Constructions: joyce audy zarins

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 happens, and everyone’s work evolves based on the discussions. Everyone also shares information on the children’s literature publishing industry. One member, Carol Gordon Ekster, told the crew about Where Am I Sleeping Tonight: A Story About Divorce , published by Boulden Publishing and Ruth the Sleuth and the Messy Room, published by Character Publishing. Soon Kirsti Call had a signed contract with Character Publishing for her picturebook The Raindrop Who couldn’t Fall. That inspired another crit buddy, Paul Czajack to submit Monster Needs a Costume to Scarletta Kids, which he heard about through the group, and the book will be released this September and he has signed commitments for more in the series. Then another crit buddy, e-mailed to say that Simon and Schuster has just picked up her middle grade novel!  What will be next?

Bookmark

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 3-5, arrived with me at Grand Central Station on its 100^th birthday. Choral groups sang, bands played, while hundreds of people lined up in queues around the terminal. Why? One line for free gelato, another for a free shoeshine, and so on. Above it all, the spectacular zodiac ceiling by Paul Helleu.

The Hyatt Grand Central, with its newly redesigned lobby graced with two serene resin sculptures by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, was an ideal entranceway for a children’s book conference. Awilda and Chloe are nearly ten feet tall and are attenuated reflections on the daughters of friends of the artist.

The program for the weekend was replete with the celestials of the children’s book world: proudly snarky Meg Rosoff, charming Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, witty Margaret Peterson Haddix and hilarious Mo Willems. Lyn Oliver excelled in conference coordinating banter while Stephen Mooser (one of whose books I had illustrated years ago) played well her straight man. Tomie dePaola and Jane Yolen gave their read more »

Bookmark

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 three volumes escalates beyond what some will feel is appropriate for ten-year-olds who will read all three. There are plans for four more books.

In The Outcasts, volume 1 of the trilogy, sixteen-year-old boys are divided into teams to train as Skandian warriors. Most are excited at the prospect, read more »

Bookmark

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 read more »

Bookmark

Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston

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 the major attractions in nearby, lovely Boston. She is well organized, making an read more »

Bookmark

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.

During the book launch party for Susan Carlton’s new Love & Haight, which is about a seventeen-year-old, a smattering of colorful 1971 San Francisco hippies, love of several varieties, and an abortion that needs to happen, Susan was asked what kind of research did she have to do for this historical novel? I was helped by the fantastic librarians at the San Francisco History Center, she said, who brought out cardboard boxes of their Hippies Collection for me to use! She had a blast going over posters, scrapbooks, song lyrics and other memorabilia of the Flower Power, free love era. Her parents pitched in, sharing their Technicolor memories of read more »

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 cupcakes, paper mache or mask making
• Humorous books like Junie B. Jones
• Romance with a little bit of horror
• New stories with older settings or a combo of two older stories with a new twist.

The best rated stories have… read more »

Bookmark

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 read more »

Bookmark

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!

But we want to know … how does your class RUN WILD? Create a photo essay and win!

Kids and teachers: check out the Chicks Run Wild Photo Essay Contest. The class with the winning photo essay can win a PRIZE!

Bookmark