Today I’m participating in a Speed Mentoring program at a local high school. I’m one of 30 mentors giving kids my best 3 minutes of advice, rotating through five groups of 10 kids each. So essentially I’ll be imparting “wisdom” on 50 kids. Wow! Talk about the weight of responsibility. But as I honed that… Read more »
jean
MOCKINGBIRD and “Showing” Emotion
So I pulled MOCKINGBIRD from the shelf because I’d been aware but not completely in touch with the praise it’s received. I hadn’t read the reviews. I didn’t even know what it was about. I just knew that people – a lot of people – thought it was good – really good. But I’m not… Read more »
Books Change Lives: LitWorld Holiday Book Drive
Just one book can change a life. Imagine what a difference that one book would make if it were put in the hands of a little girl or boy who had never before held a picture book, let alone had one for their very own. You can make that possible through LitWorld’s annual Holiday Book… Read more »
So you want to write a novel…
Thank you Jennifer Nielsen for bringing this to my attention:
Perfect School Visits
I recently got back from two school visits in San Antonio, Texas. I spent Friday morning at Keystone School and the afternoon at St. Anthony School, just blocks away. Four presentations and a full day’s worth of activities later, I headed back to Denver tired but sad it was over. I found out, on this… Read more »
When You Read This …
I just finished reading WHEN YOU REACH ME – winner of the 2010 John Newbery Medal and wow! I’m not always the biggest fan of story-within-a-story books, but by weaving bits of A WRINKLE IN TIME into the 1979 setting, Rebecca Stead hints at elements of time-travel without the book slipping fully into science fiction… Read more »
The Wheels on This Bus …
Ha ha ha. For some strange age-induced, hard-drive-overload, blocked-childhood reason, it never occurred to me that the title of my latest picture book is the repeating stanza of the song I sang to my kids endlessly. YIKES! Here’s the PM announcement: Author of TOO PURPLEY! and TOO PICKLEY! Jean Reidy’s ALL THROUGH THE TOWN, with… Read more »
Picture Book Peek: Critique and Copies for a Cause!!!
Bridget Zinn’s family and friends are stepping up again with another auction to help Bridget in her battle with cancer. My Thanksgiving Picture Book Peek Week will be a part of this auction. I’ll be donating one fiction picture book (up to 1000 words) manuscript critique as well as signed copies of TOO PURPLEY! and… Read more »
2010 National Book Award Finalists
FINALISTS FOR 2010 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS Fiction Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Alfred A. Knopf) Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (McPherson & Co.) Nicole Krauss, Great House (W.W. Norton & Co.) Lionel Shriver, So Much for That (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel (Coffee House Press) Nonfiction Barbara Demick,… Read more »
My Thoughts and Actions After Manuscript Submissions
Perfect.(Hit send)(Immediately check inbox)Editor is reading it right now.Editor is pumping her fist mouthing “You nailed it, Jean.”(Check inbox)Editor is calling Caldecott Honor illustrator and saying, “Your other projects will have to wait.”(Check inbox)Editor is reading it to her staff and they’re toasting me.(Check inbox)Editor is waiting to read it over her lunch break.(Check inbox)Editor… Read more »
My Books
