Norah Comes To Alabama

During the last week of February 2008, our favorite Young Adult author Kerry Madden traveled around Alabama, teaching writing classes to youngsters. It was a big trip for Kerry, who came all the way from California, and so she decided to bring along Norah, her 9-year old daughter. Norah’s job – besides keeping her Mom company - was to chronicle the trip for Kerry’s blog, and she did such a good job of it that we thought you might enjoy seeing rural Alabama through the eyes of this young Californian.

2/23 Saturday
Today my mom and I have reached Texas. We are going to Alabama in one hour. We are waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. We had Texas barbecue for lunch. Mom had Diet Coke, and I had just Coke. I am waiting to get a donut. I am reading THE AMULET OF SMAMARKAND by Jonathan Stroud. My dad took me to see THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES with my friend, Lilly (fake name). It was awesome. My favorite part was near the end, but I don't want to spoil it. The goblins were funny (and scary!) Their master was scary-scary - the master of all bad fairies. I also liked the pretty flower fairies, and they are not the flower fairies that you think. They're different.


On Monday, we're going to go to Monroe Intermediate in Lower Peachtree, Alabama to do writing workshops, and on Tuesday, we're going to Jackson Intermediate in Clarke County, Alabama to do more writing workshops. Okay, I really want to go get a donut now. Bye!

2/24 Sunday
Today I had a lumberjack breakfast in Birmingham. (HANG ON A MINUTE, MOM, I'M WRITING ON THE BLOG!) Danny, the poet, kept making jokes, and Hilary and I listened to my I-Pod shuffle. They made us blueberry pancakes, sausage links and patties, bacon, eggs, and orange juice! We got on the road and went to FORT DEPOSIT. I was sleeping most of the way. When we got there, I had ice-cream and sampled pecans. I had a huge scoop of mint chocolate chip. I didn't ask for a HUGE SCOOP, but they gave me one. We also bought fudge and sat on the front porch and ate ice-cream.

Then we drove to Monroeville, Alabama. We saw the Courthouse, and I picked up the camellias that had fallen off the bushes. They were white, pink, magenta, and red. I saw the clock tower at the very top of the Courthouse as it struck five o'clock in the evening.

Then we had a cook-out at the cabin, and I fed three donkeys while they kicked each other. The brother donkeys really kicked each other. HARD! The donkeys were two brothers and their mama. The mama donkey kept biting. And one of the brother donkeys was really selfish the hog way.

The Monroeville Donkeys

(photos by Susan Brown)

Hey kids! Click on a donkey to learn all about donkeys!

I roasted marshmallows and burnt them to a crisp the way I like it...Then I came back home and now I have to go to sleep. Tomorrow we go to Lower Peachtree, Alabama, to do writing workshops and my mom is telling me to GO TO SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!! We are staying in a house that is 90 years old but so pretty. Hanna, the girl who lives here, says there is a ghost in the clock tower.

2/25 Monday
Today when we were driving to Monroe Intermediate, we saw a wild turkey crossing the road like crazy!!!!! I think he thought we were going to hit him! (We weren't.)  Then we saw buzzard looking at roadkill. My mother would prefer that I not describe the roadkill in detail. On the way, we saw a whole bunch of abandoned houses and a barn that looked like a banshee lived in it. There was no cell phone reception the last six miles before the school, but the principal, Mrs. Madison, gave us great directions, and we didn't get lost. At least my mom didn't.

After the first workshop, we went to lunch and I made friends with sixth graders - kids just my age - just joking - they're a little older.  I also made friends with the librarian, Jessica, and made up a game that whoever took a picture of each other first won! We each won once. Actually, I won twice.

We had a great lunch of mashed potatoes, vegetables, chicken nuggets, salad, and COKE! You could get a side dish of fruit. On the way back, Mom took a wrong turn toward Chance, Alabama. Or maybe it was away from Chance. The school was in Packers Bend away from Chance. Then she turned back around and we headed toward Monroeville. The kids were great writers today.

Tomorrow we go to Jackson, Alabama. We got a GPS for the trip. At least my mom did.

2/26 Tuesday
Today when I woke up this morning, I heard a crashing outside the window.  It was thunder, lightning and hail. Somehow the thunder got into my dream, and that’s why I woke up. Mom was already awake, and I said, “Call the school and cancel. It’s too rainy,” but she ignored me. Quite true. She did.

We got up and had breakfast and then we turned on the GPS system in the car. Our friend, Thomas Lane Butts, lent us his so we wouldn’t get lost on our way to Jackson, Alabama. When we reached our destination, not the GPS’s destination because the GPS refused to put the exact one – just one close by…and so the GPS thought we were taking a wrong turn and said, “RECALCULATING.” It said it like it really meant, “You dumb-headed fools.”

We taught all day at Jackson Intermediate – four classes! Then I did my first four autographs. The kids wrote secret place stories while I wrote comics. I had run out of secret places to write about…The teachers let me get SUBWAY for lunch, which was delicious!

When we got home to Susan’s and Hanna’s, Hanna made a CD of the most wonderful music in the world! Oh, I took tons of pictures of old abandoned houses and schools today. Well, only one school. When we were taking a picture of the abandoned school we had to stop on the side of the road and go up to it. The wind blew against us as if to say, “Go back. Go back! There’s ghosts here. Angry ghosts!”

Mom got me Dairy Queen after the workshop.  Chocolate Sundae. Tomorrow we go to Montgomery! Good night.

2/27 Wednesday
Today we did our first workshop with high school kids at Monroe County High School. Hopefully, we'll have more.  The students brought in donuts, fruit, chips, sandwiches, vegetables, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and Sierra Mist. I loved the teacher, Mrs. Turner, who talked about moving to California while I talked about moving to the South. Quite different plans, but quite fun to swap stories. Everybody treats me sweetly in the South, and they call me, "Sweetheart, honey, baby,"

We went to Radley's for lunch and I forgot my journal at Radley's. I felt horrible, but they found it, and they are going to mail it to California. Hanna and Susan picked it up!! They're probably going to mail it in the morning. It has Edgar Allen Poe on the cover. It used to be my brother's journal, but he only wrote a few pages in it. I got to meet AB Blass and George Thomas Jones. AB said that George Thomas Jones was his daddy only they looked liked the same age. I think they were the same age just about.

Then we drove to Montgomery, and we had a great time at the writing workshop. My mom told a very embarrassing story about me when I was three years old. I almost jumped out of my seat.

But the best part of the whole day was SHO-GUN! They cooked our food right in front of us and they built the rings of the onion into a shape of a volcano, and then they poured liquid into it, and fire burst out like crazy!!! It was fun. I took many movies of the Japanese chefs.

Now I'm about to fall asleep. Good night, Montgomery.

3/1 Saturday
On Thursday morning, I didn't want to wake up. I missed breakfast. Nancy is a teacher at the Molina Learning Center.  She took us to visit Mary Ward Brown. On our way there, we crossed a famous bridge in Selma, Alabama (Edmund Pettus) where Martin Luther King and the rest of the marchers marched for Civil Rights. There was a lot of violence on that bridge. Selma was a pretty little town, but old. All the paint was coming off of the bricks, and the bricks were crumbling.

Then we drove out into the deep country where saw millions and millions and millions of buzzards - just kidding we saw four. Now we're going to talk about buzzards for a little bit. Buzzards are huge black birds with red heads. Their heads are red because they stick their heads under the skin and into the organs of dead animals on the road. Some people call them vultures. My mom says vulture but I like to say BUZZARD! If we didn't have buzzards around, we'd have a lot more dead animals and a stinky odor, but the buzzards eat it all up. A buzzard looks a like huge black veil thrown over the sky when it flies - fine, it's only just a small black veil, but they are still big birds.

Mary Ward Brown is a nice lady. She has three wild cats. The fourth one that was gray and weak was left by the mother. Luckily, Mary Ward Brown found it a home. But the mother still has two kittens, and the mother will have kittens again soon. I tried to get the kittens to come toward me and let me pet them. They were too afraid. They climbed onto the roof and into the tree - one stayed on the roof and another climbed up higher in the tree. My mom wanted to interview Mary Ward Brown about her stories, so Nancy took me to Tallulah's -

Tallulah's

A gift shop in Marion, Alabama, and I bought presents my dad, and my sister and my brother - then we went to a restaurant called Kallico Kitchen -

Kalico Kitchen

and you had to choose spoonfuls of what you wanted to eat, except for the fried chicken, of course - and we brought back lunch - it was coconut cake, black-eyed peas, squash, apples, green beans, and fried chicken. It was yummy! Mary Ward Brown gave us Sprite to drink and Grits Cookies.

Then I took pictures of cardinals and robin red-breasts on Mary's bird-feeder.

Good-bye, Alabama. I'll be gone on Friday.

The Maggie Valley Books

by Kerry Madden

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