![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.katemessner.com\/images\/kate.jpg\")
<\/a>Kate Messner. Photo from katemessner.com<\/p><\/div> One of the fab auction prizes, a collection of nine books and a piece of original art by Dan Santat. Photo from the auction page on katemessner.com<\/p><\/div> Manuscript critiques, Skype visits, autographed books, and more in exchange for your Hurricane Harvey relief support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKate Messner is a woman who makes things happen. Somehow, even without Hermione Granger’s Time Turner<\/a>, she manages to get more done in a day than any three humans I know.\u00a0In addition to effective time use, another of Kate’s crowning qualities is her generosity–of time, of energy, of information, of spirit. She is an author whose website<\/a> and Twitter feed<\/a> I love to point new and aspiring authors toward, because she doesn’t use her platform to plug herself and her writing; she uses it to share helpful resources and interesting news relevant to children’s book writers and lovers. She’s a major cheerleader for other authors, and she’s someone who values direct and immediate action. All of these qualities are evident in her latest effort, the #KidLitCares Auction<\/a> for Hurricane Harvey relief.
\nBecause she is a master of social media and connectedness and quick work, Kate has already gathered more than 200\u00a0auction\u00a0‘items’ to raise money for the Red Cross relief effort for Hurricane Harvey and its flooding aftermath. She’s blogged about the items<\/a> up for bid\u00a0with additional details\u00a0and\u00a0deadline\u00a0information. You can scroll down the list on her website’s blog<\/a>\u00a0to learn about these amazing\u00a0offerings, from Skype visits and\u00a0manuscript critiques from authors, illustrators, agents, and editors, original artwork, signed books, career consultation with agents, and more.\u00a0
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.katemessner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_5285-1-768x1024.jpg\")
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\nThe list of items\u00a0is truly impressive — many,\u00a0many incredible and generous people in the children’s book field are represented, and some of these things are opportunities you just can’t buy (a ‘skip-the-slush-pile’ offer from an editor, for example).
\nKate received such an outpouring of responses to her call for auction items that she had to cap them at 201 offerings.
\nThis is a truly special way to support the Red Cross efforts in the wake of this deadly natural disaster. Bid as soon as you can!
\nIf auctions and bidding make you anxious, you can instead enter a drawing to\u00a0win an autographed classroom set (36 hardcover copies!) of Kate Messner’s upcoming new book, The Exact Location of Home<\/em> (Bloomsbury), by making a donation to the Red Cross here<\/a> by September 4 and emailing\u00a0your donation receipt as described beneath the book cover on this page<\/a>.
\nYou can also keep up with updates about the auction\u00a0by following the #KidLitCares Twitter feed<\/a>.
\nSpeaking of Kate’s new book, run, don’t walk! It’s vintage Kate Messner: high kid\u00a0appeal, tons of jumping-off points for classroom and family discussions, loaded with\u00a0heart and the sensitive, hopeful treatment of challenges many kids face.\u00a0Plus, the\u00a0book’s quest\u00a0will doubtless kick-start the geocaching adventures of thousands of kids. Fun additional fact: the main character, Zig, first showed up in Kate’s earlier book,\u00a0The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z<\/em>, and I was so delighted that Gianna’s in this book! (She’s one of my favorite characters of Kate’s.)
\n![](\"https:\/\/media.bloomsbury.com\/rep\/bj\/9781681195483.jpg\")
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\nIt’s oddly fitting that a book about a family dealing bravely with some hard knocks is written by an author raising money for families dealing bravely with some (different, but equally) hard knocks.
\nThanks so much to Kate Messner for being extraordinarily effective at turning good thoughts to action.
\nNow, let’s go bid!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"