How to use this Page

Early bird registration for the 2014 ALSC National Institute ends June 30 (photo courtesy ALSC)

Early bird registration for members ends Monday, June 30. Members can save up $35 on the cost of registration with the early bird pricing.

All special events are included in the cost of registration. On Thursday, Sept. 18, Steve Sheinkin will deliver the opening session. Other confirmed special events include a Breakfast for Bill program with Tim Federle, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Rita Williams-Garcia and Gene Luen Yang, facilitated by Jamie Campbell Naidoo. Andrea Davis Pinkney will deliver the Closing General Session on Saturday, Sept. 20.

The Institute also offers a wide variety of education programs. All of the programs fall within the theme of the conference: Expanding Our Worlds, Creating Community. Programs will repeat throughout the Institute so that participants have the opportunity to attend eight programs in total.

The Institute is one of the only conferences devoted solely to children’s librarianship, literature and technology and takes place every two years. This intensive learning opportunity with a youth services focus and is designed for front-line youth library staff, children’s literature experts, education and library school faculty members, and other interested adults.

This is the last day to register for the New Jersey SCBWI June Conference. Over the last few months, I have posted information about many of the editors, agents, authors, and illustrators who are on the faculty. I didn’t get to all of them, so I am briefly going to mention some additional people. There are still pitch spots, one-on-one critiques with the editors/agents, one-on-one critiques with authors, and portfolio reviews for the illustrators available.

For the illustrators and author/illustrators:

Portfolio reviews are conducted one-on-one with an available editor, agent or art director (see list for choices) who is happy to offer feedback about your work.

It does not guarantee you will be published. BONUS! Kelly Light will be reviewing portfolios and offering feedback on character development, and Peter Brown will also be reviewing portfolios this year.

Have to share Kelly Light’s special box that was delivered to her today.

You can still get a portfolio Review from:

Agent Christina Tugeau,

Illustrator Peter Brown

Illustrator Kelly Light: Here is a little about Kelly.

Kelly Light has had a career that began in animation that led to a decade of drawing many of the most famous cartoon characters in the world of cartoon licensing. She has illustrated two middle grade chapter books out this Spring, The Quirks from Bloomsbury and Elvis and the Underdogs from Balzer and Bray. Her picture book debut as author/illustrator, Louise loves Art comes out Fall 2014 followed by another picture book series, Lola Knows A Lot! all with Balzer and Bray. www.kellylight.com

She is also doing a workshop during the conference about drawing characters. Here is a little bit from Kelly:
To be able to draw a well known character over and over again you have to focus on the construction, the shapes that make up that character and exactly where the details and features will go. Then that character has to be drawn doing all sorts of things. That character has to show emotions, action and inhabit the world created for it. Doesn’t that sound just like what we need to do with our characters in our books?

The workshop that I am giving will go thru gesture, construction, turn around, expression, acting and give attendees a chance to ask about their own character design questions. It’s all about drawing and having fun, so I hope you all come ready with pencils and paper and a smile. I will also be giving critiques that weekend. My portfolio critiques will have the same focus – character design. You can even bring some sketches and I will help you break the construction down right there for you.

Every year I always had published authors do critiques and attendees could get more than one editor or agent critique if their second critique was with an author and this year is the same. Why did I do that? Because I know how much work and effort authors put into giving a writer a great critique to help you get closer to your goal of getting published. Authors are going to dig down deep and share all of their knowledge. Don’t get me wrong. I always want an agent or editor critique, but authors bring a different set of skills to a critique. It is something you will find very valuable.

Here are the authors you can sign up for:

Sudipta Bardhan 

Laurie Calkhoven 

Tami Charles (nonfiction only) 

Ame Dyckman (picture book only)

Kit Grindstaff 

Suzy Ismail 

Tara Lazar 

Anita Nolan (mg/ya only) 

Kathy Temean 

Tim Young

If you have already registered and have a critique with an editor or agent, you can add an author critique, and then jump on a second editor/agent critique.

Hope I’ll see you there. www.regonline.com/njscbwi2013conference

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Believe me you will feel like pulling out all your teeth if you don’t realize that…

Thanks to Dow Phumiruk for sending in this illustration to help me make my point.  Dow is a pediatrician who has found her passion in children’s book illustration. Most of her work is digital, and she enjoys using a bright, colorful palette. She joined SCBWI in 2011 and is looking forward to her first national conference in LA this summer. Here is a link to see more of her art: www.artbydow.blogspot.com .

the New Jersey SCBWI Conference being held in Princeton, NJ June 7 – 9 will close registration on APRIL 30th! I am making a big deal about this, because I am afraid that many of you will miss the date.  When I was running the conference, I would let people register up until the first week in June and because of that I didn’t realize that the deadline was a drop dead date at the end of April. If I didn’t realize, then I am sure someone else who is use to registering later could miss getting into the conference. I would feel terrible if you wanted to go and didn’t understand the change.  Please help spread the word, so that doesn’t happen. I don’t blame them for the earlier cut off, it will drastically help the committee to prepare for the conference.   www.regonline.com/njscbwi2013conference

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Exciting news! There are now 35,000 schools and programs serving kids in need in the First Book network. That’s 35,000 classrooms, libraries, church groups, afterschool programs, homeless shelters, military programs and daycare centers; all with permanent, ongoing access to a steady stream of brand-new, high-quality books.

But as pleased as we are about that number, we have a long way to go.

Because there are 30 million children in the United States living in low-income homes, and far too many of them lack access to new books. We want to reach every one of those kids, to connect the schools and programs that serve them with BOOKS.

Help make that happen. If you know someone who works with kids from low-income families, tell them about First Book. Forward them this blog post, or send them to our website, where they can sign up. It’s quick, it’s free, and we have new books for their kids.

Many of you have asked to hear the stats from the conference.  Here they are:

We had 299 people attend.  That is everyone, including the editors and agents.

We had  354 critiques, portfolio reviews, and special consultations.

Attendees came from 23 different states.

One Hundred and Thirty-Nine people received pitches and 142 people attended a First Page Session.

Fifty-six people attended the First -Timers Session and from the feedback, everyone who attended got a lot out of the session and it helped break the ice for people who did not know anyone.

One Hundred and forty-seven attendees came to the Mix and Mingle on Friday night.  We had a long line for the food this year, but we have already talked to the hotel about how to correct the situation.

Below are places where we spent a huge amount of time and still made mistakes. 

Every year, we try to put attendees with different editors and agents where possible.  Example:  You had one-on-one critiques with Mr./Ms. agent and Mr./Ms. editor, and you signed up for a first page (which we put you with two other editors), then if you had a pitch we aimed to get you with an agent that you hadn’t seen and then we tried to put you at lunch on Saturday and Sunday with two other editor/agents that you weren’t on your scheduled.  This was a nightmare.  I think we did a pretty good job in getting the job done, but there were a few mistakes and people complained that they were scheduled for a pitch with an agent that didn’t do what they wrote.

So we have decided that next year, we are going to do things differently.  We are planning to have an online registration, where you will pick your lunch tables both days and you will pick the First Page sessions you want to attend, along with the workshops.  When it is sold out, it is sold out and you will have to look for the next best thing.  So people who sign up later, will not have everything to chose from.  Also people who decide at the last minute they have to leave the conference early will not have all options open to them.  It is not a simple task to move someone when there is a huge web of critiques, pitches and first page sessions.  We did our best, but last minute changes is like turning a hose directly on a spider web – the whole thing can collapse.  Trying to do these types of changes two days before the conference causes a mess and an awful lot of stress.  We are looking for ways to avoid the stress and hope by pointing that out, people will try to do better on their side of things.

Next year we plan to have editors and agents come in earlier on Friday, so you will be able to choose to do critiques on Friday.  This way more people can be scheduled for their critiques when workshops are not in session.  Of course, we will still need to have some attendees do critiques during worksho

Jeff Kinney, Lois Lowry, Kadir Nelson, Jacqueline Woodson, Judy Blume, Mo Willems... All of these fantastic authors (and many many more) will be on the National Mall in Washington DC on September 26th for the National Book Fest sponsored by the Library of Congress. There will be author presentations, book signings, and the official launch of read.gov. This event is free and open to the public. Check out the website for the complete list of showcased authors (children, teens, and adult).

Here in the Children's Room, we are gearing up for our exciting fall programs. Storytimes, baby and toddler programs, Lego club, Reader's Theater, and Creative Journaling are just a few of the many programs starting in the next few months. Limited registration begins next week, so be sure to check our event calendar. We are thrilled to begin another wonderful season with you and your children. We look forward to seeing you.

Our exciting summer reading club, Be Creative @ Your Library, kicks off on Monday, June 22 with continuous registration through Friday, August 7. We are thrilled to begin another fun summer chock full of programs, events, and great books. Come on in and see what's in store. Check out this great video about the summer reading program:


In between reading and recording all those fantastic books, children entering grades 2 through 5 will have a chance to participate in our first ever Picture Your Summer photo contest. For more information, come in and ask a librarian for a flyer. All participating contest photos will be displayed in the Children's Room.

Summer registrations are beginning. Please watch for registration dates and remember that registration is in person. We look forward to seeing you.

Happy Summer!