Hi, Kids:

Wherever you are, I expect the weather is getting warmer and the windows in your classroom are open and the world is tempting you outside.

I haven't been doing my homework either which means I've taken longer than I meant to to write you this newsletter. Last October, when I wrote I was just leaving for three weeks of what I called "writers camp" in Virginia. I worked hard, made some new friends, wrote some picture books and got to know my characters better. Since then, even more picture book ideas have been bubbling up so I've had a good spring. Right now, I have six different books in production with various publishers. Their subjects are varied...dancing pigs, a dancing grandma, a little girl squashed in the middle of her family, a Christmas fable, a historical novel about FDR and the Depression and a rhyming book about hats. Those are the books at the publishers. That doesn't count all the ones stirring around in my head.

Many of you have written me notes on my website either on my guestbook or when you sign up for the CASTLE club. I love reading them and I want to thank you for taking the time to write to me. And of course, most of all I'm glad you're reading my books.

I've just returned from a school visit to Illinois where I met with a number of fifth graders. I asked them what book they would read if they were locked in a jail cell for three months and they had no television, Game Boy, CD player, walkman....nothing but one book and a light to read it by. What book would you choose? Who is the author? E-mail me at winthrop@absolute-sway.com and let me know. (A tip: No Elizabeth Winthrop books are allowed in the jail! They've been banned.)

I hope you have summers filled with easy days and lots of time to dream up stories...

Elizabeth Winthrop