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Telephone Wires With Birds on Top? Not unusual in the City!
There is a new book called Telephone by Mac Barnett and Illustrated by Jen Corace that uses this idea to tell a delightful story. The book takes a spin on the old childhood game called Telephone where children whisper a message and it usually gets all mixed up.
In this book the author and illustrator have created colorful birds and fun messages. The Mama bird starts the message by telling a red birdie - Tell Peter: Fly Home For Dinner.
The message continues from bird to bird and bird and gets a little more mixed up each time.
The question is can the correct message reach Peter? Children will enjoy this title and will probably want to play a game of telephone just like the birds.
Pick up a copy on September 9. On a side note check out the Bird Call Lady who knows 146 bird calls.
0 Comments on Telephone by Mac Barnett Illustrated by Jen Corace as of 8/24/2014 10:19:00 AM
Jon Klassen has been named the winner of the 2014 Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration.
Klassen was presented with this award for his 2012 title, This is Not My Hat. According to the press release, Klassen’s hit picture book “will go into the history books as the first ever title to win both the UK’s highest illustration honor with the Kate Greenaway Medal, and also win the most prestigious award for children’s book illustration in the US, the Randolph Caldecott Medal, which was awarded in 2013.”
The same year that Klassen received a Newbery Medal for This is Not My Hat, he also earned a Caldecott Honor for Extra Yarn which is written by Mac Barnett. Klassen and Barnett will team up once again for a new project entitled Sam and Dave Dig a Hole; Candlewick Press plans to release it in October 2014. What do you think?
The exciting news this week was that I got to host a couple panels regarding Banned Books (it being the week of ‘em and all). The first was at the Brooklyn Book Festival with David Levithan, Francesca Lia Block, and Lauren Myracle. I then cannibalized my own questions and used them in this, a Google+ Hangout alongside Lauren Oliver, Lev Grossman, and Lexa Hillyer. My sole objection: You cannot see my awesome shoes.
And yes. The Google offices do have free food, copious couches, and massage rooms hither and thither.
Speaking of the Brooklyn Book Festival, I was pleased as punch to see Catherine Jinks speaking there, live and in person. She mentioned this video which, through utter and total coincidence, I’d seen on my own a couple days before. Alfred. Is. Perfect. Look at his fingernails!
And speaking of awesome book trailers . . .
And yeah. Your book trailer might be awesome. But did yours ever have a snappy theme song? I’m just so pleased that our own Gregory K. (he of Gotta Book and The Happy Accident) is debuting his middle grade this year. Spoiler Alert: It’s good.
And…. okay. So, maybe I’m a pushover. Obviously this isn’t my usual video. But I just sorta liked the feel of this little paper studio and the kiddos who help out. The narrator I can live without (would that Mimi had narrated the whole thing herself) but I like the kids and I like the product. So sue.
And for the off-topic video of the day . . . was there any question what I’d go with? This video works better when you know beforehand that the father is trying to distract his daughter from the “scary” fireworks outside.
I also like the fact that he clearly did her hair that night.
0 Comments on Video Sunday: So hang, boys, hang as of 9/30/2013 4:16:00 AM
Cathy Potter is a school librarian at Falmouth Elementary School in Falmouth, Maine. She serves on the Chickadee Award committee, the 2014 Sibert Medal committee, and she co-authors The Nonfiction Detectives blog.
TCBR is so happy to shine the spotlight on Cathy Potter!
A number of publishing job promotions and changes were announced this week.
Greenleaf Book Group founder Clint Greenleaf will step down as CEO and serve as chairman. Tanya Hall, the current COO, has been named his successor.
Two members of the Soho Press editorial team have received promotions. Juliet Grames has been named associate publisher and Mark Doten is now senior editor.
In August, I attended the Decatur Book Festival. My favorite session by far celebrated the picture book and included author and children's book historian Leonard Marcus, author Laurel Snyder, author Mac Barnett, and author/illustrator Chris Raschka.
Here are some notes I took while listening in:
Last year, a front-page New York Times article talked about the picture book being on the way out, due to the digital revolution and ambitious parents interested in bypassing them all together.
Yet picture books still have an important place. They are a "gateway to a life-long appreciation of art and literature" and are "an authentic meeting place for parent and child." Author Laurel Snyder believes picture books are the "most innovative form of writing [she's] ever encountered." Mac Barnett spoke of the "sweet spot" blend of literary and commercial literature that isn't available in any other genre.
The simplicity of the picture book is deceiving. There is a tension between the text and image that is something bigger than the work the author and illustrator create. It is as if the two together equal more than the whole. Both adults and children make up the audience for these books, and the most effective satisfy both. There's the "rhythm of the page turn" to consider, as illustrator Chris Raschka says.
"Your language becomes clear and true when you take words away." - Laurel Snyder
"If I've written a picture book that works without pictures, I've failed." - Mac Barnett
5 Comments on Decatur Book Festival: The Importance of the Picture Book, last added: 10/26/2012
I was at a workshop earlier this week for speech-language pathologists and the professor, Gail Richard, Ph.D., was discussing how the brain develops in order to be ready for reading. She said that although some kids read precociously at age 3, that doesn't mean they understand what they are reading. She said the brains of most kids aren't ready until age 7, but sometimes much later (as late as age 10) and that to force kids to read before they are ready is not helpful.
I love picture books and they are for everyone at any age. My kids -- 12, 10 and 7 -- still read picture books! The art itself is worthy of the book purchase in some picture books. It's also a complete story in 36 pages. The parents who think those repetitive chapter books are "more advanced" and "better" than picture books are completely misguided. Also, there are such great advanced picture books that have reading difficulty levels of chapter books. One Morning in Maine is one example. Mirette and any book by Patricia Polacco or Emily Arnold McCully.
Agreed and agreed. There are a number of picture books I used in my middle school classrooms. And when you think of it from strictly an art perspective, it's a very inexpensive purchase you can enjoy again and again.
You are so right about a picture book being an inexpensive piece of art. I've often thought that.
And Carolee's thought about kids learning to read later . . . so true. That happened with my middle child who knew the alphabet, devoured books, could sound out words, but would NOT read on his own and had no fluency. It finally kicked in when he was 9 years old - and he practically gave me heart failure with worry. But he jumped from three letter word stories to reading Jurassic Park in about 6 months. It was mind-boggling. There are a certain percentage of kids who do this and I'm so glad I was homeschooling him at the time because I fear he would have ended up in Special Ed - where I knew he didn't need to be. He's now my biggest reader of all three boys.
Mac Barnett strikes us as kind of a mad genius. He’s published many bestselling books, founded the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, and is on the board of directors for 826 LA. While wearing these many top hats, he’s infused his delightfully offbeat sense of humor back into the land of children’s literature. It’s a pleasure to share his thoughts on some of his favorite books, time travel, his picture book manifesto, his undisputed rivalry with Adam Rex, and that remarkable sleuth Harriet the Spy with our readers.
Nicki Richesin: You got your start in children’s book publishing with the help of Jon Scieszka as your mentor. Did he offer you any words of wisdom or professional advice when you began writing?
Mac Barnett: I would never have written for kids if it weren’t for Jon’s books. They’re crowd-pleasing and smart, with intellectually rigorous underpinning that never gets in the way of belly-laughs. His and Lane Smith’s The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is the most important children’s book of the last 30 years. I still send Jon all my work right after I finish it, and he’s given me a ton of guidance. As for words of wisdom, he’s always telling me to upgrade to United Economy Plus on tour, but I’m not sure my publishers will let me get away with that.
NR: Last year in The Horn Book, you issued (along with other authors and illustrators who co-signed) a proclamation in the form of “A Picture Book Manifesto” about the current state of children’s book publishing. What pushed you over the edge to write this manifesto and do you believe it has had the impact you intended? Had you hoped to inspire a sort of revolution?
MB: For a few years there’s been a lot of hand-wringing over the future of the picture book. The New York Times famously published a front-page article forecasting the form’s doom, and I’d heard similarly pessimistic prognoses from people inside the business. But the response to these Cassandras was too often Pollyannaish: variations on “The picture book will surely survive because the picture book is magic.” But picture books aren’t magic. Good picture books are magic. The proclamation represents a point of view I was hearing in my conversations with friends and colleagues but wasn’t seeing represented in either side of this Manichean conversation. I hope that it will continue to spark thoughtful discussion about the state of the art and its place in our culture, and also inspire people who want to make good picture books.
NR: You are on the board of directors of 826LA. Working with children in this way must be a great testing ground to try out new book ideas on your audience. Have you ever gotten any ideas from your students/fans you’d like to pursue writing one day?
MB: I’ve been working with kids ever since I wasn’t one anymore, and that’s had a giant impact on my writing. Picture books are a popular art and so it’s always been important for me to know my audience. But I don’t usually get ideas for books from kids’ suggestions. Mostly they just want me to write SpongeBob fan fiction. I give a presentation that shows students how a book is made—it’s filled with mainly useless information. After doing it for a year, a kid told me I should turn it into a book. He was right—Adam Rex is probably busy not illustrating it right now.
NR: You founded the Echo Park Time Travel Mart as a shopping destination for 826 products and accoutrements with the slogan, “whenever you are, we’re already then.” Could you tell us a bit about the genesis of the store? If you met at EPTTM and time-travelled to the Pirate store at 826 Valencia in San Francisco, would you be able to return or would you be forever marooned there?
MB: The Echo Park Time Travel Mart is the leading retailer of time travel supplies: dinosaur eggs, dodo chow, robot toupees—anything you’d need for a trip through the fifth dimension. The store fronts 826LA’s writing lab on the east side of L.A., and all the proceeds go toward the free tutoring we offer students in the neighborhood. The Mart has an online store, and we ship to destinations in the future, from a few days to many months after you’ve ordered, depending on the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service. As for your question about getting marooned in San Francisco, you should be able to get back to LA as long as your time machine is functioning. We don’t really work on time machines at the Mart—we’re more like a 7-11: a bad place to get your car fixed, a good place to buy woolly mammoth chili.
NR: Your first book with Adam RexGuess Again was very unpredictable and amusing. I believe you’ve collaborated on six books together now (including your forthcoming Brixton Brothers installment). How do you find collaborating with Mr. Rex? Chloe and the Lion, the first story idea you had in college, is about a girl caught in the middle of a good-natured battle over artistic direction by the author (you) and illustrator (Adam Rex). After seeing your video for Chloe and the Lion, I was left wondering if Mr. Rex’s prima donna ways will prevent you from working together in the future.
MB: We’ve actually done seven—our first collaboration was my very first picture book, Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem. And I’ll tell you, working with him is a lot of work. I’m glad that you were able to see what a prima donna he is from that video—I was worried that a lot of his most outlandish behavior happened off-camera. Did you know that he made Disney provide a craft services table for what turned out to be a 15-minute shoot? And he requested four X-Boxes for his trailer. Adam doesn’t even play video games—they were just so he could sit on them and look taller.
NR: You edited “The Goods,” a McSweeney’s compendium of kids’ games, puzzles, comics and stories created by artists and writers for newspapers across the country. What do you see as your ultimate mission when delivering “The Goods”?
MB: The Goods, sadly, is now dead, or at least sleeping very deeply. But while it lasted, The Goods invited writers and artists to reimagine the kinds of activities you find (and used to find more) in the “Kids Pages” of newspapers. We featured pieces that were smart and beautifully illustrated, taking inspiration from the lavish stuff you find in the old Hearst and Pulitzer papers. Our timing was probably pretty bad: it turns out the newspaper business is going through a tough spot. But that’s all right. I’m working on my next business venture: going door-to-door selling dial-up modems.
NR: Which authors made the greatest impact on you when you were a young boy growing up in rural California?
MB: Well I was born in very rural California, but moved when I was still an infant to Castro Valley, which is in the Bay Area but weirdly maintains a rural vibe. I went to school in Oakland and so had zero friends in my hometown. I read a lot. James Marshall probably made my favorite books—I loved the Stupids. Let’s see, what else? The Monster at the End of this Book was very important to me, and also But No Elephants by Jerry Smath. My mom bought most of my books at garage sales, so I read a lot of literature from one or two generations before mine, and I feel very lucky for that.
NR: I especially loved your book Extra Yarn as it told the story of a girl who didn’t really care what others thought and even went so far as to defy the dastardly, self-important duke. Were you inspired to write this book by a knitting feminist?
MB: Thank you! I was actually inspired by a drawing the book’s illustrator, Jon Klassen, had done of a girl and a dog wearing matching sweaters, walking through the snow. The story grew from that piece, (and in fact that moment actually shows up pretty early in the book, before all the bullies and archdukes arrive.)
NR: If you could be reincarnated as your favorite character from children’s literature, who would it be and why?
MB: My favorite character is probably Harriet M. Welsch—she’s perfectly, honestly drawn: funny and strong and flawed. Harriet has a pretty tough time, which is probably not preferable in the next life but is maybe karmically appropriate.
NR: Which projects are you currently working on and are there any stories you’re dying to tell?
MB: I just finished a strange new picture book I’m excited about and now I have to get into a novel that takes place in the desert.
At approximately 9:22 EST on Friday, July 27th I sent the following Tweet to the interwebs:
These are the kinds of serious thoughts that course through my brain on a given morning. I might hear a One Direction song (yes, I’m a 34-year-old mother, what of it?) and think “That song could be a lot better if it just had some children’s authors involved.”
So I tweeted. And to my infinite joy the tweets blossomed and bloomed to the point where we now have a serious task before us, people. Namely, name this boy band.
The members would include Tom Angleberger (the shy one), Mac Barnett (the dreamy one – evidence here), Michael Buckley (the big brother), Tony DiTerlizzi (the one who understands you), Jarrett Krosoczka (the street smart one), and Dan Santat (the goofy one <— Jarrett’s suggestion).
Names that have been bandied about include (but are not limited to): D-Zine, Vizual Literacy, Reluctant Readerz, 32Pagez (my personal favorite), The Endpaperz, The Krosoczka Effect, the Origami Lunch Ladies and their Sidekick Dan, The Spine Tinglers, Cloth Overboardz, The Flappet Jacks (but only if it’s a jam band). Surely there are more named to be had here. Let’s have a redo of the time I asked you for good roller derby names. Boy band names . . . GO!
After all, where were you the last time you heard the pop hits:
U Don’t Need a Newbery (To Know I Luv U) – Suggested by T.S. Ferguson
Rad Bladz
Advance Praise
Blurb Me – All three suggested by Alison Fargis
OH NO! I did it again - Suggested by Mike Boldt
Edit Me Badd – Suggested by Cece Bell
These would all be from the album “Wordz+Picturez” (as suggested by Jarrett).
And yes, I’ll talk about the opening ceremonies at the Olympics yesterday soon. I just need to process it is all. So many Mary Poppins . . . . so many . . . .
Yep. Your eyes do no deceive you. You are looking at The World Premier of the book trailer for Mac Barnett and Adam Rex’s latest, greatest (yes, greatest) picture book collaboration. For one day and one day only I get to be the first person to show this little vid. Needless to say, I’m thrilled. And I have a copy of Chloe and the Lion, the book in question, here in my hot little fist (which requires me to type with only my left hand and my tongue, but it’s cool). The sole flaw with this book is the fact that when I start plugging away at my 2012 reviews, I don’t like to do the same author too often. And yet already Mac Barnett is doing this book with Hyperion and the fantastic Extra Yarn with illustrator Jon Klassen and Harper Collins. Which to review? These are conundrums I like to face.
The holidays are near upon us and so, to celebrate, Chronicle Books has won the Best Happy Holidays Video of 2011. Seriously, if you know of another publisher that has done better, I’d like to hear about it, because this is . . . well . . . pretty much this is what you’d expect from Chronicle.
So today was a pretty paltry video week for me. Whenever that happens I get down on all fours and crawl on over to a selection of various blogs that I can usually count on to deliver the goods. The best of these, of course, is Mr. Schu’s Watch. Connect. Read. That man knows how to find good videos and this week he featured one that I’d not caught before. It’s Hervé Tullet, the Prince of Preschool Books, conducting a class visit. Or, to put it another way, WARNING: CONTAINS ADORABLE FRENCH CHILDREN.
Of course now that I know how well the man speaks English I want to find a way to lure him to NYC to get him to do a program. *taps fingertips together ala Mr. Burns*
This next video would have been included in one of Mr. James Kennedy’s 90-Second Newbery Film Festivals except that it was turned in a hair too late. Great stuff anyway. In it you can see a bunch of kids at 826CHI predicting the Newbery winners for the next ten years.
Orbit and Random has my vote.
And finally, for our off-topic delight, this goes out to all the authors who have ever received a rejection letter of any sort. Though I don’t know if you’d necessarily want Bernard Black as your spokesperson.
Thanks to Tina Wexler for reminding me about this one.
0 Comments on Video Sunday: “Everyone agreed he was right to kill the publisher . . .” as of 1/1/1900
Somewhere along the way I completely missed this Percy Jackson video in which everyone from Brian Selznick to a moustachioed Eoin Colfer (when did that happen?) chat it up. Video #2 contains a bit of advice that John Rocco actually had to contend with when he made the jacket for The Lightening Thief: “Green covers don’t sell.” I love mistaken common publishing wisdom.
Kids these days. I dunno what to do with them. With their electronic thingymajigs and their Facebook whozaz and their cries to not ban books . . .
Thanks to Marjorie Ingall (who discovered this on her iPhone).
Full credit to Travis Jonker for finding this one. He’s right. Orrin Hatch totally whipped out a Harry Potter reference (psst. . . . nobody tell him which HP character Scalia actually resembles).
Now here’s an idea. Book trailer as music video. Surely this has been done before, right? Surely? In any case, here’ A Train With Wings for the book Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver. Harper Collins hired transmedia firm Radiator to create the trailer. I think the visuals are great. The song could have benefited if it had made the song less pop rock/Glee-ish and more haunting, but it’s still okay.
Thanks to Stephen Barbara for the link.
Finally I’ll get off-topicy with you but I will at least say that I could see these creatures as characters in a book for kids. Easily. Make sure you watch until they start walking.
Also known as a cheapo filler post. It’s what puts bread on the table!
So I was invited to moderate a panel at last weekend’s Brooklyn Book Festival and I had, in no uncertain terms, a blast. Of course it was raining, as you can see here (compliments of Nancy Mercado):
Hipster children. Gotta love ‘em.
Anywho, my panel consisted of Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, and E. Lockhart (a.k.a. Emily Jenkins) and the topic: Funny Books! Emily’s the funny YA gal (though she pretty much does every possible kind of funny book out there, for every age range), Mac the funny middle grade and picture book, and ditto Jon. So my job was to ask them to say funny things. I have had more difficult jobs in my life.
My roving reporter in the field (which is to say, my mother) took down some of the best lines from the panel which I shall now play for you here.
Mac explaining where his writing comes from: “I grew up on a farm — and had a pet pig … This is going horribly wrong.”
The best explanation of why humor doesn’t win awards was Jon saying awards are given by committees and 4 of any 12 will be offended or won’t get the jokes.
Mac’s little brother had a Swearing Club with his friends when he was little, which he pointed out was utterly benign. Mac’s conviction was that it was way too organized to be really bad. They’d have had a President and a Treasurer … and that he would have been Secretary …
Emily said at one point, “The thing that you make is not the thing you meant to make.”
Two of the panelists set their recent books at the same public school. With that in mind, future children’s literary scholars are going to be able to identify and list a whole subgenre of P.S. 58 books.
At one point Mac, in answer to “What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read?”, said it was Catch-22. He said that when he read it he demonstrated his total failure to get it by thinking at the time, “What if instead of WWII I set it … in my high school?”
And the best line of the day went to Emily when she was discussing the basis behind her book Dramarama. Emily said that when she was a kid she found a camp for kids who liked theater rather than sports. The catch? She was the worst at it. “I had found my people — and I was a loser among them.”
For the record, mom also ended up setting up the chairs for the event too. Mom gets around. She took some photos too. Here, for example, is me crooning my own personal rendition of Moon River as Mac considers the portent behind the words.
Very cool that Mr. Barnett names CATCH-22 as the funniest book he has ever read. On my favorite books list, CATCH-22 is listed first and Mr. Barnett’s THE CASE OF THE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY is second. The list is alphabetical. But still. From my perspective, a very cool connection.
-Bigfoot
mhg said, on 9/21/2010 3:47:00 PM
I just received a Google Alert! Too funny! Thanks for the attribution. I’m honored. I totally forgot about Mac and Stinky Cheese. Hehe. My inner Shecky Greene is totally emerging.
Linda Urban said, on 9/22/2010 4:11:00 PM
I so wish I could have been there. Some of my all-time most admired people.
All hail funny books!
I’ve been clutching this video to my chest for months, just waiting, waiting, waiting for September to come around. Children’s literature related? Not unless funky puppets count (that puppet makes me laugh every time). Just consider this something to get your groove on today. September is here (yipes!) and if your weather is anything like New York’s right now then you are dwelling in sweet 62 degree heaven.
Close your eyes. Now think of the best book trailer produced between January 1, 2006 to July 1, 2010. Can you think of it? Fantastic. Now go and read Joyce Valenza’s post about the New Book Video Trailer Awards that are coming up. Not only can you nominate your favorites but you can also vote for the winners in each category.
Teen trailers will not be considered, so this next series of videos wouldn’t quite make the cut. To be honest, I’m not certain how I missed this on the first go-around. I suppose because they’re YA to a certain extent but since (A) Adam Rex usually works in the world of children’s literature and (B) They star Mac Barnett who is CLEARLY picture book and chapter book related, these count.
What’s important here is that you recognize the mad acting skills at work. Ye gods. Here’s where the cool kids are at. The cool kids with oddly slicked back hair.
Can you believe that as of this posting some of these have only gotten 526 views? What the heckedy heck?
Speaking of book trailers with shocking low views on YouTube, 368 right now for what may well be the most movie-like movie trailer I’ve ever seen. And that is saying something. Production value city going on here. Wow.
Those Fat Vampire vids are seriously the best thing ever. Who is that other fellow with Mac? When he rhymed “vam-pier” and “re-queer” I about lost my breakfast (in a good way).
Elizabeth Bird said, on 9/5/2010 8:38:00 AM
That’s an excellent question. He’s either a Jon Korn or a Shawn Harris but I was unable to get much info on either. Funny guy though, eh?
JMyersbook said, on 9/5/2010 9:19:00 AM
No, no, the race for Best Thing Ever is a tie between the FABULOUS dancing grandmother in the first video and the irresistibly cute/hilarious talking shell in the last video! One of the best Video Sundays EVER!
Adam Rex said, on 9/5/2010 2:37:00 PM
That’s Jon Korn. Shawn directed the videos. Thanks for posting them!
Philip Nel said, on 9/5/2010 9:55:00 PM
Thanks for the link & the encouragement! ‘Twas quite time-consuming to do (roughly 12 hrs’ work for 4 mins of film), but will do more in future!
Deborah Freedman said, on 9/6/2010 11:00:00 AM
I love the video too, because I’m a metafiction geek – not just because Scribble is prominently displayed! Thanks for the shout-out, Betsy.
Marcel’s Antecedent Perhaps? « educating alice said, on 9/6/2010 12:43:00 PM
[...] [...]
:paula said, on 9/8/2010 7:56:00 AM
“re-quyr” … definitely one of the funniest things I’ve seen all year. I bet about 125 of those views on YouTube are me!
Spaceheadz overview: The perfect combination of the age old experience of holding and pouring over a physical book with newest media technology that kids love!
Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn’t hard enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren’t kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,140,001 kids to BE SPHDZ. But with a hamster as their leader, “kids” who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their assignment?
Here's the sad truth about Jon Scieszka: Though he is a man, he doesn't actually smell like stinky cheese (usually). But it's OK. It really is, because there's no one who gives better, smarter, or funnier advice about writing for children.**
The full title of his talk was How to Be a Spaceheadz: The Ups and Downs and Sideways of Telling a Story Across Multiple Media. (The sign outside the room omitted the final Z, but people managed to find the room anyway. Even that Mac Barnett guy.)
OK. So multimedia is a huge opportunity for us, Jon says, because no one has any idea what it really means (which you can tell from looking at at some of the early stuff out there).
This medium is not built for adapting other things, he says. If you want to work in this medium, work in this medium. What would exist well on a phone or iPad? "Don't just take Where the Wild Things Are and crap it up."
Kids today know how to use technology, but they don't really understand the difference between story and advertising. Jon's new series, SPACEHEADZ, aims to help make these kids media literate. It imagines a trio of aliens who've learned everything they know about earth from watching television. They come to earth to recruit humans.
Jon is using Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, music playlists, and Twitter (including one account entirely in hamsterese) to build the online dimension of the story.
Jon also told us the secret to writing books that will make kids laugh. We're still working on getting the translation from hamster, but here it is: Eeek. Eeek eek eek eek; eek eek. Eek? Eeek eek. Eeek! Eeek! (Eeek eek eeek eek eeek--eek.)
* Is it just me, or is it hard to think of words after last night's party? ** When Madonna has schedule conflicts, that is. Because that lady, she is a major hoot.
0 Comments on How to Be a Spaceheadz: a Multimedia Thingy* Starring Jon Scieszka as of 1/1/1900
There was a typo in today's conference schedule. I thought, and I believe so did the standing room only crowd, that we were in Room Constellation 1 for Free Mac & Cheese. But it turned out it was only author/raconteur/multiple-pattern-wearing Mac Barnett with his junior agent, the barely memorable Steven Malk.
Mac and Steve didn't have any food to share, but instead some practical lessons on how you can create better picture books by reading classic picture books.
Steve: There's always a place for great picture books. I sent out a book last week that was a real throw back, one editor called it 'the love child of Maurice Sendak and Sandra Boynton.' Editors still love and look to the classics in picture books... I always try to stay away from trends.
Mac: Which brings us to Lesson Number One: Vampire Picture Books.
The slide show starts, all the gorgeous hand-lettering of the rules slides (which you can't see) done by Laura Park.
Lesson #1: Let the Illustrations Do Their Job
A masterpiece of storytelling with no words, GOODNIGHT GORILLA
A masterpiece of not overwriting the scene, THE STUPIDS STEP OUT
A masterpiece of leaving the whole joke to the art, THE CARROT SEED
Lesson #2: Understand the Picture Book's Conventions
The Page Turn (Mac thinks this is the most imporant aspect of plotting a picture book and here are some of his favorites)
HENRY'S AWFUL MISTAKE
1 Comments on It's not Mac & Cheese, it's Mac & Steve! 5 Lessons from Classic Picture Books That Can Help You Launch Your Career, last added: 7/30/2010
The cover of this amusing picture book grabs you like a cult B movie and gets you feeling suspense before you've even know why.
There you see a girl in black pigtails gaping at a gigantic robot and frog (which you see reflected in her glasses) as helicopters close in from behind.
Across the front of her jumper the title of the book yells, "Oh No!" in bold capital letters outlined in red.
Did the girl utter those words or was she unable to get them out?
Barnett and Santat take a dramatic story idea and treat it like a sci-fi action flick.
A girl builds a 360-foot robot for her Fifth Grade science fair project, only to see the experiment go terribly wrong as the robot starts to plow down her city, much like the archetypal King Kong.
Santat zooms in on top of the action and scenes sprawl over the fold. Each illustration is letterboxed to appear as if it was formatted for the book from a wide-screen movie, with black bars appearing above and below the pictures.
Before you even get to the title page, you know that disaster has struck. You see the girl's reflection in a storefront window as a TV screen blares the words, "Please Stand By," moments before a program is interrupted by a special report about the robot.
Next you see the girl chasing after the robot, whose gangly arms are flailing around skyscrapers, and see black funnels of smoke rising from the cityscape where the robot has zapped buildings with its laser eye.
The camera momentarily cuts back in time to the science fair to show how the trouble started:
0 Comments on Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) as of 1/1/1900
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a name for this new breed of children’s book author/illustrator we’re seeing these days. It’s a genre without a name. We’re seeing a lot of picture books these days that engage kids, but also turn on their heads classic picture book forms. It started with books like The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and now includes titles like Pssst! or The Purple Kangaroo or Guess Again!. Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) is just the latest addition to a fast growing genre hereby dubbed Juvie Satire, and it is the creation of two of the genre’s kings. Author Mac Barnett burst on the children’s literary scene running as fast as his legs could take him, and illustrator Dan Santat glides right along side him, painting every dog, cat, and chicken that happens to cross his path. Alone, they are impressive. Combined, they may well be either unstoppable or too wacked out for the average child’s mind to handle. Let’s hope for the former.
We enter this story midway through the action. As our heroine says, “Oh no . . . oh, man . . . I knew it.” Next thing we know she’s facing the retreating back of a mechanical wonder on the rampage. Says she, “I never should have built a robot for the science fair.” Flashback to her winning the top prize at the science fair, just as her creation bursts through the gym wall to cause a little mass destruction. Feeling just a twinge guilty about the whole thing (and unable to stop her robot herself), our heroine returns home and turns a small toad into a robot fighting monstrosity. This goes well, the robot is destroyed, and the mayor of the city is very pleased with the solution . . . that is, until the toad takes off after seeing a tasty airplane fly by.
I once interviewed Mr. Barnett about his writing and he had some interesting things to say on the subject of kids and their remarkable inability to feel bad about massive foibles. In terms of this book Mr. Barnett said, “I wanted to write about a very particular kind of regret that only children can feel: a regret that is sincere but also usually less acute than the situation warrants. I’m thinking particularly of an episode at 826LA, a nonprofit writing center I used to run. I walked into the bathroom to find a kid who’d flushed many paper towels down a toile
7 Comments on Review of the Day: Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) by Mac Barnett, last added: 6/16/2010
God, don’t you want to just pick Mac Barnett up and smoosh him? So adorable.
Oh wait we were talking about the book. Hee hee hee. LOVE the book. Love the newsreel quality, the palette, the shrugging-off-calamity aspect. Mac probably knows all about “Stuff” My Kids Ruined, http://shitmykidsruined.tumblr.com/, but it’s just what he’s talking about.
Jenny said, on 6/13/2010 6:03:00 AM
I think of that particular genre as “post-modern, meta-picture book”
Kate Coombs said, on 6/13/2010 7:55:00 AM
I’ve noticed in influx of screenwriters in children’s books lately, though mostly in MG and YA (e.g., Greg Taylor with Killer Pizza and Derek Landy with Skulduggery Pleasant), which I think brings a certain Saturday-morning-cartoon feeling to the genre. (This is both good and bad, IMO.) Does Mac Barnett have a degree in film? Love the trailers, also the book!
paula said, on 6/13/2010 9:29:00 AM
Kate, I agree. Paul Feig also has crossed over from motion to print – his Ignatius MacFarland, Frequenaut! was really cool, and he has a story in the Guys Read book that’s coming out in the Fall. And he was one of the people behind Freaks and Geeks.
What I think is different about these film / TV guys is that they don’t know ‘the rules’. Skulduggery Pleasant was notable for having an adult male lead character, and it worked great. A lot of the stories in that Guys Read book are kind of transgressive in how far we think kid stories can go. I think it’s a fantastic trend.
Kate Fries said, on 6/13/2010 8:07:00 PM
All I have to do is look at the cover of this book and see robots, a (Golden Gate?) bridge and tall buildings and I know my kids will love it. (Uh, me too.) This is going on my must-read list. Ironically, as I was reading this review my four year old sat on a rocking horse and knocked over a fan with his rocking. His reaction was to shrug his shoulders and wander off. Totally getting “kids and their remarkable inability to feel bad about massive foibles” here.
robin preiss glasser said, on 6/15/2010 10:35:00 PM
That video had me ROARING out loud – so much so that my kids came running in to see what was happening. Right on review and can’t wait to get this book! Dan, you are brilliant…
Our newest SCBWI TEAM BLOG member Martha Brockenbrough has posted the first in a series of pre-conference interviews with Annual Summer Conference faculty kicking things off with delightful author Mac Barnett.
Mac will join agent Steven Malk for a conference workshop called FIVE LESSONS FROM CLASSIC PICTURE BOOKS THAT CAN HELP YOU LAUNCH YOUR CAREER.
"Here's the first in a series of posts designed to make you want to go to the SCBWI conference in L.A., where you'll meet and mingle with lots of industry stars. One of my favorites is Mac Barnett—and not just because he knows how to rock a five o'clock shadow better than that guy from Wham..."
Wow! What a day! Today starts the ACC tournament, which is a roundball lover's dream. Go Tarheels! (I say without much hope. Well, there's always next year) On top of that, though, we have new excitement in the March Madness Slam Dunk contest because we have not one but TWO new competitors. The first is Justin B. I wonder if he's a brother to Brian B, who just wrote in yesterday. Could be--he reviewed one of the same books. That's OK--we like it when guys talk about the same book. Let's hear him:
I'm new to this and I am writing a review on the Hardy Boys #18 Pushed. It is about a teenager named Evan who got pushed off of a subway platform in the way of a subway and got ran over. Frank and Joe pretend to runaway to The Haven a place for runaway teenagers. Olivia lives in the park and killed Evan and another boy at The Haven. Frank and Joe find out because Joe was in the subway and Olivia had stuck a needle in Joe to overdose him with some drugs but didn't have time. It is a good book.
Thanks, Brian B! I'm glad guys read the Hardy Boys and glad writers still write them. Have either you or Brian read The Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity? If not, go get it! Any fan of Hardy Boys would like it. Click here for my review and here for an interview with the author, Mac Barnett.
The next new competitor is Shannon, an English teacher and mom of a 13-year-old boy. She should know about guy reading! She's started off really strong with three reviews!
THE RANGER'S APPRENTICE by John Flanagan
Will has been chosen to be a ranger. They are feared, respected, mysterious, elite. They guard the kingdom and protect the people. But a battle is brewing. Will his training be enough? My oldest son (almost 13) and I love this series. We pre-order every new book and wait anxiously for them to arrive. Then he gets to read them first, while I try to be a nice mom and patiently wait my turn. Not always easy. If you are looking for a new fantasy series or a good series of boy books, The Ranger's Apprentice series is wonderful!
I have mentioned this book, The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, on so many blogs recently, that I decided I needed to post a review. Right off the bat I want to say, if you have not read this book, READ IT. This book weaves together several separate storylines, each original and fascinating - a lost kitten, an evil swamp snake-witch, a magical daughter and her bird-man husband... Kids love it! :-)
Chris Crutcher is an author truly beloved by most boys. I can't tell you how many non-readers I have watched become avid readers because of his books. He aims to hit boys where they live - to write about issues important to them in language they both use and understand. If you are looking for good books for high school aged boy readers (not for younger readers), I enthusiastically recommend ANY title by Chris Crutcher.
Thanks, Shannon! Bill recently reviewed The Ranger's Apprentice and liked it a lot. Click here for his review, everybody. I have a copy of The Underneath at home. Wow
0 Comments on TWO New Competitors! ALEX Takes the Lead! as of 1/1/1900
The way I see it, it’s not my job to tell kids why they should be reading. It’s my job to write books that make kids want to read. Reading should never be something you feel like you have to do, like putting on sun block or taking a multivitamin. You should go to books because they’re enjoyable. I hope that’s why kids read my books, anyway.
Good point. I think you've got one here that's enjoyable. Well,then, is it cool for boys to write? Why?
Sure. Here’s one reason: People who write well get what they want more often. That’s a good thing.
Steve Brixton is a big fan of the Bailey Brothers mysteries, which seems like an obvious reference to the Hardy Boys mysteries? Were you a fan of those books as a kid? Or not? I was a huge fan of the Hardy Boys. I loved everything about those books, except the fact that Joe was considered the less handsome brother. The only difference between him and Frank was that Joe was blond, and I was blond, and I never really got over that.
Were you a fan of any other book series? Definitely. I read a lot of series. Henry and Ramona. Fudge. Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Shannara, and Xanth. The Hitchhikers Guide.
There were 59 Bailey Brothers books. Will you write 59 Brixton Brothers books? (maybe you could clone yourself?)
That sounds like a lot. My jokes would probably start to get old around book fifty-eight. I can promise you that there will be at least three Brixton Brothers books, though.
What do you like to do for fun? (as if writing the Brixton Brothers isn’t enough fun!) I’ve recently taken up photography. All my pictures are of a bunch of wild turkeys that visit my house, and I took them all on my cell phone, and none of them are very good. But today I saw the lead turkey and he was huge. His head was red and he was twice as big as any other turkey around. I ran over and took his picture with my cell phone. It’s not very good.
Which do you like better--cheeseburgers or pizza? What do you like on them?
I like pizza. And I like to keep it simple. You could put a ton of toppings on a piece of boot leather and it would probably taste all right. But a good cheese pizza—that’s hard to make.
Thanks, Mr. Barnett! I really enjoyed this book and am glad there will be at least two more! Go get this one, guys!!
Carl
PS--one of the first books I reviewed was The Missing Chums, one of the Hardy Boys series. Check out the review here. (BTW, one of the chapters in The Brixton B
0 Comments on Whoopee! An Interview with Mac Barnett! as of 1/1/1900
Quite the menagerie of books for you all today! Enjoy!
My first choice of the week, Me and You, written by Genevieve Cote, is a super sweet story of friendship amongst a pig and rabbit.
Rabbit wants to be just like pig, with her pink body, tail curly as a lemon twist, and button nose. Pig wants to be just like Rabbit, with a cotton candy tail, tall toes, and pale white body. After using some creativity (involving paint, some clothes off the line, and a bit of mud) to attempt to look like the other, the both realize they look entirely silly as the other, and are much better being themselves and best friends!
Illustrations, also done by Cote, are absolutely beautiful and lend to that sweet, soft feeling the reader gets when the story is done. A nice choice for read alouds.
Thanks to Kids Can Press for a review copy :)
Me and You Genevieve Cote 32 pages Picture Book Kids Can Press 9781554534463 August 2009
Orange Polar Bears Don't Cry, written by Bob Gammon and illustrated by W. Jones, is a bit similar to Me and You, in the sense that it's written about unconventional friendship.
In a land where all polar bears are white, there is one orange polar bear, of course, seen as somewhat of an outcast to the group. One white polar bear, smaller in size than all the others and also an outcast, befriends the bear of a different color, sticking by him no matter what the others say. Eventually the pair, staying friends no matter what the others say, are able to prove to their peers that friendship doesn't have anything to do with fur color or size.
A nice "lesson" book, good for use with children having trouble making friends. My one "complaint" about the book is the lack of interest in the illustrations. They seemed very bland, done maybe with colored pencils (which isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's done nicely), and the drawings seemed a little juvenile. I certainly don't want to insult the illustration, that may have been the whole idea, I just personally didn't like the illustrations. The story was nice though, very good for working on friendships and be nice to one another.
Thank you to author Bob Gammon, for a review copy :)
Orange Polar Bears Don't Cry Bob Gammon 32 pages Picture Book Eloquent Books 9781606933930 October 2008
A great bedtime story always makes me happy and Bedtime in the Jungle, written and illustrated by John Butler is one of those. It fuses counting and a sleepy bedtime rhyme into one really cute story.
A different animal mother on each page spread, is getting her baby (or babies) ready for bedtime. Starting with one baby rhino and working up to ten baby elephants, children will be work on their counting, while enjoying the beautifully soft illustrations and the gentle rhyme of the text.
I really enjoyed that several of the animals were not conventional to children's stories, like the peahen putting her six babies to bed, the wild pig settling down her seven babies, and a wolf nestling her four babies. It was nice to have the additions to the typical tigers, monkeys, and ducks.
Again, a great bedtime story! Would make a nice baby shower gift too!
Thank to Peachtree for the review copy :)
Bedtime in the Jungle John Butler 32 pages Picture Book Peachtree Publishers 9781561454860 September 2009
Finally (yep, we have 4 this week!), and it's a fabulous one! What happens when you combine newcomer Mac Barnett with amazing illustrator Adam Rex? Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem!
Billy Twitters has a mom that is constantly nagging him and if she doesn't get what she wants right away, she always threatens to buy him a big blue whale. Which, of course, will never happen right? Wrong. Billy gets the threatened big blue whale and has to bring him wherever he goes, including to school, and wash him and brush his gross baleen (see 15 for what baleen is). Guess he should have done his homework and eaten his baked peas!
The story is hilariously surreal, the illustrations are amazing (of course, it's Adam REX!), and the interjections of the small blue whale and other sea creatures every few pages to show "actual size" are great. Even the dedication is hilarious! And at one point, the whale has graffiti on his side...that page had me giggling for a few minutes straight. Very clever!
A great storytime read aloud, I'm highly recommending this one for school and library shelves!
Thank you to Disney-Hyperion for the review copy :)
Billy Twitters and His Big Blue Whale Problem Mac Barnett 48 pages Picture Book Hyperion 9780786849581 June 2009
0 Comments on Picture Book Satuday as of 8/22/2009 1:02:00 PM
A number of publishing job promotions and changes were announced this week.
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3 Comments on Brooklyn Book Festival: Mac and Stinky Cheese with a Side of Lockhart, last added: 9/22/2010
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I was at a workshop earlier this week for speech-language pathologists and the professor, Gail Richard, Ph.D., was discussing how the brain develops in order to be ready for reading. She said that although some kids read precociously at age 3, that doesn't mean they understand what they are reading. She said the brains of most kids aren't ready until age 7, but sometimes much later (as late as age 10) and that to force kids to read before they are ready is not helpful.
So long live the picture book!
To forgo the rich vocabulary, the rhythms, and the work of the picture and text together in order to "advance" a child is a very sad thing.
I love picture books and they are for everyone at any age. My kids -- 12, 10 and 7 -- still read picture books! The art itself is worthy of the book purchase in some picture books. It's also a complete story in 36 pages. The parents who think those repetitive chapter books are "more advanced" and "better" than picture books are completely misguided. Also, there are such great advanced picture books that have reading difficulty levels of chapter books. One Morning in Maine is one example. Mirette and any book by Patricia Polacco or Emily Arnold McCully.
Agreed and agreed. There are a number of picture books I used in my middle school classrooms. And when you think of it from strictly an art perspective, it's a very inexpensive purchase you can enjoy again and again.
You are so right about a picture book being an inexpensive piece of art. I've often thought that.
And Carolee's thought about kids learning to read later . . . so true. That happened with my middle child who knew the alphabet, devoured books, could sound out words, but would NOT read on his own and had no fluency. It finally kicked in when he was 9 years old - and he practically gave me heart failure with worry. But he jumped from three letter word stories to reading Jurassic Park in about 6 months. It was mind-boggling. There are a certain percentage of kids who do this and I'm so glad I was homeschooling him at the time because I fear he would have ended up in Special Ed - where I knew he didn't need to be. He's now my biggest reader of all three boys.