Here's to Book Joy All Around the World!

The clock is ticking down to tomorrow Tuesday, April 2, which happens to be International Children’s Book Day.

 

The April date traditionally commemorates the birth date of the first author to claim my heart, Hans Christian Andersen.

This year’s ICBD official sponsorship was awarded to USBBY (the United States Board on Books for Young People) which serves as the U.S. national section of IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People) which promotes international understanding  and good will through books for children and adolescents.

Spreading the joy of books around the world is easy and doable.

Just check out USBBY’s blog for easy-to-replicate programs for readers, writers, teachers and parents.

The website also offers links to USBBY’S 2013 Outstanding International Books List which recognizes books originally published outside the U.S. and now available from U.S. publishers.
Many of the list’s books focus on international themes, reflecting shared commonalities of youth and a diversity of experiences all around the world.

And FYI: the 10th IBBY Regional Conference “BookJoy Around the World” comes to St. Louis October 18^th through 20^th.
Australian author Mem Fox offers the Briley Lecture.  US and International children’s book creators, including Ashley Bryan and Pat Mora, extend the celebration.

International children’s books were again front and center at last week’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Publishers Weekly offered full coverage plus photos of this 50^th anniversary event, including the emphasis on middle grade and realistic fiction, “firsts,” insights from agents, editors, publishers and children’s book creators and the awarding of the international Astrid Lindgren Prize to Argentinian author, illustrator and musician Isol for writing picture books "from the eye level of a child.” 

Writing under the pen name of Marisol Misenta, Isol created more than a dozen books for children, including La bella Griselda, It’s Useful to Have a Duck, Petit, the Monster and Nocturne: Dream Recipes.  She was chosen from a field of 207 nominated candidates from 67 countries.

International children’s book creators also took front and center this past weekend in Paris at the first-ever internatonal SCBWI Europolitan Conference, “Vive la Creativite.”

Check out the SCBWIEUROCON blog for updates from participants and their tweets too. The Conference hashtag is #SCBWIEuroCon.

Of course, don’t forget: TeachingAuthors offers a Children’s Book of the Day from the International Children’s Digital Library every day!

Just work your way down our blog page’s right-hand border.

And, be sure to return Wednesday to try your hand at our Wednesday Writing Workout, created by Dutch TeachingAuthor Mina Witteman, SCBWI-Netherlands Regional Advisor

and a co-organizer of Eurocon.

Hint, hint: Mina recently attended the Grimm Symposium in the Efteling Fairytale Forest in the Netherlands which celebrated 200 years of Grimm fairytales.

Book Joy to all!

And, Happy Birthday, Mr. Andersen!

Esther Hershenhorn

Waiting Out the Storm Part 2: Acceptance to Publication and Beyond + National Poetry Week + International Children’s Book Day + Book Giveaway winner!

Wow! We’ve got a lot to cover today. First, a continuation of my previous post about Waiting Out the Storm.

After my manuscript was accepted, Candlewick Press generously involved me in the search for the right illustrator by sending me samples of possible illustrators’ work and asking for my opinion. I loved them all! Several illustrators turned the project down, though: one was too busy, one was working on her own books, one had recently illustrated a book with a similar theme. At one point, we discussed the possibility of making the characters animals instead of people. Finally, in April 2007, a year after the manuscript acceptance, Susan Gaber accepted the illustration project.

I pored over her portfolio online. Her work was gorgeous, luminous, perfect, and absolutely worth the wait.

And then I waited some more, trying not to be too anxious about what I knew had to be a time-consuming process. In the meantime, I revised the manuscript, cutting the text from 363 words to 311 in March 2008. The first sketch dummy was due that April, and the final artwork would be sent to the printer the following spring. My editor regularly sent me copies of updated art; I carried them around with me so I could show them off. When I received my first author copy of the finished book, I cried. Even though Federal Express had bent it in half, it was the most gorgeous book I’d ever seen.

As Jeanne Marie mentioned, the Washington Post gave Waiting Out the Storm a lovely review. I’ve posted it and several others (including a starred one from Booklist!) on my web site. I’m thrilled that Waiting Out the Storm is receiving such positive responses, and I’m thoroughly enjoying reading it to children in schools and libraries.

April is National Poetry Month. (Read all about it here.) Our own April is celebrating by taking part in the Poem-A-Day Challenge, writing a poem every day and posting them all here.  (Good luck, April! As my husband says, break a pencil!) Feel free to post your own encouraging comment.

Finally, today, April 2, is International Children’s Book Day—a fitting day, I think, to announce our raffle winner. Ticia was chosen at random from the qualifying entries. She will receive an autographed copy of Waiting Out the Storm. Congratulations, Ticia, and thanks to all who participated!

JoAnn Early Macken