Dear Friends,

I've been so busy with all the jobs a writer now does that I haven't been able to keep up with this newsletter as regularly as I had hoped.

While completing the final revision on my new middle grade novel, THE RED-HOT RATTOONS, another character danced into my I started making notes about Grace, a ten year old girl who worked in a cotton mill in southern Vermont in Lewis Hine, the famous child labor photographer, walks through that mill one day and photographs Once again, I am creating historical fiction by introducing a child from my imagination to a real life person from American I did this in DEAR MR. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT: Letters from a Mill Town In that book, Emma Bartoletti, the main character wrote to FDR about her parents working in the mills of North Adams, In this one, Grace herself has been swept into the mill at a very young The book is "cooking". Grace is growing in my imagination and beginning to speak to me in her own distinctive More than that I don't dare say for fear she'll fall suddenly

For those of you who have taught my CASTLE books in the classroom, I think you'll find THE RED-HOT RATTOONS (Holt, October, 2003) an appealing book for those third through six graders who love a rollicking adventure. I'll be telling you more about that in my next newsletter. On a related subject, so many readers ask me whether there will ever be a movie of THE CASTLE IN THE ATTIC and THE BATTLE FOR THE I hope soon to have good news on that front

In the fall, you can also look for DANCING GRANNY, my new picture book with Marshall Cavendish, illustrated by the talented Sal A book in silly rhyme, this is the story of Granny who makes a magical, moonlit visit to the zoo where, thanks to a special granddaughter, she remembers how much fun dancing can be.

Picture books rely so heavily on the perfect illustrations that often I have to wait years until the right artist is Frustrated as that can make me, I have found that it is worth the wait. The editors in the field sometimes remind me of midwives. They select the illustrator and keep them company as the pictures move through the stages from sketch to dummy to finished It is through an editor's careful attention to the marriage of word and picture that our books Babies take only nine Picture books can take As I tell students, if you want to see your words in print quickly, become a journalist!

Here's wishing you a safe, happy, peaceful spring with many books in your pockets and characters dancing in your imaginations.

Elizabeth Winthrop

P.S. Many of you have written asking whether I do school visits. Although I do limit the times I go out during the school year based on my own writing schedule and deadlines, I am always happy to consider visits. I'm also delighted when the visit can include booksignings or a possible talk to librarians, teachers and/or parents. Please contact Ellen Greene at Henry Holt Publishers (212-886-9215) to check on my schedule and appearance fees.