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A new opportunity at the SCBWI Summer Conference, these informal conversations with faculty members including agents and artist reps (Ginger Clark, Erica Rand Silverman, Tina Wexler, Kirsten Hall and Brooks Sherman) and editors and publishers (Krista Marino, Neal Porter, Sara Sargent, Melissa Manlove, Stacey Barney, Kat Brzozowski, and Reka Simonsen) are a big hit!

Attendees with agent Ginger Clark

Attendees with Publisher Neal Porter

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Neal with Jessixa Bagley at her book launch (photo stolen from Jessixa's Facebook)

Neal Porter of Neal Porter Books (an imprint of Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan) shares his three favorites:

Matt with a band, not his boy band. Photo stolen from Matt's Twitter feed.

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Moderated by Emma Dryden (standing, far left), the panel shares three books that they acquired (and why):

Seated, from Left to Right:

Stacey Barney, Senior Editor (G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin)

Kat Brzozowski, Associate Editor (St. Martin's)

Alvina Ling, V.P. and Editor in Chief (Little, Brown)

Melissa Manlove, Editor (Chronicle)

Neal Porter, Publisher (Neal Porter Books)

Matt Ringler, Senior Editor (Scholastic)

Sara Sargent, Executive Edtior (Harper Collins)

Reka Simonsen, Executive Editor (Atheneum)

Kate Sullivan, Senior Editor (Delacorte)

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Neal Porter is the publisher of the Neal Porter Books imprint of Roaring Brook Press. He has been in the book publishing business for decades. His work has spanned both the editorial process and the marketing departments of the industry. Neal has worked with a number of Caldecott Medal–honored illustrators, including Eric Rohmann, Ted Lewin, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and the 2011 Caldecott Medal winner, Erin Stead, in her book A Sick Day for Amos McGee. He received an Eric Carle Honor in the category of Mentor in 2015.

Neal starts off his breakout session by saying that he's actually re-named his speech, "Three Reasons I Love SCBWI"

And tells us in some depth about publishing "The Iridescence of Birds," a picture book about Henri Matisse, written by Patricia MacLachlan and illustrated by Hadley Hooper. (The SCBWI connection? He and Patricia we speaking about it at a SCBWI Summer Conference and when he asked her what she was working on, she said 'I just wrote a picture book no one will ever publish.) Well, Neal did!




He also describes the story behind his publishing Antoinette Portis' "Best Frints in the Whole Universe."



Antoinette is actually in the audience, and Neal calls her up to to do a short interview within the session, which is proceeded by Antoinette reading it out loud to us…  They discuss some of the editing process for the book - about the emotional exchange between the characters and some of the story beats.

Neal finishes his presentation about books he discovered at SCBWI and then published with Miranda Paul's "Water is Water" (he met Miranda at a 2012 SCBWI conference critique.)


Miranda is also in the audience, and Neal calls her up as well! They discuss the process and evolution of the rhyming nonfiction picture book. Neal shares Miranda's cover letter that she submitted with the manuscript, and he tells us his ultimate litmus test, the question he asks himself all the time:

"Do I have to publish this book?"

In all three of these cases, the answer was YES.

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Dan Santat, a Caldecott Medal winner, has signed a four-book deal with the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. Connie Hsu, the editor behind Santat’s Beekle picture book, will serve as the editor on three of these books.

Publishers Weekly reports that Santat’s first title will be a Humpty Dumpty-themed picture book called After the Fall. Roaring Brook Press will release the book in Fall 2017. He also has a second untitled picture book in-the-works. Dude, a children’s book written by Aaron Reynolds and published by Neal Porter Books, will feature Santat’s illustrations.

The fourth project, a graphic novel entitled You Bad Son, will be published by the First Second imprint and edited by Hsu. According to the First Second blog post, Santat drew inspiration for this book from his “experience growing up as an only child in a Thai American family. The story centers on his decision to go to art school over pursuing a career in medicine, and what his family is faced with when his mother is diagnosed with cancer.​” A publication date has been scheduled for 2018.

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Behold the latest entry in Steve Sheinkin’s “Walking and Talking” series.  When he’s not winning a YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honor for Port Chicago 50 Steve can be found interviewing his fellow authors and illustrators and bringing their talks to comic life.  In his latest episode we see not just a drawn version of Caldecott Honor winner Laura Vaccaro Seeger but of her editor Neal Porter as well.  Enjoy!

Previous editions of this series include:

• Walking and Talking With John Corey Whaley
• Walking and Talking with Jenni Holm
• Walking and Talking with Gene Luen Yang

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How perfect that award-winning children’s book artist Terry Widener has done the pictures for the new picture book by Jonah Winter (just released by Schwartz and Wade) about the greatest all around baseball player ever – Willie Mays. Terry brings a background of high level advertising and editorial illustration and something else to the many [...]

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I promised a little run down on my recent visit to Highlight's Foundation in Boyd's Mill, PA. It puts the TREAT in RETREAT. Here's one reason ...

 and here's another ...


Just in case we were feeling faint they fed us 3-4 times a day. And in between we were welcome to raid the pantry ... yee gads! Thankfully, all the top-notch food is locally sourced, cooked with care and healthfully. Which is good, because you wouldn't want to miss any of it! Especially 'Angel Poop' .. my fav dessert.

But there's more to Highlights than just good grub. If you've no idea what I'm talking about, here's a link to their website. They run fabby writing and illustrating workshops for the kidlit world at a wonderful facility in Pennsylvania. Highlights is allied to Boyd's Mill Publishers in Honesdale and the first day includes a tour if you get there a little early. Which I did. A day early because of flights (which they don't charge you for). I was collected from Scranton airport by a very nice chap called Bob. All the staff are very welcoming and helpful. It's a bit like being at a private country club for children's writers and artists, but with no boring golf or rubbish conversation at the bar.)


at Boyd's Mill ... some place to have your office ...


The Barn, where all workshops and meals take place. It's a beautiful building and very welcoming, with informal rooms to lounge around in and a big space for work and eating. Some nights we ate on the patio.



The workshop I attended (Advanced Children's Illustrators) had a great faculty - Eric Rohmann - Ruth Sanderson - Kelly Murphy - Floyd Cooper ... plus guests including Neal Porter (Roaring Brook Press), David Wiesner, Donna-Jo Napoli. During the week, staff and editors from Boyd's Mill popped in and shared mealtimes with us, which was very nice and friendly.



I wanted for nothing while I was there. Wifi is available most everywhere (phone service is a little squiffy, but there are house phones you can use a calling card on, or get folks to call you back). If there is anything you need - then you just have to ask. Did I say I worshiped the kitchen staff ...?

There is nothing, however, to top sitting down with seasoned professionals and listen to their experiences, chat around the dinner table or next to the outdoor fireplace and hear about experiences on a personal level. With only 24 or so attendees it was great to really get to know each other in intimate surroundings.

If you are looking for a different experience from the usual hurly-burly of the conference circuit, I suggest you give Highlights a try. The cost of the workshops are truly reasonable given the level of attention and accommodation. They also offer scholarships to those who qualify.

I leave you with some photos as they speak more eloquently than I ...

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Forget Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich! Children’s author Nick Bruel has cast the “purrfect” candidate in his latest chapter book: Bad Kitty for President. We’ve embedded the book trailer above.

We caught up with Bruel to ask a few questions about politics, writing and illustrating.

Q: With your latest title, Bad Kitty for President, why did you decide to touch on such a
topical event?
A: I find politics in general to be a very weird, absurd, and sort of wonderful creature in this country. As Americans I think we have a propensity to take politics too seriously (myself included), but at the same time I don’t think many Americans understand our political system as much as they should. It’s a bit like watching a full season of baseball but never really understanding the rules of the game.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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by Johanna Wright  Neal Porter Books / Roaring Brook Press  2009   Only the mice know, and they aren't telling... In Paris there is a circus, a very secret circus, a very tiny circus, that only the mice know about. They ride a hot air balloon to a merry-go-round long after the people have gone to bed and find their way to the circus where they snack on left-behind snacks and enjoy the show.

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Aline Pereira is an independent writer, editor and media consultant specializing in multicultural children’s books, and until January this year, she was Managing Editor of PaperTigers, a post she had held since 2004. So we are very happy to welcome her back with a Personal View she wrote following her attendance of the Asian Festival of Asian Content in Singapore in May.

Aline had a special part to play in the Festival as she was one of the judges for the inaugural Scholastic Asian Book Award, along with “Chief Judge Nury Vittachi, journalist and Hong Kong’s best-selling English language author; Anushka Ravishankar, award-winning children’s poet and author (India); John McKenzie, principal lecturer at the School of Literacies and Arts in Education at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand); and literary agent Kelly Sonnack (Kelly grew up in Singapore), from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency (US).”

In her article, Aline shares with us her impressions of the Festival as a whole, and gives us a peek behind the scenes of the award. You can read the whole article here - and here are a couple of extracts to whet your appetite.

The big picture

A consistent thread seemed to run through a good number of the panels and sessions, as well as through informal conversations: “There are plenty of valid ways to produce and deliver a book”. This naturally led to discussions about the enormous changes the publishing world has gone through in the last decade or so, and all the things that have played a part in these changes. And to think that there was a time, not long ago, when people believed the Internet was a passing fad… Now one can only ignore the internet, social media and digital platforms at one’s peril. Without a doubt, these new technologies have affected the way children’s books are acquired, published and marketed, but one of the many things I came away with from those sessions and conversations was that having these new tools, platforms and processes is simply a means, not the end goal. Without losing sight of readers’ needs, the end goal continues to be finding ways to foster the creation, reception, and dissemination of a diverse children’s literature in all genres, mediums and platforms. When it comes to bringing children and books together, it should never be an either/or scenario, but a “the more, the better” one. After all, why get territorial and deaf to voices (platforms, devices) that are not our own? With regards to Asian content, AFCC was a call to join forces in that effort.

One of my favorite sessions was presented by US publisher Neal Porter (Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press) on which types of books travel well to other countries, which don’t, and why. He calls himself an “intuitive publisher”, meaning he publishes what he loves, without worrying too much about the marketability of a project – a privilege most publishers these days don’t have, and one he’s earned after decades of hard work and a successful track record. I have always admired Neal’s imprint, so it was wonderful to learn about which of his books have traveled successfully to/from other countries, even if the majority of the examples given were of books that have traveled between the US and

0 Comments on The 2011 Asian Festival of Children’s Content and its Bounties by Aline Pereira as of 1/1/1900

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A Zombie Novel in Haiku?!  by K. A. Holt   illustrated by Gahan Wilson  Neal Porter / Roaring Brook Press 2010  zombied middle school   desegregation among   living and undead   haiku and romance   bullies and librarians  imperfect but fun  Loeb's a zombie  smart, but he hides it from friends  has brains, eats them, too   cute librarian   suggests Loeb enters contest  reading his

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