Still Celebrating

Happy Children's Book Week!  Most of us are likely still recovering from Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week (or, at my kids' school, teacher/parent/child appreciation -- poor teachers never get a break).   Here's a shout-out to Mr. Micklos, Mrs. Weingarten, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Ford -- the chief reasons that I am a writer today. (And Mr. Ford, thanks for taking such good care of our family!)

I was just putting my daughter to bed and asked her, after she'd begged for yet one more story, why exactly she likes to read.  Apart from the obvious answer (stalling bedtime), she had to ponder for a bit.  Finally, "I'll have to think about it and answer that question tomorrow."  Hmm.  So much for asking the experts!  What kind of stories does she like?  "Nice stories.  Where people are nice."

Meantime, my three-year-old tonight demanded for the first time, "Put down your computer, Mommy."  And, when I was too slow to comply, he bopped me in the head with a ping pong ball.  Didn't he know I was writing a story just for him?  So much for Mother's Day!

Writing (and selling) children's books is a uniquely challenging endeavour, let's face it, because our audience and our consumers are not at all the same.  Editors are not children.  Parents are not children.  Our books must appeal to both these groups of gatekeepers before they can get into the hands of the children who will devour them (or not).

What were your favorite books of childhood?  Do you still love them?  What are your children's favorites?  How much do these categories overlap?  I like to think that I have tasteful children, but for every Jane Yolen or Carolyn Crimi that I relish reading aloud, there's some dreadful novelty book complete with finger puppets that is in equal demand. 

Do you ever secretly suspect that Henry Huggins or The Moffats could never be published today?  I love episodic books, quiet books, character studies, humor.  Apart from humor, there's not a lot of cachet in any of those categories today, is there?

What I especially love about Children's Book Week, of course, is that kids get to vote in their own version of the Newbery Awards.  Of course, their participation is still entirely dependent upon the adults who love them, and the adults who love books -- us!

Writing Workout

For those teachers among us, check out these awesome story starters!




--Jeanne Marie

Teacher Appreciation Week, Our Contest Winners, and More Buzz

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So let me begin this post with a little classroom humor:

A child comes home from his first day at school.
Mother asks, "What did you learn today?"
The child replies, "Not enough. I have to go back tomorrow."

This joke is courtesy of the Teacher Appreciation website. In addition to teacher/student jokes, the site contains ideas for showing our teachers how much we appreciate them. Please don't let this week go by without saying "thank you" to a teacher.

This post is later than usual for me because I spent the morning visiting Union Ridge Elementary School in Harwood Heights, IL. The students were so attentive and enthusiastic, and they made me feel very welcome. Thank you, Huskies! And I have to commend and thank the teachers and staff at Union Ridge for celebrating their marvelous young authors. I had the honor of presenting a writing workshop to the winners of their Young Authors competition. What a creative group!

Speaking of winners, today I have the pleasure of announcing the winners of not one, but two Teaching Authors contests. As it turns out, both our winners are teachers--how appropriate for Teacher Appreciation Week! Before I tell you their names, I want to thank everyone for celebrating our First Blogiversary with us. Your response was phenomenal, and we're thrilled to welcome so many new readers.

The winner of our First Blogiversary Critique giveaway is Tricia, who blogs at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Tricia is a former middle school teacher who now prepares future teachers. She's going to have to decide between having a critique of her poetry or a nonfiction picture book manuscript.

The critique giveaway was such a huge success that we will definitely do it again. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a critique, you may want to consider placing a bid for one in the Hunger Mountain Critique Auction going on through May 9. Here's how Cynthia Leitich Smith described the auction on her blog, Cynsations:

"Bid to win full length manuscript critiques with Tanita Davis, author of the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Mare’s War (Knopf, 2009), Michelle Poploff, Vice President, Executive Editor at Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, and picture book writer Tanya Lee Stone, who won the Sibert Award for Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream (Candlewick, 2009). In addition, National Book Award finalist Deborah Wiles and Jacqueline Kelly, author of Newbery honor book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Henry Holt, 2009), will offer young adult and middle grade manuscript critiques. Bidding ends at midnight EST May 9."

Visit Ebay to place your bid.

Our second winner is Sandra, a middle-school teacher who has two blogs--one on reading and one on writing. Sandra will receive an autographed copy of Irene Latham's Leaving Gee's Bend.

Again, a huge thank-you to all who participated in our two contests. We'll be having another giveaway soon, so please stay tuned.

Blogosphere Buzz

• In case you haven't heard, Alice Pope will no longer edit the annual Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, so her CWIM blog has come to an end. However, the good news is, she will now be blogging for SCBWI at the all new SCBWI Children's Market Blog. I've already added it to my blog reading list!
• The latest edition of The Prairie Wind, the SCBWI-IL online newsletter, is now online. As usual, it's packed with amazing advice, inspiration, and information. And for all you bloggers, be sure to read Hilary Wagner's article, "Ma’am, Put Down the Laptop and Step Away from the Blog!"
• I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed on my friend Bruce Black's Wordswimmer Blog. We discussed one of my favorite topics: character names. You can read the interview here.

Have you read something online recently that would be of interest to children's writers or those who teach writing? If so, please post a comment with a link.
I think that's all for now. I need a nap. :-) 
Happy writing!
Carmela