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Curriculum Guide for The Matchstick Castle

Just this morning, I put the finishing touches on the layout of an amazing curriculum guide for The Matchstick Castle, my second guide written by the esteemed educator Christina Hoover Moorehead. If you are a teacher considering this paperback book for classroom use, I urge you to download the guide and take a look!

Want to bring me to your school? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I am waiving my honorarium for virtual visits for the foreseeable future. Whether you’d like me to meet with a book club or present to all of your fourth- and fifth-graders, please get in touch!

You can also download a flyer about my current virtual author visit and—to assist in planning—my virtual author visit checklist.

A few screenshots from the curriculum guide:

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THE PHANTOM TOWER is one of the Chicago Tribune’s Best Children’s Books of 2018!

What a way to start a Wednesday! The Phantom Tower has been named one of the best children’s books of 2018 by the Chicago Tribune. I’m beyond honored to find myself on a list with Jon Agee, Vera Brosgol, Kate DiCamillo, Laura Gehl, Daniel Haack, Wendy Mass, Patricia C. McKissack, Yuyi Morales, Brian Selznick, Rebecca Stead, David Serlin, and Jacqueline Woodson. I even discovered a new Chicago-set fantasy, Chris Rylander’s The Legend of Greg, that I’ll be buying ASAP.

Here’s what Nara Schoenberg had to say about my book:

Like another charming 2018 middle-grade novel, “The Legend of Greg” by Chris Rylander, “The Phantom Tower” has genuine roots in Chicago — not just a few landmarks thrown in for color. Here, 12-year-old identical twins move into the haunted Brunhild Tower on the North Side, and discover a phantom second tower where time has stopped. Exciting action, a creepy curse and well-drawn characters make for supremely cozy reading on a cold winter’s night.

Congrats to all!

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THE MATCHSTICK CASTLE Is an Official 2018 Illinois Reads Selection!

Exciting news!

From the press release:

“A statewide project promoting reading for Illinois citizens, ILLINOIS READS annually selects six books in each of six different age categories ranging from read-to books for infants to adult readers. A variety of topics and themes are chosen for each age group, with an emphasis on selections written by authors with ties to Illinois . . .

“The Southern ILLINOIS READS Book Festival will be a celebration of the 2018 ILLINOIS READS campaign. Readers from all over the state of Illinois are invited to this free event in DuQuoin at the DuQuoin High School on Saturday, March 10.”

I’ll be there—will you? Looking forward to it!

Illinois Reads Selections, Grades 3–5

Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor, by Robert Burleigh

Penelope March is Melting, by Jeffrey Michael

Ruby Red, by Liesl Shurtliff

Margaret and the Moon, by Dean Robbins and illustrated by Lucy Knisley

Fresh Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market, by Michelle Schaub

The Matchstick Castle, by Keir Graff

Click here for the full list of titles. And for more information about the program, visit the Illinois Reads website.

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Big Publishing News!

I’m very pleased to share some Big Publishing News! (Well, it’s big to me, anyway.) The Matchstick Castle will be followed by . . . The Phantom Tower!

Here’s the announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

Children’s: Middle grade

Booklist Executive Editor and author of The Other Felix and the upcoming The Matchstick Castle Keir Graff’s THE PHANTOM TOWER, where a prewar apartment building in Chicago turns out to be a portal—for an hour a day—to its ghostly, never-built twin; when a couple of kids stumble upon the tower—whose residents may be alive, dead, or something… different—they’ve got to find their way back to Reality, again to Katherine Perkins at Putnam Children’s, by Josh Getzler at Hannigan Salky Getzler (World).

Film/TV, Jgetzler@hsgagency.com