Betty Birney’s Blog

ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY comes out next week (drum roll, please), but it was written a year or so ago. I always talk about doing some kind of research on every book I do (and I am grateful for the internet which has made it so easy). But not all research is done in books or online. I snapped a photo of an experiment I conducted in my bathtub back then to make sure what I was writing was accurate.

I challenge anyone – ANYONE – to figure out what the heck I was doing.

No teddy bears were actually harmed in the making of this book!

This led to a second experiment (or just a lovely still life):

Stay tuned for another wacky but non-watery experiment to come!

… just a short trip. I’m in Houston and will be at Second Baptist School today and this evening.

I finished the first draft of the sixth Humphrey book. It still needs revision, I know, but getting that first draft done, getting the story down is the hard part for me.  The last month has meant working hard seven days a week. It hasn’t been fun, but I think the book is fun!

U.S. cover

I’ve just been proofreading the galleys for THE PRINCESS AND THE PEABODYS for my British publisher, Faber and Faber. It will be published there later this year. Each time I do the UK proofreading, I find some surprising differences in the English language. Of course there are the obvious ones: favorite color in the U.S. becomes favourite colour in the U.K., the quotation marks are reversed (single quotes for a direct quotation, double quotes for a quote-with-a-quote), no periods after Mr. and Mrs. in the UK. What we Americans call “math,” the Brits call “maths.” Still, we manage to understand each other pretty well.  I usually keep a running tab of the changes that are made on the Humphrey books – see Briticisms on the Humphreyville page of my website.

(And by the way, if you haven’t checked out THE PRINCESS AND THE PEABODYS page of my site, you must! You can take a quiz to find out if you’re a princess or a Peabody … send a cool ecard … or read up on tiaras.)

My very favorite (or favourite) change was in FRIENDSHIP ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY. At the Room 26 Valentine’s Day party, I had them serve punch and cookies. There was a horrified reaction which I didn’t understand at all but we soon sorted it out. In England, “punch” only refers to drinks with alcohol in them, so the copy editor was thinking we served alcohol to elementary school students. We changed it to apple juice.

In case you didn’t know, I love the UK, I love my UK friends, and I love Faber and Faber, my UK publisher! Check out their Humphrey website and cool Humphrey game at www.funwithhumphrey.com.

Here’s the list I just made:

U.S.                                                         U.K.

analyze                                                 analyse

apologize                                              apologize

bleachers                                              further benches

’cause                                                  ‘cos

chow down                                           put it away

center                                                  centre

chips                                                    crisps

draft                                                     draught

hodge-podge                                       hotchpotch

honor                                                    honour

plunked                                                plonked

practice                                                practise

pry                                                       prise

quieted                                                 quietened

sink                                                      basin

sneakers                                              trainers

specialty                                              speciality

washcloth                                             facecloth

Lots of book news:

Tomorrow (January 8), SURPRISES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY is released in paperback (Penguin). This is the book that’s currently on the Texas Bluebonnet list.

Early next month, ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY comes out in the U.S. in hardcover (Putnam’s). (See previous post.)

Also in February,  the same book under the title MORE ADVENTURES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY will be published in the U.K. (Faber & Faber). The title change is due to the fact that it is based on the very short one-pound World Book Day book called ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY. When the U.S. publishers saw the book, they said “we want that.” But I needed to expand it. So this is a much longer version of that little book with lots of new material, including one surprise that will be of interest to all Humphrey fans!

And now, I’ve got back to writing the sixth book. I don’t have the title yet but it takes place during the summer. So naturally, I’m writing it in the winter!

Humphrey and Og want me to offer their best wishes for a happy and hoppy 2009! (Og is a hoppy frog after all.) They’re both excited about the new book coming out in February!  Especially because it involves sailboats, pirates and library cards!

Above is the U.S. cover, which is called ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY. In the U.K., it will be called MORE ADVENTURES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY. It has a great cover, too, which I’ll try to get up here soon. (To clear up any confusion, this is a greatly expanded version of last year’s World Book Day book, with some terrific additions including a surprise ending you won’t want to miss. I promise.)

For Humphrey fans in the U.S. and the U.K., there is more Humphrey to come, so I’d better get back to my writing!