Florence and Wendell Minor's IF YOU WERE A PENGUIN has a six weeks old fan

Florence and Wendell Minor, author and illustrator of IF YOU WERE A PENGUIN, published by HarperCollins, sent us this email from a parent and said, "This, in a nutshell is the reason we do what we do!"

Here's what the parent had to say, ""I just wanted to let you know that If You Were a Penguin was my son's first favorite book. It was the first book that caught his eye where he really looked at the pages as I read aloud when he was about six weeks old. He is now 5 months old and still loves the book. He stares at every page and it seems to keep his attention more so than other books. I think it is the big black and white pictures that were so easy for him to see in the early months, and now they are familiar for him. We plan on reading it many more times over and I look forward to the day when he reads it to me!"

What a great early Christmas present, Florence and Wendell!

Alex Flinn's BEWITCHING receives a 4Q, 5P rating in VOYA

Further to the review in Kirkus (see below), we just learned that BEWITCHING received a 4Q, 5P rating in VOYA. Here’s what VOYA has to say:

“Kendra found out she was a witch after surviving the infamous plague of 1666. So long as she can avoid being burned at the stake, she will live forever. She has spent the last few hundred years helping people fall in love, deal with real-life villains, achieve their dreams, and fulfill their wishes. The story focuses on present-day Emma, who has a great relationship with her stepfather, until her stepsister, Lisette, shows up. Very close in age, the two are initially friends until Emma realizes that Lisette is not what she seems. Kendra explains her perspective of Emma’s story, aligning it with similar situations from her past: a love story on the Titanic, the courtship of King Louis of France, and The Little Mermaid, to name a few. Unpredictable and entertaining twists engage the reader in each side story and connect fantasy to the contemporary drama of Emma’s real-life issues.

“Kendra is a wise and likable character, and no doubt Flinn’s fans will be satisfied with Bewitching. Flinn weaves her interpretation of fairy tales, a good dose of historical fiction, and contemporary high school drama into an intriguing and relatable novel. Fans of fairy tale adaptations, fantasy, and teen romance will love this book. It is recommended for middle school and up.”

No one writes modern fairy tales like Alex Flinn!

Alex Flinn's BEWITCHING receives a nice review in Kirkus

Here are the highlights to the Kirkus review of BEWITCHING, by Alex Flinn, which comes out from HarperCollins in February 2012: "delightfully surprising . . . Flinn . . . keeps the narrative moving along in sprightly fashion. It all adds up to plenty of fun that should appeal to many readers, particularly those who will delight in seeing the familiar tales in their new clothes. It's often touching, with an undercurrent of wry comedy, some history and a bit of a moral thrown in, as in any good fairy tale. Clever and enjoyable."

We hope you enjoy it.

Alex Flinn, who lives in Miami, is also available for school visits and other speaking engagements. She's happy to talk about her new books as well as her backlist titles. For information about her programs, please visit Balkin Buddies  or contact Catherine Balkin.

Yona Zeldis McDonough, the author of The Cats in the Doll Shop, doesn’t want to be famous because….

 

When thinking about the subject of fame, Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of THE CATS IN THE DOLL SHOP (Penguin), likes to invoke Emily Dickinson: 

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

Not that she would not like to be well-known.  But she wants to be well-known for writing about things that matter, that make people think, not for something frivolous or trifling. In the biographies she writes, for example, she tries to bring fresh life and relevance to men and women like Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman, Nelson Mandela, Louis Armstrong, JFK, Dickinson, Mary Cassatt and others, and in so doing, create a new generation of admirers for them. She recently shared with us an article on the subject of fame that she wrote for Tween Parent. We hope you enjoy it and can share it with your kids.

Johanna Reiss's 1973 Newbery Honor book, THE UPSTAIRS ROOM, is available for the first time as an e-book

original hardcover

e-book

Johanna Reiss's first book for children, THE UPSTAIRS ROOM, which was a 1973 Newbery Honor Book, is now available as an e-book on Amazon, Itunes, and Barnes & Noble.

A stirring autobiographical novel about Johanna's experiences as a Jewish girl during World War II, this book was also an ALA Notable Children's Book, a Jane Addams Peace Association Honor Book, a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book, and it won the Jewish Book Council Juvenile Book Award and the Buxtehuder Bulle, a prestigious German children's book award.

Shown above is the original 1972 cover prior to the Newbery Honor sticker and the 2011 cover for the e-book published by Graymalkin Media.  In all editions, THE UPSTAIRS ROOM remains a classic.

 

 

The author continues to visit schools and, as one educator put it, "her presentations give the Holocaust a very human and a very personal touch that the kids could never experience otherwise. To have a primary source like that is so rare.  She even brings artifacts from that time period.  Furthermore, she really cares about the kids, she really reaches them.  The message they hear isn't just about the past -- it's also about the future!"

If any teachers or librarians are interested in hearing more about Johanna Reiss's school visits,  please contact BalkinBuddies.

THE GREAT MIGRATION by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist on mock Caldecott and Coretta Scott King award lists

On March 19, the Children's Services Dept. of the Allen County Public Library (in Fort Wayne, Indiana) listed THE GREAT MIGRATION as a 2012 mock Caldecott Award book, and on April 16, 2011, as a 2012 mock Coretta Scott King Award book.

It was also featured on a Cooperative Children's Book Center podcast: Shelf Stories, Episode 23, April 11, 2011; 6:09.

Both Ms. Greenfield and Ms. Gilchrist will be on programs at NCTE in Chicago on Saturday, November 19, 2011. Ms. Greenfield will be on Lee Bennett Hopkins' "A Parade of Poets" from 9:30 to 10:45 am. Ms. Gilchrist gives a "mini illustrating workshop from 2:45 to 4:00 pm. Both author and illustrator will autograph books in the HarperCollins booth number 513 from 11:30 to noon.

If you're attending NCTE, come meet the Allen County Public Library’s award winners and

get an autographed copy of THE GREAT MIGRATION.

Lesa Cline-Ransome available for school visits

Lesa Cline-Ransome

The author of Young Pelé, which was nominated for a NAACP award, Lesa Cline-Ransome has a new book coming out from Simon and Schuster in January 2012 called Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass. Illustrated by her husband, James Ransome, this picture book is the inspirational, true story of how Frederick Douglass found his way to freedom one word at a time, for it was through reading that he was able to stand up for himself and others. 

 

To celebrate the publication of her new book, Lesa is planning a school tour, and we invite schools to contact us with the dates they would like her to visit their students. She charges $1,200 plus expenses (travel to/from her home in upstate New York and, depending on location, hotel and meals).

Her other biographies include Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne; Helen Keller: The World in Her Heart; Major Taylor: Champion Cyclist; and Satchel Paige.

For further information or to book her, please contact Balkin Buddies.

"The Future of Author Visits in Schools is Online: Skyping with Authors" is an ALAN Breakout session from 12:35 to 1:35 pm on November 21, 2011 in Chicago and will feature Edward T. Sullivan and Catherine Balkin

We just wanted to remind you that the ALAN break-out session, "The Future of Author Visits in Schools is Online: Skyping with Authors," will be held on either on Monday, November 21, 2011 from 12:35 to 1:35 in the Chicago Hilton and Towers Hotel in Chicago.

In the past and still today, schools invite authors to come speak to their students for an honorarium and expenses (travel, hotel, meals). But due to ever shrinking budgets in a difficult economy, schools and authors are looking for new ways to reach each other, and one of those ways is via online chats, usually through Skype or iChat. Honorariums are a fraction of what an onsite visit costs, and there are no travel or hotel expenses. Authors as far away as Scotland and Australia can now visit schools in the U.S. that they couldn’t before; and schools that couldn’t afford an author before are now finding they can afford them now because of online chats. This panel of two educators, one author, and one author appearance coordinator – all of whom have had experience with online chats -- talk about the ins and outs of the process from beginning to end, each from their individual perspectives. They will also offer tips and suggestions on how to have a successful virtual visit.

The participants include:

Shannon Taliaferro, a sixth grade language arts teacher in Dallas, TX.

Leesa Cole, a library media specialist in Dallas, TX

Edward T. Sullivan, author of the nonfiction book THE ULTIMATE WEAPON: THE RACE TO DEVELOP THE ATOMIC BOMB, published by Holiday House, as well as resource books for educators. Mr. Sullivan did an online chat via Adobe Connect with university grad students which involved three different time zones because of the disparity between where the author, the professor, and the students all lived.

Catherine Balkin of Balkin Buddies – that’s me – and I am your host of the Balkin Buddies blog and have been setting up author visits for over 20 years and online chats for the last three.

Between the four of us, we have a wealth of experience with online chats between authors and students and look forward to sharing them with ALAN attendees. If you plan on attending ALAN, we hope you come to our breakout session.

Wendell Minor’s Night Flight reviewed in Aviation for Women Magazine

K.M. Grant is now a History Girls blogger

Further to yesterday's post about K.M. Grant discussing research for BELLE'S SONG, readers might like to know that she is now part of the History Girls, a group of best-selling, award-winning authors of historical fiction for both adults and young readers.  There are 28 authors in total and they run a daily blog about historical fiction. K.M. Grant blogs as a "History Girl" on the 28th of each month. Be sure to catch her very funny October posting about wigs. Who would have guessed that there's a tax on powdering wigs still on the books!