1 Month to Pub Day!

Almost here! 

As much as it is a tricky thing 

to have a book born in the middle of a pandemic 

when we are all stretched thin and gatherings and book conventions are off, 

it also feels very much that THE STARKEEPER is meant to be born in this dark time.

My wish for this book is that it will bring light and hope, 

and spark more of the same in the readers who meet it. 

June 9, friends! 

Also available for preorder at your local indie booksellers- 

or via Penguin Random House website, 

or at bookshop.org

Guess what we did to celebrate?

That's right. 

When your book birthday is a month away, 

it's a great time to paint some shoes

with stars!

Dear Author, Dear Year

It's a new year, windy and cold,
and here we are,
this complex, wonderful world of people.

My hope this year
is to keep searching for the glow in our daily dirt,
to coax out stories,
to make art that spreads welcoming arms across divides,
and to find ways to bloom courage and compassion into this world.


Tomorrow, our kids' Caldecott club meets.
We've nearly finished evaluating books,
and this week we get to write letters to authors and illustrators.
Several years ago, the wildebeests and I began a snail mail letter project,
attempting to write to as many children's book illustrators and authors possible.

I think we were aiming to write 100 letters.
Haven't quite gotten to one hundred letters.
Maybe thirty.
But I like to dream big. 
And regardless, we've received delightful responses!
 
Here is Pip with an original art card from Dana Sullivan,
author and illustrator of the Digger and Daisy books, and
Kay Kay's Alphabet Safari.
Thank you, Dana Sullivan!

Here's Winnie with a letter from Kim Baker, author of Pickle. 
Pickle happens to be one of Winnie's most favorite books ever,
so how outstanding to receive a handwritten letter and a shirt!
We have heart eyes all the way to the moon, Kim Baker.

We've heard from a bundle of lovely people - 

Margaret Bloom, Nina Laden, Grace Lin, Steve Light, 

Barbara McClintock, Jason Chin, Richard Jesse Watson, 

Jesse Joshua Watson, Oliver Jeffers, and more. 

I'm warmed to the toes just to think of them all.

Children's book authors and illustrators have a magical position.

They endow kids with value, saying,

 "These books are made for YOU.

You are worthy of stories true and deep, 

of stories that question and challenge,

embrace and illuminate."

Artists, writers, friends with your own creative bents,
thank you for sharing your special magic with us.

Here's to 2017.
May we be heart-bold in it.
May we create colossally,
speak bravely,
forgive freely,
love fiercely
as if this is the only today we have.

Books!

When the Sea Turned to Silver  by Grace Lin
Switch by Ingrid Law
The Storyteller - Evan Turk
Hap-pea All Year  by Keith Baker
Maybe Something Beautiful -  F. Isabel Campoy, Theresa Howell, Rafael Lopez

Poet Tree

Apparently, it's Poetry Month.

Only, I've been a little distracted.
I skipped off to the city
for my local SCBWI meeting -
an art show,
a lecture from book-wise and witty
editors Mary Kate Castellani and Caroline Abbey,
and then a consultation and workshop with
art director, professor, and story genius Joy Chu.

This is the same Joy who guided me over the last two winters
in visual storytelling classes through the UCSD online extension program.

I'm still reeling with inspiration.
I could have listened for days. Months. Years.

Now I'm home, all bright and hopeful,
waiting for my brain to shape so many beautiful tips
and ideas into working order.
Time to let the front thoughts simmer.  
Time to play with poetry.

We started with a poet-tree.

The wildebeests and I cut out branchy trees and labeled each branch with simple word:
sky, go, sea, etc.
 
Next, we cut out dozens of leaves - in all flutters of color,
because it just looks more exciting that way.

Each branch grew rhyming leaf words:
sky = cry, my, pie, etc.


Because we like to make life even more thrilling, and sometimes complicated,
I thought it might be fun for the older wildebeests to thread their leaves on yarn.


Winnie added a button.


Pip used gold pen. She's really into gel pens lately.

And their finished masterpieces.

I'd love to meet a tree like this someday, shimmering with colors, yarns, and words!
I think I'd move in.


I'll share more poetry play next time.

Until then, here are a few favorites:

A Kick in the Head, An Every Day Guide to Poetic Forms - compiled by Paul Janeczko, ill. by Chris Raschka

The Random House Book of Poetry - edited by Jack Prelutsky, ill. by Arnold Lobel

Switching on the Moon - collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Peters, ill. by G. Brian Karas

Chicken Soup With Rice - by Maurice Sendak

When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne, ill. by Ernest Shepard

Now We Are Six By A.A. Milne, ill. by Ernest Shepard

Postcards and clever cows

Guess what came in the mail? 
Here's a hint: they rhyme with "host-guards" and "wizness-bards."

Don't they look exciting?

I'm pretty smitten with the packaging from Moo.
I think they know about the little party that happens whenever new cards come.
Happy dance. Confetti.
They even send encouraging little notes that say things like, "you're delightful."

And can you see the cutest little business card box ever?
Even the postcards come in their own box.
Genius.

My husband heard me squealing to the postcard boxes,
"You are so cute! You are so clever! I love you. You are fabulous!"
He thought I was talking to my art.
Nope, just the gorgeous packaging. 
And I do love the way my cards look and feel,
so I suppose I was cheering for me, too.

Well done, Moo.
But maybe I'll keep my crowing in until everyone's asleep.  

Lucky?

 SCBWI's drawing prompt for March is LUCKY.

I got to thinking about luck,

and what it means to me. 

With or without four-leaf clovers, book contracts, 

double-rainbows or pots of gold,

I am wishing-wells full of the best kind of luck.

I have beauty all around me -

in sky and earth, 

in people with all their glorious quirks,

in a roof over my head, clean water,

in laughter and forgiveness.

And I am free - 

free to write, to make art, to learn,
dream, wish, pray,
to hope.

I believe thankfulness and hope can fill the darkest sky with stars.

That's my kind of lucky.

Books:

The Wishing of Biddy Malone by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Christopher Denise

The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies by Heather Forest, illustrated by Susan Gaber

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

The Pen Is Mightier Than the... Scalpel?

What makes a great book so great? 

What gives it that voila! that makes people want to

read it over and over and over?
And how do we as writers figure it all out?

Book dissection. 

Works for frogs, doesn't it?

Er, they're probably not too thrilled about it, sure, 

but after hearing Rachel Vail (Justin Case, Piggybunny), Melissa Sweet (Balloons Over Broadway) and Bonny Becker (A Visitor for Bear) discuss their research strategies at the writing conference, I got to thinking... 

See, biologists and writers have something in common.

Both need to get at the Hows and Whats and Whys, 

and can be bettered by a little friendly dissection.

How to dissect a book:

First, find a massive stack of books

in the genre you want to write.

(best-sellers and favorites 

are a good place to start.)

Read till you're stuffed.

Then, take out the scalpel - the figurative one - 

and pull your books apart.

Question everything. 

If you're an outliner, try boiling your favorites down into outlines. 

Ask yourself questions like:

1- What makes this a best-seller?

2- What do I love about this? 

3- What sets this book apart from all the others?

4- What is this story about in one snappy sentence?

5- What makes this book memorable:

            -Is it strong central characters?

            -emotional connection?

            -a plot that sucks you in and won't let you go?

            -an unidentifiable weirdness?

Record your findings to see if any themes emerge.

After doing this to sixty picture books, 

I have to say that I really do feel the vicarious cleverness 

seeping in...

I see how certain themes resonate with my brood

and I can pinpoint why some books rise above the rest.

Dissecting books is like
Toto and Dorothy finding the man behind the curtain.

It's like seeing someone that intimidates you
in their underpants.

It's like finding out the magician's secret tricks.

What's left to fear? 

If we can identify what makes a good book good,
we're almost there!

And hopefully some of that goodness will rub off
as we hunker down at our desks to go be clever.

Bookish books:

The Incredible Book Eating Boy, by Oliver Jeffers

Castle of Books, by Bernard Clavel, illustrated by Yan Nascimbene