“Barefoot Books was founded in 1992 by two young moms working from home with the dream of creating beautiful books that celebrate diversity, spark curiosity and capture children’s imaginations.”
There’s been an ongoing conversation about diversity in children’s literature. What are your thoughts on the subject?
Continue Reading Publisher Interview: CEO Nancy Traversy of Barefoot Books »
Joyce Carol Thomas, Berkeley children’s author, dies at 78 by Shradha Ganapathy from The Daily Californian. Peek: “Celebrated local children’s author Joyce Carol Thomas — a poet, playwright and winner of the National Book Award — died Aug. 13 at Stanford University (Medical Center).”
Obituary: Joyce Carol Thomas by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly.
New Infographic of CCBC Publishing Statistics by David Huyck
Check out the new infographic Diversity in Children’s Books 2015 by David Huyck.
We have made very modest gains, but as Sarah Hannah Gomez has pointed out,
Has the wisdom of time and life positively affected my ability to write flawed characters? Or is it the other way around?
I muse about this during an early summer morning’s coffee and writing time.
In much younger days, a painful flaw in a friend’s makeup would end the friendship.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Carol Coven Grannick on Flaws: Fatal – Or Not »
Boston Globe-Hornbook Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature: “Winners are selected in three categories: Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction. Two Honor Books may be named in each category.”
The National Book Awards Longlist: Young People’s Literature from The New Yorker. Peek: “…a novel in verse about a twelve-year-old soccer nut,
As an aspiring writer for children, one of the many dividends of marrying my beautiful and gifted wife Melissa Iwai…
(am I right or am I right?)
was finding someone to collaborate with on picture books.
Seeing as I knew she was an extraordinary illustrator,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Denis Markell on Once You’ve Found Your Story, How Do You Tell It? »
Sonya Mukherjee
is the first-time author of Gemini (Simon & Schuster, 2016). From the promotional copy:
In a powerful and daring debut novel, Sonya Mukherjee shares the story of sisters Clara and Hailey, conjoined twins who are learning what it means to be truly extraordinary.
How “Girl Books” Could Save the World (Or at Least Help Out) by Jen Malone
from Nerdy Book Club. Peek: “Guess who’s not being exposed to these main characters? Boys. That’s a problem, because their female counterparts are only too happy to read books featuring male central characters,
Continue Reading Summer Girls & Women in Children’s-YA Lit Roundup »
Writing LGBTQ Picture Book Lit in 1989 Versus Now (AKA Heather Has Two Mommies and Morris Has a Dress) by Mark Joseph Stern from Slate. Peek: “Some schools want it to be more of a broad anti-bullying story. Rather than Morris being himself and the dress being a part of him—which is the message I’m hoping people get from it—they want the book to be about how Morris just likes to dress up for fun.”
Continue Reading Summer LGBTQIA in Children’s-YA Lit Roundup »
Yowza! It’s no small task to catch up Cynsational readers on a summer of children’s-YA writing, literature and publishing conversations.
More update posts will follow over the next several days–focusing on gender, the LGBTQIA community, and recent awards.
But for now, we’ve categorized the posts by topic and offered brief peeks so you can identify those that are the most interesting,
