Tag Archives: children’s books

Advice from a kid: Miranda, age nine

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 […]

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Critique Groups are Empowering

You work alone developing something that has never before existed in the world. You see it from a unique perspective, but what about the rest of the world? Is this newly created entity ready for exposure? Is it balanced and complete? Does it say what you think it says? What you need is a good […]

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Cheryl Klein: An Editor with Second Sight

Cheryl Klein, Senior Editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, hopped on a train from NYC to Andover, MA to give an informative talk recently to our children’s book writers’ critique group. She fielded questions we had previously submitted. She also read and gave Bookmark

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Black & White exhibit

Black & White is a terrific concept for an exhibit – it’s so contrast-y. The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire’s upcoming show on that theme includes fifteen of my drawings. One is a graphite frottage, a technique related to rubbings, only more creative in that the textures are combined to make new images. I am […]

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How do you run wild?

Chicks Run Wild is a hilarious picturebook that will be released January 25, 2011 by Simon and Schuster. The pictures are by Ward Jenkins and the story by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. The little chicks in CHICKS RUN WILD certainly think they know how to go wild – until Mama shows them how to really do it! […]

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About Translations

Currently I am working on a young adult novel based on an intriguing character and events set in 999 AD, Vikng era Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. It is based on two of the Icelandic sagas: The Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga. I had been using an anthology given to me by my son Eric […]

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Color e-publishing

Today the New York Times writes about color e-readers in an article that describes this new avenue that publishers are utilizing. It lists some titles already available, including at least one of the Olivia books. The distinctions of the IPad over Kindle are color and the ability to show a double page spread at once, […]

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NaNoWriMo over

Like many other writers, I committed myself to the National Novel Writing Month website’s competition on November 2 and started a new young adult manuscript now titled What else is there?. The goal for each of the thousands of writers who also took the plunge was to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1 […]

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Agents: old school to new wave

Update on 11/5/10 – Nathan Bransford sent a message today that he is no longer an agent at Curtis Brown. He will now be working in the technology industry. What a total surprise, disappointing many people, myself included. Original post: Agents, like all other publishing professionals, come in a variety of flavors: sweet to salty […]

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NaNoWriMo reminder

Monday, November 1, 12:01 a.m. it starts. Smoking keyboards. Tsunamis of words. Bloodshot eyes. Yes, it is National Novel Writing Month and the annual ritual of writers worldwide trying to complete their 50,000 word novels before November 30th. There are some interesting statistics (including a list of whose books were published). Are you going to […]

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Quackenstein: Sudipta’s guest post

By Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen: Recently, the New York Times declared that picture books are essentially dead. Really? Take a look at this: Does that look dead to you? As a primarily-picture-book-author like me, the idea that picture books are done for is a terrifying prospect. But rather than cringe on a corner of my bed and […]

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A World of Books #1

Yes, writers and illustrators in other countries produce wonderful children’s books, as we do. And why shouldn’t we consider those too? A number of years ago I started collecting children’s picture books from other countries I visited. When friends or relatives went somewhere exotic, I sometimes asked them to bring one home for me. I […]

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Fewer Picturebooks

An article in the New York Times today cites testimony from  publishers and bookstores who have seen a significant decline in the number of picturebooks being purchased by parents. They expose their toddlers to books for older kids in an attempt to prepare them for the higher testing standards and competition of today’s schools. They […]

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Eerie parallels

In June we embarked on a major road trip around the Great Lakes from our home in MA. I brought some books on CD for in the car and a couple of paperbacks including Eleven, a powerful and poignant story by Patricia Reilly Giff. In the book, Sam who is just turning eleven, suspects that […]

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Children reading electronically

A New York Times article examines the children’s book industry’s new incentive to include digital versions of books for children. Bookmark

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Constructions

As I begin “Constructions” I’ve chosen a title that encompasses all forms of creative endeavor regardless of genre. While there are those who may feel that a person cannot expect to succeed in such dissimilar areas as children’s literature and sculpture, I take the opposite view: how can a truly creative person expend an entire […]

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