Man, I am totally wishing that someone from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Cybils group was on hand this weekend. During the conference, A.F. and I did a total graphics/YA Cybil Nominee book swap, and I’ve come away with everything from the 9-11 Report in pictures to the controversial Fun Home to award-winning American Born Chinese, which I’ve […]
Here are the things you need for a successful writing/book conference:* First, reserve the most intensely colored hotel you can find.Drag friends there to stay with you, and be thankful that the hotel furnishes you with earplugs… as the Tenderloin is only a bar, liquor store, club and dealer-filled noisy block away… * Next, have […]
The other day, I had a conversation with my brother, who is a young adult, a bona fide age fifteen. He was describing his snorkeling trip to Catalina, and the process of tightening areas of his wet suit, which caused him pain. He used a word not normally heard in polite conversation. Do you suppose […]
I never do the Friday poetry thing, but this Jack Prelutsky nonsense has been winging around in my head: I Made My Dog A Valentine I made my dog a ValentineShe sniffed it very hardThen chewed on it a little whileAnd left it in the yard. I made one for my parakeets,A pretty paper heart,They […]
If you can’t find the book you want, write the book you need. That’s what Bay Area women Sonali Herrera and Sheetal Singhal did to begin Meera Masi, a tiny Bay Area publishing company highlighting Indian language and culture books for kids. The Chronicle reports that as the Bay Area Indian population has reached about […]
This just in: the newest Edge of the Forest is up and out, and features a great piece on cover art… since finding out that the cover art for the Little House series is in transit, and after finding how cover art really impacts my assumptions about YA fiction, I found this especially interesting. Also […]
This just in: the newest Edge of the Forest is up and out, and features a great piece on cover art… since finding out that the cover art for the Little House series is in transit, and after finding how cover art really impacts my assumptions about YA fiction, I found this especially interesting. Also […]
Apropos of nothing, Silly Sibling phoned me this morning to inform me that she had blackmail photos of me being dragged onto the dance floor by a very strange woman at the reception. This does not cheer me. Four other people have told me the same thing… OY! It’s all so much harder than it […]
I’m thinking about preschoolers… Now, there’s a topic which doesn’t often get broached on Writing YA, but preKindergarteners are young adults… just very, very, very wee ones. I have the opportunity to support a nonprofit Early Childhood Education Center by buying books for these wee young adults, ages 2 – 4! Buying books is my […]
Hmmm. How do YOU define multicultural literature? Because there is no single definition, according to the U of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center, your answer might well be quite a bit different from mine. Most people assume that it simply means books celebrating cultural diversity through children’s literature; some people assume that the books have […]