Little House??

Wow. Betsy over at Fuse #8 was right. LOST is totally up in the kidlitosphere. On tonight's episode, Sawyer (Mr. Hottie McHot) was waxing philosophical about freakin Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. Last season, we saw him reading Judy Blume. Does it get any better? Um, how about if Sawyer was reading a copy of Shug? That would be hot to the umpteenth degree. White hot.

xoxo Jenny

Writers in Action Poses

here are a couple of shots from our recent writing retreat.

longstockings type best with full tummies

coe and her laptop get cozy by the fire

kathryne types with two hands, lisa only needs one
(nice socks, graff!)

j.han, lisa gw and caroline rock the dining room table

i cannot type without >2 beverage options

caroline and i give the weekend a two pino salute!

i can't wait to photograph the longstockings poolside come our june retreat. who knows...maybe we'll put out a pin-up calendar?!? i call Miss January!

ps. we missed you Daphne!

-=siobhan=-

More on the Terabithia movie

My eagle-eyed mother-in-law (shout out to Darlene!) sent me an article from a DC paper interviewing David Paterson about turning his mother's Newbery award-winning novel, Bridge to Terabithia, into a film.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but the trailers give me the willies. I had sort of calmed down about it when I heard Katherine Paterson's son co-wrote the screenplay, but now, reading this article, I've got the willies again.

The article calls the book "a fantasy/adventure story about friendship and the power of imagination." Say what? A fantasy/adventure story? It's about a lonely boy on a farm who makes a friend. In the real world. Did they come up with this description AFTER seeing the movie? Or by interpreting the trailer? And did David P. okay it?

When are the Longstockings having movie day? We must see this movie and review! Has anyone seen it?


*caroline hickey

Breaking good news for Caroline Hickey!!

I love posting exciting Longstocking news!

This just in from Publishers Marketplace:

Children's: Young Adult
Cassie Was Here author, Caroline Hickey's first YA novel, ISABELLE'S BOYFRIEND, in which a 15-year old girl must vie for her mother's attention with a Bichon Frise and compete with the it-girl for a boy's heart, tangling herself in her own lies and discovering a few truths along the way, again to Simon Boughton at Roaring Brook Press, by Rebecca Sherman of Writers House (NA).

Congratulations, Caroline!!!!!

xoxoxo
Lisa GW

QoW: How can I keep from singing?

Question of the week: What are some non-writing related influences on your work?

My answers will surprise no one who's read even a brief summary of my novel-in-progress, Uncle Jesus. My biggest non-writing influences, at least for this book, are Music and Church.

For starters, I don't write without music. This is not to say I'm incapable of writing in silence; I've even been known to turn off the stereo of my own accord. But I have to know it's in my life somewhere. I find music the perfect complement to writing: after a day spent in lonely splendor trying to wrestle a story onto a blank page, it's a relief to meet up with my choral friends and turn to the job of interpreting what someone else had to come up with.

Music and church are also, for me, inextricably linked, as they are for my main character. I tried, I desperately tried to make Thomas Christian Mueller a football player in his high school, with parents who are active in their church. He still plays football, actually, but the season ends before the beginning of the book, and it's off to choir practice for our friend T.C. His dad's the choir director, too, both at home and at school, so he can't get out of it--any more than I could, when my dad was the minister and my mom was chair of the music committee.

These days, my singing is almost entirely tied to church. My concert choir is one of the ministries of the Church of the Transfiguration, where I am a member. The Choir of Men and Boys sings for most services, but I'm almost always in the volunteer choir all summer, when the men and boys are on vacation. A lot of my novel takes place at church, too, and while none of the scenes are autobiographical, I'm definitely drawing on all my years of experience as I write coffee hour conversations. And to my delight, the sermons at Transfiguration are given by clergy of great learning, experience, and faith, and it's a rare Sunday I don't come away with some new insight into my subject matter.

A big part of T.C.'s coming-of-age is figuring out for himself whether he sings because he wants to, or because he is expected to. The entire choral storyline came about as I found myself making the same decision. I still show up when I can, but I'm not nearly as active in the choir as I used to be, and frankly I'm not nearly as good as I used to be, either. I finally had to accept that as long as I still had to make a living, I couldn't keep giving writing time to choir practice. Telling my choir director--who is also a very dear friend--that she needed to stop counting on me for concerts was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

Meanwhile, T.C. has to face telling his father that while he loves music, he doesn't necessarily want to be a musician when he grows up. Poor kid. I'm on the fourth draft, and I'm still not sure what he's going to do about that.

--Kathryne B. Alfred

QoW: The Biggest Influence

Question of the week: What are some non-writing related influences on your work?

As I reread my book, ALIVE AND WELL IN PRAGUE, NY, over in revisions, I am constantly surprised to see different influences pop up. My best friend writes beautiful poetry and coincidently so does one of my favorite characters in the book. A number of my relatives were/are artists and so are the main character’s parents. I grew up in a small town and now live in NYC which means I have a lot of city living vs. country living issues. My main character has just moved from NYC to a small town and she is confronting these issues.

But the heart of the story is a girl dealing with the fact that her dad has Parkinson’s Disease, and this came from my experiences with my dad’s terminal illness, Lou Gerhig’s Disease. The story is not about the death of the father but rather the acceptance of the degenerative illness slowly taking him away. The book isn’t my story but it is personal. I think there’s something about watching a parent slowly deteriorate that cuts across time- no matter how old you are, you are still a child losing a parent. Seeing one of the people who taught you to walk, talk and eat lose the ability to do those things is profound. It changed me as a person and it was (and still is) a huge influence on my writing.

Daphne Grab

Stealing From Yourself

Now that ground has officially been broken on the first draft of my next novel, I've discovered a problem that has me really nervous. I hope this issue does not signal that I am an inferior, untalented, hack writer.

I've noticed that I am stealing from myself.

After rereading the 12 pages of typing I did during this weekend's retreat, I found a couple tiny phrases or actions or descriptions that I wrote for my first novel. Like, word for word. It was freaky. And at this point, both my main characters look the same. (I'm weeding the repeats out like crazy, of course.)

Granted, I'm not even finished with book #1 yet and will have to go back into it next week, so I'm not exactly creating with a clear head. But is this a problem anyone else suffers from? Is this what happens when you start a new story too soon after working on another? Do I just need to keep writing, get deeper into the character's voice and then let all that juicy stuff inform and change the story. That will come in time...right?

*gulp* Or do I just suck?

-=siobhan=-

Review: American Born Chinese, I want to marry you

I know I am soooo late to the party on this one, but can I just crush on American Born Chinese a little? Please? This book rocks, bigtime. The fact that the ALA picked it for the Printz this year just shows how totally with it they are. Talk about in the know! I recently bought this book for my school library, and I had been warned it was gonna be awesome, but I wasn't prepared. It was funny, nuanced, smart, poignant, moving, multi-multi-layered-- in a word, AMAZING. The fact that I'm a reader, a writer, and someone who watches a helluva lot of TV and I didn't catch on to the big reveals at the end just goes to show what a truly great book this is. The blurb on the back says something like, "As an Asian American this is the book I've been waiting for all my life." I'd like to second that emotion-- this is a book all kids need to read. Scratch that-- not just kids, people! It challenges you, makes you confront your own inner Chin-Kee or Jin. Big ups to Gene Yang for this incredible work. Gene, will you marry me? Or just hold my hand a little?

xoxo jenny

QoW: Touring Memory Lane

Question of the week: What are some non-writing related influences on your work?

Camp: From the age of nine to the age of twenty, I spent summers at sleep away camp. It was at camp that I flipped over a go-cart, learned how to make a lanyard key chain, hid in a shower to skip activities and met my husband. Writing this post right now, I'm getting nostalgic. And I have a feeling that no matter how old I get, when June rolls around each year, I'm going to get an itching feeling that it's time take my green duffel bags out and start packing for camp.

The concept of sleep away camp in and of itself has every component of a wonderful story: kids of all ages being on their own, away from parents. There's so much to work with there, so much discovery, so much growth. I always thought to myself, "wow. I have so many camp stories, I could write a book!" And that's just what I did.

Note: All of those summer weren't at the same camp, but the bulk of them and the best of them were at Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, MA.

Long Island: Spending grades sixth through twelfth in Roslyn Heights, New York was a fascinating experience. I can't say that it was wonderful, but at the same time I don't think I'd be the person that I am today without it. I'm not sure I'd have become so strong if I wasn't asked, "Lisa, do you buy your clothes at Kids R Us?" The truth is, I did. I was ten. Sue me!

I don't embarrass easily and maybe that's because I was forced to play Mozart on a keyboard in front of the whole middle school simply because they couldn't bring the piano on the stage. Seriously, Mozart doesn't sound good on a keyboard. And a seventh grader doesn't look cool playing Mozart on a keyboard. But I did it.

It was in Roslyn Heights that I learned about Agnelli jeans and Justin boots and Farlows. I learned the wonderful art of nagging, because I really believed that without those things, I just wouldn't make it at school.

I could go on and on here, but you get the point. These are experiences that stay with you forever. I played that keyboard fourteen years ago, but I remember it perfectly. The non-writing influences on my work are my life experiences mostly from childhood. They're the experiences that made me laugh the most at the time, the experiences I still laugh about. And let's face it, they're the experiences that also made me cry the most.

*Lisa GW*

TIVO Alert!

There's an interesting new show premiering on TLC tomorrow (Monday) night at 7/6c called My Life as a Child that might be of interest to those of us who love children's books. Well, it's not actually about books per se. It's more about the world of children, ages 7 to 11, from the point of view of the children themselves.

The producers of the show gave video cameras to 20 American kids from various backgrounds and asked them to record their lives. I know, as a (hopefully soon-to-be) writer of middle-grade fiction, this show will give me a fresh insight into the world of kids today. I watched the previews and I'm already in love with this show. The kids are adorable, but in that real kid (not "Hollywood kid") way, and they seem to really have something to say. Already!

So check it out!

~~Coe

Longstockings in the Catskills!

Seven of us Longstockings are right this very minute sitting around a big dining room table in the most gorgeous B&B in the Catskills. We all have our laptops open, and we're munching cookies and drinking hot chocolate and, well, writing. Why? Because we're on a weekend WRITING RETREAT!

This is the third such "writing retreat" we've gone on, and the goal for each is to get out of the city for a few days, stay somewhere cosy, and spend a lot of time together writing. It's kind of like a study group, except that we're very quiet. One Longstocking mans the stopwatch, deciding how long each "writing period" will be, and then designates break times. It's a great way to hang out with one's writing chums and also WORK.

It's not all work, though. We also do fun dinners, hot tubbing, and board games by the fire. In fact, I'm pretty sure attending a Longstockings writing retreat is my favorite "perk" of being a writer so far.

My goal for this retreat is to write up an outline for my next book. A very loose, character sketch-y type outline, so that when I start writing I'll have at least a vague notion of where I'm headed. So I really need to get down to it and stop blogging, or Ye Longstocking With Stopwatch will ring the bell for break time and I won't have accomplished a darn thing!

More to come on the retreat...

P.S. A public apology to Lisa Graff. A few minutes ago I spilled some hot choc on her laptop keyboard. She was very gracious about it. Oh, the hazards of writing with beverages!

*caroline hickey

QoW: Second Chances

Question of the Week: Who are the best and/or worst parents in a children's book?

I'm going to ignore the "parents" part of this question, and just focus on one parent. Since she shows up in a whole series of books, though she gets to be both the best and worst.

Okay, so it's probably not fair to call Abigail Tillerman the worst parent in children's literature, since she's not even really the worst parent in Cynthia Voigt's The Runner. That honor has to go to her husband. But the fact is, she backs him up in pretty much everything. Even when she can see that what her husband is doing is bad for her children, she stands behind him. She leaves it to her kids to rebel, and run away, and she doesn't protest when her husband excommunicates from the family any offspring who defy him.

As a result, she loses one son to a middle-class life, one to the war in Vietnam, and a daughter to an unreliable sailor who abandons her with their fourth child on the way.

In Homecoming, the daughter's four children show up, looking for a home, and that's when Abigail--suddenly being called Gram--becomes one of the best mothers in children's literature. For the rest of the Tillerman cycle (as the books about her family are called), Ab rises to every occasion.

She adopts her grandchildren, first of all, even when she doesn't think she wants to. She's been the crazy old lady on the edge of town for probably fifteen years at this point, and she's used to it, and she actually prefers it--nobody bothers her that way, and there's nobody left to lose. But for the sake of her grandchildren, she takes huge risks. After years of being completely self-sufficient, she learns how to ask for help when she needs it.

Most importantly, she owns up when she makes mistakes. Where she tried to teach her children never to mess up or step out of line, she helps her grandchildren learn that sometimes it takes a few tries to get things right. That not knowing how to do something is no excuse for not doing it, if it's important enough.

--Kathryne B. Alfred

P.S. Sorry about all the text--blogger wouldn't let me post pictures!

I HEART Me Some Parker Posey

Parker Posey to star in Amy Sherman-Palladino pilot
The film actress is on board as the lead in The Return of Jezebel James, the anticipated Fox comedy pilot from Amy Sherman-Palladino, the Gilmore Girls creator who left the show in the wake of the merger between UPN and The WB. In the new pilot, Posey will play a single children's book author who asks her younger sister to carry a baby for her.

I'll keep the Gilmore faith that maybe it'll be a decent show, but the fact that it's with Fox makes me a bit worried.

QoW: Abracadabra

Question of the Week: Who are the best and/or worst parents in a children's book?

Shall I whine and say all the good (and bad) ones are taken? No, I shan't. Instead, I'll go in a slightly different direction. My "best and worst" will focus on magical parents. That's right, fairyfolk and witches.

For worst, I'm going to have to say Madame Snickasnee from Little Witch. One of my all-time favorite children's books, Madame Snickasnee was a terrible mother to poor Minikin. For one thing, she wasn't her real mother. And for another, she made Minikin mix up horrible quantities of Black Spell Brew that she'd use on Minikin's own friends and classmates to turn them into flowerpots! And she yelled at her and made her scrub the cottage all the time. AND Minikin only had one dress. Goodness.

Now, for best magical parents, No Flying in the House. Annabel has a nice foster mother, yes, but she also has a 3-inch talking dog as her guardian AND a fairy mother. And that's fairy-tastic. Who wouldn't want a 3-inch talking dog and a mom who's a beautiful fairy?

*caroline hickey

QoW: From super-special guest blogger Betsy Bird! (aka Fuse#8)

Question of the Week: Who are the best and/or worst parents in a children's book?

Such a difficult question.

To answer it, I hopped over to my children's literature bookshelf in my kitchen (a key component of any New York apartment is the bookshelf located near a source of hot flames) to see what books caught my eye. A pattern quickly emerged.

Secret Garden: Dead
Harry Potter: Dead
Wizard of Oz: Supposedly dead (but how come no one ever mentions this?)
Lemony Snicket: Oh-so-incredibly dead

After a little searching, however, I came to an unavoidable decision.

Now my gut reaction when it comes to horrible parents is to zero in on the Carl books. Oh don't look at me like that. You know it's true. If you are unfamiliar with the Carl books, allow me to summarize. This is a picture book series by Alexandra Day featuring a large Rottweiler named Carl. These books are practically wordless, but the essential structure of the story remains the same. The mother abandons her toddler in some fashion, trusting that her dog will act as an ideal babysitter. He does. The end. The simple fact that there's a mother out there in the kidlit world who trusts a ROTTWEILER to tend to her only offspring, and does so repeatedly, nominates this woman for bad-mom-of-the-year right there. But the question is not "Who is the best and worst mother in children's literature?", but "... parents in children's literature?".

Then I thought the answer might be the parents in "Matilda". Trust Roald Dahl to dare to make someone's actual parents horrendous. In almost every other case an author will relegate horrid parenting techniques to aunts and uncles. Dahl went the extra step and introduced to us con-artist parents who hate reading, seriously dislike their gifted daughter, and attempt terrible schemes in the midst of their general disgustingness.

But even then, these aren't the WORST parents of all time. They're too much like caricatures. No, my friends. The worst parents of all time, bar none, are Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel from Philip Pullman's, "His Dark Materials" books. Your mother is ripping the souls away from little children and keeps you permanently asleep with a sleeping potion until she can figure out what to do with you. And your father is intent on killing God himself and has personally already murdered your best friend right in front of your eyes. Basically, it's the only children's book series I can think of where the parents are out-and-out villains. Lyra Belacqua, my darling, congratulations. You are now the proud owner of the worst parents to ever appear on the written page. Well done.

Best parents are hard if only because, again, you need a book in which they're both alive, well, and good. If I wanted to feel out a relatively recent book I might cite the understanding parents of Clementine in the book of the same name by Sara Pennypacker. They're verging on the hippy-dippy but they've such a good grasp on how to handle as precocious a child as their eldest daughter. And then there's Ma and Pa from the "Little House" books. Always caring and understanding. Constantly moving the kids around, sure, but in a way they're the quintessential loving parents.

My final vote, however, goes to the real-life Gilbreth parents in "Cheaper By the Dozen". God I loved these guys. First of all, they managed to have twelve children (eleven technically, since one died young) and managed to make each one feel loved. Their dad was just awesome. Taught them Therbligs, and Morse Code, and screwed up when it came to things like tonsils and underwear. THIS was a family you wanted to belong to when you were a kid. And then when the dad dies the mom swoops in, fills in for him job-wise, and is this amazing independent woman in the late 20s. Amazing. So the award for best parents, in terms of being more than just perfect people but rather realistic, fun, caring, amazing types, goes to "Cheaper by the Dozen"'s Frank and Lily Gilbreth.

-Betsy Bird


* * * Betsy has that totally white-hot blog Fuse#8. It's to do with children's literature and hot men. You should check it out. Except, if you're reading this blog, then of course you already know all about Betsy's! We love her. You probably do too! On the off-chance you didn't, now you will!

QoW: So Bad it Hurts (but also makes for a really good book)

Question of the Week: Who are the best and/or worst parents in a children's book?

I recently read ‘Skin’ by Adrienne Vrettos and the parents in her book about gave me nightmares. The mom really tries: she loves Donnie and Karen, and wants to make their family work. The dad is a mess, no two ways about it, but some part of him really wants to be there for his kids, you can tell. But his own childhood was a disaster and he can’t get past it.

So as individuals these are parents you could work with. But put them together and wow, it doesn’t get much worse. These parents have fights that rip your heart out. Every couple knows each other so well that of course they know the places that can maim and scar the other. But most couples follow the rules of not saying the truly terrible stuff. Donnie’s parents? They start where it’s truly terrible, move to devastating and then spend quality time in unforgivable. And they do it where their kids can hear, so each time they stab each other, their kids are wounded. In Karen’s case irreparably.

Ms. Vrettos does an amazing job of keeping these parents human, so while you’re cringing, you haven’t lost that thread of compassion. You hate the dad but you know enough about him that that hate is complicated by understanding. The family dynamic is complex and murky, just like real life. The parents are flawed, damaged people who just can’t get it together. And the results make a painful and extremely good story.

QoW: More than parents

Question of the Week: Who are the best and/or worst parents in a children's book?

I have trouble with "best" kinds of questions, because I can't ever pick just one. I always feel like I'm forgetting my true best and writing about a recent best. But, in this case, I am going to talk about a recent read, and not focus specifically on parents, but on family in general.

Jennifer Holm's second Newbery Honor book, Penny from Heaven, shows an enviable family. Penny lives with her mother, her Grandma (Me-me) and her Grandpa (Pop-pop.) Her paternal grandmother, Nonny, is a few blocks away, and the rest of her father's family lives in the neighborhood, too. Penny's allowed to roam free, popping in on everyone, hanging out with her cousin and best friend Frankie, and working in her Uncle Ralphie's butcher shop.

Life isn't all carefree for Penny, though. Her dad died a few years back, and no one really talks about how it happened. Penny knows there's a rift between her dad's family and her mom's family, but that's never taken out on Penny. She is always showered with love.

I loved Penny's family so much while reading this book. And while I love my own family very much, part of me wanted Penny's family to adopt me, maybe just for a day or two. I wanted Nonny to cook for me, and I wanted to listen to the Dodgers game on the radio with Uncle Dominic. He lives in his 1940 Plymouth Roadking, and usually wears bedroom slippers instead of shoes, but I wouldn't mind. I wanted to be best friends with cousin Frankie, and get pretty new clothes from Uncle Nunzio's clothing factory.

Even though life wasn't all peaches and cream for Penny, she had a wonderful support system around her and a big, boisterous family who was always looking out for her and loving her.

QoW: Timing is Everything!

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

My path to publication was long and winding! I was the kind of person who always knew I wanted to write. I even have a whole shoebox of novels to prove it! But I also wanted to be safe. Secure. I wanted to have things like food, health insurance, and a roof over my head at all times. You know, silly stuff! So I pushed my writing plans into the background and focused on having an actual career.

I went to The New School for my undergrad and Master's degrees in psychology, and I then worked as a Child Protective Specialist for the NYC Emergency Children's Services for four years. It was the kind of job that routinely required 70-hour weeks and, suffice to say, I wasn't getting a whole lot of writing done. So my friends organized a kind of "intervention" for me. They asked me what I was doing, why I was involved in a career that left me no time for writing when they believed that was what I was supposed to be doing with my life.

Their intervention worked. They were right; I needed to make a change. So I started teaching English and psychology at two local colleges, while keeping my full-time job, for one year. Then, when I realized I really liked teaching, I took a chance and quit my job at ECS. Then I got hired as a full-time professor, which was great because I was able to teach during the day and go back to school at night, this time for an MFA in creative writing, something I'd always wanted to do.

So by the time I got (back) to The New School (for the trifecta of New School degrees!), I was newly-motivated to write, and not just for myself (and my shoebox) anymore. It was strange showing my work to other people, but I really needed that kind of intense atmosphere, not to mention the pressure of trying to pass my classes, to get me writing again!

The good thing is, all those years working closely with families who were in crisis situations really helped me. I never would have been able to write TYRELL without that background because it gave me a whole new perspective on how a lot of kids really live. I was no longer an outsider to that world.

So I started writing TYRELL at The New School, got lots o' motivation and support from my friends there, and was lucky enough to have David Levithan as my thesis advisor. He was great! Sooo enthusiastic. And when I used to meet with him at his office at Scholastic, I felt like I was a real writer for the first time! After I graduated, David offered to buy TYRELL for his PUSH imprint. I never saw that coming at all! He said he wanted to keep his role as my advisor separate from his role as my editor. David acquired TYRELL when I only had about 120 pages, so I spent the next five or six months writing an additional 200 pages or so. It was all very exciting. And it all still is!

QoW: I'm A BIG Nerd

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

As corny as it sounds, my path to publication was paved with knowledge. *pauses to push glasses up slipperly slope of nose*

When I first decided that I wanted to shift out of children’s television and into children’s lit, I knew absolutely nothing about the business, straight-up prose writing, etc. And I knew from my time in the biz that the absolute easiest way to dismiss someone and their project is for them to be ill-informed, unprofessional and unpolished.

So I immediately reached out to the people I knew who were writers. My good friend Debbie Reber was kind enough to let me take her out to lunch and pick her brain. She photocopied a huge stack of SCBWI info for me, which I poured over for the next few weeks. I was using a woman for script coverage who was also a prolific ghostwriter and she gave me a few sample proposals she’d worked on to check out. I also found the blog of Cecil Castellucci, who was nice enough to invite me to my very first critique group in a park off Olympic Blvd. I brought some cheese and she brought some grapes.

I used all that info, and some big time elbow grease, to write a sample for the MFA Children’s Writing program at The New School, to which thankfully, I was accepted. Then I got really excited, because I knew that kind of intensive program would provide me with a wealth of information and help to train my mind to quit dramatic writing and hone the old prose muscle. Yessss! More brain fodder!

But, being the nerd that I am, I wanted to learn more about what happens to a book once you write it, the business of publishing at large, etc. I felt like, if I could figure out how that kind of stuff worked, maybe my chances to eventually sell something would increase!

I got a job at a book packager and, over the course of the next 18 months, I worked my way up the ladder until I was an editor of a few well-known, commercially successful teen books. During that time, I also networked with a bunch of editors, writers and agents. It was great training.

And, like a 6-week SAT prep class, when the time finally came for me to submit my partial, I felt ready. I knew what to expect and which agents and editors I wanted to work with. I felt prepared. Also nervous, terrified and queasy. But the prepared part definitely helped to quell all the scary feelings and kept my publishing experience totally storybook and awesome. I ended up signing with my number one choice agent and selling my novel to my number one choice editor. After all that, I bought myself a fancy new pocket protector.

-=siobhan=-

Just follow the yellow brick road...

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

So, the path to publication. Well, it all started way back when I was in the third grade and I won first prize for my picture book, The Dream. Just kidding, I won't take you THAT far back. I'll just take you back to 2005. I'd finished 3/4 of my novel Shug when my writing instructor at New School asked me if I had an agent yet. She really stressed that it's so crucial to have an agent, especially if I had interest from a publisher, as an agent can help you skip around the minefields and just basically be your Glenda (Galinda) the Good Witch type person. I then submitted to Pippin Properties and ended up very happily wed to Emily van Beek and Holly McGhee, both incredibly generous and clever women who have really guided and nurtured me. We did a revision of Shug together (which was finished at that point) and then we submitted to several publishers. Shug ended up going to auction, and I had the privilege of meeting editors, all who were really, really nice. It sounds like such a dream situation, which it really kind of was, but it was also really really stressful. I was totally stressed out the whole time and was therefore unable to enjoy any of the good stuff-- well, I enjoyed it a little bit. (I got some really nice lunches and even cupcakes! Cupcakes!) But more choices equals more stress. When you're a worrier like me, you second-guess yourself a lot and go round in circles and everything feels very apocalyptic. But in truth, it's not. They were all great choices, it was just a matter of picking the right one for me in that moment. In the end, I ended up going with Simon & Schuster, who've been very good to me, especially my editor Emily. Yay! Shug found a home! And as we all know, there's no place like home.

xoxo jenny

From the Mouths of Book Buyers

I read this interesting article in yesterday's isssue of PW's Children's Bookshelf and thought I'd share. It has details about what types of books are attractive to children's buyers at the moment, from both indie buyers and the big giants.

Categories one indie buyer would like to see more of: "shorter novels (300 pages or less), especially books told with humor, and picture book series with a strong character geared toward boys."

QoW: Work on your ms until you want to throw it out the window

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

My path was very by-the-book (excuse the puns: BUY the book, by the BOOK, hahahhaha!). Basically, I spent my thesis semester of my MFA program revising and revising and revising the book I'd started a year earlier with the goal of having it ready to send to agents upon graduation. I submitted it to my thesis advisor and to my weekly workshop group a billion times, so when May rolled around I literally couldn't stand to look at the thing anymore. I researched a bunch of agents and made a short list of ones I wanted to work with. Then I sent out queries (I rewrote my query letter about a billion times, too) and waited.

Happily, several agents offered to represent me, and I got to choose the one I thought suited me best. As Kathryne mentioned the other day, a relationship with an agent is much like a marriage, and you want to work with someone you feel comfortable sharing your ups and downs with, someone you honestly believe will fight for your books. My agent and I revised my ms a bit more (at this point I think I was on my fourth full rewrite), and she sent it out.

Lo and behold, Cassie Was Here found a home at Roaring Brook Press. And in my initial call with my editor, he even commented on how close the ms was to being finished.

So my words of wisdom to those wishing to publish are: Work on your ms until you want to throw it out the window. Really. Because even though connections and great query letters and flashy plots may sometimes get you in the door, it's the book that makes the offer happen.

*caroline hickey

in honor of Valentines Day...

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'


Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.


'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

-- Edward Lear

with love from Jenny XOXO

A Valentine's Day Declaration On Negative Comments

I was browsing some of my favorite blogs this morning and I came across an entry on Shannon Hale's blog that really clicked for me. And in light of this week's discussion about the publication process (and how it often includes hard-to-hear and not necessarily constructive comments about one's work), I thought I'd share it:

"[Reviews] are not helpful to a writer. The truth is, not everyone is going to like what you write. There is no possible way to write something that will appeal to everyone's tastes. We're all individuals. You have to write to yourself...Getting negative feedback after a book is published is not helpful to a writer. Sometimes, it can throw me off so much, shake my confidence, so that writing that day or week is very hard...The book is already published, there's nothing I can do to change it, and I wouldn't change it if I could. I wrote the book that I wanted to read."

I just love this quote and I want to kiss it. Because I have felt shaken after hearing a comment from an editor or my workshop group that has resulted in several days where I couldn't really open myself up and write again. And that's just ridiculous. So I'm making a Valentine's Day declaration not to feel that way anymore!

Who's with me??

*caroline hickey

QoW: Doing Cartwheels

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

I had been sending out some of my writing to editors for a while (picture book manuscripts and novels, none of which were really any good and will never be published), but I got only form rejections.* Then, lo and behold, I did a five-minute reading at a New School MFA reading night, and who happened to be in the audience but my future agent (who, by the way, rocks). He asked to see some of my work, so I sent him The Thing About Georgie, and he loved it, so he signed me up. Yay!

Then we started sending Georgie out to editors. And no one wanted it. But to be perfectly honest, I was just thrilled not to be getting form rejection letters anymore. The rejection letters I was getting now had my name in them and everything! It was a huge step up for me. And most of the editors were very nice and said positive things about my writing, although that didn't make them want my book anymore. This went on for about five months.

But THEN my agent sent Georgie off to HarperCollins, to my brilliant and lovely now-editor. She liked my writing a whole lot, and she asked to see other things I'd been working on. So my agent and I sent her about 50 pages of my thesis project, a middle-grade con artist novel called The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower (actually at the time I think it was called Bernetta Wallflower's Pros and Cons -- that book has gone through a ton of title changes). And what do you know, she liked that one too! So Harper offered me a two-book deal. YAY!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. If I knew how to do cartwheels, I would have done a LOT of them.

In the end, I'm very grateful for those five months of rejection, because if I had ended up with the first editor we'd sent my book to, I never would have wound up at HarperCollins, and I never would have met up with my amazing editoress, and both Georgie and Bernetta would have turned into completely different books. And I'm so so happy with the books they've become.


*About a month after I sold my two novels, I got a letter from a publisher that I'd sent a different middle-grade novel to almost a year before. It was a real letter, on letterhead and everything, from a real live editor, and it said that, even though they didn't want my book, they'd be happy to read more of my work in the future. Oddly, I was almost as thrilled to get this letter as I was to actually sell my books, because it meant that I had made a spark in the slush pile, and (since I had in the meantime begun working at a publishing house) I knew that this is a very, very difficult thing to do.

~lisa graff~


P.S. I want to give another hearty thank you to my fellow Longstockings for hosting the first day of my blog tour on Monday. You guys asked some superb questions and really helped me start things off right. Thanks! (Today I'm stopping over at Big A, little a, where I talk a little more about my path to publication, so be sure to check it out. She also has a nice review of Georgie.) For more information on where I'll be -- and the chance to win FREE BOOKS!!!! -- check here. Oh, and don't forget to drop by my personal blog for "outtakes" from the first draft of The Thing About Georgie (which I'm sure will make it much clearer why none of those first few editors wanted the book...).

P.P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!!

QoW: Is it special enough?

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

When I was in my second year of the MFA program, our awesome teacher Sarah Weeks brought in her equally awesome editor, Jill Santopolo, to do a mock submission with our class. We wrote cover letters and submitted five pages of our manuscripts. Jill, who’s the senior editor at Laura Geringer Books, a Harper Collins imprint, read them and came to class one night to give us feedback. I was certain I’d hear about how lame my letter was and how weak my five pages were (said nicely of course, because Jill is really nice.) I was so convinced of this that my reaction was slightly ridiculous when Jill said that both were fine and that if it were a real submission she’d ask to read the whole manuscript. (I kind of gasped like a beached whale and said ‘wow’ really loudly and embarrassing stuff like that.)

When I graduated this past May, I wrote Jill and went through the official channels to submit my manuscript to her. I was pretty sure she’d nicely reject the story so I also began to query agents. But to my utter delight and surprise she liked it.

Meanwhile I’d gotten several agent rejections. The worst one said that my book wasn’t special enough to stand out on bookstore shelves— I so would’ve preferred a form letter telling me my book just wasn’t a fit for her! I’d also gotten a few offers and it was surprisingly hard to make a choice. It’s such an incredible thrill when someone likes your stuff and to have to turn down anyone who feels that way is tough (not that there were agents beating down my door or anything— we are talking small numbers here!) But I made the choice and she took over the business side of things with Jill.

I’m still in the process of rewriting, and ALIVE AND WELL IN PRAGUE, NY will be off to copy editing this spring and come out next spring/summer. I’ve loved working with Jill— she has such an incredible instinct for what to cut and what to flesh out to deepen the story. The book is a million times better than it was, and it’s not even done yet! The whole process is fun but it takes so long that at times it still doesn’t feel real. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like to see the cover or hold an ARC in my hands, let alone see the book on bookstore shelves.

I just hope when it is finally on those shelves, that it's special enough to have a few people pick it up :-)

QoW: From Guest Blogger, Rachel Cohn!

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

I always knew I wanted to be a writer, but I figured I would try fiction-writing later in life, and I prepared for a career in journalism instead. I grew up in the DC area and I was a real political junkie. I majored in Political Science at Barnard College, then worked at places like ABC News and PBS in DC after graduating, but my major accomplishment in my early twenties seemed to be my track record for quitting jobs. I found when I was in the professional environment I'd thought I wanted... I didn't so much like it.

My moment of truth came when I was accepted to go to Columbia Journalism School for a graduate degree, but at the last minute I balked at the price: Did I really want to take on all that debt to pursue a career I was no longer entirely sure I wanted? The answer was I did not. I live so much inside my head, and I wanted to write novels, to make up stories instead of try to write factual ones.

Soon after that decision, I took a cross country road trip that landed me in San Francisco, and I ended up staying there - it was the city where I ran out of money. I got a legal administrative job to support myself, enrolled in a fiction writing course through UC-Berkeley Extension, and studied with a terrific writing group for a year as I wrote my first novel. I am proof that a writer can make it out of the slush pile. After I'd finished that first novel, I bought a guide to literary agents, and I sent several queries out to agents I thought might be appropriate for my work. I was very lucky - I was accepted by an agent within weeks of sending out
those first query letters.

Then it got not so easy. The agent part happened right away. The publication part took five more years. My agent submitted my first novel to various publishers, and the rejection letters poured in. So I wrote another novel. More rejection letters. I wrote a third novel (and my first kids book - THE STEPS). Guess what? More rejections. The consistent theme in the rejections from editors was that they liked my writing, but my characters were "whiny" and "difficult." Grrrr....

I was unemployed at this point after doing some travel in Australia, and pretty discouraged (and very broke) after writing three rejected novels. I was basically ready to give up on the whole author dream when an artist friend happened to send me a card of a goth-type teenage girl wearing combat boots and trailing a doll from her hand with a caption that read, "My dolly's not feeling so good." He asked me to tell him about this girl. And thus was Cyd Charisse from GINGERBREAD born - she would actually wake me from sleep to write passages. It was one of those rare writing experiences where the book seemed to write itself - I just typed (NICK & NORAH was the other book like that for me). The story was written for pure pleasure, with no thought of publication - I wanted to write a character who could be as "whiny" and "difficult" as she wanted to be, and "eff U" to all those editors who'd said my characters weren't likeable. I figured no one would ever publish the book anyway, so why not just write what I wanted to write?



I wrote about 50 pages, sent it off to the agent, and he declared it a YA book and sent it to Simon & Schuster, and miracle of all miracles, S&S bought it based on the partial submission (which was pretty amazing since I had no publication record whatsoever). So, seven years and four novels after deciding to pursue fiction-writing, I became a published author. And it's been a very grand journey since.


Rachel Cohn is the author of many fantastic books, including GINGERBREAD, SHRIMP, and THE STEPS. She also co-authored NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST with David Levithan.

Rachel's newest novel is CUPCAKE, the third - and final - Cyd Charisse book. To find out more about Rachel and her books, check out her beautiful website and MySpace page.

Thanks for being such a terrific guest blogger, Rachel. We're sure your words will inspire others to never abandon their writing dreams! :-)

Just follow the yellow brick road...

Question of the Week: What was your path to publication?

So, the path to publication. Well, it all started way back when I was in the third grade and I won first prize for my picture book, The Dream. Just kidding, I won't take you THAT far back. I'll just take you back to 2005. I'd finished 3/4 of my novel Shug when my writing instructor at New School asked me if I had an agent yet. She really stressed that it's so crucial to have an agent, especially if I had interest from a publisher, as an agent can help you skip around the minefields and just basically be your Glenda (Galinda) the Good Witch type person. I then submitted to Pippin Properties and ended up very happily wed to Emily van Beek and Holly McGhee, both incredibly generous and clever women who have really guided and nurtured me. We did a revision of Shug together (which was finished at that point) and then we submitted to several publishers. Shug ended up going to auction, and I had the privilege of meeting editors, all who were really, really nice. It sounds like such a dream situation, which it really kind of was, but it was also really really stressful. I was totally stressed out the whole time and was therefore unable to enjoy any of the good stuff-- well, I enjoyed it a little bit. (I got some really nice lunches and even cupcakes! Cupcakes!) But more choices equals more stress. When you're a worrier like me, you second-guess yourself a lot and go round in circles and everything feels very apocalyptic. But in truth, it's not. They were all great choices, it was just a matter of picking the right one for me in that moment. In the end, I ended up going with Simon & Schuster, who've been very good to me, especially my editor Emily. Yay! Shug found a home! And as we all know, there's no place like home.

xoxo jenny

QoW: There's a place for us, somewhere...

Question of the Week: What was your book's path to publication?

Well, this is going to be interesting, because I don't know the answer to that question yet. I'm querying agents right at the moment, which has some pretty significant similiarities to dating. And not having to do that anymore makes the whole process a lot easier.

I wrote a novel. I sent query letters to agents. Now I'm waiting to hear from anyone who wants to see more. A couple of people have already requested full manuscripts, so I'm on the whole feeling pretty good about the process.

This is where the "kind of a lot like dating" part comes in. Because, even though I'm really good at my job and the people requesting my manuscript are really good at their jobs, that doesn't mean we're meant to do them together. It's like when I used to meet some guy and realize that while somebody was going to fall madly in love with this person, I was going to have to keep looking. Worse, it means sometimes people I like feel that way about me.

But I've gained a lot of perspective, both in the time it took to meet my husband and in the time it took to write my novel. I know it wouldn't have done me any good to try to act like someone else's idea of the person they want to be with. Better yet, I know it won't do me any good to write the novel someone else wants to publish, if it's not the novel I meant to write. So I keep sending out and revising, and revising and sending back out, getting the manuscript closer and closer to my vision of it. Eventually my book will meet its agent, who will introduce it to the editor of its life. And we'll all live happily ever after.

--Kathryne B. Alfred

YAY! We're The First Stop!

We here at The Longstockings are very excited that one of our own, Lisa Graff, author of the brilliant new novel, THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE, has chosen to begin her blog tour right here, at home. But don’t think we made things easy for her. Oh no! As you will see from the interview below, we grilled poor Lisa with the hard-hitting questions we have become known for! So without further ado, let us begin:

Daphne: Lisa, what is your response to those from Poodles Fanatics of America who may protest Georgie?

Oh man, am I going to get poodle hate-mail? I didn’t even think of that! Well, Georgie certainly isn’t a fan of poodles, but I’m not sure I can blame him. They’re just not much fun as far as dog breeds go. Who wants to be walking a pretentious yapping poodle when you could be romping around with a loyal, loving Saint Bernard? Or a happy little schnauzer? I’m sure there are some wonderful poodles out there, though. I just haven’t met any yet.


Siobhan: If YOU had to be a president in a school play, who would you be and why?

I would definitely be Teddy Roosevelt. He’s my fave. I had to do a report on him in fifth grade, and I really like his boisterous personality. Also I’m a huge fan of palindromes, so anyone who gets one of their very own—A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!—has me hooked.

And maybe I’d just like to wear that awesome mustache for a day.


Jenny: Lisa, you are very tall. Georgie is very short. When you went to your very first school dance, were you taller than the boys, and if so, did that make slow dancing difficult? Did you still put your arms around the boy's neck, or did you only dance with tall boys? OR, did you only fast dance?

Ha! Yeah, I’m pretty tall gal, and I was always taller than all the boys growing up. It never really bothered me until high school, though. My first school dance was in sixth grade, and it really was The Event. We had to take dance lessons in P.E. and we had dance cards and everything. The boy I had a crush on at the time was named Charlie, and he was about a mile shorter than me (I think he was actually the shortest kid in our class). Anyway, I guess Charlie didn’t mind so much that I was a giantess, because he signed my dance card three times! Ooooooh. I’m sure we made quite the couple.

I actually liked slow dancing more than fast dancing, because I am a horrendous dancer, and slow dancing is mostly swaying. Also, the boy’s supposed to lead, so if you do something stupid it’s really his fault. That is my dance philosophy.


Caroline: What children's book character is your hero?

Oooh, that’s a toughie! I think I’m going to go with the Great Gilly Hopkins. Gilly’s got spunk and sass, which I’ve always admired. I was very shy when I was a kid, so I liked to read about outgoing, funny kids. And even though Gilly does a whole lot of stuff that’s not so admirable, I think in the end she is someone to look up to because she figures out what’s right and chooses a good path. Gilly’s grown up without a strong moral compass—or any compass, really—but she manages to turn herself around, and that makes her a hero in my book.


Kathryne: Any plans for melding your love of writing books with your love of science?

Why, yes, as it happens! I think I was a Giant Science Dork in my past life. I got to indulge my love a research a little bit when I was working on Georgie, but I do hope to do more in the future. I actually volunteered at the Bronx Zoo for about a year to do some research for a children’s novel I want to write that involves multiple animals, and some day I swear I’m going to squeeze my Linguistics degree into a kid’s book, too. I’m sure everyone’s on pins and needles waiting for that one…


Lisa GW: If you could transport yourself into any time period so you could have a first hand account to write about it, what would it be?

Hmm, that’s a good question… I’d have to pick the Industrial Revolution. That period’s always interested me, because I think it would be cool to look at gizmos and gadgets that seem so blasé now, like light bulbs, telephones, steam engines, all of that, and how these inventions slowly began to change society and the ways in which people lived. Truth be told, though, History was by far my worst subject in school (my mom the History teacher will be thrilled I’m sharing that), so I’m not sure I’ll ever manage to write an historical novel. It’d be awful hard for me.


Coe: Lisa, as I'm sure you have one handy, please look into your crystal ball and describe for me a day in the life of Georgie when he's sixteen years old. What kind of teenager will he be?

Hmmmmmm. Well, Georgie would be a sophomore in high school then. I suppose on a typical day, he would wake up and get ready for school while listening to some tunes on his iPod (he’s just starting to get into R&B. Russ introduced him to it. He still enjoys classical music and going to his parents’ concerts, but he needs to find his own music, you know?). Andy already has his license so he picks Georgie up for school in Nonna Rosa’s beat-up Pinto. Georgie’s parents still aren’t letting him drive, but they’ve started to look into specially-adapted cars for dwarfs, so Georgie figures this is progress.

Georgie and Andy arrive at school safely, and they head off to class. Georgie’s a pretty good student, and he’s thinking he may want to get into politics when he’s older, although he hasn’t told anyone this yet. After school Georgie takes part in his latest after-school activity, which is Mock Trial. He’s already been through Model U.N., Academic Decathlon, and of course, drama club. These were all Jeanie the Meanie’s idea (she’s going by “Jeanette” now). Georgie and Jeanette still hang out regularly, and he’s 90% sure she has a crush on him, but he’s not certain how he feels about that yet. He still can’t quite get over the time she threw a rock at him. He’s contemplating asking her to the Homecoming dance, though.

When Georgie gets home, he babysits his little sister for a while. Charlotte’s six now and she’s still a good five inches shorter than Georgie, so he’s happy about that. Charlotte has already started to take violin lessons, but she doesn’t seem to like it much. She is, however, a whiz in her gymnastics class.

After dinner and homework, Georgie gets to relax. Normally he’d be out walking dogs, but RGA Dog Walking has become so popular that Georgie, Russ, and Andy have recently sold the business to a local entrepreneur for a very tidy profit.

Thanks for all the great questions, guys!!

Thank you, Lisa! We are honored to be the first stop on your exciting tour!!!

The thing about Lisa is she will be on tour all week, bouncing all over the blogosphere to spread the word about THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE. And the thing about HarperCollins is they will be giving away three free copies of THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE every day Lisa is on tour! Cool, right?

And it’s easy. Just follow Lisa on her tour and send an e-mail to thethingaboutgeorgie@harpercollins.com. Put “Georgie Giveaway” in the subject line. And in the message box put your name, address, and the name of the blog where you saw the interview that day. That’s it.

Tomorrow Lisa will be stopping by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Don’t miss it!

And in the meantime, pick up a copy of THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE because the thing about it is, it's really, really good!
:-)

Bloggy Bloggy Blog Tour

[PLEASE NOTE: The above blog-post title is meant to be sung to the tune of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Thank you.]

To promote THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE, I will be going on a "blog tour" next week. Beginning on Monday, I'll be hitting up a new blog every day, where my lovely hosts have whipped up a series of thoughtful and oft-hilarious questions for me to answer. In addition, HarperCollins is giving away three FREE COPIES of my book each day (info on that will be provided on the blogs, so be sure to check them all out).

Here's where I'm making my stops:

Monday I kick the tour off right here at The Longstockings.
Tuesday Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Wednesday Big A little a
Thursday Bildungsroman
Friday A Fuse #8 Production
Saturday MotherReader
Sunday Gothamist

AND, as if that weren't enough, over on my personal blog I will be putting up "Outtakes" from GEORGIE -- short scenes that didn't make the final cut. There will be one for every day of the tour, as well as a behind-the-book look at why that particular bit was axed.

Hope you all will join me on my whirlwind tour spectacular!

~lisa graff~

QoW: Picture This!

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?

It's so hard to choose just one favorite. They were all so good back then! So here are my two faves, in this order:


ARE YOU MY MOTHER? by P. D. Eastman

This was the book I just couldn't get enough of. The story was so simple and powerful, and the illustrations really created a world for this baby bird who hatched from his egg one day and just wanted to find his mother. I love how this little bird didn't just wait around for her either. He was very proactive, this little guy. He searched high and low, and when he finally found her, wow, the joy! The satisfaction!

The beauty of this book is in the detail. For example, the mother bird wears the most adorable little head scarf. A real nice fashion touch, indeed. I still love love love this book!!!


FORTUNATELY by Remy Charlip

I haven't read this story since I was a little kid, but I always found it to be so funny and adventurous. And it taught me really big words like "fortunately" and "unfortunately." This is the story of a little boy named Ned who is on his way to a party. Along the way, all kinds of mishaps occur. Here's an excerpt:

Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party.
Unfortunately, the party was a thousand miles away.

Fortunately, a friend loaned Ned an airplane.
Unfortunately, the motor exploded.

Fortunately, there was a parachute in the airplane.
Unfortunately, there was a hole in the parachute.

The entire book is written this way, and it's a whole lot of fun waiting for the next unfortunate thing to happen then seeing how Ned will get out of it by nothing more than pure luck. I remember that, as he is falling from the plane with his busted parachute, he looks down and fortunately there's a haystack under him. Yay! But, unfortunately, (you knew there had to be an "unfortunately," didn't you?) oh no, there's a pitchfork in the haystack! That was the part that always made me laugh. From the illustration, it looked like he was going to land butt-first right onto the pitchfork! Now I don't want to give the whole book away, but let me just say, the book ends with one big fortunately!

~Coe~

QoW: I HEART ALEXANDER

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?

Picture books don’t get much better than ALEXANDER by Harold Littledale. I have super fond memories of my mom reading and rereading this gem to me at night. It was published by Parents Magazine Press in 1964. I'm hugging my tattered copy right now.

ALEXANDER tells the story of a young boy named Chris and his pet horse (any guesses to his name?). As Chris is being put to bed by his father, he recaps a bunch of misbehaving that happened through the day, including tantrums, a broken jar of peaches at the grocery store, jumping on the furniture, etc...all starring Alexander.

Now, here's where the art by Tom Vroman takes center stage. On each spread of misbehaving, Alexander is shown in scene acting out on the left page, while Chris is mimicing his movements on an all white spread on the right. A few little details, like the way Chris' eyebrows are drawn or the questions his father asks about each incident lead the reader to believe...CHRIS IS A LIAR!

Then Chris brainstorms pages and pages of potential punishments for poor old innocent Alexander, which he imagines carrying out with zero remorse like a budding little sadist. This part always got me soooo mad! Thankfully, his wise father knows Chris is full of horse poop and calls him out on his lies. Chris tries to play it cool, like "How did you know it was me all along?" And his father says "Alexander told me." And then we get a nice drawing of Alexander crossing his arms and looking smug. BOOYA!

This book is a seemless blend of text and art, both serving and informing the narrative. I am, and will always be, a big fan of this sassy book!



-=siobhan=-

QoW: I was SOOOOO MAAAAD

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?
Honestly, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel was more like my second or third favorite. But I remember sitting on the floor in my attic (I had a little playroom up there--it was unfinished with wood beams and a low pointy ceiling--the perfect place for any kind of imagination game that took place in a castle turret) and flipping through the pages, reading and re-reading it.

My REAL favorite was a book called Martha's Mad Day. I have absolutely no recollection of what this book was about, but my mom tells me I insisted on checking it out of the library EVERY week. I also tried to hide it a few times so I could keep it. So clearly I had strong feelings about the book. I can't find a cover for it online, but it looks like I can order a used copy. I intend to do that today, just to figure out why I was so passionate about it. My mom says the line she remembers is Martha saying, "such and such happened...and I was SOOOO MAAAD."

I myself often have "mad days" where I'm just fed up about every single thing. So perhap this book is responsible for my entire personality. Wouldn't that be something?

*caroline hickey

QoW: Go Fish!

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?

If I wait long enough, if I'm patient and cool,
Who knows what I'll catch in McElligot's pool?

I already wrote about my all-time favorite picture book (Little Fox Goes to the End of the World) in a previous post, but McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss is also one I was quite fond of.

McElligot's Pool is by no means the most popular Dr. Seuss book out there, but it's definitely just as fun and lively as the rest of 'em. In it, a young boy imagines all of the amazing things that he can find in a crummy old pond. And, of course, it has that great Seussian rhyme and rhythm to it that just can't be beat.

I might catch an eel...
(Well, I might. It depends.)
A long twisting eel with a lot of strange bends.
And, oddly enough, with a head at both ends!

When I was about eight years old I invented a car game based on this book that I forced my family to play for hours on end whenever we took a long trip. I cleverly named it "The Fish Game." Players take turns making up sentences that begin with the phrase "I might catch a fish..." and then you go around the car and everyone has to rhyme with your phrase. So, if I came up with "I might catch a fish with a face like a donkey," you could come back at me with, "I might catch a fish whose ears were all wonky." If you can't think of a rhyme, you are OUT.* See? Hours of fun for the whole family. Thanks, Dr. Seuss!

~lisa graff~

*Two additional rules to The Fish Game that were added over time:

1. You have to be able to think up at least one other rhyme for whatever you say. This stops mean people like my older brother from saying stuff like, "I might catch a fish who's orange."
2. No fair using "weird name like BLANK." This rule was invented after my brother tried to stump me with "I might catch a fish that tastes just like beef," and I came back at him with "I might catch a fish with a weird name like Meef."

QoW: Another one for William Steig

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?
I think SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE is about as perfect as a book can be. The story rocks, with a normal frolick in the woods turning into a marvelous day when Sylvester the donkey finds a magic pebble, and then into disaster when a hungry lion appears. Sylvester does what any of us would: makes a wish. And this is where things take a twist because his wish is not a wise one. Rather than wish for strength to defeat the lion or a helicopter to wisk him away, Sylvester wishes he were a rock. I love that so much because it is so true: in a moment of great danger one’s thoughts are often ridiculous. Like I could really see thinking that.

The deal with the magic pebble is that you need to be touching it to make a wish. So poor Sylvester spends months as a rock on a hill while his parents are frantic with worry and misery. But then comes the day when they go out for a picnic, end up setting up their spread on the rock that is their son, find the pebble and set it on the rock/Sylvester. And this time Sylvester has his wits about him and wishes to be himself again. The pictures are incredible and none is better than the image of Sylvester with the picnic fixings spilling off him as he turns from a rock back into a donkey.

The end makes me tear up every time I read it: on the last page we see Sylvester snuggling with his parents. The family has set the magic pebble in a safe place because have no need for it. They have each other and what more could anyone wish for?

So totally sweet.

Daphne Grab

QoW: From Guest Blogger, Emily Jenkins!

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?

Of course there are many picture books I loved passionately as a child, but the one that influenced me most as a writer of books for young children was FLETCHER AND ZENOBIA, by Victoria Chess and Edward Gorey -- with pictures by Chess. It's out of print, now -- and rare enough that copies go on alibris (www.alibris.com) for upwards of $50. You can't even get a ratty old copy from Powells or anywhere -- at least, not at the moment.

So I'm writing from memory: Fletcher the cat lives in a tree, and he's lonely. He wears a rather Victorian-looking waistcoat, and longs for company. One day an egg appears, and inside Fletcher finds a doll named Zenobia. They set up house together and other friends come to visit -- including a large and beautiful green moth. At some point, they have an enormous party and make the most splendiferous cakes, some of them so tall they are nearly capsizing from their own weight.

Googling the title, I found that quite often, people mis-identify the pictures as being by Gorey -- Chess's style certainly has some of his flavor, but there's more joy in her pictures than in his. She does share Gorey's delicate line and grotesque humor. What influenced me about this book is the sense of wonder -- of an unearthly and magical world in which people (or cats, or moths) feel the same urgent feelings that we do: the need for a friend, the pleasure of cakes, the troublesome feeling of having overeaten oneself.

My own books (FIVE CREATURES, THAT NEW ANIMAL, LOVE YOU WHEN YOU WHINE, some others) have all been more domestic and less fantastical than FLETCHER AND ZENOBIA -- even TOYS GO OUT, which is a fantasy for elementary school readers, is pretty firmly rooted in the every day. But I always try to start with this sense of a strong emotion, like Fletcher's loneliness, and with the tactile experiences that concern children. Cracking a giant egg. Licking a spoon of gooey pink frosting. Climbing a tree.

I admire how Chess and Gorey write comedy that both adults and children can love -- and how they fearlessly decline to explain anything. Where did the egg come from? Why was Zenobia in it? It's just primal imagery, and needs no explanation. Likewise, where do they bake all those cakes, since they live on the branch of a tree? It doesn't matter. They do. They make the cakes appear, because they are ready to celebrate. Because they are sharing with their friends. Because they want them.


Emily Jenkins is the author of many books for young readers, including Five Creatures and Love You When You Whine. Her newest picture book is the laugh-out-loud funny Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic.

For more information on Emily, check out her website.

And thanks for being such a wonderful guest blogger, Emily. You're the best!

Book Party!

This weekend The Longstockings attended a muy, muy fabulous book party for Lisa Graff and her newly available chef d'oeuvre, The Thing About Georgie. There was some smashingly good guacamole, several former New School teachers (Sarah Weeks and Tor Seidler), and a lot of book talk.

Some of the talk discussed book parties in general. Publishers don't seem to be chipping in for book parties for new authors anymore (if they ever did), even if they adore them. It's often up to the writers themselves or their friends to throw one. Are book parties no longer about selling books, but about simply celebrating one's major accomplishment? Should they be about both? Are they social or professional? Should books be available for sale or not?

Discuss!

*caroline hickey

P.S. Only 6 of the Longstockings are pictured, as Coe had trouble parking and Lisa Graff was too busy chatting to pose. From L to R: Lisa GW, Kathryne, Jenny, Siobhan, Caroline, Daphne.

QoW: Planned Obsolescence

QoW: What was your favorite picture book when you were growing up?

When I was a kid, I used to tell everyone that I was going to be the First Woman President of the United States when I grew up. I was serious about this, even to the point of asking my mom what you had to major in in college to get elected. I was still going to be an actor and a writer and a lawyer, but these were the Regan years, so I knew you could be pretty much anything you wanted and still get to be President (provided you had the right college major, of course).

Other girls had tea parties with their dolls; I had State Dinners: just like Marina in Norma Klein's book, Girls Can Be Anything.

Now that I'm an adult, only three years shy of the constitutional age limit for the presidency, I'm more than a little aghast that the position of First Woman President is still open. But I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that the book that inspired this hifaluten just-pretend game is out of print.

In the story, Marina has to keep convincing her best friend, Adam, that being a girl doesn't mean she can't be whatever she wants when they play just-pretend. Adam keeps trying to make her be the stewardess when she wants to be the pilot, or make her be the nurse when she wants to be the doctor, all because she's a girl. Fortunately, Marina has very enlightened parents, who, over dinner each night, tell her about specific women who are doing all the things Adam Sobel says girls don't do, and Marina goes back to pre-school each day prepared to bring Adam out of the Dark Ages. By the end of the book, Adam and Marina decide they're both going to be Pilots and Presidents, so they can fly each other to wherever they have to deliver their speeches.

I still recommend this book highly--it's available used all over the Internet--for anyone with kids at picture-book age. But I'm really pleased by the idea that reading this book to a kid today could be less about dreaming of the future, and more about telling of the past: "Can you believe there was a time, when Mommy was a little girl, that people didn't think a girl could be a Pilot? or a Doctor? or a President?"

--Kathryne B. Alfred

QoW: A mouse for a dentist

Question of the week: What was your favorite picture book growing up?

Who wouldn't love Dr. De Soto, mouse dentist, and his loveable mouse-wife/assistant? Well, if anyone didn't love them, it'd probably be me since I am petrified of mice. However, my mouse-fears didn't apply when it came to this Mr. William Steig masterpiece. I loved this book growing up, and love it just as much now.

"This is one of those picture books that are so good I'd just like to quote the whole thing."
--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Doctor De Soto is a mouse dentist who...operates a clinic open to all except animals threatening to mice. What to do, then, when a weeping and wailing fox shows up for treatment?. . .There is great wit and good fun in the illustrations." --Starred, Booklist

*Lisa GW*

QoW: Hangin' with Baby

Question (or topic) of the Week: Write a letter to a children's or teen book character.

To: Baby
from MOMMY by Maurice Sendak

Dear Baby,
I just want to tell you that you RULE. I love your spunk and determination. You know how to take care of yourself and how to get what you want, that's for sure! I love how you handled the vampire and the werewolf in your own rockin' baby style. And the monster... By the time you were done with him, the look on his face was just priceless! Oh, and when you UNRAVELED the mummy, man, that was laugh-out-loud funny!

Now I know you have a wonderful, though unusual-looking mommy (yes, she's quite the ghoul!), but maybe I can become your "play aunt" and you can visit me on the weekends. I'm pretty sure you can handle yourself in The Bronx because you have no fear, baby. You're tough. And if I have you by my side, I will be fearless, too, day or night! So let me know what you think.

Love,
Auntie Coe
P.S. If you do want to hang with me in the 'hood, feel free to pop up any time you want.
P.P.S. Get it? POP-UP???
(Oh, forget it. I know, I know. You're too young!)

QoW: Goth Girl Gets What She Asks For

Question of the Week: Write a letter to a children's or teen book character.

Dear Kyra,

Okay. Here’s the thing. You can’t get mad at Fanboy for calling your dad and telling him that you might be suicidal when you cut your wrists and steal his lucky bullet. And you also can’t be mad at him for staring at your boobs when you took off your shirt for him to show him your boobs. Likewise, you have no leg to stand on when it comes to his shocked reaction when you shockingly flashed Fanboy’s comic book idol because he wouldn’t look at his graphic novel.

See…I like you Kyra. Seriously I do. You are spunky and off the wall and totally an individual. I’m very much drawn to people like you. You are wild, fun, unpredictable. All good things.

But you also do things for a reaction. And when you get a reaction, the one you expect, you freak out like you didn’t know it was coming. Your obsession with attention coupled with your general passive-aggressiveness makes you a little high maintenance. It's frustrating to watch you self-sabatoge, girly!

So, here’s a word of advice. Just relax. Take it down a notch. Be thankful that you have Fanboy in your corner. Even though he’s getting that boyfriend-y look in his eye, he’ll also just be your plain old plutonic friend if you wanted him to. But if you keep up with the push-pull, the psychotic mood swings and the unprovoked ta-ta-flashing antics…you’re going to lose him. For good.

Your pal,
Siobhan

QoW: Sisters: from enemies to BFF, I swear

Question of the Week: Write a letter to a children's or teen book character.

Dear Beezus,
Hey girl. What's up? Look, I'm writing you this letter to tell you that things will be okay. Your skin will clear up, I promise you. And listen, try and be a little nicer to Ramona. Yes, she's a pest, but one day, you two will be best friends. I promise. That's what happens with sisters. The older you get, the more you understand each other and realize that you're the only two people in the world who get what it was like to grow up, in your house, with your parents, eating tripe. With a cat named Picky-Picky. See? Isn't that special? Sisters are special. Remember that the next time Ramona calls you Pizza-Face. Later in life, she'll feel really guilty about it. Feel free to guilt-trip her. Love ya!
Peace in the Middle East,
Jenny

Another book sale for Longstocking Lisa Graff

I'm very happy to report this recent bit of Longstocking good news!

From Publishers Marketplace:

Children's: Middle grade
Author of THE THING ABOUT GEORGIE Lisa Graff's ALLERGIC TO CHOCOLATE, the coming-of-age story of one eight-year-old girl who, since her brother's death, has become a hypochondriac and is struggling in her relationships with friends and family members, again to Jill Santopolo of Laura Geringer Books, by Stephen Barbara at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (World).sbarbara@maassagency.com

We love you, Lisa!


xoxo
Lisa GW

HAR-RY! HAR-RY! HAR-RY!

Breaking news! Deathly Hallows is out 7-21-07! AHHHHH! Excitement is taking over my senses. AND, I got the news from the Grand Mistress herself, Keeper of the Crypt, editor Cheryl Klein herself! I feel like I am in a secret society comprised of those who love Harry. (Yall, just pretend you didn't see those pics of Harry, topless by a white horse this week. Erase that image from your mind.)

Here is a link to more info: http://petr.vaclavek.com/images/swn/filmy/harry-potter-a-ohnivy-pohar-goblet-of-fire-6.jpg
(I am too lazy too turn it into a real link, but come on, how lazy do you have to be to cut and paste, right? Right?)

Let the slow clap begin. * clap * clap * clap *

luv, Jenny

QoW: Dear Professor Snape (Possible SPOILERS)

QoW: Question (or topic) of the Week: Write a letter to a children's or teen book character.


Dear Professor Snape,

What gives? For six books now I've watched you torture Harry, accuse him of thievery and mischief, and give Gryffindor points when Harry was just out trying to save the world from Baselisks and the like. You have the Dark Mark on your arm, and yet Dumbledore always insisted that you were good, that you were only "spying" on the Death Eaters, and no longer a bad guy.

And then you made that pact. And did, you know, that REALLY BAD THING at the end of Half-Blood Prince. And now there are all these conspiracy theories about how you had to do it, you'd promised YOU KNOW WHO that you would, and that it's all part of the plan to give Harry enough confidence/cause to take on Voldemort solo in Deathly Hallows.

But part of me thinks you're just putrid. Putrid like old milk in my office refrigerator.

Yours disgustedly,

Caroline Hickey

P.S. Alan Rickman, I do not hold you responsible for the character you portray as Severus Snape. In fact, I really dig you.