Into the Wardrobe

Illustrator Interview: Holly Meade

2012-02-05T23:09:00.008+08:00

Yahoo! Welcome to the first day of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. Every year, the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) presents the Sydney Taylor Book Awards to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience - and the winners are celebrated and showcased through a blog tour!

For the blog tour, I have the honor of interviewing Holly Meade, winner of a Sydney Taylor Honor in the Younger Readers Category for illustrating Naamah and the Ark at Night (Candlewick, 2011). =D

Congratulations, Holly!!

Please tell us: Why do you illustrate for children? What keeps you motivated or inspired?

I illustrate for children because it's fun as well as challenging to create pictures with a child's view in mind.

What is your studio or work space like?

My studio is in my home, in a rural part of the Maine coast. It sits on the edge of a field that rolls down to the ocean. [Sounds beautiful!] This view means a great deal to me. The big open space seems to say "anything's possible." The beauty of the changing seasons, the many animals I see pass (I've seen moose and bobcats from my studio windows, as well as the more common critters), and the lovely air that floats in, all serve to inspire my work. The work space itself is kind of cluttered, full of art materials and large work tables and reference materials.

What was your creative process for Naamah and the Ark at Night?

Naamah and the Ark at Night was created by watercoloring large sheets of paper with color and patterns, cutting the necessary shapes, then assembling them into pictures. Details were added last. Before this, the entire book was drawn in black and white, using imagination and reference materials. I referred closely to this when constructing the illustrations.

What was your favorite part about illustrating Naamah and the Ark at Night? What was the most challenging part?

I guess my favorite part was working with such an old and well loved story, but with the wonderful new view point of Naamah. The most challenging part was selecting which animals to include.

You have several awards, including a Caldecott Honor for Hush! A Thai Lullaby, written by Minfong Ho (Scholastic, 2000); a Charlotte Zolotow Award for Creative Writing for John Willy and Freddy McGee (Marshall Cavendish Children's Books, 1998); and now a Sydney Taylor Honor. What do these awards mean to you?

They're affirmations that these books are meaningful to children, and that's meaningful to me.

Congratulations again, Holly! And thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

Dear readers, please visit Ima On & Off the Bima for an interview with the author of Naamah and the Ark at Night, Susan Campbell Bartoletti. And click here for the rest of the stops on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour!

Schedule of the 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour!

2012-02-02T23:24:00.004+08:00

The Sydney Taylor Book Awards recognize and honor outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. Every year the winners are celebrated and showcased through a blog tour. Below is the schedule for this year's exciting roundup of interviews with the winning authors and illustrators!

Sunday, February 5

Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of Naamah and the Ark at Night
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Ima On & Off the Bima

Holly Meade, illustrator of Naamah and the Ark at Night
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Into the Wardrobe (Here here here!)

Shelley Sommer, author of Hammerin' Hank Greenberg, Baseball Pioneer
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Great Kid Books

Monday, February 6

Marcia Vaughan, author of Irena's Jar of Secrets
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Shelf-Employed

Ron Mazellan, illustrator of Irena's Jar of Secrets
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at The Children's War

Tuesday, February 7

Trina Robbins, author of Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Bildungsroman

Anne Timmons (and possibly Mo Oh), illustrators of Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Gathering Books

Morris Gleitzman, author of Then
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at The 3 R's

Wednesday, February 8

Michael Rosen, author of Chanukah Lights
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at A Chair, a Fireplace, & a Tea Cozy

Robert Sabuda, illustrator/paper engineer of Chanukah Lights
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Practically Paradise

Susan Goldman Rubin, author of Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Cynsations

Robert Sharenow, author of The Berlin Boxing Club
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at Jewish Books for Children

Thursday, February 9

Durga Yael Bernhard, author and illustrator of Around the World in One Shabbat
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Frume Sarah's World

Shirley Vernick, author of The Blood Lie
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at The Fourth Musketeer

Friday, February 10

Eric Kimmel, author of The Golem's Latkes
Sydney Taylor Notable Book, and winner of the National Jewish Book Award
at Ann Koffsky's Blog

Gloria Spielman, author of Marcel Marceau, Master of Mime
Sydney Taylor Notable Book, and finalist for the National Jewish Book Award
at Shannon and the Sunshine Band

Richard Michelson, author of Lipman Pike: America's First Home Run King
Sydney Taylor Notable Book, and finalist for the National Jewish Book Award
at Blue Thread

Sydney Taylor Award Winners – Wrap-Up
All winners, all categories
at The Whole Megillah

Ohhhkay.

2012-02-02T22:50:00.001+08:00

So my favorite rapper, Zelo, is a fifteen-year-old prodigy.

Congratulations!!!!!!!

2012-01-24T00:35:00.003+08:00

To all the awesome winners of the 2012 American Library Association Youth Media Awards. :o)

Press Release: Angry Robot Announces Strange Chemistry Launch Titles

2012-01-23T21:35:00.003+08:00

Strange Chemistry - the YA imprint of award-winning indie genre fiction publisher Angry Robot - has announced two deals that will help launch the list into publishing super-stardom.

Imprint editor Amanda Rutter has revealed that Strange Chemistry’s first two titles will be. . .

Shift by Kim Curran

When your average, 16-year-old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he’s not quite so average after all. He’s a Shifter. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world quickly starts to unravel around him he realizes that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.

Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings

Julie is an apprentice witch – or so she believes. When a dark power comes stalking out of the past to haunt her and her mother, Julie learns that she is far more than just a witch. With the help of her best friend Marcus and a rather unusual Great Dane, Julie has to race against time to ensure she can defeat the bad guy, save her mother and avoid being grounded – again!

For more information, review copies, interview and feature requests, contact marketing manager Darren Turpin at darren.turpin@angryrobotbooks.com.

2012 Sydney Taylor Book Awards Announced by Association of Jewish Libraries

2012-01-23T21:19:00.002+08:00

Cross-posted from Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Awards! The Sydney Taylor Book Awards honor new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. The winners will receive their awards at the Association of Jewish Libraries convention in Pasadena, California in June.

The Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Younger Readers:

Chanukah Lights by Michael J. Rosen with artwork by Robert Sabuda (Candlewick Press)

The Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Younger Readers:

Naamah and the Ark at Night by Susan Campbell Bartoletti with illustrations by Holly Meade (Candlewick Press)

Around the World in One Shabbat: Jewish People Celebrate the Sabbath Together written and illustrated by Durga Yael Bernhard (Jewish Lights Publishing)

The Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Older Readers:

Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin (Charlesbridge Publishing)

The Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Older Readers:

Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer by Trina Robbins with illustrations by Anne Timmons and Mo Oh (Graphic Universe)

Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg: Baseball Pioneer by Shelley Sommer (Calkins Creek)
Irena’s Jars of Secrets by Marcia Vaughan with illustrations by Ron Mazellan (Lee & Low Books)

The Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Teen Readers:

The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow (Harper Teen)

The Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Teen Readers:

Then by Morris Gleitzman (Henry Holt and Company)

The Blood Lie: A Novel by Shirley Reva Vernick (Cinco Puntos Press)

Congratulations again to all the winners! Click here to see the list of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards Notable Books.

See you on Saturday? Everyone's invited!

2012-01-19T23:28:00.001+08:00

Filipino book bloggers meet up this Saturday, January 21, 3 p.m. at Libreria Pilipinas.

Please check out. . .

2012-01-19T21:31:00.000+08:00

My interview of author/illustrator Joyce Wan! :o)

YA SFF Panel

2012-01-17T16:05:00.001+08:00

Hi. =D I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion on young adult science fiction and fantasy. Click here to read the discussion!

An Inspiring Blog Story

2012-01-17T15:39:00.007+08:00

I've shared this on Facebook, but I'll go ahead and share it here too. :o) This is an interview with former children's book illustrator now fashion blogger Garance Dore, someone I really respect and admire because of her blogging philosophy and blogging ethics. I'm inspired to stay true to myself as a blogger!

Alternative Alamat: An Anthology of Stories Inspired by Philippine Mythology

2012-01-09T21:05:00.000+08:00

PRESS RELEASE:

Philippine mythology is full of images that ignite the imagination: gods of calamity and baldness, of cosmic time and lost things; the many-layered Skyworld, and weapons that fight their own battles; a ship that is pulled to paradise by a chain, and a giant crab that controls the tides… yet too few of these tales are known and read today. Alternative Alamat gathers eleven stories, by contemporary authors of Philippine fantasy, which make innovative use of elements of Philippine mythology. None of these stories are straight re-tellings of the old tales: they build on those stories, or question underlying assumptions; use ancient names as catalysts, or play within the spaces where the myths are silent. What you will find in common in these eleven stories is a love for the myths, epics, and legends which reflect us, contain us, call to us–and it is our hope that, in reading our stories, you may catch a glimpse, and develop a hunger, for those venerable tales.

Alternative Alamat also features a cover and interior illustrations by Mervin Malonzo, a short list of notable Philippine deities, and in-depth interviews with Professors Herminia Meñez Coben and Fernando N. Zialcita.

The digital edition of Alternative Alamat, co-published by Flipside Digital Content, may now be purchased for US$4.99 at the Amazon.com Kindle store and for PHP235.00 at Flipreads.com, and will soon be available at the Apple iTunes and Barnes & Noble Nook stores.

For more information please feel free to visit the Alternative Alamat page on RocketKapre.com. For any inquiries, please email us at rocketkapre@gmail.com.

An Inspired Choice :o)

2012-01-05T19:16:00.002+08:00

Press Release: Walter Dean Myers Named New [US] National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Walter Dean Myers, five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and two Newbery Honors, was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. Myers will serve in the position during 2012 and 2013, succeeding Katherine Paterson. Myers has chosen “Reading Is Not Optional” as the heading for his platform. The inauguration ceremony will take place on January 10 at 11:00 a.m. in Room LJ 119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.

“Walter Dean Myers is one of America’s preeminent authors of books for young people,” said Dr. Billington. “He is a lifelong advocate for reading for young people, and he has practiced what he preaches in schools and detention centers across the country.”

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate’s contribution to young people’s literature and ability to relate to children. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council (CBC), Every Child a Reader, and the CBC Foundation are the founders and sponsors of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature initiative. Financial support for the National Ambassador program is provided by Penguin Young Readers Group, Scholastic Inc., HarperCollins Children’s Books, Random House Children’s Books, Candlewick Press, and the Lois Lenski-Covey Foundation.

“Walter Dean Myers is well-known to attendees of our National Book Festival,” said Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole. “He was a popular presenter in 2001, during our first festival, and also in 2003 and 2005. We look forward to his appearance at this year’s festival in September.”

“Walter Dean Myers is a wonderful storyteller and authentic voice,” said Robin Adelson, executive director of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader. “His pioneering novels are hard-hitting and, at the same time, deliver a powerful sense of hope and dignity, and we believe he will do the same as the next ambassador.”

Walter Dean Myers boasts more than 100 published books, including the New York Times bestseller Monster, the first winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, a National Book Award Finalist, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. He is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and in 2009 delivered the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, a distinction reserved for an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of children’s literature. He is among today’s most-honored authors. Myers grew up in Harlem, which is the setting for many of his books, and currently resides in Jersey City, N.J.

Happy Holidays!!!

2011-12-19T12:51:00.001+08:00

The slowest laptop in the world + no Internet access = the height of frustration

I have been having problems with my Internet service provider and will be visiting family for the holidays. I'll be back blogging next year!

Happy Holidays, everyone. ~^o^~

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dear 16-Year-Old Me

2011-12-12T22:45:00.000+08:00

If you care about children and the books they read. . .

2011-12-07T23:49:00.003+08:00

You'll love and support this proclamation!

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday: My Mommy :o)

2011-12-07T23:41:00.002+08:00

I have the most beautiful mommy in the world. <3 She was a beauty queen and model for many years!

Press Release: eBooks now made accessible to Filipinos through Flipreads.com

2011-11-28T01:00:00.000+08:00

Filipinos can now have easier access to eBooks through the online eBookstore, Flipreads.com. Likewise, authors and publishers can now distribute their eBooks more widely and securely through the same website, which was launched on November 11, 2011 from 4-7PM at the Celebrity Sports Club Grand Ballroom.

Flipreads.com is owned and developed by Flipside Publishing Services, a sister company of Flipside Digital Content. Flipside Digital Content, previously just a conversion house catering to four of the top six international publishers, is responsible for publishing and co-publishing more than 70 Filipino and Asian eBooks on Amazon, Apple iBookstore, and Barnes and Noble just in its first six months of operation. Most of these international eBookstores, however, are not available to the local populace. Filipinos can only buy from Amazon, albeit with an added cost of $2 per book.

Now, Flipside is making eBooks more accessible especially for Filipinos through Flipreads.com. Readers can download eBooks onto their Apple or Android devices. They can even download it onto their PCs or Macs. Whereas before, Filipinos could only buy eBooks legitimately if they had credit cards, but with Flipreads, they may use other payment gateways such as CashSense and, in the near future, Globe GCash, and Smart Money.

Flipreads also serves as a secure distribution platform for Filipino publishers, authors, and other content providers. Therefore, publishers can now sell their eBooks securely through Flipreads.com. Authors can also opt to independently publish their titles through the site. Other institutions and entities can also distribute their digital materials safely through Flipreads.

eBooks distributed through Flipreads can be made secure through the use of Adobe Content Server’s DRM. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and is the means by which eBooks are protected from casual piracy. Alternatively, authors and publishers may choose to distribute their eBooks for free through the Flipreads site.

Flipreads also hopes to provide a venue to publishers and authors to bring previously out-of-print titles back into circulation. Since everything is online, these titles will also be available to an international market.

For more information, email business@flipreads.com or call +632-5709255 or +63917-6206244.

What is literacy?

2011-10-15T02:33:00.005+08:00

“'Literacy has always been defined by the technology,' said Nichole Pinkard, founder of Chicago’s Digital Youth Network in a PBS special on 21st century learning that aired in February. 'Before the printing press, your ability to orally recite something meant [you were] literate.' In today’s media-saturated world, the concept of literacy is again changing. According to Pinkard, kids in school today may not be considered literate in the future if they don’t fundamentally understand new forms of media — things like blogs, Twitter and streaming video. To be truly literate, though, you also need to be able to think critically about media, discern fact from fiction, news from opinion, trusted from untrustworthy. These issues have always been thorny, but the explosion of self-publishing has only made media literacy more vital to the preservation of our democratic society.”

- Why New Media Literacy Is Vital for Quality Journalism

Thanks for this, Teaching Literacy!

More Studentsssssss

2011-10-12T22:31:00.000+08:00

LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL MY STUDENT IS.

2011-10-12T00:54:00.002+08:00

And her twin sister of course. :o)

An (my student several years ago) and En are influential fashion and photography bloggers. They are on Preview magazine's Creative It List 2011! Check out their blog here.

P.S. An isn't just a pretty face either. She's smart and her essays for my class were always well-written.

P.P.S. Yes, I will continue to blog and brag about my students here.

Looky what my student made! =D

2011-10-03T22:29:00.002+08:00

Watch this! Watch this! It is sooo cute. =D

2011-09-26T23:53:00.000+08:00

The first Filipino ReaderCon was a success!

2011-09-18T18:01:00.001+08:00

THANK YOU to all the sponsors of the first Filipino Reader Conference:

Vibal Publishing House, Inc.

Primetrade Asia, Inc.

Flipside Digital Content Company, Inc.

Scholastic Philippines

OMF Literature

Hachette Philippines

Tie Me Up, Buttercup

National Book Development Board

The ReaderCon included a keynote speech on "prosumers" (producers who are also consumers/consumers who are also producers), panels on book clubs and book blogging, and book raffles. It felt like a party with fun people eating yummy food, sharing their love and passion for books and social media, and celebrating and promoting the reading COMMUNITY. I'd like to thank the sponsors again, and I'd most especially like to thank the head organizer and my good friend Honey de Peralta. ~^o^~

I look forward to next year's ReaderCon. Par-tay, par-tay!

Author/Illustrator Interview: Zachariah Ohora

2011-09-10T22:17:00.006+08:00

Today I welcome into the wardrobe Zachariah OHora, the author and illustrator of Stop Snoring, Bernard! (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2011). As you will see in the book trailer below (and the pictures above), Stop Snoring, Bernard! is a picture book that will induce giggles as well as touch hearts as Bernard tries to find a new place to sleep at the zoo - his fellow sea otters have kicked him out because he is a chronic snorer!

Hi, Zach! Let's talk about your influences and inspirations.

What are the top five picture books that turned you into a picture book author/illustrator? What was it about them that led you down the path to writing and illustrating your own picture book?

The earliest books that I remember loving were Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? and his Rabbit and His Friends Golden Book, the one about the Platypus, I was obsessed with the scene where the Platypus joined the circus and was hanging out eating ice cream and lollipops, it made me want to join the circus! I guess for the ice cream? My mom was pretty into nutrition at the time and we weren't allowed anything with sugar so that must have seemed insane that you could have a job that involved ice cream AND lollipops.

HAHAHA!

Here is a link to a blog that has the entire book scanned, I still look at this for inspiration.

Wow, thank you for the link. That ice cream cone is almost as big as the platypus!

Harold and the Purple Crayon was one of the few books with a limited palette that I liked, and the magic simplicity of it was pretty profound, even as a little kid.

I agree!

I was also drawn to the linework of Syd Hoff, like Danny and the Dinosaur and Margaret Bloy Graham's Harry and the Dirty Dog.

I realize that I'm going over the limit of Top Five here, but the single most influential picture book that made me think, THIS is what I want to do was The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith. This came out when I was in high school, and I was blown away. It was funny, a little subversive and Lane Smith used collage and other techniques in ways that I never saw before.

I was also blown away by The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. (My third grade teacher read it to the class.)

Where do you go, and what do you do for inspiration for your work?

Often I will go to libraries and look at picture books, other times I walk around the city and go record shopping for inspiration.

According to your author bio, you are "known to snore, sometimes loudly." Is Stop Snoring, Bernard! based on a true story?

The truth about the snoring thing, after I wrote my first picture book and sent it out to be roundly rejected, my wife and I brainstormed ideas for a new book. She produced a list of annoying things I do and said I could do a book on each of these things, and uh, it's quite a long list, and snoring kind of leapt to the top.

My absolute favorite thing about Stop Snoring, Bernard! is the amazingly expressive facial expressions on the animals. Can you please share your creative process for illustrating the characters and some character studies?

Sometimes making gifts or decorative objects is a good way to create characters because I am thinking more about the person I am making it for, what would make them laugh or some little nuance of their personality and the character starts to take on a life of its own.

My wife Lydia and I have a long standing game of cute ping pong, where we send each other the cutest possible pictures of animals found on the internet or drawn by hand. At some point baby dachshunds and baby otters started to appear pretty regularly. The first painting I did of an otter that evolved into Bernard, was this one.

Once I have a story or setting in mind, I will visit say, a zoo and snap photos for reference.

What is your favorite reaction to Stop Snoring, Bernard! from a wee one?

There have been some really fun moments during book readings, but I'm especially proud and humbled that my son Oskar who is almost four, and can't read, has memorized every word of Stop Snoring, Bernard! and he "reads" it to me!

Awww. Do you have a message for your wee readers?

If I had a message, it would probably be "Stay Fuzzy and Hopeful." It's also a reminder to myself to try not to let life make you too cynical and to stop and appreciate the little fuzzy moments in life.

Reading Stop Snoring, Bernard! to wee ones is definitely a fuzzy moment!

Can you please give us a photo tour of your studio? :o)

Here is a tour, I have to warn you though, it's in its real day to day, cluttered and messy state. I work out of my house in a room in the middle of the second floor. I have two little boys who like to come in and "work" with Daddy. I also have a couple pairs of good headphones so that I can block out the chaos that seeps through the studio door.

My computer desk and my work desk. Work in progress.

This is the wall I put up character studies and books and manuscripts I'm working on. The images of the gorilla and the little girl are the beginning of a book called Nilsson and Amelia. It's about a Gorilla who throws big fits and a little girl who tries to help him respond in a more civilized way. It's slated to come out Summer 2013 with Penguin. In the center is my lucky bamboo that I've had since before we moved from Brooklyn three years ago.

A shelf of hand painted stacking doll character studies. And a TIE fighter I found with Richard Scarry's Hilda the hippo at the helm.

I'm lucky to have some friends who are super talented illustrators whose work I find inspiring. This piece is by Tim Gough. I love the color palette!

This is my supply closet, it looks neat on the outside, but the inside is a jungle of paper scraps, artwork, office supplies and fun stuff like taxes. The eye chart my wife found in Berlin at an old flea market and the boxes up top are some vintage reel to reel boxes that she gave me for my birthday.

My wife Lydia Ricci is also an amazing artist and designer. The piece on the upper right is some of her collage work and below is my patented Auto-Magnetic-Idea Story Machine Maker. Essentially, a stack of 3X5 cards with story ideas both bad and good to refer to when I'm drawing a blank.

Thank you so much for answering my questions and for the studio tour, Zach! Congratulations on winning the Founder's Award of the Society of Illustrators' 2011 Original Art Awards for Stop Snoring, Bernard!

See you there? =D

2011-09-10T22:00:00.000+08:00

What if we had a chance to remember things that we never actually experienced?

2011-09-02T00:02:00.002+08:00

A beautiful short film from Wongfu Productions. :o) You know, I actually live for this. For creative people and their work and sharing their work.

Read this children's book with a hairdryer.

2011-08-29T01:28:00.000+08:00

This reminded me of my childhood!

2011-08-23T20:39:00.002+08:00

Yikes! The still for the video is so NOT RIGHT. But I swear it isn't a lewd video.

"What if adults argued like children? What if the courtroom operated with playground rules?"

EPIC short film from Wong Fu Productions! XD

So what do English teachers do for fun?

2011-08-21T02:27:00.000+08:00

They eat good food.

They visit cemeteries where revolutionaries used to secretly meet.

They visit old houses.

And old churches.

Then they eat again. ~^O^~

I must have this book! No wait, we must ALL have this book.

2011-08-16T00:56:00.002+08:00

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, 13 September 2011)

Is it Sept. 13 yet???

Announcing the 1st Filipino Reader Conference

2011-08-12T00:26:00.002+08:00

Filipino Readers Make It Social!

The 1st Filipino Reader Conference

When: September 14, 2011, Wednesday, 1-6 PM (during the Manila International Book Fair)

Where: SMX Mall of Asia (Metro Manila, Philippines), Meeting Room 2

Objectives:

1. to provide support, instruction, and social time for book club members and book bloggers
2. to celebrate readers and reading in the Philippines
3. to promote a closer connection between readers, writers, and publishers

Program:

1:00 – 1:20 PM Registration

1:20 – 1:30 PM Welcome Remarks

1:30 – 2:00 PM Keynote Speech: How readers can help promote Filipino authors, publishers, and Philippine literature

Speaker: Carljoe Javier

Author of And The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth, The Kobayashi Maru of Love, and Geek Tragedies. Also published stories in anthologies and magazines, such as Free Press, Philippine Graphic, and Fudge. Taught Creative Writing at UP Diliman and was a fellow for fiction at the UP and Dumaguete National Writers Workshops. Maintains a blog, Lumpen Culturati. Currently teaches for the UP Open University and works for UP Press.

2:00 – 3:30 PM Panel Discussion: Putting up and Running a Book Club – for the fun of it!

Panelists:

Gege Sugue

Founder of Flips Flipping Pages (FFP), an online/offline book club based in Shelfari. FFP has been in existence since September 2007 and has been conducting monthly face-to-face book discussions since May 2008. There are 1400+ online members of FFP. Regular online discussion participants, however, number around 60, while regular offline discussion members number around 30.

Kuya Doni

Kuya Doni is an administrator of the Filipino Goodreads Group, an online/offline Filipino book club based in Goodreads. Filipino Goodreads conducts several online discussions per month and has organized face-to-face meet-ups among members. There are 1200+ online members of Filipino Goodreads.

Tata Francisco

Founder of Ex Libris Philippines, an offline book club and NGO. The book club meets monthly for book discussions and book swappings, and holds fundraising projects to raise money for scholars in UP Diliman.

Facilitator: Peter Sandico

FFP administrator in-charge of online discussions. Publishing professional and also runs a book blog called Kyusireader.

3:30 – 4:00 PM Snacks

4:00 – 5:30 PM Panel Discussion: The Why and How of Book Blogging

Panelists:

Tarie Sabido

That's me! ~^O^~

Charles Tan

Editor, author, and speculative fiction blogger since 2006. Virtually the international ambassador of Philippine speculative fiction. Compiled the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler and writes sharp, insightful essays about the state of local and international publishing.

Chachic Fernandez

YA and fantasy blogger. Administrator of the Filipino Book Bloggers website, which is a directory of Filipino book bloggers from all over the world. Organizes and facilitates meet-ups of Filipino book bloggers around Metro Manila.

Aldrin Calimlim

Literary blogger. Also one of the contributors to Pelikula Tumblr, a film blog, and Fully Booked’s magazine. Featured in Young Star Philippines as a book tweeter.

Sasha Martinez

Literary blogger with a vast connection to foreign literary bloggers. Majored in creative writing and is a published writer. Contributes to the Philippine Online Chronicles and does book reviews for Free Press. Finalist in the Arts and Culture Category of the 2010 Philippine Blog Awards.

Facilitator: Honey de Peralta

Eclectic book blogger. Member and administrator of Flips Flipping Pages. Finalist in the Arts and Culture Category of the 2009 and 2010 Philippine Blog Awards.

5:30 – 6:00 PM Socials – venue for bloggers, book club members, authors, and publishers to get together and network

SEE YOU THERE!!!

Looking forward to. . .

2011-08-06T23:47:00.004+08:00

The debut of K-pop girl group Chocolat! What can I say, I'm a sucker for biracial, bilingual, young, and talented people. :o)

Here's group member Melanie introducing Chocolat (don't mind the title of the video, the introduction is actually in English):

And here's the teaser to Chocolat's upcoming music video (which is in Korean, natch):

ETA: Here's the second teaser to their music video!

ETA: Here's their actual music video. What do you guys think?

I. Love. This.

2011-08-03T01:18:00.000+08:00

A BEAUTIFUL multicultural, bilingual cover of Drake's "Marvin's Room."

With my students from. . .

2011-07-29T13:13:00.000+08:00

Japan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Thailand, and East Timor! :o)

Book Trailer: Keep Our Secrets by Jordan Crane

2011-07-26T23:45:00.001+08:00

Secrets; siblings; and heat-sensitive, color-changing ink! Seems like a lot of fun and I am looking forward to this. :o)

Keep Our Secrets by Jordan Crane, a board book from McSweeney's McMullens (November/December, 2011)

Book Trailer: Pretty Bad Things by C.J. Skuse

2011-07-12T00:09:00.000+08:00

Pretty Bad Things by C.J. Skuse (The Chicken House, 2011)

Twins running amok in my hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada? And it looks like they are doing it to get their dad's attention! SOLD.

In My Mailbox: The Scholastic Dinner Edition

2011-07-03T20:51:00.002+08:00

Every Sunday through the In My Mailbox meme, YA book bloggers share the books they recently bought, borrowed, or received!

Friday night, Joyce Bautista, trade manager of Scholastic Philippines, and Roselle Masirag, education and trade manager of Scholastic Philippines, hosted a dinner for Filipino book bloggers.

I was glad to meet some other Filipino book bloggers for the first time, namely: Ronald of RonReads, Leia of Bitter Pills & Breathing Spaces, and Meann of New Worlds.

Of course, I was glad to see my blog friends again! <3

Aaron of Guy Gone Geek

Tina of One More Page

Blooey of Bookmarked!

Chachic of Chachic's Book Nook

Here are the review copies I received at the dinner (Scholastic Philippines is curious about which Scholastic books from the U.S. and the U.K. they should focus on promoting in the Philippines):

Numbers by Rachel Ward

The Chaos by Rachel Ward

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Clarity by Kim Harrington

The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill

Blade of Fire by Stuart Hill

Last Battle of the Icemark by Stuart Hill

What books did you buy, borrow, or receive this past week? =D

Um, isn't this blackface???

2011-07-02T02:37:00.001+08:00

Nylon is my favorite magazine and Michelle Phan is a YouTube beauty guru that I respect, but this just feels WRONG. As someone in the comments section of the video has already pointed out, blackface has deep, deep roots in racism. Nylon and Ms. Phan should have known better.

Press Release: NBDB Now Accepts Applications for Writing Grants

2011-06-27T02:05:00.000+08:00

The (Philippine) National Book Development Board (NBDB) is now accepting applications for the National Book Development Trust Fund.

For 2011, the NBDB will be awarding three grants for the following topics: a) Health and Wellness, b) Environment and Biodiversity, and c) the English translation of a novel originally written in a regional language or a novel in English by an author from the regions.

Applicants are required to submit a draft equivalent to twenty-five percent (25%) or more of the entire manuscript, research, or multimedia work. Chosen authors will be awarded a grant of around P200,000.00 each. Winning applicants will be announced during the Philippine Book Development Month in November.

The deadline for submission of applications is August 15, 2011. For the complete submission guidelines, go to www.nbdb.gov.ph.

Wow, how time flies.

2011-06-12T22:32:00.003+08:00

Remember when I decided to take a long break from teaching back in 2006? Remember when I decided last year to take a break from work in general? Well, I'm back! =D I'm teaching English again - to children and teens at the Obelisk International Learning Hub and to adult learners at the Ateneo Language Learning Center (ALLC).

I'd like to share some pictures of my BEAUTIFUL colleagues and students at the ALLC. =D

The long break from teaching and the break from work in general were REALLY good for me. I now have the same energy, idealism, and sincerity I had when I was a fresh college graduate!

These last two pictures are of me with my class at the ALLC. My students just graduated from the center's intensive English language program. I miss them already! Aden, Havier, Jin, Kelly, Peter, Placida, Puspo, Robin, and Yolanda, thank you for being awesome students!

Press Release: The Moving Words Project (Singapore)

2011-06-09T04:26:00.002+08:00

Bringing Poetry to You on SMRT Trains!

Moving Words is a campaign to create an awareness of local poetry, both old and new, by presenting them in media spaces in SMRT trains and stations. Besides encouraging an appreciation of Singapore poetry among the millions of daily commuters in this city, it aims to discover new poetry, submitted and written by Singaporeans.

The genesis of this project started with Singapore poet Madeline Lee, who approached SMRT with an initiative that would showcase Singapore poetry. With Moving Words, poets will have the opportunity to show how poems can become a part of everyday life even as we move through society.

Phase 1 of Moving Words

Twelve poems written in the four official languages of Singapore (English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil) from Singapore poets will be displayed in SMRT stations and trains. These poems will be displayed from May 21 to July 15, 2011.

Phase 2 of Moving Words

We invite all aspiring poets, young and old, to participate in an open Moving Words Poetry Competition. This is a great opportunity for budding poets to showcase their poems, in any of the four languages, on a national platform – the SMRT train network!

This competition is open to all Singapore citizens and permanent residents. The competition period is May 21 to July 15, 2011. The 12 best entries will be shortlisted by a panel of judges for display on the SMRT train network from August to October 2011. The public will then get to vote for their favorite entry and the public’s votes will decide the winning poem. The winner receives a brand new iPad2 and there will be two consolation prizes of Books Actually vouchers worth $200. Voters also stand a chance to win attractive prizes like the iPod Touch and Books Actually vouchers. Details about the competition can be found here.

The 12 best entries will also be published in the Moving Words Anthology together with the works of established Singapore poets, and launched in October at the Singapore Writers Festival 2011, Singapore’s largest literary event.

The Three Owls of Children's Literature

2011-05-18T00:06:00.001+08:00

I recently bought this necklace from Forever21 because it reminded me of children's literature. Yes, children's literature even affects what I wear! According to children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore (1871-1961), the three owls of children's literature are the author, the illustrator, and the critic. :o)

Latest Filipino Book Bloggers Meetup

2011-05-15T02:09:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the latest Filipino Book Bloggers meetup. As always, I learned a lot from my fellow book lovers/bloggers and was amazed by the range of diversity in the blogosphere! Here are a few pictures from the meetup. Hope to see you at the next one!

Author Interview: Sue Fliess

2011-05-02T17:21:00.004+08:00

Hi, everybody! I am so happy to be interviewing another picture book author today. Let's welcome Into the Wardrobe Sue Fliess, author of Shoes for Me! (illustrated by Mike Laughead and published by Marshall Cavendish). You can click here to read my review of Shoes for Me!.

Hi, Sue! Why did you write Shoes for Me!? What was the spark that set off the story?

Welll, first of all, I DO love shoes. And I know that my children and most children I meet, love to show you their shoes.

So true!

I wanted to write a book about shoes, but knew there were already many out there, so I brainstormed a bit with my neighbor, who also happens to be our local children's librarian, about the topic. The book actually started out as a book about when it's okay to take your shoes off, and when you should keep them on. It just wasn't working. So I tried shorter rhyme, which forced me to to make the topic less complicated. It morphed into a shoe shopping story...and Hippo's journey began!

Sounds like you have an awesome neighbor. ;o) Yay for children's librarians!

What was your writing process like for Shoes for Me!? Is this always your writing process?

I wrote a (very ugly) rough draft. Since this was one of the first stories I wrote that I felt had publishing potential, and I did not yet belong to a writing group, I shared it with my neighbor (the librarian) and she offered me my first critique. I then submitted it for critique at an SCBWI conference, paid for a critique from an editor who was in between jobs, as well as used it to apply for a grant (for which I received an SCBWI Letter of Commendation). I later joined a critique group and began sharing it with them - getting it submission-ready. I revised it 73 times before it was accepted. Now, since I have a critique group, a few online writing friends and an agent, I usually share my drafts with my group for feedback, and when it's as polished as I can get it, I'll send it on to my agent for either her feedback or approval.

That's an inspiring story. Writing is a long process and I'm glad that through your story other writers can see how all the hard work eventually pays off. :o)

What are the five picture books that have influenced you the most as a picture book writer? How have they influenced your work?

Do I have to choose only five? I love William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow. Having two boys who tell me that when they grow up they want to be dads...it makes my heart melt when I read this. What a brave book. Mem Fox's Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes because she captures rhythm effortlessly. The very clever He Came with the Couch, by Tim Slonim - I love his illustrations, and the element of surprise in this book is wonderful. Sandra Boynton - anything by her - but I especially love Barnyard Dance. Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers - it makes that suspended disbelief a reality in a sweet and loving way. Of course a penguin arrived at his door! Michele Knudson's Library Lion gives me goosebumps and I nearly cry every single time. I'm totally serious. What a perfect book. These authors make the picture book look effortless - but I appreciate how much work went into each word. They all bring it home with a satisfying ending. Mostly, though, they inspire me to write the best books I can.

The best writers definitely make it look effortless!

Do you remember the very first time you chose a pair of shoes for yourself? What was your favorite pair of shoes as a child? I remember shopping for black school shoes with my mother, but I never had a favorite pair. . .

Don't laugh. I remember my mom letting me pick out a pair of sneakers - they were purple Roos. They had Velcro across them instead of laces, which, at the time, I thought made me look rebellious or something. Velcro shoes were a new thing, for any young people reading this! Other girls were picking out fancy shoes. I was an athlete. I was so cool in my purple Roos.

Hmmm. Something like this, Sue?

Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming books? A Dress for Me! sounds similar to Shoes for Me!. I can't wait to read it!

A Dress for Me! (Marshall Cavendish Children's Books, spring 2012) follows the same rhyme and similar journey as Shoes for Me!, but this time, Hippo has grown taller...School is starting/I've grown tall/Time to buy new clothes for fall. And Mom tells her she can pick out her very own dress. So, together, they go dress-shopping. This will also be illustrated by Mike Laughead. And I just saw the last page color illustration. Hippo looks fabulous!

I always loved back-to-school clothes shopping!

I have another book due out spring 2012 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books called Tons of Trucks. It's a rhyming truck book that lets young truck-lovers engage with all kinds of trucks in a new interactive way - beeping, lifting, pulling and more. The illustrations by Betsy Snyder are adorable!

A Dress for Me! sounds fabulous and Tons of Trucks sounds fun! Thank you so much for sharing with us today, Sue.

International Postcard Swap for Families 2011

2011-04-29T18:40:00.001+08:00

Would you like to participate in an International Postcard Swap for Families? :o) Click here for details!

Press Release: A Global Poem for Change with LitWorld

2011-04-27T18:43:00.001+08:00

Join LitWorld, a global literacy organization, in celebrating the power and spirit of words by helping to compose a global poem for change.

The poet Naomi Shihab Nye got us started with a first line:

"I send my words out into the air, listening for yours from everywhere."

What comes next? What words do you send out into the air? What words do you listen for?

Create a global poem for change with LitWorld: Submit a line of your own at litworld.org/poem and watch the poem grow at litworld.org/poemblog.

LitWorld needs your words to change worlds.

Awww. Want. :o)

2011-04-13T01:58:00.001+08:00

Shoes for Me! by Sue Fliess

2011-04-04T02:43:00.003+08:00

Feet got bigger,
heel to toe.
Time for new shoes. Off we go!

I am older.
Look, I've grown.
Mom says I can choose my own!

There aren't any children in my household (yet). But my brothers, cousins, and I do enjoy huddling over a good picture book before bedtime. The other night, we read Shoes for Me!, written by Sue Fliess and illustrated by Mike Laughead (Marshall Cavendish, 2011). Shoes for Me! is about a little hippo going shoe shopping with her mom. For the very first time, she gets to choose shoes for herself, and the book takes us along as she spends the day trying on different pairs.

Shoes that zip up,
shoes that tie.
Shoes to tiptoe to the sky.

Shoes that clatter,
shoes that clop,
Shoes that light up when I hop.

After we read Shoes for Me!, my 17-year-old cousin Bobby stated, "That was wonderful." My 19-year-old cousin Lina grinned and said, "Cuuute." My 27-year-old brother JP clapped to show his approval. Shoes for Me! is a perfect picture book for wee ones about to choose their own shoes or clothes for the first time (or who have only just begun choosing shoes or clothes for themselves). They'll be able to relate to the experiences of the little hippo (such as frustration over too-tight or too-expensive shoes), and have fun and even some laughs with her. As for the illustrations, the earthy colors of the little hippo, her mom, and all their animal friends (giraffes, kangaroos, etc.) provide balance and a nice contrast to all the different bright colors, shapes, sizes, and designs of the many pairs of shoes featured in the book.

Shoes for Me! is simple, adorable, and pleasing. I can't wait to give it to my two-year-old niece Micie.

[My copy of Shoes for Me! was provided by the publisher.]

2011-03-16T21:26:00.002+08:00

For every 1,000,000 views that this video gets, Nigahiga will donate $600 to Japan.

Japan is on my mind.

2011-03-13T19:46:00.001+08:00

(art by Christopher David Ryan)

I miss blogging!

2011-03-03T13:19:00.006+08:00

I apologize for the lack of new posts here. I've been working on my MA thesis. I'll be updating here as soon as I can. For now, please head on over to Color Online for my new interview with children's book author Candy Gourlay! =D

Author Interview: Sarah Darer Littman

2011-02-10T14:33:00.001+08:00

Hello, hello! Welcome, dear readers, to the 2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! This stop on the tour is dedicated to Sarah Darer Littman and her latest novel Life, After, the Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category.

I'd like to thank the Association of Jewish Librarians for organizing this blog tour. And of course, big thanks to Sarah Darer Littman for answering my questions and sharing so much with readers. =D

Hi, Sarah. Welcome to Into the Wardrobe! CONGRATULATIONS on winning a 2011 Sydney Taylor Honor Award.

Can you please guide us through your creative process?

I find my process changes according to the needs of each book. But as a general rule, I'll spend time in the beginning doing a huge amount of background reading about the subject I'm tackling. It helps me figure out what specific areas I might want to research more deeply and sometimes I find that research gives me ideas for plot. Then the most important thing for me is character. I'll write what often turns out to be total drivel, but that's okay as long as the drivel helps me find my character's voice. Then I just discard the drivel and start getting serious about the first draft, which I try and get out as fast as I possibly can. I've learned to embrace Anne Lamott's concept of the "shitty first draft." I'm a huge believer. The thing is, writing is really HARD. It's like going to the dentist. It requires lots of coffee and chocolate. So I write as fast as I can so I can get to the part I really enjoy, which is revising. I LOVE revising. I have a hot passionate steamy love affair with revising. I can't wait to get my editorial letter, because I love and respect my editor, Jen Rees, and I know her input will help me to make the book the best it can be. I've also been meeting with an awesome writing group once a month since before I was published. I can brainstorm with them on chapters I'm having problems with and they always critique with honesty, insight, and best of all, humor.

Why did you write Life, After? What is the story behind the story? What do you want teen readers to take away from the novel?

I like to think of Life, After as my “phoenix out of the ashes” book – for several reasons. Firstly the concept came about in a convoluted way from another book proposal that was rejected, about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome. I started working on it about five or six years ago but I couldn’t get the voice right, so I put it in a drawer, where it might have stayed if I hadn’t met someone who I met at a mother/daughter book group that had read my first book, Confessions of a Closet Catholic. She asked me if I’d ever considered writing anything for teens about 9/11, because she’d lost her husband on United Flight 93 and she said there wasn’t much written for young people on the subject, which was true at the time. I sent her the synopsis I’d written and she told me I should write the book. My editors at Scholastic were on board, and I found that having met Claudette, and listened to her experiences, I was able to connect with my characters better and I returned to the story with renewed passion. Life, After is dedicated to Claudette, because without her encouragement, the story would probably still be sitting in a drawer.

Which part of Life, After was the most fun to write? Which part was the most frustrating to write?

There were a few relationships in Life, After that I really enjoyed writing - the ones between Dani and her sister, Sarita, between Dani and Jon, and between Dani and Brian Harrison. I loved Sarita as a character - she never failed to crack me up. I have a son with Asperger's Syndrome, and when he was much younger idioms could be a source of considerable confusion (and sometimes amusement) and I've been in a situation where I've seriously - and I mean SERIOUSLY- embarrassed myself in a foreign language by not knowing the idiomatic use of a phrase, so I really enjoyed how Jon and Dani were able to find common ground over that difficulty.

And who wouldn't love writing about Brian Harrison? I mean, seriously! He was the kind of guy I would have loved to date in high school, but unfortunately didn't. I knew I'd done a good job when my teen daughter read the manuscript and sighed, "How come there aren't any Brian Harrisons in MY school?"

The hardest part to write was the first third of the book, which is set in Argentina. I found it hard to write about a place I'd never been, and it showed very clearly in the early drafts. My editors told me that I needed to add more color and visceral details about life in Buenos Aires. I looked into a research trip but as a single mom, it was out of reach for me financially, so I had to use the Internet and my imagination.

What does winning a Sydney Taylor Honor Award for Life, After mean to you?

I can't tell you how incredibly honored I feel to be twice honored by the AJL. When my first book, Confessions of a Closet Catholic won the Sydney Taylor Award for Older Readers in 2006, I was new on the scene and there was a part of me that thought maybe it was a fluke, especially since I followed up my win with a terrible case of second book blues (probably not helped by the fact that I was going through a very lengthy and painful divorce at the time). This time, it is perhaps even more meaningful because I feel like, "Wow, maybe they didn't make a horrible mistake that first time after all!" To be honored this year, when there were so many fantastic books in the teen category is particularly gratifying. And here's what I still can't get over: when I was an aspiring writer, I took a workshop in Writing for Children at Manhattanville College with the late Paula Danziger. One of the books she recommended we read was Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman. I loved that book, and bought Once as soon as it came out. To think that my name is now next to Morris Gleitzman's as a Sydney Taylor Honor Book winner is still hard for me to believe, quite honestly. I have to pinch myself periodically to make sure it's still real.

What's next for you?

My fourth book, Want to Go Private?, about a high school freshman who becomes involved with an Internet predator, is coming out in August 2011 from Scholastic Press. And after tackling so many serious topics I've been longing to write a funny book. I'm currently researching what I hope will be SARAH'S FUNNY YA BOOK. Stay tuned :-)

Wow, Want to Go Private? sounds intense. I also look forward to your funny YA book. Again, thank you Sarah and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The 2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour

2011-02-01T00:01:00.001+08:00

The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating and showcasing its 2011 winners in a blog tour! Below is the schedule for the blog tour:

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6

Carla Jablonski, author of Resistance
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Jewish Comics

Leland Purvis, illustrator of Resistance
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Shelf-Employed

Sarah Gershman, author of Modeh Ani: A Good Morning Book
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Biblio File

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7

Linda Glaser, author of Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at ASHarmony

Claire Nivola, illustrator of Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Lori Calabrese Writes!

Evelyn Krieger, author of One Is Not a Lonely Number
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at Ima On and Off the Bima

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8

Barbara Diamond Goldin, author of Cakes and Miracles: A Purim Tale
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Great Kid Books

Jaime Zollars, illustrator of Cakes and Miracles: A Purim Tale
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at The Book of Life

Susan Lynn Meyer, author of Black Radishes
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at The 3 Rs – Reading, ‘Riting & Research

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Howard Schwartz, author of Gathering Sparks
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Boston Bibliophile

Barry Deutsch, author and illustrator of Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category
at BewilderBlog

Dana Reinhardt, author of The Things a Brother Knows
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10

Kristina Swarner, illustrator of Gathering Sparks
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
And illustrator of Modeh Ani: A Good Morning Book
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
at Alice Pope’s SCBWI Children’s Market Blog

Sarah Darer Littman, author of Life, After
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at Into the Wardrobe (This is right here!!! =D)

Eishes Chayil, author of Hush
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at Frume Sarah’s World

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Morris Gleitzman, author of Once
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
at The Fourth Musketeer

Sydney Taylor Award Winners – Wrap-Up
All winners, all categories
at The Whole Megillah

Press Release: LitWorld Presents World Read Aloud Day

2011-01-29T15:29:00.001+08:00

Celebrating the Power of Words and Stories to Take Action for Global Literacy

LitWorld, a Global Literacy Organization, presents World Read Aloud Day, an international celebration that motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words and stories. LitWorld has designated March 9th, 2011, as the official World Read Aloud Day, encouraging participants from all over the world to participate in a global movement to advocate for every child’s right to literacy, safe education, and access to books and technology.

“Education, and literacy especially, are the human rights issues of our time. We all must work as hard as we can to make sure that children have the right to go to school and to learn to read and write so their stories are part of the fabric of the world as we know it,” says Pam Allyn, Executive Director of LitWorld.

With nearly 1 billion people entering the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name, LitWorld believes that literacy is an imperative tool for survival. World Read Aloud Day brings awareness to the fact that millions of people all over the world could be lifted out of poverty if given the ability to read and write. It is a day where people all over the world can take part in the movement for global literacy.

Though LitWorld is based in New York City, participants of World Read Aloud Day do not need to be in the same city to take part in the occasion. World Read Aloud Day is a series of events and happenings across the world that will occur both online and in person, allowing for multiple ways to participate. Whether you are a teacher, student, blogger, or simply an avid reader, one can join in on this day by hosting a World Read Aloud Day event, or by taking the time to read aloud to a classroom or a single person. Participants are encouraged to use social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to show their support, and linking their posts to LitWorld’s social media accounts and website, and to ask yourselves and others the question: What would you miss most if you could not read or write?

For more information, please see the World Read Aloud Day blog here.

Social Networking links to connect:
www.facebook.com/LitWorld
www.twitter.com/litworldsays

Press Contact:
Ruby Veridiano
rubyveridiano@litworld.org

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-26T23:42:00.000+08:00

Linky Goodness

2011-01-22T23:45:00.001+08:00

Over at my second blog - Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind - I have just completed a series of interviews with the authors and illustrators of the very first Philippine Children's Book Awards. Click here to read all the interviews. =D

My Reaction to the Today Show Snubbing the Winners of the 2011 Caldecott and Newbery Awards

2011-01-14T13:38:00.003+08:00

News from Publishers Weekly:

"It’s become a tradition that, the day after the Youth Media awards are announced at ALA’s midwinter meeting, the Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners, along with an ALA representative, are interviewed live on the Today Show, at NBC’s studios in New York City. But this past Tuesday, those hoping to catch the first nationally televised interviews with Clare Vanderpool and Erin Stead were disappointed. For the first time in 11 years, there was no special coverage featuring the Newbery and Caldecott Medalists.

With the national television news outlets providing wall-to-wall media coverage since Saturday of the tragedy in Tucson, it’s not surprising that two children’s book award winners would be overlooked during a week of breaking news. But, to some who tuned into the Today Show on Tuesday morning expecting to see the Newbery and Caldecott Medalists, insult seemed added to injury. The program did indeed take a break from its coverage of the shootings during the second hour to interview an author. But it was an author who's not likely to win a prestigious literary award any time soon: Nicole Polizzi, better known to the world as Snooki, the Jersey Shore star more famous for her trash talk and wild partying rather than her literary chops."

Continue reading the article here.

My reaction to the whole thing?

It's okay. Really, it's okay. The Caldecott and Newbery books don't need the Today Show. The Caldecott and Newbery books are the best children's books in America (the canon of American children's literature). These awards have been around years longer than the Today Show, and they will still be around years after the Today Show is canceled. (The Caldecott award was first given in 1938. The Newbery award was first given in 1922. The Today Show first aired in 1952.) Generations from now, people will still be buying, borrowing, reading, studying, and discussing Caldecott and Newbery books. Will they still be watching the Today Show?

So You Want to Make Children's Books?

2011-01-07T17:06:00.000+08:00

Thanks to creative director Chad W. Beckerman for sharing this on his blog Mishaps and Adventures!

New Year's Resolutions

2010-12-29T19:03:00.002+08:00

I haven't made New Year's Resolutions since I was in high school! I've decided to make New Year's Resolutions for 2011 that are connected to my blog. Here they are:

1. Read more books.

This means I need to stop wasting so much time watching random videos on YouTube and aimlessly blog hopping. I need to get more real reading done!

2. Be a better blog reader and commenter.

Again, this means I need to stop spending too much time aimlessly blog hopping. There are blogs I absolutely love and I find that I don't get to keep up with their updates as much as I would like to because of too much time spent searching for new blogs to follow.

3. Blog more often.

If I successfully read more books (Resolution 1), then I have more to blog about and can blog more often. This goes for all THREE of my book blogs!

To help me do this, I have finally made tables/records of my books to be read and reviewed. I have also started taking notes while reading books that are to be featured on my book blogs. (I use Microsoft OneNote 2010 for all of these tables, records, and notes.)

4. Graduate!

I'm thisclose to a master's degree. I just need to write and defend my thesis, which is a critical analysis of the three Newbery Medal books written by Asian Americans.

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year! What are your New Year's Resolutions connected to your blog?

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:32:00.002+08:00

To you and yours, from me and mine. :o)

Wordless Wednesday: The I'm-So-In-Love-With-My-Baby-Niece Edition

2010-12-22T00:01:00.001+08:00

Now the best reason to search for quality children's books:

2010-12-18T15:33:00.000+08:00

My niece Kezhia, the first baby in the family!

OMG, hilarious.

2010-12-07T11:47:00.001+08:00

Thanks to Shaken & Stirred for sharing this video!

Guest Blog Post by Lindsay Below

2010-12-05T23:59:00.001+08:00

I've got another guest on a blog tour for you, dear readers. Welcome, Lindsay Below! And best wishes for your YA novel!

Writing Head Over Hand-Bought Heels
By Lindsay Below

Head Over Hand-Bought Heels began as a very vivid dream. I get a lot of ideas that way, to tell the truth. Too many to ever be able to finish writing, sadly. But this dream was special. For one, it introduced me to Katie, Courtney, Tia, and Jane, the four main characters in my book. For another, it occurred two days before National Novel Writing Month.

National Novel Writing Month occurs every November, and in 2008, I’d decided to try it for the very first time. I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but I knew that I wanted to give it a shot. But by two days beforehand, I’d already decided on a different book, with characters I’d worked on developing and some semblance of a plot that I already knew.

I had neither for Head Over Hand-Bought Heels, just a first scene and four characters who wouldn’t get out of my head. But even with so little, I decided to take the plunge.

I found out that yes (!) I could finish a book in a month, but it was a scary journey. I lived every moment along with Katie, because I had no idea what would happen next. But that was okay. It was like I was a part of the gang, listening as Courtney cried on my shoulder about her breakup with her girlfriend, calming Katie down after she realized that she might have feelings for Courtney, and helping all four of them plot to set up Tia with a guy. In that month, as I wrote, those four girls became my best friends.

That’s the reason I write books. To make new friends and get swept away in their crazy lives for a while. If you’d like to learn more about Katie and the gang, check out my website. Don’t miss your chance to win an ebook copy of the book! Just comment here or on any other of my blog tour posts for your chance to win -- the full list of where I’ll be stopping can be found on my website. This contest is open until Friday, December 17th at 11:59PM EST. I’ll be announcing the winner on my website then, so be sure to check back!

Guest Blog Post by Lori Calabrese

2010-11-30T18:50:00.003+08:00

Children's book reviewer, blogger, and author Lori Calabrese is on a blog tour and today she is stopping by Into the Wardrobe! Lori's picture book The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade (Dragonfly Publishing, 2010) is about a boy who has caught a bug - both literally and figuratively! I love how it is a rhyming picture book. Unfortunately, the illustrations by Chet Taylor look amateur and they do not do justice to Lori's great writing. Still, the story is cute. And by cute I do not mean trite. I mean you will smile and your kids will smile because of it! :o) So I am very happy to host Lori today. Thank you so much for sharing with us, Lori!

Discovering My Writing Process by Lori Calabrese

So what exactly is the writing process and how do you find your voice? As a new writer, those were just a few of the questions I often pondered. Was there some secret veteran writers weren’t sharing or was it something that just came naturally? Whether we know it or not, all authors have a writing process. As I dived into writing my first picture book, The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade, I discovered that although writing is a task no two people do the same, every writer follows the same basic steps to create their manuscript. And I was no different.

First comes the prewriting. I love this stage because it’s all about generating an idea and the possibilities are endless. I get most of my inspiration from my two boys and the idea for The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade was one of the first they gave me. When my son got a vicious stomach bug, friends and family called to see how he was doing. I always replied, “He caught the bug.” It’s something we always say when we’re sick, but it made me question why we say that. Of course, I needed to build on the idea, but the play on words of catching an insect and catching a cold was enough to get me started.

With the idea brewing, I grabbed my laptop and let my fingers do the walking. However, the writing that eventually came out would not be winning any children’s literature awards. Fortunately, it was a little reassuring to learn this is normal for many—it doesn’t always come out right the first time. So I wrote several drafts and ventured on to revising.

With most of the writing laid out, it became easier to rework. But this was when a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that, although I had a fun rhyming story, my plot wasn’t working. So I decided to write the story without the rhymes. As soon as I did this, I really discovered what my beginning, middle and ending were. I also discovered I hadn’t chosen a bug! The bug was one of the main characters in my story, so it had to be a good one. It also had to be able to cause havoc and it needed to be rare. I researched until I found a story about the Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly. I always loved dragonflies and am continually amazed how they can dart and hover in mid-air. When I learned that the Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly is the only dragonfly on the federal endangered species list, I knew it was the one! From there, the story just seemed to come to life and I was able to rework it into a rhyming story once again.

I love rhyming picture books and have been influenced by so many I really find this stage fun. I often compare it to putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It definitely helped to immerse myself in some of the stories I loved growing up and reading to my boys. Some of my favorites are A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock, All Aboard the Dinotrain by Deb Lund, Parts by Tedd Arnold and If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen. Of course, it took about a year, but after scratching paper copies with that dreaded red pen, consulting Rhymezone.com often to make sure I had the perfect rhyming words, and submitting to my critique group, all of the vivid details added up to a manuscript that was ready to submit. What a surprise it was to learn The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade won DFP’s Best Children’s Book Award.

Some people say that as soon as you write one book, the rest are a bit easier because you get your writing process down. Others say each book presents its own difficulties. Frankly, I agree with both. But although every author’s writing process is different, it’s important to note we all start staring at that blank page and finish with a manuscript we can’t help but feel has the potential to line book store shelves. So as you may be settling down to discover your writing process, don’t forget to start with the basics.

About the guest blogger: Lori Calabrese is an award-winning children’s author. Her first picture book, The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade, was awarded DFP’s Best Children’s Book Award. She writes for various children’s magazines, is the National Children’s Books Examiner at Examiner.com and enjoys sharing her passion for children’s books at festivals, schools and events. Visit her website to learn more.

The Dancing Pancake by Eileen Spinelli

2010-11-23T23:57:00.004+08:00

Illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff

The Dancing Pancake, written by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2010), is a middle grade novel in verse. Eleven-year-old Bindi is really struggling with the fact that her dad has left her and her mom. She also has to adjust to the new apartment she and her mom have moved into and The Dancing Pancake, the diner her mom and Aunt Darnell have just opened. There are definite perks to being part of a diner: Bindi and her friends Albert, Megan, and Kyra sit in the back booth and eat waffles with strawberries and whipped cream or triple-decker grilled sandwiches with root beer floats. But mostly Bindi is feeling mad-sad-bad about all the changes in her life. Then there is Grace, the homeless woman who is a regular customer at The Dancing Pancake. Bindi wants to rent a room for Grace but her mom won't help her. Why must everything be so frustrating???

One of the first things I noticed about The Dancing Pancake (and this is just an observation, not criticism) was that, unlike a few other novels-in-verse, each "chapter" cannot stand as an individual poem. The Dancing Pancake is one long poem. My first impression of The Dancing Pancake was that it was a surface level exploration of a preteen dealing with her parents' separation. It didn't seem to go very deep into the thoughts and feelings of Bindi. This was initially disappointing, as I believe the novel's form and content were naturally ripe for "deep exploration." As I continued reading, my opinion of the book changed. I saw that The Dancing Pancake was not a shallow story; it was actually a compelling story that stirred young readers and left gaps here and there for them to fill in with their own imagination and their own thoughts and feelings about the characters and what was happening.

There seems to be a bit too much going on in the novel because aside from Bindi's family, The Dancing Pancake is also about business at The Dancing Pancake (the diner), Bindi's friendships, and Bindi trying to help the homeless Grace. But having all these side stories works out. At its heart, The Dancing Pancake - as it should be - is about LIFE from a child's point of view.

I'd like to mention something I especially appreciate about the timeless illustrations that accompany this timeless story. Joanne Lew-Vriethoff has illustrated Bindi's Uncle Tim (Aunt Darnell's husband) as African American and Bindi's cousin Jackson (Uncle Tim and Aunt Darnell's son) is illustrated as obviously of mixed race. Nowhere in the story is Uncle Tim's and Jackson's skin color mentioned, so this is just the illustrator's touch and contribution to the story. So many illustrations in children's books seem to use white as the default for characters' skin color when the stories could easily apply to different races. I am happy that Lew-Vriethoff's illustrations realistically reflect America's multicolored society.

To end this blog post/book review, I'd like to tell you how a young reader responded to the novel: I read several pages of The Dancing Pancake aloud to my sixteen-year-old cousin Bobby. He listened very attentively and when I didn't want to read aloud anymore, he asked if he could borrow the book - and he finished reading it. (By the way, Bobby's parents are divorced. I am certain this is part of why the book appealed to him.) Bobby is what teachers and librarians call a "reluctant reader." It's true what they say. Give a reluctant reader an interesting book to read and he will be reluctant no more.

[I bought my own copy of The Dancing Pancake.]

The Second Filipino Book Bloggers' Meet Up

2010-11-22T02:08:00.001+08:00

Last Saturday (the 13th), I attended the second Filipino Book Bloggers' meet up at Libreria Bookstore. Libreria is a cozy bookstore where you can sit, read or talk, and drink good coffee - and buy cheap books! The meet up was fun because I got to connect faces with blogs and we all talked about bookish and blog-ish things. I've posted a few pictures from the meet up below. I stole these pictures from Philippine Genre Stories and Chachic's Book Nook. =P

See you all again soon! :o)

Radioactive by Lauren Redniss

2010-11-08T04:11:00.001+08:00

Marie & Pierre Curie
A Tale of Love and Fallout

The October issue of my favorite fashion magazine, Nylon (it's a little more street, a little more relatable and down-to-earth compared to other fashion magazines), had this book review by Ali Hoffman for Radioactive (IT Books, December 2010):

Author and artist Lauren Redniss opens her latest book, Radioactive, with the following disclaimer: "With apologies to Marie Curie, who said, 'There is no connection between my scientific work and the facts about my private life.'" It's an apt opening for a book that goes on to convey the astonishing life of a woman who, aside from coining the term "radioactivity" and winning two Nobel Prizes, is barely remembered today. In addition to her life as a scientist, Redniss tells of Curie's struggles as a wife, a mother, a foreigner, and a teacher. But that's not to say that Radioactive is just a good biography: Like her multifaceted protagonist, Redniss tells Curie's story through a continuously changing style of prose and more than 100 hand-made photographic collages. Whether looking for a new art book for your coffee table, a history lesson, or a tragic love story, Radioactive delivers.

I want this cool book! And doesn't it sound like a perfect Christmas gift for your daughter/granddaughter/niece/goddaughter/sister who wants to be a scientist? =D

I'm still alive!

2010-10-28T02:39:00.003+08:00

And today I blogged a few of my thoughts on Jhumpa Lahiri's adult fiction over at Color Online. See you there? =D

Guest Blog Post by YA Author Beth Fehlbaum

2010-10-16T16:28:00.004+08:00

YA author Beth Fehlbaum is a guest blogger at Into the Wardrobe today. We are celebrating the upcoming release of her novel Hope in Patience (WestSide Books, October 27, 2010)! Hope in Patience is the companion novel to Beth's 2008 YA novel Courage in Patience (Kunati, Inc.). Click here to read my review of Courage in Patience and my interview with Beth. :o)

"Writing as Healing: My Creative Process"
By Beth Fehlbaum

Writing has always been a way of satisfying my need to know. Even as a small child, I processed my problems by allowing what was in my head to trickle down my arm and escape through my fingertips. In my late thirties, I was working through the immense emotional, physical, and mental damage that years of childhood sexual abuse had left me with. The pain I was in was so great that the memory of it is very much like the pain of childbirth: unfathomable. In an effort to cope with the overwhelming feelings, I was writing short stories and poems and sharing them with my therapist. One day, he suggested that I try writing a novel. It took about four months of stopping and starting, always ending up stuck in spiral thoughts that looked like this: Why? How could this have happened to me? How could the person I thought I could never live without have turned her back on me? Why?... It never stopped.

One day, I decided to try imagining the experience I was having through the eyes of someone else. I dug deep and found a girl who was not me, but whose feelings I could understand: Ashley Nicole Asher, age 15, whose outcry to her mother about her stepfather’s abuse was ignored. I created for Ashley a biological father she had never known, and a tiny East Texas town that would become Ashley’s new home. This became Courage in Patience. I wrote the first draft of Courage in Patience in the wee hours of the morning, in about four months. There were more rewrites in the revising and editing process, but that first cathartic draft had a pretty quick birth. I am a teacher and I was working at the time, but because my life was so entrenched in recovery and my mind was working so hard to process and heal, I was sleeping very little. To be honest, I dreaded sleep. I preferred to be with Ashley and her newfound family in Patience during those quiet night hours instead of fighting the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder-driven nightmares and flashbacks that were happening frequently. I’d come home from school and work out, fall asleep for about four hours, then wake around 11 p.m. or so and write through the night. I have no idea how I functioned at the time! I just remember my mind constantly “writing.” When I’d wake around 11, it was like my feet could not get to the kitchen table and my laptop fast enough to let the rest of me record what was happening in my head.

By the time I finished writing Courage in Patience, I had come to know in my heart what my therapist had been telling me all along: what had happened to me was not my fault, and—this is an even bigger deal, believe me—the fact that people who were supposed to love me and protect me had chosen not to do so was NOT a reflection of my inherent worth as a person. I learned those things by writing Courage in Patience, because I wanted Ashley to know that about herself.

Hope in Patience was not such a quick write, and while it was a healing experience, I was less frantic by then. The pain was beginning to settle, but I was struggling mightily with the notion that the losses I had experienced were not just temporary. I started writing Hope in Patience the summer after Courage in Patience released, mainly because I realized that Ashley had unfinished business, and that was acceptance of the situation with her mom. Ashley—and I—were still waiting for the people who should have loved and protected us to—you know—snap out of it! Ashley thought her mom had to change because, well, she’s her mom, and no mom could really be that cold and messed up... Could she?

No more middle of the night writing: my body had readjusted to a normal schedule, and I could not pull the all-nighters that I had with Courage in Patience. I treated writing Hope in Patience like a full-time job. The entire summer (between “Mom Stuff” I did with my college-age daughters, that is), I wrote from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. I did a lot more research than I did for Courage in Patience. Unlike Courage in Patience, which takes place during the first summer that Ashley lives in Patience, Hope in Patience takes place during the regular school year. I researched World War II, since Ashley’s American history teacher, Coach Griffin, is a WWII fanatic. I bought an American History textbook off Amazon and used it as the basis for what Coach Griffin teaches. Ashley’s stepmom, Bev, teaches the novel Farewell to Manzanar, and I reread the novel (I used to teach it when I taught middle school). I wrote to Dwight Okita, the wonderful poet who wrote, “In Response to Executive Order 9066,” for permission to use the poem in Hope in Patience. I also wrote to Densho: The Japanese-American Legacy Project, for permission to quote from a video they have online. I studied World War II propaganda and newsreels. Ashley is in a class called Human Ecology—I LOVE that label!— it’s the study of families and child development. I researched a lot of Consumer and Family Science lesson plans. Throughout this process, I had kind of a spider-web-looking flowchart because I wanted all three of these classes to intersect. Luckily, I have enough experience in planning cross-curricular units that it was not very difficult for me to do.

Ashley’s stepfather, Charlie, goes to court for breaking her arm, so I did a lot of research into the trial process. My brother, Brett, is a police sergeant, and for many years he worked child abuse cases. I peppered him with questions about the legal process and sent him the early drafts of the chapter in which the trial takes place. He walked me through the Victim Impact Statement and told me whether the events in the courtroom seemed realistic.

I drew on my therapist’s expertise not only for myself, but for writing Hope in Patience, too. I needed to understand from an objective point-of-view the “why” behind self-mutilation, because I had never done it to the extent Ashley does, and I needed to know it from the mental health professional’s standpoint, too. I questioned him about how he would actually talk to a teenage girl. I wrote to Tom Russell, a Texas singer-songwriter, for permission to use a few lines from his song, “It Goes Away,” which Ashley’s therapist, Dr. Matt, plays for her during a therapy session. I even researched haunted houses—you know, the kind that people put on around Halloween-and Halloween theme parks, so that the Tour of Terror that Ashley goes on would be authentic.

Even though I worked steadily on Hope in Patience for one entire summer, it took me most of the following summer to complete it. I really don’t write novels during the school year. My full-time job requires so much creative “juju” that just keeping up with lesson plans, grading, housework, and promotion of my already-out-there books pretty much leave me too drained to storyweave. That said, I started the third (and final??) book in the Patience series, Truth in Patience, this past summer (between moving two of my daughters to Colorado and working on final edits for Hope in Patience). I’m about four chapters in, and I expect to complete it this coming summer.

In the meantime, Hope in Patience releases the end of this month, and I am so excited to tell you that it’s already been nominated for a 2011 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers! I invite you to stop by my website and read chapter previews of Courage in Patience and Hope in Patience.

Beth, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful and touching writing and healing process!

Family Update =D

2010-10-11T20:25:00.005+08:00

My brothers JP and Brian, along with their teammate Tonek, won the gold for the men's team event at the World Poomsae Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan!!!

Congratulations, JP, Brian, and Tonek!!!

(Those are JP and Brian's medals in the picture. =D)

Kataastaasan by Hannah Buena and Paolo Chikiamco

2010-10-11T00:26:00.002+08:00

I want to quickly mention Kataastaasan (Highest), a comic book by Hannah Buena and Paolo Chikiamco, because I was having a pretty dead day today until I read it. Kataastaasan is an entertaining mixture of steampunk and Philippine folklore - with cool illustrations. It's targeted at adult readers. I think it has some teen appeal (yes, I am always thinking of young readers!) because it is set in Cebu City in 1770 and is an alternate history of the Philippine struggle for independence from Spain. High school and college students study this revolution and Kataastaasan seems like a fun supplement or springboard for discussion on Philippine history. There's a bit of innuendo in the story. That might make some people hesitant to recommend it to teens, but the innuendos weren't really gratuitous. After all, sometimes revolutionary women had to pretend to be tramps to spy on the enemy . . .

It appears Kataastaasan will not be a series, as it will be published later this year by Espresso Comics, "a weekly comics magazine that features one-shot comic stories by Filipino creators." Too bad. :o(

[My copy of Kataastaasan was an advance reading copy provided by Paolo Chikiamco.]

The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís

2010-10-03T00:53:00.000+08:00

When I first saw The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís (Scholastic Press, 2010) on a bookstore shelf, I gasped and clutched the book to my chest. I was stunned. Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís in ONE BOOK? A book for middle grade readers that is a fictionalized biography of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda? I imagine that this is the kind of project editors live for.

The Dreamer introduces us to the young boy Neftalí Reyes and takes us into his life. Neftalí is shy and sickly. He speaks with a stutter. He is also bright, sensitive, and inquisitive. His imagination rich. Numbers from a mathematics homework assignment fly off the page and out his bedroom through a window crack. His bedroom becomes an enormous tree that he tries to walk around. A rhinoceros beetle is his steed through a rain forest.

Neftalí collects rocks, feathers, leaves, and anything that he is curious about – which is just about everything. He is fascinated by the world around him, but above all, he is fascinated by words. Neftalí loves the look of words when they are written, their feel and sound when they are spoken. When he writes, he shows incredible skill and talent for his age.

Using appropriately poetic prose, Pam Muñoz Ryan has written a beautiful portrait of a young poet and shows how he becomes Pablo Neruda, one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. We clearly see and understand how Neftalí’s heart and mind work and how he sees the world around him. Peter Sís’ gorgeous, detailed illustrations amplify Ryan’s writing. The dark green illustrations and the use of the same color ink for the text adds to the book’s poetic, even ethereal, air.

Though characterization for Neftalí was most satisfying, I wish the characterization for his father had been equally excellent. The main conflict in the story is Neftalí’s struggle for acceptance and affection from his father. José Reyes is an often harsh man and he disapproves of his sons’ interests. He is not proud of Neftalí or his older brother Rodolfo, and thinks that their interest in language, literature, and music will never amount to anything. One summer vacation by the sea, he even forces Neftalí and his younger sister Laurita to swim every day even though they are terrified of the water - all in the hopes of changing his children (apparently Laurita is becoming too much like Neftalí) and making them “stronger.” At the beginning of the novel, it is revealed that José Reyes does not want his sons to struggle for money the way he did. But readers need much more than a single line of dialogue to understand why the antagonist in a novel is the way he is.

My other concern with The Dreamer is its quiet plot and how many children might take it. This isn’t a page turner. I really wonder, will many children have the patience for and appreciate the character-driven plot?

One thing is for sure: Readers will come away from The Dreamer inspired. Those new to poetry will find their appetites for poetry whetted. Poetry lovers will find their love for poetry expanded. The book includes an author’s note on Pablo Neruda and some of his poems and odes. Even before readers reach this last section of the book, they will find themselves eager to learn more about Pablo Neruda and read his work. More importantly, readers will find themselves more like Neftalí Reyes, more open to and aware of the poetry that surrounds us every day, the poetry in twigs and pinecones and nests. The poetry of lost mittens and umbrellas and discarded boots and keys.

Hello, my luvlies!

2010-09-28T00:59:00.003+08:00

I haven't forgotten about all of you, and I haven't stopped reading for this blog. I'm drafting a review of The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sis (Scholastic Press, 2010). Watch out for that! (Who has read The Dreamer too?)

Over the weekend I met up with some fellow Filipino book bloggers. It was so nice to finally meet them and talk about bookish things in person! Below are a couple pictures from our time together:

There are more pictures here, here, here, and here. :o)

What have you all been up to? What are you reading now?

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2010-08-31T05:01:00.001+08:00

When Grace was a little girl, she was bitten by wolves. They pulled her off the tire swing in her backyard and dragged her into the woods. Grace remembers only one of the wolves. The one with mesmerizing yellow eyes. The wolf who stopped the attack.

For six years after the attack Grace sees the yellow-eyed wolf in the woods behind her house. She watches him, he watches her, and they fall in love.

Grace's wolf is only a wolf in the cold of winter. Under the summer sun, he is Sam and he is very human.

Shiver (Scholastic Press, 2009) is a paranormal romance for young adult readers by Maggie Stiefvater. It is very romantic in the more traditional sense of the word: It focuses on and moves readers to focus on nature, the imagination, and emotions. This is wonderful. The woods and the weather have prominent roles in the story. (In fact, each chapter begins with the temperature for that day or time of day.) Stiefvater succeeds in building an atmosphere of mystery and suspense around Grace, Sam, other wolves, their friends, and their small town of Mercy Falls, Minnesota. Readers will keep turning the pages of Shiver because there are always intriguing questions raised about the characters. Many questions are answered by the end of the novel. A couple unanswered questions are moving me to read Linger, the sequel to Shiver.

But a couple other unanswered questions annoyed me.

"Of course," she said, and her voice was frustrated. "Magic would be intangible. Science has cures. Haven't you ever wondered how it all started?"

I didn't open my eyes. "One day a wolf bit a man and the man caught it. Magic or science, it's all the same. The only thing magical about it is that we can't explain it."

The passage above is from a conversation between Sam and Grace (pg. 244-245 in the hardcover edition of Shiver). As seen in the passage above, no back story is provided to explain the origin of the wolves or to explain their condition. Throughout the novel, Sam is dismissive of his wolfish background. This is consistent with his ambivalent feelings toward being a wolf. However, the absence of a back story made suspending my disbelief about the wolves a little difficult.

Perhaps these questions will be answered in Linger? Regardless, Shiver should be able to stand on its own.

Stiefvater also succeeds in expressing and evoking a swirl of emotions for readers: love, desire, obsession, confusion, sadness, and so much more. Sam's struggle with his identity - Is he man or is he wolf? How can he possibly be both? - is convincing and moving. (This is greatly helped by the novel alternating between Sam and Grace's points of view.) And Stiefvater brings readers to really feel and explore this question: How can a girl and a wolf boy truly be together? The yearning, oh the yearning, Sam and Grace feel for each other is palpable.

As a reader, I was less than satisfied with the paranormal aspect of this novel, but thoroughly satisfied with its love story. As impossible as this love story seems, it will speak to the emotions of teen readers and to the teen inside all of us.

[I bought my own copy of Shiver.]

Get Caught Reading an Author of Color's Book!

2010-08-19T02:43:00.000+08:00

If you catch anyone reading a book by an author of color, take his/her picture! Email the jpeg file with a short blurb about the picture to Amy Bowllan, the blogger behind Writers Against Racism.

Amy's email address: abowllan@mediasourceinc.com

Let's help spread the word about authors of color and their books!!

For Class This Week

2010-08-16T21:48:00.000+08:00

Sweet 15 by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria

2010-08-13T02:33:00.011+08:00

Destiny Lozada is turning 15. It's time to plan for her quinceañera. Time to start preparing the special gown and heels and tiara, the live music, the fancy venue, and of course her escort (caballero) and court (seven girls called damas and seven boys called chambelanes) and the waltz they will perform.

Destiny's mom insists that Destiny have a proper quinceañera - a proper celebration of her "transition to womanhood" with her family and friends. Destiny's mom didn't have a proper quinceañera of her own because she grew up poor in Puerto Rico. Destiny's older sister America didn't have a quinceañera at all. America believes that a quinceañera "stands for virginity, chastity, and nonsense. It's a rehearsal for how to walk, talk, sit, eat, and obey. . . It's also used to show wealth." As for Destiny's dad, he's determined to stay out of the debate.

Destiny doesn't quite agree with her mom when she says that a quinceañera is a beautiful religious ceremony and a way for a New Yorker like Destiny to keep in touch with her Puerto Rican roots. She also doesn't quite agree with her sister when she says that a quinceañera is "just another tool used by The Man to imprison women in a lifelong sentence of loveless marriages filled with dirty dishes and ungrateful babies and dirty babies and ungrateful dishes!" Destiny doesn't know what to think. She doesn't know what she wants. But she's super close to her mom and sister and wants to please them both, so she ends up saying yes to all of their demands for her quinceañera, even though their demands contradict each other. For example: Destiny's mom thinks Destiny should have a caballero. America thinks Destiny should proudly stand alone at her birthday party.

Sweet 15 by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria (Marshall Cavendish, 2010) is HILARIOUS. Destiny (the novel's narrator) and her family and friends all have a great sense of humor. And all of them - from Destiny's quirky and dorky best guy friend Omar to America's strong and beautiful best friends Hailey and Maritza - are colorful and likable characters. Destiny's mom and America are particularly wacky and have very funny exchanges about the quinceañera.

Sweet 15 is an entertaining story about a young woman discovering who she is and what she wants. It's sometimes packaged as a story about a young woman with a cultural identity crisis of sorts. Sometimes Destiny talks about feeling lost somewhere between the United States and Puerto Rico and "being pulled in different directions by my family with these two different cultures. . ." But these are all just explicit statements found in the book. Destiny doesn't spend time reflecting on this issue and there is no real evidence of this struggle in her life. Sweet 15 is really about Destiny finding her own voice instead of just pleasing her parents and living in her sister's shadow. It's about her figuring out what makes her happy and fighting for it instead of prioritizing what makes her parents, sister, or other people happy.

The novel does have a sour note: all the "aha moments." These are the moments where a quinceañera is explained through narration/exposition or dialogue. Below are examples from two different chapters in the book.

"Fact check: a quinceañera (which is Spanish for 'fifteen years') is like a Sweet Sixteen party or bat mitzvah, only the Spanish, or Mexican, or Puerto Rican, or Cuban, or Central or South American version for fifteen-year-old girls, with chunks of religious and cultural stuff mixed together."

"Omar wipes melted sugar off his chin and clears his throat: 'The quinceañera has two sections, a mass and a party. During the mass, fourteen candles are lit, and the mother places a tiara on her daughter's head. . .'"

These "aha moments" make for awkward reading and have a tendency to exoticize the quinceañera (which is definitely counterproductive to multicultural literature). It would have been better reading if that rich information had been shared through the characters' actions and through much more natural dialogue.

Still, I recommend Sweet 15 to readers looking for something light and fun and interesting, and, of course, to readers who may be curious about quinceañeras.

[My copy of Sweet 15 was provided by the publisher.]

Updates?

2010-08-07T00:52:00.000+08:00

Where are all your book reviews and author and illustrator interviews, Tarie?

I apologize for the lack of really substantial updates lately. I've been a bad blogger. But I was busy with judging this! Then I had to study for a major Spanish exam! Then I got sick!

Anywayyy . . . The good news is that I am now reading Sweet 15 by Alex Echevarria and Emily Adler (Marshall Cavendish 2010). So my next blog post will be a review of Sweet 15. :o)

Stay tuned!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-28T03:37:00.003+08:00

Zarah Gagatiga, head of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People, is...

Why do we need more children's and YA books with characters of color?

2010-07-20T23:58:00.001+08:00

"If you cannot find yourself on the page very early in life, you will go looking for yourself in all the wrong places."
- Richard Peck

I heard Candy Gourlay quote Richard Peck in a speech and I was nearly in tears thinking of all the kids of color who are still looking for themselves in the pages of books.

Bling for the Bunny-Eat-Bunny World!

2010-07-17T23:48:00.003+08:00

I just couldn't resist buying this ring. :o)

Can I have one minute of your time?

2010-07-01T02:14:00.000+08:00

Please watch this one-minute video about why The Last Airbender is an example of institutionalized racism.

Thank you so much for your minute.

If you have more time, please check out this blog post. It's a very thorough and articulate explanation of why one man is not supporting The Last Airbender for professional, philosophical, and personal reasons.

* Dies Laughing *

2010-06-29T22:04:00.001+08:00

Watch this HILARIOUS and fabulous video from YA author Jackson Pearce. It's her version of Ke$ha's "Tik Tok," and it's dedicated to writer's block. You MUST watch it.

Head on over to...

2010-06-28T22:19:00.002+08:00

* Chasing Ray, where book reviewer extraordinaire Colleen Mondor asks children's and YA authors and bloggers (including me) What historical figure or nonfiction book (s) do you wish you knew about or read the last summer before your senior year in high school?

* Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, where I interview Indian American author Uma Krishnaswami about her latest picture book Out of the Way! Out of the Way!

* Chachic's Book Nook, where I talk a bit about why I love YA books.

* And if you are a Filipino book blogger (any genre; anywhere in the world), please visit Filipino Book Bloggers and have your blog details added to the directory. :o)

New Bookmark!

2010-06-22T17:45:00.004+08:00

I bought this bookmark because the children's book industry is said to be a "bunny-eat-bunny world." ;)

"Reflected Faces" by Tanita Davis

2010-06-12T18:02:00.001+08:00

Please read "Reflected Faces" by Tanita Davis. It's a painfully true article about how "...it still seems as if young people with brown skin are acceptable to ignore [in contemporary YA literature], at least in the marketing departments where the Powers That Be have determined that Brown doesn’t equal Buy."

Children's Book Necklaces

2010-06-11T16:53:00.001+08:00

At the Summer Solstice Rockwell Bazaar, I discovered Thingys Accessories by Cessa Gaston. There are lots of cute and quirky Thingys Accessories, but I zoomed in on the children's book necklaces! There were necklaces for Grimm's Fairy Tales, Harry Potter, and other children's books. I bought the necklaces for The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss and Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. I *loved* those books as a child. I read them over and over and over again.

I'm not really a necklace person though. So I'll use the necklaces as bag accessories. :o)

"The Elephant in the Room" by Elizabeth Bluemle

2010-06-11T15:37:00.001+08:00

Please read "The Elephant in the Room," an article by Elizabeth Bluemle. It's a call to publishers, editors, art directors, sales representatives, librarians, booksellers, and other stakeholders to make the children's and YA book industry more inclusive and better reflective of the great diversity in our world. I am answering this call. I hope you will too.

Below is Grace Lin's illustration for "The Elephant in the Room." Thirteen children's book illustrators including Grace Lin created artwork specifically for the article.

Distractions =D

2010-06-11T15:17:00.002+08:00

When not checking out children's and young adult literature blogs, I am checking out entertaining fashion blogs. I love the confidence of these fashion bloggers:

Behind the Seams
Blushing Ambition (fashion + food!)
Cupcakes and Cashmere (fashion + food!)
DirtyLittleStyleWhore
Maison des Reveries (fashion + food!)
The Sartorialist
Sea of Shoes
Song of Style
Tricia Will Go Places

And I am addicted to dressing up an avatar of myself for this online fashion game:

Poupeegirl

Bellyfest 2010

2010-06-09T00:26:00.000+08:00

On Saturday, my beautiful, fabulous poet friend Chloe (I fondly call her Chloebellabelles LOL) invited me to watch a dance show with her at the PETA Theater. (A note about the PETA Theater: I was appalled to see that the theater chairs were plastic chairs and that the stage was all scratched up / beaten up. It's a shame because the rest of the building is so clean and beautiful!) The dance show was the grand evening show of Bellyfest 2010. It was a recital of professional and amateur belly dancers. The very talented belly dancers were beauties of all different ages, shapes, and sizes. They were exuding a lot of confidence and it looked like they were having a lot of fun. I wanted to get up and dance, too!

Unfortunately, in one part of the recital there was an attempt to string together dance numbers using a narrative. It was a story about a man searching the world for a priceless gift to give his beloved. There was a dance number for each country he visited (Spain, Brazil, China, Egypt, etc.). The dance numbers were charming, but the story was trite and felt very forced. The narrator didn't enunciate his words well and there was no passion or any other kind of feeling coming from the actor playing the man who was traveling the world.

Still, I thought it was an excellent recital. Click here to read Chloe's review of the show. Her review includes a video of one of the amazing performers balancing a sword on her head while belly dancing!

Disclosure:

I bought my ticket to Bellyfest 2010, but I did get freebies from one of their sponsors, Slenda. The people from Slenda were so nice and they gave me a lovely gift bag. Thank you, Slenda!

Big Changes

2010-06-01T16:56:00.002+08:00

I've resigned from my job to be a full-time graduate student. Yesterday was my last day at work. I worked as an editor for the Resources Development Department at goFLUENT, a provider of distance English training solutions for corporations. Resources Development has two teams, the Trainer Resources Team and the Learner Resources Team. I was part of the Trainer Resources Team. This was my little corner in the office (yes, right next to the fire extinguisher :P )...

The rest of the Resources Development office...

Oh, hi Ray! Don't let me disturb you.

Ray is a writer for the Trainer Resources Team.

This is Jem. She's a fantastic writer and she's replacing me as editor for the team.

Here's Max, the manager of the Trainer Resources Team. :)

Check out Issa, a writer for the Learner Resources Team. She's holding our work "bible," Practical English Usage by Michael Swan.

Chloe hard at work. Chloe is also a writer for the Learner Resources Team.

Anya is the manager for the entire Resources Development Department.

There was a little going away party for me...

In the picture below I am with Aika (a writer for the Learner Resources Team), Chloe, and Issa.

Anya!

Why aren't you smiling, Jem?!

And here I am with my good friend Carlo. Carlo is part of the IT Department at goFLUENT. He did the artwork and design for this blog and Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind!

Yesterday was bittersweet. I will miss my wonderful coworkers, but I am also excited about being a full-time graduate student.

Why Gene Luen Yang Won't Watch the Last Airbender Movie

2010-05-26T01:58:00.001+08:00

Click on and enlarge the image below to read why graphic novel creator Gene Luen Yang won't be watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I won't be watching it either. Why would I spend some of my hard-earned money to support racist casting practices and a whitewashed movie???

Why Werewolves PWN Vampires: A Guest Post by YA Author Judith Graves

2010-05-11T22:53:00.012+08:00

YA author Judith Graves and I have one thing in common: We LOVE werewolves. We've exchanged several messages through Twitter, and we usually talk about those HOT HOT paranormal creatures. So I've invited Judith to guest blog at Into the Wardrobe and asked her this question: Why are werewolves so freakin' awesome?!

Hey Tarie!

You asked for a guest post on why werewolves were so made of awesomeness. As a true Wolfy Chick, I completely agree they are. However, I should clarify that in my book, Under My Skin (UMS), my “werewolves” are pretty old school and are not of the Jacob / Sam persuasion. In UMS, werewolves are forged from dark magic, they are made, not born – and serve as the brawn for their demon or vampire masters.

That being said, my wolven creatures, like Eryn, the main character in UMS, are shapeshifters, born with the ability to assume either human or wolf form. Kind of your typical lycan-ish creature, except wolven are wolves who occasionally live as humans rather than the other way around.

ANYWAY…. I’m totally splitting hairs or fur on this one…lol… Back to the issue at hand. Were creatures – lycans – wolven – whatever…. They do rule and, if you don’t believe me, well, I’ll have to convince you. One of my favourite things to do – create Pro / Con lists (anal of me, sure, but it’s how I process stuff). I took the liberty of creating one on my lunch break today at school (I work in an elementary school library – hence, the “damage noted” stamps – I spared you the usual snot-covered stack of books sitting on my desk, aren’t you glad? The snot would be from kids reading the books and sneezing on the cover, NOT me.)

Here goes:

As you can see (well, you could if you click on the image to make it all big like) the pros far outweigh the cons – weres are most awesome! And I apparently can’t spell “immortal” to save my life.

My husband is reading over my shoulder and informs me that I neglected to add “stench of wet dog” to the CONS. I agree, that was an oversight. But I’m amazed he’d think of reeks considering the stench emanating from his hockey gear bag in our garage. ;)

And the odor factor still doesn’t tip the scale – weres rule! Thanks for letting me hang on your blog Tarie…. Cya!

Judith

Werewolves only stink for vampires. They smell just fine to us humans. ;) Thank you so very much for talkin' werewolves with me again today, Judith!!

Now, dear readers, tell us: Do you love werewolves too? =D

The Asian Festival of Children's Content

2010-05-11T22:43:00.003+08:00

I was just recently in Singapore for the inaugural Asian Festival of Children's Content. Click here to read my blog posts on the festival! =D

The Ruby Lu Early Chapter Books

2010-05-04T01:23:00.004+08:00

Hello, hello!

I've blogged about Ruby Lu, Brave and True here.

And I've blogged about Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything here.

Check the posts out! They are all at Color Online. :o)

A Prediction About the Last Airbender Movie

2010-04-22T23:39:00.004+08:00

Awesome blogger Gab makes a prediction about the Last Airbender movie here. Go check it out!

I'm like Gab. I'm not going to forgive director M. Night Shyamalan and producer Frank Marshall anytime soon. Casting Caucasian actors to play Asian and Inuit characters? SERIOUSLY?

Walker Stories Set in Africa

2010-04-18T02:29:00.003+08:00

Nelson by Tor and Jude Freeman (Walker Books, 2009) contains three connected short stories for children. In "A Long Journey," Flora and Annie travel from the big city of Cape Town, South Africa to a small country town. They are going to spend the school holidays with their ouma and oupa (grandmother and grandfather). Flora feels very grown up because it is their first time to take the long bus ride without their mother and it is Flora's job to take care of her little sister.

In "A Dropped Egg," Flora doesn't feel so grown up anymore. She is scared of Ouma's big red rooster, Nelson. Ouma is baking a cake and asks Flora to get four eggs from the henhouse. But Flora can't do it with Nelson so near the henhouse!

In "A Big Wave," Flora, Annie, Ouma, and Oupa spend the day at the beach. Flora is worried about the big waves washing over Annie, but she sees that Annie isn't afraid of the waves. This and a talk with Ouma gets Flora wondering about whether she can overcome her fear of Nelson.

Nelson is a good book about the many simple pleasures of school holidays: from eating sweets and drinking fizzy drinks while traveling, to swinging on an old tire hanging from a tree and racing hermit crabs against each other. It's also a good book about growing up and overcoming fears. But the leisurely pace and simplicity of the stories and the simplicity of the black and white illustrations made the book underwhelming for me.

Nelson is underwhelming especially when compared with Handa's Surprising Day by Eileen Browne (Walker Books, 2007), which I read right after reading Nelson.

Handa's Surprising Day has three connected short stories for children set in the villages of the Luo tribe in southwest Kenya. Its black and white illustrations are bold and, as befits the title, it's a surprising book.

In "Where's Mondi?," Handa goes searching for her grandma's missing chicken, and finds something unexpected. In "The Fruity Surprise," Handa walks to another village to bring her friend Akeyo a banana, guava, orange, mango, pineapple, avocado-pear, and passion-fruit - but ends up giving Akeyo something else. In "The Big, Bad Goat," a (you guessed it) big, bad goat follows Handa back to her village and tries to butt her, but something always gets in his way.

What I really found pleasantly surprising about Handa's Surprising Day was that it teaches kids numbers, colors, fruits, and animals while telling truly entertaining stories. :o)

[I bought my own copies of Nelson and Handa's Surprising Day.]

Clickety Click

2010-04-14T02:12:00.001+08:00

I am very proud to present three interviews at my blog on Asian children's and YA books, Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind. =D

Click here to read my interview of Chinese Australian children's book author Christopher Cheng. (The picture below is of Chris with Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler - the Fonz!!!)

Click here to read my interview of Taiwanese American children's book author and illustrator Grace Lin. (The picture of Grace below was taken by Alexandre Ferron.)

Click here to read my interview of Indian Canadian YA author Neesha Meminger.

Author Interview: Kristy Dempsey

2010-04-10T01:43:00.006+08:00

Watch the Me With You book trailer:

I'm proud to present an interview with Kristy Dempsey, the author of the gorgeous, touching (even tear-inducing) picture book Me With You (Philomel, 2009).

Hi, Kristy! Welcome! Please step Into the Wardrobe. :o)

Please tell us . . . What motivates, inspires, and influences you as a writer for children?

Most commonly for me, it’s conversations with my children that get my mind whirring on a particular topic. They might say something funny or clever that makes me think, “Ooo, that would make a great title.” Or sometimes it’s just their typical “kid behavior” or thought patterns that make me think of a book idea.

Can you give an example of something your children did or said that made its way into your writing?

Oh, there are so many things, and some of those things I am still trying to work into viable manuscripts. Here are a couple:

When my oldest daughter was two years old, we were headed to a friend’s house and she was determined to “walk like a bear”. I had no idea what she meant and kept telling her that if she’d just let me put on her shoes, we could be on our way and I would let her “walk like a bear” all she wanted. Of course, she was trying to say that she wanted to walk with “bare” feet. I was too slow to get it. That phrase found its way into a poem, though not a very good one yet.

On a more general note of inspiration, my forthcoming book Mini Racer was inspired by my children. I was sitting down to write one day when my two oldest children began racing through the house, one on a bicycle and one on a tricycle, with the youngest, a toddler, chasing after them on her own two feet dragging a blanket behind. Our house at the time was a single level apartment with a large outside area that wrapped itself around three sides. We had sliding glass doors on two separate sides of the house, so the children could literally race out one side of the house, around the back, and race back into the other side. I was sitting at the dining room table trying to work, and felt like I was at the race track. Mini Racer was born out of that joyous energy that permeates our family life. I literally had the first draft down on paper by naptime that day!

Why did you write Me With You? What's "the story behind the story"?

The real “story behind the story” is that I wrote Me With You because my husband was in the US for a couple of weeks and I was back home in Brazil. I was spending all my free time writing but he complained because I hadn’t even written him an email all week. But I was on a creative binge! So I wrote him a poem to show him I was thinking about him and when I finished I thought, “Hmm. That could be a picture book.” I guess my love poetry fits the picture book format better than the sonnet form!

Eventually when Me With You was illustrated as a grandfather/granddaughter, it felt right though. Hopefully the sentiment is true of all kinds of relationships.

That's precisely why I love Me With You so much! I love how it can apply to all kinds of relationships.

What was the path to publication for Me With You? Was it difficult to find an agent and a publisher? Where were you and what were you doing when you found out that your picture book was going to be published? What were your first thoughts and feelings?

I finished Me With You and sent it off a couple of weeks later to Patricia Gauch at Philomel Books, whom I had met before at the Highlights Foundation Chautauqua Workshop. At the time, I wasn’t agented so I waited. And waited. And waited. In the mean time, I submitted some samples of my work to Kendra Marcus of Bookstop Literary, and about six weeks later she showed interest. I signed with her and we began to send some things out but we decided to wait to hear from Patti on Me With You. Finally, a year and a half after I had sent it to Ms. Gauch, I was contacted by one of the editors at Philomel saying they had just come across the manuscript and asking if the manuscript was still available. But it was a very non-committal email. I felt as if they’d just found it in a pile and were just now reading it. I didn’t have a ton of hope.

When Kendra called me with the offer, I was in Charlotte, NC visiting my husband’s grandmother. I’d had coffee that morning with a writer friend, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, and was doing some shopping when my father-in-law called me to say my agent was trying to get in touch with me. I called her back and didn’t get an answer! Aggghhhh! I had no idea why she might be calling (Me With You had fallen off my radar) but I was a nervous wreck until I finally got in touch with her. When she told me Patti had made an offer, I was gobsmacked! Thrilled! It was unexpected and very much like one would hope “the call” would be.

What do you want young readers to take away from Me With You?

There is a line at the end of Me With You that reads: “And though I’ll find new ways of being me my whole life through, my favorite me will always be when I am me with you.” I hope that children will feel that their individuality is to be celebrated and that they *should* continually discover new ways of being themselves. Also, even when they do discover new ways of being themselves, it doesn’t diminish the value of their past relationships. It is that independence/interdependence that I hope Me With You celebrates.

What is your favorite response to Me With You from a critic? What is your favorite response to Me With You from a young reader?

One of my favorite reviews of Me With You was from Esmé Codell, who really seemed to “get” what I was going for in the book. She understood that the book is a celebration of independence AND interdependence. It celebrates the individual but also how individuals relate to one another in a community. Her review can be found here.

One of my favorite responses from a young reader came from Jontrez, a first-grader in Florence, SC, who used his own money to buy Me With You. It was the very first book he had ever bought. Here’s a pic. It’s a little blurry, but I think you can see my joy as well as his.

How do you feel about the book being read in different parts of the world? Was having international readers one of your dreams when you started writing?

I am thrilled the book is being read all over the world. I grew up in the United States but I live in Brazil, so I consider myself to be quite international! Certainly, one of the things I’ve learned since moving overseas is that emotion is universal. The things we do and the things we love may not always be the same, but the things we feel are real and true and common to all of us. So, one of the things I do in every book I write is to try to get the emotion right. A child might not be able to relate to the particular situations in the book, but they will be able to relate to how the characters feel. That emotional connection gives them somewhere to “put” what the character is experiencing even if the reader has never experienced it before.

What children's books would you like your own work to match or surpass (in terms of writing, impact/influence, popularity/sales, or awards)?

I think every writer wants to write books that will be cherished by someone. Yet we know that not every book will be loved by everyone. So when it comes to thinking about impact/influence, popularity/sales and awards, I try not to! Think, that is. Those are the things I can’t control. So I’m writing for the reader in me. If *I* connect with what I am writing, and if I seek to connect with the child reader that I was, I think I’m on the right track. And I think it will connect with others. That’s the kind of writing that stands the test of time and that crosses cultural boundaries.

If you could choose only one, which would you choose: for Me With You to be award-winning, or for Me With You to be bestselling? Why?

You ask such great questions! I think I would choose best-selling, because I want the book to reach as many people as possible. But truthfully, both of those options are unlikely with every book. Sometimes it’s enough to know that your book found a sufficient audience that loves it and connects with it emotionally.

What are you working on now?

I just completed a picture book called Wild Hare, about an over-energetic hare interrupting a sleepy bear’s nap. It’s under submission now, so I’ve got my fingers crossed! I’m also working on a middle-grade novel and hope to be finished by May 2010. It’s not under contract so I can afford to take my time and do it well. But writing a novel is a different beast than a picture book and I have to take a deep breath every time I open the file. :)

I also just received art for my next picture book, Mini Racer, due out from Bloomsbury in Spring 2011, being illustrated by Bridget Strevens-Marzo. I’m very excited about it!

Can you tell us a bit more about Mini Racer?

Mini Racer is a rip-roaring story in rhyme about a race with an unlikely winner. Originally I had envisioned the story to be a young boy racing through his day like a race car, but the brilliant Bridget Strevens-Marzo had the wonderful foresight to illustrate a cast of animal characters racing through town. For preschoolers and early readers, there is something to study on each page as the illustrations are chock-full of detail and wonder and merriment. Each animal set has its own particular characteristics and personalities, from the gas-guzzling crocodiles to the eco-friendly snail on a skateboard. Mini Racer should be out in early 2011. I can’t wait!

Does living in Belo Horizonte, Brazil help or hinder your writing in any way as an American author with an American publisher?

Ultimately I feel that the wider world view I have through living in Brazil is beneficial for my writing. In the short term, I have to work harder to see what is current in the market. I’ve developed some mad googling skills in order to find excerpts of books and interviews with authors. It’s amazing what you can find. And the “search inside this book” feature at Amazon helps a lot too.

The other aspect is that in this digital day and age a lot of what I do as an author and promoter of my work can be done online. I’m grateful for that!

What is the literary scene like in Brazil? Can you tell us a bit about children's literature in Brazil?

I am woefully “out of pocket” in the literary scene in Brazil. I am familiar with the greats, like Ana Maria Machado, and keep my eyes open for new illustrator talent, but beyond that, I’m so uninformed. Brazilian picture books have a different sensibility than American ones. The market is smaller, I think, and more of the books have a fairy tale feel. Some books are brought in from Europe for Brazilian editions. Fewer are brought in from America, I think.

I do aspire to do some translation, though. So perhaps in a few years, I’ll have a better answer for this question!

If you were to visit the Philippines, would you a) visit white sand beaches and underground caves, go sailing, go snorkeling and scuba diving, etc.; or b) check out the natural wonders above ground, like the Taal Volcano, the Banaue Rice Terraces, and the Chocolate Hills. Why?

I would want to do it all! I am a very adventurous traveler and one of my difficulties is choosing which adventure I want to take because I want ALL the adventures. I also want to try all the food and spend time with people. I love to really experience a culture in full, and that means getting time with the nationals. Are you inviting me for a visit? I certainly hope so!

Yes, I am inviting you over!

Do you have a message for your readers in Asia?

How soon can I come visit? :) Seriously, my message would be that I hope you connect with my books. I hope they transcend the differences in culture and reach the heart.

Thank you so much for answering all of my questions, Kristy. :o)

Readers, click here to read the feature at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast on Christopher Denise, the man behind the breathtaking illustrations in Me With You.