Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Jacqueline Woodson discusses her new release, Beneath a Meth Moon (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012).
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Category: General
Guest Post & Giveaway: Kelly Starling Lyons on Ellen’s Broom
Kelly at Mt. Nebo Primitive Baptist Church in Eden, N.C.
Sometimes you need help realizing that a moment or experience holds the seed of a story. That’s just what happened to me at The Writers Workshop at Chautauqua.
When I told my mentor Clay Winters about researching family history and coming across a cohabitation register – a document that registered the marriages of formerly enslaved people – he said I had a picture book in there.
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Kelly Starling Lyons on Ellen’s Broom »
Author Video: Liz Kessler on A Year Without Autumn
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
In the video below, author Liz Kessler talks about A Year Without Autumn (2011) from Candlewick Press. Peek: “The author of the best-selling Emily Windsnap series spins a gripping tale about a girl who stumbles into the future and must change its course to save a friendship.”
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Guest Post: Loretta Ellsworth on Memories & Unforgettable
When my book Unforgettable (Walker, 2011) was released in September, I hosted a giveaway on my blog. Readers had to write about their earliest memories.
It was fascinating reading them because they reflected a great deal about the readers and their childhood. I thought most of them would be from very memorable events – mine was when I was a flower girl in my aunt’s wedding – but I was surprised that many of them were very ordinary: watching a big brother come home on the school bus,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Loretta Ellsworth on Memories & Unforgettable »
New Cynsations Reporter: Angela Cerrito
Angela Cerrito writes by night and is a pediatric physical therapist by day.
Her debut novel The End of the Line (Holiday House, 2011) was selected for VOYA’s Top of the Top Shelf 2011 and Top Shelf for Middle Grade Readers 2011.
New Voice: Kami Kinard on Writing Humor & The Boy Project
Kami Kinard is the first-time author of The Boy Project (Notes and Observations of Kara McAllister)(Scholastic, 2012). From the promotional copy:
For anyone who’s ever felt that boys were a different species….
Wildly creative seventh grader, Kara McAllister,
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Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award Winners (For Portrayals of “Individuals with Developmental Disabilities”)
Source: Tina Taylor Dyches, Ed.D.
Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award Chair
Brigham Young University
at Cynsations
The Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award was presented Jan. 19 at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD) international conference in Miami Beach,
Last Call: PEN Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship & Steven Kroll Award
Source: Pen America Center
at Cynsations
PEN American Center is accepting submissions until Feb. 1 for the $5,000 PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, given annually to an author of children’s or young-adult fiction.
The Fellowship is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career to complete a book-length work-in-progress.
Continue Reading Last Call: PEN Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship & Steven Kroll Award »
World Book Night
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
World Book Night will take place on April 23, 2012 across the U.S., U.K. and Ireland.
During World Book Night, 50,000 people, named as “book givers,” will each be giving away 20 books from a select list with a goal to have 1,000,000 people across the United States alone celebrating reading en masse.
Cynsational News & Giveaways
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature have been announced.
In the Picture Book category, the winner was The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China by Ed Young (Little, Brown), and the honor book was Hot Hot Roti for Dada-ji by F.