Book Love and an Author Letter!

Hello to whoever is out there reading my random posts.  You'll be pleased to know that I haven't had a meltdown since Friday.  I'm making progress and working on getting my ducks in a row for our move to Orlando and my new job.

Insurance forms, Experience Verification paperwork (to
send to two countries, banking information, OH MY.

On an unrelated note, I read a good book on my road trip. It was one I picked off the "new books" display shelf at the Library, called "Same Sun Here" by Silas House and Neela Vaswani.  

It's hard to tell if it's more of a children's or a young adult novel, but I'd say it's for the 10+ crowd.  I'm no good at book reviews or descriptions, so let me borrow the brief goodreads.com overview:  

In this extraordinary novel in two voices, an Indian immigrant girl in New York City and a Kentucky coal miner’s son find strength and perspective by sharing their true selves across the miles.

It's a pen-pal book, written entirely as letters from the Indian girl to the Kentuckian.  I've always loved books written as letters (i.e. Dear Mr. Henshaw, Love That Dog, etc...) and this was no different--I really loved it.  It helped that it has environmental activism, as well as immigration, as central themes.
Well, when I finished the book and read a bit more about the authors, I discovered that Silas House, the man who writes the Kentucky side of the story, lives and works in Berea, Kentucky--an Appalachian artisanal  town my family frequents when we visit our friends Lori and Mike. Since I thought that was a neat little connection, and I loved the book so much, I shot him a little e-mail.  And guess what?  He wrote back!  I just had to share:

Dear Tara,Thanks so much for your kind words.  If you ever decide to use SSH in class please let me know and I could Skype or visit your class.  There is a great printable discussion guide available online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/78067753/Same-Sun-Here-Discussion-Guide .  Thanks again for picking up the book!
All best,Silas

I learned a valuable lesson--write authors!  I think that's my new motto.  :)  That's all for now.