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Books
by
Alden
Carter
Programs
and Workshops
Carol
S. Carter, Photographer
Advice
for Young Writers
Brush
Wolf Press
Credit
List/
Biographical
information
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Alden Carter's 13 novels, 25
nonfiction titles, and 7 picture books have won
numerous honors. His fiction is praised for its realistic depiction of young
adult
life. His novels Sheila's Dying,
Growing Season, Up
Country, Between a
Rock
and a Hard Place, Bull
Catcher, and Wart, Son of
Toad
were
named
American
Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. In 1994, the Young
Adult
Library Services Division of the ALA selected Up
Country to its list "The Best of the Best: the 100 Best
Young
Adult Books of the Last 25 Years."
Mr. Carter's latest book for young adults is his
novel Walkaway,
published by Holiday House.
Besides his
work for
young people, Mr. Carter also writes adult fiction
and nonfiction. His Bright
Starry Banner: A Novel of the Civil War was released by
Soho Press in March 2004 and won the prestigious John Esten Cooke
Fiction Award from the Military Order of the Stars & Bars.
With co-author Dr. David
Wen Wei Chang, he wrote The Scholar and the
Tiger: A Memoir of Famine and War in Revolutionary China, published
by Rowan & Littlefield in
Feb. 2009. Dr. Chang died in Oct. 2010.
Mr. Carter's most
recent nonfiction book for adults is The Sea Eagle: The Civil War Memoir of
Lt.
Cdr.
William B. Cushing, U.S.N.
****
New Fiction for young adults
from Holiday House
Walkaway
Home
is hell, the woods
inviting. Can Andy simply walk away from his problems? Or is he
loaded
down with more than anyone can carry?
"Critically acclaimed author Alden R. Carter's deeply affecting
portrait of a troubled young man's desperate attempt to escape from his
problems is a gripping adventure filled with drama and emotion that
will have even the most reluctant reader tearing through the pages."
--Barnes and Noble
"Once again, Carter has created an impelling and believable central
character struggling to deal with unfavorable circumstances. Facing not
simply an alcoholic father but also his own chemical imbalance that
makes him anxious and prone to delusion, 15-year-old Andy finally
decides that the only solution for him is to leave it all behind--to
leave his family and his own troubled past and make his way into the
vast wooded spaces of Canada to live alone." --Amazon.com
"Once Andy walks away, the book becomes riveting: Andy faces a truly
untenable situation, tormented both by his hideous family situation and
his own unraveling sanity, and pursued relentlessly by the long arm of
the unsympathetic law. Carter is unsparing in presenting Andy with no
viable solution whatsoever to his unbearable predicament—and yet
managing to close the novel with some believable, if meager, measure of
hope." --Children's Literature
The
Scholar and
the Tiger
is at once
a
compelling family saga, thriller, social history, and spiritual
journey. Written by a leading China scholar in partnership with a noted
author, the story brings to life some of the darkest pages in twentieth
century history while providing surprising insights into the China of
today.
The
Memoir of a Forgotten Hero
The Sea
Eagle: The Civil War Memoir of
Lt
Cdr. William B. Cushing, U.S.N.
Edited by Alden R. Carter
The memoir of the
young Civil War naval officer who terrorized the North Carolina
coast and brought off one of the naval coups of the war when he steamed
up the Roanoke River to sink the fearsome Confederate ironclad Albemarle.
A New Addition
to Marshall Cavendish Classics
Wart, Son of Toad
Long
out of print, Alden Carter's Wart, Son of Toad
becomes available to a new generation
of young adult readers in both hardcover and ebook.
More
recent
fiction for young adults
Love,
Football, and Other Contact Sports
Wisconsin Library
Association
Outstanding
Achievement Award
A Booklist Top 10 Sports Books
for Youth Selection
A Bank Street College Best
Children's Book of the Year
“[A] dynamic collection of
[interconnected] short stories…. Readers can leave their stereotypes
at the door.”—Booklist
starred review.
"For reluctant readers or advanced, funny, heartwarming, lovely
stuff."—Kirkus Reviews
"A delightful, often
hilarious, fast-paced read that offers truisms for life." —School
Library Journal
"Jock to
loner, academic snob to
outcast, Carter explores and shatters
the stereotypes behind the relationships, friendships, rumors, peer
pressure, sports, bullies,
and other assorted forms of mental anguish
that come with high school." —Amazon.com
****
Adult Fiction
NAMED BEST CIVIL WAR NOVEL OF THE
YEAR
BY THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE STARS & BARS
Mr.
Carter's novel for adults brings to life all the horror and glory
of the Battle of Stones River. Set in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at the
turn
of 1862-1863, Bright
Starry Banner is Civil War
fiction like you've never
experienced
it before. The kaleidoscopic narrative follows generals and
privates,
amateur soldiers and weathered professionals through one of the
bloodiest
battles of the Civil War. Visit the Bright
Starry Banner page to learn
more.
Peter
Cozzens says:
"Carter
brings... Civil War conflict to life in a manner that no novelist since
Joseph Pennell [a century ago] has done."--Peter Cozzens, author of No Better Place to Die: The Battle of
Stones River
"Crackles
with action, suspense, and drama."
--Booklist
"Rendered
with the creative force that amounts to a sense of mission."--Kirkus
Reviews (starred)
"This
monumentally ambitious novel covers in exquisite and graphic detail one
of the bloodiest engagements of the Civil War....For a depiction
of war this is as good as it gets." --Publisher's
Weekly (starred review)
****
Recent Nonfiction
China: From the First
Chinese to the Olympics
"From
the air,
Beijing’s Olympic
stadium seems to float on the land, an
immense bird’s nest of intertwining buttresses and girders that seems made as
much of wind and sunlight as concrete and steel. Unlike the glowering
barrier of the Great Wall, a few dozen miles to the north,
this structure
welcomes the visitor to China. Here, the stadium seems to announce,
is a changed China, a China fully involved with the community
of nations as partner, competitor, and powerful voice in the making of
the 21st century."
--from
the
introduction to China:
From the First
Chinese to the Olympics
Alden Carter's
concise history
traces the development of China from its ancient roots to the present
with a special emphasis on the era of reform since the death of Mao
Zedong in 1976. Looking into China's challenging future, he
considers both the immense obstacles facing China and the possible
outcomes
of social change and global competition on an ancient civilization that
only truly joined the modern world with the 2008 Olympic Games.
Mr. Carter is honored that the
international scholar Dr. David Wen-Wei Chang has contributed a
thoughtful and moving forward to China: From the First
Chinese to the Olympics.
Brother
to the Eagle:
The Civil War Journal of
Sgt. Ambrose Armitage, 8th Wisconsin Infantry
Edited with annotations by
Alden R. Carter
"Fascinating…comprehensive
[and]
superbly edited, Brother to
the Eagle
will be welcomed both by researchers and the reading
public." --Steven
E. Woodworth, author of Nothing
but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee
Recruited
from farms and country
villages, the 8th Wisconsin Infantry became one of the hardest marching
and fighting units of the Civil War. At its head, between the
regimental colors and the national flag, rode the eagle Old Abe, his
defiant scream announcing the presence of the famed 8th Wisconsin on
battlefields
across the South.
****
YOUNG
ADULT NONFICTION
Mr.
Carter's many and varied nonfiction books have won numerous
honors. His
respected
books on military and political history include The War of 1812:
Second Fight for Independence, winner of an Outstanding
Achievement
in Children's Literature Award from the Wisconsin Library Association,
and The
Spanish-American War: Imperial Ambitions, named
Best
Juvenile Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Council for Wisconsin
Writers. The
Civil War: American Tragedy has become a standard
introduction
to the war for grade-school children. Please see Books of Alden Carter.
****
PICTURE
BOOKS
Mr.
Carter's picture books for and about children facing special medical
challenges have won wide recognition. He is co-author with his
daughter, Siri, of I'm
Tougher Than Asthma, an American Bookseller Pick
of
the Lists, an Orbis Pictus Award nominee from the National Council of
Teachers
of English, a Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice, and an
Outstanding
Achievement in Children's Literature from the Wisconsin Library
Association.
Many
of the same awards were given to his picture books about Down
syndrome, Big
Brother Dustin
and Dustin's
Big School Day.
Mr.
Carter frequently collaborates with his wife, the photographer Carol
Shadis
Carter. Their book on vision impairment, Seeing
Things My Way, was named an
Outstanding Book for Young People with Disabilities by the
International
Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).
DRAMA
Mr.
Carter's
play Driver's Test: a comedy in one act has
been performed widely in the United States as well as in Canada, Puerto
Rico, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, and Australia. Send a
large self-addressed envelope to Alden R. Carter, 512 N. Schmidt Ave.,
Marshfield,
WI 54449-1732 for a sample copy of the performance script and
performance
agreement. [Approximate weight of the package is 5 oz. (140 g).
Please include appropriate postage.]
****
SPEAKING
Mr.
Carter has made over 600 presentations in schools and at conferences
nationwide, including the National Council of Teachers of English, the
International Reading Association, the American Library Association,
and the Civil War Preservation Trust. He particularly enjoys speaking
to young people. One language arts teacher described a presentation:
"With humor and a knack
for communicating with young people, Al Carter combines
advice on writing with sound lessons for growing up."
"I write for
young people because I'm always astonished at their courage," Mr.
Carter
explains.
"They deserve good stories, and when they want to talk in my
imagination
or in person, I listen."
[Unfortunately, Mr. Carter's health and mobility have declined in
recent
years, forcing him to reduce his speaking schedule. However,
all inquires are welcome. While he is often unable to travel, he is
always happy to make arrangements to speak to classes of young people
by conference call.]
Contact Alden Carter by phone at 715-387-6559, email
acarterwriter@tznet.com, or letter at 512 N. Schmidt Ave., Marshfield,
WI 54449. (Student letters should include SASE.)
Mr.
Carter established Brush Wolf Press to publish Auschwitz
Veterinarian by Dr. Tadeuz
Kowalczyk, D.V.M., an account of his five
terrible years in the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz
Veterinarian is
available
from the press at a nominal fee or may be downloaded free at: http://www.aldencarter.com/brushwolfpress.html.
Brush
Wolf Press is interested in seeing war diaries, letters, journals, and
remembrances for possible publication. Authors and custodians of
documents are cautioned that submission to the press should be in the
interests of preserving history, not in anticipation of large profits.
****
FAMILY
MATTERS
Alden
and Carol Carter live in
Marshfield,
Wisconsin. Carol is a photographer and a noted fabric artist.
They have two adult children, Brian, an architect, and
Siri, a student and horse trainer. The Carters enjoy books, baseball,
the outdoors,
their energetic toy poodle, Louie, and the birds, squirrels, rabbits,
possums, deer, and raccoons that
visit
their
outdoor feeders.
For
more biographical information on Mr. Carter and his family, go to resumé.
BOOKS BY ALDEN CARTER
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