"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!"