I am the author of SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF MAYBE, which won the Southern Book Prize and is an Indie Next and Okra Pick. The book takes readers on an adventure with 12-year-old Cricket in an overgrown Mississippi ghost town as she tries to survive on her own and solve a clue trail left by an eccentric artist with a logic all his own, all to try to find a secret room that may or may not exist. Cricket must use her wits and just a smidgen of luck to live off the land and solve the clues. With the help of a poetry-loving dog, maybe, just maybe, she can do it. The book includes curriculum tie-ins to art, history, geography, literature, mathematics, and science. I am also the Founder of Outdoorosity.org, a free resource for inspiration and information about nature. I love to do school visits and to work with libraries and schools on ways to incorporate nature into the programming. I have free resources for educators and other readers at www.JoHackl.com including:
- A Book Club menu (complete with how-to videos) and Book Club Questions;
- An interactive map of the real places that inspired parts of the book;
- An interactive clue trail you can solve using the things you learned in the book; readers who solve the clue trail receive a printable clue solver’s badge;
- “Cricket Challenges” to take your reading adventures into your own world;
- An Activity Guide;
- Printable Bookmarks;
- A “Hidden Object” search with items from the clue trail; and
- Resources for educators including lesson plans.
You can find me online at @JoHackl (Twitter); @JoHackl/ (Instagram) and at @Jo Watson Hackl Author (Facebook).