Rafael López : Guest Blogger on TeachingBooks.net

From TeachingBooks.net Guest Blogger: Rafael López describes his illustrative process, developing art for Monica Brown's Tito Puente Mambo King/ Tito Puente Rey del Mambo due from HarperCollins in 2013. I love the textures in Rafael's paintings and the abundance of rich color. There's magic there too. I like that his art is public -- he's done stamps, murals, posters, as well as books.

Happy Earth Day

Get Ready for El día de los niños/El día de los libros on April 30

Get Ready for El día de los niños/El día de los libros on April 30

April Bobbie’s Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

April Bobbie’s Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

Book Reviews

Here's a link to the book reviews I wrote for the March issue of Parent's Express. March's Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

         

World Read Aloud Day

Today is World Read Aloud Day, a grand idea. I don't do it often enough. I'll read some poems from Roots and Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family, edited by Liz Rosenburg. I'm re-reading all my picture books, now unpacked after 3 plus years in storage while we were travelling, and I'll choose a few of those to read aloud like Night Garden:Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet S. Wong and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. And I'm writing reviews today, so I'll read the text aloud (First Garden: the White House Garden and How It Grew & Planting the Wild Garden) to help me prepare.


What will you read aloud today?

Here, There, and Everywhere: The United States Board on Books for Young People cites 40 international books for its 2011 honor list

Here, There, and Everywhere: The United States Board on Books for Young People cites 40 international books for its 2011 honor list

I'm always interested in this list because I know I'll see titles that I've missed and want to read. This year I've seen/know about maybe half the titles. One of my favorite titles of last year is The 10 PM Question.

I couldn't help noticing that several titles are published by Groundwood. And that the majority of titles are from Canadian and British publishers. And there are few titles by the mega mainsteam publishers. If I had more time I'd look into this a bit more.

Bobbie's Books of the Month

Now that I've discovered how easy it is to share content on this blog, I'll start sharing the book reviews we do for Parents Express in Philadelphia. Bobbie began writing for PE over 20 years ago!

Bobbie's Books of the Month - Parents Express - Montgomery News

One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street

I just began reading an ARC for One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin. I like it. Has a bit of the feel of What Happened Fox Street, a 2010 favorite of mine, with younger characters. The story takes place in LA, but of course the title reminds me of Florida, where I had planned/hoped I would be during the month of February. Layers for at least another month.

One Day ...  pubs in April and maybe I'll review it then.

HarperCollins Signs Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis for 'Wildwood' Series

I like this news.
HarperCollins Signs Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis for 'Wildwood' Series

"The germ of this series goes back a long way," Meloy said. "For me, this is the culmination of a long-term collaboration with Carson, matching words and art. I grew up on a steady diet of Lloyd Alexander, Roald Dahl, and Tolkien; this is our humble paean to that grand tradition of epic adventure stories." Ellis commented, "Wildwood is a project very close to my heart - the collaboration that Colin and I have been dreaming about for years."

National Book Festival 2010

We had a great time at the National Book Festival this past Saturday. We were especially happy for the chance to see our client and friend Pat Mora in action -- she's an awesome speaker.

Pat Mora

 Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson

Anita Silvey

Jules Feiffer and Norton Juster



 Rebecca Stead with a young fan at the New York state exhibit in the Pavilion of States

Hunger, Satisfied

Is there ANYTHING more satisfying than finishing off a trilogy (or a duet, or a series) of books that you've been connected to over a period of time?

We were dying to read Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, the final book in the trilogy begun in The Hunger Games. Thanks to our friend Diana, we both devoured it over the past few days. It did NOT disappoint!!

Yesterday I was talking about the book to my friend Heather, from our fabulous client Children's Book World. I told her that luckily I was sick last Saturday and spent the whole morning in bed reading the book, and I commented to her, "Oh, I guess you can't do that much, with two kids."

She got a crafty look on her face and said "I call books like that the BAD MOMMY BOOKS because I put in the Thomas videos, sit them down and say "Mommy's going to read now!"

So there, all you literary anti-TV folks. There is a good side to kids watching TV, after all...

StarCrossed, by Elizabeth Bunce

Well, now that I've read it, I can kick myself for letting this galley languish in my reading pile for the last few months. All the signs were there - it's published by Arthur Levine Books, edited by Cheryl Klein and recommended by my fantasy Queen, Tamora Pierce (she says it's "Splendid...a smashing read!") Tamora's right - it IS smashing, and I couldn't stop reading it once I started.

Bunce's main character, Digger, would be right at home with all of the lovely girls-who-fight, girls-who-steal, and girls-who-have-magic that Tamora's introduced us to over the years. She's just a great gal: a sneaky, fearless, compassionate little thief who finds herself keeping company with a noble family...Digger has a lot of secrets, but so does everyone else, and I just couldn't wait to get to the end to find out what they all were.

And the ending was SO gratifying...and yet...now I have to wait for the sequel, Liar's Moon. Aarrggh!!

Princess as Peasant

Confession time: I kept avoiding this book because even though I love Lois Lowry, I just kept thinking "not ANOTHER book about a princess who trades places with a peasant..."

Surprise! I should have trusted my Lowry-instincts...it was fun, clever and completely original. When bored 16-year-old Princess Patricia Priscilla decides to trade clothes with her chambermaid and go to school, she has LOADS of fun and meets a handsome schoolmaster to boot. When she invites her new village friends to her big birthday ball, things at the castle get a lot more interesting.

This experience made me remember the advice I always hear when I attend a writer's conference: even if you have the exact same idea(s) that other writers do, NO ONE can write your story the way you can. And in fact, Lois Lowry herself told me that very thing once. She was visiting The Children's Book World in Haverford, PA (Lois loves that store and so do we!) I found myself alone in the back room with her for a minute, and panicked, blurting out that I was a big fan, also a writer, hoped that someday I could write like her - and then she gently said something about how of course I would write like ME, not like her.

Sigh. Plus, she was the first author I wrote a fan letter to, way back in 1984, telling her I worked in a kid's bookstore and loved her. She wrote back to say that she was a fan of bookstore managers! No wonder everyone loves her - she is SO gracious.

B I N G O

I'm supposed to write about ALA today but instead I signed up to play B I N G O over at From the Mixed-Up Files of Jennifer Bertman; a special brand of the game called Creative Spaces Book Cover BINGO. You can play too, it's not too late to join in.

I believe I have the lucky card because there are FOUR covers by Julie Paschkis and she's a real favorite of mine. We'll see.

Jennifer says this may be an annual event -- so cool! More fun than the regular game I think, and you only need to manage one card.