LibLaura5: February 2017

You may know author Caroline Starr Rose from her previous middle grade novels, May B or Blue Birds. Caroline's latest book, Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine (G.P. Putnam's Sons, February 7, 2017) is a historical fiction adventure set during the Klondike gold rush.

Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine is an adventure-filled survival story of young Jasper and his brother Mel dreaming of gold on their journey through Alaska and into the Yukon region of Canada. Along the way Jasper hears a curious story of an old prospector named One-Eyed Riley who supposedly left his Klondike claim worth millions free for the taking.

"The coot--One-Eyed Reily is his name--he made a fancy five-line riddle that leads a soul straight to it. Only the lines--clues, really--you have to search for them. They ain't easy to find, even harder to figure how they fit together."

Many thanks to author, Caroline Starr Rose for stopping by the LibLaura5 blog to share 25 things (aka 5x5!) you might not know about her:

It made the children laugh and play: I lived in Saudi Arabia as a girl. Once while my preschool class sang “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” a little goat wandered into our schoolyard.

Avocados are my favorite food.

I’ve given everyone in my family multiple nicknames, including the dog. My children do not appreciate most of them. Now that they’re older, I’m pretty good at not using them in public…most of the time.

February is my least favorite month.

I’ve read The Phantom Tollbooth at least 30 times, first as a six-grade student and then to my own six-grade students. It’s middle-grade perfection.

I’ve stayed in the bedroom — and the bed — in Spain that Ernest Hemingway rented while writing The Sun Also Rises.

I never read The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (though I can picture where it was shelved in my elementary library), but I’ve memorized the name of its imaginary rocket fuel: tritetramethylbenzacarbonethylene.

I’d like to think I started the recycling program in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. When we first moved there, we had to drive to a nearby parish for a communal recycling bin. I wrote a letter to a local magazine, and they contacted me for an interview. I also brought up the recycling problem with a parish councilman. Not long after, communal bins showed up all over our parish, the closest just a few miles from our home.

Most runners I know think great thoughts. Not me. My mind is happily empty as I run.

I don’t like one jug of milk to be mixed with another. Just give me a half glass if the jug runs out.

My middle-school Spanish teacher used to call my hairsprayed bangs “The Wave.”

I’m a sentimental softy.

I hated my middle name when I was young. Kids used to tease me and ask if my parents were hippies. Now I think it’s pretty groovy.

Speaking of groovy, I had this cassette tape as a kid.

Sometimes I got in trouble at school for laughing uncontrollably.

My mother once whispered something during a wedding that made me laugh uncontrollably for the rest of the service. Thanks, Mom.

Another time I got the giggles while teaching six-grade and couldn’t stop for the life of me. The kids thought it was loads of fun and actually helped me through the rest of the lesson.

I danced ballet for ten years. Nothing is more beautiful or powerful than a ballerina.

I’m obsessed with author L.M. Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame. I’ve read all her books, some multiple times, and twice have read the journals she kept from age fourteen until her death. Last summer I traveled to Prince Edward Island on a L.M. Montgomery pilgrimage.

I think the word undulate is fun to say.

I can’t understand why people sometimes confuse my name with Carolyn. When I meet Carolyns I ask if they are sometimes called Caroline. They always are. This is a mystery to me.