SCBWI is passing the word on BUZZ WORDS (THE LATEST BUZZ ON CHILDREN’S BOOKS). This new online professional monthly newsletter for children’s writers, illustrators, editors and librarians became available on 1 July. It reports on up-to-date industry information with markets, opportunities, festivals, courses and competitions for those writing for young people and features regular interviews with Australian authors, illustrators, editors, book publicists and literary agents as well as new publications, book reviews and helpful books and websites.
Email dibates@enterprisingwords.com with heading SAMPLE BUZZ WORDS for a free sample copy. You might also check out the Enterprising Words site itself; there’s an online Creative Writing for Young People course that might interest the creative teen writers you know.
Maybe I’m showing my age, but I remember my mother HATING Barbie. She refused categorically to ever buy me a Barbie doll, and I was crushed and humiliated at receiving old ones, hand-me-downs from sympathetic friends in elementary school who thought my mother was crazy. This week, NPR takes on ‘tweens’ and the media with a special report and an essay by Sara Sarasohn, who writes, “There are so many ways that kids are sexualized these days that my mother’s Barbie ban seems sweet and quaint.” (Sarasohn’s bigger worries these days are finding toddler clothes that don’t say Juicy across the tush.) Keeping in mind that the original Barbie concept was modeled on a German doll that was actually an ambitious hooker… this is definitely some food for thought…