September 2013

VALERIE TRIPP STAYS TRUE TO THE FEELINGS OF CHILDHOOD

On Thursday, September 19, the Guild welcomes prolific novelist Valerie Tripp, who is best known for her dozens of books in the American Girl series, about the characters Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Molly and Samantha. In creating these characters with diverse backgrounds, Tripp draws on her own childhood in Mount Kisco, New York. Like Molly, she loved her teachers and struggled with multiplication; like Josefina, she came from a large family. Her college study of childhood development informs her work as well.

Tripp also writes for educational publishers. She is the author of the Hopscotch Hill and Just One More series (both for Children’s Press) and the founder and editorial director of the new realistic fiction series Boys Camp, from Sky Pony Press.

Tripp, who calls talking her "favorite sport," promises to be an engaging and informative speaker.

Date: Thursday, September 19
Time:  11:30 a.m. "social hour"; noon luncheon
Place: Busboys and Poets 
1025 Fifth Street NW (at K Street) 

Menu: All choices $25 

:: CHOICE OF SANDWICH (all sandwiches served with a salad of baby greens and house-made kettle chips) ::
• Falafel Sandwich (vegetarian/vegan) with house-made hummus, cucumbers, lettuce, tomato and onion on whole-wheat pita, served with tahini sauce (vegan without tahini sauce) 
• Home-Roasted Turkey Sandwich with Havarti cheese, Dijonnaise, lettuce, tomato and onion on wheat bread
• Grilled Chicken Panini with chipotle mayo, caramelized onions, pepper jack, lettuce and tomato on ciabatta
• Portabella Mushroom Panini (vegetarian) with pesto, roasted red pepper and fresh mozzarella on herb ciabatta  
:: DESSERT ::
Assorted Cookies (family style)
:: BEVERAGES ::
Fountain Drinks (unlimited soft drinks and iced tea), fresh coffee and organic tea 

 

RSVP NOW!

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Two Member Nominations
2. Wes Moore's June Visit to the Guild
3. Getting Familiar with E-Books
4. Member News
5. The Guild's Twitter Account
6. How to Print Your Copy of the Children's Book Guild News
7. Fall for the Book Festival

MEMBER NOMINATION: MADELYN ROSENBERG

Marfe Ferguson Delano nominates Madelyn Rosenberg for membership in the Children’s Book Guild. Moira Rose Donahue and Jacqueline Jules second the nomination. 

Madelyn Rosenberg is the author of two picture books, Happy Birthday, Tree (Albert Whitman, 2012), which was on the Bank Street best-of list, and The Schmutzy Family (Holiday House, 2012), a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the illustrated-books category. Her first middle-grade novel, Canary in the Coal Mine (Holiday House, 2013), came out in April. Canary in the Coal Mine was chosen to represent West Virginia in the States Pavilion at September's National Book Festival. Madelyn is also the author of two forthcoming books: Dream Boy, a YA novel co-written with Mary Crockett, due out in July 2014 with Sourcebooks, and How to Behave at a Tea Party, a picture book due out in fall 2014, with Katherine Tegen Books.

Having attended several Guild meetings last year as a guest of Jacqueline Jules, Madelyn says the subjects covered in the speakers' programs were perfect fits for where she was in her career. She heard Guild members speak about school visits just one week before her own first school visit, for example. 

Madelyn grew up in southwest Virginia and worked in daily newspapers for more than a decade. She covered the police beat and higher education before settling in as a music and features reporter, telling other people’s stories for the Roanoke Times. In 2000 she left newspapers to tell stories of her own. She still works as a freelance writer, though, and her stories have appeared in Parenting Magazine, Bluegrass Unlimited, Babble, Arlington Magazine and other publications. She also started and still works as advisor for the student newspaper at her children’s elementary school. 

A longtime member of SCBWI, Madelyn holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Boston University. She has lived in Arlington since 2005, when her husband started his job as a digital archivist at the Library of Congress. Asked why she wanted to become a Guild member, Madelyn said she’s loved talking to the people she’s met at Guild meetings so far. “The Guild, with its varied membership, also helps me understand the community of children’s literature–and my place in it–so much better. In a world where you’re digitally assaulted by social media, it means a lot to talk to real people face to face about something we all care about.”

To learn more about Madelyn and her books, please visit www.madelynrosenberg.com

 

MEMBER NOMINATION: LAURA MURRAY

 

 

Jacqueline Jules nominates Laura Murray for Children's Book Guild membership in the author category. Marty Rhodes Figley seconds the nomination.

Laura attended several Guild meetings this year as a guest of Jacqueline Jules. She found the meetings educational and inspiring. She really enjoyed listening to and learning from the wonderful speakers, and meeting and chatting with so many members who have a genuine interest in children's literature.

A teacher before she became a children’s writer, Laura has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a specialization in early childhood education from Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. She taught kindergarten for many years before deciding to stay home with her own children and to pursue a children’s writing career. Her first picture book, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011), was inspired by a primary-grade gingerbread-man unit she used to teach, which culminated in chasing a freshly baked class gingerbread man through the school. It was her students’ favorite unit.

 

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School has been nominated for seven state children’s choice awards, including the 2013-2014 Virginia Reader’s Choice Award. It was a Junior Library Guild Selection, a finalist for the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI Crystal Kite Award,  and a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book, and it received a starred review in Booklist.

 

The smart little cookie recently inspired Laura’s second picture book, a “fired-up follow-up” titled The Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013), which hit the shelves in July.

Laura is currently contracted for two more picture books and is in the middle of writing a middle-grade adventure mystery set in Charleston, S.C. 

Laura and her family moved to Mclean, Va., two years ago from Ontario, Canada. Before that, they lived in Orlando, Fla.

To learn more about Laura, please visit her website at http://www.lauramurraybooks.com/

 

 

THE CHILDREN'S BOOK GUILD DISCOVERS WES MOORE

by Rhoda Trooboff

Youth advocate, social entrepreneur, army combat veteran, Rhodes scholar, host of Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network (http://www.oprah.com/own/Beyond-Belief-About-the-Show) and best-selling author Wes Moore (The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, Random House, 2011, and Discovering Wes Moore [YA, 12 and up] Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2012) inspired his audience at the Children's Book Guild's June  2013 meeting with his stirring mission: because many life-altering decisions are made in childhood, it is essential to offer young people opportunities from their earliest years to direct their lives toward positive goals.

Moore wove stories from his own youth with those from the life of "the other" Wes Moore, who is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for felony murder. Author Moore recounted memories of his father, who died when Moore was very young, episodes in his childhood, and challenges he faced in military school that led to growth. With his mother in the audience and his daughter in his arms, Moore emphasized the lesson of breaking the habit of "hurting people who love you [while trying] to impress people who don't." He also observed that bad decisions often hurt many innocent people, "including those you love most."

Moore reflected on implications of his books' titles. On the one hand, the adult best-seller's title, The Other Wes Moore (which was chosen by his publisher), emphasizes "how thin the line is between 'us' and 'other.'" On the other hand, the title of the young adult book, Discovering Wes Moore (which he prefers) presents the idea that examining the lives of the two Wes Moores side by side demands active self-discovery. Doing so taught Moore critical lessons in "how to be a man and a father."

Deciding to read a book can be one of the life-altering choices Moore spoke about. Describing his "transition moment" from hating reading to "falling in love with the way pages feel between your fingers," Moore thanked his mother for changing him permanently when she gave him a copy of Mitch Albom's Fab Five. He praised reading as "an introduction to the existence of worlds bigger than the one in front of you."

Reading, Moore observed, is an essential tool for character education that may even help reform our culture's current high rate of incarceration. He reported that The Other Wes Moore is required reading on many college campuses and is now paired with required reading of Discovering Wes Moore at nearby middle and high schools. These common reads, Moore noted, enable service projects that will encourage communities to regard "young people not as problems to be solved but as solutions to problems."

Moore hopes that his books will help lead the United States to a critical examination of the impact of the criminal justice system on young people and to a nationwide conversation on how to bring about needed change. His current activities also address the "educational expectations gap" and veterans' issues. He looks forward to doing a program this summer under the auspices of the Maryland Department of Corrections that will feature the two Wes Moores talking to each other and to young people about the importance of making good life-altering decisions.  

THE WIDENING WORLD OF E-BOOKS AND A WAY TO ENTER IT
by Sally Canzoneri
 
Recently, my daughter Emily ordered a new book by Stephen King. Em frequently has her
nose buried in her iPad, but she chose to get a paper copy of King's book. She said it was
because with a thick thriller, you want to run your fingers over the edges of pages as you read. I added that clutching an iPad during scary scenes isn’t as reassuring as clutching a
book.

Like Emily, I’m coming to see that e-books and hard-copy books are not always competitors. There are things one form does that the other cannot, and each has its place in our lives. This is particularly true regarding books that have more than just words in them, such as children’s books. We’re all likely to be learning more about e-books–and possibly writing and illustrating them–as time goes on.

It is likely that most people saw the first e-books as more for adults than for children. The early e-book readers did not have color, let alone interactivity or movement. The introduction of the iPad changed that, and children’s books quickly became big sellers in the iBook store.

The first generation of ebooks for kids was pretty plain Jane, though. My own books are
a good example; each had a page of illustration, which a reader could slide away to see a page of text, which would slide away to show another illustration, and so on. Now, though, many e-books–particularly those for children–are being created and sold as apps. As a result, they are far more interesting and do things that paper books (even the most marvelous moving books) cannot.

E-books as apps are not the same thing as the e-books you’ve been reading on your Kindle
or Nook, or the ones you’ve gotten from the iBook store. Those come in a number of digital
formats, such as pdf, MOBI and ePUB. These may have active links in them, and they can be “enhanced” with pictures, sound and other goodies. But they are basically files, not programs. They can carry out specific commands given by a reader (e.g., open web page x); but they can’t respond to a reader in varied ways.

There are lots of e-books as apps available now, but I’m going to suggest just two that
will show you some of the potential of this new type of e-book. The first is The Artifacts, which costs $2.99 in the Apple App Store. This is a wonderful story about using imagination and finding one’s self. The book employs the interactive elements available in an app in very creative and amusing ways. If this were a paper picture book, it’d be one of those books you’d read over and over with your child and keep for your grandchildren. But it couldn’t be a paper book, because the sounds, the words, the things that appear when you touch the iPad--and what those things do--are as crucial to telling the story as the text and still illustrations.

Versu is very different and aimed at adults. This e-book app, set in the world of Jane
Austen, is a variation on the “create your own adventure” books. The iPad app is free and comes with three stories. One story cleverly provides the instructions for using the app, as the reader plays the role of a girl having tea with her judgmental grandmama. A fourth book is available as an in-app purchase.  Though Versu uses the create-your-own-adventure storytelling structure, it makes this structure far more sophisticated and interesting than a paper book ever could. In a Versu book, the reader takes the role of one of the characters and, at various points in the story, is prompted to choose goals and actions. Then the text continues, incorporating the reader’s choices. This means that the reader can create her character's personality and change other characters' dialog and actions. In traditional make-your-own-adventure books, the reader can only change the plot.The fact that the Versu books are apps allows the reader to change much more of the story, with more interesting results.

Children’s book apps can be quite expensive by app store standards, ($2.99, $3.99 or
$4.99), which is some indication of how popular they are. If you want to get a good idea of what e-book apps can do without spending a lot of money, get some apps that notify you of bargains in the App Store. Apps Gone Free is a particularly good one. It comes out daily, and you can often find kids' book apps. But it is also worthwhile to install free book apps. They are sometimes very good; and if they are bad, you’ve learned something from reading them and can delete them.

One thing I’ve learned is that, just as with picture books, one needs to read a lot of e-book
apps to get a feel for what makes good ones work well. I’ve also learned that book apps are a different artistic form from picture books, with different strengths and weaknesses. I’m also seeing that some stories can be better told in one form than in the other.

I’m pretty excited about book apps and have begun to work with some friends on them. Yet I’d love to have a bigger group with which to share ideas, critiques, tech hints and information. If you are interested in being part of such a group, please get in touch with me.

Finally, earlier this year Jean Diehl passed on to me contact information about an Internet startup that is creating an online platform where writers and illustrators of picture books can create book apps without learning computer programming. The company is Authorly. Its website is up, but it is not yet working, because the software is still being developed. I talked with a representative of the company, and learned that they are looking for writers and illustrators interested in signing on now to work with them as they develop the site. There are perks for working with them early on. If you think you might be interested in working with Authorly, contact me for more information. 

NEWS THAT MAY BE USEFUL
by Sally Canzoneri
 
This notice, from a newsletter I receive, might be useful to Guild members, so I’m
passing it on.

Xerox is offering a free color printer for your nonprofit. For more than 10 years, Xerox has helped thousands of nonprofit organizations save time and money on color printing. If your organization is printing at least four reams of paper per month, you could qualify for the Xerox FreeColorPrinters Program and receive a Xerox® ColorQube® 8570 solid ink color printer with a three-year on-site service agreement--for free. Learn more and submit a risk-free application at www.freecolorprinters.xerox.com


MEMBER NEWS

BARBARA ANN PORTE's story "Girl with a Burqa" has just been published in the literary magazine Eclipse (volume 24; fall 2013).

 

JACQUELINE JULES is excited to announce the publication of her new Rosh Hashanah book, What a Way to Start a New Year (illustrated by Judy Stead; Kar-Ben Publishing, 2013). When Dina's family moves right before the holiday, they are afraid their year will get off to a bad start--until they meet new friends at synagogue. Kirkus Reviews said the book depicts "a situation many contemporary families can relate to, and Stead's bright, multimedia illustrations track the emotional arc."

 

KATHERINE PATERSON will be at the National Book Festival this year and hopes to see old and new Guild friends there. She'll have one new book and one newish book this fall. The new book is Giving Thanks, a collection of prayers from many traditions with the gorgeous Scherenschnitte illustrations of Pamela Dalton, with whom she did Brother Sun, Sister Moon. The newish book is a collection of old and new Christmas stories, A Stubborn Sweetness.

FRED BOWEN will be speaking at the National Book Festival on Saturday, September 21, at 10 a.m. He will be signing books at the festival on the same date at 11 a.m.

HENA KHAN will be speaking at an event as part of the Bridging Cultures: Poetic Voices of the Muslim World exhibit at DC Public Libraries. The event takes place on Saturday, September 28, from 2 to 3 p.m., in the Children's Room at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library (202-727-1248). There will be a reading followed by Q&A and a craft for children.

 

PRISCILLA CUMMINGS's novel The Journey Back was named to Bank Street College's 2013 Best Books of the Year list.  

In June MOIRA ROSE DONAHUE received her author copies of four books she wrote for State Standards Publishing's America, My Country Explorers series: Christopher Newport, Christopher Columbus, Jacques Cartier and Juan Ponce de Leon. The books are generally for the school and library market, although Christopher Newport will also be sold in the bookstore/gift shop at Jamestown Settlement.

LULU DELACRE will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage month at many venues, including El Museo del Barrio in New York City on September 21, and the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 22. At El Museo she will present the program Canta, baila y viaja por el mundo!  (Sing, Dance, and Travel the Globe!). In this program she plays gentle games with the little ones, dances game-songs from her island of Puerto Rico with older kids and takes families on an imaginary voyage with the paintings and poetry of How Far Do You Love Me? The program will be presented twice that Saturday afternoon as part of the Free for All Super Sábados at the museum. Books will be provided by La Casa Azul Bookstore.

DEBBIE LEVY’s first young adult novel, Imperfect Spiral, was published in July by Bloomsbury/Walker. Also in July, Publishers Weekly ran an article featuring a different book Debbie sold recently to Sleeping Bear Press. It’s a picture book that tells the true story of an adorable dog named Dozer who broke through his fence to join in a half marathon being run by a couple of thousand people to benefit cancer research. You can read the article—and see a picture of Dozer!—here:  http://tinyurl.com/k3paf4r.  

SUSAN STOCKDALE is thrilled that her picture book Stripes of All Types has been selected for the 2014 Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child Initiative. This program is designed to enhance early literacy development among Pennsylvania preschoolers ages three to six. Susan’s book will be widely distributed, with 3,000 hardcovers allocated to libraries and 60,000 bilingual softcover editions printed for the state's childcare facilities, Head Start programs, licensed preschools and kindergartens. A comprehensive activity guide and traveling trunks filled with book-related activities, games and manipulatives for children will be created to expand the concepts in the book. Susan will also go on a three-week book tour to select locations across Pennsylvania next spring. She is honored and excited to be participating in this wonderful early literacy program!

 

 

MARY QUATTLEBAUM is thrilled to report that Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods is out from Dawn Publications. It is the third in her trilogy of nature picture books for this publisher.

 

CATHERINE REEF's article "Leo and Frida: The Doctor and the Artist," on Frida Kahlo's unlikely friendship with Leo Eloesser, M.D., a noted thoracic surgeon, appeared in the summer 2013 issue of Stanford Medicine.

 

 

 

PHYLLIS NAYLOR will be speaking at the National Book Festival on September 21. The final book in her Alice series, Now I'll Tell You Everything, is being published October 15. Simon and Schuster is sending her on a national book tour, with the first stop that evening, a talk at the Takoma Park Library. 

 

 





*********

Tweet Your News!

Do you have a publication date for a new book, a local appearance coming up or an award nomination to tout? Don't be shy! The Guild has its own Twitter account (@ChildrensBookGuild) and is looking for news to tweet. Just send your news to Caroline Hickey (carolinesmithhickey@gmail.com), preferably already edited to fit the 140-character limit. If you'd like to include a link to a webpage with more information, the URL must be included in the 140 characters. URLs can be condensed at a number of sites, including http://www.tinyurl.com. If this sounds like too much effort, just send whatever you have to Caroline and she'll make the magic happen.

*********

 NOTE ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S BOOK GUILD NEWS: Would you rather print your newsletter than read it online? Current and past issues now available for printing on the Guild's website at http://www.childrensbookguild.org/guild-newsletters. Look for the "Newsletter" tab on the left side of the Guild website. There is also a "Printer Friendly Version" link on the top left hand side of this blog.

***********

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE EVENTS AT THE FALL FOR THE BOOK FESTIVAL

Several events at this September’s Fall for the Book Festival will focus on children’s literature. A sample of events is listed below; all are free and open to the public.

Falling for the Story Reading, Sherwood Center, Fairfax, VA, Sunday, September
22 at 12:30 p.m.

Scholastic Book Fair, Sherwood Center, Fairfax, Va., Sunday, September 22, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Family Stories: Make Your Own Instant Book! Sherwood Center, Fairfax, Va., Sunday, September 22, at 1:30 p.m.

Children’s Books: Fun for All Ages, with Gary Karton and Courtney Pippin-Mathur (The Last Akaway and Maya Was Grumpy), Sherwood Center, Fairfax, Va., Sunday, September 22, at 3 p.m.

YA Authors: Growing up Fast with Elisa Nader, Valerie O. Patterson and Elizabeth Scott (Escape from Eden, Operation Oleander and Miracle), One More Page Books, Arlington, Va., Sunday, September 22, at 4 p.m.

Children’s Book Author Cheryl Aubin and Illustrator Sheila Harrington (The Survivor Tree), Research Building 1, Room 163, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va., Tuesday, September 24, at 1:30 p.m.

Three Views of Medusa’s Daughter, with Jonathon Scott Fuqua and Steven Parke
(Medusa’s Daughter), Ashburn Library, Ashburn, Va., Tuesday, September 24, at 7 p.m.

Novelist Michael Sullivan (The Riyria Chronicles), One More Page Books, Arlington, Va., Wednesday, September 25, at 7 p.m.

Novelist Sarah Pekkanen (The Best of Us), Sandy Spring Bank Tent, George Mason
University, Fairfax, Va., Thursday, September 26, at 3 p.m.

YA Author Alethea Kontis (Enchanted), Burke Centre Library, Burke, Va., Thursday, September 26, at 4 p.m.

YA Novelist Hannah Barnaby (The Wonder Show), Sandy Spring Bank Tent, Friday,
September 27, at 10:30 a.m.

These events are part of a full week of festivities—September 22 through 27—at locations
throughout Northern Virginia and Maryland. The more than 100 authors participating
include Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry, thriller writer David Baldacci, acclaimed poet Sonia Sanchez and memoirist and novelist Cheryl Strayed. For a full schedule, visit www.fallforthebook.org.