By: Mayra Calvani,
on 11/26/2008
Hi all,
It was nice being on the interviewee seat for once at Blogcritics Magazine.
Dorothy Thompson, CEO of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, was kind enough to interview me as part of my November virtual book tour.
You may read the full interview here.
Cheers!
Mayra
By: Mayra Calvani,
on 11/20/2008
Hi all,
Today on the 9th day of my VBT I'm over at Unwriter, where Ron Berry has written a wonderful review of my book.
Thank you, Ron!
By: Mayra Calvani,
on 9/5/2008
My co-author Anne K. Edwards and I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Norm Goldman of www.BookPleasures.com.
We talked about our book, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, and writing and reviewing.
You may read the interview here.
Cheers!
Mayra
By: Margot Finke,
on 6/3/2008
Posted on May 31, 2008 by theslipperybookreview
June is ‘Book Reviewing’ month at Blogcritics Magazine!
REVIEW:
"The Slippery Art... is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in book reviews - writers, reviewers, publishers, publicists, librarians, booksellers and readers." -- Francine Silverman, editor/publisher of The Book Promotion Newsletter.
By: Mayra Calvani,
on 5/8/2008
Hi Everyone,
(If you buy the galley now, you will receive the finished version upon its release on June 15th).
By: Mayra Calvani,
on 2/4/2008
By: Irisz Agocs,
on 9/7/2007
Sometimes just one color give you more. I use blue and brown most of the times. 
Néha egyetlen szín többet ad a képhez. Én legtöbbet kéket és barnát használok.
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 8/30/2007
Today, I want to talk about a book that came out last fall. It’s a novel by Susan Taylor Brown called Hugging the Rock. This book is on the ALA and ALSC Notable Books of 2007 list, but it really didn't make the "splash" that it should have in the kidlit world.
But Kelly, you ask, weren’t all your other Under the Radar picks books of poetry? Yes. And so is this one. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, it is a novel in verse. Free verse, that is. Each poem is a scene. Sometimes it describes the actions of the characters, but always it conveys the emotional truth of the MC/narrator, Rachel, even when what Rachel says isn't true.
The first scene/poem in the book sets up the major issue for our character – and for the novel as a whole -- when Rachel's mother leaves. We learn a lot more about Rachel's mother and her particular issues as the book goes on. We learn more about Rachel's father, too, and of course we learn about Rachel. There are magnificent mega-issues here, too, like what is family? and how can we forgive those who hurt us? and we can live through awful grief and not only survive, but thrive. Small wonder that Lee Bennett Hopkins gave the book such a lovely blurb for the back cover.
And Susan does it all with magnificent poems. Here is the first stanza in the book, which I share with you. Not the first poem, the first stanza:
When my mom decides to run away from home
she packs up her car
with all the things that matter most
to her.
The genius of this line is the surprising force and punch of those last two words. And as a reader, you already know that the MC is not getting invited into that car. You know what the problem facing the main character is, as your mind races ahead. How old is this child? Will she recover? How will she recover? And you automatically wonder, "what kind of mother can willingly leave her child?" Also, in just four lines, without knowing anything more, you’ve already chosen to side with the MC, because there is no way you can’t feel sorry for a child whose mother leaves. And you certainly can’t feel sympathy for this sort of mother. Not yet. Not until later, and even then, anger usually outweighs the modicum of sympathy there.
A second stanza much, much later in the book (p. 132, to be exact, but please don't skip to this poem/chapter if you haven't read the book yet) does the same thing. It begins:
The hurt
settles in my heart
like one of those giant rocks you tie to something
when you want it to sink
The use of the rock imagery here not as a source of stability but as a tool of destruction brings new levels of meaning to the book, in part based on its title, and in part based on other connotations to the word "rock" used within the story. For example, Rachel’s mother calls her dad a rock, presumably meaning a steady, stable, stand-up sort of guy. But this poem makes everything warp. Maybe the Rock in the title isn’t Dad. Maybe it’s something else: maybe its an embracing of the truth; maybe it’s acceptance.
Much later, in the midst of a chapter/poem entitled The Worst Thing, Rachel and her dad are in a car, discussing some very serious matters, like the whys and wherefores of her mother's behavior. Rachel is nonverbal here, and shrugs. Dad presses on, and Rachel writes "I shrug louder." Talk about your imagery. It's genius.
Finally, the shortest poem in the book is the chapter/poem entitled Mother's Day, and I can tell you this for true: it very nearly killed me, in a readerly sort of way. Because of its brevity, the page spoke volumes. In saying little, it says so much, and it says it loudly. And what it relates is eloquent and poignant and true. But you may not skip to that page to see what I’m talking about. You must begin at the start and read all the way to there, or you will not understand what it is that I am telling you.
Because it is a novel in verse, it can be read quickly; in fact, that’s one of the touted benefits of books in free verse. But I must warn you that in its speed, it will hit you like a fist you didn’t see coming. And even though you may reach the end of the book more quickly than you might reach the end of a book in prose with the same number of pages, you will still feel the blow long after you put it down.
Hugging the Rock will not take you long to read, but it may take you forever to forget.
If you’re interested in learning more about how this book came to be, check out Susan’s interviews with Cynthia Leitich Smith and Little Willow.
And in related news, Hugging the Rock will be available in paperback in the Spring of 2008. No release date available yet.
Here's a list of the other book selections today:
By: Rebecca,
on 7/24/2007
Michael J. Klarman, won the Bancroft Prize in 2005 for From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement, is an abridged, paperback edition of his original masterpiece, which focuses around one major case, Brown v. Board of Education. In the original essay below Klarman, who is the James Monroe Professor of Law and Professor of History at the University of Virginia, explores political backlash.
While we ordinarily think of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) as contributing to the creation of the modern civil rights movement, Brown’s more immediate effect was to crystallize the resistance of southern whites to progressive racial change, radicalize southern 
politics, and create a climate ripe for violence. Indeed, prominent Court decisions interpreting the U.S. Constitution have often produced political backlashes that undermine the causes that the rulings seem to promote. (more…)
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 7/19/2007
Today's poem is about (what else?) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I found this beauty in yesterday's issue of Shelf Awareness, Thursday, July 19, 2007, Vol. 1, Issue 478. It's by Jennifer Brown, who contributes children's book reviews to Shelf Awareness on a weekly basis, with occasional, additional children's news stories. Jenny Brown's history in children's books includes a stint as children's reviews editor at Publishers Weekly for the past 10 years. Prior to that, she was was marketing manager at Scholastic Press, editorial director at the Pleasant Company, and worked in children's books at HarperCollins as editorial director of Trophy Paperbacks and educational marketing director. Much of the proceeding bio was ganked directly from Shelf Awareness's press release when Jenny came on board back in April, 2007.
Jenny wrote a poem which summarizes much of what I and many other Pottermaniacs are feeling in the final hours before the book goes global. Huge thanks to Jenny for so graciously allowing me to reprint her poem here for Poetry Friday.
The Last Express to Hogwarts
by Jennifer M. Brown
It is the eve of our last trip to Hogwarts.
Can you think back to that very first time?
The discovery that we are all merely Muggles?
That first taste of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans,
Strawberry, curry, coffee and sardine?
Harry's maiden ride on the Nimbus Two Thousand,
And his victorious capture of the Snitch in Quidditch?
Wasn't it all a wonderful surprise?
For Harry it's been seven years,
For us, nearly nine.
The children themselves championed Harry Potter
And the Philosopher's-turned-Sorcerer's Stone in the fall of 1998.
Impatient readers ordered the sequels from Amazon UK.
Their infectious enthusiasm precipitated
A global [English-language] release date for the Goblet of Fire.
Generations read the books aloud together,
Stood in midnight lines together,
Filled movie theaters to capacity,
And witnessed Richard Harris's departure
Before it was beloved Dumbledore's time to go.
And, as Harry broke all records for sales and first printings,
The children prompted the birth of their own New York Times bestseller list.
The children grew up with Harry,
In a trailblazing series that literally matured with its hero.
Laura may have grown up in the woods of Wisconsin,
And on the shores of Silver Lake,
But, in the Order of the Phoenix, we suffered through Harry's adolescence,
Excruciating for its perfect resonance with our own.
When the insidious, unidentifiable threat of terrorism invaded our shores,
Voldemort was a knowable villain.
Evil had a face, and Harry had faced him down--
With a scar on his forehead to prove it.
What more heartening message
Could one give a child?
So, as we stand on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters,
Awaiting the last train to Hogwarts,
We taste the same bittersweetness
That those seniors must taste.
Excited, but a little sad, to graduate from a place
We've embraced as part of our own community.
And though we will bid farewell to Harry, Hermione and Ron
On the final page (one or two of them perhaps sooner),
They await our return at every rereading.
Millions of children grew up with Harry,
And whether they go back to their video games,
Or go on to be lawyers or teachers,
Writers or booksellers,
Their lives have been touched by magic.
They won't forget Harry.
And neither will we.
You can find today's Poetry Friday roundup at Mentor Texts and More.
Posted on 6/27/2007
Kirsty OUP-UK
After ten years as Prime Minister, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is being succeeded by Gordon Brown. Today I’m taking a look back at Tony Blair’s time at the helm with a little help from the Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, edited by Antony Jay. Below are some of the best and most recognisable quotes from the last decade or so, as well as a few words about Tony Blair by others including Margaret Thatcher and Jacques Chirac. If there are other quotations you can think of, then please feel free to leave a comment below.
“Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.”
speech at the annual Labour Party Conference, 30 September 1993, when Blair was Shadow Home Secretary (more…)
Hi Mayra...I never get tired of reading your interviews that you give and you do. Very well done! KUDOS!
Warmly,
Donna McDine
www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com
Thanks for your kind words, Donna!