Crawl: Texas State Cemetery

What’s spookier than a slew of the nation’s finest young adult authors all gathered together in one place? Well, a lot actually – that sounds downright pleasant. But did we mention they’re gathering in the Texas State Cemetery, where the hallowed graves of countless former statesmen (and sometime ghosts) pass their grim vigil? OK, so it might be more than a little spooky, but terror aside, this collection of sheer talent should make for a rather fun evening. You’ll get to meet the writers (listed below), hear them talk about their newest books, and maybe even watch them compete for literary glory. And don’t worry, we promise to keep the prospect of your looming mortality to, you know, a minimum. Bring a blanket and flashlight!

Authors:
Jennifer Ziegler
Margaret Stohl
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Joe Schreiber
Alex Sanchez
Louis Sachar
David Rice
Kathy Reichs
Shelia P. Moses
Barry Lyga
David Levithan
Joe R. Lansdale
Ellen Hopkins
Kami Garcia
Sarah Dessen
James Dashner
Rosemary Clement-Moore
Libba Bray
Chris Barton
Jay Asher
Jessica Lee Anderson
Jill S. Alexander
Emceed By: Kathleen Houlihan

Kids Read Nonfiction, Too!
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2011
Time: 2:00 – 3:00
Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.012

We often recall childhood reading as the time when books we love took us to other worlds, times, and people. But those books aren’t always fiction – well-crafted nonfiction for kids and adolescents engage us in the actual world, without feeling like homework. Come listen to Chris Barton, Jeanette Larson, and Elaine Scott in conversation about how they connect with readers.

Moderator and children’s author Anne Bustard is a former children’s bookseller and teacher, avid listmaker, and fan of Kailua Beach.

Meeting Adam Gidwitz, the Brooklyn-based author of A Tale Dark & Grimm. Adam not only gave the keynote address — he also gave me a lot to think about (starting with, “How can I make the audience laugh as much as he did?”) as I prepare for my own keynote at a similar event in Waco in November. During an informal Q&A (as opposed, I guess, to the rigidly formal Q&A sessions the librarians have come to expect from children’s authors), Adam discussed the eye-opening usefulness of a certain screenwriting guide. Well, that same guide — Save the Cat! — happens to be the very one I’ve been using to help me out in rewrites of my current manuscript, so I knew he was good people, even if he did set an unwelcomely high bar for keynotes.

Hearing Viki Ash of the San Antonio Public Library — and chair of the 2012 Newbery Award Selection Committee — explain the process for choosing the medal winner. Understanding better how it all works makes me all the more hopeful that I can be in the room in Dallas this coming January when the latest crop of ALA winners is announced.

Debuting my new presentation, “Can You See Their I.D.’s?”

When we’re teenagers, we’re all trying on new identities, we’re all on an adventure, and we’re all at least a little bit off. Author Chris Barton brings those three elements together in his YA nonfiction thriller Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities. In this presentation, he’ll discuss how books — from the comic to the tragic — with characters in the throes of identity crises can better equip teen readers to deal with their own.

As part of the presentation, I provided a couple of reading lists. Why, here they are now:

A Pretty Thorough List of Books for Young Readers Written in Second Person
Barton, Chris – Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities
Benoit, Charles – You
Jenkins, A. M. – Damage
Lynch, Chris – Freewill
Montgomery, R. A. – Choose Your Own Adventure 1: The Abominable Snowman

A Highly Selective List of Books for Young Readers With Identity As a Major Theme
Barton, Chris – Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities
Bjorkman, Laura – My Invented Life
Cannon, A. E. – The Loser’s Guide to Life and Love
Cottrell Boyce, Frank – Cosmic
Fletcher, Ralph – Also Known As Rowan Pohi
Larbalestier, Justine – Liar
Perkins, Mitali – First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover
Sonnenblick, Jordan – Zen and the Art of Faking It
Tashjian, Janet – The Gospel According to Larry
Ziegler, Jennifer – How Not to Be Popular

Which titles would you add to either list?

A: Yes

Q: Am I on it?

A: Yes

Q: Am I at least as excited about the other authors who will be appearing as I am about my own participation?

A: Well, let’s see — the lineup includes Jay Asher, Mac Barnett, Libba Bray, Doreen Cronin… And those are just some of the children’s and YA authors up through “C” in last-name alphabetical order, at which point I start to get the vapors. So, you tell me.

Q: How might one go about seeing the entire list?

A: By clicking here.

Q: What if someone wanted to see a Marc Burckhardt-designed Texas Book Festival poster with a flaming horse?

A: In that case, they would click here.

Q: Could I have been any more delighted by the writeup you received, including a description of Can I See Your I.D.? that says it “acutely captures the breathless suspense of the long-con,” praises “the fun of I.D.‘s unconventional storytelling,” and concludes that “After a while, you can’t imagine telling the tales of deception and white-knuckled suspense any other way”?

A: Nope.

Folks, I am fired up. I have had more new story ideas in the past few days than I’ve had in I don’t know how long. I’ve read aloud unpublished manuscripts of mine in front of rooms full of strangers (well, they used to be strangers) for the first time in, I think, eight years. Since Wednesday afternoon, I’ve had the enormous pleasure of working with and learning from a host of creative, enthusiastic, and quite brave writers and authors ranging from complete beginners to some of the most accomplished talents our industry has to offer.

And to think that I enjoyed all these benefits and opportunities at a conference where I was not a paying student but rather a member of the faculty — well, it really feels like I’ve just gotten away with something.

Did I mention the cross-pollination? The readings of hilarious and bold and not-at-all-for-children new plays? The on-stage conversations I witnessed with director Chris Weitz (About a Boy, A Better Life) and with Jules Feiffer, a one-man graduate course in creative cross-pollination? The fact that I twice sang — OK, warbled — in public, one of those times in the presence of a somewhat well-known woman who knows a thing or two about The Sound of Music?

I’m gushing. A bit. I’m gushing a bit. That wasn’t what I set out to do here. I set out to thank Emma Walton Hamilton for inviting me to join the Southampton faculty, and to thank the other children’s lit faculty members (Andrea Davis Pinkney, Tor Seidler, Patricia McCormick, Peter H. Reynolds) and guests (Leonard Marcus, Susan Raab, Kate and Jim McMullan, Connie Rockman and Kate Feiffer), and the playwriting and screenwriting and digital media instructors, and my picture book students and everyone else’s for giving so much of themselves.

I was not entirely sure I had it in me to teach a three-day class. Honestly, the prospect scared me a bit, but it was that little surge of fear that clued me in to the fact that I really had to do this. And even before I arrived in New York, the mere act of preparing for my class had taught me so much I didn’t know (or had forgotten that I knew) about writing picture books that those hours I’d invested were already more than made up for, many times over.

(And here I must thank the many authors whose books and, in most cases, conversations with me about their books helped me zero in on what I wanted my students to know. The work and insights from these immensely creative folks helped fuel many conversations about — and, I hope, much inspiration for — writing both playful fiction and seriously researched nonfiction picture books. The complete reading list for my class is below.)

What does all this add up to? I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally, I’ve never been more excited about getting back to writing, and about carving out time in my life to make that writing a priority. And it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been willing to tolerate at least a little fear of what I was getting myself into when I told Emma, “Yes.”

For a long while, I’ve been reluctant to look for inspiration in the same place twice, lest a once-thrilling experience become too comfortable and easy to take for granted and result in diminishing returns. With the Southampton Children’s Literature Conference, I do believe I’m willing to risk making an exception.

Bubba and Beau, Best Friends by Kathi Appelt; illustrated by Arthur Howard
Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America by Kathi Appelt; illustrated by Joy Fisher Hein

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School by Laurie Halse Anderson; illustrated by Ard Hoyt
Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson; illustrated by Matt Faulkner

Handel, Who Knew What He Liked by M.T. Anderson; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
Me, All Alone, at the End of the World by M.T. Anderson; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier by Jennifer Armstrong; illustrated by Jos. A. Smith
Once Upon a Banana by Jennifer Armstrong; illustrated by David Small

Not So Tall for Six by Dianna Hutts Aston; illustrated by Frank W. Dormer
A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston; illustrated by Sylvia Long

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm
Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang

The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors by Chris Barton; illustrated by Tony Persiani
Shark Vs. Train by Chris Barton; illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld

Ice Cream by Elisha Cooper
Magic Thinks Big by Elisha Cooper

A Big Cheese for the White House: The True Tale of a Tremendous Cheddar by Candace Fleming; illustrated by S.D. Schindler
Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming; illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
The Racecar Alphabet by Brian Floca

A Book by Mordicai Gerstein
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein

Eggs by Marilyn Singer; illustrated by Emma Stevenson
Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer; illustrated by Josee Massee

Mozart, The Wonder Child: A Puppet Play in Three Acts by Diane Stanley
Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter by Diane Stanley

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? by Audrey Vernick; illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story by Audrey Vernick; illustrated by Don Tate

Boogie Knights by Lisa Wheeler; illustrated by Mark Siegel
Mammoths on the Move by Lisa Wheeler; illustrated by Kurt Cyrus

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino
Lawn to Lawn by Dan Yaccarino

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen; illustrated by Mark Teague
The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen by Jane Yolen; illustrated by Dennis Nolan

As I’ve gotten familiar with — or reacquainted myself with — these titles, and as I’ve discussed picture book fiction and nonfiction in general with many of these books’ creators, to my delight I’ve begun zeroing in on the specifics of what we’ll cover in our nine hours of classroom time. The most striking thing, though, is just how much playful picture book fiction and terrific picture book nonfiction have in common, from the need for conflict to consideration of how the book will function as a readaloud.

This week, I’ll work on finalizing the syllabus, and then I’ll move on to plotting out the workshop hour by hour. I see a lot of index cards in my near future…

Last Saturday, Austin’s favorite indie bookseller BookPeople hosted my launch celebration for Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities. Here’s a recap of what we did:

The party was scheduled to start at 7 p.m., which in my experience means that a sufficient crowd had gathered by 7:10 for us to get rolling. Until then, there was much mingling, donning of the 30 pairs of Groucho Marx glasses I’d bought, and applying of “My Name Is” tags filled out with “Inigo Montoya,” “Cleopatra,” “Marc Zuckerberg,” etc.

To fill the time before the presentation started, audience members were encouraged to write down and submit their own tales of first-person fakery (“When I was about __ years old, I pretended to be/masqueraded as/tried to convince someone that I was ______________________________”) in return for getting into the running for one of three giveaway copies of the book.

As folks arrived, I pointed out the “conceptual beverages” — one dispenser containing a clearish liquid and labeled “Looks like watery lemonade to us” and another containing a bright blue liquid and labeled “Probably something blue-tasting.” The latter was just water with blue food coloring, while the former contained purported blueberry flavoring that some said tasted more like bubblegum or a Yankee Candle but which regardless got across the concept (I hope) of things not being what they seem.

Then BookPeople’s children’s-events coordinator extraordinaire Mandy Brooks –

– welcomed the crowd and introduced yours truly. “Chris Barton” approached the podium –

– and thanked the audience for their support of his previous two books. He then mentioned how glad he was that, unlike his previous launch parties, the attendees for this one included his best friend from high school, Dallas journalist “Jason Sickles,” seen emerging here:

At this point –

– “Jason” suggested to “Chris” that, since Can I See Your I.D.? is about false identities, perhaps it would be fun and fitting for them to switch roles for the rest of the night.

Thusly switched, “Chris,” or the author, or me, or whoever I am read excerpts from the Keron Thomas and Ellen Craft chapters of the book, was interviewed by Jason (or “Jason”) about subjects I considered but did not include in the book, my research process, writing in second person, and my shift from picture books to young adult.

After that, I chose the winners of the giveaway, which included one erstwhile would-be horse, one former 19-year-old who for reasons unfathomable to many of us had represented himself as being 21, and a not-quite-legit fairy princess whose ruse failed “when my wings fell off.”

A few questions were answered, a few books were signed –

– and off we all went into the night.

It is a reading experience that held my attention to the end; and young people to whom I have given the book report they could not put it down until they finished it! Some have even admitted they really don’t like to read, but these were little stories that made them want to read more about those clever people…and that is yet another gift you have given readers, especially the reluctant ones we often face, Chris Barton! Thank you.

You’re welcome, Carol!

I also wrote about Can I See Your I.D.? and Shark Vs. Train in a guest post on the wonderful-beyond-words Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Cynsations:

They’re both pretty indicative of the sorts of writing I like to do — unbridled silliness on one hand and carefully researched truth-telling on the other. And both lend themselves to school-visit presentations that I personally find to be a whole lot of fun — roaring GRRRRR! and CHUGRRR-CHUG! for the former, and for the latter recounting the story of how 16-year-old New Yorker Keron Thomas (nearly) got away with impersonating an A train motorman for three hours.

I also spent some time on fakecrap.com — not in any sort of official authorial capacity, but as a shopper for giveaways (see above photo) for my May 14 launch of Can I See Your I.D.? at Austin’s BookPeople. If you’re one of the first 30 people there, well, if the disguise works, we’ll have no way of knowing…

I was in author heaven last week, first with a couple of terrifically productive days in Natchez, Mississippi, and Vidalia, Louisiana, researching my upcoming picture book biography The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, and then rounding out the week at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg for the 44th Annual Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival.

Wonderful hosts. Terrific speakers, including Derek Anderson, T.A. Barron, Phil Bildner, David Diaz, Gary Schmidt, and Roger Sutton. (And those are just the ones I caught in their entirety: I missed Joyce Carol Thomas entirely and quite reluctantly had to leave for the airport partway through a sidesplitting story from Carmen Agra Deedy.) Marvelous food (and plenty of it). And a tour of the amazing de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection.

One of the other Hattiesburg highlights was seeing, for the first time, hardcover copies of Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities, which officially goes on sale this Thursday. My own box of author copies arrived in Austin while I was gone, along with the nifty bookmarks I’ll be giving away this week at the Texas Library Association conference.

Here’s a peek, along with a hope that if I didn’t get to see you last week in Mississippi, I’ll get to see you this week in Texas!