JacketFlap connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults. The site is updated daily with information about every book, author, illustrator, and publisher in the children's / young adult book industry. Members include published authors and illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and fans. Join now (it's free).
Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.
Blog Posts by Tag
In the past 7 days
Blog Posts by Date
Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: notable book, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 7 of 7
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: notable book in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
I still have a number of interviews from Book Expo America 2010 in the queue, but I decided to post the interview with Debbie Levy today because it is her birthday! Thanks to Facebook for letting me know. Happy Birthday, Debbie!
I met Debbie Levy and her mother Jutta at Book Expo America 2010, where we sat down in the cafe for an interview. Debbie is the author and Jutta is the subject of The Year of Goodbyes: A True Story of Friendship, Family and Farewells, based on Jutta's poesiealbum from the 1940's. A poesiealbum is a poetry album or autograph album, in which friends write each other little notes and poems. Debbie was touched by the writings of her mother as a young girl, and her mother's friends. To encourage readers to experience the poesiealbum tradition, she has created a participatory blog where people can submit their own entries to an online poesiealbum at theyearofgoodbyes.blogspot.com.
The Year of Goodbyes was named a 2011 Notable Book of Jewish Content in the Older Readers Category by the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries.
AUDIO:
Click the play button on this flash player to listen to the podcast now: Or click MP3 File to start your computer's media player.
Thank you for this lovely interview with Debbie Levy and her mother Jutta. I was particularly interested when Debbie commented that people ask, "Why didn't the Jews leave Germany?" as if anyone could have foreseen what was coming, but also, Debbie says, as if their lives there were "inconsequential." That point really resonated with me. Of course their lives were as deeply important and beautiful and meaningful and rooted in place as anyone's now--and in fact, no doubt much more rooted in place and culture than we younger people can really understand. I was very moved by this observation.
I've actually just finished reading a novel by Sydney Taylor (thank you, Sydney Taylor!) that I never came across as a child called A Papa Like Everyone Else. It is an account of Jewish farming life in Czech Hungary in the early 20th century told from the point of view of a little girl. It is very like The Little House on the Prairie in its loving observation and recording of details of rural daily life. At the end the two girls and their mother join their father in the US, very much against the inclination of the point-of-view character, who loves her little village. It is quite startling to read this book with an adult's knowledge of history, with an adult's knowledge of what is coming for Jews in such little villages. A few tiny details in the novel hint at the tensions between populations in the area, but surely wouldn't convey much to a child. But as an adult, you desperately want this family to get out, while also, with the author, lamenting the beauty of the life they are leading there, a way of life that will soon be completely destroyed. Anyway, I thought about this novel when I heard Debbie Levy say, about A Year of Goodbyes, that the lives Jews were leading in Europe were hardly inconsequential, were not easy to leave.
I met up with author Anna Levine last year at the 2009 Association of Jewish Libraries convention in Chicago, IL, where she was a guest presenter and an award-winner! During a late night gathering of book lovers, I pulled her aside to discuss her YA novel Freefalland her picture book Jodie's Hanukkah Dig, both set in Israel. Both books received recognition from the Association of Jewish Libraries in 2009, Freefall as a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, and Jodie's Hanukkah Dig as a Notable Book.
AUDIO:
Click the play button on this flash player to listen to the podcast now: Or click MP3 File to start your computer's media player.
EMBED:
If you'd like to place this audio on your own web site, please use this stand-alone player from Entertonement. Click the embed button and copy the code!
An interview with Micol Ostow, author of So Punk Rock (And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother), a 2010 Sydney Taylor Notable Book in the Teen Readers category. This very cool novel with graphic elements was illustrated by Micol's brother David Ostow. The interview was recorded in a busy Manhattan bar, so please consider the loud background noise to be atmosphere for this story of a teen garage band!
AUDIO:
Click the play button on this flash player to listen to the podcast now:
Or click MP3 File to start your computer's media player.
EMBED:
If you'd like to place this audio on your own web site, please use this stand-alone player from Entertonement. Click the embed button and copy the code!
I have a few good things to post. The first, my Snoopy Dance news is that I found out yesterday from my publisher at Sylvan Dell that I will be participating at Book Expo America this year at the LA Convention Center! They weren’t sure if Blackberry Banquet (click here for a sneak preview) would be available by then, but despite its July 10 release date, it will. They’ll have advanced copies available for me to sign, so mark your calendars for the last weekend in May.
I’ve never attended BEA and I’m very excited. It's such a huge event with so many publishers and authors—and to be a signing author is a thrill. My already overactive imagination is running amuck with thoughts of whom I’ll be seated near. I mean, isn’t it every children’s writers dream to get to rub elbows with Jane Yolen or Richard Peck (even if it’s from a distance and a line of people separates our elbows).
The other good news is that I recently heard from Roxyanne Young of SmartWriters.com. She has decided to run the WIN competition (Write It Now) again this year. It will be open for entries beginning in August 2008, so mark your calendars and watch the SmartWriters website for updates.
One last bit of cool information. Author Bruce Hale, of Chet Gecko and Underwhere fame, is offering a 39% discount on the first four CDs in his Teleseminar series on writing and publishing (targeted toward beginning and lower-intermediate writers). Each recording addresses a different aspect of the process. You'll find insider tips from editors and agents, plus time-tested information on how to write, edit, and sell your story. Click here for more info.
Those introverted ladies at Shrinking Violets Promotions sure know how to recognize a good title when they see one. I just found out that little old me won their most recent contest. Yippee! Oh, the joys of feeling validated! The contest was to use a book or song title and rewrite it from an introvert's perspective. What was my entry? Ahh, you must click here to find out!
1 Comments on Shrinking Violets Promotion, last added: 10/12/2007
This morning I was doing some marketing research and surfed to the Picture Window Books website. To my delight, right there on their home page was my recent book series, MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES.
Why the honor of being featured on their homepage when they published over 200 books on their spring list? Well, it seems that the series was not only a finalist in the Association of Educational PublishersGolden Lamp Award, but it also named a 2007 Winner of the Distinguised Achievement Award (by their definition, "The Distinguished Achievement Awards honor the top products within the categories of Curriculum, Periodicals, and Professional Development. The finalists are evaluated on traits such as efficacy, usability, and educational value.").
What an unexpected surprise--time for a little Snoopy dancing!
3 Comments on GOOD NEWS: AEP Awards, last added: 7/18/2007
Congratulations! I just stumbled upon your site and was looking at your favorite books -- I'm an elementary English as a Second Language teacher -- and I agree with many of yours! My kids this year LOVED the Little Mouse and the Big, Red, Ripe, Strawberry. I'm going to check out your nursery rhyme collection. Nursery rhymes are something I always spend a lot of time teaching my little ones (Kindergarten)for phonemic awareness. And many of my ESL students are not familiar with English rhymes. Thanks for the ideas!
Terry P. said, on 7/12/2007 5:49:00 PM
Thanks, "2busyboys"! One of the things I like about the Mother Goose collection is that the illustrations are multi-cultural with a bit of a contemporary look, so they're very appealing to today's kids. I hope you enjoy them.
Barbara Bietz said, on 7/18/2007 9:20:00 AM
Hi Terry,
Congrats on all your well desrved success! Thanks for staying in touch!
Thank you for this lovely interview with Debbie Levy and her mother Jutta. I was particularly interested when Debbie commented that people ask, "Why didn't the Jews leave Germany?" as if anyone could have foreseen what was coming, but also, Debbie says, as if their lives there were "inconsequential." That point really resonated with me. Of course their lives were as deeply important and beautiful and meaningful and rooted in place as anyone's now--and in fact, no doubt much more rooted in place and culture than we younger people can really understand. I was very moved by this observation.
I've actually just finished reading a novel by Sydney Taylor (thank you, Sydney Taylor!) that I never came across as a child called A Papa Like Everyone Else. It is an account of Jewish farming life in Czech Hungary in the early 20th century told from the point of view of a little girl. It is very like The Little House on the Prairie in its loving observation and recording of details of rural daily life. At the end the two girls and their mother join their father in the US, very much against the inclination of the point-of-view character, who loves her little village. It is quite startling to read this book with an adult's knowledge of history, with an adult's knowledge of what is coming for Jews in such little villages. A few tiny details in the novel hint at the tensions between populations in the area, but surely wouldn't convey much to a child. But as an adult, you desperately want this family to get out, while also, with the author, lamenting the beauty of the life they are leading there, a way of life that will soon be completely destroyed. Anyway, I thought about this novel when I heard Debbie Levy say, about A Year of Goodbyes, that the lives Jews were leading in Europe were hardly inconsequential, were not easy to leave.
Thank you for this terrific interview.