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  I joined a few other children’s lit colleagues over at Slate Magazine to discuss children’s books that celebrate fatherhood. Click on the image above to see the gallery of titles. Until tomorrow …

  By now, you may have already read about The Rabbit hOle, the ambitious new project from the owners of Reading Reptile, a children’s bookstore in Kansas City, Missouri. The video above is a great introduction to the project, and not just for the reference to rye whiskey. This Kansas City Star article from April […]

Click the image below for some wise words from author-illustrator Sergio Ruzzier. Thanks, Sergio and the Nerdy Book Club.  

I’m gonna resort to my favorite, the rock-and-roll hands: I’m Chicago-bound on Friday to talk about blogging at the Center for Teaching through Children’s Books at National Louis University. Since 7-Imp is 10 years old this year, I could talk all day but instead have one hour to fill. If you’re in Chicago and signed […]

  This is a guest post from Oksana Lushchevska, a PhD student in Reading, Writing, Children’s Literature, and Digital Literacy in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at The University of Georgia. Oksana visits 7-Imp occasionally to contribute guest posts on contemporary Ukrainian children’s literature. She’s back again today to talk about, of all […]

  I’ve got three quick 7-Imp announcements, and I’m going to use rock-and-roll hands, instead of bullet points, because rock-and-roll hands are infinitely more exciting. I’ve got a guest post today over at Calling Caldecott about Mordicai Gerstein’s The Night World. I already reviewed this beautiful book back in June for BookPage, but writing about […]

Today over at Kirkus, I write about the welcome return of the characters in two new picture book imports. One of those characters is pictured above. That link will be here soon.

Also, over at Chapter 16, I’ve got a write-up about the wonderful Children’s Festival of Reading that Knoxville, Tennessee’s Knox County Public Library puts on every year. There’s a great line-up of authors and illustrators who will be there next Saturday. And I’ll be moderating a picture book panel, which I’m looking forward to. That write-up is here.

Until Sunday …

 

On April 15, Parnassus Books here in Nashville will host a roundtable discussion on early literacy at Ensworth School. As you can see from the image above, I’ll be participating in the discussion with author Rosemary Wells, as well as teacher and Calling Caldecott blogger Robin Smith and librarian Sarah Martin. Executive Director of Book’em, Melissa Spradlin, will moderate the discussion.

Here are all the details you need, if you’re interested in attending!

I’ll be in Asheville, NC, this weekend to speak about Wild Things at Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café. If you live in the Asheville area, will I see you there? Hope so.

Here’s the information, and you can click to see the image more clearly:

I’m doing something totally different today, something I’ve never really done at 7-Imp before.

The Art Director for the children’s magazine Ranger Rick, Jr. emailed me last year (it’s taken a while to post this!), asking how she can search at my site for newer talent, for illustrators just starting out and looking for work. As you’ll read below, they’re always in need of illustrators (whether new or seasoned), despite the fact that their magazine is a photo-driven one.

For different reasons, I thought she and I could do a Q&A — for those illustrators who might be interested in such work or curious about this type of work in general.

Her name is Cynthia Olson, and our short Q&A is below. (Personally, I enjoyed chatting with her, since she’s a big picture book fan. We had a lot of conversations about our favorite 2014 picture books, a conversation that took place over months just before the ALA Youth Media Awards were announced.)

Jules: Hi, Cindy! Can you talk a bit about what you do as Art Director for Ranger Rick Jr.?

Cynthia: I am always glad that I read the “Design Matters” issue of the Horn Book magazine, where Jon Scieszka talks about working with Lane Smith and Molly Leach. It has a lot of simple language about design, and it helps me explain my job to people (like my parents) by simply saying, “Designers make pictures and words fit together in books and look nice.” And that’s basically what I do for Ranger Rick Jr.

Ranger Rick Jr. is the National Wildlife Federation’s magazine for young children. Our goal is to inspire kids to learn and care about wildlife. So most of the time, I am telling a story with pictures — pictures of really cool animals. My responsibility is to make sure the information flows in an understandable way, while also making it really fun to look at.

I admire the National Wildlife Federation, because they are very committed to finding excellent photography, often of animal behavior that has not been published before. Our photo editor spends incredible amounts of time finding the newest and best pictures of everything from sharks to kangaroos to blue-footed boobies.

Since this is an illustration blog, it’s a little odd for me to be interviewed, because our magazine is very photo-driven. But illustration does play a big role as well. There are two main reasons that illustration is critical to our magazine. One is that some animal facts and behaviors are so much easier to understand when they are illustrated. For example, we have an illustrated feature every month that shows three facts about an animal — we use this feature to clearly show things that you would never be able to discern in a photograph.

The other main reason that we use illustration is for good, goofy fun. We always have games that reinforce the learning from the feature stories, but the illustrations are usually a little silly, very colorful, and not at all realistic. These illustrated sections break up the photo features.

So, along with “making the pictures and words fit together,” my job is to make sure the magazine flows as a cohesive unit with photos, text, and illustration.

Jules: I love that Scieszka article too. It’s a classic.

That makes complete sense, your need for illustration in a photo-driven magazine.

So, I know that you all are interested in adding to the pool of talented illustrators you hire for this kind of work. Do you want to talk a little bit more about that?

Cynthia: Just as we do with photographers, we are always looking for fresh illustrations that can help readers look at things in a new way. Or make them laugh. Or just give them a new style of art to enjoy.

It’s my job to keep things fresh and mix things up. Of course, it’s also a personal interest. I love picture books. I love the surprise of how illustrators present things. Since this is a young audience, we aren’t super literal with our illustrations, which means that we have a lot of leeway to use different styles of artists.

I’m hoping to connect with more people whom I might not know or might not have thought to contact. And I want look for connections between what we are doing and what illustrators are doing. For example, if I were doing something on flamingos and Molly Idle were available, that would be just amazing. So, if somebody is doing beautiful tigers or cranes or koala bears (and so on), I would love to see them.

Jules: One of the reasons I want to do this post is because I wonder if illustrators, particularly novice ones, know about opportunities like this — from magazines like this. What do interested illustrators need to do to get more information about this?

Cynthia: I’ll give a bit more detail here.

The National Wildlife Federation has two magazines that hire children’s illustrators (Ranger Rick and Ranger Rick Jr.) There are usually four to six assignments commissioned each month. The work is almost always based on a real wildlife subject and, depending on the feature, it may be humorous or realistic. Our rates are competitive, but we do need all rights to a commissioned illustration.

I think it’s a good opportunity, because the illustrations are generally quite fun, and we are able to give the artist a fairly loose description to work from.

I am happy to receive art samples by mail or email. Artists can contact me directly:

Cindy Olson, Art Director
Ranger Rick, Jr.
National Wildlife Federation
11100 Wildlife Center Drive
Reston, VA 20190
[email protected]

Jules: Anything else you want to add?

Also, I know you are a big picture book fan. This is (sort of) off-topic, but I’m curious to know: What are your 2014 favorites? [Ed. Note: Again, this conversation happened right before the ALA Youth Media Awards were announced.]

Cynthia: I feel incredibly lucky to be working in a place where inspirational things are happening all the time. And, by that, I do mean that the work of the National Wildlife Federation is inspiring and that I am honored to be part of it. But I also mean something larger. At NWF I am tapped into a network of people who love wildlife and science — and who are creative and passionate and even a little crazy. People share footage from their favorite animal cams, show incredible time-lapse videos of mushrooms growing, and bring your attention to a new species of snail named after Joe Stummer. (I have included the link because it is so cool).

I come across something almost every day that reminds me how fascinating, rich, funny, weird and beautiful the world is. And I want to try to bring that feeling to the magazine.

So, on to my favorite picture books for the year — a heady topic as the Caldecott approaches.

My family has fallen head-over-heels for Christian Robinson this year. My husband and I are dazzled by Josephine, and my nine-year-old daughter, Freya, wants to adopt all the puppies in Gaston.

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole is one of my favorite read-aloud books ever. Mac Barnett is so delightfully weird, and I am a huge fan of Jon Klassen. They get extra points for the “Twilight Zone” ending.

The Right Word is a marvel, a wonder, a surprise, and a darned great book.

And Bad Bye, Good Bye makes me want to take a road trip.

Jules: Award-winners, many of those. This we know, now that the awards are over.

Thanks, Cindy. Happy picture book-reading in 2015!

For those of you who follow The Niblings over at either Facebook or Twitter, here’s a quick announcement about two new inclusions into our Niblings sphere:

To fill the much-needed YA slot, Mitali Perkins (pictured at the open of this post) joins us. A distinguished author, responsible for such books as Rickshaw Girl, Bamboo People, Secret Keeper, and this April’s Tiger Boy, Mitali has maintained her blog, Mitali’s Fire Escape, since 2005, where she discusses books between cultures. You may also find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Minh Lê also joins us. We’ve been impressed by and big fans of his work for years now. Not only has he been blogging for Book Riot, the Huffington Post, and Bottom Shelf Books, but he recently sold his debut picture book, Let Me Finish!, to Disney-Hyperion. You can also find him on Twitter.

For those of you not familiar with The Niblings: We are a blog consortium, created almost two years ago this month, over at Facbeook and Twitter. It represents Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Yours Truly), A Fuse #8 Production (Betsy Bird), Nine Kinds of Pie (Philip Nel), and 100 Scope Notes (Travis Jonker). Our Facebook page and Twitter presence are our spaces for sharing in one spot links from our blogs and other writings, as well as for sharing other interesting links/news related to the field of children’s literature. We hope that it’s a sort of one-stop resource center for information on children’s literature. (Here’s more information.)

Photo of Mitali Perkins used by her permission.

Photo of Minh Lê taken by Danielle Lurie and used by his permission.

The Niblings art was created by Megan Montague Cash and is © 2013 Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson, Travis Jonker, and Philip Nel.

Here’s a quick note to share this upcoming event from Parnassus Books. Author Sharon Draper will be in town to engage in this panel discussion, sponsored by Parnassus but taking place at the Nashville Public Library, about diversity in children’s literature. I’ll be participating in the discussion, and there’s more information here at Parnassus’ site, including details about my fellow panelists, Kristin Bernet and Dean Schneider.

For those in and near middle Tennessee, I hope you can make it!

This morning at 7-Imp, I’m doing something a little bit different. Matthew Winner, who founded and runs the Let’s Get Busy podcast, is celebrating his 100th episode. He’s been visiting a few blogs to talk about his work, and today he has a cup of cyber-coffee with me to answer some questions about the wonderful resource that his podcast has become.

Matthew is an elementary school librarian and also runs a blog called The Busy Librarian. Today we’re going to focus, though, on his informative podcast. (Lucky me, I even got to visit in August.) Those of you who read my May interview this year with author-illustrator Dan Santat may remember this moment:

I’ve recently become addicted to Matthew Winner’s Let’s Get Busy podcast, where he interviews authors and illustrators in children’s publishing. Everyone should check that podcast out. … I think in about a year, when everyone catches on, it will be one of the most important media sites in the children’s publishing field.

So, here’s Matthew. I thank him for visiting today and congratulate him on 100 episodes!

Jules: What have been some of your LGB highlights and greatest joys this year?

Matthew (pictured right): Seymour Simon told me he feels like a father figure to me and that he’s proud of me. Brian Won called me “The Ira Glass of Kidlit, only cooler.” A bunch of #KidLitArt pals invited me into their weekly Mario Kart 8 online tournaments. I’d say it’s been a pretty spectacular year for me.

I feel like I could tell you something special about every single interview I’ve shared on the podcast thus far, but maybe the best way I can sum it up is to say that each interview brings with it something new. And there’s always at least one special moment in each of the conversations that makes a memory with me and that I end up sharing with others. I’ll give you an example: I recently interviewed Scott Campell (Episode 98) on his new picture book, Hug Machine. After a moment of gushing over his heartwarming story about a kid who is a champion for (and of) hugging, I told Scott that there was such a powerful sense of truth in his book’s text, and I asked if he himself was a hug machine. Shortly after I received my first and only virtual hug. It’s a moment that makes me smile so much and still it brings me back to his book. Near the end of the story there’s this great spread where the boy, in essence, gives the reader a hug. And on that page, in no uncertain way, Scott is hugging every single one of his readers. It’s awesome. And it’s a moment of the podcast that I know I’ll remember for a very long time.

Jules: Did talking to any of the many illustrators and author-illustrators you interviewed this year change your view of picture books in any remarkable ways?

Matthew: The work of authors and illustrators varies so much from person to person. We all know that. And yet I do find myself intrigued in hearing artists describe their process and how it’s changed over time. Lauren Castillo (Episode 100) published two books this year as an author-illustrator and both show such master of craft in the way she balances well-tempered words with these beautiful watercolors. I’m talking, of course, about The Troublemaker and Nana in the City. Her process includes writing a much more text-heavy manuscript, then editing it down as she creates dummies and considers her illustrations. It’s as if she’s split herself in two to work out the perfect balance of text and art. That just kind of blows my mind.

I had a similar experience when I spoke with Nathan Hale (Episode 61), known most notably for his Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales graphic novel series. Nathan writes a full manuscript for every graphic novel before ever drawing a single sketch for the work. I mean, that’s amazing! He’s creating hundreds of drawings for his story with limited text, being that he tells much of his story through the art. And yet all of that is playing around up in his head and is captured, to oversimply his process, in what comes down to stage directions and art notes. Had you asked me prior to starting Let’s Get Busy about the way in which graphic novelists work, I never in a million years would have guessed that so many begin with a manuscript.

Then there’s the way that Dan Santat (Episode 41) envisioned our imaginary friends as extensions of ourselves, taking various forms that mirror our own interests. I mean, REALLY! Would you have guessed that Beekle resembles a blank sheet of paper onto which brilliant ideas can be captured?

Or that Bob Shea (Episode 23) designs each of his characters from a basic jellybean shape so that his readers can recreate his characters more easily?! My students and I spent an entire week drawing characters out of jellybean shapes when I learned that. First we started with Bob’s characters, and then we created ones of our own!

Or that Raina Telgemeier (Episode 39) tries to build a hook into the last panel of each of her pages in order to get the reader to turn the page and stay engaged in the story? No wonder none of us can put her books down!

Or that Chris Haughton has actually moved from creating his illustrations using a digital collage technique to working with cut and torn paper to create actual collage art for his newest picture book, Shh! We Have a Plan!

If anything, I would say that hosting Let’s Get Busy has made me an even bigger fan of picture books. I marvel at the process and the technique that goes into creating these works of art, and I think about how very lucky I am to get to peek into these artists studios and learn more about the inspiration and journey that brought them to the finished product.

Wait … did I answer your question? I hope I did.

It’s all remarkable to me.

Jules: If the sky were the limit, what’s one thing you wish you could do at your podcast, if anything?

Matthew: I would love for a whole bunch of us kidlit fans and advocates and creators to build a network together of podcasts and YouTube channels and blogs and news outlets. I know that would be a huge undertaking, but I think having one large collective with a single entry site to access all of this truly awesome content would be incredible. I listen to this great podcast called The Nerdist (see my response to the next question for more back story). But The Nerdist has grown over the past several years into a network of podcasts, YouTube shows, articles and more really cool stuff, and the idea grew from connecting fans of the podcast with other content they might enjoy. That’s where I’d love to see Let’s Get Busy connect and grow. I’d love to find a more efficient way of connecting my listening audience with other podcasts and resources they might love and also to get Let’s Get Busy to the ears of people who might not know about it yet.

I love being a part of Nerdy Book Club and all of the amazing connections I’ve made through that awesome collective, but it just wants me to help connect others in this kidlit community even more.

Jules: Can you talk a bit about why you started the podcast?

Matthew: I blame Travis Jonker, author of the 100 Scope Notes blog, for actually getting Let’s Get Busy started.

One of my favorite things about attending library and reading conferences is getting to meet authors and illustrators and cartoonists. But something special happens when you get to hang out with those same people beyond the exhibition halls or artists alleys. Chances are that, if you sit down with anyone you find remotely interesting and have an earnest conversation with them for ten or more minutes, you’ve found yourself. And when you speak with authors and illustrators and cartoonists, the stories you start to hear often inform the stories these creative types create. It’s not always so direct, but it’s always something I find really fascinating.

So when I was telling Travis Jonker this, as we were hanging out with other kidlit pals at a hotel bar in Chicago at a recent ALA conference, I related these conversations to one of my favorite podcasts, The Nerdist, in which the conversations with guests from all over the comedy, music, and movie scenes are informal and are given the time to breathe and get really interesting. Why not create something similar for the kidlit world where we’d get to hear these sincere interviews with authors and illustrators and then get to know and love their work even more so in the process?

Travis said in so many words, “Sounds great! I would listen to that! When are you going to start?”

Those words were the permission I needed to start Let’s Get Busy, a friend’s encouragement and validation of an idea. The rest is sort of history. I started interviewing my friends in the library and publishing worlds. After each interview I would ask my guest to make a recommendation of whom I should talk to next. From there, the connections have grown far and wide but have always maintained a sense of family and closeness. That’s a quality I hope the podcast never loses.

Jules: What’s your favorite thing about podcasting? What drives you to keep doing it?

Matthew: I learn something new with each person that I talk to. And I get to talk to people I never expected this small town school librarian to brush elbows with. And I get to be a fan of my guests’ works without having to filter or hide it. And it’s maybe the most fun thing I’ve ever been involved with. Okay… that’s an awful lot of sentences ending with articles, but it’s all to say that the thing that drives me to keep podcasting is that every conversation is like a gift that I’ve been given that I get to love and cherish and then share with someone new. Each guest, whether it’s someone whose work I know well or if it’s a person who just happens to be best mates with a recent guest, every single guest has been a pure joy to chat with. I’m glad I get to be the guy behind the mic on this one. And I’m grateful for the couple of people who are listening.

Jules: What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

Matthew: I’m a super slow reader. That’s probably why I don’t have more middle grade or YA authors on the podcast. It’s so hard for me to read through their books in time for the interview and it makes me feel really, really bad. I’ll talk to anyone and I’m really, really good at starting books. Ha!

Oh! And for a non-booky thing, I’m teaching myself to play banjo. I inherited a banjo from my wife’s grandfather, and I try to play a little bit every day. It’s been almost a year now, and I’m still struggling with my finger-picking, but I figure by the time I have a picture book contract of my own, I maybe—just maybe—will be able to write some sort of awesome song for the book trailer.

Photo of Matthew and images from the podcast are used by permission of Matthew Winner.

Ever heard of the Coretta Scott King Awards Book Fair? I hadn’t either till I took my children to one of these fairs in Nashville a few months back.

Today at Kirkus, I talk to the Fair’s organizer, Collette Hopkins. She’s pictured above (second from the left) at this year’s Fair with Angelica Washington, author Sharon Draper, storyteller Mama Koku, and illustrator R. Gregory Christie. Collette talks about what the Fair is and how interested teachers and librarians can bring it to their city.

That link will be here soon.

Image used with permission of Collette Hopkins.

P.S. This includes next Sunday! I’ll be back after that, so as for you kickers, I’ll see you in two weeks.

 

I don’t have art for you all today, but I will later this week.

This is just a quick post to, once again, point you all to the Wild Things! site. My co-author and I are still sharing stories over there, ones cut from the original manuscript of our book, and we will have a story-a-day until publication on August 5th. (We’re even going to have some fun with author videos after that.)

Yesterday, we had a short post about the precocious ones of children’s lit. (Can you guess what Maurice Sendak’s first illustrated title was? It may not be what you think.) That link is here.

Today, we have a short post on celebrity children’s books (which gets an entire chapter in our book). We have the nice folks at the Horn Book to thank for re-posting a piece Peter once wrote about the celebrity book trend. (And when I read the Twitter response mentioned in this post, I laughed so hard, my husband came in the room to ask me if I was okay.)

Later this week, we’ll look at some feuds, some early exits of children’s lit, a funky Buddha party, films and children’s books, and more. It’s all here.

Until Thursday …

Just a quick note to say that this Friday I’ll speak in Huntsville, Alabama, at the 2014 Annual Convention of the Alabama Library Association.

The following week, I’ll also speak at the Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference 2014, but I won’t have to travel far for that one. It’ll be in my own back yard, so to speak (Murfreesboro, Tennessee).

If any of my blog readers will be at either conference, by chance, please come say hi!

Until Thursday …

I don’t often do this (it pains me to have a 7-Imp post with no art), but I have a few, quick newsy-type notes. I’ll use my rock-and-roll hands, like I did in the most recent This, This, and the Other post back in November, just to keep things interesting:

Today, I’m over at the blog of author-illustrator Brian Lies. It’s not often that I’m the interviewee, but he asked if I wanted to participate in a blog series about favorite characters in children’s lit, and I was totally game.

That link is here.

p.s. We will not discuss the fact that Brian recently visited a library in the county I live in, and I managed to miss it altogether. Not I-knew-about-it-but-couldn’t-go, but I-managed-to-miss-the-announcement-that-he’d-even-be-here. Still kicking myself over that.

I’m happy to have contributed to the Horn Book’s upcoming issue (March/April) all about illustration. Needless to say, I’m eager to read the issue cover-to-cover.

The piece about illustration that I wrote for them is also online now at their site.

Finally, a note for local friends: I’ll be doing story time this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville. We’ll be celebrating Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss stories. I hear there will be cupcakes, and what a wonder are cupcakes.

Until tomorrow (when I will have art!) …

I’ve mentioned Picture Book Month previously here at 7-Imp, but here’s a quick note this morning to say that I’ll be a part of it this year, its third annual celebration.

Picture Book Month is an international literacy initiative that celebrates the print picture book during the month of November, encouraging everyone to read and share picture books. Founder, Dianne de Las Casas, and Co-Founders, Katie Davis, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Tara Lazar, and Wendy Martin, collaborated on this initiative, pulling together their world-wide connections to launch this celebration.

The Picture Book Month website features what they call a “picture book champion” for every day of November 2013. These folks—authors, illustrators, and many more—will weigh in on why they think picture books are important, and I’ll be one of those folks in early November. The site also includes a themed calendar, picture book links and resources, links to picture book publishers, links to picture book authors/illustrators, links to picture book blogs/review sites, picture book activities, and much more.

I’m all for celebrating picture books.

I’ll be back tomorrow with lots of picture book art. Until then …

Picture Book Month logo creator: Joyce Wan. Image used with permission.

I did have planned for today illustrations from a children’s book and seven of my own separate kicks, as is the tradition here on Sundays at 7-Imp, but I still feel very hushed over the tragic news on Friday.

Children die every day all over the world (I initially typed “war” instead of “world,” but that says a lot) in all kinds of horrific and brutal and unfair circumstances, but this, as we all know, hits really close to him in more ways than one.

On Friday, my girls played hooky from school, and we spent the day together, picking up a new book they really wanted — and reading and relaxing together. I can only imagine that, if they’d gone to school that day and I’d picked them up in the afternoon as I always do, that I would have thought of those twenty sets of parents in Connecticut who weren’t able to get their children that day.

I encourage you all to leave your kicks, as you do every Sunday; don’t let me stop you, and we all need some sunshine. But for me, I’m going to share this excerpt from Susan Cooper’s Silver on the Tree, which I totally stole from a wonderful post Emma Dryden did yesterday. Be sure to read her post, too. …

And the world will still be imperfect, because men are imperfect. Good men will still be killed by bad, or sometimes by other good men, and there will still be pain and disease and famine, anger and hate. But if you work and care and are watchful, as we have tried to be for you, then in the long run the worse will never, ever, triumph over the better. And the gifts put into some men, that shine as bright as Eirias the sword, shall light the dark corners of life for all the rest, in so brave a world.

The above image is from illustrator Lee White and is re-posted here with his permission from this earlier 7-Imp post.

Illustration copyright © 2012 by Lee White.

As I’ve mentioned previously here at 7-Imp, Candlewick Press is celebrating picture books for one entire year, given their 20th anniversary, and they’re celebrating with a series of videos. Authors, illustrators, bloggers, and other book-lovers have made video tributes to picture books, and Candlewick will be sharing them at this site. (If you missed this video from my co-author, the entertaining Betsy Bird, and the one and only Travis Jonker, then drop everything now and watch it, ’cause it’s fun. They pretty much did it up as right as right can be.)

My video is up today. Here’s the link, or you can watch it above. If you’re going to watch it, you might want to grab a cup of coffee or a pillow, since I may or may not ramble a tiny bit.

Hey, ask a girl to talk about picture books, and that just happens.

EDITED TO ADD: Just found their thus-far video archives. Good stuff. Here it is.

Here’s a quick post to remind those of you who live in or anywhere near Nashville about this year’s Southern Festival of Books, which will be October 12 to 14 at War Memorial Plaza. Here is a taste of what the children’s and YA author line-up will bring. You can click on this image to embiggen it and see it even closer.

Also, a heads-up to those of you who enjoy Judith Viorst’s books: I’m planning a Q&A with her in the near future for Kirkus’ Book Blog Network, and I’ll ask her about visiting the festival and what’s on her plate now — other than the very funny sequel to Lulu and the Brontosaurus, which is called Lulu Walks the Dogs. Lane Smith will also share some artwork from the books.

Until later …

…that, if you are an illustrator looking for some professional development/workshop opportunities, I read about this recently and wanted to mention it:

The Highlights Foundation Advanced Illustrators Workshop is a five-day workshop from August 30 to September 3, 2012, during which (according to Highlights), you will “immerse yourself in illustration—oil wash on board, printmaking, pen and ink, watercolors, and more. Daily hands-on workshops will challenge you to sharpen your illustration skills, all under the support and guidance of our highly talented mentors.” (In addition to illustration techniques, they promise that you’ll also explore: dummy preparation; storyboarding; continuity; portfolio expectations; character development; self-promotion; and finding a market.)

Those “highly talented mentors” they mention are only the crazy talented Floyd Cooper, Eric Rohmann (both Floyd and Eric are pictured at the top of this post), Kelly Murphy, and Ruth Sanderson. Nothin’ to sneeze at there, my friends. You’d be in excellent hands. Special guests instructors include Donna Jo Napoli, David Wiesner, and Robbin Gourley (the senior art director from Boyds Mill Press and Highlights).

Evidently, you’ll get one-on-one critiques from instructors, as well as group critiques with peers and feedback from those special guests at a Highlights’ portfolio showcase.

I happen to know, since a little birdie at Highlights told me, that there are still openings for this workshop. And I post a whole heapin’ lot about illustration here at 7-Imp. AND, since I love the work those Highlights folks do, I thought I’d mention it here today.

Consider yourself informed! Here’s all you need to know about the workshop. (And, for those of you on Facebook, here are photos from the 2011 workshop.)

Until later …

Photo credit for very tippy-top photo: Jasmin Ortiz. Both photos used with permission of the Highlights Foundation.

This morning, the tables are turned.

I’m visiting Children’s Literature Network, and questions are being asked of me. “What’s Right with Children’s Literature” is Tom Owens’s wonderful column in which he asks folks, 1) What’s right right now with children’s literature? and 2) What could be done to make that good “better”? I highly recommend exploring his archives to hear what others have to say.

Here’s that link, and I thank Tom for asking me to stop by. I took some coffee with me.