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by Winsome Bingham
“Abrams sets the table for SOUL FOOD SUNDAY by Winsome Bingham,
illus. by Charles G. Esperanza, which finds a boy helping Granny
prepare the dishes for a family feast.”
~ Publishers Weekly
You are all invited. To sit with us. And share with us. And eat with us. And CHEER with us. We will be in the same place, at the same time—sitting, sharing, eating, cheering. Every SUNDAY, Our virtual table welcomes you for SOUL FOOD.
I grew up in a family where on Sundays, everyone gathers at my aunt’s house for dinner and dominoes, wrestling and conversations, and fun. It was like a weekly family reunion where you get to see everybody you didn’t see through the week. Those were my childhood summer Sundays. My Brooklyn Sundays. My Bed-Stuy Sundays.
SOUL FOOD SUNDAY was written in 2013 and sold in 2018. This book went to auction and I’m so grateful to all the wonderful editors who saw the importance of showcasing #BlackBoyJoy. My attempt to show families getting together celebrating every day. Black folks living and passing on traditions and recipes. Cooking. Talking. Playing. FUNNING!
Here you have a beautiful Granny teaching her grandson what she knows. She knows how to cook. My Granny always said, “Everybody—boy or girl—should know how to cook. ‘Cause everybody have to eat. Learning to cook and wash your own clothes is independence.” I couldn’t agree more.
On September 14, 2021, this book will be ready to be on your book table. It will be paired with other side-dished booky meals. RIBS! CHICKEN! MAC-N-CHEESE! COLLARD GREENS! TURNIP GREENS! MUSTARD GREENS! HOT & SPICY SAUSAGE LINKS! They are all part of the main course and a delicious delight on this SOUL FOOD SUNDAY.
You can place a pre-order today to reserve your seat at the table.
Without further ado, THE. COVER. REVEAL:
Granny teaches her grandson to cook the family meal in this loving celebration of food, traditions, and gathering together at the table.
On Sundays, everyone gathers at Granny’s for Soul Food.
But today, I don’t go to the backyard or the great room.
I follow Granny instead.
“You’re a big boy now,” Granny says.
“Time for you to learn.”
At Granny’s, Sunday isn’t Sunday without a big family gathering over a lovingly prepared meal. Old enough now, our narrator is finally invited to help cook the dishes for the first time: He joins Granny in grating the cheese, cleaning the greens, and priming the meat for Roscoe Ray’s grill. But just when Granny says they’re finished, her grandson makes his own contribution, sweetening this Sunday gathering—and the many more to come.
Evocatively written and vividly illustrated, this mouthwatering story is a warm celebration of tradition and coming together at a table filled with love and delicious food.
Thank you, Winsome! This is a gorgeous book!
Blog readers, you can win a signed copy of SOUL FOOD SUNDAY! Winsome has three copies to give away!
Leave one comment below to enter.
Winners will be randomly selected later this month.
Good luck!
Winsome Bingham is a soul food connoisseur, master cook, and a US Army war and disabled veteran. She received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and has more than 15 years of teaching experience. You can find her writing on a deck while waiting patiently with a camera to capture a submarine shooting out of the water. She lives in Groton, Connecticut.
Charles G. Esperanza is the second of six cool kids. The South Bronx is where he first opened his eyelids. A dope land shrouded in bright-colored decay, the home of graffiti and hip-hop DJs! He paints funky elephants! Bodegas, too! Mixed with this wonder is some whimsical truth. Esperanza has a voice that is seldom heard. A fusion of jazz, distorted guitars, and chirping birds. Esperanza is also the author-illustrator of Red, Yellow, Blue (and a Dash of White, Too!). He lives in the Bronx.
I hope you’ve been taking advantage of all the free webinars available to kidlit writers and illustrators! One introduced me to OLD ROCK (is not boring) by Deb Pilutti—which I must share with you! Because…often I’ll hear that certain subjects aren’t kid-friendly enough for a picture book main character. I’ll even say this myself while teaching. Yep. Guilty as charged.
But Deb Piluitti knew that an OLD ROCK could be a delightful MC with tons to teach nay-sayers.
Deb, how did the idea for OLD ROCK roll into your head?
I have two different answers for that, and both are true.
My family has always liked to hike. In Michigan there are many wooded trails with pine trees, wildflowers, gently sloping hills and every so often you will see a large boulder, sitting on a hillside, without any other rocks or boulders around. And you wonder, How did THAT get here? (Spoiler: glaciers were involved.) I think this question created space for the idea to form.
One day I was doodling in a notebook and drew a rock with a face on it. I liked it and wondered if I could write a story about a rock character. Then I thought, rocks don’t DO anything. They just sit there. That would make for a boring book—which became the premise for the story. Old Rock’s friends think being a rock must be awfully boring. They can’t imagine sitting in the same spot, day after day.
And right now we’re all sitting in the same spot for a long time! What serendipitous timing!
I love how OLD ROCK breaks a picture book rule, which is to NOT jump back and forth in time. But you do this so seamlessly in the story. How did you use the illustrations as a visual cue between the past and present?
Oh, is that a rule? Haha, I guess it helped that I didn’t know.
But seriously, it was a challenge to differentiate past from present day. The main device I used was to change the color palette.
The past starts out in fiery unnatural colors, pinks and yellows and oranges, and gradually shifts as time progresses.
Present day is depicted in blues and greens.
Old Rock’s appearance changes as time passes and becomes smaller, worn down with rounded edges, cracks and grey eyebrows.
Haha, I didn’t even notice the change in eyebrows! Then again, your humor steals the scene often…
Also, the present is always shown from a static vantage point, the spot at the edge of a clearing in the middle of a pine forest. Scenes from the past occur over a large geographical area, with angles and motion to suggest forward movement and genuine tumult.
Inanimate objects as main characters—like Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s “Spoon,” Josh Funk’s “Lady Pancake” series and now your OLD ROCK—do you think that’s a trend or is it here to stay?
True, we are seeing more fun & silly anthropomorphic books for sure, including your own hilarious 7 ATE 9, illustrated by Ross MacDonald, but the concept has been around awhile.
One of my favorite books as a child was LITTLE BLUE AND LITTLE YELLOW, by Leo Lionni, a very dramatic picture book about two splotches of color.
I think it’s a childhood tendency to anthropomorphize an object. I remember my own children picking up a stick or a piece of food and giving voice to it. I talk to my Pez dispensers all the time or say “excuse me” when I bump in to a side table. And I have been talking to rocks and trees for as long as I can remember. I think of them as witnesses to life on this planet. Once they become a character, they can have feelings or empathy or misbehave and we can look at the world from their perspective. I think there are a lot more inanimate objects to explore. Any guesses on what the next big one might be?
Oh, you’ve put me between a rock and a hard place! I have no idea, but I welcome all the anthropomorphizing we can get!
You’re right, we make objects come alive as children, so why not do that in stories? I love it.
Do you have any secrets about the “making of” OLD ROCK?
I don’t know if I’d call them secrets, but a lot of research and background information went into the choices I made for the characters and illustrations. The book isn’t nonfiction, after all it does have a talking rock in it, but I think it would be categorized as informational fiction.
I did much more research for this book than any other. I talked with a geologist, an evolutionary biologist and a paleobotonist, plus read books and online resources about glaciers, volcanoes, and dinosaurs, and the research informed or changed the narrative.
In my first draft, Old Rock erupted out of the volcano as a blob of lava, but after researching rock types, I decided Old Rock should be a metamorphic rock which formed underground with heat and pressure and has course grains, like Gneiss. And though the location is never stated, I wanted Old Rock to end up in one of my favorite places: Along the western edge of the Michigan’s lower peninsula, overlooking Lake Michigan. That meant I needed to choose characters that were either native to Michigan, like Spotted Beetle (ladybug) and Tall Pine (white pine), or visitors, like Hummingbird. Ruby Throated hummingbirds spend the winter in Central America and then fly north in the spring. Old Rock is transported to the spot near Lake Michigan by the same glacier that formed it. None of this information is in the text, nor is it crucial that the reader know these facts, but they helped shape the story.
That is fascinating, Deb! Your research helped to make the story authentic with its cast of supporting characters.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to chat about OLD ROCK. It was a challenge and a joy to make the book.
And I know my blog readers will have a lot of joy reading your book. And winning it!
Leave one comment below to win a signed copy of OLD ROCK from Deb Pilutti.
A winner will be chosen randomly next month!
Good luck!
In one month, The Carle Museum of Picture Book art will hold its annual Carle Honors, awarding four people/entities who have made significant contributions to the art form.
Also that evening, September 26th, final bids will be accepted on original artwork by picture book masters. Today, The Carle Honors are pleased to announce the artists whose work will be auctioned this year.
The auction will go live on Friday, August 30th and you can register to bid here.
For the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to ask the Carle Honorees a question about picture books. My question this year is…
“Picture books exude a certain kind of magic. How would you describe that magic?”
Melissa Sweet
2019 Carle Honors Artist
In a picture book, the magic begins as a swift and surprising connection to the art and design of a book, and later the words.
Often I dissect a book from cover to flaps to endpapers and everything in between, in order to figure out the decisions that make it compelling.
But in thinking about magic, I also think of magicians. One thing that makes a magic trick awe-inspiring is the set-up, which takes practice, timing and repetition, and drawing in the audience.
Then a myriad of decisions so that every word, every movement, points to witnessing something extraordinary.
Creating a picture book also requires minute decisions by a cast of dozens. The words, images, and design come together to create something wholly new.
Often there’s a moment when a book seems to have a mind of its own. And when the final book feels effortless and like something we’ve never seen before, it seems…like magic.
REFORMA
The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos & the Spanish Speaking
represented by Kenny Garcia, President
2019 Carle Honors Angel
‘Picture books allow readers to imagine a world or a future that the reader exists in and thrives. It opens up new possibilities, words, and worlds full of love, hope, expressions, and emotions that affirms the reader’s life. This magical spark empowers children to imagine and create a better world for themselves and their communities. Multicultural picture books can be such a transformative experience for all of us, but for children of color, the ability to see and read picture books by illustrators of color can nurture the idea that they can also have a future career in writing and illustrating books, and continue the magic for future generations.
Chihiro Art Museum
represented by Takeshi Matsumoto
2019 Carle Honors Bridge
statement by Yuko Takesako
Executive Director of the Chihiro Iwasaki Memorial Foundation
Chief Curator of the Chihiro Art Museum (Tokyo & Azumino)
When children open the cover of a children’s book, a special kind of magic bubbles up. It gives a glimpse of a world yet unseen, enables the reader to experience something never done before, or brings back a memory of an event long forgotten.
The magic of picture books especially has a great impact on children of different nationalities or languages, or on babies who still cannot read, or at times on children who are not so adept at communicating with others. The visual magic cast on a young child once he or she opens a picture book is so powerful that memories of the book may suddenly come alive when the book is placed firmly in their hands—once again after a forgotten period of 10, 30, or even 50 years.
In this fashion, the yearning, understanding, and sympathy found through experiencing a different world helps to create another sort of magic which is respect and love for people of different cultures and the world they live in.
Such is the magic that exudes from picture books—something all too precious and special.
David Saylor
VP, Creative Director, Trade Publishing
Publisher, Graphix
Scholastic Inc.
2019 Carle Honors Mentor
What I love most about picture books is how the words and artwork blend to create an enhanced and perfect entity: the book itself. Their heightened interaction is the alchemy that every picture book hopes to achieve, that moment where words spark a thought and the pictures expand the narrative spaces between and around the words and sentences. For that reason, my favorite picture books are fully alive with emotion and artistry.
I’ve often wondered why picture books that were read to me as a child have stayed so vivid in my memory. I don’t think it’s simply that my young mind was eager to discover the wider world. I think it may also be that hearing my mother and father read aloud to me was my first experience of artistic communication. Those moments—the warmth of a lap, the sounds of words, the lively pictures on the page—brought to life a moment where a writer and an artist spoke directly to me, to my innermost self. I felt suddenly more alive, more aware, more full of life than I had felt just a moment before.
There’s a beautiful scene in the play Wit, by Margaret Edson. The main character is Dr. Vivian Bearing, an English professor, dying from ovarian cancer. Her mentor, an older professor, visits and tries to comfort her by reading aloud. Then her mentor does something extraordinary: she lays next to her in bed and reads a picture book that she had intended for her grandson. The books is Margaret Wise Brown’s The Runaway Bunny, and it’s one of the most beautiful and touching moments I’ve seen in any play. In her final moments of life, when Dr. Bearing’s ebbing life has been paired down to the elemental, only a picture book could express the right feeling with such simplicity and depth.
Thank you, Honorees, and congratulations!
Blog readers, I hope you’ll visit the Carle Honors Auction, attend the Honors gala, or donate to The Carle Museum for all they do to celebrate picture books. Just visit carlemuseum.org.
You can celebrate, too, if you’re the winner of Eric Carle’s THE ARTIST WHO PAINTED A BLUE HORSE. Simply share this blog post and comment that you’ve done so…and you’ll be entered into the random drawing to win a copy. A winner will be selected next week.
Good luck!
I was chatting with my editor last week about my upcoming book with Mike Boldt, ALIEN IN THE DOGHOUSE (working title). I mentioned my philosophy about picture book art notes—how they describe the action that needs to happen for the story to work.
While I teach this at writing conferences and workshops, I never Tweeted it. So…
…and this resonated with a lot of picture book writers.
New writers often hear “don’t use art notes”—but that’s not correct.
I believe some editors/agents say that because new writers tend to misuse art notes. The mistake is overusing them—writing visual instructions that are unnecessary or superfluous. It’s like writing [bunny hops away] when the text already says that the bunny skedaddled.
Misused art notes can also dictate what things should look like when that’s not a writer’s job. Art notes like [she has pigtails] or [green ball] aren’t the writer’s decision. The only time something like that is necessary is when the appearance of pigtails or a green ball act as important plot points. Can the girl have short, curly hair? Can the ball be orange? Does the story still make sense? Then leave out the art notes.
Art notes should only be used when it’s not clear what’s happening from the text alone. Like when you want to be subversive:
She smiled!
How will anyone know your character is supposed to look upset? Art notes! Erm, I mean ACTION NOTES.
Then Kevin asked me a question…
So, here’s my newest book from Tundra, YOUR FIRST DAY OF CIRCUS SCHOOL, illustrated by the fabulous Melissa Crowton.
I set out to write a story with mostly visual puns and jokes, and this book is the result.
Here’s one of my favorite pages…
My manuscript reads:
Don’t worry, the bus has an endless number of seats! [clown car]
How else is the illustrator supposed to know the school bus is really a clown car?
Then there’s this page…
My manuscript reads:
Walk this way! Your big brother will show you the ropes. [tightrope]
Now, truth be told, I imagined the brothers on a high wire, carrying a balance stick and walking into the school, hence the “walk this way”. However, coupled with the previous page, which had to show the BIG TOP, this was the best way to illustrate the entire spread. Notice I did not dictate exactly how or where the tightrope should go. All the illustrator needs to understand is the literal tightrope.
And this is another hilarious page…
My manuscript reads:
You can let off some steam during recess [circus train], but watch out for other stuff that steams! [poop]
Ahh, what’s a picture book without some well-placed scatological humor?
That’s how I approach art notes, as action notes. Note that I don’t even write “art note” between the brackets—the brackets and italics is enough for the editor and illustrator to know what they are.
I try to be as succinct as possible so I don’t interrupt the flow of the story.
But Tara, I hear you ask, what do you do when the art notes are so plentiful, it does interfere with reading the story?
Well, take a look at the grid format solution. It’s how my agent and I submitted YOUR FIRST DAY OF CIRCUS SCHOOL!
And now that it’s back-to-school time, how about a giveaway?
I have 3 signed copies of YOUR FIRST DAY OF CIRCUS SCHOOL!
Leave one comment below to enter. A winner will be randomly selected next week!
Good luck—with your art notes and the giveaway!
When people ask me when I first knew I wanted to be a writer, I share a story about a dream I had over 12 years ago. An actual dream. A dream that woke me up at 2am and had me jumping out of bed to write it down so I wouldn’t forget. I wasn’t trying to be a writer at the time. I’m guessing I just wanted to share my dream with my husband and sons. But I loved it. LOVED it. So I wrote it down.
My dream was about a cow who accidentally left her farm and (unknowingly) created chaos wherever she went. I thought this was funny because whenever I see cows, they never really seem to be doing anything. They’re just sort of standing there. Not playing. Or frolicking. I’ve rarely even seen them walking. I thought it could be funny to have a picture book with a cow character who is “just standing there” but in an unusual place for a cow to be. What sort of chaos would that cause?
I’ve always been charmed by cows. They seem so sweet and curious to me. One of my favorite photos of my husband Mark was taken during a trip to England. I had wanted to get a picture of the beautiful scenery, but before we knew it, Mark was surrounded by cows. I joked, “Maybe they think you’re the farmer?” In the photo, I imagine the cows thinking, “Hey, what’s going on? Can we play?”
I think a lot of cow humor, like in Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin’s CLICK, CLACK, MOO (one of my favorite picture books) and even with the Chick-fil-A cows, is how the cows are acting like cows for the most part, but there is a suggestion that there is more going on than we can see.
One of my favorite Far Side comic strips illustrates this perfectly…
In early drafts of my manuscript, hide-and-seek was just a small part of the story, the opening scene. All the cows were playing together, but Bessie got distracted and accidentally left the farm. (I had a running list of “cow games” that I could possibly use for other Bessie stories, like “cow patty-cake” and “cow tag.” 🙂 The idea was that these cows were doing more than we realized, just like the Far Side cows. But in my early versions, after Bessie left the farm, she wasn’t playing the game anymore.
After I joined a critique group and started getting feedback from other writers, I noticed that the game of cowhide-and-seek was getting the most attention and compliments. Several revisions later, I finally realized the entire story could be about the game. And that the reason Bessie accidentally leaves the farm could be because she is looking for the perfect hiding spot.
So back to my dream. I wasn’t a writer at the time, but something about that idea got me started. I probably did share the dream with my family, but I also started writing. I feel like I learned how to be a writer with Bessie. Bessie and I have been through a lot—revisions, submissions, rejections, more revisions, and so on. But how special to have the idea that inspired me to become a writer end up as my debut picture book. It’s a dream come true. Literally.
Thanks for sharing your journey, Sheri…and congratulations on COWHIDE-AND-SEEK…which releases TOMORROW!
You can win a copy of Sheri’s debut! Just leave a comment below to enter. A winner will be randomly selected very soon!
GOOD LUCK!
Sheri Dillard is a children’s author and preschool teacher/librarian. She lives in Atlanta, GA, with her husband Mark, three sons, and a 100-pound puppy named Captain, who is not so good at hiding. Cowhide-and-Seek is her first book.
Visit her at sheridillard.com, on Twitter @sheridillard and Instagram @sheridillard.
Get ready for a new classic flying into bookstores next week: A KITE FOR MOON.
Late last year I had the pleasure of hearing Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple speak about the genesis of KITE and the long, winding journey it took. I’ll let Jane and Heidi take it from here…
Heidi: My mother and I have written about 22 books together and every one has it’s own process. KITE FOR MOON began in a completely different way.
Jane: Initially, it was my picture book. A combination of remembering the moon walk (Heidi was only about 2 and a half at the time, which we watched on our very small TV) and the fact that all through my growing up, my father was a kite flier. In fact he was the International Kite Flying Champion and president of the of the International Kite Fliers Assn. My card said, “May design own costume.”
Both my agent and I liked the manuscript, and so she sent it off. It kept getting rejected.
Heidi: Eventually, everyone gave up on that manuscript and it wound up collecting dust in a drawer. At some point, at least a couple years later (but, likely close to 5) I was asked to find it and send it on to an agent friend of ours who was looking for a project for one of his illustrators. But, before I sent it, I read it. It was not good. It was too sentimental and too long—too wordy, wordy, wordy. I’m pretty bossy, so I told her. And asked if I could take a whack at it.
The bones were good. But, it promised an ending it didn’t deliver. It needed serious pruning and a ton of focus. So I did that.
And sent it back to JY. (Yes, that’s how Heidi refers to her mom.)
Jane: I saw immediately that while Heidi had seen this as an editing job, and while she kept a great deal of my prose, what she added made it her book as well. And I insisted that her name be on the manuscript as well. There was a bit more back-and-forthing till we were both satisfied. Then the book went out with both our names attached. And lo! Zonderkidz (an arm of Harper Collins) bought it. And they started looking for an artist.
Heidi: We were sitting at a conference listening to lectures when Matt Phelan got up to speak. His art was being shown and, there was a piece he had with kids in a classroom and my head exploded. THAT was our kid! I poked JY in the side (she didn’t appreciate that) and whispered “Kite! Kite!”
Once I explained what I meant, we both went to work on Zonderkidz to approach Matt to illustrate. He said yes. The only thing we changed after that was the last page originally said ‘listened’ and we changed it to “watched” based on Matt’s amazing last page. I don’t want to give anything away, but when I read the last 2 pages, I still get choked up.
Jane: We’ve read the book to a number of audiences so far, mostly adults, mostly writers, and when we get to the last two pages, everyone chokes up or gasps. I am not sure that was what we were going for. But my husband and I had given that same sort of gasp when Neil Armstrong walked down the ladder and stepped on the moon. I hope all our readers, young and old, feel the moment. Though this is not the story of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first on the moon, it is the story of something monumental about how one small child becomes an adult who does something truly out of this world.
I listened to Jane and Heidi read the book, and I gasped, too.
If you want to gasp at your own copy signed by this amazing mother-daughter duo, please leave a comment below.
A winner will be randomly selected in a couple of weeks!
Good luck!
by Nancy Viau
Hey there, readers of this wonderful blog!
Betcha can’t wait for hot, hot summer days, right? I know I’m looking forward to lots of sunshine and NO SNOW!
WAIT.
A.
MINUTE!
I canNOT say that because I am all about snow these days. The reason? In September, my fourth picture book makes its way into the world, and it’s called FIRST SNOW (Albert Whitman & Co.). So, put on your clunky boots and funky hats, think chilly thoughts … instead of OMG, it’s summer and it’s ridiculously hot, and please check out:
What does this cover reveal about the book? Simple. Snow. Is. Fun! If you’re an adult, do you remember the hours spent building igloos, having snowball fights, sledding, and that feeling of cozy warmth from a cup of hot chocolate? (Yeah, I know, dear grown-ups, you’ve gotta put aside the snow shoveling, buried cars, bad roads, etc. for a minute. I haven’t forgotten about you. When the book comes out, look at my funny dedication!)
As with my other picture books, this story is written in rhyme. Before I even thought about being a writer, I loved to read rhyming books. The words seemed to roll off my tongue, yet I never really understood why until I tried my hand at rhyme. It was much harder than I ever imagined! With rhyme, there is so much to consider—the rhyming words, internal rhyme, meter, length of phrases, length of stanzas, vocabulary, and more. Still, I love it. I love that every single word counts. It often takes me weeks to find that perfect word—the one that fits for all the right reasons. When that happens, it’s magical, trust me. If you write in rhyme, you know exactly what I’m talking about!
As far as finding a topic for a rhyming picture book, nature has always been my inspiration. I enjoy every season and the weather that comes with each one—warm, breezy, rainy, super-hot and humid, or freezing cold. While some may grumble, growl, and complain about a pending snowstorm, I’m a little kid again. There is something about the crunch of snow under my feet; its clean smell; that blanket of white; the cheery voices of children playing; and at night, the quiet peacefulness it brings.
Puffy jackets. Scarves in place.
Extra mittens, just in case.
In FIRST SNOW, you’ll see the kids scramble to see those first snowflakes, then head outside for adventure. Illustrator Talitha Shipman has done an amazing job of showing how beautiful snow is. (It’s not easy to paint white snow on white paper, right?) The colors she has chosen are varied and bright, and the expressions on the kids’ faces are priceless. Seeing how an illustrator works with my words is one of my favorite things about writing picture books.
So, next winter when meteorologists predict a big winter storm, I hope you’ll curl up with a copy of FIRST SNOW and think back to a time when snow meant serious, crazy fun. Then bundle up and go out and play!
Nancy Viau is the author of five picture books: PRUETT AND SOO (Two Lions, TBA), FIRST SNOW (Albert Whitman), CITY STREET BEAT (Albert Whitman), LOOK WHAT I CAN DO! (Abrams Books), and STORM SONG (Two Lions). She also writes middle grade and has several published with more forthcoming. Look for her latest, BEAUTY AND BERNICE, at the end of August! During the summer Nancy works as a librarian assistant at a public library and is the first to check out the travel books, searching for adventures out-of-state and out of the country. It’s in nature where she finds inspiration and whether it’s navigating mountain trails or riding her bike, she’s always writing stories in her head. Visit her at NancyViau.com.
Nancy is giving away a signed copy of FIRST SNOW in September. Comment now to be entered into the random drawing. A winner will be selected…on the first day of summer…? (Oh, the irony.)
Good luck!
Cat got your tongue? I hope not! It’s time to stick out your tongue and celebrate all things tongue with a TERRIFIC TONGUES book giveaway, and a trip off the tongue thanks to Tara for helping feature it here!
Tongues rule!! So does Jia Liu’s fun and vibrant art!
How cool are tongues? Take this quiz and find out!
Whose tongue is like a washcloth?
A) Giraffe
B) Okapi
C) Tiger
If you had a tongue like a whip, you might be a …..
A) Snake
B) Dog
C) Anteater
Your tongue cleans your eyes like a windshield wiper. Who are you?
A) A gecko
B) A snail
C) A sea turtle
Answer in the comments and you’ll be eligible to win a copy of the book (for US residents only—sorry!).
To check your answers, read TERRIFIC TONGUES!
Thanks again, Tara & hearty thanks to publisher Boyds Mills Press for generously donating copies!
by Cate Berry
Bedtime. There’s a word. If you’re like me, at the end of the day, you’re spent. I’ll admit, some nights, if I could “do bedtime” via the latest app I’d gladly press my thumbprint into a device. A quick video would help the kids settle down right? Netflix, PBS, Youtube…
But I write books for children.
D’oh!
There’s a special time at the end of the day when grown-ups and kids come together. After the dog-and-pony-show—the getting into pajamas, the getting teeth brushed, the endless hijinks—that’s when we finally connect.
Research shows that reading bedtime books has a palpable effect on early literacy. Magic happens when a child sits on a grown-up’s lap at the end of the day listening to a story, watching the text interact with the pictures on the page. Comparing and contrasting the drawn page with the pictures in their minds helps a child develop critical thinking. And the literacy “residue” from reading aloud helps kids develop a broader vocabulary at an earlier age. As the Times article states, “… every parent who has read a bedtime story knows, this is all happening in the context of face-time, of skin-to-skin contact, of the hard-to-quantify but essential mix of security and comfort and ritual.”
Learning benefits aside, I also believe it’s good for people to laugh with each other. Sharing a giggle can heal the day’s bumps and bruises. My characters, Penguin and Tiny Shrimp, want to share their laughs and smiles. Ultimately, they care about spreading joy and fun—together.
Teamwork.
That’s what this book is about. My two characters work together—the buddy system!—against a common goal of falling asleep. [Don’t tell them, but much yawning will ensue, almost guaranteed.]
Does bedtime make you wiggly? Grab a buddy—a lovey, a sibling, a book! I was paired with a great “buddy” for the making of this book, illustrator Charles Santoso.
My favorite kind of picture book feels like a duet between the author and the illustrator. On one page the text might drive the story, followed by a wordless spread with just illustrations. It’s give and take. Maybe a graceful dance is a better way to put it.
Charles understood Penguin and Tiny Shrimp so authentically. In our interview for Cynsations he described to me how he listens to an author’s characters, letting them guide his illustrations, which is probably why he’s so versatile. At the same time, his signature warmth and emotion are always threaded throughout his work.
So, books. But there is one video I think you should watch: the one for PENGUIN AND TINY SHRIMP DON’T DO BEDTIME! (Spoiler: look out for Charles’ stealth characters!)
And, watch it with a buddy.
BIG thanks Tara for hosting me today on her wonderful blog!
Up with books, down with bedtime!
Cate Berry is the author of PENGUIN AND TINY SHRIMP DON’T DO BEDTIME! (May 8th, Balzer & Bray/Harper Collins). It was pinned a Junior Library Guild selection and Publisher’s Weekly called it, “A buoyantly subversive antibedtime book. (Picture book. 3-7).” She has forthcoming publications TBA and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cate is a faculty member with the Writing Barn in Texas and an active member in the SCBWI and Writers’ League of Texas. She also speaks at schools, libraries and conferences year round on such topics as “Gender Stereotyping and Poetic Devices” and “From Stand Up to Sit Down: Funneling Surprise and Stand-Up Comedy into Humorous Picture Books.” Visit her at cateberry.com to learn more.
Cate is giving away a copy of PENGUIN AND TINY SHRIMP DON’T DO BEDTIME! upon publication in a few weeks.
Leave one comment below to enter.
A random winner will be selected soon.
Good luck!
by I’ve worn a number of hats in my career—and for the most part I have always had at least two hats on at once.
Now, I’m a children’s author who is celebrating her picture book debut, CHICKEN WANTS NAP, and a Literary Agent at BookEnds Literary representing fiction, non-fiction and illustration for children and teens.
But I’ve also been a newspaper correspondent, a children’s book reviewer, a freelance copywriter, a literary agents assistant, a freelance editor and a communications manager. (Well, and a pharmacy tech—which has nothing to do with this post—and very, very briefly an assistant at a wedding dress preservationist’s—which is the only job I’ve ever been let go from. I was relieved.)
Anyway, so many of these hats forced me to learn to write in a different way. Feature pieces vs. event wrap ups, editorial letters vs. pitch letters, book reviews vs. press releases—everything had a different format or tone, but there was also a lot of overlap. Ultimately, I think all of the above experience helped me with my writing and agenting career, and I hope that some of the below helps you too!
Character
I would get my newspaper assignments on Friday, do interviews and write the story over the weekend, and submit on Sunday so it’d be in my editor’s inbox by the Monday deadline. (Monday I’d be commuting to work as a literary assistant.)
My favorite pieces to write were feature pieces that honored another person’s life. People were generally so happy to talk about this person that they loved or admired, even though we’re all flawed, and I usually left the interviews feeling pretty inspired. I also felt like there was a little more room for creativity in a feature piece. A good features makes the reader feel like they’ve met the person, too.
Looking back on feature writing makes me think about a character exercise that I was once assigned in undergrad. The exercise says to pick a person you know and write about them as they would write about themselves. Then write about them through the eyes of someone that hated them. Then again through the eyes of someone that loved them. You have three different people on the page—or four, right? Because the primary subject is actually probably closer to a culmination of those three pieces than any one particular view—and I think that’s why the exercise can be so helpful when you’re struggling with rounding out your characters. Remember, even antagonists think they’re the hero of the story.
Hook
Book reviews, newspaper pieces, pitch letters, press releases, copywriting—all of it relied on being able to find a hook that was going to grab a reader and make them want to read more, attend the event, buy the book, click a link, etc.
As an author, particularly as a picture book author, you have to be thinking about what is going to make your story stand out on the shelves or in the submissions pile.
That said, your hook is not the plot summary. For example, I’ve pitched CHICKEN WANTS A NAP as “Remy Charlip’s Fortunately set in the barnyard,” but that’s not the summary.
One exercise I’ve done with friends when they’re having trouble with finding a strong concept for their own WIPs is to go through the bookstore or their own shelves, pull out and read a picture book, then find a hook. For example, DUCKS’S VACATION is THERE’S A MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK set on the beach. NUT JOB is “Ocean’s 11” with squirrels. Or, if I were to pitch a book without a comparison, I might say something like HOORAY FOR FISH is a fun and heartwarming celebration of a fish’s love for their mom.
Once you’ve had practice with some books on the shelves, tell your friend the hook for your WIP. If it’s a plot summary, your friend should make you try again. And if you can’t find the hook for your WIP—that thing that’s going to make it stand out from all the other queries/manuscripts in an agent or editor’s inbox—then perhaps it’s time to take another look at your WIP’s concept.
In truth, you might not use this hook in your query letter at all, but if you find that a common theme in your rejection letters is “not sure it can compete in the marketplace,” this is an excellent exercise to help punch up your concept!
Word Choice
Almost everything I wrote had a standard structure and/or expected word count, be it a press release, feature story, book review, pitch letter or pieces for a social media campaign. Just like in a picture book text, EVERY WORD COUNTED. I had to be concise—looking for that one perfect word instead of two to four less precise words.
So take out your picture book WIP. Are you in the sweet spot (300 – 500 words for fiction*)? Does every word convey the exact meaning you intend? If you’re using repetition, is it done in a way that builds tension, humor or otherwise adds to the story? If you’re not sure about a word or line, delete it and then read the story aloud (or bring it to somebody else). Does the story lose anything? If not, then permanently delete that line, phrase or word.
*CHICKEN WANTS A NAP is 165 words, and my current WIP is 600. CHICKEN is a read-aloud for younger picture book readers and the story just did not need another 140 words. My WIP is for older picture book readers who are starting to read by themselves. So I guess I’m saying to use the words you need and not one word more!
Speaking of one word more, I had started a different draft of this post where I went through each job individually and it quickly became a novel. And as I’m hitting that point again, I think it’s best to close here. I hope that these tricks help you in your own writing, and if you have the time or opportunity to do some freelance writing in another format—I say, why not! You’ll exercise a different writing muscle, and I’ll bet it’ll improve your current children’s writing as well!
Tracy Marchini is a Literary Agent at BookEnds Literary, where she represents fiction, non-fiction and illustration for children and teens. She’s thrilled to represent a list of debut and award-winning authors and illustrators, and is currently open to submissions. To get a sense of what she’s looking for, you can follow her Twitter #MSWL, see her announced client books, and read her submission guidelines.
As an author, her debut picture book, CHICKEN WANTS A NAP, was called “A surprising gem” in a starred review from Kirkus. She’s been accepted for publication in Highlights Magazine and has won grants from the Highlights Foundation, the Puffin Foundation and La Muse Writer’s Retreat in Southern France. She holds an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and a B.A. in English, concentration in Rhetoric.
Tracey is giving away a signed copy of CHICKEN WANTS A NAP.
Leave one comment below to enter and a winner will be chosen next week.
Good luck!
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 