Author Archives: Deborah Hodge

Rescuing the Children: Book Launch

 I’m pleased to announce that the Jewish Book Festival in Vancouver has invited me to be part of their program this year. I will be speaking about my new book: Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport.

If you are in the area and would like to attend, I’d love to see you! Consider yourself officially invited. The book launch is at the Jewish Community Centre at Oak and 41st on Sunday, Nov. 25 at 1 pm.

For more about the festival, go here and for more about my event, please go here or see the flyer below. Hope you can make it!


New York, New Jersey

I’ve been so sorry to hear all the post-storm news from New York and New Jersey. What a terrible time the residents are having. Still no power for millions of people, others with homes lost, and many with no food, water or gasoline. I am thinking about all of you east-coasters and hoping for a speedy and safe recovery.

Today, I received a personal phone call from the New York Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. I had pre-purchased tickets to visit the museum on my research trip to NYC. The young staffer from the museum told me they were refunding the tickets because the power was still out on the Lower East Side and the museum couldn’t open. She hoped I was safe and dry.

I asked her if the museum had been flooded, and she reported it hadn’t. She asked me to please visit on my next trip to NYC. I promised I would.

Take care, East Coast folks. Thank you for your call.

Rescuing the Children, Published Today!

I’m happy to announce that today is the publication date for my new book. Hooray! It’s been a long time coming.

Thank you to Tundra Books (a division of Random House Canada) for publishing the book, and to my editors, Kelly Jones, Kathryn Cole and Tara Walker, for their support and help.

And a huge and heartfelt thank you to the book’s contributors who so generously shared their personal stories and photographs. Their memories, quotes and beautiful art bring this book to life.

If you’d like to learn more about Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport, please go here or here.

Green Prize for Sustainable Literature

I’m happy to announce that my book Watch Me Grow! A Down-to-Earth Look at Growing Food in the City is the winner of the 2012 Green Prize Award for the Best Community Garden Book for Children, given by the Santa Monica Public Library. To see more about the award, please go here and to read more about the book, please go here.

In addition to that lovely news, Watch Me Grow! was also named as a Best Children’s Book of the Year by the Bank Street College of Education in New York. To find out more about the Bank Street List of Best Books, please go here.

A big thank you to the Santa Monica Library and to Bank Street College for these wonderful honours!

Wild West Coast

It’s been a few weeks since I posted and I am pleased to report that we west coasters have indeed seen the sunshine. We are thrilled!

I recently returned from a trip to the very west coast of Canada — to Long Beach and Tofino, BC. I am posting a couple of photos taken from Mackenzie beach where we stayed. The beautiful sunset photo was taken by my niece on an evening stroll down the beach. The other photo (blue sky, tide out) was taken by moi from the porch of the cabin we stayed in.

As always, it was an inspiring trip, seeing the power of the ocean and the beauty of the rainforest. It’s possible there may be a book in the works. And on that note, I picked up a copy of Long Beach Wild written by my friend and fellow author, Adrienne Mason, who is a Tofino resident. It is fascinating reading. I recommend it!

Hope you enjoy the photos and are having a lovely summer.

Summer!

Now that school is out, summer has officially arrived! (Sadly, our west coast weather tells another story. The garden is soggy and the strawberries are moldy. But we don’t let that dampen our spirits!)

We can look forward to sunshine (one of these days) and a more relaxed summertime pace. I wish all of you a happy couple of months! Kids, teachers, families and everyone else — go beachcombing, get your summer reading material, host a barbecue or do whatever it is you like to do best when the days are long and the weather is warm.

FYI: This blog may also be on a slightly more relaxed schedule, but come fall, the posts will be (more or less) regular again.

Happy Summer!

Sneak Preview!

“Many of the Kinder believe that their parents gave them life twice: once when they were born and a second time when they were sent to safety on the Kindertransport.“

Who were the Kinder and why were they in danger? Find out more here.

I am delighted to show you the cover of my upcoming book, Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport. It will be published by Tundra Books and Random House on Oct. 9, 2012, in both hardcover and e-book forms.

It is a book I’ve been working on for the last couple of years and I am thrilled that it will soon be available. If you’d like to learn more about it, please check out the description on my website.

Cheers!

Thank you!

The school year is drawing to a close and I have finished the last of my school presentations until fall. A big thank you to the schools and teachers who invited me to visit this year. It was wonderful to meet you all!

I wish you a happy, relaxed and well-deserved summer vacation.

Cheers!