To say 2020 has been a challenging year for us all is definitely an understatement. So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to write an article for Karen Jensen’s SLJ blog, Teen Librarian Toolbox, about resilience–one of the themes of my latest MG novel, Alone in the Woods:
Check it out to learn more about real-life sisters who survived being lost in the woods, as well as tips to encourage resilience, preparation, and community engagement in your own family!
I’ve been busy talking up Bea and Pidge’s grand adventure with fellow book lovers and Amelia enthusiasts online. Here are a few interviews to check out if you’d like to know more about the story and why I wrote it:
And here are a few reviews from early and speedy readers!
“Rebecca Behrens writes a touching and heartwarming story chronicling Bea and Pidge’s journey to not only find “Meelie” but also find themselves.” —Beagles and Books
“This is just one of those stories that I did not want to end. The messages it delivers will fill readers with hope – hope for family, believing in the impossible, and finding our true adventurous spirit. The story and characters will stay with readers long after the book is done.” —Zone 114: The Next Chapter
“The Last Grand Adventure transports family drama into an interesting and vibrant time period and shows us that while fashions, types of travel, and acceptable breakfasts (sugar sandwiches!) have changed over the last 50 years, family ties have not.” –Ms. Yingling, YA Books Central
March is Reading Month, and I am really excited to share in The Hiding Spot‘s Growing a Reader series to celebrate it. I wrote about three of my formative reading experiences–which made me the reader and writer that I am today. You check out my post here, and find out more about this wonderful and thoughtful series here!
For Word Spelunking’s March MG Madness, I shared my top ten MG titles about real people and real places. (Did I miss some of your favorites? Let me know!) There’s also a giveaway for a pre-order of Summer of Lost and Found, along with personalized swag. It runs until 4/3, so hurry over to the post and entry form!
And finally, I’m so excited that The Rumpus is sending out my Letter for Kids this month. I wrote about one of my favorite things when I was a middle-grader–manatees–and how the things I loved as a kid are still part of my life today, as a grown-up. Letters for Kids is such a cool program; information about subscribing is at the link!
The When Audrey Met Alice blog tour is wrapping up. It’s been so great to hop around the Internet with guest posts and interviews! Here’s the second batch of posts, including an ongoing giveaway!
I had so much fun watching When Audrey Met Alice head off to “eat up the world” this week! Thanks to everyone who congratulated, shared, tweeted, and cheered me, Audrey, and Alice on.
And a huge thanks to the bloggers who’ve generously hosted me on their sites as part of the blog tour. Here are the places you can find me talking about When Audrey Met Alice so far:
Today I’m excited to host Jordan Jacobs, author of the MG mystery Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies, for a guest post. Samantha Sutton features a whipsmart and adventurous heroine, a realistic sibling relationship, lots of action and adventure, and loads of very cool archeology factoids. Jordan Jacobs really does have my childhood dream job: an archaeologist who write novels on the side. When he’s not writing the Samantha Sutton series, what is his archaeology work like? I pictured something straight out of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Read on to find out what an archaeologist really does.
Just Another Day at the Office
Jordan Jacobs
The movies don’t get everything wrong when it comes to archaeology. Even in real life, there’s plenty of adventure to be found.
As an archaeologist, I’ve gotten to work high in the Andes at Chavin de Huantar—crawling through unexplored tunnels full of bats and rubble and scattered human bones. I’ve excavated Crustumerium, just north of Rome, where Bronze Age peoples lie at rest in a sprawling city of the dead. I’ve worked in the United States as well, clearing cemeteries in advance of major construction projects, excavating cliff dwellings, and digging the toilet of a California governor from the wreckage of his earthquake-totalled mansion.
But of course, this sort of adventure is only part of the job.
An archaeologist’s task is to study past cultures through what they’ve left behind. These pieces of evidence—or “artifacts”—can be as big as an Egyptian pyramid or as small as a speck of pollen, stuck to an ancient cooking pot. But the information they contain can be surprising. Archaeologists can use these artifacts to reconstruct how people once lived—from the food they ate, to the way they fought, to the religions that they practiced and their views of the world around them.
The archaeologist’s “typical day” takes a variety of forms. Some work mostly in the field–surveying the land, digging precise excavation units into the earth, looking for patterns, making comparisons, and drawing careful conclusions from whatever pieces of the past still remain. Others work in laboratories, using the tools of science to discover how old an object is, exactly what it’s made of, or precisely where it came from. Still others spend their days in museum storerooms, re-examining the evidence recovered by their predecessors. And some archaeologists work with governments and companies in order to protect sites from destruction through development, looting, neglect, or war.
But archaeology also carries a lot of responsibility. One awkward truth is that excavation destroys sites, meaning that each particular discovery can be made only once. It’s up to the archaeologist to record everything he or she can–otherwise, that information is lost forever. Just as importantly, archaeologists have a responsibility to the people who live nearby the site, or who claim it as their ancestors’.
At its best, archaeology is a little like time travel. Holding an artifact in your hand can make you feel a connection to someone who lived centuries or millennia before. It’s intimate. It’s humbling. Seeing the fingerprint of a potter on the surface of a plain and broken pot is a reminder of the humanity all people share–no matter where, or when, we live.
*Full disclosure: I share a publisher, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, with Jordan Jacobs. I purchased my own copy of Samantha Sutton, however, and any opinions are my own.*
