My crit buddy David Macinnis Gill is up on Amazon and you can take a peak inside his soon-to-be released YA Soul Enchilada. I adored this book from the first draft. And now, bagging a starred review from Kirkus, Soul must make it to the top of your “must read” list.
Can’t wait until April, David!!
THE SOCIETY OF CHILDREN’S BOOK WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS ANNOUNCES THE WINNERS AND HONOREES OF THE 2009 GOLDEN KITE AWARDS
The Golden Kite Award is the only award presented to children’s book authors and artists by their peers.
Golden Kite Award Winners:
Fiction:
DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN
by Steve Watkins
Candlewick Press
Nonfiction:
A LIFE IN THE WILD: GEORGE SCHALLER’S STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE LAST GREAT BEASTS
by Pamela S. Turner
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Picture Book Text:
A VISITOR FOR BEAR
by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
Candlewick Press
Picture Book Illustration:
LAST NIGHT
Illustrated and written by Hyewon Yum
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Golden Kite Honor Recipients:
Fiction:
THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX
by Mary E. Pearson
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Nonfiction:
THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE: SUPERNOVAE, DARK ENERGY, AND BLACK HOLES
by Ellen Jackson; photographed and illustrated by Nic Bishop
Houghton Mifflin
Picture Book Text:
BEFORE JOHN WAS A JAZZ GIANT
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Picture Book Illustration:
I LOVE MY NEW TOY
Illustrated and written by Mo Willems
Hyperion
I’m constantly impressed by creative uses of blogs, social networking sites and the internet in general. And when they’re combined with a terrific cause, like literacy, well then WOOT! WOOT!
From the Share a Story – Shape a Future blog (logo artist Elizabeth Dulemba):
“Within the kidlitosphere, the children’s literature bloggers comprise and reach a very broad audience. One of the group’s greatest assets is its collective, community-minded approach to sharing information and ideas. Through events like blog tours, authors and illustrators have had wonderful opportunities to share their story and their craft. Given the success of tours for “producers,” what about an event for and by the people who create and engage their readers: teachers, librarians, parents, and people passionate about literacy?
Voila! Share a Story – Shape a Future is just that event. This is an ensemble effort not only to celebrate reading among those of us who already love books, but to encourage each other to reach beyond ourselves and do it in a way that we are neither judging nor instructing others. This is a venue for communicating practical, useable, everyday ideas.
The event begins March 9, 2009 and lasts one week. Each day we will have a group of bloggers sharing ideas around a specific theme. There are a number of book giveaways and free downloads that will be announced by the various hosts as we get closer to the kickoff.”
I’ve looked at the daily agenda and it’s impressive. If you can’t commit to the whole week, stop on by anyway. Each day introduces different topics with different hosts. And the line-up is fabulous.
It’s Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday. Let’s have a blog party.
Our guests are here.
Let the party begin.
Are you partying too?
Then link right in.
Here are a few folks with their party hats on:
What a find!!
Here it is, all in one place. Amber Naslund so generously offers a complete guide to most of our favorite networking sites including Twitter in her Social Media Starter Kit.
It just so happens that the same day I started reading National Book Award Winner, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson, my GoodReads friend, Elizabeth C. Bunce, author of Curse Dark as Gold (winner of the first ever William C. Morris award) posted dozens and dozens of books she read to research CURSE. Then, just few days later, Elizabeth’s GoodReads update showed volumes more she’s using to research her next novel. That’s the day I concluded I was a lazy writer.
Elizabeth talks about her research in her interview with editor Cheryl Klein. Check it out. And follow her CURSE journey in her blog archives. Learn about Anderson’s process in his interview with Publisher’s Weekly .
I can only imagine the time put into establishing the authentic voices in these novels. The narrators’ fluency in their historical languages leave readers completely transported.
I say bravo and thank you to both authors for their intense dedication to their craft. And I’m delighted it’s paid off so well.
If you can grab a hard copy please do. You’ll treasure it. And please share the best of the Rocky online at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/ .
As a subscriber, I just received an e-mail informing me that tomorrow is the last day of publication for Colorado’s Rocky Mountain News. This tabloid format newspaper has been my breakfast read since I moved here in 1981. But on a more poignant note, The Rocky is where I garnered my first clips. So long dear friend. Beginning this weekend, The Denver Post will be substituted. I’ll be looking for many of my favorite Rocky writers in the Post. Hope to find you all there.
I love to see what kids are loving!!
Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
The Donut Chef by Bob Staake (Random/Golden)
Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman (Holt)
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! by Mo Willems (Hyperion)
Sort It Out! by Barbara Mariconda, illus. by Sherry Rogers (Sylvan Dell)
Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin, illus. by Daniel Salmieri (Clarion)
Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Babymouse: Puppy Love by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)
One Million Things: A Visual Encyclopedia by Peter Chrisp (DK)
Underwear: What We Wear Under There by Ruth Freeman Swain, illus. by John O’Brien (Holiday House)
Willow by Denise Brennan-Nelson and Rosemarie Brennan, illus. by Cyd Moore (Sleeping Bear)
Spooky Cemeteries by Dinah Williams (Bearport)
Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
100 Most Dangerous Things On the Planet by Anna Claybourne (Scholastic Reference)
Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (Scholastic/Graphix)
The Big Field by Mike Lupica (Philomel)
Swords: An Artist’s Devotion by Ben Boos (Candlewick)
Thirteen by Lauren Myracle (Dutton)
Teen Choice Book Award
Airhead by Meg Cabot (Scholastic/Point)
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen (Viking)
Paper Towns by John Green (Dutton)
Author of the Year
Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn (Little, Brown)
Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Abrams/Amulet)
Christopher Paolini, Brisingr (Knopf)
James Patterson, Maximum Ride: The Final Warning (Little, Brown)
Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Disney-Hyperion)
Illustrator of the Year
Laura Cornell, Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis (HarperCollins/Cotler)
Robin Preiss Glasser, Fancy Nancy: Bonjour Butterfly! by Jane O’Connor (HarperCollins)
Mo Willems, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! (Hyperion)
David Shannon, Loren Long and David Gordon, Smash! Crash! by Jon Scieszka (Simon & Schuster)
Jon J Muth, Zen Ties (Scholastic Press)
I’ve been listening to Ann M. Martin’s HERE TODAY on CD and I’m been intrigued by how Martin develops the status quo in her story yet also drops hints as to the story problem. For example, in the opening pages, when Doris, the MC’s mom, begins her supermarket sweep one of the onlookers remarks “She’s just so … so cheap.” At that point my ears perked up and I began to suspect that Doris Dingman was different. Now I’m curious to find out how this wacky mom is going to play into our MC’s problem. I’m drawn into the story.
I’m experimenting, in my own novels, with establishing the status quo and at the same time pulling my readers into my story. Sometimes we can follow Ann M. Martin’s pattern and drop hints to an eventual problem and other times we might jump directly into the problem to set the story in motion. In that case, we might have to rely on flashbacks or other tools to allude to “how things were” before the catalyst. Either way, we need to establish what’s different or why the story starts now.
So how do you do it? Do you open your story with normal? Do you drop hints of problems to come? Or do you jump right into the main story problem? Do you use flashbacks? I’d love to hear your thoughts on establishing status quo and pulling in your readers right from the start.
