Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Conversation about Diversity in Children’s Literature from KQED. Click below to hear author-illustrator Christopher Myers, author Mitali Perkins, illustrator LeUyen Pham, and, from the gatekeeper community Nina Lindsay, supervising librarian for children’s services at the Oakland Public Library,
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
On Neutral Characters and Relating to the Specific by Shannon Hale from squeetus blog. Peek: “Why can’t someone like Maisie be worthy of a story too? I’ve encountered similar opinions over the years and began to come to an uncomfortable understanding, one that others before me have also discovered.”
Singtel Picture Book Award judges (Christopher is the tallest)
The end of May is the time to be in Singapore for any writer or illustrator of children’s books.
Why? Because the weather is hot, dry and summery (with just the possibility of a brief shower), there is glorious food to be sampled (especially in the open air food malls),
Continue Reading Guest Post: Christopher Cheng on the Asian Festival of Children’s Content »
Last weekend’s highlight was “Kick It Up a Notch,” the 2013 regional conference of Austin SCBWI.
Authors Katherine Catmull and Greg Leitich Smith at the Friday night reception at the Austin Children’s Museum
Agent Erzsi Deak of Hen & Continue Reading Event Report: Austin SCBWI Regional Conference »
Lenore Jennewein is the author of Chick-o-Saurus Rex, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein (Simon & Schuster, 2013). From the promotional copy:
The humorous story of a little chick who proves his mettle to the farm’s big bullies when he discovers he has a very mighty lineage.
Continue Reading New Voice: Lenore Appelhans/Jennewein on Level 2 & Chick-o-Saurus Rex »
Copyright Gerard DuBois, Roaring Brook Press.
“Look at this man.
“He climbs invisible stairs—”
A very long time ago—so, so long—I took a class from a Swiss mime, Jan Kessler. This was my senior year in college, when I decided to loosen the yoke of my heavily academic load with a couple of courses that had amazing reputations.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Leda Schubert on Monsieur Marceau: Artist Without Words »
From SCBWI
at Cynsations
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced the creation of the On-The-Verge Emerging Voices Award at their 41st Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
The annual award, established by SCBWI and funded by Martin and Sue Schmitt, will be given to two writers or illustrators who are from ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds that are traditionally under-represented in children’s literature in America and who have a ready-to-submit completed work for children.
Continue Reading SCBWI Debuts On-The-Verge Emerging Voices Award »
We Need to Talk about the Mid-list by Ellen Caldecott from An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. Peek: “No-one ever sets out to become a mid-list writer, such dreams would be more getting texts from friends saying ‘I was in Coventry Waterstones and they don’t have your book’;
Meet editor Christie Harkin.
By Lena Coakley
This May, I had a chance to sit down with Christie Harkin, children’s book editor at Fitzhenry & Whiteside Publishers in Canada.
Christie has been an editor at Fitzhenry & Whiteside for the past four years.
In her former life,
Continue Reading Editor Interview: Christie Harkin of Fitzhenry & Whiteside »
Last time I reported about networking and I mentioned Singapore and India. Here is what happened at Bookaroo in New Delhi last year:
My First Picture of India
I love India. If I had to use two words to describe my first impressions, they would be sensory explosion.
