A very geektastic BEA

I'm just back from Boston for Grace's very successful book launch for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon--there were over 100 people there! One family drove all the way from NY to be there. So fun. But I assume Grace will be telling more about this on Wednesday, so for my post today, I'm going back to my very busy weekend prior, of BEA.

I don't usually go to BEA--I don't think it's a secret that the books I edit are generally more directed towards the school and library market--ALA, IRA, NCTE, those are my conferences!

But if BEA is in NY, I'll usually stop by for an afternoon and walk the floors. This year, I also had three meetings with various foreign publishers who were in town.

BEA on Friday is kind of a nightmare--the floor is so crowded it's hard to navigate. And I have to say, I noticed that giveaways seemed more limited than usual--I saw very few piles of ARCs up for grabs.

This year, we hosted (among others) Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci, editors of a short story collection I also edited, Geektastic. They had been invited to participate in the speed dating session, and we decided to throw a geeky party in their and the book's honor. Unfortunately, Cecil was not able to attend at the last minute (she was missed!), but I enjoyed hanging out with Holly and and her husband Theo. We took a ride on the fabulous double-decker Mysterious Benedict Society tour bus:

that took us and many other Little, Brown authors, colleagues, and bookseller guests to the ABC Not-a-Dinner and (Mostly) Silent Auction at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriot. It was quite a windy (but fun) ride! Can you spot bookseller Alison Morris, and authors Trent Lee Stewart and Patrick McDonnell in this video?



The event was fun--Shannon Hale emceed, and I was shocked and delighted to discover that she's basically a stand up comedienne--so funny and endearing. Katherine Paterson (amazing) and Mike Lupica were the keynote speakers, and the E.B. White Award winners were announced: A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton won for picture book, and Masterpiece by Elise Broach (yay!) for Older Readers.

And then was the fun mingling, eating, drinking, and merrymaking, and silent auction. I bid on a Rosemary Wells piece but was quickly outbid. Last I saw, Mo Willems had the winning bid on Edel Rodriguez's donated piece from Sergio Makes a Splash, which was fun to see. I think Peter Brown's piece for The Curious Garden went for over $400. It was a good night.

I had planned to head out to the Kidlit Drinks Night afterwards, but got sucked into staying in Brooklyn with some of the Abrams crew and some other authors and illustrators, including Lisa Greenwald, Jenny Han, and Peter Brown.


The next day, I was off-duty from BEA, as I had a wedding shower and baby shower to attend that day, but Connie filled in for me and sat with Holly during the speed dating, which I heard was quite successful, as was the book signing, with surprise guests Kelly Link and Cassandra Clare, both contributors to the collection, who signed alongside Holly.

That night, we hosted the aforementioned geeky party for Geektastic--and what could be more geeky than a bowling party? The location was anything but geeky, though--it was in a private room at the new Lucky Strikes. Very snazzy, indeed. And yes, much bowling was had. There was a great turnout, including many of the authors who contributed to the collection.

contributor Sara Zarr with our Deputy Publisher, Andrew Smith

me and contributor Wendy Mass

contributor Scott Westerfeld bowling

contributors Kelly Link and Libba Bray

contributor Barry Lyga and editor/contributor Holly Black

Sara Zarr sitting with blogger guests who Twittered (tweeted?) and blogged throughout the night.

contributors Cassandra Clare, Holly, and Tracy Lynn

It wasn't just bowling! Booksellers Melissa Manlove and Summer Laurie enjoyed the pool table as well.

Jack Martin of NYPL celebrates a spare (or strike...or something) Contributors David Levithan and Sara Zarr with our Deputy Publisher, Andrew Smith

And finally, please enjoy a video of Laura Lutz, the most glamorous bowler ever. What fabulous form!

Geektastic is out this August. It's just as much fun as the party was.

POETRY FRIDAY: The Hand by Mary Ruefle

June is one month that brings to mind the many years that I spent teaching. I still remember all those last days of school when I had to say goodbye to groups of children that become like a part of my family. My students and I had had bonded over the course of ten months together. Those days were bittersweet times for me.

Here is a poem by Mary Ruefle for the teachers who devote their lives to educating our children as the school year comes to a close.

The Hand

by Mary Ruefle

The teacher asks a question.
You know the answer, you suspect
you are the only one in the classroom
who knows the answer, because the person
in question is yourself, and on that
you are the greatest living authority,
but you don’t raise your hand.
You raise the top of your desk
and take out an apple.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

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

At Wild Rose Reader, I have a review of The Frogs and Toads All Sang, a book of poems written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel (with color by Adrianne Lobel). Lobel handmade the book as a gift for friends many years ago. Lobel’s daughter found out about the book’s existence last September when she was contacted by the person who bought it in an estate auction.

Sara Lewis Holmes has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Read Write Believe.

party preparations

You know when a girl buys her baking cups in bulk that there is some serious cupcake baking in the works. And I mean serious! It's almost time for my book launch and these cupcakes are my most promising bait to lure you to come. Remember if you get the cupcake with the coin, you'll win your name or likeness in my upcoming book!

So, I have been prepping and prepping. The bookstore asked that I keep refreshments to a minimum and not messy (which is why the cupcakes will be boxed in the goodie bags), so it took me a while to figure out to have as small treats to modestly serve. I felt like I had to offer SOMETHING (do you think that is an Asian thing or just because I have the worst sweet tooth in the world?); so I got a recipe for Sugee cookies from one my favorite blogs (though I always feel like I've gained a pound every time I click on it). They seemed perfect: Asian-esque, small, unfrosted...but surprisingly tricky. This is what her cookies look like:

It took a couple of batches before mine looked like:

Not as pretty, but still pretty yummy! If you come this Sat. you can try them yourself!

Moving moving moving

Forgive my lack of a creative post this week, I am in the middle of moving and my office looks something like this:



Stay tuned for pics of the new place!

Tired (and Sergio Saves the Game video)

I'm still recovering from a crazy busy Friday and Saturday (BEA stuff Friday, and then on Saturday I had a wedding shower, baby shower, GEEKTASTIC party, and bachelorette party...is it any wonder that I didn't get out of my pajamas until after 6 pm yesterday?). Anyway, I don't have too much brain power to post today. But I have a bunch of Beyond the Book posts to write, so look out for posts on Sergio Saves the Game by Edel Rodriguez, Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez, and more in the future. For now, I'll direct you to Edel's great post about his new Sergio book, as well as this wonderful video interview:




And hello to all the blog readers I met/saw over the course of the weekend!

Influenced

Sonia Sotamayor decided to become a lawyer after reading Nancy Drew -- books written, if any ever were, to entertain (and make money for the publisher). The author got paid a modest flat rate and never minded: she was quite content, going to her job as a reporter until she died at some amazing age -- in her nineties, I think. She wrote her column as usual, went home, and died in her sleep.

But that's another story. Sonia and Nancy Drew made me think about how children are influenced by what they read. A physicist I know decided to become a scientist after reading a biography of Madam Curie; someone at NASA chose astronomy when he got THE GIANT GOLDEN BOOK OF ASTRONOMY and went out to look at the stars with his father. He posted about that, which is how I know about it -- I remember it because I love, love, loved this book when I was around seven and had always felt faintly embarrassed by that. It's not exactly well-written and the illustrations are awful: MEN go to the moon, women are pictured only as scantily clad cavewomen worshipping it or conservatively dressed mothers.

Sometimes the influence is instant: the other day I was babysitting and, as usual, had some books with me -- YEAR OF THE DOG was one. The eight-year old instantly grabbed YOTD and started reading it, guffawing often. I was cooking dinner, and wanted him to tell me what was making him laugh so I could tell Grace....and then he got very excited when eating dumplings (which symbolized gold coins) made people rich.
"Can you put one in the pasta? And whoever gets it will get an extra privilege?"
Of course, I said yes -- with the caveat that the privilege had to be something allowed by their mother, and that I boil the coin to sterilize it first. He then ran upstairs to get a gold coin, with the caveat that whoever found it would have to give the coin back to him.

I was amazed at how into this idea both brothers were all through dinner, excitedly wondering who had the coin and trying to make me tell (I knew -- I had actually gasped as I saw it go onto the younger one's plate - but then I covered up this lapse by saying that that might have just been a trick on my part). Anyway it was a very jolly dinner: The privilege the finder chose was to "watch a movie with Libby -- not on a school night." Thank you Grace!

The ways books influenced me as a child were as different and unpredictable as the few examples here. What they have in common is that they enlarged my sense of possibilities, in big and little ways -- and often ways that neither the author or publisher could have foreseen. Ironically, the preachy books -- the ones adults probably thought were teaching valuable life lessons -- had by far the least influence!

In my own writing, I don't set out to influence anyone; but I appreciate being told if I have, in big and little ways. One girl recently wrote to me saying I probably didn't remember, but she'd written to me years ago about BLOW OUT THE MOON and how much she liked it (I did remember her). In this email, she said she just wanted to tell me she had re-read it often since then and it had really helped her get used to her English school and she wanted to thank me. At a school visit, a boy told me, with great earnestness, that he always put his knife and fork together at the end of a meal the way I did:
"And I always think of you when I do it." It's kind of fun (and also a little intimidating?) to think that we as authors are in other people's minds as much as that.

POETRY FRIDAY: Hurry by Marie Howe

I was looking for a poem to post for Poetry Friday. I found Hurry, my selection for today, at my first stop—American Life in Poetry, Column 218. Ted Kooser writes in his introduction that Hurry is one of his favorite mother-daughter poems. It’s now one of mine.

Hurry
by Marie Howe

We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store

and the gas station and the green market and

Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,

as she runs along two or three steps behind me

her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.

Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?

To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?

You can read the rest of the poem here.

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

At Wild Rose Reader, I have Poems in Limbo—or unpolished poems for which I may never write a final draft.

Irene Latham has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Live. Love. Explore!

criticism, fame, a 4 year old, and me

Put 20 toddlers in a room, give them giant canvases and lots of tubes of paint and instruct them to cover the whole surface. I wonder how many of them would make something like that of Marla Olmstead (I finally got netflix and watched My Kid Could Paint That – it’s a documentary about a 4 year old who was deemed a genius, a fake, and then back again).

(Marla - she's cute, that's for sure!)

The problem with kids’ drawings is that often not the right equipment is supplied. Crayons, for example, will make a picture look like crap no matter how talented the artist using them. That’s why you won’t see any books touting on the title page “done in crayon on paper.” The same goes for markers. They usually dry out and don’t cover the surface evenly.

Anyhow, it amazes me (no, not really) that no one wanted 4-year-old Marla’s paintings when they were deemed a hoax by 60 minutes (they indicated that perhaps the father was giving a helping hand). My brain thought, “Wait a minute, SOMEONE did them! You just said a minute ago that the paintings should be in the Moma!” Well, apparently only if they were proven to be done by the 4 year old. If her father gave her some instruction then all bets are off. Wouldn’t the father rather have been the famous one? I think so.

Anyway, someone at my last talk (girl scouts) asked when my parents first detected talent. I said 4 or 5. My mom said there was a definite difference between what I was doing and what my sisters were doing at the same age.


(Mickey - age 5)

However, my goal was to make my drawings look like something. I think that’s what most kids’ goals are. Not many of them are trying to make beautiful abstract paintings—after all, many adults don’t understand them! In my own personal opinion, to become a great abstract painter I think he or she needs to do the training (pay his or her dues) first. Do the realism. To understand that is to then understand the abstract, because after all, a great abstract painting has to have 1) color 2) design – move your eye around the page 3) create an emotion. It’s for this reason that I wonder if that then 4-year-old girl – now 8 – will crash and burn. If she doesn’t practice drawing a car and making it look like a car then I can only say that her “genius” is a fluke. I don’t care whether she got coaching or not. Who cares about that? Don’t all artists need feedback and some coaching? I’ll always say “Hey, what do you think of this red? Or should it be blue?”

A lot of times I feel like my artistic talent has boxed me into a life of living in the middle - or right now lower - middle class (sometimes poor?) If I went for the big bang like Marla I could be making millions. But it’s such a crapshoot and that’s frustrating. On top of this, I have to read comments about my children’s book art that I think are often off them mark. Lots of reviewers comment on my “brushstrokes.” Um… there are none! I blend everything with my finger. If you see brushstrokes in the artwork from one of my books then what you are really seeing is the gesso showing through thanks to the less than stellar print-job. I use a big house painting brush to prime my paper for painting. The big brush leaves big brush strokes. My fine paintbrushes and smooth fingers do not. That is just one obvious thing I can comment on. Other things that irk me are more a matter of opinion. And this again brings me back to Marla. I wonder what would have happened if my parents gave me globs of paint and some giant canvas when I was 4 and asked me to go to town in an abstract sort of way. Would I have ended up on 60 minutes? I guess I’m glad that my parents sheltered me from the criticism until I was an adult and old enough to seek it out myself, despite the dough I’d have in the bank account instead of the pile of unpaid bills.

meghan

the Enchanted Inkpot

My new book WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON is a young MG fantasy (really a folktale/fairytale/fantasy, but I'm quibbling) and the first of that particular genre that I have ever written. That, however, did not dissuade the lovely and oh-so-talented folks at the Enchanted Inkpot to invite into their fray.

So, I've joined up, though I admit I am a bit of a wallflower as I've realized I am still rather a newbie when it comes to fantasy. But visit The Enchanted Inkpot blog for the others, it's a community for writers and readers of middle-grade and young adult fantasy. There you have the talented Cindy Pon, Jenny Moss, Ellen Oh, Marissa Doyle, RL LaFevers and more. Including Malinda Lo, whose book ASH had a display with WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON at the Bologna BookFair:


Nice company, I keep, huh?

Happy Spelling Week and a blog tour!

This week 293 spellers will go to the Scripps National Bee in Washington D.C.! If you've seen the movies Spellbound or Akeelah and the Bee, you know how fascinating a real live spelling bee is. Some of you might remember my post about the one I went to in Brookline when I was researching Abigail Spells!

To celebrate all the goodness that is a spelling bee and the book I wrote about a dedicated speller, I will be blog touring all week in the kidlitosphere. Visit me at the below blogs to learn more about the book and I how I made it. Some will feature reviews, some interviews, and all will have book giveaways. Comment on their posts and you can win a free copy of Abigail Spells!

Monday the 25th: MotherReader
Tuesday the 26th: A Patchwork of Books
Wednesday the 27th: Katie's Literature Lounge
Thursday the 28th: Brimful Curiosities
Friday the 28th: Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup

MotherReader's post yesterday asked what word gives you the most spelling grief. I have many, but the ones that probably trip me up the most are isn't, weird, and coalesce... all those i's and e's and s's! What are yours?

SCBWI tribute

Hi all,

I'm off for Memorial Day, but wanted to share this video. Peter Brown plays a role, as does my assistant Connie Hsu. And can you spot a hilarious cameo by Grace Lin? So fun!

SCBWI Tribute from Kimberly C. Baker on Vimeo.

Thank you to Lin Oliver and Stephen Mooser for creating the wonderful SCBWI.

And thank you also to all the men and women who serve our country in the military.

read all of: steal back the mona lisa!

I've been meaning to make a page for STEAL BACK THE MONA LISA! for ever. I never found the time. I've forced myself to do it now. Sadly, it's way too late for promotion. The book is almost OP. Anyway, go to the page and scroll to the bottom and you can read the book in its entirety. Why not let the world read it for free? Go here to check it out!

meghan

Politics by William Butler Yeats

In honor of Memorial Day I have a Favorite Poem Project video of Stephen Conteaguero talking about his life and reciting the poem Politics by William Butler Yeats.

Politics by William Butler Yeats

You can read the poem here.

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

At Wild Rose Reader, I have a link to a post at Mama Without Borders about a woman making and using a “poetry suitcase” to get her young daughter and son excited about poetry. I also have recommendations for poetry collections and anthologies that are excellent for sharing with preschoolers, kindergartners, and children in the early elementary grades.

Susan Taylor Brown has the Poetry Friday Roundup today.

lots of stuff

So... I spent at least 5 hours in traffic today in the hot sun. It was agonizing. I was doing a talk to a NJ girlscouts troop. It's funny (or not really) how I spent way more time in the car than I did at the actual talk. Anyway, I'm totally broke so thank goodness I got paid today! Now I have half of the rent.

On another topic, I may have mentioned finding an abandoned apartment in Brooklyn. You can see the whole photo series here.












Below are some objects I absconded with. These are perfect for my books! The right time period, great inspiration and so on.







Lastly, I'm almost done with the bubble gum book. Almost, but yet I have a feeling I'm going to be at it for a while longer.

mom's first signing

My mother recently attended the North American Taiwanese Women's Association conference in Atlanta, Georgia. At the conference, she saw that The Ugly Vegetables was for sale.

"That's my daughter's book," she said, nudging her companion.
"That's HER DAUGHTER'S BOOK!!" her companion said to the seller.
"You're the mother?" the seller said.
"Yes," my mom said and opened the book to the back flap, where there is a photo of the two of us, "See?"
"You ARE the mother!" the bookseller said, "You have to sign the book!"

Soon everyone was clamoring for a signature and, just like that, my mom had an impromptu book signing. She said it was very exciting.

I wonder if I could get her to do my school visits, too?

Packing and drawing, packing and drawing

This spring has been the busiest I've had in a very long time; two books came out within a month of eachother, I'm planning my wedding in July, and moving from Boston to Northampton (children's book author Mecca) in a few short weeks- eek! Right now I am going back and forth between sketching for my new project Disappearing Desmond and packing all our belongings for the trip West. I am excited for all the change but also sad about leaving Boston, where I've made my home for the past 12 years. Boston has been good to me, sigh.

Anyhow, not much time for posting today, but I would like to invite everyone out to The Andover Bookstore on Saturday, where I will be reading, presenting about, and signing Abigail Spells. There will be fun activities for kids (a spelling scavenger hunt is in the works), snacks, and all sorts of great spelling fun. Come join me!

The Andover Bookstore
Saturday May 23rd at 11:00 am

Bad Reviews

I just became acquainted with this blog via Lisa Yee and Facebook:

The Worst Review Ever

What a great idea! As my fellow Blue Rose Girls all know, bad reviews hurt. You know they shouldn't, that it's just one person's opinion, but whether it's an Amazon review or one in a review journal or magazine, it's hard not to take them personally and get upset. And it's nice to know that you're not alone in feeling that way.

Editorial Anonymous said in a recent post about bad reviews: "your editor sees a bad review and shrugs." I'll have to respectfully disagree. This editor for one takes bad reviews of the books she edits quite personally, although of course perhaps not to the same extent as the author would. Oh sure, I know the bad review isn't going to hurt the sales of the book--although it might if every single review is negative. But I certainly don't just shrug it off that easily. I get sad, and I get ANGRY. Because obviously the reviewer just didn't *get* the book. In fact, there are three reviews from a certain journal that I still seethe about when I think about them now, years later. I won't name names, though *cough-rhymes-with-circus-cough.*

Some of you might remember this post back in 2006, when Chowder by Peter Brown got a negative review from Kirkus the same week it received a starred review from Booklist. It helped to have the good and the bad together, rather than just a bad review and nothing to counter it. It's made it easier to remember that it's subjective and that not everyone can or will like your book.

I don't envy a reviewer's job, and I do appreciate the care with which most of them read and review books. The little plea I'll make is if you're writing a critical review, whether it be on your blog or for a publication, please don't be too personal, and please don't be cruel. For example, don't review a book like Tai reviewed Cher in Clueless:

Tai: Why should I listen to you, anyway? You're a virgin who can't drive.
Cher: That was way harsh, Tai.

Don't be way harsh! Anyway, try not to sweat the bad reviews. And I'll try to follow my own advice in the future. But here's to nothing but starred reviews in our future!

Taking chances

This has nothing to do with chidren's books -- but it's fun to look at on a rainy Sunday. It's a page from one of my favorite Web sites, hel-looks -- the hel is for Helsinki. Each day on this site they post a photograph of a look they saw on the streets there, with a one-paragraph commentary from the wearer.

Occasionally,it's not one, but two girls (or boys) who dress alike -- not all the people they photograph are young (there are even some in their sixties, seventies, and eighties),

but I've never yet seen people out of their teens (or maybe early twenties) who enjoy dressing just like their best friend. In real life or on hel-looks.

I'm not sure why I like this site so much: because I'm half-Finnish and many of the people look enough like me to be my cousins, because the clothes are so different from anything I'd see here in CT, or just because I like the bright colors. When we have grey day after grey day as we have here lately, I really understand why all the furniture in Scandinavia used to be painted every bright color there is.....and why people there dress so colorfully.


And in case anyone is interested: the old lady is wearing clothes she made herself (she says pinafores make baking easier and more fun), the girl in the last picture second hand clothes and the traditional Finnish folk dancing shoes she had as a kid. In some of the pictures people are wearing vintage Marimekko from their mothers' and grandmothers' closets -- if only MY mother had been into that!

I think one reason I like this site is that it shows that you don't have to be beautiful, or young, to look great. Maybe that's what it has to do with children's books. These people look great because they're not afraid to take chances and express who they are.