By Maha Addasi
I thought I’d talk today about the challenges of writing a multicultural story in picture book form, and tomorrow Ned Gannon will talk about his own experiences illustrating Time to Pray (Boyds Mills, 2010).
When I wrote Time to Pray, I wanted to capture the essence of a culture in the 32-page format.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Author Maha Addasi on Time to Pray »
Jaclyn Dolamore is the first-time author of Magic Under Glass (Bloomsbury, 2009)(blog). From the promotional copy:
Nimira is a music-hall girl used to dancing for pennies. So when wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing accompaniment to a mysterious piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it will be the start of a better life.
Continue Reading New Voice: Jaclyn Dolamore on Magic Under Glass »
Congratulations to Stephanie Perkins on the release of Anna and the French Kiss (Dutton, 2010)! From the promotional copy:
Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she’s less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St.
Elizabeth Fixmer is the first-time author of Saint Training (Zonderkidz, 2010). From the promotional copy:
Mary Clare O’Brian thinks that her bargain with God – to become a saint if He’ll make her family happy – will result in a miracle.
But with a war in Vietnam, race riots in the city,
Continue Reading New Voice: Elizabeth Fixmer on Saint Training »
Blythe Woolston is the first-time author of The Freak Observer (Carolrhoda Lab, 2010). From the promotional copy:
For eight years, Loa Lindgren’s world ran like one of those mechanical models of the solar system, with her baby sister, Asta, as the sun. Asta suffered from a genetic disorder that left her a permanent infant,
Continue Reading New Voice: Blythe Woolston on The Freak Observer »
On one of my visits to Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawaii, I drove down to the coast just before sunset. I started to walk across the lumpy, black lava fields toward the spot about two miles away where the volcano’s fresh torrents of lava were spilling into the sea and sending up a huge plume of steam.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Lisa Westberg Peters on Volcano Wakes Up! »
Daniel Jennewein is the debut illustrator of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? written by Audrey Vernick (Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins, 2011). From the promotional copy:
Your buffalo is growing up. He plays with friends. He shares his toys. He’s smart! But is he ready for kindergarten? (And is kindergarten ready for him?)
Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?
Banished by Sophie Littlefield (Delacorte, 2010) is now available. From the promotional copy:
Sixteen-year-old Hailey Tarbell can’t wait for the day she’ll leave Gypsum, Missouri, far behind, taking only four-year-old Chub, the developmentally-delayed little boy her cruel drug-dealing grandmother fosters for the state money.
But when a freak accident in gym class leaves a girl in critical condition,
Christine Johnson is the first-time author of Claire de Lune (Simon Pulse, 2010). From the promotional copy:
Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and her crush keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she’s the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: She’s a werewolf.
Continue Reading New Voice: Christine Johnson on Claire de Lune »
By Jane Sutton
My friend Fay called after reading my latest picture book. I basked in her praise of its humor and charm until she observed: “All your books have the same message: be yourself.”
I thought, Thanks a lot. You called to tell me I’m repeating myself like a please-continue-to-hold message?
Continue Reading Guest Post: Jane Sutton on Revisiting a Theme »
