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Standing out to fit in
seemed like a good idea
at the time. Smart, sad.

Peanut by Ayun Halliday, illustrated by Paul Hoppe. Schwartz & Wade, 2012, 216 pages.

Today started out as a typical day in the office, but by mid-morning we were in rescue mode.

On Wednesday mamma mallard and ten baby ducklings were wandering around the grass outside the Sylvan Dell office building. With a small pond nearby and a downpour of rain the day before it is not uncommon to see waterfowl outside our windows on occasion.  Baby ducklings however, were too cute in a line behind their mother that we couldn’t help but watch as they waddled around.

When our editor and Buddy the office dog went outside this morning, she found  that mamma duck was no longer with her babies and there were only four still quacking, six were no longer living. Stuck in the landscaping, and unable to get out of the well around a tree, the staff decided to help.

Mamma duck was quacking away in the nearby pond and so we tried a ramp, but they were afraid and the ramp was steep. Next we worked together to herd the babies into a box so that we could deliver them to safety. After several tries and many strategies the three of us were able to get three of the babies into the box and one baby was actually able to make it out of the well and ran all the way to the pond to quickly jump in. Mom swam over to her ducklings as they all hopped into the water.

It was a successful reuniting, and we were very happy to bring the family back together. We must  thank Jennifer Keats Curtis for writing the books Baby Owl’s Rescue, and Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators, she gave us the inspiration and knowledge to save these babies from harm.

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has teamed up with LEGO® DUPLO® to expand the Read! Build! Play initiative by creating the LEGO® DUPLO® Read! Build! Play! 2013 Summer Reading List.  This reading list features recommended titles that inspire play for children age 5 and under and is free to download.

To accompany the Read! Build! Play! 2013 Summer Reading List, LEGO® DUPLO® has created a free downloadable parent activity guide.  This guide includes inspirational building instructions matched with each book for children and their caregivers. Doors in the Air (Orca Book Publishers, 2012) by David Weale and illustrated by Pierre Pratt is one of five titles featured in the Summer Activity Guide for children ages 3-5.

Visit www.readbuildplay.com to download free Summer Activity Guides today. Or click here to direct download the Activity Guide featuring Doors in the Air.

More About Doors in the Air

Doors in the Air is the story of a boy who is fascinated by doors. He marvels at how stepping through a doorway can take him from one world to another. He is especially enthralled by the doors of his imagination, which he refers to as “doors in the air.” He delights in discovering that when he passes through these doors, he leaves behind all feelings of boredom, fear and unpleasantness. Doors in the Air is a lilting journey through house doors, dream doors and, best of all, doors in the air.

“Surreal in its effect, this celebration of the creative mind encourages young readers and listeners to open doors of their own.” —Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2012

“Written in Seussian rhyming couplets…[and] employing alliteration that makes reading it aloud a pleasure…Doors in the Air is a fantastical triumph, celebrating the spaces in which the ordinary and the extraordinary intersect.” —Quill & Quire, May 1, 2012

Bee Ridgway grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Oberlin College (B.A.), then worked for a year as an editorial assistant at Elle magazine. She studied literature at Cornell University (M.A. and Ph.D.) and has worked at Bryn Mawr College since 2001. She lives in Philadelphia, PA. The River of No Return is Bee's debut novel. It publishes today.

The River of No Return - Bee Ridgway

So yep, I’m an American. In fact, thinking about being American is how I make my living.  I’m a professor of American literature, and I spend my days teaching Moby-Dick to young Americans.   But about two years ago I sat down and started writing The River of No Return.  It’s a big, busty time travel novel, a genre mash-up that combines adventure, romance, spy thriller, mystery.  It’s set in Vermont, in contemporary London and in Georgian England.  Its two main characters are British. I surprised myself: shouldn’t a scholar of American history and literature write an American novel?  Instead, a frothy tale of time-traveling Regency aristocrats, beautiful medieval beet farmers and faceless corporate heavies from an ominous future was flowing from my fingers.

I had tossed my academic hat aside, my hair had come tumbling down, and I was tapping into fantasy.  And if there’s anything Americans love to fantasize about, it’s England (not Britain – England). Of course you fantasize about us right back, and always have.  Brits have more to say about Yanks than Yanks do, and Americans are fiercely protective of an idealized England that no British person would recognize.  The number of times an American has yelled at my British partner for not enjoying tea would astonish you.

This used to tick me off.  I’ve spent years in both countries, I have a pretty good grasp of the “real” Britain and the “real” US, and I used to roll my eyes at the notions each nation harbors about the other. 

But that was a humorless mood.  The fact is, fantasy is pleasurable and admitting it keeps us honest and makes us more generous, in art and in life.  The fun house mirror that someone else holds up teaches you to laugh at yourself. I am now a thoroughgoing fan of the fictional versions of our two nations that we dream up between us.  And there are always new ones.  Remember that amazing Dr. Who episode where Britain is zooming through outer space on the back of a white whale?  Remember how I told you that I teach Moby-Dick? Our mutual and often absurd fascination may not have had particularly savory effects on the world stage, but the“special relationship” has made for some terrific popular fiction, going back a long way. 

If I may put my academic chapeau back on for a moment, and regale you with some literary history?  Some of the most archetypically “English” writers bounced their portraits of Albion off America.  Arthur Conan Doyle grew up reading American penny dreadfuls: the first Sherlock Holmes story is largely set in Utah. Agatha Christie’s father was American. P.G. Wodehouse spent vast portions of his adult life in America. Frances Hodgson Burnett immigrated to the U.S. when she was sixteen.  Rudyard Kipling married an American and lived in Vermont for four years – he adored it and was wildly prolific while there, writing The Jungle Book and reams of poetry. I’ve chosen the “popular” writers of yesteryear to make this point, because it’s the “popular” fantasies that we swap back and forth to this day.  The Hollywood and BBC portraits of one another that we love to hate . . . and hate to love.

So yep.  I’m an American, and I’ve written a fantastical novel about Britain. My time-travelly Britain is also – through a side window and around some corners – a portrait of America.  I wrote the novel because it was incredibly fun to do so.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly, wallowing in the alternative versions of reality that I had given myself permission to explore. I offer it to you with a grain of salt (for flavor), and I hope that you enjoy it, too.

The River of No Return is out today. For a gentle introduction to the novel, here's Bee talking about it on Penguin YouTube. 

Solid choices for
the visually-inclined
scholars in your house.

Amazing Greek Myths of Wonder and Blunders (2010) and Where Do Presidents Come From? And Other Presidential Stuff of Super-Great Importance (2012)
by Mike Townsend. Dial, 160 pages.

Author, actress and freelance journalist, Giovanna Fletcher is married to Tom Fletcher from McFly. She grew up in Essex with her Italian dad Mario, mum Kim, big sister Giorgina and little brother Mario, and spent most of her childhood talking to herself (it seems no one wanted to listen) or reading books. Giovanna is a firm believer in the power of magpies and positive energy. To find out more about Giovanna, view her blog or follow her on Twitter.

Her debut novel, Billy and Me, is out this Thursday (23rd May 2013).

Anyway, over to Giovanna as she tells us about a day in her life...

Every day varies, but my writing days are a fairly consistent array of distractions that I struggle to knock on the head before getting on with the pressing task of writing.

I get up at a respectable eight o'clock (I'm conveniently forgetting the times I struggle to get out of bed before ten - they’re rare!), and potter around having breakfast with the hubby, showering, getting into a fresh pair of PJs or comfies, and then pottering around for an hour or so. I then like to watch the beginning of This Morning for their quick round up of the news. Now, this can sometimes work against me as occasionally there'll be someone being interviewed that I think will be interesting to watch. But, let's say this is a day I prise myself away from the telly . . .

I then go to the office and sit at my desk in front of my laptop. First task? Checking my Twitter, Facebook and the Mail Online (I like the pictures), and then, before I know it, it's one o'clock and its time for lunch. Not that I've earned the break, of course!

After lunch (usually soup in case you're wondering), I start reading what I'd worked on the previous day to get my mind focused . . . Occasionally I feel tired and have a nap at this point (let's blame the Italian in me - I love a siesta), although I've tried to stop myself from doing that - grabbing a quick cuppa is much more time effective. I'm then ready to write for the rest of the day and late into the evening, usually getting a solid six hours distraction-free-writing in the bag. 

Yes, reading back over this, my working day is pretty disgusting really. I promise to rid myself of a few distractions and leap over obstacles with speed so that I can get to work a little quicker in the future . . . This is said from my PJs while I nurse yet another cuppa. I guess with writing it's all about finding a way that works for you and gets the creative juices flowing.

There are approximately 18,000 children under the age of 5 in Howard County, Maryland. And another 50,000 older children in school here. Yet when my family takes advantage of a treasure in the heart of the county, we never see another soul! The Howard County Nature Conservancy is a peaceful and beautiful sanctuary full of rolling hills, safe hiking trails, clear running streams, gorgeous gardens, interesting animals and picnic areas begging to be filled with families looking for a fun, easy, cheap way to spend an evening. Locals say it’s the place to be for bird watching, geocaching or growing your own organic vegetables in the lush community garden.

Part of the reason many don’t know about this area is that from 1692-1992 one family, the Brown’s, was fortunate enough to call The Conservancy their private residence. But in 1992, Howard County schoolteachers Ruth and Frances Brown passed away without an heir. The 232 acre farm has since been held in its natural state and glory. With some additions and improvements, you can come visit and see many buildings that have been a part of the pastoral setting for three centuries.

When I say that we never see another soul on our weekend hikes, that is not to say the spectacular landscape is not put to good use. There are summer camps for the kids, regular nature walks and talks, “Wine in the Garden” for the adults, “School is Out” programs for local students, and too many more exciting events to name. (Check here for a full list: http://www.hcconservancy.org/upcoming-events.html)

These programs, and this place, have helped my boys, (Will age 6, Luke age 4 and Sam age 23 months) to be better little men. I take them there as a part of our unofficial family plan. I want my sons to grow up valuing a day in the dirt with their brothers more than a computer. I want them to seek out places to think and find serenity more than places to blend in with the crowd. I want them to know that it is sometimes better to walk quietly holding my hand than it is to scream in the chaos of an amusement park (although we’ll be heading off to Dutch Wonderland in 10 short days and I can’t wait). I want my boys to have a place to take a date in a decade or two and really get to know her. Somewhere safe where they can walk hand-in-hand (God help me) and find out if they are lucky enough to build what we are lucky enough to have.

I just read the last paragraph aloud my opinionated family. According to my husband and the boys, everything I said is true…but way too girly. They just like to be able to run and play ninjas with sticks. I guess that is a part of our official family plan.

So my real question is this, why aren’t more young families joining us on a beautiful day? No matter what the season?  Right now the tadpoles are changing week-to-week and day-to-day! The goats are climbing onto the roof of their habitat and the chickens are laying eggs. Ranger, the owl, is eating his mice and the crayfish and salamanders are hiding from eager little fingers looking to snatch them up. Log bridges with rope sidebars are waiting to be crossed by young explorers and the trees and logs give our young Luke Skywalker lots of convenient hiding places when bounty hunter Boba Fett (aka daddy) comes searching. Maybe you’ll luck out and see a snake while you skip rocks along the creek. If you’re quiet, you’re sure to see some deer and a fox or two. The children’s log garden allows the kids to jump and climb and play in an unusual and safe environment. The indoor playground at the mall is teaming with kids (and germs) every night of the week. Yet we are the only ones at the Conservancy! After seeing the animals, playing or checking out the simple indoor nature room, go for a hike. There is no need to hold hands! Let the kids run on the safe, grassy paths and lead the way as they leave their energy behind to light a trail for you.

Just this weekend I spoke to a young mom who lives within a half mile of the Conservancy. She had never been! What!?!? Why?!?!? Come on! I’ll meet you there on Friday night! We’ll bring sandwiches, juice boxes and kids ready to squeal with delight and satisfy the natural, scientific curiosity that fills their ever-expanding brains….and play ninjas with sticks. Honestly, what could be better?

For more information about the Howard County Nature Conservancy, check out their website at http://www.hcconservancy.org.

Erin Schade is a wife, a mother to three fantastic boys, a teacher in Howard County, Maryland, a freelance writer and an aspiring children’s author. Questions or comments?  Please contact her directly at erinschade@yahoo.com.

Celebrate at will. I recommend a good book and a good beer.

Image credit: http://chrishallbeer.blogspot.com

Dog rescuers become
kid rescuers. Bring your
hankies -- and lint brush.

White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan. McElderry, 2013, 128 pages.

Its Story Time: GUIDELINES for It's Story Time and Chapter Book Review

GUIDELINES for It's Story Time and Chapter Book Review

Information technology and new technological devices are revolutionizing the world of literature, and children’s literature is no different. The ever-increasing numbers of e-books and e-readers in recent years has sparked debate about whether or not e-books are bad for the book industry or reading in general. This argument has been especially critical in the arena of children’s literature. Though children’s e-books have both their improvements and downsides over print books, they achieve the same goal of reaching out to children and telling stories or conveying information in a way that children can understand and enjoy.

One improvement e-books have over print books is the superior picture quality of e-books. This is particularly important for a lot of children’s books. Lots of children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, contain beautiful color illustrations or photographs. Backlighting on computers or iPads make these pictures brighter and more vivid, enhancing the child’s enjoyment and reading experience. Additionally, pictures which splay across two pages and are split down the middle by a page divide in a print book look better on a screen where there is no page divide.

There are other improvements. Audio books enable young children to hear stories without their parents having to read to them. This way if parents are doing something else the kids can have a book out and have a computer read it to them, and parents can interact from the kitchen or the driver’s seat (“What’s the picture of?” “What kind of sound does that animal make?” etc) without having to take their eyes off the stove or the road to read the book. Additionally the fact that iPads, e-readers, computers, and other electronic devices can hold hundreds of e-books in a tablet that takes up about as much space as one book makes them convenient for traveling and ensures that children always have something new to read.

Parents will like that the e-books are often cheaper and more durable than print books. Our favorite books all suffer from over-use – dog eared pages, worn covers, pages falling out. These happen even to adults’ favorite books, and most kids are far less careful with their things. E-books don’t have pages that can fall out or covers that can get bent in the bottom of a backpack. There are durable tablets available so that kids can drop the e-readers without breaking them.

The most important thing is to get children reading and to get them reading good books. Fiction has to have characters and an interesting plot. Children get this from the story itself, not the media. Harry Potter is still Harry Potter whether you’re reading about him in the familiar-smelling, dog-eared pages of the books you’ve had for years or whether you’re reading about him on a computer screen with the movie soundtrack emitting from the same computer. The same idea goes for nonfiction. Children’s nonfiction has to have information that keeps the child engaged and which the author explains on the child’s level. These qualities are things that both print books and e-books have in common. The goal is still the same – to get kids reading and interacting with language and information. Information is powerful no matter the media through which it is conveyed. 

For more information on children’s e-books from Sylvan Dell, go to Amazon. Our e-books are $0.99 through the 18^th of May.

Lydia and Julie
try their hands as rock stars.
It doesn't go well.


The Popularity Papers #5: The Awesomely Awful Melodies of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang by Amy Ignatow. Amulet, 2013, 160 pages.

Joanna Rossiter is the author of The Sea Change (her first novel). She grew up in Dorset and studied English at Cambridge University before working as a researcher in the House of Commons and as a copy writer. In 2011 she completed an MA in Writing at Warwick University. She lives and writes in London. Last week The Sea Change was announced as one of the Richard and Judy Summer 2013 Book Club titles. Here Joanna expands on some common misconceptions about the wonderful world of writers.

The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter

1.    Being an author is glamorous.

Before I had managed to write a book, I had an image of what an author should be in my mind that was something akin to Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge; sitting down melancholically in the middle of the night at his type writer with the Eiffel Tower outside his window and, after a sip of absinth, typing the words ‘This is a story about love’.

In reality, novels are rarely the results of flashes of inspiration, although they may often begin this way. I like to think of them as a long-standing marriage; the writer weds themselves to one particular idea and then sticks with it through thick and thin, through romance and conflict – times when they wish they could separate and times when they feel like they want to do nothing else but spend time together. Sometimes writing is a lonely business – to finish a book, authors must spend days and evenings in a room on their own filling their head with made-up people. Often, there’s little chance for genuine feedback until the book is complete and nobody except the writer can see the full picture until the book is written.  There is a lot of hard graft and very little glamour, but it’s worth it for the satisfaction of a well-told story.

2.    Authors are full of new ideas.

It has been said that all the plots in the world can be summarized in one of two phrases: ‘A stranger comes to town’ or ‘a hero leaves home’.  Whilst I wouldn’t go this far, I would argue that modern day culture places a lot of emphasis on originality when, more often than not, stories are found rather than invented. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays from stories he had come across elsewhere; renaissance writers recognised that the talent of a writer lies not as much in the chosen story but in the way that story is told.

3.    Authors don’t read reviews of their own novels.

Given than my first novel only came out last Thursday, I have had very limited experience of this! However, already I’m finding that the desire for feedback from readers has overtaken my fear of reading a bad review. Authors spend long spells alone with their books in order to get them written and it’s a joy when we finally get to meet people who have read our books and hear what they have to say about them. Every writer writes for a reader, whether they admit it or not.

Note from the Editor: You can read Richard and Judy's reviews of The Sea Change here. 

Novels are born out of an enduring desire to persevere with an idea until it is fully realized on the page.  I spend far more time editing than I do writing; for me, it’s the most satisfying part of creating a book. Once the bones of the story are on paper, it’s a great feeling to be able to start drawing out a structure and looking for the hidden meanings in each scene. I often don’t know exactly what a story is trying to say until I have written a first draft; the imagery and echoes and symbols that I want to build on only become clear when I start to edit.

5.    Authors never plan their books.

Even though a lot of a story’s nuances can’t be determined until it is written, authors still put large amounts of time and energy into planning their novels before they put pen to paper. The level of detail varies from author to author but I would say that it’s almost impossible to write an engaging novel without a plan to follow. Without a preconceived plot structure, it is difficult to convince the reader early on in the novel that you, the author, know where the story is going and have control over its outcome. It’s like being on a rollercoaster; for the reader it’s great fun not knowing where the twists and turns lie but the ride can only be enjoyed if the reader is confident that the author has built a trustworthy track for the story to follow.

6.    A book can be written in a month.

Initiatives like NaNoWriMo are a wonderful tool for helping people get started on books and cultivating the commitment required to finish them. However, they are also misleading in the perception they create about novels. Contrary to what they suggest, I think it’s impossible to write anything readable in a month (others may prove me wrong!). Novels, like wine, need time to mature. They need to be laid to rest and then picked back up again at a later date in order to be read and edited with a fresh, objective mind.

7.    Having a story to tell is the only ingredient required to write a book.

The most common response I get when I tell people that I’m an author is not ‘what do you write about?’; it’s actually something along the lines of ‘I’ve got a great idea for a novel myself; I’d turn it into a book if I had the time.’  One of the wonderful things about writing is how accessible it is: unlike paint or a musical instrument, language is a tool that the majority of us use on a daily basis. As a result, there is an unspoken assumption that any one of us could write a book if we had the time.  I do believe that anyone can learn to craft a good story, just like anyone can learn a musical instrument. However, there is a craft involved and this craft takes more than time; it takes practice. You wouldn’t expect someone who had never played the trumpet before to pick one up and come out with perfect jazz. Similarly, stories require skill and perseverance and they are as much a practiced art as music or sculpture. 

There can be a lot of snobbery on the side of published authors towards unpublished authors. And yet, the fact that a certain author is published is not just down to the quality of their writing; as a published author myself, I would be the first to admit that at some point along the line, there is an element of chance involved. Editors are inundated with manuscripts on a weekly basis. My own editor is sent ten manuscripts from new authors via literary agents every week and, out of those manuscripts, she publishes only three or four a year. There are far more publishable manuscripts out there than there is scope for publishing them.  A whole host of factors outside of a writer’s hands go into the decision to publish a book: from the extent to which a story resonates with the culture of the time to its appeal to a particular audience to whether or not it complements the other books on that publisher’s list. As much as editors want to nurture new talent, publishing is a profit making venture and one eye always has to be kept on the ability of a book to generate sales.  Yes, there are plenty of manuscripts that are turned down because they are poorly written but there are also thousands that are rejected for reasons outside of an author’s control. A large part of me does want to believe that a good book will always find a way through eventually…

We all dream of making a living from the thing we love to do the most and authors are no different. Whilst we can convince ourselves that it isn’t about the sales, which writer would turn down the chance to have a bestseller? With the move into the digital space squeezing the amount of money a writer makes from each book, it’s not a career that is entered into for financial security. In most cases, it’s a hand-to-mouth profession that goes alongside a series of other day jobs.  However, writers, like everybody else, will (albeit sometimes secretly) welcome the affirmation that good sales figures bring. Popularity is not always seen as a good thing in the literary world: literature that is valuable and literature that is popular are often viewed as being in contention with each other.  Yet, deep down, I don’t think any author would turn their nose up at the prospect of more readers, a higher profile for their writing and, yes, a royalty statement that doesn’t make you want to weep into your green tea.

All authors ‘borrow’ aspects or experiences from their own lives when they write. In order to create compelling characters, writers often need to be able to relate to the characters themselves and this can mean incorporating into them certain traits that we have seen in our own lives or in others. Whilst stories have their root in the author’s personal experience, they often grow into something else entirely. I’m a great believer in readers forming the meaning of a story for themselves; it’s more about the experiences that they bring to the page than it is about the author’s. In fact, I as a writer can often only spot the resonances of a particular novel to my own life once I have written it and become a reader myself. A good author can present their reader with a carefully chosen set of ingredients that complement each other; but, more often than not, it’s the reader who decides what to concoct.

The Sea Change is out now.

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In Animal Helpers: Sanctuaries you meet Lisa the pig, a 700 pound loveable animal that just got too big to stay with her owners. Sanctuary One’s newest resident pig Jigsaw is just as loveable and very smart. Just watch how well mannered this pig is:

Sanctuary One provides the community with a place to connect with nature and meet animals that children or adults may not have the opportunity to meet otherwise. They are very passionate and we hope you enjoy the video, and meeting them in the book Animal Helpers: Sanctuaries.
The Animal Helpers series by Jennifer Keats Cutis is a great way to introduce children to the challenges and rewards that a career helping animals entails. Each book in the series features work of special organizations and caretakers like Sanctuary One. These organizations are able to use the book as a fundraiser; it is expensive, and requires a lot of work to care for a farm of formerly homeless animals.
We at Sylvan Dell are happy to feature the great work of not only Sanctuary One, but also the other Animal Helpers. If you, or your children are interested in caring for animals there are organizations all across the country that need support and volunteers!

Looking for the best books for your kids and teens? Of course you are! Fortunately, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre  (a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1976) publishes just such a list. And we’re thrilled to share that sixteen Orca titles made the list for Spring 2013.

“All of the titles in Best Books for Kids & Teens have been handpicked by expert committees of educators, booksellers, and school and public librarians from across Canada. The reviewed materials include picture books, junior/intermediate fiction, graphic novels, and powerful teen fiction, in addition to a wide array of non-fiction, magazines and audio/video resources.” —Canadian Children’s Book Centre website

The following Orca titles were selected for the list this season. Congratulations to all the authors on their achievement!

Close to the Heel, Norah McClintock
Dead Run, Sean Rodman
Edge of Flight, Kate Jaimet
High Wire, Melanie Jackson
I, Witness, Norah McClintock and Mike Deas
Jump Cut, Ted Staunton
Kiss, Tickle, Cuddle, Hug, Susan Musgrave
Oracle, Alex Van Tol
Pieces of Me, Darlene Ryan
Prince for a Princess, Eric Walters
Pyro, Monique Polak
Redwing, Holly Bennett
Seeing Orange, Sara Cassidy
Shallow Grave, Alex Van Tol
Three Little Words, Sarah N. Harvey
Uncle Wally’s Old Brown Shoe, Wallace Edwards

CCBC members receive a copy of Best Books for Kids & Teens as part of their membership package, as do subscribers to Canadian Children’s Book News.

Best Books for Kids & Teens can be purchased at select bookstores or online at: www.bookcentre.ca.

I didn't love the
first one, but I couldn't stop
snorting at this one.

Lulu Walks the Dogs by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Lane Smith. Atheneum, 2012, 160 pages.

Written by Debbie Herman
Illustrated by Sheila Bailey

Turn to Carla for some ideas of what to eat today by reading Carla’s Sandwich. Enjoy the full pdf here.

“It’s my Banana-Cottage-Cheese Delight,” said Carla, “on a tasty toasted baguette.”

Written by Thad Krasnesky
Illustrated by David Parkins

It might be Clean Up Your Room Day but Emmy shouldn’t have to do that – after all, she’s only three! Find out how she avoids chores in I Always, ALWAYS Get My Way. Enjoy the full pdf here.

Now sweetheart, you should let it be. After all… she’s only three!

Genre-bending sequel

photo by D. B. King

On May 5^th, around the United States and Mexico, colorful decorations will hang, mariachi bands will play, and people will party in the street to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. This holiday celebrates Mexican culture – the music, the traditions, the food, but why, exactly, are we celebrating on this day? Some people think that Cinco de Mayo marks the day when Mexico became independent from Spain, or when the Mexican Civil War ended. Nope! Actually, Cinco de Mayo celebrates a battle in a war that Mexico lost!  

Mexico had a tough start as a country, enduring war after war, first against America in 1846, then against themselves in the Mexican Civil War. When all this was over, the country had spent so much on war that there was very little money for regular people to spend in their lives; in other words, the economy was hurt. As countries sometimes do, Mexico borrowed money from other nations in order to help itself. And, as friends sometimes do when you borrow a toy or book from them, those countries got tired of waiting for Mexico to give their property back and came over to collect. No, their moms didn’t drive them over in the van or anything like that; fleets of warships representing England, Spain and France crossed the Atlantic Ocean, entered the Mexican coastline and demanded that Mexico pay them back.

Mexico didn’t have the money to pay them though! What’s a young country to do?! All they had were vouchers to give to the representatives from these countries, papers that double-super-promised to someday pay them back. This satisfied England and Spain and they went home, but to France, this meant war! Sacre bleu!

Under the command of Napoleon III, France invaded Mexico with the intention to totally control it. They marched from the coastline to Mexico City, and on the way passed the small Mexican state of Puebla. The Mexican soldiers at Puebla were vastly outnumbered, but in this fight on May 5, 1862, called La Batalla de Puebla, Mexico somehow overcame the odds and defeated the French forces! Now that’s reason to celebrate!

France eventually managed to occupy Mexico, but they were delayed a whole year by this surprising Mexican victory. The shocking, underdog victory at Puebla has come to symbolize the Mexican spirit of resilience and tenacity. Therefore, on its anniversary every year, Mexico and places with many people of Mexican descent play Cumbia music, wave the Mexican flag, eat tamales, hit pinatas, and generally celebrate all things Mexico!

Of course, at Sylvan Dell we celebrate Mexican people and culture every day! Each and every one of our dozens of titles are available in Spanish, such as Los árboles de globos and La naturaleza recicla—¿Lo haces tú? and El detective deductive!

The always provocative Cory Doctorow has a piece on book marketing that’s been making the rounds.

Much of it is smart. I have a few trivial quibbles that aren’t worth detailing. I’m sure he’s right about many of the things he has direct experience with (blurb-request spam), but I think he’s occasionally on thin ice in generalizing about things he doesn’t have direct experience of (inner workings of multiple publishing houses and how sales data gets reported).

There is one paragraph that I think deserves a close look. At least, it made me think hard (for which I thank him):

[A] few lucky times, I was able to score a few free minutes for a meal or a conversation with friends, and the number-one-champion frequently-asked-question they asked me was, ‘‘How is the book doing?’’

The honest answer to this is, ‘‘We’ll know in two to six months.’’ I mean, yes, Homeland was on the NYT bestseller list for four weeks, on the Indiebound bestseller list for three, and still carries a satisfyingly high Amazon sales rank, but none of this tells you anything particularly useful. Indiebound and BookSense tell publishers a bit about where books are selling, but compared to Internet businesses, publishers are almost entirely in the dark about their books. Even e-book reporting is frustratingly opaque: e-book retailers know which sites refer customers to their purchase pages, know those readers’ demographics and other purchases, understand which search terms direct the most traffic, and which subset of those terms generates the most sales. Publishers get little to none of this data. If I was negotiating with Amazon, Apple, Google, and Kobo, my top request would be realtime access to anonymized aggregate data from these services.

First, let us be thankful that publishers have bungled their negotiations with Amazon, otherwise Corey’s dinner guests would have their small-talk questions met with a stream of “anonymized aggregate data.”

More seriously, though: I don’t begrudge him the right to be frustrated about the relative opacity of sales reporting to authors (he’s wrong about publishers being in the dark—Bookscan?--but I’ll allow that even if he saw what we do know, he might still want more). But let’s consider a world of “realtime access to anonymized aggregate data from these services” for a moment. What would an author do with that data that’s better than what he’s doing now? What should I, a publisher, do with that data that’s better than what I’m doing now?

Can we entertain for a moment the possibility that a world where the best things an author can do after she’s finished a book are

a) go be an interesting, engaging person (note I didn’t write “salesperson”) in real and virtual communities of book lovers and

b) write another damn novel

is actually not a half bad world?

And similarly, let’s consider that a world where the best things an editor can do after he’s published a book are

a) go be an interesting, engaging person (note I didn’t write “salesperson”) in real and virtual communities of book lovers and

b) edit another damn novel

is also a pretty fine place to live.

I think Cory Doctorow is smart person who’s worth listening to on these subjects. (I think he does a pretty good job of succeeding in the world I mentioned above too.)  And I also think data is good. I wouldn’t want to do my job without our many sales reporting tools (even the ones Doctorow seems to think I don’t have).  I’m not naïve about where my paycheck comes from.

But I’m also not inclined to dismiss the elements of mystery and imprecision in measuring “how the book’s doing” at a given moment as bugs to be purged from the system with a fire hose blast of data. I have a sneaking suspicion the bug, as they say, might actually be a feature.

As of this morning, I'm now an agent with Wernick & Pratt Agency LLC. Marcia and Linda were my colleagues, bosses, and mentors at my very first job, and I'm delighted to come full circle and work with them again. Visit me, and the agency, at www.wernickpratt.com.

It's nice to be home.

On the first anniversary
of his death, a
marvel for the eyes.

My Brother's Book by Maurice Sendak. Harper, 2013, 32 pages.

In addition to being the author of Sex & Violence, Carrie Mesrobian maintains a very funny Tumblr I’m not supposed to read:

But I do read it. I like the formula:

1. Find a picture of an attractive man. (The Internet haz these.)

2. Add a caption where he says something implausibly sensitive, solicitous, and/or witty about something you’ve done or that’s a source of consternation or whatever.

Even I can do it:

“Really. He made you watch that ugly old movie about freaks in nutcups beating up old men? Again? Forget about him. Tell me about those cowboy boots and Kenny Chesney’s mastery of the pentameter one more time?”

Except, apparently I failed on step one, because when I showed this to Carrie, she wrote, “Is that Kenneth Brannagh? Jesus.” (Maybe Dot Hutchison would have been more sympathetic.)

But maybe you can do better, and to incentivize you, I have five signed copies of Sex & Violence  to give away to Carrie’s favorite entries. I’ll also give you a theme to focus your efforts:

Conversations with My Fake Boyfriend About
My Real (or Fake) Editor

My example above would work as an entry for Carrie if she acknowledged Mr. Brannagh as fake boyfriend material (which she apparently does not). Submit your entry here. Carrie will pick winners on June 1.

A day late on this, I know,
but what a ridiculously
good time.

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger. Amulet, 2012, 208 pages.