"BRILLIANT!" SAYS THE JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD
So honored to have SPIKE listed with the likes of Mo Willems in
this article in School Library Journal—"On the Radar: Top Picks
from the Editors at Junior Library Guild."
SPIKE'S BOOK BIRTHDAY IS TODAY — SEPTEMBER 25
A cake for SPIKE's launch baked by Karen Jordan, a friend and fellow author
Way back in summer of 2009, SPIKE, THE MIXED-UP MONSTER
went to auction with three publishing houses bidding. Heady stuff
for a new picture book author!
When it came time to think about illustrators, our top pick was
Melissa Sweet, who had just won a Caldecott Honor Medal for
A RIVER OF WORDS: The Story of William Carlos Williams by
Jen Bryant. Given that award, Melissa was booked solid through
2009, 2010 and into 2011, but she said she was "over the moon
about Spike!" So we waited. And now the big day is here. It was
worth the wait!
CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY AT WASHINGTON IRVING'S SUNNYSIDE
Felt starstruck to be in the company of children's literature greats like
Jerry Pinkney, Peter Sis, and Ed Young (to name just a few) last Saturday
at this wonderful event organized by Susan Brandes and Beth Vetare Civitello.
How fitting that it was held at the Hudson River "cottage" of Washington Irving
(you know, author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle"), the
first American to make a living solely from writing. A few tidbits about Irving:
* He first wrote under pen names, including Diedrich Knickerbocker. That last name
soon came to be was associated with "New Yorker" and that's where the Knicks
basketball team got their name!
* He was named after George Washington, who he met as a boy. The General
patted Irving's head and the author later joked that that's why he had a bald spot
there.
For more about kid-friendly tours of this historic house and a "Legend Days"
classroom curriculum guide, click here.
BOOKLIST'S REVIEW OF THE DAY — September 10
"How charming is this?" begins the starred review of THE TOOTH MOUSE
in today's "Review of the Day" featured on the home page of the
American Library Association's Booklist site. "..such a unique ending
that listeners and their parents will smile with the cleverness of it all."
THAT'S A WRAP!
Break out the candy corn! Our book trailer is out just in time for Halloween.
Thanks to all these sweet trick-or-treaters for just saying "BOO!"