I’m sorry to report that children’s book illustrator Ted Rand has passed away.
Ted was the illustrator of more than 70 books.
My favorite was Anna The Bookbinder by Andrea Cheng (Walker, 2003).
My sympathies to his wife Gloria, his family, and his many friends.
If we had to say what writing is,
we would define it essentially as an act of courage.
–Cynthia Ozick*
Every woman artist has to kill her own grandmother.
She perches on our shoulder whispering,
“Don’t embarass the family.”
–Erica Jong**
I’m thinking about Greg’s recent blog post on writing the novel,
Linworth Publishing, Inc., publisher of professional development resources for K-12 educators, is pleased to announce the addition of Cynthia Anderson and Gary Hartzell as acquisitions editors to the Linworth team.
Cynthia and Gary will be responsible for Linworth’s book development program, including both the Linworth Books and Linworth Learning imprints. They will actively seek new manuscripts in library/media,
Comfort by Carolee Dean (Houghton Mifflin, 2002). Kenny Willson wants out of Comfort, Texas–away from his alcoholic ex-con daddy, away from his controlling mama, away from everybody except Cindy. Despite her bullying boyfriend, she introduces Kenny to poetry competitions and shows him something that might be love. But not everything is what it appears to be in Comfort,
Looking For Uncle Louie On The Fourth Of July by Kathy Whitehead, illustrated by Pablo Torrecilla (Boyds Mills Press, 2005). Joe and his parents are among those at the parade celebrating the Fourth of July. It’s a wonderful, patriotic celebration, but where is Uncle Louie? And what would it be like to be part of the parade instead of just watching from the sidelines?
Barb Odanaka, the author of Skateboard Mom, illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi (Putnam, 2004), writes that she is moving from California to Dallas. She also says she hopes to meet my “four fat cats”* and plans to check out the skateboard park in Austin.
Barb is “a world traveler who’s dived with sharks,
Reading Reptile presents the match of the century: animated wrestling between illustration giants Maurice Sendak and Tomie dePaola. Click here for the big fight.
Reading Reptile is an independent bookstore in my hometown of Kansas City. Explains a lot, doesn’t it?
In My Grandmother’s House: Award-Winning Authors Tell Stories About Their Grandmothers, edited and illustrated by Bonnie Christensen (Harper, 2003). A collection of short stories by children’s authors about their own grandmothers. Contributing authors included: Joan Abelove; Alma Flor Ada, Bonnie Christensen; Beverly Cleary; Pat Cummings;
By Laura Ruby
Reproduced from an online message board with permission.
Word count, language choice, or age of protagonist is what separates YA from adult (and of course there’s some blurring — The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime, Like the Red Panda, A Northern Light,
Have you ever set down a book and thought, I wish I’d written that myself?
It’s not the kind of thing that happens often. After all, there are so many books that are successful, but don’t necessarily connect with my reader within. So many that I enjoy, but don’t speak so directly to my soul. Or perhaps it’s a wonderful,