News and Events
For Immediate Release
Dared invited by Governor, children's author M.T. Anderson returns to "flame pits" of Delaware (Milford & Dover), Sept. 23
(DOVER, DE) August 23, 2010 - Best-selling children's author M.T. Anderson will return to Delaware on Thursday, September 23, at his own risk at the invitation of Governor Jack Markell.
Anderson's latest book, Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware, is set in a highly-fictionalized version of the First State (one with mountain ranges, aqueducts and a crazed dictator). In the book, the author encourages readers to contact the Governor if they have any problems with how the state is described.
When Anderson first appeared in Delaware for the book's hardcover release last fall, Governor Markell wrote to him about the book's geographic and cultural inaccuracies. The tongue-in-cheek letter has been widely circulated online and will be included in the funny backmatter of the paperback version of Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware, which will hit bookstores on Sept. 21.
"All joking aside, we are so excited to be hosting M.T. Anderson for a second time," said Annie Norman, director of Delaware Division of Libraries. "It's a rare treat for his readers, for aspiring writers, for anyone who is interested in the creative process."
"Off the Page: An Evening with M.T. Anderson" will be held at Delaware Public Archives at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 23. The author will talk about his work, answer questions, sign books, and sing his fantastical (and hilarious) new anthem to Delaware.
Earlier in the day, the author will speak to students at Lulu Ross Elementary School in Milford.
M.T. Anderson is the author of Whales on Stilts; The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen; The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which won the National Book Award; The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves, which is a 2009 Printz Honor Book; The Game of Sunken Places; Burger Wuss; Thirsty; and Feed, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Young Adults. He lives in Vermont and Boston, Massachusetts.
Anderson's "Off the Page" appearance is sponsored by Delaware Division of Libraries' Delaware Center for the Book and Dover Public Library. The event is open to the public at no cost. Seating is limited on a first-come, first-served basis. Delaware Public Archives is located at 121 Duke of York Street in Dover, Delaware.
To view the letter from Governor Markell to M.T. Anderson, go to: http://library.blogs.delaware.gov/2009/09/15/a-big-thank-you-from-governor-jack-markell/.