Heard many good things about this past weekend at Rutgers from Debbi Michiko Florence and Rosemary Brosnan. Looking forward to a report from Sean Petrie.
Category: General
Rejuvination
Had a first-rate time at the Austin SCBWI conference this weekend at the Pecan Street Cafe (only whine: very lukewarm lunch).
Learned that Candlewick is every bit as magical as I’d imagined it was (as was editor Sarah Ketchersid, who recited Greg‘s favorite speech from Shakespeare), that Charlesbridge is growing in exciting new directions (transitional and middle grade fiction under editor Judy O’Malley),
Wonder Woman
Yesterday, I finished the new draft of my manuscript. Today the house is actually clean, and the company will be arriving within the next half hour. My hair even looks cute today. Perhaps never before have I felt so everyday va-va-va-Cyn, like Wonder Woman.
Surf by Belle Yang and the newly redesigned Georgia Children’s Book Awards site.
National Book Award Finalists Announced
The newly announced National Book Award finalists are:
Deb Caletti for Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Pete Hautman for Godless
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Laban Carrick Hill for Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
(Megan Tingley Books/Little,
Novels and Journals
Overall, it’s been a much better year for picture books than novels, but I just got a healthy stack of mucho promising picks:
11,000 Years Lost by San Antonio author Peni R. Griffin (Amulet, 2004);
Unexpected Development by first-time author Marlene Perez (Roaring Brook, 2004);
Death By Eggplant by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe (Roaring Brook,
Austin SCBWI Fall Conference
The Austin SCBWI conference is this upcoming weekend, and I’m getting ready to host my friend Stephanie from Wichita Falls and Judy O’Malley from Charlesbridge. Airport pick-ups, restaurant reservations, house cleaning. Eek! Busy Cyn.
National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian
I just learned today from Kyra Teis that Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (Morrow/Harper, 2000)(ages 4-up) is available in the gift shop of the new National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian. Is that cool or what?
Continue Reading National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian »
Incoming Books & Related Shopping
Had a lovely lunch today with Page (who’s moving to San Francisco; sigh!) at Green Pastures and swung by the P.O. to pick up my mail.
Highlights included the Levenger and Culture for Kids catalogs.
Levenger offers “tools for serious readers;” pricey, but it’s fun to flip pages and drool.
Sunny Sunday
It was one of those perfect Austin days. Sunny, mid 80s, nice breeze. Did some writing and took some time off to grab lunch with my honey and shop the antique stores on Burnett and South Congress. Didn’t buy anything but relaxation.
Whale Snow
A translation of Debbie Dahl Edwards’ picture book Whale Snow, illustrated by Annie Patterson, (Charlesbridge, 2003) is available online in Iñupiaq. (It takes a while to download; 10 minutes on my computer; so be patient).
Check it out: Jane Yolen has a blog.