I spent Thanksgiving bicycling around and through Tubac, Arizona. If you don't know Tubac, you really should. It's an artists' colony, and art abounds everywhere. When I first started coming to Southern Arizona ten years ago, or so, Tubac was a sleepy little village of working artists. It was a place where people interested in the various art media might talk to the folk who actually create the art. It was a place where struggling artists could find an affordable place to live and create and thrive. Unfortunately, it was discovered. Most of the struggling artists have been forced out. Affordable housing has been replaced by developments of $600K and $700K tract homes. Even so, it is a nice place to visit and look.

Now it is back to the grind for a few days before zipping off to San Diego for the NCSS conference. I'll be signing books there on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday...Lunch with my Writers' Group on Monday...And back to Tucson on Thursday.

I read an interesting blog review of We Are One yesterday. The blogger worried that it is a "sophisticated" book and that children might not understand the terms "black" and "Negro" when used interchangeably. To that I say give children credit for being intelligent beings that have the ability to think. They really can be a sophisticated audience if they're allowed to be. As an educator and writer, I'm tired of so called "experts" and others working to dumb down books because they worry that children won't be able to understand multi-syllabic words. She worried that older readers would be put off by the "picture book format." To that I say that it is a photo-essay and if she--I'm assuming the blogger was a she--still has reservations, she needs to sit in on my talk about using picture books with older readers. End of rant. End of discussion.