Interviews (scroll down) with book creators and others in the children’s book community. I’m still gradually moving these over from the old site; thanks for your patience.
Many of these book creators were kind enough to offer useful Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators.
I first met Jen Betton at the 2012 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles when she came up to introduce herself. She said my blog post about getting an Illustration Mentorship Award at the Portfolio Showcase inspired her to attend (!). Up to that point, she’d always thought of the SCBWI primarily for writers . . .
I met Helaine Becker through Torkidlit and Dow Phumiruk through the SCBWI, and I was so excited when I found out that they were collaborating on a picture book: COUNTING ON KATHERINE: HOW KATHERINE JOHNSON SAVED APOLLO 13. Their book is geared toward ages 5-9, launches from Holt Books For Young Readers on June 19, 2018 . . .
I met Kari Maaren through a filk music convention, and fell in love with her song Being Watson (which almost always makes teary-eyed). She also is cartoonist with a webcomic, West of Bathurst, and an active one, It Never Rains. After being a fan of her other work, I was VERY excited to find out she . . .
A while back, I raved about how much I enjoyed Kevin Sylvester’s first and second MINRs books for middle grade. Here’s my #BookADay post about the first MINRS book. With the third book in the series coming, I asked Kevin to tell my readers about his MiNRS series, offer some advice . . .
Jarrett Lerner writes books about farting robots, belching knights, and other serious matters. You can find him online at jarrettlerner.com and on Twitter at @Jarrett_Lerner. You can also often find him at the mgbookvillage.org, which he cofounded and helps run. He lives with his wife, his daughter, and a cat in Medford, Massachusetts. I first . . .
Colby Sharp is a fifth grade teacher in Parma, Michigan. I first heard about him through the Nerdy Book Club (of which he is a co-founder) and Nerd Camp Michigan (ditto). He runs The Yarn podcast with his friend Travis Jonker. You can find Colby on his website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Thanks to Colby for answering Three Questions for me today! . . .
Don’t you love the gorgeous cover of The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful? Written by Nancy Tupper Ling, this upcoming picture book is illustrated by my friend, Andrea Offermann, and it comes out from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers on Sept. 18, 2018. Andrea was kind enough to give a bit . . .
I recently finished EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IS NOT RUINED by Danielle Younge-Ullman and adored it. I’m not surprised it’s garnered so many rave reviews as well as being a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. I’ve always been a fan of survival-type stories, and Danielle’s YA novel combines this with beautiful writing as well as . . .
Melanie Florence is a writer of Cree and Scottish heritage based in Toronto. She was close to her grandfather as a child, a relationship that sparked her interest in writing about Aboriginal themes and characters. She is the author of Missing Nimama, which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the . . .
I first met Kate Blair at CANSCAIP’s Packaging Your Imagination conference, when she was helping during my presentation. Her debut YA, TRANSFERRAL, came out from Dancing Cat/Cormorant soon after; I posted about it here. I enjoyed Transferral so much that I couldn’t wait until Kate’s second book came out…and I wasn’t disappointed. TANGLED PLANET is fantastic. Canadians . . .