Ladies and gentlemen . . . the moment I’ve been waiting for.

Wait! Wait!  Background information first!

So for years I worked as a children’s librarian and I’d get girl after girl after girl coming up to my desk asking for funny books.  I credit some of this to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  The boys and the girls loved that series and wanted more of the same.  Sometimes they wanted it in a notebook novel format, like Kinney’s book.  Sometimes they just wanted something hilarious, and they seriously didn’t care who wrote it.  So I’d grab books for them and then it slowly began to dawn on me.  Huh.  For all that I could find some pretty fantastic and hilarious books out there for kids, where were the funny story collections written by women?  Turns out, there weren’t any.

Until now.

I would like you to join me in applauding the following authors and author/illustrators . . . .

• Cece Bell
• Sophie Blackall
• Libba Bray
• Lisa Brown
• Adrianne Chalepah
• Alison DeCamp
• Carmen Agra Deedy
• Kelly DiPucchio
• Lisa Graff
• Shannon Hale
• Charise Mericle Harper
• Jenni Holm
• Akilah Hughes
• Amy Ignatow
• Christine Mari Inzer
• Lenore Look
• Meghan McCarthy
• Mitali Perkins
• Leila Sales
• Raina Telgemeier
• Deborah Underwood
• Ursula Vernon
• Rita Williams-Garcia
• Delaney Yeager
• and Mackenzie Yeager

Each one of these women has contributed to my new book Funny Girl: Funniest. Stories. EVER.

Behold!  The cover by the aforementioned Charise Mericle Harper:

And here’s the full jacket in its entirety:

A portion of the proceeds of this book go to Write Girl, a Los Angeles-based creative writing and mentoring organization that matches girls with women writers who mentor them in creative writing.

When’s it out?  May 9th, 2017!  Feel free to pre-order it.

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Oh! And while I’m thinking of it, there’s this other really fun thing that just started that I have to let you know about.  As I may have mentioned before, my husband’s first book The Secrets of Story just came out recently and I could be prouder.  He’s already put up a couple great videos alongside it (the latest is here and is about those little moments of humanity that make you like a character).  But fun upon fun upon fun, he’s created a podcast with YA author and 90-Second Newbery Film Festival creator James Kennedy and it may well be my favorite thing of all time.  I love it when James and Matt get together because they agree on NOTHING!  And now they’ve a podcast together where they can extol the beauty of that nothing together.  It’s huge fun for me, and it ends with a little feature where they mention a story idea they had that they decided wouldn’t work and give it away (as it were) to the masses for use.  So if you like the process of writing or you just like banter, I’ve your new favorite podcast.  The Secrets of Storytelling podcast is available through iTunes.  Subscribe today!

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

CSK Author Award Acceptance Speech by Rita Williams-Garcia from The Horn Book. Peek:

"...upon occasion, our histories are bound by peace and wonder as people of the planet Earth, looking up as we did on one night in the summer of 1969.

"In spite of some current rhetoric, very few of us on this soil can claim a separate and sole history. We are a joined people. Let’s keep looking up."

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I’m finally sifting through all my notes and experiences from my trip to New York. It was a cold weekend to be in the big apple, with temperatures outside hovering in the single digits. Despite the frigid weather we were warm and safe inside the hotel, surrounded by a star-studded faculty of kidlit experts. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Two-time Newberry Honor winner Gary Schmidt made everyone cry about five different times during his moving keynote about the importance of writing for kids. He emphasized that writing should be an expression of empathy and compassion: we must “show up” instead of leaving the reader behind. I can’t do Mr. Schmidt justice, so I’ll just encourage you to read all of his heartrending books and leave you with a quote:

“Writing should be an act of empathy in a broken world. What ails you? That is the question we ask.” – Gary Schmidt, author

If you’ve ever submitted a manuscript exactly one time and, upon receiving a rejection letter, decided to give up: William Joyce, Oscar winner and acclaimed writer and illustrator of dozens of books, received over 250 rejection letters at the beginning of his career. So maybe it wouldn’t hurt to keep revising and try again. He also offered this advice to illustrators on finding your voice:

“Find the artists you love, find out what you love about them, and then… steal.” -William Joyce, author/illustrator and filmmaker

Newberry Honor and Coretta Scott King award-winner Rita Williams-Garcia made everyone laugh during her keynote about the “Dos and Don’ts” of writing. Her witty anecdotes shed light on the hard-earned successes and naive missteps along the road to publication.

“Do live with gratitude. Do live in the plan. Do what you’re doing.” – Rita Williams-Garcia

The delightful Sophie Blackall inspired everyone with the story of how her personal project to illustrate the Missed Connections column on Craigslist helped to jump-started her career. She also shared stories and photos from her travels working with Save the Children and other humanitarian organizations, and gave us a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at all the research and love that went into this year’s Caldecott winner, Finding Winnie. She signed my copy of book and even drew a little sketch in it!

“Do that thing that’s just for yourself, because it’s almost always your best work.” -Sophie Blackall, author and illustrator

The conference also featured several panels representing editors, art directors, publishers and agents who offered a broad perspective on the state of the industry. There was a lot of encouraging news about the health of children’s literature and plenty of sage advice for aspiring authors and illustrators. Here are a few quotes that stood out:

“You’re only as good as the people you work with.” – David Saylor, Creative Director at Scholastic

“Don’t take shortcuts. If you put everything you have in [your work], you can’t fail.” – Holly McGhee, Agent at Pippin Properties

“You have something that no one else has, and your job is to figure out what that is.” -Cecilia Yung, VP and Art Director at Penguin Random House

“Know your competition. […] Your competition is everything kids are doing other than reading books.” – Andrea Pappenheimer, Director of Sales at HarperCollins

 

 

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Good morning, campers!  Are we ironing out the last of the holiday season from our socks?  Are we eyeing our decorations with a jaded eye?  Well, wonderful news!  2016 is on the horizon and I bring you news of the peppy variety.  Packed deep in snow, no less, since I appear to be living in ice storm land at the moment.

• First up, I wrote a piece a year or two ago for a periodical and then never had it published.  All that has changed thanks to the delightful online children’s literature publication, The Read Quarterly.  My piece The Last Taboo: What Interactive Print Says About the Digital Revolution is available for your reading, whenever you’d like to give it a gander.

• Two awards to celebrate today.  First up, you may be aware that over in Britain they did away with their beloved Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize.  Apparently there will be a new Dahl prize in the near future and they didn’t want to confuse it with this other one.  Fortunately, there’s a new funny lit prize and it’s called The Laugh Out Loud Award or, for short, The Lollies.  Michael Rosen is, as ever, involved.  Attention!  Britain?  The representative from Illinois would like to request that America be allowed Lollies of our own.  We could change the name slightly to The ROFLs, but that sounds slightly perverse when you say it out loud.  In any case, funny awards here, please.

• The other award is the recent unveiling of the latest winners of the 2015 Arab American Book Award (sponsored by the  Arab American National Museum) given in the Children/Young Adult category.  The winner, I’m happy to say, is The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow Press).  Honorable Mention was awarded to The Olive Tree by Elsa Marston and illustrated by Claire Ewart (Wisdom Tales Press).  Well done, one and all!

• Insufficiently happy by today’s news thus far?  Okay.  Try this.  They’ve turned some of the Bad Kitty books into a play and you Bay Area lucky ducks get to see it.  Playwright Min Kahng, who also did a musical adaptation of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon amongst other things, is interviewed here.  As for Bad Kitty herself, I like her looks:

• Other me stuff.  I helped contribute to Brightly’s list of The 50 Best Books for 7- and 8-year-olds.  A lot of old favorites are on that one.  Anna Hibiscus.  Rickshaw Girl.  The Penderwicks.  And new ones like Lola Levine and Grandfather Gandhi.  Worth looking at.

• Brightly also came up with 2015’s Biggest Moments in Children’s and YA Literature.  A good list, though I would rewrite the title slightly to say instead that it’s more accurately “2015’s Biggest Controversy-Free Moments in Children’s and YA Literature”.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

A Rita Williams-Garcia book has people talking, but it may not be the book you first think of.  How many of you read her new picture book Bottle Cap Boys Dancing on Royal Street?  Well a recent article about the actual boys who dance the streets of New Orleans says that Rita’s book has gotten people to talking.  The subheading “Depicting happy children” sounds familiar in light of the conversations surrounding A Fine Dessert as well, though the context is different.

• Something to warm the cold cockles of your heart.  I’ll just let the title of the piece speak for itself. Award-winning Canadian picture book a gift for every Syrian refugee family. The book in question?  The magnificent Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson, illustrated by Sydney Smith. Thanks to Minh Le for the link.

• Aw, heck.  One more.  Tis the season.  From The Washington Post: First Book mixes market forces and philanthropy to help poor children.  I love that they picked up Boats for Papa as one of their titles.  Clearly they have excellent taste.

• Daily Image:

I saw the new Star Wars movie, loved it, and was listening to a recent episode of the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour when they mentioned the worst Star Wars merchandising in existence.  There are many items that could fit the bill (look up the Slave Leia perfume or the C3PO tape dispenser, if you doubt me) but the unqualified winner was so terrible sounding that I honestly didn’t believe that it existed.  This has nothing to do with children’s literature in any way, shape, or form.  I just wanted to give you a couple new nightmares tonight.  Ladies and gentlemen, the Jar Jar Binks lollipop.  Sharp-eyed spotters may be able to see why it may be considered far and away the worst marketing of all time.

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The National Book Foundation has teamed up with YA literature site TeenReads.com to run a Twitter campaign aimed at connecting authors with young readers.

Today at noon EST, authors will share the books that inspired them to become writers on Twitter with the hashtag #BooksThatHooked. Authors including: Daniel José Older, Deborah Wiles, and Rita Williams-Garcia are participating.

“We know that so many teens want to be authors one day,” stated Shara Zaval,  Editorial Manager of Teenreads.com/Kidsreads.com. “This is a great way to call attention to the fact that reading — something that Teenreads.com and NBF greatly believe in — is an essential part of becoming a great writer.”

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Some day I'll be too old for this. This insistence (within myself/for myself) that I live each minute, see each place, feel each thing I can find my way to.

But I'm not there yet. I'm still the woman who arrives mid-afternoon to New York City, checks into a hotel with her husband, and starts to walk. This time to the Columbia University campus, which I had never seen (that old library, now the administration building, soars). To the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Past the fruit vendors on upper Broadway.

Then a subway ride to Columbus Circle and the Museum of Arts and Design (where an exquisite Wendell Castle show is in place). Then a walk-run (to the extent possible) through Times Square, and then more underground tunnels to the World Trade Center, where we were stopped by the power of those two pools, the remembered names, the roses and calla lilies left in respect and honor. Art can speak, and this art does—the down and the down of the water, the sound of that water, the return of the water, and the light behind the names.

It was the hour of the gloaming. The stone buildings burned red-orange inside the blue glass of the new tower, and that big Calatrava bird, soon to be the World Trade Center Transportation Center, was already soaring.

We walked a long length of Greenwich, then, met our son for dinner, watched him take off in an Uber for a date, made our way all the way back to 103rd Street, where all night long we listened to the trash trucks, the buses, the NYC talk just outside our window. I rose in the dark, put on a dress, and as soon as the sun was up I was walking again—finding a French bakery, buying an almond croissant, and working my way toward Central Park, where the early dog walkers were out and about and I could see the river just beyond them.

By 8:15 I was dancing with the extraordinary educator/advocator Susannah Richards in the lobby of Bank Street. Dancing, yes. I swear we danced. (Susannah is especially good at the twirls.) At Bank Street, a remarkable cast of writers, illustrators, educators, librarians, and book people were convening for what, in my book, is the best gathering of storytellers ever anywhere. Here the conversation circles around Thoughts as opposed to Marketing Platforms. The forum encourages conversation, consideration, a maybe this or a maybe that. This is hardly accidental. This reflects the good work of those who assemble this program, moderate the panels, conduct the keynote (thank you, Rita Williams-Garcia), and say yes. I bow down to you, oh Bank Street, with thanks especially to Jennifer Brown and Cynthia Weill, and then to my fellow panelists Daniel Jose Older and Tim Wynne-Jones—the three us led toward greater understanding about narrative risk by the exceptionally thoughtful questions of Vicki Smith of Kirkus Reviews. And with thanks to Chronicle Books, who said yes to the event.

When it was done, when I hugged my old and new friends goodbye, I was running again, to the subway, to the PATH, and toward my husband and son, where we walked some more, had an early dinner, and watched the lights of the World Trade Center blink on.

(Can I just thank here the little boy on the incredibly crowded train who must have read the panic of this claustrophobe on his face and said, "Miss? Do you want my seat?")

We drove home in the dark. I slept. I actually slept. The sleep of a satisfied woman.

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I figured I’d share some snaps from my recent trip down to my old stomping grounds on Long Island.

On Wednesday night I drove to New London, CT, to take the ferry to Greenport, Long Island. That’s where my dear old mom lives, so I crashed at her place for two nights. Mom is 89 years old and, these days at least, a very happy Mets fan . . .

On Thursday, I drove out to the Sequoya Middle School in Holtsville where I was invited by Jennifer Schroeder and Sandy Bucher. Like all the best days in my life, it started with lunch! I ate with students from the Summer Reading Club.

What a great way to start the day. With pizza . . . and a great group of young, intelligent, enthusiastic readers.

I didn’t just eat and chat. I also signed books, gratefully.

This is Sandy and Jennifer, who made the day the possible.

These three won prizes in a raffle, though I felt like the real winner all day long.

On the way to the assembly with an audience of 260 students, one girl asked me in a soft voice if I’d seen the poster. “Yes, it’s fantastic,” I said. And after a pause, I wondered, “Did you make it?”

She sure had. Of course, I demanded her name and a photo. Angela looks proud, doesn’t she? So much talent and a great smile, too. How is that fair?

Later I drove home and watched the Mets with my mom. It’s how we roll.

On Friday, I visited Bellport where I presented to a large group of librarians from Suffolk County. There were about 100 in the room, my guess, and I think it went well. Librarians are my kind of people, so hopefully it was relaxed and enjoyable for all concerned. My fingers are crossed in the hope it will lead to more school visits in the area. Thank you, Gail Barraco for the invitation!

Next I took a ferry . . .

. . . and drove to a hotel near Warwick, NY. The next morning, Saturday, I signed books at the fabulous Warwick Children’s Book Festival, thanks to Lisa Laico, Christina Ryan-Linder, and Judy Peterson. The amount of work that goes into these things — the months of planning, the degree of detail — is mind-boggling. What a great gift to the community.

As an author, I am always grateful for a chance to meet other “real, live” authors. Every time I meet someone new . . .

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. . . and I also get the chance to catch up with established friends.

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After that, it was time to head home. My real job, the essential job, is for me to sit alone in a quiet room. That’s where I’m at now, trying to figure out the next book. But it’s trips like this that energize and inspire me to keep at it, even during the difficult times. Many thanks to one and all!

 

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A few months ago I received an invitation from one of my very favorite people in all of young people's literature, Jennifer Brown. If our friendship has evolved over time, my respect for Jenny was immediate. As a Shelf Awareness reviewer, prize adjudicator, discussion leader, Bank Street visionary, and all-around children's books advocate, Jenny's opinions have mattered. She has welded intelligence with kindness and become a force. Today she serves as vice president and publisher of Knopf Books for Young Readers at Random House Children's Books—a position that is such a perfect fit for her myriad talents (and soul) that one imagines it was waiting for her all along.

Before Jenny took on that new role, she designed the 2015 BookFest@Bank Street and extended the invitation I noted above. Featuring Rita Williams-Garcia in a keynote, the day will include insights from scholars and writers Leonard S. Marcus, Adam Gidwitz, Elizabeth Bluemle, Cynthia Weill, Christopher Myers, Shadra Strickland, Raul Colon, Sara Varon, Joe Rogers, Jr., Laura Amy Schlitz, Jeanne Birdsall, Kat Yeh, Liz Kessler, and Monica Edinger. BookFest will also feature a panel titled "Pushing Narrative Boundaries in Teen Literature," moderated by the reliably smart and provocative Vicky Smith, the reviews editor of Kirkus.

I'm thrilled to be joining Tim Wynne-Jones and Daniel Jose Older on that boundaries-pushing panel. I was thrilled even before I'd read their new novels, The Emperor of Any Place and Shadowshaper, respectively. But now, having spent the last few days immersed in both, I'm even more eager. This will be a conversation. The kind of conversation that I crave like I crave a perfect peach or a ripe Bartlett pear.

The Emperor of Any Place is a work of supreme art. A nested story within a story (and, one might suggest, within another story) that carries the reader in and out of history. There's the present-day reality of a teen named Evan who has lost his father and must now endure (within the knot of his grief) the arrival of his once-estranged grandfather. There is, as well, the story inside the book Evan's father was reading when he died—the diary of a Japanese soldier stranded on a small Pacific island during World War II. The soldier is not the sole inhabitant of that island, nor is he the only one who ultimately writes inside those diary pages. As Evan reads the book, many mysteries emerge. Why was his father obsessed with this story? Why is his grandfather obsessed, too? And what is the truth inside these diary pages that were annotated, later on, by another visitor to that island?

Emperor is grounded in the fear of war and the haze of solitude and the ingenuity of survivors, both contemporary and historic. It is wholly conceived and executed, yet it trembles with mystery and a touch of magic. It is brilliantly structured but its power does not rest on its conceit. Tim may have pushed the narrative boundaries but he has not taken a single short cut, not expected the readers to follow just because he's feverently hoped they will. Every element adds to every element here. There are rewards for those who ponder, and, indeed, you could ponder all day and never find a fault line in this complex novel's execution.

Shadowshaper casts its own marvelous spell, builds its own mystique, is the sort of original work you would expect from an author who is also a musician who is also an EMT who is also a commentator on social order and disorder. Daniel has built a book about a young girl who discovers within herself a legacy power—and who must learn to harness it for a greater good. Sierra Santiago is a painter who can see, within the art of others, shadow lives and shapes, art that fades, murals that shed real tears. She is a daughter and a granddaughter in pursuit of hidden grace. She chases, and she is being chased. She rises to the challenge.

Sierra does all this within language steeped in salsa rhythms and Brooklyn gaits. She does this while pondering the color of her skin, the explosive nature of her hair, the discrete borders inside the border lands of race. Daniel is not just weaving a magical story here. He is telling his readers something about how it feels to live today within the fractures of society. About how it is to hope, despite the noise of now.

Authors of books that break the rules must know, to begin with, what the prevailing rules have been. They have a special obligation to steer their projects toward a higher grace, so that the strange ultimately does collide with a deep emotional truth, so that the fiction feels real, so that the experience of reading the story goes beyond admiration and straight into embrace. Fiction comes from a human place. The best fiction elevates the idea of the humane.

We'll talk about this and much more, I'm sure, at Book Fest. I'll learn; I'm sure of that, too.

Registration information for Book Fest is here.

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“Who can turn the stove on with her smile? / Who can take a bubble bath and suddenly fill it with crocodiles?”*

If you answered: Rita Williams-Garcia then you are more than correct!  The illustrious, charming, all around nice woman stopped by the Harper Collins offices to do a little talky talk with me the other day.  Heck, here’s the proof of it:

Though, if I’m going to be realistic, the proof is the fact that I have today’s video at all.  On the surface it may appear to simply be a talk with Ms. Rita about her latest title GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA but it is instead so much more.  We get the dirt on her recent appearance in the documentary The Black Panthers (coming soon to a theater near you), the fact that she actually makes up stuff when she writes fiction, a quick shot of what she’d look like as Wonder Woman (in a word: awesome), and information on her next book/series, which I know you’re just dying to know more about.

Mind you, to get to the interview you’ll have to sit through another episode of “Reading (Too Much Into) Picture Books”.  This month I look at the “Mr. Croc” books by Jo Lodge.  You could call them the poor man’s Maisy, but I think they’re improvement.  As I say in the video, it’s like someone said, “I like Maisy, but can I get a version where she is a vicious meat-eater with the potential to devour her friends at any time?”  Batta bing!

Some of the other Fuse #8 TV episodes are archived here.

Once more, thanks to Harper Collins for being my sponsor and helping to put this together.

*50 points to anyone who can identify the quote without Googling it.

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Toni Buzzeo is the author of the 2013 Caldecott Honor Book and New York Times bestseller One Cool Friend, as well as many other books for children.

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
In the “crazy summer” of 1968, three black sisters set out from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to reconnect with their estranged mother, an active member of the Black Panther political movement. How does Williams-Garcia balance historical events with the girls’ personal journeys? How do both these aspects of the historical novel interact?

The post One Crazy Summer appeared first on The Horn Book.

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Our favorite picks for summer reading continue this week with a list of the best titles to keep kids in fifth and sixth grade reading during sunny summer days (and cloudy ones, too!)

For Grades 5 to 6

Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez

Apolonia “Lina” Flores is a sock enthusiast, a volleyball player, a science lover, and a girl who’s just looking for answers. Even though her house is crammed full of books (her dad’s a bibliophile), she’s having trouble figuring out some very big questions, like why her dad seems to care about books more than her, why her best friend’s divorced mom is obsessed with making cascarones (hollowed eggshells filled with colorful confetti), and, most of all, why her mom died last year. Like colors in cascarones, Lina’s life is a rainbow of people, interests, and unexpected changes.

In her first novel for young readers, Diana López creates a clever and honest story about a young Latina girl navigating growing pains in her South Texan city.

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

In Jennifer L. Holm’s New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor winning middle grade historical fiction novel, life isn’t like the movies. But then again, 11-year-old Turtle is no Shirley Temple. She’s smart and tough and has seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it’s 1935 and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. So when Turtle’s mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn’t like kids, Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off to Key West, Florida to live with relatives she’s never met. Florida’s like nothing Turtle’s ever seen before though. It’s hot and strange, full of rag tag boy cousins, family secrets, scams, and even buried pirate treasure! Before she knows what’s happened, Turtle finds herself coming out of the shell she’s spent her life building, and as she does, her world opens up in the most unexpected ways. Filled with adventure, humor and heart, Turtle in Paradise is an instant classic both boys and girls with love.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past.

When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home–and his own art–through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen

One day I was 12 years old and broke. Then Grandma gave me Grandpa’s old riding lawnmower. I set out to mow some lawns. More people wanted me to mow their lawns. And more and more… One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about “the beauty of capitalism. Supply and Demand. Diversify labor. Distribute the wealth.” “Wealth?” I said. “It’s groovy, man,” said Arnold.

If I’d known what was coming, I might have climbed on my mower and putted all the way home to hide in my room. But the lawn business grew and grew. So did my profits, which Arnold invested in many things. And one of them was Joey Pow the prizefighter. That’s when my 12th summer got really interesting.

Looking for a previous week’s book list?  Click below:
Grades K-2
Grades 3-4

The post First Book’s Summer Book List: Grades 5-6 appeared first on First Book Blog.

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Jessica Lee is a teacher librarian at Willard Middle School in Berkeley, California. She has also been an English teacher, a public librarian, and a waitress, but her favorite terrible-teen job was selling snacks at Six Flags Magic Mountain. She is the mom of two boys who are also students at her school, fully integrating the work-life experience.

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... featuring the words of authors I love, the kindness of bloggers, my photographs of southern Spain, and my husband's deliberately rough Spanish guitar, for that is the kind of guitar my gypsy characters play.

It would mean so much to me if you shared this trailer with others.

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Natalie Bakopoulos

     The Green Shore, Natalie’s debut novel is set inAthens and Paris, against the backdrop of the Greek military dictatorshipand  centered around four memorablecharacters.  She received her MFAin Fiction from the University of Michigan.  She was also recognized as a 2010 PEN/O. Henry Award-winningauthor.

Judith Ortiz Cofer

     Critically acclaimed and widely published poet, novelist, andessayist Judith Ortiz Cofer’s latest book, If I Could Fly,tells the story of 15 year old Doris, who learns that ‘she might have to fly far distancesbefore she finds out where she belongs. Judith writes extensively about the experience of being Puerto Rican andher identity as a woman and writer in the U.S.  Currently she is teaching literature and creative writing atthe University of Georgia.

Kelly Milner Halls

1 Comments on Judging Teen Stories with a Remarkable Cast for the "It's All Write" Contest, last added: 4/17/2012

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Serena said, on 4/17/2012 8:20:00 AM

I hope you have a great time!

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16. What I'll be reading for World Read Aloud Day

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By: Beth Kephart , on 3/6/2012
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Markus Zusak, Mary Oliver, Rita Williams-Garcia, marilyn nelson, Ruta Sepetys, World Read Aloud Day, Villa Maria Academy, Helme Heine, Betty Smith, Kathryn Erskine, Jen Bryant, James Hilton, Add a tag

This week my Penn students are off for spring break, but I'll be back in (another) classroom tomorrow—this time among the eighth graders of Villa Maria Academy, where I've been asked to share some thoughts and favorite books for World Read Aloud Day.

In preparation I've been sitting on the floor surrounded by books (isn't that where everything begins?).  I've been making decisions about what to carry forward.

My choices are these:

Owls and Other Fantasies: Mary Oliver
Carver: Marilyn Nelson
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith
A River of Words: Jen Bryant/Melissa Sweet
The Marvelous Journey Through the Night: Helme Heine
The Book Thief: Markus Zusak
One Crazy Summer: Rita Williams-Garcia
Mockingbird: Kathryn Erskine
Between Shades of Gray: Ruta Sepetys
Goodbye, Mr. Chips: James Hilton

What will you read, for World Read Aloud Day?

1 Comments on What I'll be reading for World Read Aloud Day, last added: 3/8/2012

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Serena said, on 3/8/2012 8:04:00 AM

Not sure what it is about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith, but I've never liked it. I loved The Book Thief.

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17. Small Damages, Ruta Sepetys, and a birthday surprise

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By: Beth Kephart , on 10/22/2011
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Kathryn Erskine, Rita Williams-Garcia, Ruta Sepetys, Small Damages, Add a tag

This morning I did one of those things I try not to do—traveled over to the Amazon page to see if the cover for Small Damages, my summer 2012 novel, has been posted.  It has not, but a separate piece of news was there, something I had not known.  Small Damages, the book that took nearly a decade of my life, was inspired by my travels to Seville, and will be published by one of the most extraordinary houses anywhere, Philomel, is set to come out on my son's birthday.  (For more on the incredible Philomel, go here.)  That is no mere coincidence.  That is perfection.  My son has been with me through every one of the dozens of drafts and, indeed, the book is dedicated to him.

And so I wait to share the remarkable cover with you.  Believe me, it is worth waiting for.  Tamra Tuller, my editor, and her team worked for literally months to produce something that is just so infinitely right that it staggers me.  In classic Tamra style, she also took the time to share the book with her authors Kathryn Erskine (Mockingbird, The Absolute Value of Mike) and Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray).  I had shared Kathryn's words on this blog earlier, along with the treasured words of Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer).  

This morning I share Ruta's:

Stunning.  Kephart's lyrical prose lingers with you long after the final page.  I simply didn't want it to end.

3 Comments on Small Damages, Ruta Sepetys, and a birthday surprise, last added: 10/22/2011

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Lenore Appelhans said, on 10/22/2011 5:01:00 AM

I saw the cover in the Frankfurt rights catalog - and you're right, it's stunning! Can't wait for you to be able to share widely.

Beth Kephart said, on 10/22/2011 5:03:00 AM

Lenore! I didn't know it was in there. Thank you for sharing that and for saying this. You know how glorious it is, then!

Lilian Nattel said, on 10/22/2011 3:19:00 PM

Beautiful comment and beautiful cover.

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18. Sunday Musings . . . I'm back, yes, really!

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By: Crystal Roget, on 10/2/2011
Blog: Crystal's Bookmark (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Contests, Writing, Middle grade, Editors, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Book release, Rita Williams-Garcia, Tess Hilmo, Add a tag

Hi everyone!

Long time, no see . . . yes, I’m back. So sorry I was gone so long but I had to deal with a few personal issues, including unemployment (lost my job in 2010). And with my husband working only part-time, it has been quite stressful to say the least. But I’ve been quite busy, nevertheless, transporting the kids to school and their various activities, doing some freelance proofreading, and of course, working on my middle-grade novel.

But enough about me . . . what I really want to focus on with this comeback post is the DEBUT PUBLICATION of my long-time blogger friend, TESS HILMO’s middle-grade mystery, WITH A NAME LIKE LOVE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Macmillan, Margaret Ferguson Books, 2011). The excerpts I read on amazon had me wishin’ I had a Kindle to download the story right away. With a Name Like Love received 2 fantastic STARRED REVIEWS—from Kirkus and the esteemed School Library Journal—before it’s publication date (Sept. 27, 2011). That is a HUGE accomplishment! Congratulations, Tess!

You’ll find a wonderful interview with Tess on Robyn Campbell’s blog, Putting Pen to Paper (Hi Robyn!), as well as this interview with Tess over at CYNSATIONS, the blog of well-known author & resource of publishing info, Cynthia Leitich Smith. (And speaking of Cynthia, you have got to check out this inspiring guest post she wrote over at Adventures in Children’s Publishing, “Your Only Real Competition is Yourself.” Doesn’t she speak the truth?)


*** CONTEST ALERT ***

IN CASE YOU’RE INTERESTED, you can win a copy of TESS HILMO’s With A Name Like Love by leaving a comment at Mother Daughter Book Club.com under the post Book Review and Giveaway: With A Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo. THE CONTEST ENDS OCT. 12th midnight (PDT). Good Luck!

AND, don’t forget to read Tess’ guest post at this same site, where she offers great writerly wisdom on The Power of Words.



You know, there’s been so, so many great blog posts this past year. Did anyone see the wonderful Tribute to Rita Williams-Garcia (author of the 2011 Scott O’Dell and 2011 Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel, One Crazy Summer) by her editor Rosemary Brosnan? This greatly inspiring read is in the July/August 2011 issue of The Horn Book magazine. I think most writers would give their right arm (and leg!) to have such a wonderful author-editor relationship as theirs!

Another great motivational read I came across was a post back in June entitled 3 Comments on Sunday Musings . . . I'm back, yes, really!, last added: 10/5/2011

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Robyn Campbell said, on 10/4/2011 6:05:00 AM

I am so glad to cyber see you. You were missed! YAY!!!!!!!!!! I heart you and am so happy you're back. And don't worry about being gone so long. We're still here.

Thanks for the mention, friend. And the links. I did not see the tribute to Rita-Williams Garcia. I'll head over right now. Thanks for the links. (((hugs))) <3

Tess said, on 10/4/2011 6:27:00 AM

Aw, thanks Crystal! This is really thoughtful. man, the blogging/writing community is so supportive.

glad to have you back - we all understand that life comes first and, as fun as blogging is, it is what sometimes has to be set aside.

robyn's comment cracked me up "cyber see you". hehehehehe

Can't wait to post about your launch someday ... I'll be cheering the loudest :)

Crystal said, on 10/5/2011 9:32:00 PM

Thanks, you guys, for welcoming me back to the blogosphere!

Robyn--you're welcome for the links! Enjoy, my friend! And good to "cyber see you, too!" Btw, how's your novel coming along? :)

Tess--You're welcome! Yes, I agree, the blogger/writing community is awesome! So sweet of you to think about me having a launch . . . wow, I haven't even thought that far! Just trying to finish revisions & narrow down some agents. I'm so encouraged by your confidence, Tess! :)

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