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I am committed to being open with my readers so let me just say that I picked up a copy of Miss Maple’s Seeds in 2012 solely because of the title! I was so glad I did. It is a … Continue reading →

Well, it’s a little later than it should be,  . . . .but the voting is done and the winners have been chosen. Thank you to everyone who voted for the 2014 winners.   It was an honor to review each of these books.

To become a Top Book, and in the running for Best Book, a book must receive a 6-star review here at Kid Lit Reviews, released within the 2013 and 2014, and have been reviewed between December 1, 2013 and November 30, 2014. Voting normally occurs in December and the results announced in January. This year the only variation was the actual voting, which took place in March. Hopefully 2015 will be a healthier year and all will go as planned.

So, without any further delay, here are the winners.  Congratulations to all.

Best Picture Book

The Grudge Keeper

Author:  Mara Rockliff

Illustrator:  Eliza Wheeler

Publisher:  Peachtree Publishers    (April 1, 2014)

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Best Middle Grade Novel

The Guardian Herd #1: Starfire

Author:  Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Cover Artist:  David McClellan

Publisher:  HarperCollins Children’s Books    (September 23, 2014)

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Best Nonfiction Book

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker

Author: Patricia Hruby Powell

Illustrator: Christian Robinson

Publisher: Chronicle Books    (January 14, 2014)

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Best Poetry Book

Rhyme Schemer

Author:  K. A. Holt

Publisher:  Chronicle Books (October 1, 2014)

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Best Holiday Book

Lobo’s Howliday (The Adventures of Loveable Lobo #5)

Author:  C. L. Murphy

Illustrator:  C. L. Murphy

Publisher:  Peanut Butter Prose    (December 1, 2013)

WINNERS: I can offer you the files for your “stamp,” if you are interested. Otherwise this is more bragging rights than anything. Please email (or use contact form). Once again, congratulations to all the winners!

(flags and reading cat © Laura Strickland @ My Cute Graphics)

[Kelly Link will be at Powell's City of Books for a reading on Wednesday, February 18, at 7:30 p.m. Click here for details.] In a joint social media call-out, authors Kelly Link, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare invited readers to ask them anything they wanted. Below are some of those questions and responses. Q: Where [...]

Kids books are a fantastic mechanism to start the discussion with young readers on what is mindfulness and ways to incorporate it into lives.

I’m a chick who loves Star Wars.  I’m not ashamed of the fact.  Feminist icon Princess Leia?  I can get behind that (gold bikini or no).  So when I saw a galley for that AMAZING Star Wars children’s book coming out with art from the original concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, I was blown away.  Here, Tony DiTerlizzi (who did the writing in the book) talks about the film and the art.  Geeks unite!

I love that he mentions that moment with the two suns.  For me, that was undoubtedly the most iconic scene in the original film.  I just loved the realism of it.  I am SO reading this to my kids.  P.S. For a fun time read the rants about the “Luke, I am your father” line.  Or, better yet, don’t.

Now until about a day ago when my niece did it, I didn’t actually know what the Ice Bucket Challenge was.  Dav Pilkey takes it on using Flip-o-Rama.  Good man.

Ball’s in your court now, CeCe.

I think it’s safe to say that I have never seen an author promote a cinematic adaptation of their award winning book as much as I’ve seen Ms. Lois Lowry talk up the latest film of The Giver.  Here she does it again:

How famous is J.K. Rowling?  So famous that when she writes an incidental character, NBC News is willing to report on that character getting her own song.  According to Salon this is an original song written for Pottermore starring Celestina Warbeck, Molly Weasley’s favorite singer:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And speaking of all things Potter, the thing about learning that there’s a documentary out there called Mudbloods is that you can’t believe you hadn’t seen a film of that name before.  It’s an awfully good idea to make a movie about the rise of the real world Quiddich movement.  It’s not the first Harry Potter documentary of course but it’s a cute idea.  Here’s the trailer:

Man.  It would weird to be J.K. Rowling and see this, wouldn’t it?  Here’s some additional info.

A little me stuff.  I conducted a talk with Mara Rockliff and Eliza Wheeler for Bibliocommons in honor of their latest book The Grudge Keeper.  It was recorded, but rather than show our lovely faces the video shows some slides of what we’re discussing.  In case you’ve an interest you can take a gander at it.  A lot of talking about the process of writing picture books can be found here:

As for the off-topic video, this one’s been making the rounds.  It’s one of those videos where you go, “Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Ooooooh!”

Thanks to Steve Bird for the link!

The Grudge Keeper
By Mara Rockliff
Illustrated by Eliza Wheeler
Peachtree Press
$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-56145-729-8
Ages 4-7
On shelves now.

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the phrase, “There’s no use crying over spilled milk” was invented with the intention of comforting a two or three-year-old. Small children, one learns, are capable of great waves of hurt at the smallest, silliest things. You want to really know why the picture book Pete the Cat is the massive success it is? Because at its heart it’s about letting go of peripheral annoyances in everyday life. Children lack perspective. And when kids get a little older, they may still need some reminding on this front. Grudges and imagined slights abound for a certain kind of kid on a regular day-to-day basis. So while I wouldn’t necessarily say that there was an outright need for a book like The Grudge Keeper, by the same token it has a message in it that it couldn’t hurt a kid to hear. That and the fact that it’s a rather charmingly illustrated and written little beastie make it one of my understated favorites of the year.

You would think that a town where no one keeps a grudge would be the happiest place on earth. But for all that Old Cornelius, the Grudge Keeper, does a good job of cataloging every tiff and squabble in his home, the denizens of Bonnyripple just keep on finding more reasons to complain. Every day they load the old man down with their petty squabbles until the inevitable happens. One day a horrid wind comes along and manages to blow the old man’s home apart. Grudges are strewn everywhere, and only by digging through them to rescue Old Cornelius to the townspeople begin to see how utterly ridiculous some of their problems really are. Grudges disappear. Fences are mended. And by the end, Bonnyripple learns that life’s too short to hold onto your grudges OR to give them to someone else to hold onto. Sometimes you’ve just gotta let ‘em go.

Author Rockliff dandles language like a toy. Her thesaurus must be positively exhausted after all the different connotations of the word “grudge”. In this book we hear about ruffled feathers, petty snits, tiffs, huffs, insults, umbrages, squabbles, dust-ups, imbroglios (my personal favorite), offenses, complaints, accusations, quibbles, low blows, high dudgeon, left-handed compliments, and pique. It’s not just the words, though. It’s how Rockliff integrates them into the text. The book has all the trappings of a folktale without actually being one. You’d be forgiven, then, for forgetting that it isn’t a classic tale handed down from mother to child for generations. From that first sentence (“No one in the town of Bonnyripple ever kept a grudge. No one, that is, except Old Cornelius, the Grudge Keeper”) to the last, the book has a delightful tone and a complete, satisfying structure.

It wasn’t that I was necessarily unaware of artist Eliza Wheeler. I’d seen her nice work on Miss Maple’s Seeds and it was entirely charming. For this book, Wheeler pulls out her usual roster of dip pens, Indian ink, and watercolor. The book itself is painted in a soft green/gold glow, like the pages have a slightly yellowed tinge to them. Wheeler also does a darn good job of distinguishing amongst the characters. Read the book twice and suddenly you get a sense of their personalities. Read it a third time and you even begin to get a sense of the layout of the village itself. No small feat. And I don’t know if author Mara Rockliff necessarily envisioned that her goat and cat would have narratives of their own, but that’s what Wheeler gave them. Besides, you’d have to have a pretty cold heart not to love a goat in a top hat. All he needs is a monocle and he’d be the talk of the town.

Folktales will always have a place in the realm of children’s literature. They remain the number one most efficient way to dole out lessons to the kiddies without sounding like you’re trying to teach them something. But new folktales are always welcome and that’s precisely what The Grudge Keeper really is. Timely in its telling, Rockliff and Wheeler together manage to make a book that feels simultaneously fresh and classic all in one go. Beautifully rendered and written, there’s nothing begrudging in my praise of this work. If you want something that could be read by countless generations of kids thanks to its classic feel, this little title has your number. Sublime.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• The Night Eater by Ana Juan
• Mrs. Biddlebox by Linda Smith
• Stuck with the Blooz by Caron Levis

Other Blog Reviews:

• Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
• Kid Lit Reviews
• Chat With Vera
• 3rd Grade Reading
• Quill Cafe

Professional Reviews:

• A star from Kirkus
• Publishers Weekly

Misc:

• Get the inside scoop on the making of the book.

• Hear about its path to publication from the author’s agent herself.

HOT OF THE PRESSES:

Laurie Wallmark’s book ADA, about a smart little girl who likes science and math was sold to Marissa Moss at Creston Books, by Liza Fleissig at Liza Royce Agency.

Laurie had a critique with Ginger Harris of the Liza Royce Agency at the last NJ SCBWI annual conference. She and Liza Fleissig expressed interest in Ada.

After six revisions based on their and Marissa Moss’s feedback, Creston books made an offer.

Emily Feinberg at Roaring Brook has bought world rights to INN BETWEEN by Marina Cohen, in a two-book deal.

The story follows 12-year-old Quinn, who is driving across country with her best friend’s family when a stopover at a creepy Victorian hotel in middle of the Nevada desert turns terrifying.

Publication is set for winter 2016;

John M. Cusick of Greenhouse Literary was the agent.

Nanci Stockton Turner-Steveson has signed a contract for Swing Sideways, AND another as-yet-unwritten book with Rosemary Brosnan, Executive Director at HarperCollins.

When I asked Nanci to describe the book this is what she wrote: My editor (wow, did you read that?) referred to Swing Sideways as a “timeless and heartfelt” middle grade novel.

It is the story of two girls from opposite sides of the country who meet one summer and form an unlikely friendship while struggling with their own challenges, and the discovery of a secret that links them together in a surprising and heart wrenching way.

Illustrator Nancy Cote ( featured on Illustrator Saturday) illustrated Tori Corn’s new picture book Dixie Wants and Allergy published by Sky Pony Press. Both Nancy and Tori are represented by the Lisa Royce Agency.

Dixie Wants an Allergy provides a comical and engaging approach for children who are beginning to learn about and who are coping with allergies—and who also have trouble finding what makes them unique. Corn’s playful text and Cote’s inviting illustrations encourage children to accept those with differences while learning that wanting what others have is not always a good idea. For ages 3 to 6, and a good addition to any preschool or Kindergarten classroom for read-aloud time. This book not only introduces children to the realities of allergies, which many of their peers will have, but also teaches the important lesson of being careful what you wish for.

*****

Nancy Armo, who was featured on Illustrator Saturday has signed a contract with Peachtree Press for her first written and illustrated picture book titled, A FRIEND FOR MOLE.

Here is the Publisher Market announcement: Nancy Armo’s A FRIEND FOR MOLE, about an accidental encounter between Mole and Wolf, one afraid of the light, the other afraid of the dark, who together learn that friends are all they need to conquer their fears, to Kathy Landwehr at Peachtree, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2015, by Anna Olswanger at Liza Dawson Associates (World).

*****

I just learned that Eliza Wheeler, who was featured on Illustrator Saturday did the artwork for Holly Black’s DOLL BONES. I have had that book on my wish list since it came out. Had I realized the illustrations inside and out were by Eliza, I would already have it on my bookshelf.

*****

What I don’t get is, out of the seven people in this post, only the first two let me know about their success. Are people just shy about doing something worth shouting from the rooftops? I tell every illustrator that I feature to please let me know when something good happens and I really do mean it. I am very happy to hear about good things when they happen. Please don’t rely on me to find them.

Congratulations to everyone!

Remember this weekend there are two great book signings in the North Jersey area:

S is for SEA Glass

Doris Ettlinger

Fair Haven NJ – May 16, 3:30-4:30 pm 

River Road Books

Clinton NJ - May 17, 1-3 pm 

Clinton Book Shop

Pandemic Book Launch Party 

Yvonne Ventresca

Sunday, May 18^th, 2 pm 

WORDS Bookstore

179 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood, NJ 07040

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

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The Grudge Keeper

by Mara Rockliff & Eliza Wheeler

Peachtree Publishers     4/1/2014

978-1-56145-729-8

Age 4 to 8         32 pages

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“No one in the town of Bonnyripple ever kept a grudge. No one, that is, except old Cornelius the Grudge Keeper. Ruffled feathers, petty snits, minor tiffs, and major huffs, insults, umbrage, squabbles, dust-ups, and imbroglios—the Grudge Keeper received them all, large and small, tucking each one carefully away in his ramshackle cottage. But when a storm flings the people together and their grudges to the wind, will the Grudge Keeper be out of a job?”

Opening

“No one in the town of Bonnyripple ever kept a grudge. No one, that is, except old Cornelius the Grudge Keeper.”

The Story

The citizens of Bonnyripple do not hold grudges. Nope, not one grudge. Anyone new to town would wonder how everyone kept from holding a grudge. They all had Cornelius. Elvira ran a grudge up to Cornelius against the darned goat—the one that supped on her prize zinnias—and Cornelius has held that grudge for her ever since. All the townsfolk run their grudges up to Cornelius and then go about their happy lives. Poor Cornelius was so inundated with grudges his house could find little room for more, yet more came.

Sylvester loves to prank his schoolmaster. One day he plucked the man’s toupee right off his baldhead. The schoolmaster took great offense to this . . . but he never held a grudge against Sylvester, no matter how many times Sylvester pranked the man. A huge storm came in with gusty winds strong enough to knock Minnie’s fresh-made lemon pie off the windowsill, where it had sat cooling off. That pie landed right on top of Elvira’s cat, surely bringing home a mess.

The moment the winds died down and the sun once again shined upon the people of Bonnyripple, Elvira walked up to Cornelius, ready with her grudge. If she had looked behind herself, she would have seen everyone from town with grudges for Cornelius to store. When the townsfolk made it to Cornelius’s house, they could not believe the sight. Poor Cornelius lay buried beneath a huge pile of decades-old grudges and no way out. Can they get Cornelius out from under the weight of all those grudges before it bears down upon him?

Review

The ending to The Grudge Keeper not only satisfies a wonderful story, it teaches a lesson in civility. The people of Bonnyripple did not like holding a grudge, but a grudge unsatisfied will always be a grudge. Therefore, they gave the grudge to someone else to handle—Cornelius. Eventually, those grudges landed everywhere, thanks to a storm, but Cornelius was nowhere. What the townspeople did next would change the entire atmosphere of Bonnyripple.

Younger children, without help from an adult, may not understand this picture book. At age four, kids do not know what a grudge is even if they have heard the word. They do understand how to apologize and to forgive. By age six or seven, kids understand what holding a grudge means and may hold one or two themselves. If only the people of Bonnyripple had known how to say, “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you.”

Reading The Grudge Keeper was easy, without a tongue tie-up from start to finished, no matter how hard the word or the wind swirled around Bonnyripple. The writing uses word play and humor, even in the naming of characters. I love the way the author describes action.

“Laundry fluttered on the line. Lily Belle’s best flowered bonnet skipped away. Big Otto captured it and brought it back, but Lily Belle just grumbled that the petals were all out of place.”

The illustrations seem perfect for the story, as if both text and illustrations were completed side-by-side. With its sophisticated look, parents will appreciate The Grudge Keeper as much as, if not more than, their children. Kids will love the oft-comical illustrations.

Every wrong is a grudge to the townsfolk and you can see this in their eyes and in their postures.  How do you settle a grudge? No revenge is needed, only a simple and heartfelt apology and forgiveness. Will the people of Bonnyripple ever understand this? If they do—or don’t—what will they and their town become?

THE GRUDGE KEEPER. Text copyright © 2014 by Mara Rockliff. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Eliza Wheeler. Reproduce by permission of the publisher, Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA.

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Learn more about The Grudge Keeper HERE.

Buy The Grudge Keeper at Amazon—B&N—Peachtree Publishing—your local bookstore.

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Meet the author, Mara Rockliff, at her website:  http://mararockliff.com/

Meet the illustrator, Eliza Wheeler, at her website:  http://wheelerstudio.com/

Find more great books at the Peachtree Publisher website:  http://peachtree-online.com/

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Also by Mara Rockliff

Me and Momma and Big John

My Heart Will Not Sit Down

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Also by Elia Wheeler

Miss Maple’s Seeds

Doll Bones

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.New at Peachtree Publisher

Beneath the Son

Claude at the Beach

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.Read a shortened version of The Grudge Keeper‘s journey from manuscript to publication HERE.

Peachtree Book Blog Tour

The Grudge Keeper

 Monday

A Word’s Worth

Tuesday

Reading to Know

Wednesday

Chat with Vera

 Thursday

Tolivers to Texas

Kid Lit Reviews    You Made it Here! Now Please Check Out the Others.

 Friday

Geo Librarian

I noticed Eliza’s portfolio when I was out in LA at the SCBWI Summer Conference this year.  The Art Exhibit was teaming with talent, but Eliza took the Grand Prize with her portfolio.  I know you will enjoy your visit with her.

I grew up in Northern Wisconsin in a family of teachers, musicians, and artists. Drawing was my favorite form of play as a child, my emotional outlet as a teen, and is my escape as an adult. Some of the strongest influences on my creativity have been the wild Wisconsin seasons, canoeing the Brule River, picking blueberries with my Grandmother, and digging through the snow with my brothers.

I got a degree in art and design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 2006, moved to Los Angeles and searched for my place as an artist in the “real world”. In 2009 I attended my first national conference for the Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators (SCBWI) and felt immediately at home. Children’s literature allows me to experience my own childhood again; to reconnect with and express the imagination as vividly as the time I was building forts in the woods and playing with dolls. Little has changed; only now the worlds I imagine I have the ability to share.

In spring 2010 I illustrated the book What Does It Mean To Be Present? written by Rana DiOrio of Little Pickle Press. In July of that same year I received the SCBWI LA conference mentorship program award, the catalyst for my 2011 win of the portfolio showcase grand prize award! Currently I’m in the process of developing several of my own stories, including a picture book to be published with Nancy Paulsen/Penguin Books for Young Readers.

Above is the cover of the first picture book that she has illustrated. Now let’s take a look at her process. Here’s Eliza:

I start with a small thumbnail sketch, about 1 by 2 inches. This usually happens in my sketchbook where I do most of my thinking. The kernel of the idea is a few basic shapes, and then I do a slightly more detailed thumbnail of the scene.

At this point I usually hit up Google Images, collecting reference imagery that relates to my idea – scenery, characters, objects, lighting, etc. I’ll usually do some sketches of those objects and settings.

Sometimes I’ll build a crude model to help aid with perspective or to get a feel for the lighting. I’ll use whatever materials are on hand, in the case of this drawing; a pizza box for the walls and modeling clay for the figure.

A part of my process not shown here is to enlarge my thumbnail, do a rough sketch on a cheap tracing paper on top of that, enlarge that sketch to 100% and do my final pencil drawing on nice tracing paper (Graphics 360 Marker Paper). I scan that drawing in and print it out with my Epson Stylus 2880 on the final water

I noticed Eliza’s portfolio when I was out in LA at the SCBWI Summer Conference this year.  The Art Exhibit was teaming with talent, but Eliza took the Grand Prize with her portfolio.  I know you will enjoy your visit with her.

I grew up in Northern Wisconsin in a family of teachers, musicians, and artists. Drawing was my favorite form of play as a child, my emotional outlet as a teen, and is my escape as an adult. Some of the strongest influences on my creativity have been the wild Wisconsin seasons, canoeing the Brule River, picking blueberries with my Grandmother, and digging through the snow with my brothers.

I got a degree in art and design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 2006, moved to Los Angeles and searched for my place as an artist in the “real world”. In 2009 I attended my first national conference for the Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators (SCBWI) and felt immediately at home. Children’s literature allows me to experience my own childhood again; to reconnect with and express the imagination as vividly as the time I was building forts in the woods and playing with dolls. Little has changed; only now the worlds I imagine I have the ability to share.

In spring 2010 I illustrated the book What Does It Mean To Be Present? written by Rana DiOrio of Little Pickle Press. In July of that same year I received the SCBWI LA conference mentorship program award, the catalyst for my 2011 win of the portfolio showcase grand prize award! Currently I’m in the process of developing several of my own stories, including a picture book to be published with Nancy Paulsen/Penguin Books for Young Readers.

Above is the cover of the first picture book that she has illustrated. Now let’s take a look at her process. Here’s Eliza:

I start with a small thumbnail sketch, about 1 by 2 inches. This usually happens in my sketchbook where I do most of my thinking. The kernel of the idea is a few basic shapes, and then I do a slightly more detailed thumbnail of the scene.

At this point I usually hit up Google Images, collecting reference imagery that relates to my idea – scenery, characters, objects, lighting, etc. I’ll usually do some sketches of those objects and settings.

Sometimes I’ll build a crude model to help aid with perspective or to get a feel for the lighting. I’ll use whatever materials are on hand, in the case of this drawing; a pizza box for the walls and modeling clay for the figure.

A part of my process not shown here is to enlarge my thumbnail, do a rough sketch on a cheap tracing paper on top of that, enlarge that sketch to 100% and do my final pencil drawing on nice tracing paper (Graphics 360 Marker Paper). I scan that drawing in and print it out with my Epson Stylus 2880 on the final water

An esteemed panel of judges (possessing much expertise and very good taste) pored over portfolios yesterday to choose winners for the SCBWI Portfolio Showase! Laurent Linn, Steven Malk, Richard Jesse Watson, Nancy Conescu and Jamie Weiss Chilton chose a grand prize winner and three honor winners as well as several illustrators to participate in SCBWI's illustrator mentorship program.

Note that mentorship recipient Julianna Brion won an SCBWI student scholarship (one of three winners), awarded this year for the first time. And she's the recipient of both a portfolio honor and mentorship. Also note that honor winner Joen Deininger was a mentorship winner last year. (The wonderful SCBWI Illustrator Committee programs yield results!)

Here are the recipients...

Grand Prize Winner: ELIZA WHEELER

Portfolio Honor: GREG PIZZOLI

Portfolio Honor & Mentorship Recipient: JULIANNA BRION

Portfolio Honor: JOHN DEININGER