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11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph, written by Darcy Pattison.
Holidays mean family photos, right? This children’s book shows the extremes to which a kid can go to avoid those photos. The difference is that this girl has a good reason.
THE STORY: “11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph”
When her father goes soldiering for a year, a girl decides that without Dad at home, it’s not a family photo album. Though her beloved Nanny is in charge of the album that year, the girl makes sure that photographs of her never turn out well. It results in some awkward family photos! Photos are blurred, wind blows hair in her face. April rains bring umbrellas to hide behind. Halloween means a mask. This poignant, yet funny family story, expresses a child’s anger and grief for a Dad whose work takes him away for long periods of time. This story for kids is a tribute to the sacrifices made by military families and to those who care for children when a family needs support.
THIS STORY IS A WINNER!
In conjunction with “The Help” movie (www.thehelpmovie.com), TakePart.com (www.takepart.com/thehelp) recently sponsored three writing contests: a recipe contest, an inspirational story contest and a children’s story contest. TakePart is the digital division of Participant Media which aims to bolster a movie’s audience with a message of social change. THE HELP movie campaign emphasized the role of stories in people’s lives. After winning the contest, the story was made into a children’s book.
Notice: This site and the story are not endorsed by or affiliated with TakePart, LLC or the motion picture “The Help” and or its distributors.
The film adaptation of Katheryn Stockett‘s The Help took three awards at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards last night, including Best Ensemble Cast.
Follow this link for the full list of winners. Lead actress Viola Davis and supporting actress Octavia Spencer (both pictured, via) also won SAG Awards for their roles as Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. Spencer recently received the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
Both Davis and Spencer have been nominated for Academy Awards. The Envelope had this quote from Spencer: “I love taking men home. I would be lying if I didn’t say to you I would love to win an Oscar. But we have a group of brilliantly talented actresses, and it’s not a foregone conclusion that because I’ve won these [awards] then I’ll win [the Oscar].” (Via The L.A. Times)
Martin Scorsese‘s award winning adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick has lead the Academy Award nominations this year, earning 11 Oscar nominations.
We’ve embedded the trailer above–what did you think of the film? Earlier this year, we wrote about Selznick’s personalized tours of the American Museum of Natural History.
The Best Picture nominees included a host of adapted novels. Below, we’ve linked to free samples of books adapted into Best Picture-nominated films.
Do negative reviews stop people from reading your books? Over at her blog, novelist Shiloh Walker disputed that claim in a passionate essay.
Check it out: “That negative review isn’t going to kill your career. Will it stop a few people from buying your book? Possibly–because that book may not be right for them. And FYI, one of the rants lately was that negative reviews discouraged people from reading … readers aren’t discouraged by ‘bad’ reviews. And guess what–that negative review may be the very thing that entices another reader to buy your book.”
We were so inspired by her work that we checked negative reviews of ten authors at Amazon–counting the massive amount of one-star reviews received by bestselling authors. Twilight topped the list with 669 one-star reviews. Read this list before you complain about your next bad review.
Do negative reviews stop people from reading your books? Over at her blog, novelist Shiloh Walker disputed that claim in a passionate essay.
Check it out: “That negative review isn’t going to kill your career. Will it stop a few people from buying your book? Possibly–because that book may not be right for them. And FYI, one of the rants lately was that negative reviews discouraged people from reading … readers aren’t discouraged by ‘bad’ reviews. And guess what–that negative review may be the very thing that entices another reader to buy your book.”
We were so inspired by her work that we checked negative reviews of ten authors at Amazon–counting the massive amount of one-star reviews received by bestselling authors. Twilight topped the list with 669 one-star reviews. Read this list before you complain about your next bad review.
Hinds County Circuit judge Tomie Greenhas dismissed a lawsuit filed against novelist Kathryn Stockett by her brother’s maid. According to the judge, the statute of limitations had expired on the case before the lawsuit was filed.
60-year-old Ablene Coopersued Stockett earlier this year, alleging that the author used “an unauthorized appropriation of her name and image” in the bestselling novel, The Help.
According to The New York Times, the lawsuit centered around a character named Aibileen Clark–an African American maid working in Jackson, Mississippi. Cooper has worked as a maid for Stockett’s brother and sister-in-law for years, and her lawsuit sought $75,000 in damages.
Talk about an inspirational story: Kathryn Stockett, author of the bestselling book (and now highly successful movie) The Help, received 60 rejection letters over 3 and a half years—and still didn't give up. Good thing she didn't. You have to read this great article by Stockett about her determination. Read more
Kathryn Stockett has become the first debut author to join the Kindle Million Club after selling over a million copies of her novel The Help (Penguin).
Janet Evanovich, Headline Review author of the Stephanie Plum novels, has entered the Kindle Million Club on the same day.
The pair join Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly and John Locke as authors to sell over a million e-books for Kindle.
Authors Janet Evanovich and Kathryn Stockett have each sold more than a million Kindle books, joining what Amazon has termed the “Kindle Million Club.”
The authors join the likes of Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly and John Locke, who have also passed the million mark in sales of their eBooks in the Kindle Store. According to the release, Stockett is the first debut novelist to reach this milestone.
Evanovich’s latest novel Smokin’ Seventeen has spent more than 100 days on the Kindle Best Seller list. Stockett’s novel, The Help, has been No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and was just adapted into a film.
Sometimes I will visit publisher sites to see if there's anything finding. Today I found my way to Algonquin Books. Author Martha Southgate's newest novel The Taste of Salt will be released at the end of September. I've had a chance to read it already. One the things I loved about it is the main characters very unexpected occupation. The writing is beautiful and many scenes broke my heart. Life is dramatic enough, the author doesn't use any tricks, simply letting it all unfold. There will be a proper review closer to the release date. Chapter One of The Taste of Salt
Though as the title states this is about Southgate on The Help. The author wrote a piece about bestselling novel turned movie by Kathryn Stockett in the most recent EW magazine.
"The current issue of Entertainment Weekly (August 12) has a wonderful cover story on The Help, the blockbuster book that was made into a movie, opening soon. As part of the photo-heavy spread, Entertainment Weekly asked Algonquin author Martha Southgate, whose new novel The Taste of Salt publishes 9/27, to write about the book. Her piece is below. Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine–one of our favorites around here–on newsstands now."
Algonquin Books was kind enough to rerun Southgate's article, and it's worth reading. I do wonder when Southgate or any reader who said they weren't going to read The Help changed their mind. What was the tipping point?
I am still firmly in the I will not read camp. I had many customers try to convince me otherwise but I won't budge. Part of the reason for this hard line in the sand has to do with working in a bookstore in the South and having White customers tell me every day I just must read The Help.
In my head, all I could think was no I don't. I refuse to believe the authenticity of Black voices created by a White author by White readers who don't read Black authors. These were my customers so I know what they read. Not a single White customer that requested The Help asked for a novel by a Black author.
Stockett's novel was liked by many of my Black customers as well. I was a bit more curious, but knowing that a Black author would never have this amount of success with the same story, I still can't bring myself to read The Help. Now I know how some Asian readers probably felt with the success of Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha.
8 Comments on Martha Southgate on The Help, last added: 8/11/2011
I haven't read The Help yet either. My wife has and she loved it. Not sure why it isn't pulling me in, but I like your perspective on it. More for me to think about.
I totally agree with Martha Southgate about why The Help is cringeworthy but I totally disagree with the decision not to read it. Here's why: One of my heros is Saul Alinsky, who wrote, in Rules for Radicals, how to make change (specifically in favor of have-nots vis-a-vis haves). He starts out by the observation that you have got to know and understand the thinking of your adversary, so you know and understand how to combat that thinking (or at least manage to get what you want anyway). That's one reason I read a lot of YA vampire or chick lit romance stuff. I want to know what young girls are being fed by the media. I want to understand the appeal, and the mechanisms by which certain ideologies get perpetuated. Revisionist history is another area about which it seems so important, to me, to get a good idea about what's being said and what it *means* about society. Why are so many whites going ga-ga about The Help? Reading it aids in putting it into a context in which one can understand today's brand of revisionist racism. Yeah, I know there's limited time to read and why not read good stuff, but to me it's also extremely important to get a sense of just where we are historically, and what kind of polity it is in which we live. And if you're armed with information, maybe you CAN make a difference, on the margins at least....
My response, when MYRIAD people have suggested for me to read this has been, "And I want to read that why?"
I appreciate Rhaspody's comments, and it is for the reasons she states that I read the first of the Twilight books, but I remain unmoved - I'm not reading this one. I don't have to know what interests and ideas are being channeled to adults. They're on their own. ;)
Tea - You don't have to wait to read the first chapter of Taste of Salt
Tanita is The Help popular across the pond as well?
Jill - I agree with your point as to why I should read The Help. There are YA novels I read for just that reason. But this time I am with Amy, and I simply don't want to.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this issue on CNN this morning. I saw myself in you having a bone to pick about the "white protagonist". This weekend, I'll be taking a group of women on a girls nite out to see the movie: 3 white; 3 black with tapas after to dish about it. Will let you know what happens.
My wife and I hardly see any movies, so that's not a good barometer for me.
Haven't even seen the last Harry Potter yet, and I've been faithful to that franchise.
As far as movies go, I own The Long Walk Home. That's more my style when it comes to this subject matter. (Plus, I love Whoopi Goldberg.) Was that based on a book?
For your weekend reading pleasure, we’ve collected the ten most popular publishing stories of the week–ranging from the official trailer for an upcoming adaptation of Kathryn Stockett‘s The Help (embedded above) to a bookstore that only sells one book.
Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.
Algonquin Books has launched the ‘Ask an Editor’ video series on their blog. Executive editor Chuck Adams stars in the video embedded above and answers the question: “How did you acquire Water for Elephants?”
Marketing director Michael Taeckens explained how it will work: “For this series, readers who have any questions about the publishing process can submit them on our blog or on our Facebook or Twitter accounts. Every two weeks a different Algonquin editor will select and answer one of the questions submitted.”
The next Algonquin Books Club will feature a conversation between Gruen and The Help author Kathryn Stockett on April 26th. Those interested can check out the website for a reader’s guide, essays by Gruen, and her recipe for oyster brie soup.
Algonquin Books has launched the ‘Ask an Editor’ video series on their blog. Executive editor Chuck Adams stars in the video embedded above and answers the question: “How did you acquire Water for Elephants?”
Marketing director Michael Taeckens explained how it will work: “For this series, readers who have any questions about the publishing process can submit them on our blog or on our Facebook or Twitter accounts. Every two weeks a different Algonquin editor will select and answer one of the questions submitted.”
The next Algonquin Books Club will feature a conversation between Gruen and The Help author Kathryn Stockett on April 26th. Those interested can check out the website for a reader’s guide, essays by Gruen, and her recipe for oyster brie soup.
Algonquin Books has launched the Algonquin Books Club. The publisher has chosen twenty-five paperback titles from its list, building a readers guide for each book.
Here’s more from the site: “We’ll be featuring four Algonquin Book Club selections a year for dynamic literary events held around the country and simultaneously webcast on our site. For each event, an Algonquin author will be interviewed by a notable writer.”
The first event (March 21st) will be held in Miami at Books & Books. Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother, I’m Dying, will interview Julia Alvarez on her masterpiece, In the Time of the Butterflies. Below we’ve listed the rest of Algonquin Book Club’s 2011 event offerings.
While posting last week about PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK, I mentioned the word-of-mouth bestseller, THE HELP. All last year, friends and family recommended this book to me. One friend would ask, "Have you read it yet?" every time I ran into her. My mother gave me her copy over Christmas and joined the "have you read it?" chorus. I figured it was time to get busy.
I took my copy on our Mardi Gras road trip (we get the whole week off in Southern Louisiana) and fell in love. THE HELP is amazing, heartbreaking, amazing, lovely, amazing, funny, amazing. I don't know how else to talk about this title, so I'll give the New York Times a shot. As you read the expert below, notice the strength of this debut novel rests on fabulous writing, yes, but something more: devoted readers all part of the "have you read it?" campaign.
“The Help,” a novel about the relationships between African-American maids and their white employers in 1960s Mississippi, has the classic elements of a crowd pleaser: it features several feisty women enmeshed in a page-turning plot, clear villains and a bit of a history lesson. The book, a debut novel by Kathryn Stockett, also comes with a back story that is a publishing dream come true: at first rejected by nearly 50 agents, the manuscript was scooped up by an imprint of Penguin and pushed aggressively to booksellers, who fell in love with it. Since it came out in February, “The Help” has been embraced by book clubs and bloggers who can’t stop recommending it to their friends.
All of which helps explain why “The Help” — which some enthusiasts have compared to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” — has maintained a tenacious hold close to the top of several best-seller lists, despite one of the strongest seasons for big-name authors in recent memory. Amid blockbusters from the likes of Dan Brown, Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell and Nicholas Sparks, Ms. Stockett has stayed within the Top 5 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best-Seller list since August.
“It is running and it’s going to continue to run,” said Vivienne L. Jennings, co-owner of Rainy Day Books, an independent bookstore in Fairway, Kan.
According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales, “The Help” has sold 445,000 copies in hardcover. At Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest retail bookstore chain, Sessal
16 Comments on THE HELP: A Word-of-Mouth Campaign, last added: 3/21/2010
I have not, but I have seen a lot of my friends on Goodreads reading it and now I think I'll jump on the bandwagon.
I love word-of-mouth success stories. It makes me feel that the book is genuinely worth my time and money, not because some publisher pushed it in front of me on the front store of a shelf, but because everyone around me says "You have to read this."
Wow, that is amazing. I haven't read it but I sure will now. As a matter of fact I'm off to two bookstores today and I am still looking for "The Black Whippet."
I haven't read it yet either, but this book seems to pop up wherever I go. I'm taking it as a sign I should break down and buy it. Guess that means I'm off to the bookstore today!
Yes, this book is fabulous! It was recommended to me back in June by Katie and Sf of Plot This who actually went to high school with Kathryn Stockett. I blogged about it and continued to spread the word!
It's on my list... I think I would have read it by now if I wasn't doing this genre-blog thing... that seems to consume my reading time these days. Not that I'm complaining. :D
She's also made the longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction, which is the UK's major prize for female writers. Worth checking out the list of you have some time!
This is so funny you posted this! Last night I was at dinner with Kim Derting and some other friends and they are in the middle of my book, and kept saying how it reminded them of the voice in The Help. I'd heard vaguely about it but didn't know much, so now I've decided it's on my must read list!
Word of mouth is the best way a book can grow, I think. Better than just a publishing push, to have someone say, "You HAVE to read this!" is the greatest compliment an author can have!
I just finished Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel, THE HELP (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam). Before I begin to review it, let me give you the description.
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women–mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends–view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.
I loved this book! I loved it so much that even when I had a million things to do (errands to run, work to complete) I couldn’t let it out of my grasp. THE HELP is one of those rare books that is both wildly entertaining and extremely thought-provoking. One of the many glowing reviews of this title came from an unlikely source, The Daily Beast’s William Boot, who tackles the bestseller list titles and lets you know if you should read the books that are flying off the bookstore shelves. He, too, loved this book. He made one criticism that I wanted to expand on. Boot wrote,
“Skeeter records the stories, but Stockett never shares them with us, a whopping omission. It is an unusual thing when the book you’re holding doesn’t measure up to the one main character is writing.”
I whole-heartedly disagree with this criticism. The book that Skeeter is writing is, in fact, Stockett’s novel. The maids stories are explored fully in this book as well as Skeeter’s own life as an independent woman trapped in a confining time period, desperately trying to break free. I recommend this book to everyone! I can’t wait to find out what is next for this extraordinary author. I am also very impressed with Amy Einhorn’s ability to spot such a wonderful literary gem!
1 Comments on The Help by Kathryn Stockett, last added: 1/28/2010
This evening I chased the moon, a fine, swollen creature.
Earlier in the day I read Kathryn Stockett's The Help, which I wanted to like so much more than I did. I am addicted to nuance and to language as a reader; that is all I will say. Later on in the day, reading the opening chapters of Mary Karr's Lit, I felt my readerly self settling in.
I'm spoiled. I want to read things that are better than good. I find it difficult to read much fiction because as you said "I am addicted to nuance and to language as a reader;" You are one of the few writers whom I know will cause me to sigh on nearly every page: the way you put your words together.
For one hour this afternoon, the house will be quiet, and I won't be cooking and I won't be cleaning and my gorgeous son will be off at his job.
The plan, then, is this: I'm going to sneak away and read a little deeper into Kathryn Stockett's The Help, a book, Motoko Rich reported in the New York Times, that was "at first rejected by nearly 50 agents" before it was "scooped up by an imprint of Penguin and pushed aggressively to booksellers, who fell in love with it.... Amid blockbusters from the likes of Dan Brown, Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell and Nicholas Sparks, Ms. Stockett has stayed within the Top 5 on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best-Seller list since August."
Who doesn't like that kind of publishing story? Who doesn't want to love this book? I've only read the opening chapters. I'm using this hour to read more.
9 Comments on Reading The Help, last added: 12/25/2009
I have yet to read it, but am looking forward to it. What an amazing story too ... absolutely love to hear that kind of publishing story ... it's uplifting and hopeful!
I picked up The Help by Kathryn Stockett while waiting in the bookstore for a friend to finish paying, by the time he had made his purchases, I couldn’t put the book down. This lengthy book about 1960’s Mississippi does not seem like the kind of story that is going to be completely gripping and impossible to put down. But it is! Because it deals with some pretty heavy social and historical issues (class, race, etc.), it doesn’t seem like the kind of light reading that can keep you entertained on a hot beach in mid-August. But it is! I haven’t finished it yet, so this isn’t our “official” review, but I have been so enthralled by this story that I had to update our BookFinds readers.
Trust me, I am not the first to mention this extraordinary book. USAToday recently wrote about THE HELP. The New York Times was all over it when it came out back in February. And the Today Show put it on their list of must reads for Spring!
Grab yourself a copy and check back for our review later this month!
0 Comments on Summer’s Sleeper Hit: THE HELP as of 8/18/2009 10:15:00 AM
By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 8/18/2015
By: Darcy Pattison,
on 5/11/2012
The film adaptation of Katheryn Stockett‘s The Help took three awards at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards last night, including Best Ensemble Cast.
Do negative reviews stop people from reading your books? 
Authors Janet Evanovich and Kathryn Stockett have each sold more than a million Kindle books, joining what Amazon has termed the “Kindle Million Club.”
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I picked up The Help by
I haven't read The Help yet either. My wife has and she loved it. Not sure why it isn't pulling me in, but I like your perspective on it. More for me to think about.
I totally agree with Martha Southgate about why The Help is cringeworthy but I totally disagree with the decision not to read it. Here's why: One of my heros is Saul Alinsky, who wrote, in Rules for Radicals, how to make change (specifically in favor of have-nots vis-a-vis haves). He starts out by the observation that you have got to know and understand the thinking of your adversary, so you know and understand how to combat that thinking (or at least manage to get what you want anyway). That's one reason I read a lot of YA vampire or chick lit romance stuff. I want to know what young girls are being fed by the media. I want to understand the appeal, and the mechanisms by which certain ideologies get perpetuated. Revisionist history is another area about which it seems so important, to me, to get a good idea about what's being said and what it *means* about society. Why are so many whites going ga-ga about The Help? Reading it aids in putting it into a context in which one can understand today's brand of revisionist racism. Yeah, I know there's limited time to read and why not read good stuff, but to me it's also extremely important to get a sense of just where we are historically, and what kind of polity it is in which we live. And if you're armed with information, maybe you CAN make a difference, on the margins at least....
Hope I remember to read your review. Thanks for an interesting entry not unusual.
My response, when MYRIAD people have suggested for me to read this has been, "And I want to read that why?"
I appreciate Rhaspody's comments, and it is for the reasons she states that I read the first of the Twilight books, but I remain unmoved - I'm not reading this one. I don't have to know what interests and ideas are being channeled to adults. They're on their own. ;)
I am definitely avoiding The Help too. No, no, no, no, no, that is all that I can say about it. Love that article, thanks for blogging about it.
Like Rhapsody I always think I should read these books to see why people like it and know the issues but, you know, sometimes it is too hard!
Sarah do you plan on seeing the movie?
Tea - You don't have to wait to read the first chapter of Taste of Salt
Tanita is The Help popular across the pond as well?
Jill - I agree with your point as to why I should read The Help. There are YA novels I read for just that reason. But this time I am with Amy, and I simply don't want to.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this issue on CNN this morning. I saw myself in you having a bone to pick about the "white protagonist". This weekend, I'll be taking a group of women on a girls nite out to see the movie: 3 white; 3 black with tapas after to dish about it. Will let you know what happens.
My wife and I hardly see any movies, so that's not a good barometer for me.
Haven't even seen the last Harry Potter yet, and I've been faithful to that franchise.
As far as movies go, I own The Long Walk Home. That's more my style when it comes to this subject matter. (Plus, I love Whoopi Goldberg.) Was that based on a book?