“Most controversial books are really about moral choices, and what makes them controversial is the necessity of presenting the other option. It’s not a choice unless the reader understands the alternative.
“You can’t meaningfully discuss values and morality without the broader context of what you’re choosing against, whether that’s profanity, sexual violence, drug use, whatever.
“As a parent,
Continue Reading Author Elise Broach on Controversial Books for Young Readers »
Beyond The Great Mountains: A Visual Poem About China by Ed Young (Chronicle, 2005). From the catalog copy: “Ed Young’s spare prose, as lovely as a rice-paper painting, describes in measured detail the beautiful and mystical land that the author so clearly loves. The unique format and gorgeous paper-collage illustrations, highlighted with Chinese characters, combine to convey the many facets of China to form a poetic picture of the land’s grace,
Continue Reading Author/Illustrator Interview: Ed Young on Beyond The Great Mountains »
Tofu and T. rex by Greg Leitich Smith (Little Brown, 2005). From the catalog copy: “Militant vegan Frederika Murchison-Kowalski is back at the Peshtigo School after a brief stint in Texas (where she torched an artificial turf field to save Angus the Fighting Angus from the “rabid and inhumane cult” of football). The bad news is that now Freddie has to live with her cousin,
Continue Reading Author Interview: Greg Leitich Smith on Tofu and T. rex »
Blooming Tree Press is a relatively new children’s book publisher based in Austin, Texas. Could you offer us some insights into how this company came to be? What was the initial inspiration? What were the challenges?
Blooming Tree Press came about for several reasons. First, I had the desire to see different types of books on the shelves than I was seeing…especially for children.
Continue Reading Publisher Miriam Hees on Blooming Tree Press »
My husband, author Greg Leitich Smith, and I spoke yesterday to a crowd of about 40 on Writing the “Young Adult Novel” at the Barnes & Noble, Westake (TX) in conjunction with the store’s “Year of Writing” program.
My focus was on what the YA novel is and how to write it whereas Greg talked about getting published and led a character-building writing exercise.
From the CBC Web site: “Is there a children’s book you absolutely love that has gone out of print? “From November to February the Children’s Book Council is asking librarians, teachers, parents, and kids to name a book they would love to see reissued. The poll is a project of the ALA-CBC Joint Committee, and the top ten books will be announced in the spring.”
Kathi Appelt, department chair of the Vermont College/Union Institute & University M.F.A program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, is the author of numerous books for young readers. Her recent titles include: Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers: How A First Lady Changed America, illustrated by Joy Fisher Hein (HarperCollins,
Yesterday, I was processing and applying suggestions from my critique group to my new manuscript, and it occured to me that little is said about feedback on first drafts.
I know some editors and agents will offer to read first drafts, and unless you’re sure that’ll be in your manuscript’s best interests, I don’t generally recommend it. Even though the agent works for you,
Interviews are slow incoming for December, which is completely understandable given the semester’s end and competing holiday activities.
I’m personally busy working with my talented Web designer, Lisa Firke of Hit Those Keys, on the redesign in progress of my main site. I’ll keep y’all posted as things develop and let you know when we relaunch.
Author and storyteller Dotti Enderle is compiling a list of picture book protagonist names, titles, authors, illustrators, publishers and publication dates for a Web page designed to help gift buyers match the name of the gift recipient to the name of the hero of a book.
Picture book writers and illustrators are invited to write her with this information for promotional and literacy purposes.