Well it's almost March...which means April can't be that far off (31 days to be exact). And what happens in April besides baseball season kicking off (Go Sox!)?
My new book, THE AWESOME ALMOST 100% TRUE ADVENTURES OF MATT AND CRAZ will be published.
Here's the first trailer that I made!
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Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: animation, Book Trailer, Silberbooks, Alan Silberberg, Awesome Matt and Craz, Awesome Almost 100% True Adventures of Matt and Craz, Add a tag
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Reading Rainbow, Uncategorized, Frog and Toad, Alan Silberberg, Ed Emberley, Levar Burton, City of Bones, Rebecca Emberley, Video Sunday, book to film adaptations, Add a tag
Oh, why not. Let’s just start with what is undoubtedly the best thing ever. Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 90-Second Newbery and James Kennedy, the author and organizer, was clever enough to know how to start things off. It seems that Aaron Zenz and his Boogie Woogie kids have made another video. And darned if it isn’t even better than their previous (genius) efforts. I liked it so much I’m including the Making Of film as well.
Those of you already familiar with the PBS Digital Studio’s remixes of Mr. Rogers, Julia Child, and Bob Ross (boy is that catchy) know that no one is safe when it comes to classic public television. They did a nice job with LeVar here too. It’s fun to watch based on his shifting facial hair alone.
Seems to me that LeVar Burton had his way of recommending books. Iron Guy Carl of Boys Rock, Boys Read has a different method: Scare them away with a PSA. Works for me!
Now here we have a movie coming out based on a YA novel I never read. I did listen to the Read It and Weep podcast episode about it, but now I suppose that was insufficient. I dunno. The creepy kiddo looks interesting but I may just hold out for The Last Apprentice film that’s coming out soon anyway.
Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.
Oksey-doksey. New publishing model time. It happens. Seems Rebecca Emberley and Deidre Randall are creating a new “hybrid children’s book imprint” called two little birds (something about that name just speaks to me). They’re pairing a picture book in print form with an app of the same title and publishing them simultaneously. The first book is the sure-fire winner The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, catchy song in tow.
You can learn more about their Kickstarter campaign here and read the article about it here.
Author Alan Silberberg has a different method of bringing videos and books together. He animates his thoughts on writerly advice. Like so:
Sweet screams never sounded so right.
Finally, the off-topic video (I did well this week, didn’t I? – she said like an eager puppy). Normally I’d eschew something as tawdry as a Gangnam Style parody, but . . . but . . . there are literary references! And for once the idea of looking like you’re riding a tiny pony makes odd sense.
Thanks to Jeanne Birdsall for the link.
Blog: Darcy Pattison's Revision Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: video, humor, cartoon, mark twain, alan silberberg, novel revision, Add a tag
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Desert Baths
by Darcy Pattison
Giveaway ends November 10, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Here’s a treat from Alan Silberberg. If you are NaNoWriMo-ing, he is planning a series of short inspirational (sorta) videos for writers.
If you can’t see this video, click here.
Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alan Silberberg, Joseph Campbell, Roadside Giants, Myth of Giants, Heroes and Myths, Add a tag
Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alan Silberberg, Matt and Craz, The Awesome Almost 100% True Adventures of Matt and Craz, Little Baby Big Butt, Add a tag
Taking a break from the fun of writing my *new* book, which is top secret stuff that I'm having way too much fun doing because I just got a batch of notes on THE AWESOME ALMOST 100% TRUE ADVENTURES OF MATT & CRAZ from my fantastic art director at Simon & Schuster (Karin Paproki you know who you are!)
Now I have a couple of weeks to move from my comfy chair ( dog on legs included)...
To the desk chair.... where the drawing MAGIC happens! Note: magic is subjective and may cause drowsiness.
The task is to clean up some of the cartoons I've already done for the book. But even better - I've been asked to add a bunch of new cartoons, which is a blast because I get to go back in the heads of my main characters, Matt and Craz.
I'll keep you updated on the progress but for now want to share a new cartoon that I drew yesterday.
FYI: Matt and Craz are a cartoonist duo who try unsuccessfully to get their comics into the school newspaper. Here's one of their cartoons about super-smart babies who do movie reviews.
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Sid Fleischman Award, Sid Fleischman, Alan Silberberg, Add a tag
Alan Silberberg holds the paperback version of Milo: Sticky Notes & Brain Freeze |
Lin Oliver, no slouch herself when it comes to funny, introduced us to the delightful and warm-hearted Alan Silberman, who won this year's award for his book MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE, about a 12-year-old boy who loses his mother, sneezes on the girl he secretly loves, and learns to live with both.
"Like all great comedy, it has its basis in the human heart," Lin Oliver said. "From the moment we meet Milo we know we're in the presence of a hero who teaches us that humor and hope are the antidotes to grief and isolation.
He shared episodes from his writer's journey with us.
"My first book was pond scum," he said, not clarifying that POND SCUM was the title of the book and not his own personal post-publication review.
After that, he had a couple of false starts. He felt waves of panic until a bookseller asked him why he hadn't tried combining his cartooning and writing. Sort of like that little Wimpy Kid series.
That's when Milo was born. To get into the headspace of a 13-year-old, he had to travel back into his own memories ... to the time when he had braces and ate a forbidden Baby Ruth (with disastrous results), and to the death of his mother when he was 9 years old.
That's when he got the idea to combine humor and heartbreak so that he could tell the story of a funny kid living in a fog-filled emotional world. He wanted kids to laugh even as Milo dealt with that sadness, and to win a humor award for that means the world, he said.
For a description of his working relationship with editor Liesa Abrams, check out our recap.
He dedicated the award to his mother, Audrey Silberberg. And then we all cried.
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alan Silberberg, humor writing, Liesa Abrams, Sid Fleischman Award, Add a tag
Liesa Abrams and Alan Silberberg teamed up to discuss how authors and editors can best work together. Liesa is executive editor at Aladdin, and Alan is the Sid Fleischman Award-winning author of MILO: STICKY NOTES AND BRAIN FREEZE.
Even before the session started, we could see the deep rapport these two have. No wonder they fired their therapists.
MILO is about a quirky, weird wonderful boy coming to grips with the death of his mother, something Alan related to because he experienced that loss as a child. Initially, he thought the book was going to be funny, but as he delved deeper into his memories, the book got more serious.
"The book has changed my life in so many ways," he said. "My life changed because my agent was able to take this manuscript and hand it over to Liesa."
Liesa related to the book because it was her husband's story, as well. His own mom died of cancer, and he'd spoken about it in similar ways. The closest thing she could come to healing her husband's loss was to work on this book. She really, really wanted to work on it and felt anxiety that it might not come to pass.
"This is the book that will make me feel my entire career has meaning if I can edit this book."
He read from the editorial letter Liesa wrote him, and we all got choked up. "I hadn't just found a way to get Milo published, but I had found this connection with this personal story."
One challenge was to separate themselves from the story a bit. Alan, who illustrated MILO, experimented with characters that looked less like him. Being able to have Liesa put a little distance between himself and the material allowed him to edit it from a safer place.
"I don't mean to get all therapy on you," he said, "but I really needed to feel safe to go back into these memories."
Liesa gave an example of how they shaped the story: the Milo character wrote about headaches making him think of drafting a will. It's not a kid point of view to think that way, so he wrote that Milo felt scared instead.
Liesa never asked which scenes were autobiographical (they were all emotionally true, but some were fictionalized). She was glad to have that distance, which let her look at it as a work of fiction.
"The reader only knows what's there on the page. They're reading that book. You're not there. It's not that actions can't be contradictory--you have to understand why the character is contradicting themselves."
"It's not just about the advance and the royalties," Liesa said. "It makes a world of difference to have a relationship like this... the writing is the most personal thing you can do."
Alan and Liesa made us all cry when they talked about the healing this book had brought about. “Not every editor relationship requires tissues, you know.”
Blog: James Preller's Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Milo, Alan Silberberg, James Preller, The Gender Gap in Reading, Interviews & Appreciations, Alan Silberberg Interview, books that boys like, cancer children's books, Death in children's books, death of a mother in children's books, Grief in books for boys, James Preller Interviews, Milo Silberberg, Neal Preller, Silberberg Preller, Add a tag
Readers can connect with Milo, by Alan Silberberg, in very different ways. I suppose that’s true of any book, we all bring our disparate selves to the text, but it seems especially true for Milo, a story for middle grade readers that embraces broad goofy humor on one end, and authentic, emotional grief on the other. Actually, that’s not true. Those qualities aren’t on separate ends, but are intermingled throughout. It’s a book where a boy can sneeze on someone’s neck in class, then return home to a house of fog and loss, where no one has quite figured out how to move forward after a death in the family. For me as a reader, it wasn’t the humor that hooked me. It was the humor combined with real emotional depth.
That rare thing in children’s books: a boy in full.
After I read Milo, I wanted to meet Alan because I sensed that he and I shared things in common. So I contacted Alan through his website and requested an interview. There was much I wanted to discuss, and our conversation flowed so naturally, that our Q & A went on slightly longer than The Reagan Years. I decided to break it up into two parts. I’m indebted to Alan for his time and patience and for the care he took in answering my questions.
(Whew. I’m relieved he’s not a Yankees fan.)
Alan! Hey, thanks for stopping by all the way from Montreal. Which is still in Canada, right? Could you please leave the soggy Uggs by the front door? Yeah, the moose, too. That’d be swell.
It’s true, Montreal is still in Canada. But you know, I’m from Boston (Go Red Sox!) so my heart — and shoveling technique — is from New England.
I gather that you didn’t initially set out to tackle this huge, daunting topic –- the death of a parent.
You are so right! When I started writing this book my goal was to write a pretty silly book that would include my cartoon illustrations. What started as a goofy look at a 7th grade kid starting a new school turned into something much deeper once I realized I had my own story to tell.
I know that this book grows out of your own personal experiences. Could you give us a little background on that?
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Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Mo Willems, Uncategorized, origami, Lane Smith, Alan Silberberg, The Hunger Games, James Preller, Video Sunday, Derek Landry, fan trailers, Add a tag
Yup. Had me bawling like a wee babe, this one. A little disappointing to realize that no matter what the actual movie does, this fan film of a scene from The Hunger Games will probably be more moving than anything Hollywood could produce. After all, I can’t imagine that the actual film will spend this appropriate amount of time on Rue’s death. I could do without the Linkin Park song, but even that sort of works. Of course, I never would have found this without the Huffington Post’s piece on Book Videos: 19 of the Best and the Worst. They’ve a fair amount of children’s stuff, but also some amazing pieces like this one from Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From:
I could call this next video A Bunch of White Guys Making Origami, but I’ll restrain myself. In any case, it is rather neat. Particularly when you get into the medical applications of the form.
Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.
Truth be told, I just like how that one fellow says the word “elephant”. Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.
Next up, one of my favorite books of the year. It’s good old Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze. This gives you a very mild sense of the book itself. Probably the rock joke conveys the feel best. Just sayin’.
Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alan Silberberg, Paragraphe Books, n Silberberg, PJ Bracegirdle, Milo Book Launch, Add a tag
Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alan Silberberg, Chapters, Indigo, Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, Paragraphe, Twitter Book Party, Add a tag
Well it's official.
Tuesday, MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE had it's real-live book birthday and I couldn't just sit on my butt at home. No siree, I had to have visual proof that the book was actually IN bookstores. Besides, I was too excited to actually stay home and write and so I drove downtown and hit the trio of book sellers there.
First up, Indigo books - a huge chain of stores in Canada. I went to their "flagship" downtown Montreal location. This was my very first stop and I was filled with excitement...anticipation... and ultimately, DISAPPOINTMENT!
Like Old Mother Hubbard, I went to my bookshelf, careful to follow the alpabetical path to the "S" names. To my horror - "Silberberg" did not exist. I quickly accessed one of their nifty search kiosks and what I found was...."zero available in this store". Oh, fortuna how low you have spun me!
Lucky for me - another chain store was just up the street. And so, hat in hands, I trudged off to visit the equally huge Chapters bookstore (owned by the same company as Indigo I might add).
I walked into the basement level kids' section with trepidation. But what did I see? The familiar BLUE COVER and white lettering! Eureka - MILO EXISTED!
Now I'm usually a shy guy - but there I was gleaming at the bookshelf, camera in hand, and it wasn't long before a helpful bookseller asked if I needed anything. I told her I needed to wish my book a Happy BookDay and she eagerly obliged!
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Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, Simon and Schuster, Jill Grinberg, Alan Silberberg, Liesa Abrams, Add a tag
I have always marveled at the people who can point easily to the perfect days in their lives and say without pause, "That was the best day." I mean, I'm a writer. Ask me to point to a miserable day and I can deal out a dozen or so in a heartbeat.
Milo and I arrived outside the Simon & Schuster offices and he was immediately awed by the building.
We went inside and rode the elevator to the 4th floor. Stepping off the elevator the first thing I saw was this wall of M
Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: Adventures in POND SCUM (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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above - a doodle from my sketchbook after a few nights of great sleep here (which had been impossible back home!)
Like any good story, my stay here at the Thurber House has many chapters. Each day delights me with something new that I discover here in Columbus - or an event that I participate with as part of my writer-in-residency.
So as I said, the surprises go on and on....(more on that later) but now back to the GHOST.
I knew about the Ghost before my arrival. You see, when I was being interviewed for the residency, I asked Pat Shannon, the Children's Director of Thurber House, if my attic apartment had air conditioning (come on - Ohio in the summer gets hot! - and YES, she assured me that I'd be fully ensconced in a/c!). Then it was her turn for questions, namely "How do you feel about ghosts?"
Of course I'd heard all about the ghost that is supposed to live here. James Thurber himself wrote about the ghost in "My Life and Hard Times" with the hilarious chapter "The Night The Ghost Got In".
So immediately I told Pat - that I was excited about meeting the ghost and didn't tell her the part of me that was saying, "But it kind of freaks me out!"
In preparing for my visit I was also told about a ghostly encounter by last year's Children's Author in Residence, Lisa Yee. She and I laughed about it. No big deal.
Still as cool/weird/possibly scary as it sounded - I was slightly unnerved at being all alone in a big house with a spirit who had no name. I'm bad enough at parties with people I don't know - I wasn't sure I could handle being in a house with a ghost who was a stranger to me.
So when I had what I am describing as my "ghost encounter" I had to laugh - because obviously, this was a ghost who wanted me here. Who wanted me to know he/she/it was not there to "haunt" me. This ghost wanted me to laugh - and to know that a sense of humor was the aura that surrounded it!
How do I know this?
Once I arrived here two weeks ago - I set up my stuff to make me feel at home - including the GHOSTBUSTER kit my son and wife made me for my birthday this year - as preparation for coming to the Thurber House.
The kit includes:
1) a home-made Electro-Magnetic "YES/NO" ghost detection device
2) a "spy-kit" motion detector
3) one xtremely strong flashlight
4) a large photo of the Thurber house, where the two attic windows (where I live here) open to reveal a picture of me and a POP-OUT picture of the "ghost"
Now you need to know that the little attic "windows" that open up - have to be pried open with fingers to see what's behind them, much like an advent calendar.
So imagine my surprise when on Morning 3 of my stay - I discovered one window was wide open ....and which window was it?
YES! The GHOST window had somehow popped open and the ghost that my son had made to spring out was STICKING OUT OF THE PICTURE! First reaction? I'm packing up and moving into a hotel!....But then it hit me: the ghost was welcoming me to the house. The ghost was telling me he/she/it was funny. The ghost liked the present my family made. (Now if only the ghost would make me breakfast - I'd be pretty darn happy!)
So thank you Ghost for letting me know you're hip to my style. If you want to have drinks - I'm an iced coffee kind of guy!
editors note: while writing this I ran down to the car to get something and when I came back up - one of the doors to my apartment - one that I have NEVER closed in two weeks - was closed!
Hmmmm.... Read the rest of this post
Blog: Boys Rule Boys Read! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Mr. Silberberg has written a great post about our blog. Go over to his website (you can link to it from the Links on the left-hand side of this page) and find his blog to see what he says. Thanks, Mr. Silberberg!!
We also have a comment from Rowdy Roddy at the Guys Read blog about Mr. Silberberg:
Hey Guys,
Thanks for introducing me to Alan Silberberg and his new book. I used your recommendation and checked out his blog and website. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Pond Scum, it really looks like it would be right up my alley.Thanks again for introducing me to new authors. Keep up the good work.
Rowdy Roddy (Guys Read)
Hope you enjoy it, Roddy. Pass it around to the guys in your group and tell us how you like it.
Later,
Carl
PS--great trailer for the book!
Blog: Boys Rule Boys Read! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Pond Scum, Alan Silberberg, Alan Silberberg, Pond Scum, Add a tag
It's Carl again. Your ever-vigilant bloggers Bill and I are always on the watch for new and exciting books. We are there, night and day, always looking, never sleeping, never eating, never taking a shower----whew, I didn't mean that!! But we do try to keep our eyes open for new books and authors. So I was glad to hook up with Alan Silberberg, who used to write for the Cartoon Network and Disney. (He wrote episodes of Doug for Cartoon network) He's written one book that's really entertaining and has a great title--Pond Scum.
It's cool for boys to read because reading makes everyone cooler. Stories that we get to imagine in our brains make us better story-tellers - and story-telling comes in handy when explaining why your homework is late or when you're trying to talk to a girl, who will always be impressed by your brain-power! It's cool to know stuff.
Writing and drawing is probably the coolest thing a boy can do - and when you put those two together and use drawings to tell a story...NOTHING compares to that feeling of showing your comics around to your friends.
Who was your favorite comic character when you were a boy? Do you have a favorite character now?
Who was my favorite comix character as a boy - Hmmm. Truth is I was never really a super-hero kind of comics reader (though that would be the cool answer!). I did love Peanuts and reading the Sunday Comics pages was a ritual for me. These days I really like Pearls Before Swine because the characters are so great... and because my son, who also likes to make cartoons is a big fan.
What is your favorite sport?
Favorite sports team: as a guy who grew up near Boston - the Boston Red Sox! (I feel bad for the Patriots - but am okay they lost)
What do you like to do for fun?
For fun - I like to go the movies with my family and I like to hear live music. But lots of time the most fun I have is when I can just doodle and draw cartoons with no deadlines - just because I like it!
What is the favorite book you have written?
My favorite book is Pond Scum - because that's the only one that's published right now. I have a second book finished and I'll tell you more about that soon...(it's in the editor's hands now!)
Which do you like better—cheeseburgers or pizza? What do you like on them?
Cheeseburgers hands down! Because A) they taste awesome and B) Someone can mess up a pizza by adding fancy-shmancy toppings or a sourdough-olive crust or weirdo cheese....but a cheeseburger is always a cheeseburger (unless they add bleu cheese and then it's just something I throw away!)
Thanks, Mr. Silberberg!! I hope you guys out there pick up on his book. I had a good time with it and it even made me think about some things--Fat Mama says something at one point that I don't think I agree with. What was it? Read the book and then write us and I'll discuss it with you! Only way you'll find out!
Blog: The National Writing for Children Center (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: American Library Association, Summer Reading, Renee Kirchner, tips for parents, Tip For Teachers, RIF, Kidsreads, teaching tips, books for kids, Add a tag
by Renee Kirchner, Teaching Tips Contributing Editor
It’s only natural for kids to want to pack away their books during summer vacation. They want to play with friends, swim, and ride their bikes. However, a summer spent without books could cause their current reading levels to drop before school starts in the fall. If you make summer reading a pleasant pastime, kids will be more likely to pick up a book.
Summer is a great time for kids to branch out and try reading something new. In summer there are no book reports or projects to complete when they finish a book. Reading should be for pure enjoyment. Encourage your children to read books from many different authors and genres. If they normally read mysteries, suggest that they try biographies, historical fiction, science fiction, or poetry. Don’t limit summer reading to hardcover or paperback books either. Children would probably enjoy reading comic books, magazines, and newspapers also. The objective in the summer is to make reading fun.
Learning how to choose their own reading material is an important skill for young children. Children are more apt to read a book if they select it. Parents can model book selection by taking their children to a library or a bookstore. Pick up a book and look at the cover. Next, flip through the pages and read the jacket out loud. Let your children hear your thoughts. For example, “I love books by this author. I’m so glad he has written another one. I think I’ll check it out and see if I like it.” Children also need to understand that it’s ok to not like a book. Everyone has started a book and then decided it wasn’t for them. Children do not instinctively know that it’s ok to not finish a book if they don’t like it.
Children might become overwhelmed when they see the huge selection of books available at the bookstore or the library. It might be a good idea to visit some websites and get some book recommendations first. Here are some excellent websites to try:
The RIF (Reading is Fundamental) website if full of great information. There are fun summer activities for families that are centered on reading. The website also has recommended reading lists broken down by children’s ages and interests.
This website is excellent if your child is looking for the newest releases. Each month a new selection of books are reviewed and posted. Frequently there are in-depth author interviews on the website so kids can read about their favorite authors.
The American Library Association has lists of recommended reading that will please everyone. The lists include classics, paperbacks, Newbery Award books, Caldecott Award books, and many others. Children will never run out of book suggestions after visiting this site.
This summer can be a great adventure for your children when you mix free time with some great books. Have a great summer and happy reading.
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The Hunger Games trailer was incredible. Thanks very much for sharing! Except–now I’m wondering if I can really make it through a movie, it will be so visceral.
But Bets, they stuck that terrible awful no good very bad rock song over the beginning of that faux Hunger Games thing.
*sigh* Well, yes Dan. But for a homemade video I ain’t complainin’.
Aw man, made me cry too. And I’m with Kate – the entire movie – like that – would just tear me up!
I loved the girl playing Katniss – I thought she was perfect!
e
Absolutely sobbing. That was a very well done scene. One of the hardest parts of the book for me to get through, and I thought that the video did a fine job of telling the story.