How to use this Page

Happy Spring!

Since I didn’t get to post about our 5 year blogiversary, I’ll jumping in here to say a quick THANK YOU to friends who have been with the blog since the beginning or found us somewhere along the way. I love knowing that 5-book bundles are even now winging (wheeling?) their way to 5 of you who entered our contest. Woot!

Another of my National Geographic books was released a couple of weeks ago, so it’s time for a book giveaway. If you have any kiddos in your life who like the Angry Birds or might enjoy a lively book about the Amazon rain forest and its animals, please enter. I’d love to send you a copy of Angry Birds Playground:  Rain Forest.

This fourth book in the series (the third written by me) was my favorite to research. I quickly compiled a lonnng list of the amazing creatures that live in the Amazon. Narrowing it down was actually the toughest part of writing this book. Reading about some of them made my jaw drop.

-Like Hoatzin chicks. Those are born with temporary claws on the front edges of their wings. When a hawk or other predatory bird attacks a nest (which are built hanging over the water), the chicks can ploop to the water below, then swim underwater to the bank until the threat is over. Then they use those wee claws to climb back up the tree to their nest. (I couldn’t get photo permission in time for this post, but check out this quirky, chicken-sized bird!)

-Like the wide-mouthed Amazon Horned Frog. This bugger will attack and try to swallow anything that crosses its path – including human ankles. They're so aggressive that they're often found dead with some poor, too-big-to-swallow beastie halfway in.




-Like the Golden Lion Tamarin, a photo of which you can see here. This fiery, red-orange (and endangered) species always looks so big in photos. Did you know they’re really only the size of a 5-year-old child’s foot?

Readers will learn about the four layers of the Amazon, the river itself, and the basin in general. Add cool lizards and turtles and insects and snakes, a few animals that consume their own … um, droppings, 5 primate species, and a frightening assortment of animals trying their darnedest to eat each other, and you’ve got one fascinating, four-layered place to discover.

Want to win a copy? Just enter via Rafflecopter below. I’ll send one winner their very own book. Contest runs through May 16th.

Jill Esbaum

Side note #1:  Farewell, Poetry Month. But if you're into rhyming picture books, I’m the guest blogger today over at Angie Karcher’s RhyPiBoMo.


Side note #2:  If you’re a picture book writer and are looking for a summer writing workshop, consider joining my author friend Linda Skeers and me at our Whispering Woods Picture Book Workshop. Follow link for more details.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Add a Comment

I began my Friday in the endodontist's chair, effectively muted by a curtain-like drape, pervasive numbness, and numerous dental implements.  As the dentist violently excavated the roots of my molar, she made small talk about her brother-in-law, who had written a science fiction novel "for fun."  She said she'd read the first few pages at his request and that the writing was "childish," in a style that might be appropriate for a 10-year-old, but with subject matter that would never interest a 10-year-old.  A very valid criticism, I'm sure.  Unfortunately I was unable to ask whether she'd shared this opinion with her brother-in-law and, if so, whether family harmony had prevailed.

Critiquing is, frankly, a bizarre business.  As writers, we desperately seek feedback from others, secretly longing only to hear, "It's wonderful, it's perfect, don't change a thing!"   

Of course, when one gets feedback that's so resonant, so right-on  -- even if it involves a total rewrite, it inspires its own kind of writers' high.

Then there's the rest.

As a teacher, I find that one of my most frequent sources of frustration is students who totally ignore feedback.  Sometimes, I'm sure this is a factor of sheer laziness; sometimes, it's sheer stubbornness.  There are certain notes that are objectively indisputable.  "This sentence is a comma splice."  There are certain notes that are a factor of my own personal biases.  "You cannot use a photo of the Virginia Tech shooting victims to convince me that gun control is a bad idea." 

My day job involves constant editing, rewriting, feedback, discussion -- for the good and for the not-so-good.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of my high school teacher, Mrs. Weingarten, who taught me the critiquing method that I wish everyone on the planet followed:

PQP -- Praise, Question, Polish

Start with praise.  Always.  There's something good you can find.  Somewhere.  Always. 

Usually you can find a way to end on an encouraging note, as well.

In between, be constructive, be specific, and offer suggestions.

I try to run a workshop-based version of English 101 -- "try" being the operative word. I vary my methodology every semester, but I have yet to hit upon a procedure that truly works well. I've asked for voluntary online critiques via Blackboard (even dangling offers of extra credit), but usually only the same few students post.  They are typically reluctant to give specific feedback, and the most commonly read comment is, "I really liked your paper!"  In-class critiques are also difficult because there are always the students who have written something of a highly personal nature that they are loath to have classmates read.   (And of course I encourage them to write about personal topics and would never want to inhibit their honesty by forcing the issue.)  There are also the (many) students who don't finish their rough drafts in time for the critiquing session.  Then -- the very worst thing -- there is the specific feedback that makes the writer feel as though his work has just been gutted and spat upon.

Last semester, I had a student who was writing  a paper in which she argued that war should be ended.  I told her this was not a controversial premise, as she wasn't going to find any

Display Comments Add a Comment

Congrats to our own JoAnn Early Macken on the fabulous review of Waiting Out The Storm in The Washington Post this weekend.  (She might be too modest to mention it, but I am not!  She also happens to be in excellent company.)  If you'd like to win a copy of this terrific read-aloud for young kids, post a comment here by 11 pm Thursday, CST.

Thanks to Mary Roy for the following question:

"I am writing a children's story for the first time. I've published articles in local magazines and special sections, but not yet a book. I am starting at ground zero with this story. I feel that I probably need a class. For certain I need direction, and that's really what I'm asking for. Where should I start? How do I develop the basic story into a charming book for children?"

Mary, this is a question that bears repeating and is something I still ask myself all the time.

One good place to start is this post by Esther Hershenhorn.

I will echo her sentiment that one of the most important things to do is read, read, read.  Study what's out there.  Has a topic similar to yours already been covered in a published work?  How did other skilled writers solve the same problems you face in your own writing? 

I like to visit the bookstore (support indie bookstores!) and see what's new -- what books are being marketed heavily, which ones are facing outward, etc.  It is always fun to find a friend's book on the shelf and give it a little marketing boost by making its place more prominent. :)

Bear in mind that what is trendy today (hello, vampires) will almost certainly be well on its way out by the time anything you write now could be published in, say, two to three to four years. 

I also go to the library.  They might not have the best selection of what's new, but they almost always have the classics.  Check out the works of Esme Raji Codell and Anita Silvey for books every children's author should know.

Google is also my friend, and I often search on http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.indiebound.com/ for card catalog-type information so that I can get a general sense as to what books are "out there." 

Do you know whether you are writing a picture book, a middle grade novel, or a YA?  Do you have characters in mind?  Plot?  Beginning, middle, end?  I find it hard to begin writing until I have a somewhat solid sense as to all of the above, even though these elements may change significantly in the writing process.  There are so many ways to go about fleshing out a story -- of course you have to find what works for you.  You already have good writing habits, or you would not be a published author.  You will likely find that many of these habits apply to writing fiction as well.

When I write mystery novels and soap operas, I outline.  In fact, all TV writers and screenwriters outline (or write treatments, as they're ca

Display Comments Add a Comment