Teaching Authors--6 Children's Authors Who Also Teach Writing

Try One New Thing

noreply@blogger.com (JoAnn Early Macken) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:57:00 +0000

I can't remember the last time I wrote a check. What used to be an everyday occurrence at the grocery store or doctor's office is practically a thing of the past. Now I whip out a debit card for nearly all my financial transactions. I pay bills online. I order walking shoes and reserve hotel rooms and book airplane flights online. And I welcome the change: the transactions are faster, less paper is wasted, I can see right away that something is taken care of and cross it off my list.

Technology surrounds us, helps us, and sometimes overwhelms us. In planning this post on the impact of the digital age on us as writers, readers, teachers, and/or parents, I struggled to find a place to begin. I visited the site for Digital Learning Day, February 1, "a nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology that engages students and provides them with a rich, personalized educational experience." I followed link after link to sites bursting with ideas and plans for enriching students' learning experiences by using new technology in classrooms. (I also read comments from teachers about the availability of that technology in these days of severe budget restrictions, but that's a whole 'nother topic.)

Somewhere I found a link to The National Writing Project's February 2 post, "Digital Learning Day: Celebrating Innovative Teaching Strategies." There I found the advice I needed: try one new thing.

Try one new thing. The age of writing checks to pay for purchases is over; so is the time for using transparency film and overhead projectors for author visits and conference presentations. I made that transition nervously and gladly accepted the convenience, portability, and vividness of PowerPoint presentations. At first, I hauled the transparencies along as backup; eventually, I relaxed and considered the new system reliable enough to let them go.

Now, in addition, I visit with students across the country using Skype, which cuts out travel time and transportation costs. I can even share those PowerPoint presentations without leaving home.

I used to rely more on paper for teaching, too. Now classrooms are equipped with projectors that enable me to share examples from books, handouts, or the World Wide Web. Students can post their assignments online, and we can discuss their work in class without having to print copies for everyone.

Facebook and Twitter were nerve-wracking at first, too, but I came to embrace them both as rich resources for contacts and information I never would have accumulated otherwise. I learned how to send text messages because that's what our kids do, and I wanted to be able to communicate with them. I take pictures with my cell phone camera and send photos to my e-mail account, to friends, and to Facebook. On one particularly brave day, I posted a video of chimney swifts (the subject of a picture book manuscript) on YouTube.

So, yes. We learn. We keep trying one new thing. And then another. Each step forward brings us to a new challenge. What's next? I'm comparing the options for self-publishing a manuscript based on the poetry writing workshops I present in schools, Write A Poem Step by Step. I'm as excited about this new possibility as I am curious about the best way to approach it. But I'm determined to learn. Wish me luck!

Don't forget to enter our contest to win an autographed copy of Barb Rosenstock's new book, The Camping Trip that Changed America. The interview and entry details are here, and the deadline is tomorrow (Saturday, February 18). Good luck!

JoAnn Early Macken

Give me a D! Give me an I! Give me a G! Give me a hand, PLEASE! I can't retrieve my files!

noreply@blogger.com (Esther Hershenhorn) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

In September, 2000, I presented a workshop at Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Science Central – “Let Lowell Piggot Help You Think Like a Scientist!” – based on my meteorologically-themed picture book There Goes Lowell’s Party! (Holiday House).

I promise you: every single Science Teacher who ever taught me, who ever awarded me the “D” I’d – barely - earned, elementary school through college, was rolling over in his or her grave.

(That did not include Ms. Lowenstein, my college Biology lab instructor, who listened to me highlight my fetal pig’s fallopian tubes during my final exam, then announced I’d failed because my fetal pig was male.)

That’s how I feel now writing about The Digital Age and how it impacts my teaching and authoring.

If not a card-carrying Luddite, I am definitely a sympathizer.

Ned Ludd, of course, was the imagined leader of the English textile workers whose protests and machine breaking shook England in the early 19th century and who lent his name to opponents of technology.

As noted in Monday's post, Jean Marie’s Dad insisted she learn the Word Processor manual; mine insisted I learn how to type on a portable Royal typewriter. (“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.”)

When it comes to any kind of technological change, be it early 19th century textile machinery, my Kindle or my digital camera, I enter the room kicking and screaming.

But do notice: I used the active voice!

For better (mostly), I have indeed entered this Brave New World of ours, one digit at a time, so to speak - first delicately dipping my Big Toe to test the waters, then gingerly tapping my right index finger in search of whatever the machine’s correct key.

And, I’m happy to say (on most days anyway): I’m here.

My learning disabilities erase any chance I have of ever becoming a technological Quick Study.

But in a funny sort of way, my learning disabilities enable me to promptly identify those who are (!), then grab their coattails before they fly away.

Had I bought Apple stock when it was first issued, I couldn’t be any richer, thanks to my two Computer Tutors – first Kathy Rudy of Evanston, now Chris Vasilakis of Forest Park. (They’d be on my Speed Dial if I knew how to set it.)

I live mid-way between an Apple store and a Best Buy; turn left, and the Apple associates reconfigure my iPod nano; turn right, and the Geek Squad unfreezes my laptop.

The teacher inside me reminds me often: there is no such thing as a dumb question.

Two weeks ago, Brigid Zachar (left), Illinois School District 59’s Instructional Technology Support, and Eileen Justus (right), the LRC Director of Elk Grove Village’s Ridge Family Center for Learning,
answered every single dumb question I asked while working with faculty and classes First through Fifth to help them write their abecedarian telling of their singular school’s story, R is for the Ridge Way.
(Singular is an understatement. Ridge is an all-year, 8 am to 4 pm, combined-classroom community that models non-stop respect and responsibility.)

The school’s founder and retiring Principal supported this writing project from the get-go, working with me months ahead to nail the details. We used my S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet as our model. The faculty and students enthusiastically embraced the effort. The Best News of all? The Principal’s name (Mrs. Barbara Zabroske) gave the students the perfect Z word!

You name the technological wonder and Brigid and Eileen taught me how to use it, so we could save our daily work over two weeks’ worth of multiple sessions, be it brainstorming, list-making, highlighting, revisiting, revising, re-evaluating or poetically shaping our text.

The Eno Board, with its RM EAsiTeach software.

The Aver Media document camera.

The fancy stylus.

The scrolls.

The focused lens.

How did a blackboard ever suffice?

So,

give me a D!

Give me an I!

Give me a G!

Hey! Give me a hand!
I’m still kicking and screaming,
(sigh),
but I’m here
and
I'm staying.

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

Don’t forget our contest and your chance to win a copy of Barb Rosenstock’s newest picture book, The Camping Trip That Changed America (Dial), illustrated by Caldecott medalist Mordecai Gerstein. The entry deadline is Saturday.

Digital Natives, Digital Texts, Digital World

noreply@blogger.com (Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I was in seventh grade when we got our first personal computer. It was a behemoth IBM, in its first year of production. My crafty dad made me read the word processor manual and write a cheat sheet for family use. (I still remember -- ^KD = save in WordStar circa 1984.)

By the time I started high school, I composed all of my papers on the computer. The ability to type quickly and edit instantly has greatly affected my writing process.

I don't think I had an email account until I was grown and out of college. I am still a very reluctant texter. I waste too much time on facebook, but I never tweet.
My kids learned how to use a mouse at two. They are now four and six. They play Angry Birds on my cell phone and DS in restaurants with slow service.

The college students I teach were mostly born in the 1990s. One thing I quickly realized was that, thanks to texting and email and facebook and twitter, most of them actually spend a significant portion of their day WRITING -- willingly, for pleasure. Perhaps texting is going to make punctuation obsolete, but on the other hand... surely there's some good to be harnessed from this situation.

I started teaching at a new school last semester, and my classroom now has a dedicated computer lab. I've always had students write frequently in class, of course, but incorporating the computers has presented both an opportunity and a challenge.

The ability to do library research from the classroom is the most obvious advantage to having classroom computers. Grammar quizzes can be given online, of course; but I am looking for ways to excite students, not bore them to death.

I have thus been experimenting with a variety of technologies and new assignments. Last semester I used a status update exercise to get students thinking about topic selection and audience. I am just starting to learn how to get students working on collaborative written projects -- wikis and blogs through Blackboard, as well as group responses through google docs. Using youtube to find examples of commercials exhibiting logical fallacies has also been entertaining.

Today's digital natives grow up in a world completely different from ours. As ebooks change the experience of reading (but not as drastically as one might think), so the new technologies present many more options for effectively engaging students.

If any teachers have advice or expertise in this area to share, we are all ears.

In the meantime, don't forget to enter our latest Teaching Authors Book Giveaway.

Have a great week! --Jeanne Marie

Oops--you missed Children's Authors and Illustrators Week...but you didn't miss my DECLUTTERING poem for Poetry Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (April Halprin Wayland) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:13:00 +0000

.
Howdy, Campers!

My poem about clutter and the link to Poetry Friday is below.

But first...have you scampered to Carmela's post and entered to win Barb Rosenstock's The Camping Trip That Changed America in our latest book giveaway contest? No?!?! Then for heaven's sake, click here or scroll down now. I'll wait right.

As Carmela noted in her post, I'm a card-carrying member of the Children's Authors Network (CAN!)

photo credit: jessamyn via photopin cc
This isn't April.

I lied. I AM a member, but there are no cards.

In 2000, eleven members of CAN! created Children's Authors and Illustrators Week (CAIW). CAIW was invented to encourage communities to discover and to connect with local authors and illustrators. It's celebrated the first week of February, but never fear! The CAIW webpage (which includes a wonderful poem about books by CAN! member and poet Joan Bransfield Graham --scroll to the bottom) includes Tips for Children's Authors and Illustrators Week which teachers, parents, librarians and even Martians can use all year long.

Plan on connecting with local authors and illustrators

to celebrate CAIW next year!

(In fact, I'll bet one is lurking next door to you right now.)
photo credit: Fr Antunes via photopin cc

Okay, on to Poetry Friday! I'm deep into the topic of clutter this week. Which got me thinking about my three Clutterbusting Heroes:

1) My husband's client who moves his office and all his staff every two years. "It keeps them from cluttering," he says.

2) My friend, author Bruce Balan, who, you may remember, lives on a trimaran with his wife and sails around the world. When Bruce goes to a conference and someone hands him a business card or a brochure or, well, anything, Bruce gives it his full attention, then gently hands it back. Even the business card. "I don't have room for this on the boat," he explains.

3) My friend, Brooks Palmer, professional declutter guy, who I interviewed last year about his first book. His quiet question, when working with clients, is "Do you need that?" or sometimes, "Can you let that go?"

All three of these guys (do you think there's a reason they're all guys?) are my heroes.

photo credit: morguefile.com

Heroes deserve a medal.

I have a new declutter plan for the New Year and I know you're dying to hear it. Every month I'm going to hire my down-the-street neighborly handyman, Greg, to paint one of our closets or cupboards. You know what that means I'll be doing the night before, right?

This week he painted my home office closet. Oh. My. Gosh. I'd saved so many file folders, art paper, and recycled mailing envelopes, I could open an office supply store. It was very embarrassing to look at all that stuff out of the closet, spread across our college kid's bedroom.

Greg prepped and painted my closet while I went off to a coffee house to procrastinate and finally to write. When I returned, VOILA! An clean closet! A blank page!

Eli inspects the freshly painted shelves.

My rule is that I can only put back the things I actually need. Wish me luck.

TOO MANY WORDS

by April Halprin Wayland

It started with one manila folder

holding just nine words:

ethereal, mellifluous, clink, crisp, apple, baby, shoulder, drool, listen.

Then five colored folders

in a beautifully braided basket.

Before long,

my file cabinet was jammed so tightly

with recycled file folders filled with words,

it was hard to pull out puddle, excellent, toasted,

or even a single shard.

I hired a handyman to build special shelves in my closet

for oversized ones like warmheartedness,

tall ones (tate, titter, colossal),

words without spines like pithless,

that need to be stacked

or stood up against dividers.

One day the words came tumbling down.

My room was filled with overconfident, noodle,

kleptomaniac, global.

The carpets were ruined.

I cried as I threw out onomatopoeia.

The walls were scratched by

aquamarine and nincompoop.

Today, my shelves breathe.

One shelf has only the word, now.

Another, air.

The top shelf had bird

but this morning it flew out

past open and window.

Eli approves of the shelves (and waits for the OK to retrieve his red toy)

WRITING WORKOUT
~ Magical Realism--the Game!

In the poem above, I substituted the idea of individual words for file folders, papers and notebooks.

It feels a bit like Magical Realism to me. According to Wikipedia,

"Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world."

1) Write a simple poem about an ordinary chore...maybe walking the dog or making your bed.

2) Now, go back and substitute a more general concept for the noun. Instead of "I made the bed," perhaps, "I made the friendship." Instead of "I walked the dog," perhaps "I walked the war." Sort of like a game of Mad Libs (play a version of Mad Libs online for free here).

3) Roll around in the odd wonderfulness of not having to make sense.

Thanks to
Laura Purdie Salas at Writing The World For Kids
for hosting Poetry Friday today!

Remember to write with joy!
(And remember to enter our book giveaway!)

Celebrating Children's Authors/Illustrators' Week with a Guest TA Interview and Book Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Carmela Martino) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:50:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,
Did you know February 6-10, 2012 is Children's Authors and Illustrators Week (CAIW)?

CAIW is sponsored by the Children's Authors Network, of which my co-blogger April Halprin Wayland is a member!

We're celebrating Children's Authors and Illustrators Week here on our blog by hosting a guest TeachingAuthor Interview with my fellow Illinois author Barb Rosenstock. One lucky reader will have a chance to win a copy of Barb's latest book, The Camping Trip that Changed America (Dial Books for Young Readers)! Illustrated by Caldecott medalist Mordicai Gerstein, The Camping Trip that Changed America is the story of a little-known event in American history:

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt and conservationist John Muir camp together in the Yosemite wilderness and discover a shared passion for nature that saves America's wilderness.

The book has received lovely reviews, including a star from School Library Journal. To read the reviews and see lesson plans for related classroom activities, see Barb's website. Then, after reading the following interview, scroll down to the end of this post to enter for a chance to win your own autographed copy!

Before getting into the interview, here's a bit about Barb:

Barb Rosenstock says she loves true stories best. She often lives in the past, though she's thankful for indoor plumbing, instant cocoa and the Internet. She started writing picture books while completing a master's degree in teaching and loves to visit schools to teach writing to elementary students. She resides near Chicago with her husband, sons, and two big poodles who keep her sane (or insane) depending on the day. Her published picture books include the highly acclaimed titles: Fearless: The Story of Racing Legend Louise Smith (Dutton) and The Littlest Mountain (KarBen).

And now for the interview:

Barb, would you tell us how you became a TeachingAuthor?

I came to teaching after a long career in corporate marketing. When I was doing my student teaching in a second-grade classroom, I sometimes couldn’t find the books that I needed to illustrate the right concept. So I noodled around trying to write them. Sharing my writing attempts with my class was one of the more successful ways of getting students to write without expectation that it be perfect the first time around. Now, whether it’s a one-day author visit or workshop or a week-long intensive, I still love teaching writing to elementary students.

Does your experience as a classroom teacher affect your writing, and if so, how?

I would not be a writer at all if I hadn’t been a teacher first! Before I sit down to write a book or even do extensive research I always do two things. 1) Search the library site WorldCat to make sure the book in my mind hasn’t already been published; and 2) Think long and hard about how a teacher would use my yet-to-be-written book in a classroom. I’ve had lesson plan ideas for a book long before the book was finished!

I love that you have lesson plan ideas before you even begin writing, Barb. With that in mind, would you share a favorite writing exercise you use with young writers?

For early to mid-elementary students, I absolutely love copying the pages of a story and putting the kids in groups to put the story together BEFORE they’ve ever read it. Sequencing is tough for kids and having them work in groups to sequence a real book is the best way I know to get the concept. (Try it using Dav Pilkey’s The Paperboy.) My favorite editing exercise is to make a “phone” out of two small pieces of curved PVC pipe and have the kids read their stories to themselves through the “phone.” They make so many more improvements in their stories if they read aloud and somehow that “phone” adds a layer where they can really HEAR their own voice and what’s missing.

Thanks, Barb. I'm definitely going to try the "phone" exercise with my young students. Now would you tell us a bit about what inspired you to write The Camping Trip that Changed America and how you went about researching it? Also, what’s it like to have a Caldecott winner illustrate your story?

I read a review of a Roosevelt biography that mentioned how he had "left the presidency" to go camping. I was amazed that wilderness issues were so important to a President that he went alone into Yosemite with John Muir, the man who loved it the most. Wouldn’t it be nice if our presidents could do that today? For research, I read everything (not much!) I could find about the trip, three or four adult biographies of each man and pored through old newspaper articles. Then I stared at a time line of the trip for about 2 weeks while making several failed attempts at putting a book together. One day while looking at some Yosemite photos, I realized these men were opposites and I pictured them as different kind of trees which was key to having the book’s theme come together.

As far as working with a Caldecott medalist, well, after I stopped screaming like a schoolgirl when my editor called to break the news, it was as perfect as you’d expect. He is a genius and even his rough sketches were better than anything I could have dreamed of--a true example of an illustrator’s work improving an author’s writing.

Do you have any suggestions for teachers on how they might use one of your books in the classroom?

All my books have teacher’s guides with lesson plans and activities across the curriculum on my website. This particular book fits into all curriculum subjects but is especially relevant around holidays like Earth Day and President’s Day as well as being useful to teach science topics like land forms, glaciers, erosion, conservation or ecology. I’m always happy to get email from teachers and suggest customized ideas on how to use my books.

Many of our readers are aspiring writers. Would you tell us about when you first felt you were a "real writer"?
I guess I should’ve felt I was a real writer much earlier than I did, perhaps when I submitted my first manuscript, received my first rejection letter, signed my first (or second!) book contract, or received my first set of editorial notes, but I never did. Then one day a few months ago I was working on a new manuscript and the phone rang. I thought it was my mother and I was in the middle of writing so I ignored it. (I tend to ignore everything when I’m writing--ask my husband, my kids and my dogs.) The phone kept ringing and ringing; I was frustrated and glanced over to see “M Gerstein NYC” on my caller ID. I knocked over a cup of coffee to pick up the phone and talk to the man whose books I had read to my classroom and my own two boys over and over again. He was charming and intelligent; I blathered some nonsense; but when he was kind enough to ask what I was working on next, I knew I was a real writer. Too bad I didn’t know I was a writer sooner, then maybe I would’ve sounded less idiotic on the phone!

Wow, what a dream come true to work with such a marvelous illustrator, Barb. Congratulations! And thanks so much for answering our questions today.

Contest entry:
Now, readers, here's your chance to win an autographed copy of Barb's brand new book, The Camping Trip that Changed America (Dial Books for Young Readers)!
Before entering our contest, please read our Book Giveaway Guidelines. Then answer the following question: If you're our winner, would you keep the book for yourself or pass it along to a young reader, and if so, to whom? (Don't worry about sounding selfish--who wouldn't want to keep a book illustrated by a Caldecott medalist?)

You may either post your answer as a comment below or email your answer to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. If you enter via a comment, you MUST include a valid email address (formatted like: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an email address where we can reach you. Your entry must be posted or received by 11 p.m. Saturday, February 18, 2012 (Central Standard Time). The winner will be chosen in a random drawing and announced (fittingly) on President's Day, Monday February 20, 2012. Good luck, everyone!

And teachers, if you're looking for additional ways to celebrate children's authors and illustrators this week, check out this lesson plan posted on ReadWriteThink.

Happy Writing!
Carmela

Learning to love the E-book

noreply@blogger.com (mary ann rodman) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:39:00 +0000

I may have mentioned this before, but...I love books. I own enough to stock my own branch library. I love everything about them...the smell of fresh print, the promises made by the jacket art (sometimes promises unfilled by the actual book), the weight of a story in my hands, my book marker showing me how much I've read, how much more I have to savor. As you can probably tell, reading is a whole-body experience for me.
I initially encountered electronic publishing in my first book contract, circa 1999. As I waded through 15 pages of 4 point print literary legalese I stumbled across the term "electronic rights." I had no idea what that might be, and made a note to ask my literary attorney about it. (Those of us without agents depend on literary attorneys to translate contracts into terms that we can understand.) When my attorney explained the concept of e-publishing, my first reaction was "Euw-w-w? A book on a computer screen? Gross!" My second thought was "Well, my books will never be electronic." I figured that such exotic publishing forays would be limited to blockbuster adult writers, like John Grisham, Nora Roberts, John Patterson. Maybe J.K. Rowling.

Never say never. As of last month, both of my middle grade novels, Jimmy's Stars and Yankee Girl, are available as e-books.

I love e-books.

What changed my mind? It certainly isn't the huge royalties I will receive from this new format. E-book royalties (like paperback reprint royalties) are considerably less than those of hardcover sales. No, I love e-books for several reasons.

1. Living in my own branch library is becoming physically impossible. For the last fifteen years, I have bought 98% of my reading material because I do not have access to a good library. Out of every ten books I read, only one or two are "keepers", something I will want to read again, or use in teaching. Even though I donate and giveaway books in a steady stream, I always have a box...or two...or three...by the back door, waiting to go somewhere.

2. In the last few years, e-book readers have become smaller, lighter and more affordable (still not cheap, though.) However. their convenience cannot be equaled. I travel a lot, and half my luggage weight used to be books. How much better to be able to stuff a couple of hundred books into my carry-on, via my Kindle?

3. E-books have been a godsend for my dyslexic daughter. Some readers and books are text-to-speech enabled. For someone whose pleasure reading had been restricted to what was available in an audio format, text-to-speech has allowed my daughter to read as much and as widely as she has always desired. In fact, I bought our first Kindle for her...and then got hooked on it myself.

Will e-books replace paper-and-ink? I sure hope not. Apart from the sensory pleasures of reading a physical book, some books are less practical in electronic format. I still use physical books for research. In reformatting for e-publishing, some books have illustrative material eliminated. I've also found it more time consuming to try to relocate a reference in an e-book than to page through an actual book. (And of course, you can't put sticky notes on an e-book!)

Even though some picture books are available electronically, I will continue to buy them as books. A picture book is an aesthetic whole. Story, illustrations, and page layout all work together to produce a
a single artistic vision. Books re-formatted for a tiny screen don't have the same resonance as they do in the original. There are writers and artists who are producing e-book originals. Perhaps their number will grow with wider readership.

However, when it comes to a parent-child bonding experience, nothing beats snuggling down with a book at bedtime. Then, after you leave the room, your child will sneak his e-reader from under his pillow, plug in the ear-phones, and read long, long into the night. (And he won't even need a flashlight!)

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

A Week of Acronyms: SCBWI, FOCUS, and WSRA

noreply@blogger.com (JoAnn Early Macken) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:14:00 +0000

SCBWI's (and Esther's) 13th annual Winter Conference was my first of the international variety. I began my New York trip the day before the event so I could meet my sister Judy to walk down drizzly streets seeing the sights--and getting lost. We are not map people! One highlight: the New York Public Library's "Celebrating 100 Years" exhibition, including the original Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, and little Roo.

Friday was even wetter than Thursday, so we wandered through the American Museum of Natural History, where we lingered in the butterfly exhibit, and briefly strolled along the edge of Central Park.

Esther's Wednesday post covered many of the conference highlights, so I'll add just a few of my own:

Jane Yolen's generous Mid-List Author Grant, to be awarded annually to an author who writes steadily and well but whose books have not received a lot of media attention. Eligible authors have at least two PAL level books but have not sold a manuscript in at least one year. Nominations for next year's awards will be accepted from June 1 to November 1, and winners will be announced at next year's conference. Watch the SCBWI web site for official details. Thank you, Jane!

Kathryn Erskine's closing keynote, which used the acronym FOCUS as a guide for keeping our minds on our work. I especially appreciated her advice about blocking out distractions by creating a little waiting room in my mind. She recommended posting a guard at the door. (I wonder where I might find a fire-breathing dragon!)

Meeting Steve Mooser, Lin Oliver, and the many enthusiastic, hardworking, dedicated, and brilliant author and illustrator volunteers who keep the SCBWI organization and events running smoothly, efficiently, and cheerfully.

Yesterday, I presented a poetry workshop for teachers and also participated in a panel of Wisconsin authors at the Wisconsin State Reading Association's 2012 Convention. In the morning, I was thrilled to see enthusiastic teachers chewing on pencils, staring into space, and drafting their own poems in preparation for sharing the method with their students. In the afternoon, Lisa Albert, Kathryn Heling, Jacqueline Houtman, Lisa Moser, and I spoke about our books, our writing processes, and our school visit presentations. I enjoyed getting to know my fellow presenters a bit better through their work.

And now I'll shift gears again, to a freelance project, teaching plans, and school visit preparations. Yes, I'm busy--and glad to be! Back to work!
JoAnn Early Macken

Out and About: The 13th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference!

noreply@blogger.com (Esther Hershenhorn) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

SCBWI celebrated its Lucky 13th Annual Winter Conference in New York City this past weekend.

Lucky me! I’ve attended all 13 years!

This time around, I was able to share the experience with fellow TeachingAuthor JoAnn Early Macken who serves as the Wisconsin SCBWI Chapter’s Regional Advisor.

Over 1300 children’s book creators attended, representing 49 states and 19 countries.

Keynote speakers included Chris Crutcher, Kathryn Erskine and Cassandre Clare. Participating editors, publishers, art directors and agents generously shared their smarts, advice and insights.

Were one to use the Word Frequency Counter offered below, it’s likely the word “true” would come up in the Top Three.

• As in,
when it comes to marketing, promotion and Social Media, use those tools
and platforms true to who you are and what you want and need.

• As in,
   stay true to your story and that’s the one you’ll publish.

Surprise guest speaker Henry Winkler, co-author with SCBWI founder and Executive Director Lin Oliver of the Hank Zipzer and Ghost Buddy series, said it best: “Just put one foot in front of another…”

Friday’s Marketing Intensive for Professional Writers, organized and led by Susan Raab,
brought me up close and personal with today’s cutting-edge marketing and promotional tools, techniques and platforms.

The key words of that Intensive, and of the Day as well, topping true? Discoverability and connectivity.

The funny thing is, though: to my way of thinking, those two words express the essence of both story and the writing process.

And they certainly express the essence of SCBWI and all this professional organization does for its 23,000 members around the world.

Discoverability and connectivity?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Good News! You can attend the Conference, too, vicariously, using only your fingers. Check out the information-packed posts of SCBWI’s Conference Bloggers Suzanne Young, Lee Wind, Martha Brockenbrough, Jaime Temairik and Jolie Stekly.

And, afterwards, discover any and all of My Lucky 13th Conference Finds and Treasures and connect away!

Odyl, which helps authors and publishers connect with readers on Facebook
Darcy Pattison’s The Book Trailer Manual eBook
TeachingBooks.net, which helps you maximize (via integrated multimedia) the Author and the Writer in you when visiting schools, libraries and bookstores
Pitch Engine (Create your own media empire!)
Wordle, which generates "word clouds" from your text
Write Words, a word frequency counter
Pinterest, an online pin board
Brooklyn Arden, the blog of Arthur A. Levine Editor Cheryl Klein (Check out her January 29 post on her Revision Workshop!)
The Dropbox app, a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs and videos anywhere and share them easily so you never need to email yourself a file again!

I'm dropping pennies in my Piggy Bank as I type and already looking for a cheap Southwest Airline ticket for the August 3-6 41st SCBWI Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles.

See you there?

Esther Hershenhorn

Unschooling

noreply@blogger.com (Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

After the flurry of exciting awards-related activity this week, I know many of us are looking forward to (variously) the Superbowl, the Academy Awards, Valentine's Day... I, in my third week of classes, am already looking forward to Spring Break. January/February/March is a long stretch for teachers and students alike, yes?

I've had a particularly rocky start to the semester with campus construction and new computer systems, locked doors and snow and, oh, getting stranded on the wrong coast one Monday morning. I had to give extra credit to the student who could magically make my projector light up. (What will I ever do if he is absent?)

In Week 1, I gave my typical spiel -- "Now that you have mastered the five-paragraph essay format, you are going to have a little more freedom to try new things, to build on the structure you've learned but to break the rules a bit." Typically, I have many students who balk at the idea that an essay does NOT (gasp) have to be five paragraphs long.  Many also have incredible difficulty with the notion that the introductory paragraph, the body paragraphs, and the concluding paragraph of an essay should NOT actually repeat the same thought three times.

One of my rule-loving students (of whom I am already quite fond) raised her hand this week and said, "Since we're doing everything differently from everything I've been taught... what about contractions?"

We are, mind you, writing a narrative essay based on personal experience. We have already talked about audience and tone. I said, 'This is an informal essay. Of course you may use contractions.' Students were shocked. 'We were taught never, ever to use contractions.' 'We were SCORNED for using contractions.' I asked them to raise their hands if they were told never, under any circumstance, to use a contraction. Fully 90% of students did so.

Goodness gracious. Contractions are the least of the problems I typically see in student writing. I understand that we are trying to prepare students for a wide variety of writing tasks in life: literary analyses, drug trial reviews, briefs, summaries, business memos, nursing intake notes, police reports, textbooks, articles, novels. Encouraging students to assess the genre and the necessary conventions is the FIRST thing we should be teaching.

And so I wonder about the "rules" that are being drummed into students in high school and developmental writing courses. I remember wondering the same as a student. If I am supposed to be writing in clear and complete sentences, why does Faulker get to write a five-and-a-half-page run-on?  And why can I understand only every third sentence of the jargon-stuffed journal article that I must read for my psychology class?

While most of us can agree on the general precepts of 'good writing,' the first and best rule is... there are no rules!
find your voice
find your truth
be true to your voice
always
-- Jeanne Marie

Announcing Our Book Giveaway Winner, a Writing Exercise, and Poetry Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (April Halprin Wayland) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:13:00 +0000

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Howdy, Campers! Author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg is a generous soul, and in his Friday the 13th interview, he offered an autographed copy of his fun and amazing book, BEAUTIFUL OOPS to one of our readers.

And the lucky, randomly chosen winner is...

Sarah Albee--yay, Sarah (who's an amazing author--check out her website)!
Here's Sarah's Beautiful Oops:
My oops moment happened when I was a very junior editor at Sesame Street. I was editing my first big book, a SS songbook (because I was the only editor in my dept who could read music and play piano). I went over to Jeff Moss's house (composer of Rubber Duckie) to show him some song arrangements, and when we got to People In Your Neighborhood (his song) we both stared at the composer credit, which read Joe Raposo (his long-time rival and writer of Bein' Green, among many others). Jeff was notoriously curmudgeonly, and I knew there was a good chance he would flip, even though of course it was just galleys and there would be plenty of opportunity to change it. So I quickly made a joke about it (along the lines of how interchangeable he and Joe were, whatevs). After five tense seconds, he grinned broadly. And we became fast friends.

So...drawing the winning name, watching the exciting announcements of the ALA awards (I felt as if I were in the audience!) and reading Carmela's, Mary Ann's, JoAnn's, Esther's, and Jeanne Marie's fabulous and thought-provoking posts about awards, got me to thinking about winning...

photo courtesy morguefile.com

...which inspired this poem for Poetry Friday, graciously hosted today by Jim at HeyJimHill!

WINNING
by April Halprin Wayland

I sit under this tree
to sit under this tree.

Not to win anything.
Just me and tree.

If the wind happens to drop
a sweet plum in my lap, though,

I would never say no
to a plum.

Today's Writing Workout: WINNING AND LOSING

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1) Take a few minutes to think about how do you feel about winning and losing. About tests and competitions. About gold stars, trophies and medals.

2) On paper, brainstorm your childhood winning and losing memories. Think back to the night before a competition...or the day of. Or the day after.

3) Circle the memory that calls to you.

4) Write a poem or story using this memory as the seed.

5) And remember to write with joy! Write as if you're finger painting!

(ALL Teaching Authors' Readers are winners.

This tiara's for you.)

Interview Wednesday, and a Bit More on the ALA Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Carmela Martino) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:01:00 +0000

I'm hosting the Kidlit Interview Wednesday round-up here on our TeachingAuthors blog this week. Actually, I'm writing this post on Tuesday afternoon, but I'll schedule it to go live just after midnight (with my fingers crossed) so that early risers and bloggers around the world can share their links whenever it's convenient. If you have an interview you'd like to share, just post a comment below containing the url. The interview should meet the criteria listed at the end of this post. I'll check back during the day to add your links to this post. If you have a blog related to reading, writing, or publishing books for children and you'd like to host Interview Wednesday, visit the official Kidlit Interview Wednesday sign-up page.

You'll find the interview roundup below. First, I want to say a bit more about the ALA awards, the topic of our current series of posts. Yesterday was the first time I've watched the announcements live (thanks to the ALA webcast). I joined the program in progress, just as they announced that the winner of the Coretta Scott King Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement was Ashley Bryan. A shiver of delight went through me--I'd heard Ashley Bryan read years ago at one of our Vermont College residencies. His reading was electrifying! His love of story and poetry and literature shone through in his voice, gestures, and facial expression. I'll never forget that day. So yesterday when they announced the winner of the Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, I was thrilled to hear not only his name, but also the cheers and applause of all the attendees expressing their approval. Congratulations to author-illustrator Ashley Bryan on his well-deserved award!

Yesterday, Mary Ann shared the titles of the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, and Printz winners. You can read the entire list of ALA award winners in their official press release. You can also watch the webcast of the ALA award announcements.

If you're looking for more great titles to read after you finish the ALA award winners, head over to the official SCBWI blog for links to other award lists. Or consider signing up for the Newbery reading challenge being hosted by a K-5 teacher-librarian at the Watch. Connect. Read. blog or the Caldecott reading challenge organized by a K-8 library media specialist at LibLaura5.

And now, for the Interview Wednesday roundup so far:

Be sure to read April's great interview with author-illustrator Barney Saltzberg here on our TeachingAuthors blog. Barney has some terrific advice about writing rhyming stories, and he shares a fun writing exercise. He also talks about the inspiration for his inspiring picture book Beautiful Oops. And don't forget--you have just until 11 pm CST today, Jan. 25, to enter for a chance to win your own autographed copy of Barney's book. See April's interview for all the giveaway details.
My good friend Karen Schreck and her "book twin," Katherine Grace Bond, interview their Sourcebooks editor, Leah Hultenschmidt at the Crowe's Nest blog.
On Monday, the Literary Rambles blog featured a fun panel interview with five middle-grade girls who love to read. I especially enjoyed one girl's response to the question: Are there things your favorite authors could do that would make you more likely to visit their website, their blog, or become a fan on Facebook? Her answer: Write more books. :-)
Iron Guy Carl at the Boys Rule! Boys Read! blog has posted a fun interview with Lenore Look, author of the Alvin Ho books.
Laurina at We Love Children's Books shared an interview with Jack Gantos about Dead End in Norvelt, his newly-crowned Newbery winner
And, speaking of award winners, my co-blogger JoAnn shared two more interviews: Virginia Euwer Wolff's interview with Thanhha Lai regarding her National Book Award and Newbery Honor Winner Inside Out & Back Again, and Chris Raschka's interview with NPR about his Caldecott Honor Book, A Ball for Daisy.
Margo at The Fourth Musketeer shared an interview with Kristin Levine author, author of The Lions of Little Rock, a historical novel set in 1958.
Today, Heidi at Geo Librarian posted an interview with Kate Coombs, author of Hans My Hedgehog: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm.
Greg Pincus also posted an interview today on The Happy Accident blog. He asks children's author Eve Yohalem about social networking, self-publishing vs traditional publishing, and building a platform.
And how could I forget: On Monday, The Pen and Ink blog posted an interview with picture book author Bill Kirk.

Do you know of an interview that meets the following criteria? If so, please post the url in the comments below. I'll check back later to add the new links you provide.

1.The interviews must be with someone in the field of children’s/young adult literature, including authors, illustrators, editors, agents, and librarians.

2. Interviews may feature writing tips, illustration tips, cyber tips, etc., as long as the information pertains to children's/young adult literature.

3. Interviews may be written, audio, or video.

Happy writing (and reading!)
Carmela

Envelope please...and the winners are...

noreply@blogger.com (mary ann rodman) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0000

      In case you haven't been parked in front of a computer since the crack of dawn, hoping for leaking news from the Newbery-Caldecott committees, here they are--the 2012 American Library Association award winners:
     Newbery--Jack Gantos for Dead End in Norvelt

     Honors--Eugene Yelchin--Breaking Stalin's Nose
                   Thanhha Lai--Inside Out and Back Again

     Caldecott--Chris Raschka for A Ball for Daisy

     Honors--Patrick McDonnell--Me...Jane
                   Lane Smith--Grandpa Green
                   John Rocco--Blackout

     Coretta Scott King Award Author: Kadir Nelson for Heart and Soul

     Honors--Patricia McKissack--Never Forgotten
                   Eloise Greenfield--The Great Migration

     Illustrator--Shane W. Evans for Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom

     Honors--Kadir Nelson--Heart and Soul

     Printz--John Corey Whaley for Where Things Come Back

     Honors--Maggie Stievater--Scorpio Races
                    Craig Silvey--Jasper Jones
                    Christine Hinwood--The Returning
                    Daniel Handler (aka "Lemony Snicket")--Why We Broke Up

     Congratulations, one and all. And now let the speculations fly! All over the country book lovers are cheering or gnashing their teeth or wondering why it will take "one to three weeks" for Amazon to get the book in stock. (Answer...the publisher was caught without sufficient inventory for a huge sudden sale rush.)

     I shall keep my own observations to myself, except for the fact that I have never been right about the big awards. The closest I have gotten to predicting correctly is for the honors books (this year I had Inside Out and Back Again on my list). Mysterious are the ways of The Committees.

     Other observations--this is the first time in a long time that there was not one single dystopian novel on the list! Can life be getting better?? There were a lot of historical novels (yippee, since I write historical novels). Only one truly contemporary book (Why We Broke Up). All the award winning illustrators were also the authors of their books. What does this mean? I have not the slightest idea.

    All I know is that I have a lot of good reading ahead of me (I did read all the Newbery honors and winner in advance, but none of the Printz books).

Mary Ann Rodman
P.S. You can still enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. Read April's interview. Then post a brief comment sharing an "oops" in your life and how you (or someone else) turned it into something beautiful. Be sure to include an email address (format: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an e-mail address. Or you can e-mail your comment to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. Entry Deadline is Wednesday, January 25th, 11 p.m. (CST). You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. The winner will be announced on January 27th. Good Luck!

Working My Way through the Year's Best Books

noreply@blogger.com (JoAnn Early Macken) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:23:00 +0000

Esther's heart quickens in January with thoughts of authors and illustrators about to be surprised with happy news. Mine jumps for joy at the end of each year with the buzz about praiseworthy new books to read. I scour the award lists for intriguing titles and authors whose names I recognize. Here are some sources to browse for your next exciting read:

Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for books and book apps in eleven children's and young adult categories: Book Apps, Easy Readers & Early Chapter Books, Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade), Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult), Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Fiction, Nonfiction for Middle Grade & Young Adult, Nonfiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction.

The CCBC-Net listserv holds monthly discussions about literature for children and young adults. Every December, members discuss their favorite books of the year.

The Mock Newbery 2012 group on Goodreads has 537 members; the group chose Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt as its winner. Honors included Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, and A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

USA Today called Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai and Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt favorites in several polls.

Mock Newbery awards are held by many schools and libraries. Some results are posted online:

Heavy Medal, a Mock Newbery Blog from School Library Journal, posted results and a description of the deliberations from the Rockridge branch of the Oakland Public Library for the annual Mock Newbery. Their winner? Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming. Honor books were A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willems.

Other results were reported from Queens Library, including the winner, Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt and one Honor, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. The Maryland Library Association's winner was also Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt.

After discussing thirty titles, the ACPL Mock Newbery from the Children's Services department of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, selected one winner, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, and one honor book, Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt.

As I pore over each article, I'm adding new titles to my must-read list and deliberating about my own favorites. Happy reading!
JoAnn Early Macken

P.S. You can still enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. Read April's interview. Then post a brief comment sharing an "oops" in your life and how you (or someone else) turned it into something beautiful. Be sure to include an email address (format: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an e-mail address. Or you can e-mail your comment to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. Entry Deadline is Wednesday, January 25th, 11 p.m. (CST). You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. The winner will be announced on January 27th. Good Luck!

Those Medals and Medallions!

noreply@blogger.com (Esther Hershenhorn) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I confess: my heart quickens this time every January when I think about the children’s book creators whose lives are about to be fortuitously changed, thanks to the awarding of a literary medal.

The night before the American Library Association announces the recipients of its awards for distinguished children's books, I fall asleep contented, knowing someone somewhere is about to be surprised!

[Note: ALA announces the awards Monday, January 23, at 7:45 am CST from the Dallas Mid-Winter Meeting.]

Two of last year’s winners, first-time author and Newbery medalist Clare Vanderpool (Moon Over Manifest, Delacorte Press) and first-time illustrator and Caldecott medalist Erin Stead (A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Roaring Brook Press) gave all book creators hope.

To me, giving hope to the reader is what our Children’s Book World is all about.
Jeanne Marie said it best in her Monday post when she reminded us we are writing for children.
To my way of thinking, a children’s book must always leave the reader hopeful. Not with the proverbial happily ever after ending; simply with the possibility that we could live happily ever after.

The brilliant editor Jean Karl, who headed Atheneum and discovered award-winning authors Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Judy Viorst and E.K. Konigsburg, wrote, “A good children’s book respects a child’s intelligence, his pride, his dignity, and most of all his individuality and his capacity to become.”

I have but one Very High Bar when it comes to choosing award-winners: Is this a book I’d want to passionately read aloud to my fifth graders, were I teaching? Is this a character who could and would change the way my students view themselves, each other, the world?

For those reasons, I so wanted Jack Gantos’ Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000) to win the Newbery. There’s an ADD Joey in every classroom, waiting to be understood.

For that reason, I so wanted Ruth White’s Little Audrey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008) to win too. These are Hard Times in which we live; wouldn’t it be nice to know that if Audrey could make it in her depressed Virginia coal-mining town in 1948, so could we today. Booklist editor and reviewer Ilene Cooper starred this book, describing it as “tough and tender.”

Jennifer Richard Jacobson’s as small as an elephant (Candlewick Press, 2011) is tough and tender too and my hopeful Newbery pick.

Here’s the press release:

“Ever since Jack can remember, his mom has been unpredictable, sometimes loving and fun, other times caught in a whirlwind of energy and "spinning" wildly until it's over. But Jack never thought his mom would take off during the night and leave him at a campground in Acadia National Park, with no way to reach her and barely enough money for food. Any other kid would report his mom gone, but Jack knows by now that he needs to figure things out for himself — starting with how to get from the backwoods of Maine to his home in Boston before DSS catches on. With nothing but a small toy elephant to keep him company, Jack begins the long journey south, a journey that will test his wits and his loyalties — and his trust that he may be part of a larger herd after all.

Here are but two of the many starred reviews:

“This simply written but emotionally rich tale of an 11-year-old boy abandoned by his bipolar single mother will kindle profound responses in young readers." — Booklist Starred Review

“…Jacobson has great success putting readers inside Jack’s not-always-thinking-things-through mind, and by the end of the story, nicely tied together by the elephant theme, Jack comes to realize that he hadn’t been alone, that family and people he didn’t even know were there for him in a 'makeshift herd.' The happy yet realistic ending leaves Jack (and readers) 'light-headed with hope.'” – Horn Book

And here’s what Jennifer wrote:

"I believe in Jack and his ability to understand his mother in shades of gray. I believe in his ability to be fiercely independent: to try and try and try . . . and at the same time to recognize that he needs others. That others are right there, waiting to catch him."

I want young readers everywhere to know Jack, to take heart and hope from his quietly-powerful story.

Ironically, I’m cheering on between shades of gray (Philomel, 2011), Ruta Sepetys’ first novel, for Prinz attention.
The novel is based on Sepetys’ family. It tells the story of 15-year-old Lina who in 1941 is pulled from her Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp.
The concluding Author’s note begins with the words of Albert Camus: “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

I am obviously, unabashedly all about Hope.
(Were this post about the Cubs, I'd tell you this year is The Year!)

Yesterday, the Association of Jewish Libraries announced the 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award winners.

Hurrah! and Mazel tov! to Michael Rosen and Robert Sabuda for their Younger Readers winner Chanukah Lights (Candlewick), Susan Goldman Rubin for her Older Readers winner Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein (Charlesbridge) and Robert Sharenow for his Teen Readers winner The Berlin Boxing Club (Harper Teen/HarperCollins).

My fellow TeachingAuthor April Halprin Wayland and her picture book New Year at the Pier (Dial, 2009) won this honor in 2010.

As luck would have it, one very cold January afternoon in 2003, I was one of those “someone’s, somewhere,” when AJL’s Dr. Libby White phoned to tell me my picture book Chicken Soup By Heart (Simon and Shuster, 2002), gorgeously illustrated by Rosanne Litzinger, would be wearing a Sydney Taylor gold medallion.

I hadn’t even known the book was being considered!

I sat on my living room couch for 30 minutes, waiting for Dr. White to phone me back, to tell me she’d made a terrible mistake.

When she didn’t call, I finally pinched myself, teared a bit, then out-and-out wept.

2011 saw more than 10,000 children’s books traditionally published.

I smile thinking about all those stories,
medaled or not,
making their way to readers,
there for the taking,

and the handful of deserving creators about to be surprised.

I offer my Hurrahs! early, often, sincerely.

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

You can win too this January!

Don't forget to enter our latest TA Book Giveaway (from April's most recent post):

To enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg, post a brief comment sharing an "oops" in your life and how you (or someone else) turned it into something beautiful. Be sure to include an email address (formatted like: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an email address. OR...you can email your comment to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. Entry Deadline is Wednesday, January 25th, 11 pm (CST). You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. The winner will be announced on January 27th. Good Luck!

Awards and Accolades

noreply@blogger.com (Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:47:00 +0000

Awards season is officially upon us. I know this because I sort-of watched three hours of Golden Globes last night, even though I had seen very few of the nominated shows or movies. Pretty dresses. (But what was Meryl Streep wearing?)  Some great speeches -- I'm thinking in particular of The Help's Octavia Spencer, quoting Dr. King: "All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance."

Likewise, it is now Awards Season (with capital letters) in the kids' book world. Each year, it seems that the ALA is inventing a new award to bestow. (Is it just me?) I remember being at Vermont College when the Newberys were announced and the flurry of excitement of being in the presence of big-time award-winning authors. The excitement, the adrenaline.  Heady times.

To be honest, I am THE WORST TA to be kicking off this new topic. As I have proudly admitted on numerous occasions, I have populist taste. Many of the "brilliant, dazzling" books that wow awards committees are not the books that excite me. Of course I have adored (ADORED) many of the Newbery winners through the years.   I was looking at the book discussion lists for this year's awards -- for some reason I have not read many this year, though several are on my dying-to-read list. Usually the ones I most admire are the ones that make the list but never win. Quiet books (not too quiet), relatable books, books that I would have read ten times when I was ten years old.

My daughter is old enough now to vote for our state books awards (the Black-Eyed Susans), and I admit that those are the awards that guide MY reading choices. We are not writing for Newbery committee librarians, after all. We are writing for children -- which should always be a labor of infinite dignity and importance.

**
Don't forget to enter our latest TA Book Giveaway (from April's most recent post):
To enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg, post a brief comment sharing an "oops" in your life and how you (or someone else) turned it into something beautiful. Be sure to include an email address (formatted like: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an email address. OR...you can email your comment to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. Entry Deadline is Wednesday, January 25th, 11 pm (CST). You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. The winner will be announced on January 27th. Good Luck!

Book Giveaway and Guest Teaching Author Interview with Barney Saltzberg (who shares his favorite exercise for picture book writers~)

noreply@blogger.com (April Halprin Wayland) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:13:00 +0000

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Howdy Campers--and happy Poetry Friday! Today's Guest Teaching Author shares a poem about bullies with us at the end of this post.

YAY! We Teaching Authors are thrilled to have our dear friend and Guest Teaching Author Barney Saltzberg drop by for tea. To celebrate Barney’s appearance on our blog, we're giving away an autographed copy of his mind-blowing book, Beautiful Oops.
To enter the drawing, see the instructions at the end of this post.

Author/illustrator extraordinaire, Barney Saltzberg,
Junebug (black and white) and shoulder-leaner, Arlo

Doesn't Barney look like someone you'd want to have a hot dog with? I met Barney,who was born in Los Angeles and has published nearly forty picture books, a gazillion years ago through our teacher Barbara Bottner (Her own Teaching Author interview is here). Barney's two kids live in Boston and New York, so he and his wife fill their home with art, toys, blazing colors and dogs.

Barney, who is smart and funny and...well, funny and smart, is also a musician. His songs have been on the PBS show Arthur, and he has recorded four children's music CDs. He teaches writing and illustrating picture books in UCLA Extension's Writers Program, and travels a ton, speaking about writing and illustrating and wowing the crowds with his toe-tapping and tender songs.

And here's where you have to sit up straight and be impressed: he was recently in China, as part of the US State Department's cultural exchange program, performing at schools, libraries and universities.

His latest book, BEAUTIFUL OOPS, from Workman Publishing, is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Pop-ups, lift-the-flaps, tears, holes, and smudges show readers--young and old--how every mistake is an opportunity to make something beautiful. It demonstrates "the magical transformation from blunder to wonder."

Howdy, Barney--welcome! How did you become a Teaching Author?

I was encouraged to teach by two friends who are both, teaching authors. They assured me that it would be a rewarding experience. I was a bit reluctant, but I am so happy I jumped in. I am now in my eighth year at UCLA, where I teach Writing and Illustrating Picture books.

Here's 1:41 minutes of Barney in a somewhat younger classroom. (For a longer version, click here)

What's a common problem/question that your students have and how do you address it?

So many of us were raised reading Dr. Seuss. His rhymes are brilliant. I have so many students who assume that rhyming is easy. I have to say that I fell into that category as well. I've been a song writer since I was eight years old. I know how to rhyme. Writing poetry, on the other hand, is a different animal. I can fudge meter and rhythm when I sing. Out of close to forty children's books published, I've only made four books with poems. Many first time students are very frustrated that I encourage them to write their stories first, without thinking of the rhymes. My suggestion has always been to write the story so you have a road map, and if at some point you want to make a poem, you at least know where you're going. Most new writers begin to rhyme and get backed into a corner without any regard as to where they want the story to go. One of my jobs as a teacher is to help steer students away from rhyming 'for a while'. I'm more concerned with students finding their own voice in their writing.

Would you share a favorite writing exercise for our readers?

I borrowed a suggestion from Anne Lamott's wonderful book Bird by Bird. She reminds her readers that school lunch is something we all remember. Given that I want to help my students find their voice for writing a picture book, one of the very first assignments I give is to write anything you want about your elementary school lunch. Did you bring it in a bag or a lunchbox? If so, did you draw on your bag? Did someone else? What kind of lunchbox? What was in it? Who made your lunch? Did you even get to have lunch? Did you eat in the cafeteria? Maybe you went home for lunch? Maybe your parent packed a type of food that embarrassed you? Maybe you participated in a food trading frenzy! Any memories of your school lunch are encouraged. We just want to have you go back to that time in your life. I'm always amazed at how many people have so much to say about their lunch! It's a wonderful exercise to dig into a rich batch of memories.

What one piece of advice do you have for teachers?

Find and say at least one thing positive in every assignment before you give any feedback.

Character studies by Barney Saltzberg for his book Andrew Drew and Drew, Abrams 2012

Tell us how you sold your first book.

I'd drawn a batch of cartoons with captions and went to New York. I had no idea how the business worked, but if I saw a sign on a building with a publishing company, I would knock on doors. Ultimately I came to McGraw Hill, who was publishing educational books. I asked a security guard, "Where do I go to get a book published?" He said, "You don't". I said, "If you did, where would you go?" He told me what floor the editorial department was on. I rode the elevator to the 36th floor (I believe) and showed the receptionist my artwork. She told me to sit down and she left through a door behind her desk. Ten minutes later she asked me to call back the following morning, and that they liked my book idea. The next morning I called in and found they wanted to publish a book of my cartoons. A year later, my first book came out called, Utter Nonsense!

I am wild about your new book, Beautiful Oops--it's fabulous. How did you get the idea for it?

In my school visits I talk about a dog of ours who was accidentally locked in my studio. She attempted to climb out the window and stepped all over an illustration I had finished. I thought the artwork was ruined. After careful reflection, I found I could turn each paw print into a cloud. I also show a picture of a sketch book where I spilled coffee and turned the stain, into a monster. Teachers asked me for years to write a book showing how I fixed my mistakes. One day while sitting in my studio, I tore a piece of paper about half way across the page. I realized it looked like an alligator mouth. I knew then I had a book and a year later, Workman published Beautiful Oops!

Finished drawing by Barney Saltzberg for his book Andrew Drew and Drew, Abrams 2012

What's on the horizon for you?

Lots! I just sold a book called Chengdu Could Not, Would Not, Fall Asleep to Hyyperion based on photos my wife took when we were in China. (A panda in a tree, having a really squirmy time trying to sleep!)

I have an app called Nibbly's Nose, based on a lift the flap book. It also just became available as an iBook.

Would You Rather Be a Princess or a Dragon?, my first picture book app, will be available soon

And I have two books coming out in 2012: Andrew Drew and Drew (Abrams) and Arlo Needs Glasses (Workman)

Coming from Workman, April 2012

Wow, Barney—we can't wait! And finally, since today is Poetry Friday, do you have a poem you'd like to share with our readers?

Sure! I was asked to write a poem about bullying. I didn't want to write something neat and tidy. This is a sticky issue. Ultimately my poem was rejected because there was concern that kids would see the name Roy the bully boy and that would encourage them to make a sing-songy rhyme and tease someone. My thinking is, here's a chance to broach an uncomfortable subject and begin a dialogue. See what you think.

That Big Bully Boy

by Barney Saltzberg

You know that big bully boy

In my class named Roy?

Well, he thinks I’m his personal toy

He twists both my wrists

And he calls me a goose

With his garlicy breath

Roy smells like a moose

He’s making me nervous

He’s drinking my drink

He’s eating my snack

He says that I stink

When the clock hits three

I am safe, I am free

I hope and I pray

Aliens take Roy away

You know, that big bully boy

In my class named Roy

poem and drawings © Barney Saltzberg 2012

.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Barney!
To enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Beautiful Oops, post a brief comment sharing an "oops" in your life and how you (or someone else) turned it into something beautiful. Be sure to include an email address (formatted like: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an email address. OR...you can email your comment to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. Entry Deadline is Wednesday, January 25th, 11 pm (CST). You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. The winner will be announced on January 27th. Good Luck!

And thanks to Tara at A Teaching Life for hosting Poetry Friday!

Beginning, Again, and Shrinking the Gap

noreply@blogger.com (Carmela Martino) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:00 +0000

To kick off 2012, we've been blogging about "beginnings" here on the TeachingAuthors blog. I'd originally planned to post some thoughts on how to create a story beginning that hooks readers, since that's a topic I'll be presenting at an SCBWI-Illinois network meeting on January 28. But this week, I've been focused on preparing to teach a private class for a group of five very talented seventh-grade girls. We haven't met since November, when the girls shared the beginnings of their current work-in-progress. They were all off to a terrific start and I was looking forward to hearing the rest of their stories. When I checked in with their parents, though, I was surprised to learn that not one of the girls had actually finished her draft. They'd all gotten stuck somewhere in the middle, with one girl going back to rewrite her beginning in the hope it would lead down a new (and perhaps easier?) path.

I pulled out Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic, which I've been using with the girls, to see what help she had to offer them. In a chapter called "Stuck!" Levine says that young writers quit because they don't know "There is no such thing as a perfect book." She goes on to say:

"When you're just starting to write, you may be miles away from perfection, and you may be well aware of it. It's maddening. It's disappointing."

Levine's words reminded me of a video clip my friend and former student Cathy Cronin recently shared on her blog. The clip features the voice of Ira Glass explaining that it's "normal" for there to be a gap between our vision for our creative work and the actual results of that work. Glass's comments confirm my own observations, and this "gap" is something that affects not only my young students but many adult writers, too, including me. So often, what ends up on the page doesn't match the ideal I have in my mind. I found Glass's words heartening--I've embedded the clip here in the hope you'll find them encouraging, too. (If you're an email subscriber and the clip doesn't show up in the email, you can watch it online at http://vimeo.com/24715531 .)

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

So how do we shrink the gap between our vision and our results? According to Glass, the answer is to "fight your way through" the disappointment and feelings of inadequacy to create a large volume of work. Or, as I tell my students, "Write. Write. Write." The more we write, the better our writing becomes, and the closer we get to matching our output to our vision.

If you're looking for ways to motivate yourself to write more regularly to produce that "large volume of work" Glass talks about, I've included two challenges in the Blogosphere Buzz below that you may find helpful. And if you need help to "fight your way through" feelings of inadequacy, try the following Writing Workout.

Writing Workout
Ways to Get "Unstuck"

Here are three suggestions for getting "unstuck" that I'll be sharing with my students on Saturday:

Give yourself permission to write the story out of sequence. Mary Ann described this approach in her last post. If you know how the story will end, for example, go ahead and write the ending even if you haven't finished the middle. That's exactly what I did when I was working on Rosa, Sola. After I had a draft of my final chapter, I was able to go back and figure out what needed to happen to get my characters to that scene.
Doodle. Doodling is a great activity to stimulate the creative side of the brain. Set aside 10-20 minutes. With your story in the back of your mind, put your pen to the page. You can draw images or just dots, lines, and shapes. Have fun and enjoy the process. If any story ideas come to mind, make a quick note about them, and then go back to doodling until your time is up. (For more about using doodling to stimulate creativity, see this website.)
Engage in a repetitive physical activity. This is another way to stimulate the creative side of your brain. Go for a long walk, jog, or bike ride. Again, keep the story in the back of your mind, but don't think about it too much. Instead, focus on the sound of your steps on the pavement, or your breathing, or the feel of the wind on your face. And be sure to have some pen and paper handy if you do get an idea.

Blogosphere Buzz

Need ways to motivate yourself to write consistently enough to create that "large volume of work" Glass discussed? First, check out the site 750words. The site challenges members to write 750 words per day, or about 3 pages. You can type those words directly into the website and it will track your word count and statistics over time. You can also participate in the site's monthly challenges--participants who write 750 words per day for the whole month earn a place on the "Wall of Amazingness." Those who fail, end up on the "Wall of Shame." And many participants also set their own personal rewards and consequences.
Second, If you're a picture book writer, here's a challenge specifically for you: the 12 x 12 in 2012 Picture Book Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to "write one picture book per month for each of the twelve months of 2012. This means a first draft: beginning, middle, end. NOT a submission-ready piece." Sign-up deadline is January 29. (In addition to the support and camaraderie, there are prizes!)
A totally different kind of challenge is also taking place this month: the annual Blog Comment Challenge, which runs through Wednesday, January 25. This is a chance to share our appreciation for all the terrific blogs out there, and also to make some new blogosphere friends. Sign up over at the MotherReader blog and check-in weekly at Lee Wind's blog. (And a welcome and thanks to all the bloggers who've already commented here on our TeachingAuthors blog this month as part of the challenge!)
Speaking of comments, another HUGE thank you to all of you who participated in our December charity drive for First Book by commenting here on our blog. As Jeanne Marie reported last week, we received around 160 comments and we donated $175 to First Book. With Disney's matching donations, that means we helped provide 245 books to children in need! If you'd like to participate in another FREE way to help book charities, visit the Playing By the Book blog. Zoe, the "British mum" who blogs there, has compiled a list of 125 charities around the world whose focus is literacy, reading and /or books. Post a comment on her blog about how she should best organize her list, and she'll make a donation to one of these worthwhile organizations.
As a great supporter of independent booksellers like my local wonderful Anderson's Bookshop, I encourage you to also participate in the 50/50 Challenge: Support Indie Booksellers, especially if you're a teacher or librarian. Join librarian Travis Jonker in committing to using at least half of your yearly budget to purchase books at your local independent bookstore.
And, finally, the finalists have been announced for the 2011 Cybils, the Children's and Young Adults Bloggers Literary Awards. You can find the lists here.

Now I have to get back to writing so I can work on shrinking my own gap.
Happy Beginnings,
Carmela
P.S. I've had all kinds of problems with spacing in this blog post. Sorry, I did my best. If it doesn't look right on your screen, I guess it's another example of my vision for a project not matching my results. :-)

Beginning in the Middle

noreply@blogger.com (mary ann rodman) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:07:00 +0000

Beginnings are easy... and hard.
Chapter One goes so smoothly. I should know. I have at least a a hundred "Chapter One"s crammed lurking in my document file. Yes, sir, I can rip off a chapter one without breaking a sweat.
Then comes Chapter Two.
Uh-oh. There is no Chapter Two. There is no Chapter Two because I can't think of what happens right Chapter One.
For years, this inability to come up with a Chapter Two (let alone a middle and an end), convinced me that I really wasn't a writer. Real writers know what happens in Chapter Two. If I could only have written a book of collected first chapters...
Despite this discouraging notion, I kept on writing and saving first chapters. Not being able to finish something didn't prevent me from writing. Writing is a compulsion. I can't not write.
Eventually I figured out what I was doing wrong.
I was writing without really knowing my characters or story. Writing a Chapter Two was like trying to introduce people you've just met. I didn't know anything about them, so there was that awkward pause after names have been exchanged where you are expected to add a little tag, such as "Bob is a big curling fan" or "Jane is just back from kayaking the Amazon." The blank space beneath the words "Chapter Two" is the writing equivalent of that awkward pause.
"But," you might say, "aren't you supposed to write down an idea as soon as you get it, so you won't forget it?"
You would be absolutely correct. You write down the idea. Then you put in your files and leave it there for awhile. Get to know your characters. I mean really get to know them. When you meet someone new, don't you ask a few questions before you decide whether you want to spend time with them or not?
The same is true with a new project. Make sure this is an idea, characters, story you want to live with for a year or longer. Yankee Girl took five solid years of writing, revision and editing. By the time I was done, I was ready to send the entire cast of characters over a cliff in a car, Thelma and Louise style. ("And then they all died. The End.")
I have learned that what I used to think of as "inspiration"(the kind that ran out after ten pages), is really just discovering a story "seed." Seeds need to germinate to be useful (unless, of course, they are salted sunflower or pumpkin seeds). So I quickly write down whatever brilliant notion is burning in my brain cells at the moment,. . .and then leave it for awhile. Sometimes, characters and story grow in the back of my brain over a year. I call it "crockpot writing"; throw in some ingredients, put it on low heat, and come back at the end of the day. Sometimes I have dinner; sometimes I have a big mess. (I am not a good cook.)
Once I decide I have something worth working on, I make it a point to not write chapter two. I review what I know about my characters and story. Usually, a scene, an image, a conversation, something materializes. I don't worry about where in the story trajectory this scene comes. I just write it down.
This is how I learned to avoid the "Chapter Two Plot Fizzle." I write out of sequence. . .at the least in the beginning of a project. I write whatever is on the front burners of my brain. If there isn't anything immediately, I will revise the last page (and only the last page) I wrote. This puts me back in the groove and a new scene or something will emerge. At some point, I begin to see where all these pieces of writing fit together, and where there are holes. Now my writing has a starting point and a destination.
I know that writing out of sequence doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me. I wrote Yankee Girl in sequence and wound up with a 400 page first draft. Most of what I cut was stuff I wrote fumbling around for the next plot point.
Over the holidays I had a creative flash. Out of nowhere, a teenage boy appeared in the backseat of a car. His parents' car. The parents are in the front seat. I knew where he was going, why he was there and what he was thinking. I wrote all that down.
I won't see my teenage boy again for a year or so. Right now, I don't even know his name. (I do, however, know his girlfriend's name.) I don't know how or even if he will work out his problem. I'm not worried about that. I am finishing up my current Novel Out of Sequence.
The Boy in the Back Seat will wait for me.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

New Year Poems and the Poetry Friday Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (JoAnn Early Macken) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:31:00 +0000

With the start of the new year, I decided to try something I've thought about for awhile. I walk to Lake Michigan almost every day, and I marvel at how the landscape changes from one day to the next. So I've been carrying my camera with me, taking a picture each day, and writing a quick, short poem in my head on the way home. Sometimes I have to stop, take off my gloves, dig the notebook and pen out of my pocket, and write down what I'm thinking so I don't lose it. In the cold, I have to write fast. Here are a few of my 2012 lake poems.

January 1

wet, stinging wind

slick path downhill

view from the pier:

lake between flakes

January 2

Landscape with Dog Nose

I wanted to capture the crisp horizon,

gradations of shades,

mountainous clouds,

but she insisted on

stepping into the shot.

Well, why not?

She’s always part of the picture.

January 3

wall

hill fall

swell spill swell

well lull well

I hope the last one keeps its wavy format!

And now for the Poetry Roundup:

Diane Mayr is our first Earlybird with four poetry posts:

Random Noodling explores the OEDILF (the OED in Limerick Form).

Kids of the Homefront Army has a poem about a girl who explores career choices for women during the war.

Kurious Kitty has found a poem called "My Bomb."

Kurious K's Kwotes' has a great quote by Truman Capote.

Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) has "Nothing More Than a Door" at The Bald Ego blog.

Tara posted about a collection of poems and essays about dogs.

Linda at teacherdance is relishing the poems in P*Tag.

Myra Garces-Bacsal from GatheringBooks sent a contribution from GatheringBooks.

KKSorrell has a poem on water at The Iris Chronicles.

Gregory K.is up with an original today: Instructions for Helping the World.

Tabatha's post is inspired by one of her kids' homework assignments.

Heidi Mordhorst has the pleasure of passing on an award to five versatile bloggers.

Mary Lee has some Walt Whitman.

Jeff Barger has a review of Over in the Forest, a collection of animal poems for young readers, at NC Teacher Stuff.

Linda is in with thoughts about writing and filling the empty spaces.

At maria horvath's blog, the poem takes a look at silence, as part of the theme of "ars poetica" or the art of poetry.

Carol is in with Joyce Sutphen's "The Bookmobile."

Mandy is sharing a poem - Serenity Prayer with a question, is prayer a form of Poetry?

laurasalas is in with 15 Words or Less poems.

Over at The Poem Farm, Amy LV has a goodbye to Christmas trees.

Irene Latham is in with an original poem - her first published piece in the children's market! It's called "You Cannot Measure Courage."

Karen Edmisten is in this week with Naomi Shihab Nye here.

Robyn Hood Black has Naomi Shihab Nye today as well: "The Words Under the Words."

As Katya was hunting for New Years Resolution ideas, she came across a poem that mirrored her mood.

Ruth is in with some melancholy Japanese poetry here.

Jeannine Atkins wrote about the bravery needed in writing poetry.

Jim Hill has added two originals this week, tied together (sorta, kinda) by a common theme: flight. By the Seat of My Pants on Hey, Jim Hill!

At Wild Rose Reader, Elaine Magliaro has an original poem titled "Rock Candy."

Shelley has poems about our grandmothers' generation: Rain: A Dust Bowl Story.

More, more, more:

maclibrary said, "Here's mine."

I'm Jet . . . offers up a Ted Kooser poem at The Write Sisters.

Beth is participating with a Chesterton poem in honor of Epiphany.

Julie Larios at The Drift Record has lyrics from "Children Will Listen," and links to Steven Sondheim's fairy-tale musical, INTO THE WOODS.

david elzey is in with a cento that begs the question: is it possible to make the lyrics of a steve miller song better then the original?

You can hear Joy's poem My Shoes Sing, illustrated by Violet Lemaysaid, at http://www.highlights.com/audio/high-five-audio-january-2012. Click the bottom option BONUS Mini Book, My Shoes Sing, or stop by her blog. Today's poem is an action rhyme.

Carlie has written an original poem about dance.

And finally, Sally is in with a post on a call for submissions of children's poetry on sports at PaperTigers.

Thanks for joining us, everyone! I can't wait to explore all these tempting links! Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

Celebrating First Steps (And Those That Follow)

noreply@blogger.com (Esther Hershenhorn) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

What better way to begin this New Year than by writing a post that celebrates Beginnings, those Very First Steps that - hopefully - lead to others.

For instance,

take a gander at four members of a spanking-new Writers Group that launched last night at fellow writer Michelle O’Looney’s Old Town Suite Lounge.

(From left, Corinne Dean, Kathy Mirkin, Denise Gallagher and Michelle O'Looney)

Could it be that only three months ago they’d met for the first time, members of my Fall Newberry Library Picture Book Workshop?

They 'fessed up that first September night: each was more nervous than the next, doubtful, reluctant, questioning her choice. Each, though, had committed to learning this new format, to acquiring the tools to tell her story to young readers; by November, they’d bonded to form a writing community.
I traditionally vet the first session of any and all Writers Groups that grow from my classes. I brought along chocolate (dark, milk and white) as well as my copy of Becky Levine’s most helpful The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide (Writer’s Digest, ’10).

Here’s a peek at the cover of first-time author Wendy Kupfer’s picture book Let’s Hear It For Almigal, illustrated by Tammie Lyons (Handfinger Press). I smile at the year that’s come and gone as I worked with Wendy to help her write and ready this story of a spirited Life-loving little girl who just happens to wear a cochlear implant. The book creation business and its seemingly-unending series of First Steps could understandably overwhelm even the most jaded; yet not once did Wendy falter. Now she begins the next necessary First Step: launching her book this May to coincide with Better Hearing and Speech Month.

Yes, indeedy: beginning that story you’ve always wanted to write is quite The First Step, one deserving of praise, of back pats and champagne.
But once you complete it, once you write and revise (of course) the story you're telling, all sorts of challenging yet doable satisfying First Steps follow.

I learned from emails the past three weeks:
a former Novel Workshop student began querying agents;
a writer with whom I worked this year began querying editors;
another prepared to enter her manuscript in the National Children’s Book of the Year Award Contest;
a new non-fiction writer now seeks her MFA degree;
a young adult novelist who earned her MFA now seeks a second Writer Residency.

As for me, next week I begin - teaching my University of Chicago Writer’s Studio Novel Workshop.
I’m almost done reading my way through Anderson’s Bookshop’s Mock Newbery List and the recent blog posts of the Apocalypsies, 2012’s debut middle grade and young adult novelists.
I'm ready to email students the link to PW’s Fall 2011 Flying Starts.
(IMHO, it's never too early to take that First Step.)

So, Hurrah! Hurrah!
Once for this Brand New Year.
And once for the chance to bravely begin.

No matter the endeavor, more delicious First Steps follow.

Esther Hershenhorn

p.s.

Hurrah, too, for our TeachingAuthors readers who helped us reach our First Books 2011 holiday goal.

Talk about First Steps! Thank you from the bottoms of our six hearts.

The Middle

noreply@blogger.com (Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:38:00 +0000

Happy New Year to all! Thanks to your generous support -- 157 thoughtful comments at last count -- we have donated $175 to First Book (we kicked in a little goodwill bonus). Every $2.50 provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 of our gift with another new book. We also enjoyed a wonderful walk through the literary annals of our collective childhood. We are so grateful to each of you!

**
My designated topic today is 'Beginnings,' but right now all I can think about is THE END. The end of our winter break, family time, vacation, conversation, sleep, sanity. My husband's school district resumes classes today (!), and so we are immediately in the thick of the crazy New Year. This semester I am taking two classes and teaching two classes, in addition to my full-time job. In dread of the insanity that is about to befall our household, I am thus even more depressed than usual by the Slim Fast commercials on TV, the approaching cold front, my 4-year-old's wet pants, my 6-year-old's insomnia, and the wilting Christmas decorations that will require removal -- next weekend.

I genearlly refuse to make New Year's resolutions because I can guarantee that I will not exercise daily, write a novel in a month (or a year), read the classics (probably not even one), give up coffee, or accomplish anything that requires consistent exercise of willpower. But there is one small thing that I can ask of myself that I can pretty consistently manage -- that is, every day, to try to do my best. If it's ten minutes on the elliptical with my Kindle, I've exercised and I've read. On a good day, I've folded a bit of laundry, I've played Dominoes with my kids, I've walked the puppy, I've written a paragraph, I've earned a few $$, I've eaten some chocolate. On a bad day, well... there's always tomorrow.

In life, it occurs to me that we tend to focus a tremendous amount of our energy and attention on beginnings and endings -- the weddings and the funerals, as it were. But it's the vast middle that comprises the bulk of our existence. Likewise, in writing, we start with an idea -- a character, a situation, a premise. Usually we know where we want to start and where we want to go. But it's the getting there that makes the story, breaks the story, or too often stops us from finishing the story. After the sexy thrill of the beginning fades, we must still live there, in the treacherous middle, for a very long time before we can ever type THE END.

My husband wrote me a song on our wedding day called "Slow and Steady." That is my writing mantra, even if it's more like slow and fitful at the moment. Someday I (we!) will get there!

This week I have been reading my usual mishmash of books:

THE EXQUISITE CORPSE ADVENTURE by Jon Scieszka, Katherine Paterson et al (READ IT!)

THE PLOT WHISPERER by Martha Alderson

COLLEGE WRITING AND BEYOND by Anne Beaufort

Common thread? Synthesize. Keep moving forward. Don't ever lose sight of the end. It's an exciting new year! -- Jeanne Marie

First Book Holiday Donation--One More Day!

noreply@blogger.com (JoAnn Early Macken) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:30:00 +0000

Our comment count is up to 146--hooray! We'll donate at least $146 to First Book. If you haven't added your comment yet, you still have time--but hurry! See the details below.
Happy New Year!

First Book Holiday Donation Update: 11 Days Left!

noreply@blogger.com (JoAnn Early Macken) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:25:00 +0000

Since the start of our First Book Holiday Donation series on December 5, all six Teaching Authors have posted about our own first books. (You can read all six posts below.) Many generous readers have commented on their first books, too. We've enjoyed hearing from so many enthusiastic book lovers!

For every comment we receive on our blog before the end of the year (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book, which provides new books to children in need. If you haven't added your comment yet, you can help increase our donation. You can tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why you believe children should have their own books, or your own First Book donation.

We’ll keep track of comments from now until the end of the year, we'll post periodic updates, and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

So far, we've received 137 comments, so we'll donate $137 to First Book. That amount equals 54.8 books plus 137 more from Disney Publishing Worldwide for a total of 191.8 books. Thank you!

We still have 11 days to go, so please help us spread the word!

JoAnn Early Macken

What Was Your First Book? Post a Comment So Kids Can Have One Without Spending A Penny ~

noreply@blogger.com (April Halprin Wayland) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:13:00 +0000

x
Howdy Campers! YES! TeachingAuthors are singing and dancing the praises of FirstBook.org, which gives books to kids. In fact, for every comment on our blog until December 31st, we'll donate $1 to FirstBook (up to $225). Tell us about your memories of your own first book and read the wonderful responses we've gotten so far on JoAnn's first post, Esther's post, Jeanne Marie's post, Mary Ann's post, JoAnn's update, and Carmela's post.
x
Some of you have asked about how to make your own donation to FirstBook. Simply head over to the First Book "Get Involved" page and click on "donate now".

I laughed when I read that Ellen Reagan read Little Red Riding Hood, crossing out the word "hood" on each page and writing in her own name.

Little Red Riding Hood and a friend discussing their favorite books...

The comments you've posted have brought back memories of Harold and The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (which I count among my favorite books to this day), the fairy tales my father read in the dim light of our bedroom each night, The Birthday and Pitschi, both by Hans Fischer, poetry Mom read aloud, and Dorothy Parker stories, too--which kept all of us laughing, laughing, laughing. Ahh...memories. They're truly locked in our DNA...

FIRST BOOK
by April Halprin Wayland

First, book.
Then, lap.
Then skin-to-skin.x

The story settles deep within,
the horse and both enchanted twins
stay in you as you age.

Then one day velvet wings on stage
will part and you'll perform the page.
And in that hall will be a child
and she'll be hooked.x

But first?
Of course.
But first a book.x
poem and drawing (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

And speaking of books and giving--consider giving one or all in the Poetry Tag Time series. Just released: Gift Tag, the third eBook anthology of children's poetry by fabulous author, poet, and anthologist Janet Wong and equally fabulous author, professor, and anthologist Dr. Sylvia Vardell. Gift Tag is the first eBook of new holiday poems by top poets for children and teens...including, ahem, yours truly...as well as Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis, and more...all for the bargain price of $2.99 each. And you don't even need an eReader...you can download these to your computer!

Happy Poetry Friday! And check out how
New York is incorporating haiku into street safety signs ~

Thank you, Kate Coombs at Book Aunt for hosting today!

(Ya gotta love Book Aunt's tag line: "Because other people give you clothes and video games for your birthday!")

This is the last TeachingAuthors post until the new year (as Carmela says, we're taking a blogging break). Come back on January 2, 2012 (!) when we'll tell you how much you helped raise for FirstBooks!

Remembering First Books, and How You Can Donate a Book without Paying a Penny

noreply@blogger.com (Carmela Martino) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Wow, it's been marvelous to read my co-bloggers' posts and all our wonderful readers' comments about their first books. Before I share my thoughts on the topic, I want to remind you that you can help donate books to children in need via First Book without paying a penny! See details at the end of this post.

Like Jeanne Marie, I grew up in a book-less home. I've blogged before about how the first books I can recall in our house were a set of World Book Encyclopedia, which my parents purchased from a door-to-door salesman. So I smiled at the comment Patrica Nesbitt shared on JoAnn's kick-off post. Patricia's first books, a set of Childcraft books, also arrived in her home thanks to a door-to-door salesman! And I have to say that I'm especially grateful to Sherry York for her comment on Monday confessing that she read the encyclopedia "from A to Z." Now I don't feel so geeky for doing the same thing. :-)

But I think my favorite comment came from our friend Professor Roxanne Owens of DePaul University who wrote in response to Esther's post: "I couldn't get enough Pat the Bunny, Put Me in the Zoo, Go Dogs Go, and a Fish Out of Water . . . ." Roxanne's comment reminded me how much my son loved Pat the Bunny, one of his first books. She motivated me to dig out his well-worn (or I should say, well-loved) copy:

But I'd forgotten all about the companion book he had, which I discovered while looking for Pat the Bunny:

Judging from the condition of Pat the Cat, my son must have loved it even more than Pat the Bunny!


Can you see the tape holding the edges of the right-hand page together?


He lost the "pencil" that was attached to the string, and the last page is completely separated. But Teddy still squeaks!

We were fortunate to be able to provide our son with books from his infancy on. Along with Pat the Bunny and Pat the Cat, he had bathtub books, board books, little Golden Books (I still have his Runaway Bunny and Color Kittens) and a children's Bible that he received from his godfather. It makes me sad to think there are many children who have never had a book of their own. That's why I was thrilled when JoAnn suggested that the TeachingAuthors not only make a donation to First Book, but that we use our blog to get the word out about this terrific organization. With your help, we can provide over 300 new books to children in need. And it won't cost you a penny, as you can see below. However, some of you have asked about how to make your own donation to First Book. You can do that easily by heading over to the First Book "Get Involved" page and clicking on the "donate now" button.

Now, to add to our TeachingAuthors' First Book donation (for free!), you need only post a comment on our blog. For every comment we receive (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book. We’ll keep track of comments posted from December 1-31 and we'll post periodic updates, like this one JoAnn shared Monday. We’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book. We're hoping to send 315 books to children in need!

So help our donation add up! Post one comment on any of our posts from now through December 31. Tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why you believe children should have their own books, or how you made your own First Book donation. Then help us spread the word by inviting all your friends to comment, too. Our special thanks to Lee Wind for doing just that on the official SCBWI blog, and also for his kind words about our blog. If you don't know about the SCBWI blog, be sure to check it out!

Wishing all of you a blessed holiday season.
Happy writing!
Carmela