Buyers, Books and Buzz

This past Saturday I attended SCBWI-IL's "Buyers, Books and Buzz" workshop at the beautiful Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook.  The speakers were Jan Dundon, Children's Book Buyer and Seller for Anderson's Bookshop and Mary Harris Russell, Reviewer of Children's Books for the Chicago Tribune.  This dynamic duo spoke about which books they love, hooked them and why.  It was a wonderful morning discussing children's books.  But I always leave with a huge list of new books that I need to read!

Books for Boys

Over the winter break my children were reading maniacs. Especially my ten-year-old son, who for the longest time, really had a hard time finding books that he loved. I am beyond thrilled to report that this has completely changed. Hooray!

The author that has changed all of that is Dan Gutman. His baseball series books "Babe and Me", etc. have had my son reading a book every 24-48 hours. This is so amazing. My Danny has now finished 11 of Gutman's books. Thank you Dan Gutman. You are a genius! Last night my son was reading the bio for one of these books and we both found it so interesting that as a child, Dan Gutman said he hated to read. Gutman says that's one of the reasons why he makes an extra special effort not to write books that are boring.

A few other books that my fifth grader has also enjoyed are: Jerry Spinelli's "Crash" and "Loser" and all of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books by Jeff Kinney. Hooray! Definitely give these books a try.

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~ Anna Quindlen

Happy New Year!

I love the "fresh start" feeling that a new year brings.  Time to reflect on what we've done the past year and give thought to what we will tackle in the new one.  Aside from an overwhelming urge to reorganize everything in my house and office, I feel new energy and enthusiasm to accomplish my goals.  Bring on 2010!  I wish everyone all the best that this next year has to offer. 

SCBWI-IL Prairie Writers Day

This past Saturday I attended the Fifth Annual SCBWI-IL Prairie Writer's Day at Harper College in Palatine.  It was amazing!  The day long conference was themed "Brick by Brick: The Architecture of Our Stories".  The panelists were wonderful and included:  Yolanda LeRoy Editorial Director at Charlesbridge, Alisha Niehaus Editor at Dial, Stacy Cantor Associate Editor at Walker Books, Nick Eliopulos Associate Editor at Random House, Michael Stearns Agent and Co-Founder of Upstart Crow Literary and award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith.  One of the highlights was a broadway worthy performance by Yolanda LeRoy to her song "There's no business like book business".  The day was truly spectacular!

SCBWI-IL at ALA Chicago!

This past July, I was responsible for putting together our first ever SCBWI-IL booth at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Chicago.  What a fabulous experience!  Esther Hershenhorn, Lisa Bierman and I teamed up to make the most of this wondrous opportunity for our members.  The booth was a huge success.  We were nestled in between Scholastic and Charlesbridge.  Lots of traffic and sometimes even lines to visit with our Illinois authors and illustrators.  We had an amazing raffle including author visits, Skype visits, on-line author chats and a grand prize of an author visit anywhere in the U.S.!  For more information on The Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators (SCBWI) visit:  http://www.scbwi.org/ and http://www.scbwi-illinois.org/. A big highlight for me was when Richard Peck stopped by to say "hi" and check out our booth.  Really?

Turtle Magazine

My poem "Perfect Pumpkin" appears on the back cover of this month's Turtle magazine (Sept/Oct issue).  They did a great job with the illustrations.  Be sure to check it out! 

www.uskidsmags.com/magazines/turtle

Highlights Foundation Poetry Workshop

Recently I had the privilege of attending a Highlights Foundation Poetry Workshop in Pennsylvania. What a wonderful experience! My amazing teachers were Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Alice Schertle and Susan Pearson. Three remarkable women. We not only explored poetry from morning 'til night, but were also able to tour Highlights for Children and Boyds Mills Press. A wonderful weekend that I won't forget.  For more information on the Founders Workshops visit: http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/