\n<\/p>
When I was young, my family lived that apartment life for several years before being able to afford a mortgage. I don\u2019t remember much about the apartments,\u00a0save for thin walls and scuttling roaches, but I do remember the dumpster. As one of those leave-the-house-after-lunch-come-back-for-dinner kinds of kids, I spent many a Saturday afternoon unobserved, which afforded me plenty of opportunity to go scrounging through the bin looking for treasure: appliance boxes, crates, discarded toys, broken furniture\u2014you could build a respectable temporary fort out of the finds from the apartment dumpsters. If you were really lucky, you might even find something worth taking home. Mostly you found garbage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It would be a massive understatement\u00a0to say I wasn\u2019t the most skilled dumpster diver (I was still in elementary school). I didn\u2019t really understand the value of things. I also was doing it out of boredom rather than necessity\u2014essentially just playing with junk and trying not to get tetanus. But I understood the possibility. On any given Saturday there could be something absolutely wonderful lurking in that dented brown bin: a bike that someone had grown out of, an action figure missing an arm but otherwise\u00a0playwithable, a bag of stolen diamonds perhaps (I had a rich imagination). It was that promise that kept me coming back\u2013that kept me digging, scavenging, scrounging, getting my hands dirty.<\/p>\n
You can probably already see where I\u2019m going with this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I first conceived of my latest novel,\u00a0Dive, all I had was the title. I knew it would be about diving in at least three forms: the graceful and athletic art of springboard diving, the still-socially-stigmatized practice of dumpster diving, and the very symbolic plunge into adolescence (which might be better described as belly-flopping for those of us who did it less gracefully). The main character, Kass, experiences all three of these\u2014though the coming-of-age-plunge turns out to be the most challenging. Along the way,\u00a0she comes to see the world differently, to better discern the value of what she finds, and\u00a0tosummon the courage to both make mistakes and to learn from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Kass stands on the diving board, she realizes she has the capacity to make something beautiful. When she opens the lid of a dumpster, she believes in the possibility that there is something wonderful lurking inside. When she looks in the mirror, she sees a better, braver, wiser, more compassionate version of herself\u2014one that she can work towards.<\/p>\n
I know just how she feels. Staring at a new document with only a one-word title at the top, I, too, am entranced by the possibilities. It\u2019s one of the reasons\u2014perhaps the main reason\u2014why I tell stories. Watching that cursor flash, I think to myself, \u201cMan, there could be\u00a0anything in there.\u201d So I dive in. I start digging. And yes (as my editor will attest), much of what I find is garbage, but buried among it are kernels of truth and moments of beauty. There is treasure to be had in the bins of our imagination, it\u2019s simply a matter of knowing it when you see it. The first step is to look.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a message I hope young readers take from this book, or from any book, really: that even though the world may seem like a garbage heap sometimes, there\u2019s still so much potential, so many lessons to learn, experiences to share, people to love, and stories to tell. If you keep at it. If you don\u2019t give up. But as Kass will tell you, you can\u2019t create something beautiful unless you take the leap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So take a deep breath. Hold your nose if you have to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And let \u2018er rip.<\/p>\n
John\u00a0David\u00a0Anderson is\u00a0the\u00a0author\u00a0of some of\u00a0the\u00a0most beloved and highly acclaimed books for kids in recent memory, including\u00a0the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0Notable Book\u00a0Ms. Bixby\u2019s Last Day<\/em>,\u00a0Posted<\/em>,\u00a0Granted<\/em>,\u00a0Sidekicked<\/em>, and\u00a0The\u00a0Dungeoneers<\/em>. A dedicated root beer connoisseur and chocolate\u00a0fiend, he lives with his family in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can visit him online at\u00a0www.johndavidanderson.org<\/a><\/p>\n August 19<\/strong><\/p>\n Nerdy Book Club<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n @nerdybookclub\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n August 20\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Teachers Who Read<\/a><\/p>\n @teachers_read<\/p>\n\n August 21\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Maria\u2019s Melange<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n @mariaselke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n August 22\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers<\/a><\/p>\n @grgenius<\/p>\n\n