Month: May 2018

Picture Book List: Six Terrific Picture Books about Vehicles and Travel

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Here’s a bonus list to fill out the final week of May 2018. We’re a car-​trip family (I’m even publishing this post while planning a multi-​city, in-​state trip for us and our minivan!), so it probably comes as no surprise that we’ve bought more than a few picture books about vehicles, road trips, and traveling in general.

So here’s a list of PBs on those very topics.

Since we all pretty much know a few obvious ones—Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and Kate and Jim McMullan’s I Stink!, to name just three Biggies—the goal of this list is to offer up some quality but perhaps less familiar choices.

The Adventures of Taxi Dog by Debra and Sal Barracca (illustrated by Mark Buehner)

The funny rhyming story of Maxi, a stray dog, who’s found in a park by Jim the taxi driver. Why does Jim start receiving such big tips once Maxi starts riding along? A review by two young children (ages 8 and 9) at Spaghetti Book Club says: “We recommend this book because it is funny and the illustrations are colorful and full of detail. When the dog puts on his shows, the pictures make us feel like we are the passengers, with Maxi putting on the show for us.”

 

When Daddy’s Truck Picks Me Up by Jana Novotny Hunter (illustrated by Carol Thompson)

The rhyming story about a young boy who imagines the moment his father is going to arrive at school—from very far away—to pick him up in a tanker truck. A Kirkus review says: “The day crawls by even though he enjoys himself playing games and painting pictures. Eagerly anticipating his father’s arrival, the boy imagines Daddy driving toward him, traveling the tunnels, hurrying down a hill, carefully crossing a bridge and maneuvering through traffic.”

 

Everything I Know about Cars: A Collection of Made-​Up Facts, Educated Guesses, and Silly Pictures about Cars, Trucks, and Other Zoomy Things by Tom Lichtenheld

This book shares a host of information that’s “100% fact-​free,” but a lot of fun nevertheless. The wacky illustrations are matched by ever wackier info, such as “Some people aren’t satisfied while sitting on their butts; they want to go really fast while sitting on their butts. These people drive hot rods and race cars, which are stinkier and faster than regular cars.”

A Booklist review says “With an eye-​catching jacket and a terrific section on how to draw a car, this large-​format book has something for everyone (except maybe someone who actually wants to know about cars.)”

 

Journey by Aaron Becker

An homage to Harold and his purple crayon, Becker’s 2014 Caldecott Honor Book, Journey, tells the wordless story of a lonely girl whose afternoon becomes magical when she draws a door on the wall with red chalk … and walks into a new world. A Common Sense Media review shares: “Bravery, and a little help from the loyal bird, lead her to further adventures a bit closer to home, where she finds she’s not the only one with a magic crayon and an imagination.”

 

Bug on a Bike by Chris Monroe

A rhyming, read-​aloud treat, this book follows Bug on his journey to who knows where? Along the way, he picks up pals like Lizard Mike, Randy the Toad, and more. A Kirkus review states: “As entertaining as the text is, however, it is the illustrations that steal the show. Singularly absurd in their renditions (the lizard wears madras shorts, the snake dons a tubular blouse), the menagerie all nonetheless manage to look determined and earnest as they follow the bug on a bike—who himself has the endearing focused look of a toddler just learning to ride a two-wheeler.”

A non-​spoiler: Finding out Bug’s final destination is worth the wait.

 

Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins

This book—with its wonderful cut-​paper illustrations—takes readers on a journey from the surface of the ocean into the deepest sea canyon, showing more than fifty creatures who call the deep waters their home. A Kirkus review states: “Along the way he introduces such oddities as a three-​foot comb jelly called a Venus’s girdle, a glowing siphonophore colony and a hairy angler with her parasitic mate. Browsers will be delighted by the variety of species, shown in their appropriate colors although not to scale.”

 

Editor Interview: Alexis Orgera and Chad Reynolds (Penny Candy Books)

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This month’s Industry Insider interview has double the goodness and double the fun, thanks to the generosity of Alexis Orgera and Chad Reynolds, the co-​founders of Penny Candy Books.

Alexis describes herself as a partner, friend, daughter, sister, animal lover, road-​tripper, homebody, poet, essayist, children’s book publisher, and an editor/​editorial consultant. She also spends a great deal of time “thinking about justice, imagination, and how to use what we have in our hearts and heads to make the world a little bit better.”

Alexis has also authored two fine poetry collections: How Like Foreign Objects and Dust Jacket, which won the 2013 Elizabeth P. Braddock Prize for Poetry.

Chad is the author of five poetry chapbooks and a co-​founder of Short Order Poems, a poetry collaborative whose mission is to bring poetry to people in unexpected ways and places. He also [apparently] enjoys brief bios. 🙂

RVC: What is the most important thing people should know or understand about Penny Candy Books?

AO: First and foremost, it’s important to know that we focus on diversity. Our mission is to publish children’s literature that reflects the diverse realities of the world we live in, both at home and abroad. This means seeking out books by and about people and subjects that speak to and from a broad range of human experience.

We’re serious about our mission, serious about who’s telling the stories we choose to publish, serious about making books that aren’t exclusionary based on the traditional (old) paradigms. We hope to build a diverse company—authors, illustrators, readers, editors, designers, and more.

RVC: I think that most writers get excited when they hear publishers talking about alternative structures. So much of publishing seems locked into a pre-​1980s mentality, despite the world changing dramatically in many ways.

CR: We’re new to publishing in this capacity, so I think by default we bring our other experiences as teachers, insurance brokers, store clerks, waiters, baristas, etc, with us to this endeavor, and that helps us see things in a fresh way. We’ve had a steep learning curve, and we’ve been keen to flatten it by learning best practices—but we always pause to ask whether a best practice makes sense or if it’s “best” because it’s what’s always been done.

We want to make it as a publisher and part of that involves doing some tried and true things, such as working with royalty contracts and using a traditional distributor. But we want to make it in our own way. Alexis and I both live outside the usual publishing hubs, and this gives us new insights and perspectives. We’re willing to take chances on newer or first-​time authors and illustrators. We have an open submission policy and we don’t limit word or page counts.

RVC: You launched the Penelope Editions imprint in January 2017. In what ways are its books different than other Penny Candy Books titles?

 AO: We launched Penelope to publish books that we loved that didn’t necessarily fit into Penny Candy’s model. We are currently honing Penelope’s mission, but it will have feminist leanings with books that display guts, vision, and humor.

RVC: I can’t help but note that the two of you are poets. Rumor has it that graduate school—and a shared love for poetry—brought you both together professionally. In what way(s) does having a background in poetry prepare you for publishing picture books which, on the surface, seem a good deal different than the work of Billy Collins, Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden, and Rita Dove.

AO: Poets think a lot about concision of language, the alchemy that imbues words with meaning, and images. We were basically being groomed for kids’ books back in grad school without even realizing it. Going into this business, Chad and I both had strong feelings about the books that shaped us. Those books that really reach in and grab something inside you—they’re essentially poems.

Poetry and kid lit are similar, too, in that they both seek the universal, the experience we can all point to and say, “Hey, I totally get that!”

CR: Poetry and picture books have a lot in common, which maybe explains why poets as diverse as TS Eliot, Gwendolyn Brooks, Randall Jarrell, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ted Hughes, Maya Angelou, Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, and many others wrote them.

RVC: Are there any poets of the type one might encounter in graduate school or, say, The Iowa Review, who haven’t yet entered the realm of writing picture books that you think might be well-​suited to do so? 

AO: Oh yes, and we have a few upcoming!

RVC: If they’re anything like A Gift from Greensboro, a poem by Quraysh Ali Lansana that became one of the first Penny Candy Books title, you’re right to be excited. 

Speaking of books that excite readers… prior to starting up Penny Candy Books, what picture books were wowing you? Which ones made you want to get involved in this industry?

CR: When I was a kid, my favorites were Small Pig by Arnold Lobel and A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard. Pezzettino and Swimmy by the great Italian artist Leo Lionni were favorites of my kids and opened my eyes to narrative and visual possibilities in this genre. Books by Taro Gomi such as Everyone Poops and My Friends made us laugh while inviting us into global conversations. Ruth Krauss’s A Hole Is to Dig and Open House for Butterflies—both with spot illustrations by Maurice Sendak—showed me how well kids can respond to figurative language and leaps of imagination, and how to see the world through a child’s eyes.

But for all the great books we admired before starting Penny Candy Books, we also recognized that American kids’ books could at times feel one-​sided, stagnant, Puritanical, pedantic. A lot of stories that needed to be told, weren’t being told.

AO: Of all the books I loved as a kid, I don’t think any featured characters of color, except one that I now recognize to have been very racist and colonialist. I had a real love affair growing up with a series of tiny books by Jenny Partridge about the adventures of animals in Oakapple Wood. To name just a few, more recently, Toni & Slade Morrison’s The Big Box really made an impact on me and reminded me what a picture book can do in its exploration of concepts like freedom. Jacqueline Woodson’s This is the Rope, among many of her books, is another that I loved for its treatment of family history through the lens of the Great Migration. The poet Ted Kooser and Jon Klassen collaborated on House Held Up by Trees, which was a very lovely book.

Finally, as we were planning what our books would look and feel like, we pored over books from all over the world to get a feel for the physicality of design. We were inspired by several French books, particularly.

RVC: I keep finding your press listed high up on the Dealmakers list of Publisher’s Marketplace. How many books do you plan to publish per year? And seeing that your authors include writers from Palestine, Australia, and France, some might wonder—is there a conscious ratio in mind of American vs. non-​American authors? 

CR: We are working up to publishing around 20 new titles per year, and we hope to hit that number within 4 or 5 years.

AO: Not a conscious ratio, no, but certainly an eye toward bringing work from other countries into the US kids’ book market. As a culture, particularly right now, we can’t afford to be isolationist in our reading habits. If kids are reading the works of authors from around the world, they’ll grow up with a broader perspective of what the world actually is. It’s not just our slice of it. 

RVC: Now that you’ve been at it for a few years, what are some of the PB world trends you’re noticing?

AO: Diversity is a very important and necessary development. Hopefully it’s not a trend but a reality that’s here to stay. The “Own voices” movement is a critical aspect of diversity, and publishers are finally recognizing that who is telling the story is just as important as the story being told.

RVC: Describe the ideal Penny Candy Books author.

CR: The only ideals we have are that stories ring true and that authors use language in a way that makes these stories sing.

RVC: Last thoughts?

AO: Here’s to big conversations!

CR: Thanks for your interest, Ryan.

RVC: Thanks so much, Alexis and Chad!

Educational Activities: Write On, Irving Berlin! by Leslie Kimmelman and David C. Gardner

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Write On, Irving Berlin!
Author: Leslie Kimmelman
Illustrator: David C. Gardner
Sleeping Bear Press
15 May 2018
32 pages

 

 

From the author of Hot Dog! Eleanor Roosevelt Throws a Picnic and the illustrator of The Harvey Milk Story comes this vivid picture-​book biography that examines the life of Irving Berlin, the distinguished composer whose songs, including “God Bless America” and “White Christmas,”  continue to be popular today.

Need some reviews of Write On, Irving Berlin?

Kirkus

Publisher’s Weekly

Jewish Book Council

Educational Activities inspired by Leslie Kimmelman’s Write On, Irving Berlin! 

  • Before Reading–Ask students:
    • “From looking at the cover, what do you think Berlin is writing about?”
    • “What are some of your favorite songs?”
    • “What traits make a good student?”
  • After Reading–Listen to three of Berlin’s most popular songs: “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “White Christmas,” and “God Bless America.” Discuss which you like most.
  • After Reading–The Berlin family fled Russia in the 1890s because they were persecuted for being Jewish. Have you ever heard of someone being treated poorly because of their religious beliefs? Or the color of their skin? Or for how they dress or act? How does that make you feel?
  • Music–Using a song you know well–perhaps one of Berlin’s or maybe a song like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Row Row Row Your Boat”–write your own lyrics. Feel free to be serious or silly.
  • Crafts–Using crayons (or colored pencils) and paper, draw what you think of when you hear the phrase “God Bless America.” What are you thankful for? Listen to the song for inspiration.
  • Writing–Berlin wrote “God Bless America” to honor American soldiers. Write your own letter to American soldiers that thanks them for their service. Consider working with an organization like A Million Thanks to send the letters.

Author Interview: Dianne Ochiltree

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This month’s PB creator interview is with Sarasota author Dianne Ochiltree. She’s a writing coach, freelance editor, workshop presenter, and award-​winning author of books for the very young. She notes that her family’s home “was filled to the rafters with books, books, books,” and that their home “was populated by a parade of pets, from guppy to puppy, as well as the stray animals Dianne had a habit of rescuing.” Talk about the perfect environment for raising a writer!

Dianne’s many published books include such titles as Molly, by Golly!, It’s a Seashell Day, and Ten Monkey Jamboree.

    

I’ll let you in on something—I know Dianne well. She recently did a well-​received visit to my Writing Picture Books class at Ringling College, and she’s also in my SCBWI critique group where we work on … wait for it … picture books! In short, I KNEW she’d be great for an OPB interview, but my hope was to keep her around until something went sideways and I needed someone completely trustworthy and dependable to save the day in the eleventh hour.

I couldn’t wait. So here’s Dianne. Enjoy!

Website: www.dianneochiltree.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dianne.ochiltree
Twitter: twitter.com/WriterDi
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dianne-ochiltree-54381118/

RVC: What was your first big break in publishing, and what lessons did it offer you?

DO: The path to publication of my first book for kids, Cats Add Up! was full of good lessons. A title in the “Hello, Reader!” softcover series from Scholastic, it was acquired directly as the result of attending a children’s publishing conference and making networking connections there. In this case, it was the RUCCL One-​on-​One Conference at Rutgers University, in the mid-​1990s, when I first entered the field of children’s writing. For this conference, writers are accepted on the merit of writing samples sent with the application, because part of the program is a session in which you, and a mentor, focus privately on your writing or artwork. I was thrilled to be accepted and even more excited on that day when I learned my mentor would be Paula Danziger. Paula liked my WIP (work in progress) about counting cats and she made helpful editorial suggestions, including the thought that it might be revised to be a potential title in Scholastic’s “Hello, Reader!” Series.

RVC: That’s amazing. I’ve heard Paula was terrific that way.

DO: I agree! Paula introduced me later in the day to an editor at Scholastic who, while not associated with the series, promised to read my submission when it was ready, and furthermore, to pass it along to the right department should he feel it was a good fit. I left the conference feeling happy that my work was good enough to get professional notice, but never believing that events would unfold in the way they did. I revised and submitted.

Months passed. I figured things had just not worked out with that submission.

However, one day the phone rang with an offer to publish my cat story with Scholastic. Since then, I’ve certainly believed in the power of attending conferences and networking widely. You never know exactly which connection might give you an opportunity to submit work and gain publication at some future date.

RVC: If conferences are your thing, then surely SCBWI been a part of your career.

DO: Absolutely! One of the first things I did when transitioning from marketing/​advertising/​PR copywriting to writing for children was to join SCBWI. I became active in my local chapter and made it part of my learning curve to attend every neighboring or national SCBWI conference possible. I gained a lot of knowledge in a short space of time from those speakers, workshops, and critique sessions in the early days. SCBWI also offers a ton of great information and services online. I made good use of those, too. Still do!

RVC: Let’s talk about your picture books in specific. Many of them—like Pillow Pup and It’s a Firefly Night—use rhyme quite effectively. Where do most writers go wrong with rhyme? And why?

DO: Writers may go wrong with rhyming text in these common situations: when sentences are altered to unnatural or awkward structures simply to suit a rhyme scheme; when story details are inserted or ordered simply to suit a rhyme scheme; when plot action is expanded unnecessarily or repetitively simply to suit a rhyme scheme. In all cases, the narrative choices made by the author were done in service of the rhyme or rhythm, and not the story structure.

Writers owe it to their readers to ask early and often: does this serve the story?  Rhyming or not, STORY is job number one!

Many “rhyming” writers start out trying to be Dr. Seuss. While Dr. Seuss may be the most famous rhyming children’s book author, his style isn’t for everyone. While it’s not wise to imitate someone else, it IS smart to study other authors who effectively use rhyme and learn from these mentor texts just how it works. It often boils down to juicy words judiciously applied.

Some of my favorite authors writing text in rhyme are Karma Wilson, Corey Rosen Schwartz, Douglas Florian, and Anna Dewdney. These writers consistently use rhyme to good effect. Here’s an example of an effective rhyming picture book text, from Karma Wilson’s Hogwash!, illustrated by Jim McMullan, which opens this way:

He washed the horses, ducks and cows
The goats, the cats and dogs.
Everything went dandy…
Until the farmer reached his hogs.
“No hogwash for us today.
Pigs love dirt—so go away!”

Those rhythmic lines rhyme and are fun to read aloud, yes? But they are also an effective setup for the story to follow. We know the setting (farm); the main character (the farmer); the cast of characters (horses, ducks, cows, goats, cats, dogs, and pigs); and the plot problem to be solved (the pigs do not want to be washed today and plan to resist the farmer’s every attempt to hose them down). All this story structure in less than 35 words, and it reads like a song.

RVC: In terms of being able to create rhythmic lines that are fun to read—and who doesn’t love fun-​to-​read rhymes, right?—what do you recommend people do beyond read good examples from published books? Classes? How-​to books? Something else?

DO: I suggest going one step beyond reading good examples of published books: actually typing out the text for later study. Without the distraction of the illustrations, it’s easier to study the structure and techniques used by the author to build story, setting, and characterization with words alone.  My favorite craft book for picture book writers is Writing Picture Books:  A Hands-​On Guide from Story Creation to Publication, by Ann Whitford Paul.

There are online groups and courses focusing on picture book writing—too many to mention them all. But my favorite is Julie Hedland’s 12 x 12 Picture Book Challenge, designed to motivate writers to write 12 picture book drafts in 12 consecutive months. Members participate in an exclusive forum and a very active Facebook group where they can ask questions, find critique partners, and share their journeys to getting their books published.

To circle back to SCBWI membership, it’s important to use the online and in-​person networking opportunities to find a real, live critique group of other picture book writers who are committed to improving their craft. There’s nothing like immediate feedback from peers, or group brainstorming on a troubled WIP, to elevate your writing skills.

RVC: Do you have a daily writing routine or do you have less scheduled strategy to find writing time?

DO: Because of the multi-​tiered nature of my life these days—I’ve added writing coach, freelance editor, yoga instructor, and wife of a retired-​business-​man-​turned-​rock-​musician to the mix—my old, predictable writing routine of the past isn’t always possible. Instead of working in larger, pre-​planned blocks of time, I now work in smaller, spontaneous chunks of time. I keep a notebook handy so I can jot down ideas, phrases, etc. as I travel through my day. I’ve found using pen and paper to write bits of narrative (instead of on the computer keyboard at my desk) has changed my writer’s voice somewhat, making my storyline and words more heart-​driven. The urgency of writing what I can when I can has eliminated some of the “narrative circling” that has been my creative bad habit.  I find I am ALWAYS thinking of the approach to plot and characterization and theme when I must be away from the keyboard physically these days. It’s helped me focus quickly on the WIP when I finally get my B.I.C. (“butt in chair”) as Jane Yolen so famously advises us all to do.

RVC: Tell me three words that you hope come to a reader’s mind when they think of your picture books.

DO: “Read it again.”

RVC: Thanks so much, Dianne!

 

Picture Book Review: They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki

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They Say Blue
Author: Jillian Tamaki
Illustrator: Jillian Tamaki
Abrams Books for Young Readers
13 March 2018
52 Pages

 

 

This month’s PB review is by Ryan G. Van Cleave (Big Cheese at Only Picture Books) and Ringling College of Art and Design Illustration Professor Katy Betz.

–Ryan’s Review of the Writing–

Caldecott and Printz Honor-​winning illustrator Jillian Tamaki’s They Say Blue clocks in at a beefy 52 pages versus the far leaner (and more traditional) 32-​page format. That’s not to say that this is a text-​heavy book, however. In fact, most pages with text only have 10 words or so, which makes sense since the strength of this quiet book resides in Tamaki’s compelling illustrations.

The main character is an inquisitive young girl who undergoes an almost philosophical exploration on the idea of color starting with the blue of the sky and the sea and ending with black crows flying: “Tiny inkblots on a sea of sky.” In many ways, the somewhat lyrical, nonlinear story is about curiosity–it has a kind of imaginative carpe diem feel throughout, or at least a “stop and smell the roses” lesson. But some readers might find the text a bit meandering and the ending too abrupt to be as richly satisfying as the wonderful artwork.

To be clear–there is no plot. It’s far more of a series of vignettes or musings.

Those who prefer picture books that generate discussion might find the girl’s color- and season-​based ponderings to be quite fruitful. For example, what reader won’t react when she cups water in her hands and says, “I toss it in the air to make diamonds”? Or when she stretches her arms to the sky and somehow transforms into a tree?

In sum, They Say Blue is a memorable book with more than a few picture-​perfect spreads, though it’s clearly the expressive artwork that carries the day.

3.75 out of 5 pencils

–Katy’s Review of the Illustration–

Jillian Tamaki’s illustrations in They Say Blue burst with energy and soulful contemplation. Readers will discover hidden truths about life on each page, thanks to the imaginative narrative and clever compositions.

Using traditional media of acrylic on watercolor paper, Tamaki invites readers to wonder through use of bold colors and sweeping textures. Her imagery plays off the text beautifully–sometimes visually supporting what the main character is thinking, while other times purposefully contradicting to evoke curiosity and surprise. The power of color association is often used to enhance conceptual facts, making us feel something instead of just think. And a few sequential drawings throughout the book illuminate concepts of time and transformation, integrating both literal and metaphorical imagery seamlessly.

They Say Blue is a pictorial delight that will inspire readers to never lose their sense of wonder.

5 out of 5 crayons

A Professor of Illustration at Ringling College of Art and Design, Katy Betz works with both traditional and digital media and is active in the fields of children’s literature, gallery, and editorial illustration. When not working in the studio or classroom, she says that you can find her “playing outdoors in the Florida swamps or hiking the California Sierras with a sketchbook in hand.”

Katy is represented by Christy Ewers of CATugeau Agency.