D.J. with Casey; follow @DJMacHale
By Laini Bostian (and Omar Elbulok)
Librarian Laini Bostian blogs at The Made Up Librarian.
This winter, Omar Elbulok, one of my library’s teen advisors, and I had the pleasure of talking with author D.J. MacHale. He challenged us to ask him something he had never been asked.
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Illustrator April Chu Takes Us Behind the Art of Summoning the Phoenix from Lee & Low. Peek: “…gives readers an inside look into centuries-old Chinese musical instruments and the more recently formed modern Chinese Orchestra.”
Anti-heroes: Why Devious is So Delectable, and Where Are All the Women?
Get to Know Karen Rock!
By Karen Rock
Warning: some spoilers for model books.
Many jobs entail courage and risk. Writing is one of them. Creating unforgettable endings that are not ‘Happily-Ever-After’ may be one of the bravest and most honest things an author can do.
Sure,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Karen Rock on Happily-Ever-(NOT): Writing Unforgettable Endings »
Varsha (taller girl) with her mother and sister.
By Varsha Bajaj
I grew up reading cross culturally because I didn’t have a choice. In the late ’60s and ’70s, British and American authors wrote the children’s literature available in India.
While I had not seen anyone with red hair like Anne Shirley in Anne of the Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908),
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Varsha Bajaj on Reading Across Borders & Cultures »
It’s hard to write a boring book about dolphins. They are the low-hanging fruit of reader interest.
Dolphins have personalities. Dolphins are active, highly social, and ridiculously smart.
Who doesn’t love dolphins?
To write The Dolphins of Shark Bay, with photographs by Scott Tuason (Harcourt,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Pamela S. Turner on Telling True Stories »
Naked! is a new picture book written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by yours truly, published by Simon & Schuster at the end of April 2014.
This was my second picture book project and second collaboration with Michael.
While some aspects of the process stayed the same,
SCBWI Bologna Booth
The SCBWI booth, a hotbed of activity? Yes, according to Publishers Weekly!
This year the SCBWI celebrated 10 years in Bologna. We have had a Bologna Children’s Book Fair presence every second year since 2004. That first booth was under the direction of the Erzsi Deak.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Christopher Cheng on SCBWI: Celebrating 10 Years in Bologna »
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Remembering Maya Angelou from NBC News. Peek: “The renowned poet, author and civil rights activist with the unmistakably regal voice died on May 28 at the age of 86.”
Wishing You “Amazing Peace,” Maya Angelou by Sylvia Vardell from Poetry for Children.
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The Fight for Desegregation by Julie Danielson from Kirkus Reviews. Note: Focusing on Duncan Tonatiuh’s Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation (Abrams, 2014). Peek: “My artwork is very much inspired by Pre-Columbian art, especially by Mixtec codices from the 14th century.
By Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire Legrand & Emma Trevayne
The Cabinet of Curiosities began in January 2013 as a spooky-stories website devised by Emma Trevayne, who invited Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, and Claire Legrand to join her.
