The World of Peachtree Publishers

True Romance

2012-02-14T14:46:00.000-05:00

It's Valentines Day, and call me sentimental, but it's one of my favorite holidays.

There are the obvious reasons: it's an excuse to wear red and pink together, eat chocolate for breakfast, and maybe receive your favorite flowers. But also, it's my time to indulge in some embarrassingly romance novels.

If you think about it, my love for romance novels probably just stems from my unnatural obsession with fairy tales as a little girl. I know many a woman who secretly harbors a desire for Prince Charming to show up on his white steed and rescue her (probably from a stack of paperwork and the incessant ringing phone--if she's anything like myself).

In the Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas, Prince Charming comes in the form of Prince Henrik, a sporty, outdoorsy kind of guy. And like most of us, he just wants to find someone that loves him for him, not for his fancy title and crown.

His brother advises him on how to pick a real princess: make a stack of twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdown quilts, and then place a single pea under them all. A real princess will complain that the pea kept her awake all night. That's how he found his princess, Princess Eva. And she's been complaining about everything ever since.

Wisely, Henrik decides that the kind of girl he wants, one that likes "hockey and camping and has a nice smile," would be the opposite of Princess Eva. And in order to find her, he uses a more extreme pea algorithm.

"Instead of twenty mattresses, Henrik found one thin camping mattress. Instead of twenty eiderdown quilts, Henrik found one old sleeping back. And instead of a single pea, the prince decided to use a whole packet of FROZEN PEAS."

Unsurprisingly, all the princesses that visit Henrik have a lot to say about their shoddy accommodations, and the strange bag of vegetables they find in their bed. He's almost given up hope when his old pal Pippa shows up. Pippa loves horseback riding and hockey, and when she thinks the bag of frozen peas makes a great ice pack Henrik realizes she's the girl for him.

If you'd like to check out some other books to share with your special someone: check out these titles.

Happy Valentine's Day from Peachtree!

2012-02-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day, readers!

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Have I got a great Valentine's book for you!

Well, I've got a few actually! Here is a sweet assortment of lovey-dovey books for you and your Valentine!

Andy's Auntie Elsie is always happy to see him -- but Andy is not always so happy to see her. Every time Auntie Elsie comes to visit, she gives Andy two big, sloppy kisses. Kiss! Kiss! on the left cheek. Kiss! Kiss! on the right cheek. Yuck! Yuck! Andy says to himself. He tries to hide from her squishy hugs and sloppy kisses, but Auntie Elsie always finds a way to swoop in and grab him! Finally, he decides to hide under the house where Auntie Elsie wouldn't dare to look.

Every morning, Mr. Bowman, the mailman, wakes up very early to deliver the mail with his dog, Larabee, who loves to carry the mailbag and ride along in the truck. Together, they make sure everyone gets their mail on time. Larabee loves delivering the mail, but nobody has ever written a letter for him! Will Larabee ever get any mail?

Following a blustery night, Angela Bowling finds a baby bird blown out of his nest. After wrapping him up carefully in her scarf and taking him home, she names him Augustus and he quickly becomes more to her than just a bird to be looked after: He's her little Loveykins!

Martina the beautiful cockroach doesn't know coffee beans about love and marriage. That's where her Cuban family comes in. While some of the Cucarachas offer her gifts to make her more attractive, only Abuela, her grandmother, gives her something really useful: un consejo increible, some shocking advice. At first, Martina is skeptical of her Abuela's unorthodox suggestion, but when suitor after suitor fails the Coffee Test, she wonders if she'll ever find true love.*Also available in audio!

Based on almost 200 previously unpublished letters and extensive interviews with their closest associates, Walker's biography of Margaret Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, offers a new look into a devoted marriage and fascinating partnership that ultimately created a Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. This edition of Walker's biography celebrates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Gone With the Wind in 1936.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March

2012-02-09T13:59:00.000-05:00

In honor of Black History Month, we're featuring our new nonfiction middle grade title We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March.

There's a lot of information on Peachtree's main page and on author Cynthia Levinson's website (as well as through the many links at the bottom of this post), but we thought we'd give you a first-hand glimpse at Cynthia's process of researching and writing this incredible book.

Welcome to the blog, Cynthia!

My 3-day Blind Date with my Editor

(originally posted 10/23/11 at Emu's Debuts)

“A writer’s relationship with an editor is a sacred one.”

True words spoken by Kadir Nelson at the Texas Book Festival, 2011

My debut book, WE’VE GOT A JOB: THE 1963 BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S MARCH, was fortunate enough to attract interest from three publishers. Naively, I assumed I’d choose the highest bidder. Wisely, my agent suggested I talk to the acquiring editor at each house to get a sense of how we’d relate to each other during the revision process. Oh, I suddenly realized, editing JOB won’t be just a mechanical process of deleting commas and making verbs and subjects agree. We’d communicate about the substance of the book, share ideas, maybe disagree, negotiate. Yeah, I’d need to get along with that person.

Ultimately, I chose not only by bid but also by person. The others were very hard to turn down but when Kathy at Peachtree Publishers told me she’d been looking for a writer to tell the story I was proposing, I knew she was as committed to it as I was. But, could we commit to each other? I would learn soon, as Kathy’s bid included a trip to Atlanta, where Peachtree lives, and then a two-day research trip to Birmingham—together.

I was honored by Kathy’s support for the book. But, I also felt like the boy in the Dr. Seuss story who meets up with the green pants in the woods. Was she as scared of meeting me as I was of her?

You don’t have to break the ice with your editor the way we did. But, getting to know each other over a bottle of wine on my son-in-law’s parents’ back porch sure helped. We hugged at the door. We learned that Kathy’s husband collects cartoons. Their five-year-old son adores zombies. This sounds like a real person!

At Peachtree the next day, I met everyone, including the publisher, the receptionist, the artists, the publicists and marketers, the woman who packs the boxes of books shipped from the warehouse, and both cats. And, the doughnuts were yummy. Kathy and I also started on our substantive work.

One of the four people who marched in Birmingham when he was a teenager now lives in Atlanta. Although I had talked with James by phone many times, we had never met. He agreed to come to Peachtree and to bring artifacts of his involvement in the civil rights movement.

“I love that you still have the flag,” Kathy told James. I looked closer at the framed memorabilia he brought. Yes, there was a small American flag. James explained that he was given that flag at a mass meeting the evening he learned that the courts declared that marchers, who had defied city laws and been jailed and then expelled from school, would be allowed to return to school. What a lovely and important story her comment elicited! (And, you might notice Dr. King in the center of the photograph–with James’s uncle.)

That afternoon, the two of us went to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site for a moving program on the life of the man who inspired and led the events I was writing about. Then, we drove the three hours to Birmingham. Even though I was, again, nervous about how we’d pass the time, talking about Dr. King, other civil rights leaders, the other three marchers, the story we wanted to tell, even recollections of growing up all solidified our relationship.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Today

Washington Booker III by his sign, 2010

Over the next two days, Kathy and I spent A LOT of time together. Dinner at a French bistro I had found on my two previous research trips to Birmingham. Breakfast at the hotel the next morning. A tour of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which was the headquarters of the movement in May of ’63. An extensive walk along the Birmingham Civil Rights Trail, where I found a placard with a quotation from one of the other marchers, with whom we had dinner that night, along with his wife. An interview with another marcher. More interviews the next day, a tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and conversations with the archivist.

After assuring each interviewee that her or his story would be respected,Kathy’s comments, questions, and observations were insightful and elicited revealing responses.

■ She asked Arnetta, who is light-skinned if she had ever thought about “passing” as a white. “No,” Arnetta answered. “You are proud of what you are. You are made by God.”

Arnetta Streeter Gary, 2010

■ “What did you do while you were in jail?” she asked Wash. “We raised hell!” he said.

■ She asked the sister of a deceased marcher about their parents. And we learned that they had realized only recently that their parents had courageously sued the city to be able to use the public parks.

In the end, Kathy pointed out “how exhausting” it must have been for Birmingham to sustain its severe degree of segregation.

At the end of that long day: another three-hour drive back to Atlanta where I expected to thank her effusively and collapse at a friend’s house.

Except, my friends suddenly had to leave town. So, I spent the night in the guest room at Kathy’s house where I got to see her husband’s cartoon collection and their son’s zombie collection.

By that time, either we’d wonder how on earth we’d be able to spend the next 15 months working together or we couldn’t wait. You can figure out which.

Newbery-Prize-winner Rebecca Stead said in her talk at the Texas Book Festival that a relationship with an editor entails “trusting and coping.” Because I knew I could trust Kathy, I was able to cope when she pushed me on several issues, such as the potential demise of Dr. King’s leadership of the civil rights movement. Her questions led me to investigate further, to retrench a bit, and to verify. Because I hope that she learned she could trust me, I also pushed back in at least one instance–the inclusion of Wash’s Sunday school experiences in a chapter on mass meetings. We both trusted; we both coped.

Our field trip to Atlanta and Birmingham and back again was intense, revealing, and reassuring. I had made not only the right decision but also a friend, a colleague, and a mentor.

For more information on Cynthia and We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March, check out these links:

Emu's Debuts features We've Got a Job for a whole week!

Teachers, download the classroom discussion guide here!

An interview with Cynthia at Boys and Literacy blog!

Pintrest page, including links to all things We've Got a Job!

Reviews:
Publishers Weekly
Kirkus
Booklist
SLJ's Practically Paradise blog
Boys and Literacy blog
Bibliolinks blog
Laurie Thompson blog
Pat Zietlow Miller blog
Literary Friendships blog

Sneak Peak at the Artwork of The Return of the Library Dragon!

2012-02-08T15:46:00.001-05:00

It’s almost ready! Illustrator Michael White dropped by our office to show off some artworkfrom the sequel to The Library Dragon—The Return of the Library Dragon!

Have you entered the contest? It’s easy!

A Dickens of a Birthday!

2012-02-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

What do you think of when you hear 'Charles Dickens'?

A Tale of Two Cities?

Great Expectations?

Oliver Twist?

The fact that his pen name was "Boz"?

Or do you think about the theme park 'Dickens World' in Chatham dedicated to the Boz himself, which is apparently a real thing? (You can get half-price admittance if you show up in full Victorian garb!)

At Peachtree, we tend to think of The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale!

Skilley is an alley cat with an embarrassing secret: He hateseating mice, but he loves to eat cheese.

Longing to escape his street-cat life, he hopes to trade London’s damp alleywaysfor the warmth of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Inn. When he learns that the innkeeper islooking for a new mouser, Skilley comes up with an audacious scheme to installhimself in the famous tavern.

Onceestablished in the inn, Skilley strikes a bargain with Pip, an erudite mouse. They agree that Skilley will protectthe mice who live at the inn, and, in turn, the mice will provide him with thething he desires most—the inn’s delectable cheese.

But when Skilley and Pip are drawn into a crisis of monumentalproportions involving a tyrannical cook, an unethical barmaid and a malevolenttomcat, their new friendship is pushed to its limits. The escalating conflictthreatens not only the peace of the Cheshire Cheese Inn but also of the BritishMonarchy.

Unbeknownst to Skilley and Pip, however, they have a secret ally:a famous author who scribbles away many an afternoon at the Cheese. In thisplayful homage to Charles Dickens, unlikely allies learn the lessons of a greatfriendship.

For more on The Cheshire Cheese Cat, check out our blog tour from October and be sure to follow SLJ's Battle of the Books -- the Cheese is battling it out for the title in March!

No matter what springs to mind when pondering good ol' Charlie "Boz" Dickens, most of us have at least a novice understanding of who Dickens was and his great contribution to literature. We still hail him as one of the greatest writers of ever, his books still top school reading lists (and personal reading lists!) and we continue to adapt his stories and introduce his words to new generations of readers, all these many years later.

Happy 200th Birthday, Charles!

Happy Groundhog Day!

2012-02-02T10:24:00.001-05:00

If you stop and think about it, Groundhog Day is a little weird. Every February, thousands of tourists flock to Pennsylvania to watch a rodent predict the weather. A little silly, on the face of it, yes? In recent years, the holiday has come to mean more than just the arrival of an early spring or the drudging on of an even longer winter: if you have cable, you're going to be seeing lots of reruns of one particular movie of the same name.

"Well, it's Groundhog Day... again... and that must mean that we're up here at Gobbler's Knob waiting for the forecast from the world's most famous groundhog weatherman, Punxsutawney Phil, who's just about to tell us how much more winter we can expect."

photo via news.nationalgeographic.com

I have always been fond of Groundhog Day. I find joy in the fact that, even just for one day a year, we put reason and logic aside and believe in this charming tall tale, harmless in its oddness. With the “Pennsylvania Polka” looping in our ears, we suspend our collective meteorological knowledge for something a little more fanciful and put all our hopes for an early spring on the furry shoulders of Punxsutawney Phil.

It’s not often that this, the otherwise deemed insanity of anthropomorphism to the utmost extreme, is celebrated on such a wide scale. That is until you cross over into fiction! Readers, I give you: Animals acting like people!

The Three Armadillies Tuff
Three fun-loving armadillo sisters are eager to cross a busy highway to get to the new dance hall on the other side, but inside the culvert lurks a spindly legged coyote...

Ol' Bloo's Boogie-Woogie Band and Blues Ensemble
A hilarious backwoods retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm story The Bremen Town Musicians. Ol’ Bloo Donkey has spent year after year hauling cotton on a farm in the Deep South and dreaming of the day when he could retire from the fields to become a honky-tonk singer.

The Horned Toad Prince
When Reba Jo finds herself in a mess of trouble, she's forced to strike a deal with a horned toad.

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach
When Martina decides to choose a husband, her grandmother gives her some shocking advice in this charming Cuban folktale. (Also available in audio!)

One More Sheep
A knock on the door in the middle of the night wakes up Sam and his flock. How will Sam know that the knock on the door isn't a lost lamb but a wolf when he can't count up to ten without falling asleep? Now it's up to the fast-thinking sheep to help him…before it's too late!

The Scarecrow's Hat
A resourceful chicken seeks the help of her farm animal friends to solve a problem, whil giving something of herself along the way.

Gilbert de la Frogponde
Two chefs arrive at Gilbert's pond in search of dinner. Too fat to escape, Gilbert must convince them that bugs -- not frogs -- are all the rage in culinary circles!

Three Hens and a Peacock
When a peacock suddenly arrives at a quiet farm, everything changes and the hens don't like the newcomer getting attention while they stay cooped up doing all the hard work. With the help of a wise hound, they orchestrate a job swap. What follows is the hilarious tale of three hens who get in way over their feathered heads, and one very distressed peacock who just can’t figure out how to lay an egg.

Happy Groundhog Day everyone! May it be full of illogical fits of whimsy!

*Edited at 12:38 p.m.: This just in: Phil saw his shadow! Looks like 6 more weeks of winter!

The Bad Girl of the Book World is BAAACK!

2012-01-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

The Return of the Library Dragon has been a highly anticipated sequel for years, and I'm excited to announce it's upcoming release in the fall of 2012! To celebrate Lotta Scales return to libraries everywhere, we've decided to have a little contest.

For years, librarians have been telling us how much they love The Library Dragon--so much so that they have created their own Library Dragon costume, which they use every year when introducing the book. Frankly, we love to see pictures and hear stories about these intrepid story-tellers, and in celebration of your creativity, we have come up with The Library Dragon Contest.

Library Dragon Contest Rules:

(beginning 1/20/12)

'Like’ The Library Dragon on Facebook
(http://facebook.com/TheReturnofTheLibraryDragon)
Send us a photo or video of yourself in your best Miss Lottie or Lotta Scales costume
Write a paragraph or more describing your relationship with the original Library Dragon book: when you first learned about it, how you’ve used it, the development of your costume, or any reactions from family, children, and coworkers. Basically, tell us why you love the Library Dragon and why you deserve to win!
Post your photo and paragraph on The Library Dragon’s Facebook page, or e-mail it to publicity@peachtree-online.com and we’ll post it for you!
Entries will be accepted until 12p.m. eastern time October 31^st. Winners will be announced the following week

* by entering the contest, entrants grant Peachtree Publisherspermission to display, distribute, or reproduce the entries, in whole or inpart, in any media now existing or subsequently developed, for any educational,promotional, or publicity purposes.

The first prize winner will receive signed first editions of The Library Dragon and The Return of the Library Dragon, The Library Dragon audio CD, a Library Dragon flip-doll, a skype visitwith author Carmen Agra Deedy, and a signed piece of original artwork byillustrator Michael P. White!

Happy Birthday, MLK

2012-01-16T13:50:00.001-05:00

Black History Month may still be a couple of weeks away, but we like to celebrate early for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.

Most people have a general understanding of the events of 1963 as the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. The March on Washington and King's nonviolent approach inspired marches and sit-ins across the country. King's famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail and many other papers and speeches have all made their way into the history books in the decades since. Today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we remember the man behind the message and the many brave men and women (and children) who joined him on the road to freedom so many years ago and since.

A lesser known event from that historic year is the topic of our forthcoming title from Cynthia Levinson: We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March.

Imagine: Four thousand elementary-, middle-, and high-school students skipping school to voluntarily step into the path of violent retaliation from the corrupt police force and deliberately go to prison. These children and teenagers demonstrated not just their desire to be truly free, but also their willingness to stand up in the most dangerous of circumstances and risk their lives for a cause they believed to be greater than their individual safety.

Levinson spent four years researching and interviewing primary sources to compile the memoirs of those involved and presents here one of the most compelling and thorough accounts of this lesser-known event that changed the course of the entire Civil Rights Movement. Formatted for middle grade readers, the book is full of images and quotes and includes a timeline of the Civil Rights Movement. For more information about We've Got a Job, including a teacher's guide and suggested discussion questions, check it out at Peachtree or Cynthia Levinson.com. For more on Dr. King, check out The King Center archives, which now allows online access to King's papers.

Last fall, we introduced a fantastic middle grades novel about a young man caught up in the middle of the precursor to the Civil Rights Movement: The Abolitionist Movement.

In Chasing the Nightbird by Krista Russell, we meet Lucky, a thirteen-year-old sailor who has spent his life on ships with his father, the best whaler on the eastern seaboard. His happy life at sea is interrupted and his plans to join the whaling ship Nightbird are dashed when, following his father's death, Lucky is kidnapped and pressed into servitude by his cruel and embittered half-brother, Fortuna.

Fortuna immediately puts Lucky to work under harsh conditions in a textile mill and confiscates the boy's wages. All his plans for the future seem lost, but Lucky remains determined to escape his misfortune. When he meets Emmeline, a spirited girl with abolitionist sympathies, and Daniel, a fugitive slave from the South, his dream of returning to his old life of freedom and the sea seems within reach.

Emmeline offers Lucky passage on her father’s ship in exchange for his help leading escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad, but first he must escape Fortuna who will stop at nothing to get back what he believes is his rightful property.

For more information about Chasing the Nightbird, visit Peachtree (teacher's guide here) or Krista Russell here!

Peachtree is proud to offer these great titles for Black History Month -- please let us know if there are any you'd like to review on your blog!

It is the summer of 1947 and a highly charged baseball season is underway in New York. Jackie Robinson is the new first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers—and the first black player in Major League Baseball. A young boy shares the excitement of Robinson's rookie season with his deaf father.

The inspirational story of former slave and journalist, Ida B. Wells, whose contributions fighting both injustice and prejudice set the stage for the civil rights movement.

In a period ripe with racial tension, Charlie recruits a former Negro Baseball League player to teach his neighborhood baseball team, but a long held secret leaves his world filled with suspicion and violence.

Author Alison Hart mines the complex relationships between white and black, slave and master, Unionist and Confederate, and old and young in this trilogy of gripping historical fiction.

In 1937, the Depression is in full force, Joe Louis is the new heavyweight champion of the world, and Champion Luckey has just arrived in Snow Hill, Alabama. Brother Sayre's life will never be the same.

Upside down and backwards!

2012-01-13T12:56:00.000-05:00

Have you ever woken up on a seemingly suspicious day like Friday the 13th to find that everything really is...The Opposite?

When Nate woke up in the morning, The Opposite was standing on his ceiling staring down at him. From that moment on, Nate's day turned upside down in the most extraordinary way!

When Nate poured milk on his cereal—something he is usually good at—The Opposite happened. Milk splashed everywhere and made a big mess. When started to draw a very good picture of an elephant at school, the Opposite happened. Paint went everywhere, except on his paper!

All seems lost until Nate cleverly devises a plan to get rid of The Opposite forever!

From where exactly does the supersition of Friday the 13th originate? There are lots of legends supporting the myth of this most unlucky day of the year, some dating back to primitive eras when man was first learning to count! The ancient Egyptians had a theory and so did the Greeks and early pagan Romans, the early Catholic Church and just about everyone else, including recent world leaders (Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the superstitious Thirteen Club)! Even today, most buildings don't have a 13th floor.

If you're superstitious, I'm sure you're reading this post from the safety of your home, away from all ladders, mirrors and spillable salt. If you're braving the outside world on this Friday the 13th, be careful out there! And maybe swing by your local indie bookstore to check out The Opposite!

Happy reading, everyone!

And now...a GIVEAWAY!

Do you have any superstitions or lucky habits? Tell us about them in a comment here (please include an email address or some other way for me to contact you) or email me at Rivet@Peachtree-online.com for a chance to win a copy of The Opposite! I'll pick a winner on Monday, Jan. 16 so have your entries in by Sunday night!

*Contest ends Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 at 11:59 p.m.
**U.S. residents only, please

If you like The Opposite, check out:

Guest Post with Susan Stockdale at the Nonfiction Book Blast

2012-01-11T14:34:00.003-05:00

Our very own author/illustrator, Susan Stockdale, had a guest blog post with the Nonfiction Book Blast yesterday. I've included an excerpt, but visit the blog here to read the whole story!

My interest in animals and nature as well as my love of color and rhyme began in my formative years. I grew up in sunny Miami, surrounded by lush vegetation, flowers and skittering lizards. I loved visiting an attraction called the Parrot Jungle, where I was enchanted by the birds’ bright, bold colors and feathered patterns. I also spent a few childhood years in Ireland. The Irish landscape was green and sparkly, filled with cows, horses and other animals I’d never seen in tropical Miami.

Throughout these years, my mother, a published poet and author, instilled in me a love of words. She used to rhyme them together in a casual, playful way, showing me that words were joyful and to be celebrated. My favorite was “Shake and shake the ketchup bottle; none will come and then a lot’ll!”

After graduating from college as an art major, I exhibited my paintings of fantasy landscapes and animals. I also freelanced as a textile designer for the clothing industry, giving me an opportunity to express my love of pattern and color, which are still hallmarks of my artwork in children’s books.

The idea for Fabulous Fishes emerged during a snorkeling trip that my husband and I took to Belize. I was astounded by the diversity, shape and color of the fishes I saw beneath the water. My most memorable moment was when our snorkeling guide pulled back a rock to reveal a porcupine fish, looking right up at me like a big balloon.

Read the rest of Susan's post at the Nonfiction Book Blast

The Dragon New Year

2012-01-09T14:08:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone! We’ve got a lot in store for 2012at Peachtree: audiobooks, new board books, adorable picture books, hard-hitting nonfiction, and compelling middle grade titles are all hitting shelvesthis spring and we’re so excited! We also have big plans for the blog, so keepyour eyes here for new features and fun posts as we get the year started!

One new feature is our spotlight on backlist titles. Theseold favorites are not to be forgotten!

Today I’m looking at TheDragon New Year:

The story begins with a young girl who is frightened by thefireworks and loud crowds outside as her town celebrates the New Year. Not understandingthe commotion, she pleads with her grandmother: “Please do not leave me alone!”

The girl’s grandmother explains that it is because of the loud noise and brightlights that she is safe from harm. She tells the tale of the Dragon New Year:

New Year is a dragon. New Year is the most ferocious of allsea dragons. It lives in a palace at the bottom of the sea.

The tale of the Dragon New Year is a fearful one. Everyyear, the dragon springs forth from the sea to feed in the town, sendingvillagers fleeing for the hills. Until one year, the grandmother explains, acourageous woman stays behind and, with the help of Buddha, devises a plan toscare the dragon away! Because the dragon lives in the sea, it knows nothing offire and loud noise, so the woman and Buddha build a great bonfire.

It came as it had every year. Bursting onto the beach, itslithered with haste toward them. Fixing them with its cold, snake-like eyes,its distorted hindlegs dancing in the sand and its forepaws tearing at theclouds, the dragon reared to strike.

It reared up. It stopped.

Bewildered, New Year stared at the bonfire.

Flailing wildly, like a boulder plummeting from theheavens, it dropped to the bottom of the sea.

The dragon had disappeared. It had fled, terrified andconfused. And, for the first time ever, it had left hungry.”

The tradition holds true today, as Chinese New Yearcelebrations are filled with firecrackers and the clanging of bells andwhistles to ring in the holiday safe from the clutches of the Dragon New Year!

Did you know that 2012 is the Year of the Dragon in China? TheChinese zodiac assigns an animal to each year, beginning with the Year of the Rat and then moving on to Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig before starting the cycle over again. According to the tradition, each of theseanimals is thought to bestow certain characteristics to the people born intheir year. Legend has it that the Year of the Dragon will be marked byexcitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity!

Here are some fun and interesting facts about the Chinese New Year:

The Chinese New Year falls on the western calendar’sJanuary 23^rd this year.

It is a 14-day-long celebration and includes manyfestivals and traditions, including the telling of the many Chinese legends.

Chinese New Year is a time to welcome longevity, wealth,and prosperity and to eliminate any negative chi (energy) from the past.

The Chinese government has issued dragon stamps for the NewYear, but after a year of using bunny stamps for the Year of the Rabbit, somesay the new stamps are too ferocious.

For more information on TheDragon New Year, head over here.

If you like The DragonNew Year and are interested in other titles about Chinese heritage, checkout GoodFortune:

New Year, New Netgalley titles!

2012-01-05T12:04:00.000-05:00

Check out our newest titles now available on NetGalley!

Rough Waters by S.L. Rottman

A crisis on the river may be the only thing that can save Scott and Gregg from losing what little family they have left.

Mooshka, a Quilt Story by Julie Paschkis

A delightful, intergenerational bedtime story featuring a remarkable quilt and a reluctant new big sister.

The House on Dirty-Third Street by Jo S. Kittinger, illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez

A mother and daughter turn a hopeless old house into a loving family home with faith, hard work, and the support of their community.

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

The inspiring story of one of the greatest moments in civil rights history as witnessed by four young people who were at the center of the action.

Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller

Lamb in His Bosom is the 1934 Pulitzer Prize winning story of Cean and Lonzo, a young couple who begin their married lives two decades before the Civil War.

Happy Blog-iversary to us!

2012-01-04T13:50:00.000-05:00

We're two years old today! Ah, to be two. What a glorious age! We can talk (a bit) and there's so much to say and there's also so much to learn! I hope this year is a great one!

For the two-year-old in your life, check out our board books! Their fascination with chewing on books may be fading, but the structure of a board book is still great for their teeny hands to learn how to turn pages!

New this spring:

In the Garden by Elizabeth Spurr/Illustrated by Manelle Oliphant

Fabulous Fishes by Susan Stockdale

The Gift of Giving

2011-12-23T07:30:00.000-05:00

Every year I write a verydetailed Christmas list. It’s listed inorder of importance, and color-coded, and broken down by price andavailability. And every year my list isstudiously ignored. My mom is notoriousfor her (well-intentioned I’m sure) odd and off-base gifts. Over the years I’ve received: paperweights,napkin rings, a flannel nightgown, figurines of bears, and miniature teasets.

And all I want is shoes,ya’ll. Horribly impractical shoes.

So this year I’ve devised afull-proof plan. To do good for othersand boost my karma for the rest of the year. I’m just asking for donations for my favorite charity: Heifer International.

Not only does it have thebest name ever, it’s a really great cause. You can buy a heifer (or water buffalo, sheep, pig, flock ofgeese, camel, etc.) for a family in a developing country. Heifer International’s approach is “givingfamilies a hand-up, not just a hand-out,” by helping them “improve theirnutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.”

It’s an innovative and greatidea, and you can read more about their work here.

Speakingof cow-themed gifts, maybe you should add 14 Cows for America to yourChristmas list. After witnessing the9/11 attacks, a Maasai tribesman returns to Kenya and tells his people thestory of the tragedy. As an act ofsolidarity and sympathy, the tribe donates 14 cows to the people ofAmerica. Visit the book website tolearn more about WilsonKimeli Naiyomah and his gift.

An Imaginary Snow Day

2011-12-16T11:19:00.001-05:00

Every yeargrowing up my sister and I wished for snow on Christmas day. We would have even been content for snow nearChristmas, but Georgia weather just never obliged. Now that I’m older, I usually appreciate the South’s temperateclimate (especially in the morning when I have to walk the dogs), but I stillhold a little hope in my heart for a white Christmas.

If you’re likeme, and are seriously lacking in the snow department, you should check out SnowDay! by Lester Laminack. Thegorgeous illustrations by Adam Gustavson will help you pretend that you’rebuilding snow forts and sledding—and you’ll be able to relate to thecharacter’s disappointment when school isn’t cancelled. I don’t want to give away the ending, butthe surprise always brings a smile to my face.

After enjoying SnowDay! you might feel the need to create some snow yourself. This year I decided to decorate with papersnowflakes. Since it had been many,many years since I had been instructed in this art (and mine were turning outlooking like mangled bits of paper), I found this great how-to onInstructables. You can find it here. If you aremaking snowflakes with young children, I suggest you use the larger piece ofpaper. Even I was having trouble withthe smaller size in the instructions, and I have pretty decent fine motorskills.

My attempt:

Professionals:

As you can see,mine don’t have quite the sophistication of the professionals, but theycertainly bring some cold weather cheer to my house!

C is for Catalogs!

2011-12-06T12:40:00.001-05:00

It's about that time of year again, friends! I have catalogs and checklist letters piled up as far as the eye can see and I'm so excited to share with you the titles we have planned for Spring '12!

This is the cover of our spring '12 catalog--pretty, yes?

This is what my desk looks like this week. Cozy, right?

Just as soon as I dig my way out of these piles of catalogs, they will be sent out to our many friends in Book Review Land. It's a magical place!

But first, here's the seasonal preview of our new books I just know you've been waiting for! Enter below for your chance to win a prize back of our picture books (as soon as they get in the warehouse, that is)!

The newest additions to the About Habitats...series introduce Oceans and Deserts to young readers. The Sills are at it again—their beautiful illustrations and compelling imagery coupled with super interesting information will have adults and children eager to learn more about these habitats.


In 1963, four thousand blackelementary, middle, and high school students voluntarily went to jail in Birmingham, Alabamato fight for civil rights. Through the eyes of four of these children, We’veGot a Job tells the story of this little-known event that became aturning point in American history.

Susan Stockdale's beloved Fabulous Fishes is now available in a board book! Perfect for the littlest little ones—the bright colors and stunning illustrations will enthrall young readers-to-be!

When a mother and daughter find themselves starting over in a new town, the run-down house they planned to fix up doesn't quite feel like home. Soon, they are overwhelmed with the projects and long for the old neighborhood they left behind. As they realize they can't do it all on their own, they reach out to the new community and find that they aren't as alone as they feel. As new friendships are formed and the house gets rebuilt, so does their sense of hope and belonging.


Karla loves the quilther grandmother made for her using old scraps of fabric from various familymembers. At night, each colorful piece of cloth tells Karla wonderful stories!When new baby sister Hannah is born, Karla has to find a way to share Mooshkain this intergenerational bedtime story.

In simpleyet informative language, A Place forBats introduces young readers to these interesting creatures and all the ways human action or inaction can affectbat populations.At the end of the book, author Melissa Stewart offers readers a list of things they can doto help protect these special creatures in their own communities!


Miss Lotta Scales is a "real dragon" when it comes to guarding the library books from certain disaster at the hands of grubby children. She won't even let the students touch the books! When one innocent child stumbles into the library and begins reading aloud to the other kids, Miss Scales’s outlook changes. Check out this new edition of the beloved book, which includes an audio CD narrated by Carmen Deedy herself!

A quirky twist to the traditionalfairytale, this adorable picture book gives readers a newkind of princess to root for. After tiring of theneeds of overly demanding princesses, Prince Henrik devises a test to find agirl who’s not so “sensitive,” using a very thin mattress and an entire packetof frozen peas!

Rose thinks the city is ugly and gray, and she wishes forbeautiful red, yellow and blue flowers. The crazy old Birdman who feeds pigeons in thepark gives Rose magic seeds to make a beautiful garden grow, and to everyone's surprise, a livinggarden springs up on Rose’s windowsill!

It’s summervacation, and Socko and his best friend Damien are taking care to avoid thelocal gang and its leader, Rapp. When Socko’s great-grandfather suddenly offersto buy a house in the suburbs, Socko’s mom jumps at the chance to leave the badneighborhood, but all is not what it seems. During his Summer on the Moon, Socko will facea series of tests concerning his own nature, the nature of the world and hisplace in it all.

This is a sweet, simple board book about an endearing young boy who digs in the dirt and plantsseeds. Time passes and the seeds grow intosomething amazing. This is the first in a series of three adorable board books,featuring the same character, so keep your eye out for the others, coming soon!

If you're a book reviewer and would like to be on our mailing list, make sure to email us at publicity@peachtree-online.com!

To enter to win a prize pack of our picture books, leave a comment here with your email address or email me at Rivet@Peachtree-online.com and tell me what you're most looking forward to this spring!

I'll pick a winner at random on Monday, Dec. 12 so keep an eye on your inbox that day!

Happy Reading!

*Contest ends 12/11/11 at 11:59 p.m.

**U.S. residents only, please

Walking off the turkey...and the pie...and the cranberry sauce...and the other pie...

2011-11-28T11:37:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had awonderful Thanksgiving! If you're anything like me, there are a few thingsthat are certain about your weekend:

A lot of food mysteriously disappeared from your kitchen around the same time someone shrunk all of your pants. How did that happen?
Rather than busting it through all the Black Friday sales, you spent Friday blissfully unconscious in a series of naps with a note taped to your face: “If you attempt to wake me or otherwise ruin this glorious day off by asking me to be productive, bad things will happen. Back away slowly. You were never here.”
The Sunday night blues set in as you realized that in a few short hours it would be Monday and this year’s Thanksgiving would soon be no more than a memory.

A good way to shake thingsup and get going again is to get outside! Get some fresh air! Bask in thesplendor of nature! If you live in Atlanta,you can spend that time simultaneously basking and wondering, “How on earth isit still so WARM? I’m Christmas shopping in shorts and flip-flops!” You canalso take advantage of all the great scenic and historical walks and trails inthe metro area.

Don’t know where to start?We’ll make it easy for you with the recently published fourth edition of Renand Helen Davis’s fabulous book Atlanta Walks. It has something for everyone,including me, the self-proclaimed “indoor” enthusiast. Getting out and hiking hasnever been my first choice when looking for an activity (I’m typically game foranything that involves sitting down) but I found some great trails forbeginners like me and thought I’d give it a go:

Marietta Square is pretty close to where Ilive and has a lot to offer—the historical markers are really interesting, theStrand presents great plays (I saw a production of "Hairspray" there lastyear!) and the shops and restaurants have something for everyone. Every weekendthere is a farmers market and every now and then there are concerts inthe square as well!

The following photos are courtesy of the Marietta tourism website (when I went, theweather wasn’t nearly as nice):

Image from Marietta.com

I always have a fun time when I go to Marietta Square. There's a lot of history to take in and it's a beautiful place to spend an afternoon, even if it's rainy! I found a spot near the square (a lot of the parking is metered, but you can also find parking lots around the area and walk to the square) and walked along the sidewalks, window shopping and getting ideas for Christmas gifts. After a while, I met some friends for lunch at the Marietta Pizza Company—yum! It was a great day, despite the weather, and I can't wait to go back soon!

Atlanta Walks includes maps of trailsfor everyone from novice walkers and families with children to the experiencedhiker looking for new ground to cover. Most of the walks are located within the Atlanta perimeter, butthere are many in the surrounding suburbs as well (Marietta is covered in chapter26!). Each walk includes:

a map, GPS coordinates and transportation and parking tips
information about distance covered, terrain and difficulty
seasonal events
local background, historical marker locations and notable sites
other available activities and nearby walks

For more information onthis book, click hereand have fun out there!

Guest Post by Author Cynthia Levinson

2011-11-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Our debut author Cynthia Levinson wrote this post for the PiBoIdMo blog (that's Picture Book Idea Month for all you uninitiated), and we liked it so much that we wanted all of ya'll to get a chance to read it too! You can also hop over to PiBoIdMo if you'd like to read it there, or check out their other articles.

I was so heartened to read Carol Hampton Rasco’s opening blog post on PiBoIdMo because she made two comments that really resonate with me. Well, she said one, and then she quoted a savvy but jaded six-year-old.

First, she noted that the top picture-book choice of teachers, reading specialists, and Reading is Fundamental volunteers is NONFICTION. That buoyed me because that’s what I write. In fact, my agent, Erin Murphy, has two of my nonfiction picture books under submission right now. The six-year-old, however, quickly brought me down to earth. As he peered at a terrific looking book, he said, “it doesn’t look like a true fact book, they’re usually boring.” That’s good news for the book he was enjoying but “aargh” for the others.

We can all cite other terrific NF PBs. Some of my favorites include MIND YOUR MANNERS, ALICE ROOSEVELT! by Leslie Kimmelman; 14 COWS FOR AMERICA by Carmen Agra Deedy, which is available in both English and Spanish (which is perfect, since Rasco also said that bilingual books rank among the top-three most-wanted); andYOURS FOR JUSTICE, IDA B. WELLS by Philip Dray. Citing counter-examples to the six-year-old’s complaint, however, is beside the point. It’s his experience and his impression that count. So, what can we, as NfPiBoWr (that’s nonfiction picture-book writers) do to alter his conclusion that “true fact” books are boring?

Language and illustrations, of course, contribute hugely to enlivening books that happen to be accurate. Rasco also commented that what adults want for the children they read and give books to are books that are “eye and mind catching.” Great illustrations catch the eye; lilting, lively, lyrical text captures the mind. Neither of these is quite sufficient, however, if the topic—and we are dealing with ideas during PiBoIdMo here—is lackluster.

As a nonfiction writer, my ideas come from a number of places—the news, teacher-friends who lament the lack of good books about X, expert-friends who share fascinating stories about their research, and sheer curiosity. But, the biggest source of my ideas is Carus.

Who?

Carus is the family of magazines that is sometimes abbreviated to “COBBLESTONE.” These include, for various age groups, not only this magazine about American History but also DIG on archeology, APPLESEEDS and FACES on culture, CALLIOPE on history, ODYSSEY on science, and others. It’s not that I steal ideas from other writers; I steal ideas from myself. Here’s what I mean.

Most of these magazines are theme-based, and a couple of times a year, I check their Writer’s Guides to see what intrigues me. What I see now in ASK, a science magazine for six- to nine-year-olds, for instance, are calls for proposals for nonfiction articles on dreams and dreaming, “all the fish in the sea” on a census of fish, spelunking, and animal sounds. Don’t these sound like great grist for topics?!

While ASK targets the perfect age group for picture-book readers, magazines for older readers inspire ideas, too. For instance, FACES is soliciting articles on “Ghosts and the Spirit World” and COBBLESTONE on the 1963 “March on Washington.” There are many other fine nonfiction magazines as well—RANGER RICK and KNOW, for example. All of these can suggest possible picture book topics.

What’s critical for me, though, is not the general theme but what I just said. They suggest possible topics. Or, actually, the big ideas lead me down multiple paths to them. The themes themselves are often too broad for a picture book. But they can spark an idea for a specific article that might then transmogrify into an idea for a picture book.

For instance, when COBBLESTONE sought articles for an issue on Mark Twain, I consulted a friend who is a Twain expert. She suggested an idea for an article that became the basis for one of the picture books that is under submission. Similarly, in response to an issue of COBBLESTONE on the “Freedom Rides,” I wrote an article on music in the civil rights period. My research for this article revealed to me more than I had known about children’s involvement in civil rights—and that led to my other PB under submission. (In fact, I wrote and sold a whole middle-grade nonfiction book, WE’VE GOT A JOB: THE 1963 BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S MARCH, that was inspired by that article. But, that’s the topic for another blog!)

So, my recommendations for PiBoIdMo are to:

Check out great kids’ magazines.
Use their suggestions as springboards for your own. And
Inspire and be inspired by bored six-year-olds!

Cynthia Levinson has sold two dozen articles and stories on a wide range of topics to some of the best children’s magazines. Her debut middle-grade book, WE’VE GOT A JOB: THE 1963 BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S MARCH, will be published in February 2012.

Thanksgiving! And What You Thought You Knew About Jingle Bells

2011-11-23T12:43:00.001-05:00

I’ll admit Thanksgiving wasn't my favorite childhood holiday. For starters, there aren't any presents. OK, stop judging me! Behonest, and you’ll have to agree that presents are pretty much the barometerfor holiday excellence when you’re a kid.

It didn’t help that I don’tlike any of the food Thanksgiving is famous for. No, really. Not thecranberry sauce or the stuffing or the gravy or the dressing (which actuallymight be the same as stuffing, I’m not certain), or sweet potato casserole, orgreen bean casserole, or pumpkin pie. Idon’t even like turkey. Most childhoodThanksgivings had me sitting at the kids’ table, eating a slice of dry turkeyslathered in ketchup with a side of cocktail olives.

Thanksgiving too often getsskipped over nowadays, with Christmas decorations going up at Macy’s inOctober and Christmas music on the soft rock station in early November. But don’t think that I’m skipping out onThanksgiving just because this book’s title is Jingle Bells—what youmight not know is that the song ‘Jingle Bells’ was actually written for theThanksgiving holiday!

Here are some other funfacts about the song:

-'Jingle Bells' was the firstsong sung in space. That’s right, onDecember 16, 1956 the crew of Gemini 6 reported the sighting of “an object,looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit... I see a command module and eight smaller modules infront. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit...." before burstinginto a rendition of the familiar tune.

-Both Medford, Massachusetts and Savannah,Georgia claim to be the location where James Lord Pierpont composed thesong. We, of course, know it hadto be written in good ol' Georgia.

-The tune of ‘Jingle Bells’ has also beenused in German and French songs that celebrate the winter months, even thoughtheir lyrics have nothing in common with our holiday classic.

-‘Jingle Bells’ was written in 1857 andoriginally titled ‘One Horse Open Sleigh.’

-We can thank Carl Weismannof Denmark for the timeless ‘dogs barking Jingle Bells’ phenomenon. Weismann was a bird song enthusiast, who wasannoyed by his recordings being marred by barking pests. He decided to edit out the barks, and thenlinked the tape together, adjusting the speeds to manipulate the sound. This was a pretty complex task in the1950s, and is considered one of the ground-breaking steps toward musicmanipulation (I’m not going to say Weismann is to blame for Auto-tune, but I wonderwhere Rebecca Black would be without him?)

-The horse mentioned in the song is not named ‘Bob’ or ‘Bobtail,’ but insteadthat refers to the practice of ‘bobbing’ or ‘docking’ a horse’s tail, cuttingit very short to keep it from becoming tangled in the harness.

Have a fun and safe Thanksgiving holiday with the ones you love!

NCTE Recap

2011-11-22T11:18:00.001-05:00

Cynthia Levinson signing advanced reader's copies of We've Got a Job

Kathy and I showing off copies of We've Got a Job

Just wanted to mention that we had a great time at NCTE this year in Chicago! We just got our first advance copies of We've Got a Job, which were snatched up immediately in our booth. Debut author Cynthia Levinson presented on a social justice panel, and signed in the booth, and Lester Laminack was there as well, signing and presenting an anti-bullying campaign.

If you missed out on receiving a copy of We've Got a Job, the book will soon be available on NetGalley. See you next year in Las Vegas!

Stand Up to Bullying!

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is International Stand Up to Bullying Day.

I’m afraid we’re all too aware now of the widespread problem of bullying in schools and online. Not that it’s a new problem—I think most of us can recall some painful school day moments—but it’s escalated in recent years to new and more tragic degrees.

In the good old days you would just get picked on by the swing set, or on the bus ride home, but with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and a slew of other online apps, it’s all too easy for anonymous cruelty to take place.

In This Girl is Different, Evie has been homeschooled by her free-spirited mother her whole life, but she craves an authentic high school experience. She enrolls in the local public school for her senior year, but quickly discovers that real high school is a far cry from Saved by the Bell.

Disenchanted by the injustice she sees from the teachers and administration, Evie creates an anonymous online campaign to set things straight. To her surprise, the anonymity of the internet turns her well-meaning project into something she had never imagined. Cruel accusations are made, classmates are at each other’s throats, and all anyone can agree on is that Evie is to blame. Evie must face the music—and her fellow students—and resolve this fiasco she’s created. In the end, she finds a way to clean up her mess, and to foster the open-minded dialogue she had intended all along.

This young adult novel is a great tool to address school bullying, without an overt or didactic message. Evie is a great, unusual character, and students will relate to her good intentions, and believable mistakes.

You can find out more about Evie here, and support International Stand Up to Bullying day by visiting their website here and by wearing a pink shirt on November 19^th.

Other Peachtree titles that deal with bullying are:

Picture books:
Camp K-9
Middle-grade:
Stumptown Kid
Dog Sense
The Everlasting Now
Gaff
Young Adult:
Charlie’s Story

Flash Point

Out of the Blue

There are a lot of other great anti-bullying resources out there as well:

STOMP Out Bullying

Kid’s Against Bullying

Hey U.G.L.Y.

Stop Bullying.gov

Where do ideas come from?

2011-11-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

Where do ideas come from? All around! Check out Melissa Stewart’s video about the inspiration for her nature books:

There’s no denying that fall has finally descended on us here in Atlanta and that winter is on the way. The temperature is dropping and every morning on my drive into work I see roads covered in crispy, crunchy brown, yellow and red leaves. Suddenly, it's not unusual to see people in scarves and jackets and there are advertisements everywhere for events coming up in December. For me, this is my happy time--I love fall and all the promise of winter holidays ahead!

How do you celebrate the new season? Are you inspired by the crispness in the fall air and the changing colors of the leaves? What’s your favorite part of the Autumnal nature where you live? Or is fall the time when you start counting down the days until spring?

Leave us a comment with your email address here or email me at Rivet@Peachtree-online.com for your chance to win copies of Melissa Stewart’s books from the video, When Rain Falls and Under the Snow! I'll pick a winner at random on Saturday (Nov. 19) so keep an eye on your inbox!

Happy Reading, everyone!

*U.S. residents only, please

**Contest ends Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 11:59 p.m. EST

Blue Thirty-two, Blue Thirty-two, HUT HUT!

2011-11-14T14:55:00.000-05:00

Okay, I have no idea what "blue thirty-two" means or if "HUT" is what they actually say down there on the field, but I love football and the competition of team sports. I particularly love the camaraderie and brotherhood of the team. Having never played on a football team, I can only imagine the warm fuzzies the guys must get knowing that their teammates have their backs. Okay, maybe not warm fuzzies, but some manly, scruffy version of warm fuzzies.

It takes a lot of hard work to become a team in the truest sense of the word. One of my alma mater's claims to fame is that 'Remember the Titans' was filmed in large part on our campus -- the scene in which the boys are called upon to tell Coach Boone something they've learned about another teammate is one of my favorite scenes. It shows the building blocks of teamwork and what it takes to invest yourself in those relationships. (It also helps your sense of teamwork if you have an awesome musical score playing in the background, but that's a post for another day.) Fred Bowen tackles (pun intended) these importantlessons in his latest title, Quarterback Season.

Quarterback Season by Fred Bowen

Quarterback Seasontakes us right into the thick of school sports and what it means to be part ofa team. Matt is sure he'll be the starting quarterback for his middle school'sfootball team this year—and why shouldn't he be? He's been training all summerfor this. But when the new kid, Devro, joins the team and impresses the coachwith his speed, Matt suddenly finds himself unsure of his chances.

Vying for the same position, Matt and Devro quicklybecome unofficial enemies as the season approaches. Slowly but surely, the boysrecognize that their individual strengths will go a lot further if they focuson doing what's best for the team, rather than what will make them the star MVPof the season.

What I love about this book is that Bowen shows theother side of competition—competition within theteam—and how it can jeopardize the season. It’s a great lesson in team buildingwith all the exciting play-by-play action that this series is knownfor. Another interesting angle to this book is how the season and Matt’stransformation from star quarterback hopeful to all-around team player aredetailed in his journal, which is written as part of an assignment for hisEnglish class. Matt learns to be a better teammate while he learns to be abetter writer.

For more information on Fred Bowen and his SportsStory and All Star series books, check out his website here! Fred also did a really cool podcastwith IRA last summer about his work. Check it out!

Girls and Ponies

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

I was one of those annoying girls that grew up with my own pony. In fact, I used to ride my pony around our ‘neighborhood’ (I use that term loosely, since I’m not sure five houses randomly plunked down along a dirt road really comprises suburbia), and sell wrapping paper, or cookies, or whatever we had to hawk for our school fundraiser.

When my sister and I weren’t racing our ponies around, we were playing with our horse figurines, or thumbing through the Dover Saddlery catalog, earmarking our favorite bridles (I wish I was exaggerating. We were fairly boring kids). Besides being a horse-crazy kid, I was also a voracious early reader, and had every copy of The Saddle Club and Thoroughbred series (my mom thought The Babysitter’s Club books were too racy).

I was pretty excited to discover upon my arrival at Peachtree that author Chris Platt, former Thoroughbred series contributor, was one of Peachtree’s esteemed authors. I love to think that there’s a whole new generation of girls growing up reading her books and running around their backyards pretending to be horses (yes, we did that too).

In Star Gazer, new kid in town Jordan McKenzie has just moved to rural Michigan. Despite her limited experience with horses, she is enamored with the big farm animals, and dreams of having one of her own. However, her newly single mother is adamant that the expense is more than they can afford. But when Jordan sees a beautiful draft mare headed to slaughter, she can’t help but bid at the local auction…

My experience with horses has always been more of the proper English side of things, so this book was a learning experience for me. I’m not as familiar with log-skidding competitions or wagon-pulling, but Chris Platt is a knowledgeable horsewoman as well as an excellent author, and there is plenty of detail and instruction to be found.

I’ve included a little video here so you can see what log-skidding is all about:

I’d say it’s not as easy as it looks, but it doesn’t look that easy to me!

For more info on Star Gazer, head over here. Happy Trails!

Make Butterfly Memories: A Guest Post By Author Sandra Markle

2011-11-10T09:48:00.000-05:00

Sandra Markle, author of Peachtree's Butterfly Tree, posted these helpful activities on her blog. They are so amazing, and such a great guide to using Butterfly Tree at home or in the classroom, I couldn't help but share them here with you!

You can read the original post here, on Sandra's blog, Write On!

******************************************

The best memories are the times we share. So I developed these activities for children to enjoy while reading my book, Butterfly Tree (Peachtree Publishers, 2011).

First, the heart of this book is about making a memory—taking time to do something together you can remember sharing forever. Talk about and then write about a special time you remember sharing with someone.

*Where and when did it happen?

*What happened?

*What was the key moment of that shared time?

Of course, there are also places we’d like to go and things we’d like to do to make memories. Talk about and then write about something you’d like to share doing together.

Now, explore the special memory Jilly and her mother share in Butterfly Tree.

When Jilly first spots something strange in the sky out over Lake Erie, what does she think it looks like? Read and discover.

Describing what something looks like by comparing it to something else is called a metaphor. Basically, something unfamiliar is described by telling how it’s like something familiar. A metaphor can be a powerful way to use words to paint a picture in someone’s mind. Try it.

Sit quietly for a few minutes either indoors or outside. Look around. Pick out something to focus on. Then think how you could describe what it looks like to someone who’s never seen it by comparing it to something else--something familiar.

Next, share your metaphor. Ask the person to describe the visual image your words painted in their mind. Trade metaphors back and forth to work together building a description.

Here are some places and times you could use metaphors to partner building a description others can enjoy too.
*A sunset
*A stormy day
*An animal in action: a bird taking flight; a squirrel in a tree; a cat playing

When Jilly first sees the orange cloud in the sky, she makes lots of guesses of what it might be. Each of those guesses probably instantly made Jilly think of a different possibility for where the cloud came from and why it’s over Lake Erie. What did Jilly imagine the cloud might be? Read and discover.

Spend some time cloud watching with someone. Look out a window or go outside on a wonderfully cloudy day. Focus on one cloud that looks like an animal, an object, or something totally magical. Tell a short story about that cloud and what you imagined about it.

Then write your cloud story. Be sure to include at least one metaphor to help your reader see what you’re describing.

Jilly’s ready to run away because of the orange cloud she’s spotted, but her Mom suggests they go searching for where the cloud landed.

What orange things do Jilly and her Mom discover in the woods before they find the orange cloud? Read and discover.

What happens to reveal what the orange cloud really is? Don't miss reading to find out!

Mom says she remembers seeing the butterflies when she was a girl. Why do you think she didn’t just tell Jilly what the orange cloud was?

Now, discover more about monarch butterflies.

The Circle of Life

Look at these images of the stages of a monarch butterfly’s life cycle.

Egg
The female lays her eggs on the leaves of milkweed plants. Caterpillars hatch out in about four days.

Caterpillar
Caterpillars eat their egg case and keep on eating. They eat the milkweed leaves they’re on. They eat nearly twenty-four hours a day for about two weeks.

Pupa
The caterpillar spins a silk pad on the under side of a leaf. It grips this with tiny legs, called prolegs. It hangs in a J-shape and molts. This way it sheds its exoskeleton, or outer covering.

That hardens to form a chrysalis, a protective case. Inside the chrysalis, digestive juices break down a lot of the caterpillar’s old body. Using energy from stored up fats, a new body grows from the old one bit by bit.

Adult
After about two weeks, an adult monarch butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. It takes several hours for its wings to fully inflate and harden. Then it flies off to feed on nectar, the sweet liquid produced by flowers. It lives from two to eight weeks. During this time, the males and females mate. Then the females lay their eggs, starting the cycle over again.

Butterfly Inside
Experience what happens when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Cut out and color anadult monarch.

Then fold this up small and push it inside a balloon.
Have an adult partner blow up a balloon just enough to partly inflate it. Tie the neck to seal the balloon.

Cover the balloon with paper mache. To do this, first snip newspaper into strips about an inch (2.5 cm) wide and 6 inches (25 cm) long. Cut at least 25 strips. In a bowl, mix one-half cup flour with enough water to make a runny paste. Dip one paper strp into the glue mixture. Hold the strip over the bowl and slide between your thumb and fingers to remove excess paste. Smooth the strip onto the balloon. Repeat until the whole balloon is covered up to the neck. Smooth your fingers over the wet balloon. This will help seal the edges of the paper strips. Set the balloon in a clean, dry bowl. Turn frequently for a few hours to help it dry evenly. Leave overnight.

The balloon now represents the chrysalis inside which the caterpillar is changing into an adult butterfly. Use scissors to carefully snip into the balloon just below the neck. That will pop the balloon. It will deflate and separate from the inside of the paper mache. Carefully pull out the balloon. Open it and pull out the folded up adult. Unfold the adult slowly.

In real life, the adult butterfly’s body gives off a special chemical that helps break open the chrysalis. Then the adult crawls out and hangs upside down from its chrysalis. Its abdomen squeezes over and over, pumping fluid into the wings. The big wings slowly unfold. The butterfly flaps these wings while they dry and become strong. Then it’s ready to fly.

Scavenger Hunt

Now, go on an on-line scavenger hunt to track down the answers to these questions.

How can you help monarch butterflies?

Why is a viceroy butterfly colored to mimic a monarch butterfly?

Also, don’t miss the fun, interactive jigsaw puzzles on this site.

Where do monarch butterflies go to escape cold winters?
Watch the slide show at The Magic of Monarch Butterfly Migration

Also find out what is the longest any monarch butterfly has flown to date during itsmigration?

Wonder how monarch know where they’re going when they migrate?

Journey North’s Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracking Project reports
“This is a question that scientists are still working to answer. People working at the University of Kansas with Chip Taylor have shown that they use the sun, and also probably the earth’s magnetic field to know which way is south during the fall migration. But we don’t know how they find the specific spots in Mexico. Personally, I’m not sure that we’ll ever be able to answer this one—which I think is kind of nice. I like mysteries!”

If you like science mysteries too, after you finish readingButterfly Tree you'll enjoy another of my books The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery (Millbrook, 2011). It’s the story of a real-life science mystery. Solving it meant the difference between life and death for Panama’s tiny golden frogs.