Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

For those of you who follow The Niblings over at either Facebook or Twitter, here’s a quick announcement about two new inclusions into our Niblings sphere:

To fill the much-needed YA slot, Mitali Perkins (pictured at the open of this post) joins us. A distinguished author, responsible for such books as Rickshaw Girl, Bamboo People, Secret Keeper, and this April’s Tiger Boy, Mitali has maintained her blog, Mitali’s Fire Escape, since 2005, where she discusses books between cultures. You may also find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Minh Lê also joins us. We’ve been impressed by and big fans of his work for years now. Not only has he been blogging for Book Riot, the Huffington Post, and Bottom Shelf Books, but he recently sold his debut picture book, Let Me Finish!, to Disney-Hyperion. You can also find him on Twitter.

For those of you not familiar with The Niblings: We are a blog consortium, created almost two years ago this month, over at Facbeook and Twitter. It represents Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Yours Truly), A Fuse #8 Production (Betsy Bird), Nine Kinds of Pie (Philip Nel), and 100 Scope Notes (Travis Jonker). Our Facebook page and Twitter presence are our spaces for sharing in one spot links from our blogs and other writings, as well as for sharing other interesting links/news related to the field of children’s literature. We hope that it’s a sort of one-stop resource center for information on children’s literature. (Here’s more information.)

Photo of Mitali Perkins taken by Thomas Vo and used by her permission.

The Niblings art was created by Megan Montague Cash and is © 2013 Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson, Travis Jonker, and Philip Nel.

Here’s a quick note to share this upcoming event from Parnassus Books. Author Sharon Draper will be in town to engage in this panel discussion, sponsored by Parnassus but taking place at the Nashville Public Library, about diversity in children’s literature. I’ll be participating in the discussion, and there’s more information here at Parnassus’ site, including details about my fellow panelists, Kristin Bernet and Dean Schneider.

For those in and near middle Tennessee, I hope you can make it!

This morning at 7-Imp, I’m doing something a little bit different. Matthew Winner, who founded and runs the Let’s Get Busy podcast, is celebrating his 100th episode. He’s been visiting a few blogs to talk about his work, and today he has a cup of cyber-coffee with me to answer some questions about the wonderful resource that his podcast has become.

Matthew is an elementary school librarian and also runs a blog called The Busy Librarian. Today we’re going to focus, though, on his informative podcast. (Lucky me, I even got to visit in August.) Those of you who read my May interview this year with author-illustrator Dan Santat may remember this moment:

I’ve recently become addicted to Matthew Winner’s Let’s Get Busy podcast, where he interviews authors and illustrators in children’s publishing. Everyone should check that podcast out. … I think in about a year, when everyone catches on, it will be one of the most important media sites in the children’s publishing field.

So, here’s Matthew. I thank him for visiting today and congratulate him on 100 episodes! Read the rest of this entry �

Ever heard of the Coretta Scott King Awards Book Fair? I hadn’t either till I took my children to one of these fairs in Nashville a few months back.

Today at Kirkus, I talk to the Fair’s organizer, Collette Hopkins. She’s pictured above (second from the left) at this year’s Fair with Angelica Washington, author Sharon Draper, storyteller Mama Koku, and illustrator R. Gregory Christie. Collette talks about what the Fair is and how interested teachers and librarians can bring it to their city.

That link is here.

Image used with permission of Collette Hopkins.

Hi, dear kickers. The illustrations I had planned to share today aren’t up, because I had some issues with the image files. Well, most of the images are fine, but two of them are not, so I’ll just wait. I’ll get that fixed soon (I hope) and post about the book another day.

But since posting without images is just not something I can tolerate here at 7-Imp, I’m sharing a piece of art my 10-year-old made. She and her sister are all the time drawing ninja cats, and this particular image cracks me up. It’s the age-old narrative of good vs. evil. This time it’s Ninja Cat vs. Angel Cat. Who will win?

Read the rest of this entry �

P.S. This includes next Sunday! I’ll be back after that, so as for you kickers, I’ll see you in two weeks.

 

I don’t have art for you all today, but I will later this week.

This is just a quick post to, once again, point you all to the Wild Things! site. My co-author and I are still sharing stories over there, ones cut from the original manuscript of our book, and we will have a story-a-day until publication on August 5th. (We’re even going to have some fun with author videos after that.)

Yesterday, we had a short post about the precocious ones of children’s lit. (Can you guess what Maurice Sendak’s first illustrated title was? It may not be what you think.) That link is here.

Today, we have a short post on celebrity children’s books (which gets an entire chapter in our book). We have the nice folks at the Horn Book to thank for re-posting a piece Peter once wrote about the celebrity book trend. (And when I read the Twitter response mentioned in this post, I laughed so hard, my husband came in the room to ask me if I was okay.)

Later this week, we’ll look at some feuds, some early exits of children’s lit, a funky Buddha party, films and children’s books, and more. It’s all here.

Until Thursday …

Just a quick note to say that this Thursday I’ll speak in Huntsville, Alabama, at the 2014 Annual Convention of the Alabama Library Association.

The following week, I’ll also speak at the Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference 2014, but I won’t have to travel far for that one. It’ll be in my own back yard, so to speak (Murfreesboro, Tennessee).

If any of my blog readers will be at either conference, by chance, please come say hi!

Until Thursday …

I don’t often do this (it pains me to have a 7-Imp post with no art), but I have a few, quick newsy-type notes. I’ll use my rock-and-roll hands, like I did in the most recent This, This, and the Other post back in November, just to keep things interesting:

Today, I’m over at the blog of author-illustrator Brian Lies. It’s not often that I’m the interviewee, but he asked if I wanted to participate in a blog series about favorite characters in children’s lit, and I was totally game.

That link is here.

p.s. We will not discuss the fact that Brian recently visited a library in the county I live in, and I managed to miss it altogether. Not I-knew-about-it-but-couldn’t-go, but I-managed-to-miss-the-announcement-that-he’d-even-be-here. Still kicking myself over that.

I’m happy to have contributed to the Horn Book’s upcoming issue (March/April) all about illustration. Needless to say, I’m eager to read the issue cover-to-cover.

The piece about illustration that I wrote for them is also online now at their site.

Finally, a note for local friends: I’ll be doing story time this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville. We’ll be celebrating Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss stories. I hear there will be cupcakes, and what a wonder are cupcakes.

Until tomorrow (when I will have art!) …

Today at 7-Imp, I’ve got some spreads (sans text) from Kadir Nelson’s Baby Bear, which I wrote about last week.

Some of the colors in these spreads are a bit off, at least according to my computer, which bums me out. I wish I could ensure accurate color reproduction on everyone’s computers, but this is the best I can do.

Enjoy the art! Read the rest of this entry �