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Charge Ahead
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Charge Ahead  was commissioned by KPBS public television in San Diego as part of a national "Raising Readers" grant to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from the U.S. Department of Education (that’s a mouthful). The fictional  story is about a group of second graders who form their own winning team after a visit to their school from the San Diego Chargers football team. The illustrations were done by students at Sunset Elementary School in San Diego. KPBS plans to distribute the books for free in the San Diego schools as part of its community outreach program. I was fortunate to interview 6 of the Chargers for the book. They will be collaborating with KPBS in this outreach effort by making a number of school appearances and reading my book outloud to the children.



I met 3 members of the Chargers team at a Charge Ahead book event in September, 2009. Pictured behind me from the left are Kassim Osgood, Steve Gregory, and Luis Castillo.

The book launch in San Diego was a thrilling departure from the normal author reading. Not only did I get to meet and listen to the Chargers take turns reading my story out loud to the audience, but a local high school cheerleading squad performed a routine while chanting some of the rhymes from the book.



Can I Quote You ?

Testimonials

At a staff meeting today one of the teachers showed a dramatic change in one student’s writing that she attributed to Clare’s work with her class. The student analyzed the earlier writing stating that she needed to include more details, add conversation to move her writing forward, and to improve the ending. Then the student wrote a second piece which did just that!

- Marilyn Loveness, Principal, West Woodland Elementary



Book Reviews & Awards

Lootas Little Wave Eater

"All alone, in the cold quiet waters of Uganik Bay in southern Alaska, a sea otter gave birth to a female pup. Floating on her back, she licked the small wet ball of fur nestled on her belly."

Selected as a 1999 Notable Book for Children by Smithsonian Magazine.

2005 Washington State Library's Washington Summer Reads Selection on the theme of "courage."

Sneak Preview

Read and respond to Clare’s new work

Eli’s True North – A Middle Grade Novel
First Page of Chapter 1

Eli loved the smell of hay as much as he loved horses. He figured that being born in a barn had something to do with it. To hear his mother tell the story, the sudden snowstorm was another disaster in a long list of unhappy events since they’d moved to Montana, only this one had a happy ending.

  • Charge Ahead

    “Yesterday the Chargers read to us at school.”

    They told us playing football was a dream come true.

    “You can reach your dreams,” they said, “with good habits from the start if you read, eat well, exercise, and think smart.”
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  • Hansa, The True Story of an Asian Elephant Baby

    "Early one November morning at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, an Asian elephant named Chai rocked from side to side on her huge legs. She was about to give birth to her first baby."

    In November of  2000, after a twenty-two month pregnancy, one of the Woodland Park Zoo’s female elephants  delivered a healthy female calf, one of only three Asian elephants born in a North America zoo that year. The calf was named Hansa which means “supreme happiness” in Thailand, the country where her mother was born.
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  • Lootas

    Selected as a 1999 Notable Book for Children by Smithsonian Magazine

    "All alone, in the cold quiet waters of Uganik Bay in southern Alaska, a sea otter gave birth to a female pup. Floating on her back, she licked the small wet ball of fur nestled on her belly."

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  • Who wakes the rooster

    Selected as a 1997 Bank Street College Book of the Year

    "It should be morning, but it’s eerie dark. Every thing is quiet…too quiet. Bounce isn’t barking. Where is bounce? Dozing in his doghouse, peacefully dreaming, because Miranda isn’t meowing. Where is Miranda?"

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  • Partner In Revolution: Abigail Adams

    "Thirteen –year-old Abigail Smith brushed a black curl out of her face, her thin lips pursed in frustration. Dipping a quill pen in the ink pot, she wrote, “The mind is like a tender twig which you may bend as you please…(As you get older, it becomes) like a sturdy oak,…hard to move.” Abigail wanted her cousin Isaac to know how lucky he was to be able to go to school…Abigail envied her cousin. While boys and girls could go to school to learn how to write and do simple arithmetic, only boys could continue on to Latin school to prepare for college."

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  • Manorah The Bird Princess

    "Long ago in Thailand, far beyond the human kingdom of Panchala Nakhon, lived a young bird princess named Manorah. Manorah was the youngest of the Bird King’s  seven daughters. She was also the most adventurous. The bird people were magical beings who could fly wherever they pleased or shed their wings and take human form. While her sisters were content to play among the shadowy peaks and silver streams of the Bird Kingdom, Manorah wanted to see what the human world was like."

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  • Olive and Max's Backyard Adventures

    Finalist for the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award in 2008

    "On a hot summer night, Olive Opossum could not sleep. She had just returned from riding on her mother’s back to find food. Lying in all that fur had made Olive even hotter. Olive hung by her tail from a tree branch to catch the breeze. But no breeze came to cool her off. "I’ll go see if my friend Max is awake," said Olive. "I can’t sleep either," said Max.
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  • A Tale Of Two Rice Birds

    Recipient of the 1995 CBC/ABA Pick of the List for "Children’s Books Mean Business" award.

    "In the center of Thailand, where the Chao Phrya River flows, there once lived two rice birds. The built their nest in a teakwood tree on a ridge between two rice fields."

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  • I Could Not Keep Silent: The Life of Rachel Carson

    "Ten year-old Rachel Carson ran through tall meadow grass to the cool shelter of the woods at the edge of her father’s land. It was a beautiful summer afternoon in the town of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Squatting beside a shallow stream, she reached down to splash water on her face. A small green frog crouched on a rock at the water’s edge. Rachel stared intently at the tailless creature with bulging eyes. Did it remember its earlier life as a tadpole swimming in the water? Was it waiting to snatch a mosquito with its sticky tongue?"

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