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So many good videos to choose from today!  First and foremost, I begin with a very special message from Jon Scieszka.  It seems you still have two days to vote in the Children’s Book Choice Awards and . . . well . . . Jon would really like your kids to do so.  Seriously.

I own that suit!

I also enjoyed this video from Storycorps.  In it, a woman reflects on the bookmobile that changed her life:

In other news, it’s been a good book trailer season. When I went to Zootopia the other day (and how cool was its Emmett Otter reference?) I got a couple before the show. In this first video I spent the bulk of it trying to figure out if it was an adaptation of the Mac Barnett / Jory John Terrible Two series. It is based on a book, but we just aren’t that lucky:

On the plus side, the new BFG trailer looks pretty darn good:

And there’s a new trailer for A Monster Calls that I really enjoyed.

Finally, for the off-topic video, I actually think you could make a case for this being on-topic.  I mean, have you ever seen a truer to life version of Are You My Mother?

It comes with its own Snort!

Jacky Ha-Ha Written by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein Illustrated by Kerascoёt* Jimmy Patterson Books    3/21/2016 978-0-316-26249-1 380 pages    Ages 8—12 “Hey, bet I can make you laugh! “With a name like Jacky Ha-Ha, that’s what I was born to do! You could say I am an expert on wisecracks, pranks, gags, and …

MasterClass, an internet educational platform, will host a contest for aspiring writers to collaborate with bestselling author James Patterson. This competition will only be open to students who enroll in Patterson’s MasterClass writing course.

Patterson gave this statement in the press release: “There are a lot of people who have the talent, but haven’t been shown the door to walk through. I’ve been surprised and impressed by the passion, devotion and talent of my students. They inspired me to want to help guide one of them through the publishing process. I’m looking forward to reading the submissions that are skillful, fast-paced and unpredictable.”

The submission deadline has been set for March 22 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Patterson will select the winning co-author on May 24. Contestants who are chosen as semifinalists and finalists will also receive a cash prize. Follow this link to learn more information and read up on all the rules.

Marvel will publish a new adult coloring book called Color Your Own James Patterson! The inspiration behind this project comes from the two Max Ride comic series.

The stories for those comics were adapted from Patterson’s young adult fantasy series, Maximum Ride. The publication date of the adult coloring book has been scheduled for 2016.

According to the press release, the book features “the soaring adventures of the ‘flock’ – Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel – a group of ordinary teenage kids. They are the product of genetic tampering that has given them extraordinary abilities, but their lives quickly morph into a living nightmare as they try to escape their creators and defend themselves from half-human, half-wolf ‘Erasers.’ Along the way Max discovers her purpose – saving the world – but can she?”

Bestselling author James Patterson has revealed plans to donate $2 million in grant money to independent bookstore employees and school libraries.

Patterson, who donates money to literacy causes every year, pledged $1.75 million in grants to school libraries in partnership with Scholastic Reading Club. So far this year, the effort has received 27,924 grant requests and has now selected 467 school libraries to award $1,000 to $10,000.

In October, Patterson revealed the $250,000 holiday bonus program for independent bookstore employees in partnership with the American Booksellers Association. The ABA has gotten 2,848 nominations, and Patterson personally choose 87 independent bookstore employees to pay out bonuses to, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

I am woefully behind in progressing through the James Patterson Master Class on writing. It is not because it is a bad class (my thoughts so far here and here) but because I have so many other things going on it is hard for me to make the time to watch the videos. A few weeks ago I got am email inviting me to submit a writing sample to be critiqued by Patterson himself and even though I did not take advantage of the opportunity, having no fictional work in progress, I thought it was a pretty cool thing and felt a bit bad that I did not have any fiction in progress to submit and see just what kind of feedback was on offer.

Today in my email I received a message that my friends are eligible for a $15 discount of the price of a Master Class, any Master Class it seems. So if you are interested in taking Patterson’s fiction class or trying out any of the other classes on offer, if you sign up by midnight PST on September 8th, enter the code PTS86W.

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There is a great article called Silence in the Library that you all might be interested in reading. It is written by an archivist and discusses the issue of naming that those who catalog materials must deal with. Before I went to library school I could honestly say I never once thought about how materials were cataloged, that someone had to figure out what subject headings and keywords and other metadata to add to them. And then when I did think about it I wondered, really, how hard could it be?

I am not a cataloger, but I had the pain and pleasure of finding out just how important these folks are in more ways than you can imagine. Because we all know that naming is important and it bumps into issues like privilege and race and class all the time. Library cataloging is not immune to any of the issues. Catalogers struggle with it every day. Not only do they have to figure out what to call materials so you, the library patron can actually find and borrow them, but they also very often consider the implications of how materials are named. Librarians at the reference desk often get all the glory when they help a patron find something, but those behind the scenes catalogers are owed a great deal of credit for creating the metadata that allows that reference librarian to help you.

Anyway, the article is great and delves into a bit of the issues and implications of naming and how librarians have the opportunity to be silent radicals. Give it a read you will have a new appreciation for librarians and archivists.

Best selling author James Patterson is a veritable story factory with his Alex Cross and Maximum Ride franchises, but he’s been pretty successful in the GN realm as well, with several manga-infused adaptations of his work from various publishers. But now he’s teaming up with Marvel for some Max Ride comics— the first series Max […]

Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai has launched the #BooksNotBullets social media hashtag. In honor of her eighteenth birthday, she hopes that world leaders will consider redirecting eight days’ worth of military spending for educational pursuits.

According to the Malala Fund Blog, this act would raise $39 billion which could “provide 12 years of free, quality education to every child on the planet.” To promote this agenda, Malala hopes to inspire followers to post a photo of themselves holding one of their favorite books and a statement on why they prefer “books not bullets.”

Malala herself kicked things off on Instagram with a picture of herself and a copy of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Author James Patterson joined in by sharing the following message on Facebook: “Peter Pan inspires me to this day. That’s the power of books and education.” Click here to watch a video that showcases Malala’s 2015 Oslo Education Summit address.

Back in March 2015, James Patterson (pictured, via) and the Scholastic Reading Club established a partnership to help school libraries. Initially, Patterson vowed to give away $1.25 million.

Since this announcement was made, over 28,000 applications were sent in vying for these funding grants. In consideration of all these requests, Patterson has decided to increase his donation amount to $1.75 million. So far, $500,000 has been handed out to 127 different schools.

Here’s more from the press release: “Scholastic Reading Club will match each dollar with bonus points that allow teachers to buy materials, including books, for their classrooms…With the school library initiative, Patterson’s mandate was to make the application process as simple as possible for librarians. The online application poses a single question: ‘What would your school library do with $1,000 to $10,000?'”

I’m about two-thirds of the way through a book I am reading to review for Library Journal. The book is called J.M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing by David Attwell. It is a sort of writing biography of Coetzee and is quite good. If you are a fan of the writer, this is one you will probably want to look out for.

I am also still working my way through all the lessons in the James Patterson Master Class.

Over the weekend Patterson and Coetzee provided a fascinating opportunity to glimpse and compared the writing process of two well-known writers. The writing process has always fascinated me. Everyone has one and goes about putting words on paper or computer screen in a variety of ways. Some writers fetishize certain objects —they have to write with a particular pen in a certain color on a particular kind of paper, or while pounding away at the keyboard there has to be particular piece by Mozart playing and there has to be a cup of tea/coffee in a certain mug placed just so on the desk — and claim to not be able to write without them. Some writers need to have a title first, or write the last sentence first or start in the middle or always begin a new project on the same date or sit down to write at the same exact time every day.

The actual writing part though, there are only so many ways a person can go about it, nonetheless, it remains a perennial and dreaded question at book readings, the moment someone in the audience stands up and asks, “so how did you go about writing this book?” What is wanted, of course, is the secret that only “real” writers know. The password, the handshake, the mystery revealed, the drug, the prayer, the key to it all so that said audience member can go home and write that novel they have inside them and make millions doing it. No one wants to hear an author say the truth, I sat down and wrote for six hours every day, seven days a week for four months (or more) and wrote and rewrote and wrote some more and tossed out and started over and wrote some more and rewrote over and over until it was done. What’s an author to do? Tell the truth no one wants to hear or make something up? The third option is avoiding answering the question entirely. I have heard all three answers at one time or another.

Of course in Patterson’s online writing class he has to address the question, he is the teacher and it is his job to explain how to write a novel. Patterson takes the truthful route but at the same time he makes it sound rather easy. To write a novel, one must first write an outline, do not begin writing without an outline, your book will be doomed. For Patterson, an outline is not the kind you had to do in school with the Roman numerals and the letters and headings and subheadings. He means a narrative outline. There are still numbers but the numbers correspond to chapters and basically what you are writing is a summary of the chapter. With such an outline you can work out plot and pacing before you get in too deep. You can find the slow bits and the holes and fix them before they grow out of control. That’s the idea anyway.

And it seems like a good idea that is really useful for a plot-driven James Patterson sort of novel. Heck, it is probably a good idea for a variety of novel types. It is neat and tidy. And of course once you have your outline, you know how you are going to get from point A to B to C. You know what happens in each chapter. All you have to do is fill in the details. Easy!

Coetzee’s approach is so much messier. No outline, just write. Draft after draft after draft. He makes notes as he goes. He changes character names and locations and plot and then he changes them back again and then he changes them again to something else entirely. It is organic and labyrinthine. It is a journey in which the ending is not known in advance, but is rather a sort of quest; a quest for a story, a quest for an answer to a question, a quest for understanding, a quest for any number of things. No bones about it, it is a lot of work.

And I find myself wondering, do the two approaches reflect the differences between commercial fiction and Nobel Prize winning fiction? Could an author whose process is like Patterson’s win a Nobel? Could someone whose process is like Coetzee’s be successful at commercial fiction and spend 24 weeks on top of the bestseller lists? Which comes first, the process or the desire to write a certain kind of fiction? Do people who make outlines naturally make a course for more commercial fiction? Do the messy organic writers automatically find themselves in literary fiction? And what about other kinds of writing, genre and nonfiction in all its variety? Is this a chicken or egg question?

Maybe. Probably. Likely the answer is a combination of all sorts of factors but it is interesting to consider.

My WTF Wednesday night bike ride was canceled yesterday due to the pouring rain. Boo. So I rode fast on a bike indoors going absolutely nowhere. It is much more fun riding outdoors. the only advantage to indoors is that I can watch House of Cards or Orphan Black or some other TV show I only will watch if I am riding indoors.

I could have squeezed in a blog post but I decided to do a lesson in a masterclass I am taking. I am taking the class for free with the promise to review it, so I guess this is an early in the middle of class review since I have completed 4 of 22 lessons. You probably want to know what the class is, don’t you? It’s James Patterson Teaches Writing.

Here I have to admit I have never read a James Patterson novel. He doesn’t write the kinds of books I like to spend my time reading. However, I do know he is a bestselling author with gobs of books so he must know something about writing, right? That’s what I figured at any rate. Plus, I had nothing to lose so why not check it out?

So far, I am liking it. Patterson is a personable fellow. The videos are professional and are around 10-15 minutes long for each lesson. There is a workbook to go with the class that has a lesson recap and an assignment. There is opportunity to interact with classmates and even submit questions and work for critique to Patterson. I am not doing the assignments because I am not interested in writing a novel and that is what the assignments are mostly aimed at. But the things he talks about are things that work for most kinds of writing.

So what have I learned so far? Passion. You need to have passion for writing and it needs to be something you enjoy doing. If you have neither passion nor pleasure and only drudgery, then you are either doing it wrong or you shouldn’t be doing it at all. This is nice to hear from a writer instead of the usual suffering artist schtick or the “write because you have to and because there is nothing else you can do” fib.

Don’t think you have to have an original idea. There are no original ideas. There are only ideas that have been connected in new and different ways. And where do you get these ideas? Read a lot and read widely! Learn about new things. And keep a notebook with your ideas in them. The notebook will not only help you remember your ideas but it will also help you notice patterns and make connections. I found this advice comforting and reassuring. I’ve had friends tell me before that I should write a novel and I just laugh and say I could never because I wouldn’t know what to write about. And the advice is really valid when you think about it. I mean, how many coming-of-age stories have you read? Same basic idea, but they are all put together in different ways. It’s how you put it together that makes it interesting. Go figure.

When you are writing, leave out all the stuff readers are going to skim over. Patterson said that if you can’t tell what that is, have a trusted friend read it for you because they will be able to tell you. And be sure you stick to the nugget of your story and don’t go wandering far off course (I think George R.R. Martin needs to take this class!).

There are other things but these stood out most for me. My next lesson is about research, something I enjoy doing, so I am looking forward to what he has to say.

The class goes through the whole process of writing a novel, even up to publication and marketing and what to do after you have published. It will take me a while to get through all of it, but so far, very enjoyable.

Bestselling author James Patterson is launching a children’s book imprint at Little, Brown & Company called jimmy patters.

The imprint will publish books by Patterson, as well as by other authors. Profits from the imprint will used for scholarships for teachers as well as to support school libraries and local book stores. The goal of the imprint is to foster a lifetime love of reading among kids. Here is more from the press release:

The defining mission of jimmy patterson will reflect Patterson’s most heartfelt goals: to inspire kids to become willing, self-propelled readers; to help teachers, booksellers, and librarians get the tools, opportunities, and skills they need to accomplish this important duty; and to identify the right books for each child by celebrating a compelling diversity of human voices and experiences.

“James Patterson is a man on a mission: to save lives by making great books available to all kids,” stated Michael Pietsch, Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Book Group. “This new imprint is an exciting way of combining his force as the world’s best-selling author with his inspiring message about getting kids reading.  I can’t think of anyone better equipped with tools and experiences to revolutionize children’s book publishing. With his deep commitment to reading and his let’s-solve-this-problem approach, he is the ideal founder for an imprint that aligns with Hachette Book Group’s tradition of fostering creativity and encouraging risk-taking and innovation.”

How do you kill of a character in your book? Make them so interesting that the reader can’t believe that they are dead says James Patterson.

The author posted a video with the tip on his Facebook page today as part of a promotion for his new master class. Here is more about the class:

James Patterson, the author of 19 consecutive No. 1 New York Times Best Sellers, reveals his tricks of the trade for the very first time. In this course, he guides you through every part of the book writing process.

There is a media and reader buzz about James Patterson, the world’s biggest selling author, who is in Australia at the moment. It was announced on Tuesday that Patterson is giving grants of $500 to $5000 to independent bookshops in Australia and New Zealand, to a total of $100,000. This is an extremely generous gift […]

James Patterson is one of the bestselling authors of all time. According to Forbes, Patterson earned $90 million on book sales in 2014 and more than $700 million over the last decade.

Patterson’s success stems from publishing numerous bestsellers a year with the help of a team of writers, a practice that he has been criticized for as focusing on quantity versus quality. In an Adweek interview Patterson defended the practice of working with multiple writers to flesh out his books. Here is an excerpt:

“It’s an interesting thing in that I don’t think people get it,” he says. He thinks of himself less a mass-market taskmaster as chief of an art studio that produces frescoes. “You go around to the cathedrals of Europe and you start looking around and realize there were 20 painters working on this,” he says.

Patterson, who came up in advertising co  “In advertising, obviously, it tends to be teams,” he says. “People think it’s, like, so strange, but it really isn’t that strange. What I do is write a 60- to 80-page outline. I mean, last year I wrote two books by myself, and then over a thousand pages of outlines. And the outlines are a lot of the imaginative work. Not all of it, but a lot of it.”

This month, The Children's Book Review's book trends shows that your still helping us celebrate our 7th birthday by entering our Fire HD 6 Tablet giveaway. Have fun perusing this list of TCBR's book trends.

This month, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Book 1, by Jeff Kinney, is The Children's Book Review's best selling middle grade book.

Make it through middle school with James Patterson! Enter for a chance to win a James Patterson Reads prize pack. Giveaway begins March 23, 2015, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends April 22, 2015, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

James Patterson has plans to donate $1.25 million to school libraries this year.

To make this happen, the bestselling author has teamed up with the Scholastic Reading Club. The club will reach out to its network of 62,000 schools and 800,000 teachers and encourage them to apply for some of this funding. In addition, Scholastic is matching Patterson’s donations with\"Bonus Points,\" which teachers can cash in for books and other classroom materials at schools that win awards.

Follow this link to nominate a school.

Author James Patterson has partnered with Barnes & Noble to promote the children’s book I Totally Funniest.

The I Totally Funniest Joke Drive centers around Jamie Grimm, the main character in the bestselling I Funny series. Middle schooler Grimm wants to become the world’s greatest stand-up comedian and land a TV deal.

Readers are invited to visit any Barnes & Noble location and submit their favorite joke, caption or one-liner in order to help him out. The Joke Drive Activity Sheets are available in stores at the I Totally Funniest Joke Drive Box, as well as at this link. Appropriate jokes will be posted inside stores throughout the month.

In the last two months, I’ve read three books with the word girl in the title. In December I read Gone Girl, in January I read The Girl on the Train and I just finished reading The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan. I started to wonder if this was a recent trend in book titles, but […]

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending February 01, 2015–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #6 in Children’s Interest) I Was Here by Gayle Forman: “When her best friend, Meg, drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her.” (January 2015)

(Debuted at #7 in Hardcover Nonfiction) Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder: “The Pa of Pioneer Girl is still a selfless provider, Ma is a skilled homemaker, Mary a prim playmate, and Laura a good-hearted tomboy. Their stories may have been tidied up on the path between nonfiction and fiction, but their characters remain reassuringly intact.” (December 2014)

(Debuted at #8 in Hardcover Fiction) Private Vegas by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro: “Las Vegas is a city of contradictions: seedy and glamorous, secretive and wild, Vegas attracts people of all kinds–especially those with a secret to hide, or a life to leave behind. It’s the perfect location for Lester Olsen’s lucrative business. He gets to treat gorgeous, young women to five-star restaurants, splashy shows, and limo rides–and then he teaches them how to kill.” (January 2015)

This month, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, by Dave Shelton, is still The Children's Book Review's best selling middle grade book. And we're very happy to add Brown Girl Dreaming to our selection from the nationwide best selling middle grade books.