What earnings can writers and illustrators of books for children today expect to receive from a publisher? The range of payment options has widened, sometimes not in your favor. If you would like to see whether the basics of the deal you now have is comparable to what others receive and help your colleagues too, […]
Kristine Asselin has been juggling many talents. She is the 2014 NESCBWI Conference Director, writes non-fiction books for the school and library market, has intriguing YA and MG fiction projects in process, and her first picture book was just released. Worst Case of Pasketti-itis, which was illustrated by Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki, tells the tale of a […]
Three powerful books about kids dealing with major issues. Troubled kids, wise and compassionate kids. Be Someone’s Hero is the message on a sign that foster child Carley finds in her borrowed bedroom. She’s in need of a hero herself, having just been released from the hospital after being severely beaten by her mother’s boyfriend, […]
Incubators help things hatch. What emerges are success stories. At an SCBWI crit group in Andover, MA fifteen people sit around a table giving input to the five presenters each month. Marianne Knowles is the well-experienced coordinator who keeps everything moving in a productive, positive direction. With that many voices, good input on developing stories […]
Denizens of the night sky, nine foot children, a steampunk moth, eerie coincidences, and electric connections between people… SCBWI New York this past weekend was surprisingly poignant and permeated by an encouraging optimism about children’s book publishing. But first was the getting there. Kristine Asselin, co-cordinator of the SCBWI conference in New England this May […]
Jennifer Malone one of my critique group buddies, has gone from being the New England Head of Publicity and Promotion for 20th Century Fox and Miramax Films to writing for YA and MG. Jen is fun, fabulous at networking, and her stories are contemporary tales full of humor. Right after Hurricane Sandy did its thing, […]
This charming book by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch, which I bought in Zurich, cleverly presents its theme on the cover as a title: “Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hatâ€. Egils translates this as “From small Mole, who wanted to know who dropped this thing on his head.†[…]
Like Dark Striker ((Nidhogg), the dragon who was an enormous force of evil in Norse mythology, Hurricane Sandy has left a broad swath of destruction and darkness in her path. Large areas of New York and New Jersey are swamped and disconnected to an extent never seen before. The fires that reduced acres of homes […]
John Flanagan’s strengths are dramatic action, innovative conflict, and complex male characters who breathe and sweat. This fantasy adventure trilogy with a Middle Ages setting combines humor, intelligent language and complex characters to propagate a fast-paced, engaging tale awash with daring plot twists. Although mostly promoting good morals, the level of violence over these first […]
As part of my research for a historical novel about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, we went in search of one of the places she traveled to in the early 1,000s. It was more than intriguing. Leif Eiriksson discovered something big around 1,000 A.D. You can still see the footprints of his longhouses at L’Anse aux Meadows on […]
On May 24th, after going to a magical book launch party on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, I did a post about the book Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston by Sheila S. Cunningham and illustrated by Kathie Kelleher. Kathie, who is an endlessly fascinating and Bookmark
For a number of years I have been collecting children’s picturebooks from other countries when I travel or friends and relatives do. It is good to be aware of the visual voices from other lands, so now and then I will post images of a few. The first entry in this series was Bookmark
Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston had a fabulous launch at the Agonquin Club on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston recently. This picturebook, written by Sheila S. Cunningham and illustrated by my friend Kathie Kelleher, is about a wallaby named Willow who goes on a walkabout from the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA to explore […]
History does begin with yesterday, after all. Nineteen seventy one, when cigarette ads were banned from TV, The Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar topped the charts, and Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory were playing at the movies, does not seem so very long ago. Then again, gasoline was forty cents a gallon. […]
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Story for Children by Gabriel Garcia Marquez may be more for you and me than for children (at least American ones). But that is an assumption. An unfair one perhaps. But the old man has left behind a scraggly feather on the shore of my memory. It […]
For the past year I have been working on a YA novel about a Norse teen from 1,000 A.D. I read about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir in two of the Icelandic sagas where she is shown to have had a truly amazing life. I’ve tried to show her in 3D in What Else is There? The story […]
For last year’s NaNoWriMo I laid the groundwork for What Else is There?, my YA historical novel about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir. It is set in Iceland, Greenland, and America about 1,000 A.D. Approaching the end of the story, I am meanwhile exploring references to Norse mythology in books and other media. In the past two days […]
That is the first sentence of a new book that arrived on my radar just as suddenly. I should not be surprised at the power of buzz by now, but I am. Bookmark
By JULIE BOSMAN Published in The New York Times: August 9, 2011 “The publishing industry has expanded in the past three years as Americans increasingly turned to e-books and juvenile and adult fiction, according to a new survey of thousands of Bookmark
Miranda and I went for a walk. She told me what she thinks about books. Here’s what she said. Topics that some kids like (kids that I know): Fluffy kitty cat books (I hate them completely) Books with some scary moments and action (I personally like these best :) Craft books like how to decorate […]