On April 1 (no fooling!) I attended a "salon event" for Laurie Halse Anderson, hosted by Porter Square Books. Anderson was there to discuss her new middle-grade novel, Rebellion 1776, which will be starred in the upcoming May/June Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: Perception and Reality. 

The salon was intimate and conversational — and what better place to talk about the Siege of Boston, the smallpox epidemic, and one plucky protagonist's observations and experiences than where the book was (approximately) set? The discussion was fascinating and wide-ranging, touching on creative inspiration, historical accuracy (the word puke was contemporaneous to the time), semantic rebranding (tell kids who "don't like historical fiction" that it's action-adventure!), past and present-day resistance, and more.

The audience included teachers, librarians, booksellers, family members — all "children's book people" who enjoyed and appreciated being in one another's company (left: Jennifer Costa, Waltham Public Library, with Laurie Halse Anderson, holding her book). Thanks to Michelle Leo at Simon & Schuster for the heads-up about this fab event. And it's no literary salon, but just might be the next-best thing: read Laurie Halse Anderson's Talks with Roger interview about Rebellion 1776.