Lightship wins!

I first wrote about this book last March, and I'm delighted to be writing about it again -- this time to announce that those of us on the 2007 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book judging panel have given author/illustrator Brian Floca our top prize.

Have a look at who else won this year's Cybils.

What am I waiting for (12/07)?

The shortlist of Cybils nonfiction picture book finalists, which I'll help judge.

Official word that publication of The Day-Glo Brothers is 12 months away, at which point I'll start working in earnest on a full-fledged author website. (My wife, by the way, has been justifiably raving about this one.)

An editor's verdict on J.R.

The posting of the complete schedule at the Texas Library Association conference.

After the holidays, when I'll try to convince some of my local author friends to let me tag along on their school visits.

The right time to pick the brains of the librarians at the elementary school just down the street.

The right time to try my hand at writing a "Cadenza" for Horn Book.

The right time to pitch a children's nonfiction panel for the 2008 Texas Book Festival.

The right time...

Let the wild winnowing start!

The Cybils nominations for the year's best children's and young adult books are closed. Now begins the fun (read: hard) work of narrowing each category's list of vying titles down to five finalists.

Below are the books that the nonfiction nominating panel will be chewing on through the end of the year; a smidgen of the price of purchases made through the links provided help keep the Cybils going. (Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect has the details on just what the nominating panel will be keeping in mind.)

A Horse in the House and Other Strange but True Animal Stories
Written by Gail Ablow; illustrated by Kathy Osborn
Candlewick
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

A Little Peace
Written by Barbara Kerley
National Geographic
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

A Seed is Sleepy
Written by Dianna Hutts Aston; illustrated by Sylvia Long
Chronicle
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

ABC Safari
Written and illustrated by Karen Lee
Sylvan Dell
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Anne Hutchinson's Way
Written by Jeannine Atkins; illustrated by Michael Dooling
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Apples
Written by Jacqueline Farmer; illustrated by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes
Charlesbridge
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Artful Reading
Written and illustrated by Bob Raczka
Millbrook Press
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Ballerina Dreams
Written by Lauren Thompson; illustrated by James Estrin
Feiwel & Friends
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Bugs Up Close
Written by Diane Swanson; illustrated by Paul Davidson
Kids Can Press
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Campy: The Story of Roy Campanella
Written by David A. Adler; illustrated by Gordon James
Viking
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Capoeira: Game! Dance! Martial Art!
Written and illustrated by George Ancona
Lee & Low
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male
Written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy
Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

D is for Drinking Gourd: an African American Alphabet
Written by Nancy I. Sanders; illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Sleeping Bear Press
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Different Like Coco
Written and illustrated by Elizabeth Matthews
Candlewick
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Dogs and Cats
Written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Houghton Mifflin
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Dolley Madison Saves George Washington
Written and illustrated by Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

First the Egg
by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Roaring Brook
Buy from Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire
Written by Roxane Orgill; illustrated by Stephane Jorisch
Candlewick
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Guess What is Growing Inside this Egg
Written and illustrated by Mia Posada
Millbrook
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Hiromi's Hands
Written and illustrated by Lynne Barasch
Lee & Low
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

In My Backyard
Written by Valarie Giogas; illustrated by Katherine Zecca
Sylvan Dell
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Let's Go!: The Story of Getting from There to Here
Written by Lizann Flatt; illustrated by Scot Ritchie
Maple Tree Press
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Lightship
Written and illustrated by Brian Floca
Atheneum / Richard Jackson Books
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Living Color
Written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Houghton Mifflin
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer
Written by Bill Wise; illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
Lee & Low
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Make Your Mark, Franklin Roosevelt
Written by Judith St. George; illustrated by Britt Spencer
Philomel
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria
Written by Kyra E. Hicks; illustrated by Lee Edward Fodi
Brown Books Publishing Group
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter
Written by Lois V. Harris
Pelican
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

May I Pet Your Dog?: The How-to Guide for Kids Meeting Dogs (and Dogs Meeting Kids)
Written by Stephanie Calmenson; illustrated by Jan Ormerod
Clarion
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

My Name Is Gabito/Mi Llamo Gabito: The Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez/La Vida De Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Written by Monica Brown; illustrated by Raul Colon
Luna Rising
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Nothing but Trouble: the story of Althea Gibson
Written by Sue Stauffacher; illustrated by Greg Couch
Knopf
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Ocean Seasons
Written by Ron Hirschi; illustrated by Kirsten Carlson
Sylvan Dell
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II
Written and illustrated by Lita Judge
Hyperion
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Rough, Tough Charley
Written by Verla Kay; illustrated by Alan Gustavson
Tricycle Press
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Sawdust and Spangles: the Amazing Life of W.C. Coup
Written by Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills; illustrated by Giselle Potter
Abrams
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Strong Man: the story of Charles Atlas
Written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy
Knopf
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku
Written by Ellie Crowe; illustrated by Richard Waldrep
Lee & Low
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

The Book of Time Outs: a Mostly True History of the World's Biggest Troublemakers
Written and illustrated byDeb Lucke
Simon & Schuster
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Turtle Summer: a Journal for My Daughter
Written by Mary Alice Monroe; illustrated by Barbara J. Bergwerf
Sylvan Dell
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Vulture View
Written by April Pulley Sayre; illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Henry Holt
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

We
Written by Alice Schertle; illustrated by Kenneth Addison
Lee & Low
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Where in the Wild?: Camouflaged Creatures Concealed ... and Revealed
Written by David Schwartz and Yael Schy; illustrated by Dwight Kuhn
Tricycle Press
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo
Written and illustrated by Carlyn Beccia
Houghton Mifflin
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Wired
Written by Anastasia Suen; illustrated by Paul Carrick
Charlesbridge
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Young Pele: Soccer's First Star
Written by Lesa Cline-Ransome; illustrated by James Ransome
Schwartz & Wade
Buy From Amazon | Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

[Updated 12/5, thanks to the tip from Tricia in the comments.]

Re-Cybilized

I hope you've had time to Take a Ride on the Reading Railroad, this month's kidlitosphere carnival over at Charlotte's Library. Good stuff there, and I'm delighted to have a post of mine included.

Speaking of children's literature-related metaphorical modes of transportation, I'm back on the Cybils bus. Last year I organized the nonfiction picture book category, but I figured that the impending publication of my first book would get in the way of my participating in 2007. Well, publication is still impending, but not quite as quickly as originally planned, so there's a big Cybils-shaped hole in my schedule next January that I'll gladly fill by serving as one of the judges, along with:

• Adrienne (Tough City Writer)
• Adrienne (What Adrienne Thinks About That)
• Becky (In the Pages)
• Jackie (Tiny Treasury)

We'll be picking the winner from the shortlist handed to us by the nominating panel, which includes:

• Andrea (Just One More Book!!)
• Emily (Whimsy Books)
• Fiona (Books and 'Rocks)
• Jennifer (Kiddosphere)
• Category organizer Eisha (Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast)

Then there's your role, which begins tomorrow, when you start nominating titles in all categories -- but especially non-fiction picture books, which you dig just as much as I do, right?

A series is sprouting

A Seed Is Sleepy, Dianna Aston's follow-up to Cybils winner An Egg Is Quiet, should show up here any day (in an Austin-authored twofer package along with Tantalize). While I'm waiting, Kris at Paradise Found has just the thing to tide me over: an interview with Seed and Egg illustrator Sylvia Long.

The best news of all:

Kris: Will you be doing another book in this wonderful series?

Sylvia: Yes! Hopefully many.

What am I waiting for (3/07)?

News from editors on Pasta, James, Smith and P.O.

Submission (or revision) news on J.R. and Arbor.

Word on whether, where and when I'll be traveling to do some on-site research for one project or another.

The Cybils post-mortem. Get your comments in now.

The receipt through Interlibrary Loan of an obscure figure's autobiography -- a book that might well be a crushing bore but might also inspire yet another research project. The two are not mutually exclusive, you know.

Official confirmation on a couple of fun pieces of news that I can share with you all.

The arrival of my very first issue of Horn Book, which I ordered over the weekend. It seems like it wasn't very long ago, when I was first getting started in this business, that subscribing to Horn Book seemed like a total cart-before-the-horse extravagance.

Cybils are noisy

As you've likely seen, the first-ever Cybils were announced yesterday, to gobs of enthusiasm. Congratulations to all the winners, which included nonfiction picture book An Egg Is Quiet, by Dianna Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long.

As the head of the nonfiction picture book category, I'd been sitting on that news for a while, waiting for it to hatch. I have new respect for chickens.

The 2006 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book Shortlist

And the finalists are...

3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet written by Bob Raczka Milbrook Press
This art exhibit in a book begins with "A is for Arrow" and ends with "Z is for Zigzags." In between a and z, readers are treated to a visual feast, with the different types of sculpture and the materials they use both indoors and out clearly explained.

Aliens Are Coming! written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy Knopf
McCarthy's funny illustrations— of wide-eyed cartoonish people in a panic, drooling aliens on city streets, and long-legged Martian vehicles taking over the country—are among the many highlights of the book subtitled The True Account Of The 1938 War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast.

An Egg Is Quiet written by Dianna Aston; illustrated by Sylvia Long Chronicle Books
This uncommonly elegant title explores eggs in their many shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and other qualities. With layered, wonder-filled text and gorgeous ink-and-watercolor art, it's earned a standing ova-tion.

An Island Grows written by Lola M. Schaefer; illustrated by Cathie Felstead Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins
Simple rhymed couplets and colorful collage illustrations tell of an island's formation, from the initial undersea volcanic eruption to the arrival of flora, fauna, people and culture. A graceful, engaging lesson in basic geology for young children.

Little Lost Bat written by Sandra Markle; illustrated by Alan Marks Charlesbridge
Markle describes the early life of the Mexican free-tailed bat. Her research is reflected in the storyline which also has an emotional tug to pull the child into the book. Marks evokes the darkness of the cave and evening sky and tenderly depicts the faces of mother and child.

Thanks once again to Anastasia, Susan, Camille, and Deb for their nominations-committee efforts, right down to authoring the summaries above.

To see the shortlists for the other categories, please visit the Cybils site. If you have a nomination for the 2007 Cybils, please send those to...

I'm kidding. Really. Just enjoy the 2006 lists. Please. And Happy New Year!

A shortlist that will last a long time

I'll never read or write nonfiction picture books the same way again.

We on the Cybils nominations committee for nonfiction picture books all but wrapped up our work yesterday when we broke a five-way tie for the fifth and final place on the shortlist. The shortlist will be revealed to the world and submitted to our judges on New Year's Day.

It was a joy to work with Anastasia, Camille, Deb, and Susan on narrowing the 40-plus nominees down to those five standout titles. Emphasis on "joy," but also on "work," as those titles were standouts among standouts. If you were to read only the titles that came in places 6-10 in our voting, you'd think that 2006 had been a stellar year for picture book nonfiction.

It's been more than two months since Kelly first approached me about participating in the Cybils, and without a doubt the highlight for me has been the past eight days. That's when the nominations committee began to discuss, debate, and deliberate each of the 14 titles that survived an initial vote.

I re-read and re-re-read books that I thought I knew well already, examining them more closely than I'd ever looked at a picture book, discerning what made them so appealing (if not to myself, then to other committee members) while also seeking out potentially disqualifying (though often nitpicky) flaws. With four other people doing the same, and all of us in the habit of expressing ourselves, we wound up with a lot to think and talk about. I loved it.

I'll leave you with just a few of the qualities we considered in evaluating these books (and which I expect will form a mental checklist for my own work and my reading of others' for a long time to come):

• Age-appropriateness
• Availability of source notes
• Obviousness of research
• Reliance on back matter for providing key information
  
• Readability of font and design
• Art that overshadows the text
• Levels of accessibility
• Fictionalizing
• Earnestness
• Self-indulgence
• Simplicity
• Oversimplification
• Originality
• Relevance
• Narrative format
• Emotion
• Cutesiness
• Breadth
• Density
• Usefulness in a classroom
• Usefulness as conversation starter
• Ripeness for reading aloud
• Potential as a gateway to other books
• Humor

All posted out

I've posted a lot these past couple of days, but none of it has shown up here -- it's all been in the discussion group for the Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book nominations committee. We've narrowed the field from 40-plus to 14 titles, and over the next week, we'll be coming up with our shortlist of five titles, to be revealed to the world on New Year's Day.

I hadn't considered how much thinking would be involved in this process. Critical thinking, even. Thinking hard. Hard thinking. But I'm enjoying the discussion and debate, and the insight I'm getting into what makes a good book a great one, and into what makes a book appeal to some readers but not others, should come in handy in my own work.

Ah, my own work. I remember it well...

Still reading

The good news is that, with a week still to go before my Cybils committee begins narrowing the nominated nonfiction picture book titles down to a shortlist of five, I've already come up with a top ten list.

The rest of the story is that there are still 16 nominated titles I haven't seen yet, which means it's a mathematical possibility that my entire top ten could be wiped out by books I read between now and next Monday.

Have I mentioned that I'm not getting any writing done these days? Or that I don't particularly mind?

Thankful for good reading

What will I be reading this Thanksgiving weekend? Why, the candidates for the shortlist for the Cybil for Nonfiction Picture Book, of course. And they are:

3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet
written and illustrated by Bob Raczka
Milbrook Press

A Place for Butterflies
written by Melissa Stewart; illustrated by Higgins Bond
Peachtree

Aliens Are Coming!: The True Account Of The 1938 War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast
written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy
Knopf

Almost Gone: The World's Rarest Animals
written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins
HarperCollins

American Slave, American Hero: York of the Lewis And Clark Expedition
written by Laurence Pringle; illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu
Calkins Creek

An Egg Is Quiet
written by Dianna Aston; illustrated by Sylvia Long
Chronicle Books

An Island Grows
written by Lola M. Schaefer; illustrated by Cathie Felstead
Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins

Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters
written and illustrated by Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart
Candlewick Press

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth
written by Nicola Davies; illustrated by Neal Layton
Candlewick Press

George Did It
written by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain; illustrated by Larry Day
Dutton Books

Great Estimations
written and illustrated by Bruce Goldstone
Henry Holt

Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook
written by Georgeanne Brennan; illustrated by Dr. Seuss
Random House

Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas
written by Cheryl Bardoe; illustrated by Jos. A Smith
Abrams

Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country and Western Music
written by Holly George-Warren; illustrated by Laura Levine
Houghton Mifflin

If a Dolphin Were a Fish
written by Loran Wlodarski; illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein
Sylvan Dell

The Illustrator's Notebook
written and illustrated by Mohieddine Ellabbad
Groundwood

I'm a Pill Bug
written by Yukihisa Tokuda; illustrated by Kiyoshi Takahasi
Kane/Miller

It's Not the Stork!: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends
written by Robie H. Harris; illustrated by Michael Emberley
Candlewick Press

Little Lost Bat
written by Sandra Markle; illustrated by Alan Marks
Charlesbridge

M Is for Masterpiece: An Art Alphabet
written by David Domeniconi; illustrated by Will Bullas
Sleeping Bear

The Magic School Bus and the Science Fair Expedition
written by Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen
Scholastic

Mama
written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter
Harcourt Children's Books

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor
written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
written by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Jump At The Sun

Near Mama's Heart
written and illustrated by Colleen Newman
Trafford

Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement
written by Doreen Rappaport; illustrated by Shane W. Evans
Candlewick Press

Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin
written and illustrated by Gene Barretta
Henry Holt

Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People
written and illustrated by Albert Marrin
Dutton Books

Our Seasons
written by Grace Lin; illustrated by Ranida T. Mckneally
Charlesbridge

Owen & Mzee: The True Story Of A Remarkable Friendship
written by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff & Paula Kahumbu; illustrated by Peter Greste
Scholastic

Perfect Timing: How Isaac Murphy Became One of the World's Greatest Jockeys
written by Patsi B. Trollinger; illustrated by Jerome LaGarrigue
Viking

Selvakumar Knew Better
written by Virginia L. Kroll; illlustrated by Xiaojun Li
Shen's Books

The Story of Salt
written by Mark Kurlansky; illustrated by S. D. Schindler
Putnam

Su Dongpo: Chinese Genius
written and illustrated by Demi
Lee & Low Books

The True Story of Stellina
written and illustrated by Matteo Pericoli
Knopf

This Jazz Man
written by Karen Ehrhardt; illustrated by R.G. Roth
Harcourt Children's Books

What Athletes Are Made Of
written and illustrated by Hanoch Piven
Atheneum/Ginee Seo

What Is Science?
written by Rebecca Kai Dotlich; illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
Henry Holt

What the Sea Saw
written by Stephanie St. Pierre; illustrated by Beverly Doyle
Peachtree

Wildfire
written and illustrated by Taylor Morrison
Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine

The World's Greatest Elephant
written by Ralph Helfer; illustrated by Ted Lewin
Philomel

Please note that purchase of these titles through the links on this page will provide a tiny commission to help pay for the Cybils' tiny overhead and (hopefully not-so-tiny) future development.

Special thanks to Cybils co-creator Kelly for her help with formatting this post.

Projects + rejects = prejects

Let's face it: Between the holidays and the Cybils and the fact that my current nonfiction project involves slowly reading a great big book, 2006 is just about over for me, productivitively. (Don't bother looking that one up.) And between rewrites of older stuff and new projects that have gone into circulation, it's been a satisfying year.

Which is kind of surprising, when I think of the projects I worked on this year that didn't go anywhere, or at least not as far as I'd hoped. Remember E.F.? Toast? Tennessee? There was at least one more picture book manuscript that I don't think I ever even gave a pseudonym to. Some of these took up a lot of my time, involved interviews and considerable research, and -- for a while, at least -- were what I expected to be working on for a long time to come.

As much as I'd like to have spent that time on projects that might sell, I don't regret them. (And, of course, I didn't know at the time that they wouldn't sell, or that I wouldn't be able to get them to a point where we could find out whether they would or not.) I learned a lot from each one, if not from the writing itself than from the research I did for them. I'm smarter as a result.

More importantly, I think I'll enter 2007 with a better sense of the sort of project that's right for me and right for the market. And if I don't? Well, just watch this space next November.

Democracy in action

"I'm a kid," 7-year-old S helpfully points out, "so I should help you pick the best kids' books."

This sounds reasonable to me, so Saturday night S and I sit down with the stack of nominated books I've received so far. Two-year-old F sits with us, too, but is mostly interested in leafing through Honky-Tonk Heroes and Hillbilly Angels and discussing the death of Hank Williams.

"Why did Hank Williams die?"

"His body stopped working."

"Why?"

Anyway, S begins sorting the nominees into a "Yes" stack and a "No" stack. Then, apparently swayed by a book that looks impressive but doesn't much interest him, he comes up with a "Maybe" stack.

Meanwhile, F is pointing to a picture of the late Tammy Wynette.

"I want to go see that guy."

"OK," announces S, "I'm done!"

The "Maybe" stack has disappeared, the "Yes" stack is towering, and the "No" stack has just three books in it: the one with a script font ("I don't read cursive"), the one that reads from back to front, and the one that's unbound, the lone F&G in the bunch.

I'm pretty sure this is how the National Book Awards work, too.

***

You do know that you've got just one more week to get in your nominations for best Nonfiction Picture Book and the other Cybils, right?

I thought it would be easy, mais non

I suppose it's a good sign that I'm having to turn down requests for personal appearances already: A local school asked me to be a "celebrity (hee!) reader" during Children's Book Week, but I had to pass, given my commitment to the Cybils.

About that commitment: When I was asked to be involved in the Nonfiction Picture Book award, it never occurred to me that part of my job would be having to divine what's nonfiction and what's non-nonfiction. "Nonfiction" seemed pretty straightforward to me: It's true stuff.

But then folktales and fairy tales and history-based slapstick and whatnot entered the picture. Libraries shelve some of them with fiction, and some with nonfiction. It can vary from library to library. Even some plainly true stories are showing up in the fiction sections, which just seems wrong, as does shelving items that don't meet the "true stuff" sniff test in the nonfiction section. Anyway, we're trying to do right by these authors and illustrators and give their books a fair shake in the right category. I just expected more fair-shaking and less category-righting.

***

In other developments...

There's more good news from Disco Mermaids. Congratulations, Robin!

Cynsations' neat-o series of editor interviews continues with Yolanda LeRoy of my favorite publisher.

If This Jazz Man sounded good to you, check out Publishers Weekly's article about how the book came to be.

***

And finally, Pasta didn't stick with the editor I'd first discussed the project with back in January. I got a rejection letter yesterday -- not for the topic, but for the voice I'd used in the sample chapters. She just flat-out did not like it -- not one bit. I'm a little sad, on one hand, in that a project I'd been working on with this editor in mind failed to strike a chord with her, especially after she'd been so enthusiastic in the beginning and so patient along the way; I'm already thinking of other projects for her.

But I'm also oddly excited -- I went outside my comfort zone in coming up with the voice for this proposal, and it may just be that producing something that's not everyone's cup of tea is simply part of going outside one's comfort zone as a writer. I'm still very excited about the voice, and something about this rejection feels different from the many others I've gotten over the years.

Of course, this rejection could well turn out to be merely the first of many, by which point this feeling could be all too familiar.

What am I waiting for? (11/06)

Half a year since I last posted about this, I'm still waiting for more things than I'm working on. Including:

My first glimpse of the art for The Day-Glo Brothers.

News from editors about several manuscripts:

• My biographies of James (picture book) and Smith (middle grade), which are both with the same editor. This editor gets them, I think, but there's a big difference between "gets" and "buys."
• My middle grade novel, Arbor.
• My proposal and sample chapters for Pasta.
• My picture book/graphic novel series P.O.

Copies of the books nominated for the Nonfiction Picture Book category of the Cybils.

The next big industry/literary event I plan to attend: the Texas Library Association annual conference in San Antonio in April.

Next summer, when -- a year before The Day-Glo Brothers' publication date -- I'll get cracking on a full-fledged web site, curriculum guides, and whatnot.

What am I working on? (11/06)

It's been a long time since I've offered this summary, so thanks to Tim for suggesting I get back to it. Here goes:

I'm doing very, very preliminary research for J.R., the next picture book biography I hope to write. "Preliminary" as in slowly reading a big ol' academic history of the period in which he lived, a book with only a handful of mentions of J.R. himself. Once I've absorbed all that, I plan to move on to J.R.'s autobiography -- but boy, is it hard keeping myself from jumping right to it.

I've revised S.V.T. and resubmitted it to my agent, but I'm still thinking of tweaks, so I'll be storing those up over the weekend and passing those along.

My role in getting the Cybils off the ground -- while extremely limited compared to the effort that others have been putting into it -- has squeezed out the rest of my writing work and much of my blogging. But I think it's for a good cause -- I recently saw a writer/illustrator make what I call the "nonfiction face" when the conversation turned to books about real, true-life stuff. In shedding light on the best nonfiction picture books (among other types) out there, perhaps the Cybils can reduce the occurrence of nonfiction face:

This counts as writing, right?

I didn't make it downtown for the Texas Book Festival this weekend -- my boys didn't want to go, and me insisting "You will go appreciate books amid a massive crowd" didn't seem like the best way to foster their love of reading. So, I missed Kathy Duval, Nicholas Lehman, Larry L. King, and other authors I would have liked to have seen, met, and/or mingled among.

But worry not -- I've still managed to do my share of socializing. My wife and I were the last folks to arrive at a Writers League of Texas reception Saturday evening, but we still got there in time to catch up with Annette Simon, Varian Johnson, and Julie Lake, as well as with Gene Brenek and Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, with whom we formed a fivesome for dinner.

On my way home from work a couple of days before, I stopped by the Borders where a passel (or perhaps a posse, or a possel) of visiting children's authors were making their last appearance in a statewide tour. Before the presentation, I had a chance to visit with Janee Trasler (whose delightful Ghost Eats It All is 2-year-old F's current favorite) and meet Shirley Duke (whose No Bows is going to the next lucky little girl of my acquaintance to have a birthday) and Anastasia Suen.

Anastasia and I are both serving on the nominations committee for the nonfiction picture book category in the Cybils. Organizing things for that committee (and for the judging committee) has taken up a lot of my time lately, but the upside is that I'm going to be reading a lot of great nonfiction over the next couple of months as we narrow the nominees down to five.

Somewhere in there, I expect to do some writing as well. Maybe right now...

Reading? Writing? Who needs 'em?

Aside from not getting much reading or any writing done, yesterday was terrific.

First, my editor paid me a great big compliment as we resolved a micro-issue related to the publication date of The Day-Glo Brothers. By the way, we should be about a year away from having advance copies.

Then I heard from my agent that my Pasta proposal -- two chapters and descriptions of additional subjects ripe for coverage in the subsequent chapters -- is ready to send off to the (very patient) editor who expressed an interest back in January. Plus, I got some encouraging and constructive feedback on SVT that -- along with what I got from Don and Julie last weekend -- I'll put to use when I start revising next week.

And then there was the party, a Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith-hosted affair in honor of the guests in town for today's SCBWI conference. If I drop any more names, I'll be spending the entire morning adding links to their sites and blogs. But regardless of who was there, I was impressed yet again by the warmth and congeniality and fun (and noise) generated by a house full of people who love children's literature.

I learned of new contracts, new books, and a nearly completed trilogy. I got to pass along a message from an out-of-town author to the visiting editor, and I took a message from the visiting writing coach to pass along to an out-of-town blogger. There was enthusiastic talk of the Cybils (and not just by me), nervous talk of the next day's presentations, and grin-and-bear-it talk of ongoing revisions. And lots of curiosity about how The Day-Glo Brothers is coming along.

Best of all, I found in a couple of New Yorkers an appreciative audience for the title of the country song I'm writing. But since it was too loud to sing in there, I'll share the chorus (the only part of the song that actually exists so far) with you. Feel free to imagine my wife rolling her eyes as I sing:

I'll ask you one more time
And I swear, it's not a joke
Tell me honestly
Do these tears make my heart look broke?

From Cybils to sikyifriykyiwas

The children's book awards now have a name and a web site: the Cybils. Now, head on over and get to nominatin'. And if you want to be considered for a non-fiction picture book committee -- either to narrow down the nominations, or to select the winner -- let me know right here in the comments.

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I enjoyed a flashback to my youth yesterday through a couple of bedtime chapters of Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing, which I hadn't read in 25 years. (I read sequel Superfudge aloud to my own fourth-grade class, so school visits should be a cinch for me.) But as much as I enjoyed it, 7-year-old S enjoyed it more, devouring the whole thing and getting all excited when I told him there were other Fudge books. I'm so glad I thought to bring home Tales while S, like Peter Hatcher, still has a 2 1/2-year-old brother.

***

I got some useful and encouraging feedback on my new manuscript, SVT, from my critique group on Saturday. I've got another set of eyes looking at it, and then I'll figure out my next move, but I'm still very much in love with it.

***

SVT must have met my need to get silly and make stuff up, because I've now been drawn far deeper into JR, the topic I'd been considering for my next picture book biography. Before I really started reading up on the subject, I'd thought it was something I might want to write about, eventually; now, I feel like it's something I have to write about, now.

***

Finally, if you've always wondered what a sikyifriykyiwa sounds like, wonder no more. Yesterday, I learned of Wesleyan University's Virtual Instrument Museum, which is packed with sample sounds and videos of chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, and idiophones. "Idiophones?" Who knew?

A Message for Bloggers: The First Annual Children's Book Awards, Blog Edition

This month we've seen a spate of book awards, some of which have left us wondering: Couldn't we, the intelligent, savvy members of the kidlitosphere do better? Or, at least, differently?

So, we're inaugurating our own book awards, honoring books published in English for children in 2006. Anne Boles Levy, of Book Buds, will launch a site this week and administer the awards process. To read all about the new Children's Book Awards, head on over to Big A little a. To suggest a name for the Book Awards, leave a comment with Anne at Book Buds.

You've reached the administrating blog for the Non-Fiction Picture Book category. Do you run a blog about children's books, are you a children's book author who blogs, or do you run a general book blog? Then volunteer to serve on the book nominating committee or on the judging committee. Here are the duties of each committee:

Nominating: Nominating committees of five members will narrow the recommendations (open to everyone with web access) down to a shortlist of five books per category. A list of all recommendations will be received by the nominating committee on November 21, 2006. The shortlists will be announced January 1, 2007.

Judging: Judging committees of five members, different from those serving on the nominating committees, will decide which title per category will win the Children's Book Award, Blog edition. The winners will be announced January 15, 2007. To serve on this committee, keep in mind you will have to read five books during a very busy time of the year.

When leaving your comment, please choose a second-choice category just in case we have too many volunteers for the Non-Fiction Picture Book category.