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By:
Guest Posts,
on 8/14/2015
Blog:
The Children's Book Review
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Carolyn Conahan is the author and illustrator of several picture books, including The Twelve Days of Christmas in Oregon (Sterling), and The Big Wish (Chronicle), which was awarded the 2011 Oregon Spirit Book Award for Picture Books by the Oregon Council of Teachers of English.
Puddle Pug, by Kim Norman, is a beautifully illustrated hardcover book that tells the story of a pug in the search for a perfect pond.
Enter to win an autographed copy of Puddle Pug, written by Kim Norman and illustrated by Keika Yamaguchi.
Giveaway begins March 30, 2014, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends April 29, 2014, at 11:59 P.M. PST.
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 1/28/2011
Blog:
The Children's Book Review
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By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 28, 2010
Winter. A very fun season: Ice skating, skiing, sledding, building snowmen—or snow-ladies—and the perfect excuse for some good-old hibernation. Definition of hibernation: staying inside watching movies, playing board games, and reading books.
From picture books to a young adult novel, check out this uber-cool list …
Picture Books
Bedtime for Bear
by Brett Helquist
Reading level: Ages 2-7
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (December 21, 2010)
Source: Publisher
Publisher’s synopsis: Wintertime is here, and that means it is bedtime for Bear. But Bear’s friends don’t think so. They want Bear to come and play outside in the snow. Bear can hear his friends calling. He hears them laughing and playing. Bear can’t sleep. But it’s bedtime! What is a bear to do?
Add this book to your collection: Bedtime for Bear
Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee
by Chris Van Dusen
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 36 pages
Publisher: Chronicle Books (October 27, 2010)
Source: Publisher
Publisher’s synopsis: One winter morning, Mr. Magee and his little dog, Dee, head out bright and early to learn how to ski. But what begins as a pleasant day in the snow quickly goes downhill when a run-in with a curious moose sends them flying through the air and hanging above an abyss! How will Dee and Magee find their way out of this snowy situation? Chris Van Dusen, the creator of Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee and A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, has crafted yet another fun-filled adventure for Magee fans old and new.
Add this book to your collection: Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee
Ten on the Sled
by Kim Norman (Author), Liza Woodruff (Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 3-7
Hardcover: 24 pages
Publisher: Sterling (October 5, 2010)
Source: Publisher
Publisher’s synopsis: Author Kim Norman (Crocodaddy) and illustrator Liz
In her book, Crocodaddy, Kim Norman celebrates a warm relationship between a father and son. As I collected books for Mother's Day and Father's Day this year, I noticed that there really aren't that many books about fathers and their children. We need more books about the role that fathers play in their children's lives. You can see the books I have reviewed so far on the Father's Day Feature page on the Through the Looking Glass Book Review. More titles are in the process of being added for the June issue of the online magazine. Of these books, I particularly enjoyed Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino.
What I really like about Crocodaddy is that it not only highlights the
relationship between a father and a son, but it also shows readers that the simple things in life are often the most meaningful. In Crocdaddy it is a game that is played in the local pond on a summer's day. These events and traditions are often the things we remember many years later. I remember sitting on the front porch with my father and watching the swallows dipping and diving in the air around us. After I left my parental home I never lived in a place where they have swallows - until now. Now I get to share the dance of the swallows with my daughter. My father 's spirit sits is with me as I share this simple joy with my child.
To wrap up this blog book tour, Kim Norman has kindly offered to give one of my readers a signed copy of her book. If you would like the book please send me an email.
Good morning everyone. Today I am going to be interviewing Kim Norman, the author of a picture book called Crocodaddy.
Marya: Where did the idea for the Crocodaddy game come from?
Kim: It was a pretend game we played in our little backyard pool when our younger son was a preschooler. Of course, I was more of a bystander watching the fun between my husband, (the REAL Crocodaddy), and my sons. Just last night, my husband was recalling how they used to climb on his back and he'd toss them off with a splash, just like the father and son in the book.
Marya: Why did you decide to share the joy of the this game with your readers?
Kim: Well, I thought the word "Crocodaddy" was such a fun word, there must be a book in it. It took me several years of ruminating during my morning walks for the story to evolve. I'd already written one version that my critique group thought was a bit too intense for toddlers, (they thought it might be too scary), when -- one morning during a walk -- the rhythm of the refrain came into my head. "Crocodaddy, Crocodaddy, whatcha gonna do?" I could hardly wait to get home and start writing a new version with that bouncy refrain added to it.
Marya: You are an artist as well as a writer. Do you think you might, one day, illustrate some of the picture books that you have written?
Kim: I would love to do that someday. My favorite medium is collage. Besides writing books, I'm a freelance graphic artist, but that doesn't really involve drawing skills -- not since the advent of electronic clipart! My drawing skills have withered, I'm afraid, since computers started doing so much of the work for me! But years ago, I used to create collages which I'd display in art shows. When time allows, maybe after my younger son is off to college, I'd like to pull out my art supplies and see if I can't awaken my inner illustrator!
Marya: How did you start writing children’s books?
Kim: It has been nearly 20 years since I began writing, trying my hand at this and that genre. I think most writers do that, drifting from project to project, until they find the type of writing best suited for them. (Unless they're very prolific and eclectic, and can write all SORTS of books.) But I suddenly felt very at home once I started writing children's books. I can always count back to the time I finished writing my first picture book, because I know I sat down to write it after putting my younger son, then an infant, back into his crib following a predawn feeding. He's 15 now. I had a LOT to learn, (still do) about writing children's books, but that first story has been revised innumerable times, so I think it's pretty solid now. I've written and sold other books, but that first story is now with my agent, and she thinks it's ready to start sending out again.
Marya:What aspect of the book writing process do you like the most?
Kim: Definitely the earliest part, the brainstorming and initial rush of getting a story down. If that story happens to be written in rhyme, all the better. Not all my books are in rhyme, but I've found that rhyme is the one form of writing that pulls me obsessively back to the work. Other types of writing, I tend to procrastinate, like a kid ignoring her homework. Very bad habit! I also like the final polishing stages of picture book writing, where you're honing each word, which often includes cutting words. It's kind of fun, seeing how bare bones I can make it while still retaining the flavor of the story. Picture books SHOULD feel a bit bare, when you're reading just the manuscript. If it feels too complete, it probably means you've forgotten to leave room for the illustrator to tell some of the story.
Thank you Kim for a great interview.
Are you an author looking to get school visits? Are you an educator looking for an author to do school visits? Check out Kim Norman's new site that lists authors by state. Our local reading council is always looking for authors to come for our events. This is like one stop-shopping. If you are an author and would like to be listed, check out the site and find out what you need to do to be listed.
Authors By State
"Maxwell Street at that time was an open-air bazaar of second-hand electronics, knockoff designer shoes, food stalls, junk, and trinkets to rival any great market in the Third World, and the vendors and shoppers came from every corner of it. It was a carnival of simple commerce, people haggling over single pairs of socks in eleven languages."
That's Tony D'Souza describing an immigrant corner of Chicago in his new novel, The Konkans. During his writing career, D'Souza has traveled the world as a freelance reporter (writing for everybody from The Esquire to Outside magazine), taught creative writing, and served in the Peace Corps.
In his new novel, we follow the lives of a family of Konkans--an Indian ethnic group that converted to Catholicism centuries ago. Like that market, D'Souza's imaginary family contains a multitude conflicting, beautiful details.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
The Konkans rests on a tremendous body of research into two centuries' worth of history. This was a new level of historical depth for you. How did you research this book, both historically and setting-wise? Which novels did you read for inspiration about how to write a book set against such a dramatic history?
Tony D'Souza:
God, I read everything, about the Goan Inquisition, about Vasco da Gama, Francis Xavier, about the ships of those days, the food, the commerce, people's understanding of the world, of the ethnic groups of India, of their religious beliefs and cultural practices. Continue reading...
They say that journalists are writing the first draft of history. What happens when a professional journalist writes a novel set inside the second or third draft of a historical moment?
Our special guest Jeffrey Frank is a senior editor at The New Yorker magazine and has worked as a journalist at The Washington Post.
He's written a number of novels, and his most recent work, Trudy Hopedale, is a satire set just months before September 11, 2001--a bittersweet reminder of how much our lives have changed since that relatively carefree time.
Today Frank explains his research methods in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
The pre-2001 setting seems so quaint and tragic in your book, as the readers know that politically, the whole world is going to take a darker turn after the story concludes. How did you choose the key details you needed to evoke this historical moment without writing a history book? In other words, how do you research and pick the historical details of your novel?
Jeffrey Frank: I went through several newspapers from that period.
Continue reading...
"The panoramic view from the pro shop window was dazzling. The grounds below were carpeted with kelly green grass, and the sky above the horizon was half silver and lavender. From where she stood, she could see a couple foursomes playing--spotless white carts lolling there waiting to ferry them to their next hole. Acres upon acres of manicured and coiffed like a rich second wife for the enjoyment of a few entitled individuals."
You can't write glittering descriptions like that without tons of research. That's an exclusive golf club in the book Free Food for Millionaires, an epic novel about one girl's tumultuous life in New York City.
It's written by first-time novelist, Min Jin Lee, our special guest this week. Today she explains how she managed the research for her sprawling novel.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
You just moved to Tokyo (I think!) to research your new novel. How do you conduct research for your books? What did you learn while researching Free Food for Millionaires?
Min Jin Lee:
I am moving to Tokyo in the middle of August, and I will be working on my second novel there. I was a history major in college, and I am a serious believer in research. Continue reading...
How do you choose the best material to read out-loud to an audience?
I've spent the last four years researching that question at readings around New York City, and I appreciated the debate now raging at the MFA blog about the subject. Guest blogger Anna Mendoza asks readers "I've found that some of my poems are better read aloud than read on paper, and vice versa. When at an open mike, should I present something that's funny and likely to be crowd-pleasing (even if it's somewhat shallow), or something that's more intellectually substantial but might be hard to get?" Read the responses here.
Ed Champion (happy birthday!) interviews one of the funniest writers I've read in a decade--check out 40 wonderful minutes with novelist Gary Shteyngart, ranging from fat lit to 21st century satire.
Over at his funny, funny blog, Stanley Bing opens the floodgates for airport storytelling. 63 people jumped in already, add your travel story today. "Writers are like doctors, they are always on call," the good man says. Dig it!
Publishing Spotted collects the best of what's around on writing blogs after my week-long vacation. Feel free to send tips and suggestions to your fearless editor: jason [at] thepublishingspot.com.
This from my friend, Kim Norman:
I've got a new song, folks.
A parody of the old song, "Baby, it's cold outside."
This version is a dialog between a harried editor and a pushy, newbie writer.
A warning, there is one tiny, slightly naughty word at the very end of the song.
http://www.kimmyawards.com
I listened, I laughed. Upon the third time hearing it, I snorted while laughing. I urge you: Go listen to Kim's song. It's funny.
How do you use the Internet to research your work?
I've spent the last month carefully sifting through Wikipedia entries by date--if you type in any month, day, or year in history, that magnificent research engine will give you a timeline of the news and events.
I can't tell you how invaluable that process is for reconstructing a certain time period for my novel. Wikipedia gives me research leads so I can track down the news stories, fashions, and popular culture artifacts from the time period I'm trying to reproduce.
Today, BookNinja (who is on fire today, three super-useful posts in a row) pointed out a Guardian blogger and novelist who noticed that this hyperlinked history lesson could be hurting his writing style. Do you agree with Ben Myers?
Dig it:
"The days of laborious research to produce credible fiction are disappearing. More and more, writers simpley click a link, skim-read an article, and extract the (questionable) facts. Clearly there is an argument then that far from keeping us informed and up to date, the internet and sites such as Wikipedia are in fact making writers lazy, unconvincing and inaccurate. I hope I'm not one of them."
I'm taking a break from getting ready for my daughter's graduation party tomorrow (whew -- almost done!) to take up the Tail end of the Blog Book Tour for my friend Kim Norman, who has a new book out!
Jack of all Tails debuts this month with Dutton, and it's a tail wagger. I mean, it's the purrr-fect read-aloud. And you'll go ape over the illustrations.
But before you read my interview, check out the others:
Read Kim's blog at http://jackofalltails.blogspot.com/, and follow the rest of Kim's tour as she visits:
Monday - Elizabeth Dulemba's blog
Tuesday - Dotti Enderle's blog
Wednesday - Kerry Madden's blog
Thursday - Barbara Johansen Newman's blog
Friday - Karen Lee's blog
Saturday - my blog
Hello, Kim! :)
Kim's the
ultimate
performer;
hear her
sing, here
You're an entertainer, a singer, a writer, a graphic artist, a mom and a deep thinker. Is there anything you cannot do? Give us the nasty details, please. :)
I cannot stay on a diet. I cannot run fast. (Couldn't even BEFORE I needed to stay on a diet.) That holds true for pretty much all forms of athletics, although I enjoy swimming. Instead of thinking of myself as athletically challenged, I like to think of myself as "cerebrally inclined." The only reason I turned out to be any good at tap dancing was because it's more about innate rhythm than athletics.
(Well, unless you're Gene Kelly, my all-time Hollywood crush. Then it's ALL about athletics. Other Hollywood crushes? Christopher Plummer. And Morgan Freeman. And Jewish actors with intelligent faces and thinning hair. Really. I have a thing for Jewish guys. Somehow it always feels a little racist saying that.)
I cannot play the piano well or read music as well as I'd like. VERY poor practice habits as a kid.
What are your school visits like? Pretend I have a budget for only one author to visit my school, and I already hired myself last year. Why should I hire you this year?
I like to think I give an entertaining school visit that leaves teachers with "take-aways." (Things they can reference later, after my visit.) I also like to see that, while the kids are having a good time, they aren't out of control. I recently saw a rather well-known author, (won't name any names) who did -- to be sure -- a funny, entertaining presentation. But, number one -- it was all over the place. One minute he was talking about Santa, the next, somehow we were looking at pictures of butterflies. A very ADHD presentation. Not sure how teachers would use this material later in the classroom. And he got the kids worked up to that level where they become kind of sassy. You know what I mean? Where they think they're part of the show and start showing off, giving goofy, giving off-task answers, cutting up and being rude.
I did a school visit a few weeks ago where the kids were in a howling frenzy over my evil inner editor photos, and yet, if they got too rowdy, it was still easy, before things got too out of control, to give them a polite, "shhh" before I moved onto the next image.
Kim working
with kids at
an author
visit
When the kids ages are right, I often close my presentations with a song I wrote called "The Storytime Boogie." It's a song that encourages reading at bedtime. Another good time spent at my Mac, mixing the song in Garage Band. I could do that all day! I had my talented friend Carol, (who DID practice her piano) record the song for me, then I mixed it in Garage Band, adding sound effects which the kids think are funny.
What's the next book, after Jack of All Tails and Crocodaddy?
Kim's new book
There's a rhyming picture book on one of my editors' desks right now that I need to revise. Plus, I'd really like to pull out that chapter book, "Smoke Rings." Maybe with the inspiration of my new gazebo, I can finally REALLY put some good work into that book. I've just got to overcome that evil inner editor, who harps at me much more loudly on longer works. I've written some really good stuff for Smoke Rings, but I haven't totally found it's direction yet. Maybe I need to pretend I'm just blogging, so typos and ungrammatical sentences don't matter!
Are you a Harry Potter fan? What do you think of all the fuss?
I was during the earlier stories. I think I read up to book 4 aloud to my kids, which was very fun. I remember one vacation in Maine where we had these idyllic read-alouds. Since then my younger son has devoured each one moments after publication. He keeps encouraging me to read the rest of them, but somehow I just never get to it. And I confess, I get a little fidgetty during the movies, although we have been to see all of them so far. Action movies just don't hold my interest the way more character-driven movies do.
What's your dream situation for your books to take you into, in the next 7 years?
Oh gosh. That's so hard to admit out loud, isn't it? It would either sound ridiculously pie-in-the-sky, or like bragging. But I'll take a stab at it:
-- I'd like to win some awards, but not big enough that I have to go on the Today Show. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor told the funniest story when she spoke at a conference a few years ago. Got "the call." Was told to stay off the phone, because the Today Show would be calling momentarily to book her for the NEXT DAY. Says she doesn't remember much after that, but does recall telling her husband something like, "I have to lose 30 pounds by tomorrow." Haha! I know I'd have exactly the same reaction.
--I'd like to do a series. Something that would just fly off the shelves as the next book is announced. (Hey, we okayed pie-in-the-sky for this list, right?)
--I'd like to be one of those speakers who gets a WHOLE page to herself in the conference catalogs. I do think my speaking skills are a good match for my writing career. I know some writers just shudder at the thought of having to give a speech. I'm lucky that I don't get nerves over that sort of thing. I get nerves over finding my way to the venue where I'll DO the speaking. That's another of my "cannots." I am very directionally challenged.
How many half-written story ideas do you have stuffed in a drawer?
Oh, dozens and dozens! Well, maybe not that many half-written, but I do have an idea file into which I quickly record ideas. That's in the hundreds at this point. (If I'm at work at the newspaper and an idea comes to me, I send myself an email.)
I have a jar of old keys I found at my grandmother's house. They're gorgeous old skeleton keys, old barn keys, some just plain keys that don't look as old. But I was enchanted when I found this heavy box of keys in my grandmother's house after she passed away. I put them into an antique canning jar so you can see them properly. The keys represent inspiration for me, because every key has a story. It's up to me to find those stories. There used to be 231 of them, but sometimes I send them to friends when their books are published, so I don't have quite that many now.
To some of the keys, my grandmother had affixed notes like, "Found outside church, Sept. '46." I'll never know whether she kept them because she hoped to return them to their owners, or if she just liked the design of the keys. I'm guessing more of the latter.
The
keynote
jar
Once, as an experiment, I went thru all my idea notes, printed them up on slips of paper and stuffed them into a second jar. I wanted to have as many ideas in that jar as I had keys. I made it, too! I often bring the jar with me to school visits. There's always at least one clever child in the audience who immediately gets that the keys represent stories to me. I call the second jar my "keynote jar."
Do you keep a journal? How do you keep track of your good ideas?
I used to keep a journal into I wrote every morning after my walks. I've let BOTH those good habits lapse in the past couple of years. Really need to get back to that! Have resolved that before this summer is over, I WILL. (Yeah. Like the diet I'm always starting tomorrow.)
I talked about my messy collection of notebooks on another blog this week, and mentioned my idea jar above, but that's still not a good way to organize my ideas. I do have a folder on my computer into which my more developed ideas go. If I've taken the time to work on an idea a bit, (rather than that initial scribbled sentence), I'll go ahead and create a folder for that story and put it in my "Kim Stories" folder.
But I still don't think it's ideal. I'm one of those organizationally challenged types, (a double whammy with my directional challenges) who does best if she can SEE a project. So I used to have these colorful, vertical hanging files into which I'd put the stories as well as any publisher correspondance. But THAT didn't work well either. I ran out of wall space to hang them! And some of the folders got too fat and heavy! So I'm still looking for that ideal filing system that works just right for my particular brain.
What's the most important message you have for your fans?
Buy lots and lots of my books! No, seriously, just buy books.... and love books. If you can't afford to buy them, (I buy most of mine 2nd hand), check them out from the library -- by the boatload.
I was thinking about the "state of books in America" recently, as I enjoyed my book launch party. You constantly hear that books are a dying form of communication. And yet, here were all these people who took time out of their day to come and celebrate with me. Americans still DO get excited about books. They admire authors because they admire books. Or at least, they admire the act of book writing. They think of it as a kind of magic. Heck, I write them myself and *I* still think it's magic. I'd just like people to continue to believe in that kind of magic.
It's magic to me! Thank you, Kim -- you're a good friend and a fabulous writer and an entertaining interviewee.
Kim's blog http://jackofalltails.blogspot.com/
See more of Kim's interviews here:
Monday - Elizabeth Dulemba's blog
Tuesday - Dotti Enderle's blog
Wednesday - Kerry Madden's blog
Thursday - Barbara Johansen Newman's blog
Friday - Karen Lee's blog
Saturday - my blog
My friend Kim Norman has a book out today.
Congratulations, Kim!
Please clear a path while I sing.
:::soft, sweet, clear voice:::
Happy birthday to you,
:::a little louder:::
Happy Birthday To Youuu,
:::picking up steam:::
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR KIM'S BOOOK,
:::screeching now:::
H A P P Y
B I R T H D A Y
T O O O O O O
Y O U U U U !!!
:::curtsying:::
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I don't agree. There are lots of books out there with fathers in them. Just check out the Book Dads blog: http://www.bookdads.com/