Congratulations to the children’s-YA authors and illustrators of 2010!
Thank you to everyone who discussed and debated and cheered and championed this year’s books!
Just for fun, here are a few of my favorites.
Quick caveats:
(a) to varying degrees, I know or have met some (but not most) of the authors/illustrators–if I discounted everyone I knew,
Q&A with Tweenie Author Christopher Grant from Medeia Sharif YA Author. Peek: “I think I’m afforded a unique advantage by getting to ride the NYC subway twice a day. The banter and colorful conversations that I hear are like gifts from God. Not a day goes by where I won’t hear something and think to myself,
Learn about Julia Durango.
What first inspired you to write across forms in children’s-YA literature?
When I first started writing for children, I wanted to write a historical fiction novel; but with two little boys underfoot, my progress on the novel was very slow.
At the same time, I was reading and enjoying dozens of picture books with my sons.
Greg van Eekhout is the first-time author of Kid vs. Squid (Bloomsbury, 2010). From the promotional copy:
The citizens of Atlantis are stuck selling cotton candy on the boardwalk, and only our hero can help.
Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle’s seaside Museum of Curiosities.
Continue Reading New Voice: Greg van Eekhout on Kid vs. Squid »
Ilsa J. Bick is the first-time author of Draw the Dark (Carolrhoda Lab; 2010). From the promotional copy:
There are things the people of Winter, Wisconsin, would rather forget. The year the Nazis came to town, for one. That fire, for another. But what they’d really like to forget is Christian Cage.
Learn about Carmen T. Bernier-Grand.
What first inspired you to write across forms in children’s-YA literature?
My editor at Marshall Cavendish asked me to write César: ¡Sí se puede! Yes, We Can! illustrated by David Diaz (2006) with a special voice.
The words started coming to me in the form of free verse.
Continue Reading Writing Across Formats: Carmen T. Bernier-Grand »
Dee Garretson is the first-time author of Wildfire Run (HarperCollins, 2010)(author blog). From the promotional copy:
The president’s retreat, Camp David, is one of the safest places in the United States. So why can’t the President’s son, Luke, and his friends, Theo and Callie, stay there without Secret Service agents constantly hovering over them,
Cat Calls by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick, 2010) is now available for free as an e-book from Amazon.com!
Cat Calls is set in the Tantalize series universe and features entirely new characters. Here’s a peek:
Tiffany’s grandma sees something wild in her future — but is Tiffany prepared for the powerful shape it will take?
Continue Reading Cat Calls E-Book by Cynthia Leitich Smith Now Available for Free »
Congratulations to Laura Resau on the release of The Ruby Notebook (Delacorte, 2010)! From the promotional copy:
Sixteen-year-old Zeeta and her flighty English-teaching mom, Layla, have traveled the world together, settling in a different country every year, making a whole new set of friends and adopting new customs.
This year,
