Book Trailer: Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies by Carmen Oliver, illustrated by Jean Claude

Book Trailer: Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies by Carmen Oliver, illustrated by Jean Claude

By Carmen Oliver
for Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Cynsations

In 2012, I was working on a nonfiction picture book project about white and black spirit bears in Canada and the boy Simon Jackson who was trying to save them from extinction.

At the same time, my daughter was in fifth grade and was given the awesome task of being a reading buddy to an incoming kindergartner.

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Book Trailer: Uh-Oh! by Shutta Crum, illustrated by Patrice Barton

Book Trailer: Uh-Oh! by Shutta Crum, illustrated by Patrice Barton

From the team behind Mine! (Knopf, 2011)

By Cynthia Leitich Smith

Check out the book trailer for Uh-Oh! by Shutta Crum, illustrated by Patrice Barton (Knopf, 2015). From the promotional copy:

A charming summer story that’s just right for toddlers, from the team behind the critically acclaimed picture book “Mine.”

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Book Trailer: Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Rob Dunlavey

By Cynthia Leitich Smith

Check out the book trailer for Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Rob Dunlavey (Atheneum, 2015). From the promotional copy: Counting has never been this much fun or this jazzy!

Count along with the cool crows in this book trailer sung by Laurel Kathleen with music by Cooper Appelt.

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Guest Post: Tara Altebrando on My Life in Dioramas

Guest Post: Tara Altebrando on My Life in Dioramas

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By Tara Altebrando

I remember the day I finished my first middle-grade novel, The Battle of Darcy Lane (Running Press, 2014), pretty vividly. I sat there for a minute, stared out the window of my office, and thought: “Now I need a new middle-grade idea.”

So I started to root around my brain for inspiration by asking myself the question,

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