The very first review is in…Here’s a little taste of what Richie’s Picks (one of my favorite book blogs) had to say about PIE…

“PIE, set in Ipswitch during the summer of 1955, is a high-spirited, hoot of a whodunit for upper elementary and middle school readers.  This tale is going to inspire a mess of pie baking in your neck of the woods…Those who are familiar with a certain famous and esteemed children’s literature award are going to get quite a belly laugh out of reading the history and details of the national pie making award that Polly wins an unprecedented thirteen times in a row.  And as sure as life imitates art, I bet that there will be a passel of people dishing about PIE when the year-end lists are being compiled.”

I had SO much fun writing the book PIE, that I guess it should come as no surprise that I’m also having fun getting ready to send it out into the world.  My fabulous, amazing, incredible editor, David Levithan arranged to have a “Pie Palooza Party” at Scholastic to celebrate the release of the ARC (Advance Reader Copy).  He and I donned a couple of homemade gingham aprons (which I picked up at a thrift store in Nebraska during a recent author visit) and best of all there was lots of, you guessed it, pie!  In keeping with the message of the book, which is all about doing things for the joy of doing them   – some of the good folks at Scholastic actually took time out of their busy schedules to bake pies for the party.  I baked several varieties myself – the most popular of which seemed to be the lemon chess (recipe contributed by my Aunt Jane) but my personal favorite of the day was an oatmeal pie, which sounds a little weird, but actually tasted like a big oatmeal cookie.  Yum, gotta get that recipe!

I am beside myself with excitement to announce that Hollywood has discovered my book!  Things are still very much at the beginning stages – but there is a script and….it’s wonderful! Hooray!  The super talented writer Garry Williams has done a great job of capturing the spirit of the book, while transforming it into a terrific screenplay.  All the other details are still top secret, but as soon as I have anything to report, believe you me, I’ll be shouting it from the rooftops.  Keep your fingers crossed that Heidi and Mama and Bernie will be hitting the big screen soon.