Tag: Ryan G. Van Cleave

Agent Interview: Erin Murphy (Erin Murphy Literary Agency)

On By Only Picture BooksIn Agent Interviews8 Comments

The first Industry Insider interview of 2020 is with Erin Murphy. She’s a fifth-​generation Arizona native now living in southern Maine where she’s President of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency (EMLA), the company she founded in 1999. “As founder of EMLA,” she notes, “I focus not just on publishing books, but on building careers—and creating a sense of community, as well.”

For those who like personal bio tidbits, Erin’s a fan of:

  • reading (of course!)
  • knitting
  • walking
  • kayaking
  • traveling
  • watching movies
  • and “figuring out How People Work”

If you want to do a little research of your own, here are some links to do some Erin Murphy/​EMLA sleuthing. But with that, it’s time for the interview!

RVC: Like many agents, you didn’t set out to become one. You started as an editor at a small children’s book imprint, right? How did you get from there to where you are now? 

EM: I was an editor of both adult and children’s books at a small, regional house that does not exist any longer. This was more than twenty years ago. It was right at the time that publishing houses were closing to slush and suddenly children’s writers needed agents—and there weren’t very many agents who did anything at all with children’s books at the time. (Listen to me! “Back in the olden days…”) I thought I’d be an editorial freelancer focusing on regional nonfiction or adults, but instead, I decided I should try my hand at agenting and focus on children’s books.

I had only worked with a couple of agents as an editor, so honestly, I didn’t have a solid impression of what agents could do. And I had never worked in publishing in New York, so I had no contacts there. I did, however, have a solid background in negotiating and reviewing contracts, as my publishing house had revised its contract during my tenure there, and the publishing law expert who did the revision trained me thoroughly. If it hadn’t been for that, I don’t think it would have occurred to me to try being an agent.

RVC: What is it about the children’s book industry that appeals to you? For those who don’t know, your agency specializes in that area.

EM: Three primary things:

  1. The work we do feels very important, because we’re not just making books, we’re making books for society’s youngest members, and therefore, we are shaping the next generation. Turning kids into readers is important, important work, and providing good and fun and interesting and moving books to hook them is a necessary part of that.
  2. The people in children’s publishing are generally incredibly nice. The competitive spirit isn’t as driving here, and there’s a sense of success for one book/​creator/​agent/​publisher being good for the whole industry.
  3. I can’t think of another job that would daily thrill my inner child so much!

RVC: How do you handle existing clients who suddenly want to branch out into writing, say, an adult thriller or a Malcolm-​Gladwell-​style cultural commentary book for adults?

EM: My colleague Ammi-​Joan Paquette generally says, “Bring it on!” when her clients do that, and she gets to work researching appropriate editors on the adult side of publishing. I, however, usually say “Uncle!” because I don’t have time to get to know a whole new set of editorial contacts from scratch. But there have also been times when a client thought their next project might be right for adults, and it turned out it actually worked better (or just as well) on the juvenile side.

RVC: What do you say to a prospective client who wonders why you’re located in southern Maine versus, say, the Flatiron building or in a loft on 27th Avenue in NYC? (Beyond the rent being WAY better in Maine, one assumes!)

EM: Whatever editor I need to reach is just a phone call or email away. I’m not a city gal; I’m happier, and more inspired, when I’m spending most of my time in the countryside. I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years while working far from Manhattan, and it seems to have worked out all right. But listen, especially while the industry is having important conversations about how we exclude a lot of people from becoming a part of the publishing industry because of the financial hurdle of living in NYC, I would hope that “lives in NYC” is not a primary requirement of authors seeking agents. My far-​flung colleagues deserve better.

RVC: Let’s talk about your agenting interests and style. Stop me if I’m way off base here, but in scrutinizing the authors/​books you rep, it SEEMS like you’re often taken by quieter subjects, styles, and themes. Is that fair? 

EM: I do think that’s fair, so long as it’s not all three at once. Something needs to make a book stand out and find its readership! Still, I do love being emotionally moved by a text’s subject, style, or themes—and emotion sometimes gets equated with quietness in literature. Take Deborah Underwood’s The Quiet Book as an obvious example. (I rep Deborah but signed her after The Quiet Book came out.) It has a very understated (and brilliant) writing style and the subject is literally quiet, but it taps into a universal feeling on every page. And it works so well because it’s not lacking for an obvious readership—what parent doesn’t want a book that inspires both conversation and quietness for bedtime reading?

Don’t get me wrong—I love fantasy and high stakes. I do represent Robin LaFevers’ His Fair Assassins series, which pitches as “teenage Medieval assassin nuns,” after all—and in picture books, Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton jumps to mind as a non-​quiet book! (See its companion book Fire Truck vs. Dragon, releasing in March 2020.) I just think high stakes are equally valid when they are internal, especially for kids who are figuring out the world and their place in it, and I find that very compelling.

I also find it especially compelling when it concerns voices that have rarely been heard in U.S. children’s publishing. A quiet, emotional story sometimes paradoxically makes a wider window into a world that children of the dominant culture are unfamiliar with—and a more powerful mirror for the children who haven’t seen themselves in books before. (Credit to Rudine Sims Bishop for mirrors/​windows!) My client Andrea Wang was inspired by Bao Phi and Thi Bui’s A Different Pond to write a story from her own childhood, about being a daughter of immigrants, which is forthcoming from Neal Porter Books (with Jason Chin illustrating)—so A Different Pond’s effects will ripple through the new book (tentatively titled Watercress) and beyond. I recently signed Kao Kalia Yang, whose stories of the refugee experience are incredibly powerful and boundary-breaking—and also very simple and poetic.

RVC: You have a rep for being an editorial agent. What does that mean to you, and what are examples of the types of things you’ll do for a client and their manuscript?

EM: Naturally I’m often aware of projects before they start or while they’re in progress and I’ll raise flags if a topic seems problematic, overdone, or not very easy to find an audience for, but that’s not what you’re asking about. I would hope that between a client telling me about an idea and me seeing a manuscript for the first time, they will have done a lot of drafting, re-​drafting, throwing things out, revising further—finding what a text actually needs to be and getting it as far as they can with the help of beta readers and critique partners.

RVC: You’ve got to love how a good critique group can help get a manuscript in submission-​worthy shape!

EM: Totally right! I only get one first look at a manuscript, and what I hope I will be doing with my editorial talents at that point in a picture book’s development is seeing what the author is wanting to do with it and clearing the way to make their vision even more crystallized and irresistible. I ask a lot of questions. I notice little clues the author left for their subconscious to pick up and do more with. I point out lazy writing or obvious “darlings” that the writer loves but that aren’t serving the whole. I point out brilliant writing and ask for more of it. I do a lot of suggesting the author go deeper or take ideas further. I ask them to justify their choices. Sometimes I say, “This is still just an idea, not a picture book text. Your text is talking about it, not telling a story. Go find another way in.”

RVC: So, you have an annual agency retreat. What kind of things are on the agenda each year?

EM: The retreat is a mix of scheduled and unscheduled time. The scheduled time is kind of conference-​like, pulling from the expertise of the agents, special guests, and clients who are in attendance, and it’s high-​level stuff—but the real magic happens in the unscheduled time, when attendees gather spontaneously or intentionally. Plot-​brainstorming sessions have become staples. Readings of works in progress are beloved, and have made it easier for writers to find each other and collaborate—we have several co-​written books that have resulted from the retreat.

There’s also lots of silliness and fun: goofy door prizes, a costume contest, some serious poker-​playing, lots of dessert, jigsaw puzzles, drawing/​painting sessions, Giant Jenga, singalongs, walks, shopping, and last year, a first-​ever EMLA retreat scavenger hunt, a truly evil thing organized by a visiting editor that absolutely captivated the attendees who participated. The main thing is, people really connect there, and they come away feeling creatively rejuvenated. We’re taking 2020 off to step back and evaluate what is really working and what isn’t, and as much as the staff needs the break, we’re all going to miss it a ton, too. It’s pretty great.

RVC: Sounds like fun! What many authors tell me isn’t as much fun, though, is PR. For many, promoting themselves and their books is the biggest anxiety-​causing part of the entire process. What are some of your agency’s best PR success stories?

EM: One of the best things I ever did for EMLA was set up a collaborative relationship with marketing firm Curious City and its brilliant creator, Kirsten Cappy. She takes on marketing concerns for the agency as a whole, but she also is available for our clients who need help with PR and marketing.

So, yes, book promotion can cause anxiety—it is hard to know what to do to support picture book sales and when one is doing enough—but Kirsten encourages our clients to worry less about the immediacy of PR and work more towards establishing long term tools for picture book programmers.  By providing library and classrooms with engagement activities, picture books can be introduced to children and families again and again, long after release. Recently, we have had some significant sales and PR successes that were driven at least partially by the creation of those tools.

After Nancy Raines Day released a Baby & Toddler Story Hour Kit for her book Baby’s First (Charlesbridge), an early literacy program discovered the title and bought 11,000 copies.

Picture book author Maria Gianferrari worked with Curious City to create a Pet Adoption Event Kit for libraries and organizations that centered on her book Operation Rescue Dog (Little Bee). Maria was invited onto the Hallmark Channel to talk about the book, and the talk show hosts celebrated Maria’s “giving back” to the community with the availability of the kit.

(Nancy and Maria are repped by EMLA agents Tricia Lawrence and Ammi-​Joan Paquette, respectively.)

RVC: Dealbreakers in query letters, cover letters, or pitches of any type?

EM: An obvious lack of knowledge of publishing in general or children’s publishing in particular. There is no excuse for not self-​educating when there is so much information that is freely available. I am not interested in dabblers!

RVC: How do you measure your clients’ success?

EM: My primary benchmark is growth. This can be growth in craft and professionalism, expanding into new formats/​genres, increasing sales and recognition, coming closer to getting offers on submission, engaging with wider circles of readers and gatekeepers, etc.

RVC: Talk about the reasons for having the no open submission policy. My guess is that it’s a measured, client-​focused decision that you still probably continue to revisit and debate from time to time.

EM: Actually, you’re only half right! We’ve been closed to slush since maybe my third year as an agent, and I have never once regretted the decision enough to revisit or debate it. We do take queries from people who attend conferences where we speak, and we take referrals (of which we get a lot), and when we realized how much our closed policy has been a barrier for marginalized writers, we started making a serious point of participating in online events like DVPit, doing more reach-​outs, etc. There are avenues to get to us, but we aren’t dealing with nearly the quantity of queries a lot of agents are, and it allows us to have larger numbers of clients than most do. I’m answering this question during the first work week of the new year and an agent from another agency posted that he had gotten 250 queries by Thursday. I can’t fathom dealing in that volume.

RVC: It’s time for the LIGHTNING ROUND! Zippy-​fast questions followed by zappy-​quick responses, please. Ready?

EM: Bring it on!

RVC: Best place for pizza in your neck of the woods (Windham, ME)?

EM: This one hurts. No good answer close by—but we are fans of Otto’s if we want to go a little further.

RVC: In a parallel universe where I wasn’t involved with books at all, I’d instead be ________.

EM: A news editor in some medium or other.

RVC: Favorite non-​kidlit guilty reading pleasure?

EM: Historical mysteries.

RVC: Best non-​client picture book of 2019?

EM: Ooh, that’s not fair! One book! Okay, this is the best I can do…a tie between Saturday by Oge Mora and Small in the City by Sydney Smith.

RVC: The #1 attribute for agenting success?

EM: Flexibility.

RVC: Three words that sum up the EMLA philosophy?

EM: Integrity, community, growth. (Or possibly “unicorns, pie, poker.”)

RVC: Way to end strong! Thanks so much, Erin!

 

Educational Activities: Naughty Ninja Takes a Bath by Todd Tarpley

On By Only Picture BooksIn Educational Activities

Naughty Ninja Takes a Bath
Author: Todd Tarpley
Illustrator: Vin Vogel
Two Lions
1 December 2019
32 pages

Book description from Goodreads: “After crossing raging rivers and tromping through the jungle, Naughty Ninja returns to his secret ninja training camp for lunch. But when he gets inside, his parents tell him he needs a bath. Before Naughty Ninja gets in the tub, he notices poisonous flies and an angry alligator circling his dad, who doesn’t even seem to know he’s in trouble. Good thing Naughty Ninja is around to save the day!

Amid sudsy fun, a boy’s imaginary ninja life and his everyday world collide in the ultimate bath time adventure.”

Need some reviews of Naughty Ninja Takes a Bath?

Educational Activities inspired by Todd Tarpley’s Naughty Ninja Takes a Bath:

  • Before Reading–From looking at the front and back cover: 
    • What do you think of when you think about ninjas?
    • What type of naughtiness do you expect here?
    • Where and when does this story seem to take place?
    • What type of creatures are lurking in the water?
    • What is the Naughty Ninja up to on the back cover?
    • If you could ask the author any one question before you read the book, what would it be?
  • After Reading–Now that you’ve read the story: 
    • Which events in the story seemed most important?
    • How did you react when Ninja Dad fell into the tub?
    • What would you have done if you were the ninja and you realized there were “wild, poisonous flies”?
    • Do you think the Naughty Ninja means to cause trouble?
  • Writing–Naughty Ninjas get into trouble, even when they don’t mean to. What other adventures might this Naughty Ninja get into? Dream up one of them, and write that story yourself. Will Ninja Dad end up in the tub water again? Will Naughty Ninja save the day? Consider using crayons to draw pictures to go with your story.
  • Craft–With an adult’s help, try some of the following ninja-​themed crafts: 
    • LEGO Ninjas–You have to have LEGOs of your own here, but if you have some, these are easy to make with this guide.
    • Ninja Stress Ball–There are lots of ways to make these and even more ways to fill them. Fun!
    • Origami Ninja Stars–Lots of folding here, but these are both pretty and cool.
    • Paper Bag Ninja Craft–This one requires a bit more work and help than others, but the result is worth it.
    • Toilet Roll Ninjas–All you need are toilet roll paper cores, paint, straws, and a black marker.
  • Further Reading–Who doesn’t love ninjas, right? How many other books about ninjas have you read? Here are a few of OPB’s favorites. (Click on the book cover for more information on any of these titles!)

Author Interview: Heidi E.Y. Stemple

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OPB’s first author interview of 2020 is with Heidi E.Y. Stemple. Over the years, I’d had three personal picture-​book-​related interactions with her. The first was a paid critique at an SCBWI regional event in Miami a few years back. The next was me participating in the famous Picture Book Boot Camp at Jane Yolen’s super-​cool farmhouse back in 2017, where Heidi both cooked (OMG and YUM!) and helped out with feedback and discussions, plus she took a bunch of us owling! The most recent was last month at a Highlights Foundation workshop where Heidi served as a faculty member (she’s the one in the front on the right–I’m just above her to the right, though since all the rest of the people there were women, I’m pretty hard to miss!)

Let’s put it plainly: Heidi knows her stuff. I know that firsthand, which is why I’ve asked her to help kick off the year with an interview that’s designed to get all picture book writers—from the newbies to the done-​it-​forever folks—inspired to make 2020 a great picture book year for us all.

But I know readers always want a bit of biographical goodness before getting into the Qs and the As and the Ins and Outs, so here are seven things about Heidi.

  1. Lives next to her mom…by choice!
  2. Barred owl hoot is 100% authentic.
  3. Undergraduate degree was in psychology.
  4. Worked as a private investigator.
  5. Author of 25+ books (as well as oodles of short stories and poems).
  6. Is the little girl in Owl Moon.
  7. Grandfather Will was International Kite Flying Champion (and the inspiration for Heidi’s co-​authored book A Kite for Moon).

With that, let’s zip right along to the interview. Let’s go!

website: www.heidieystemple.com
Twitter: @heidieys
Facebook: www.facebook.com/heidieystemple
Facebook: Owl Count

RVC: Let’s deal with the dinosaur in the room—your incredibly awesome mom, Jane Yolen (whose own OPB interview is here!). At what point did you realize the type of impact writing in general—and her writing, in specific—had on young readers?

HEYS: How do dinosaurs impact readers? (Bad joke?)

I grew up with a mom-​writer and a father who was a bird watcher. Both those things are so intertwined into my upbringing that I cannot imagine a life without books and nature. As you can imagine, I have always been privy to people telling us what my mom’s writing has contributed to their and their children’s lives. But, I think that the full impact of this has really come in more recent times—when she and I began to work together so closely. When I started writing (I guess my “recent times” means in the last 25 years—ha!) and when I really took a deep dive into picture books—keeping up with the market and teaching—that is when I started paying attention to the real impact.

There is a moment any time writers are together that we say “and THAT is why we do this.” It’s often a reaction to something a kid reader, or a parent or teacher said. One kid, after a school visit, wrote to me and said “reading Bad Girls made me want to be a great writer.” Another couldn’t believe I had written about being a bird watcher because he thought he was the only person who loved owls so much and it was exciting to know there were more of us. But, there are bigger stories, too. The kid who, after being burned in an accident, wanted to share How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? with every kid in the burn unit. The girl who wrote to say she had been an awful sister to her twin brother until she read Mapping the Bones and she was going to make a real effort to be better.

I have been talking about Owl Moon for so many years. I take the responsibility of being that little girl (my mom’s book is based on my father and my—as well as my brothers’—nighttime owling adventures) quite seriously. The fact is, many kids don’t have nature outside their backdoor, or a trusted adult to take them out at night. All too often, their first time out in the woods—or the only time– is within those pages.

RVC: You avoided going into the “Family business” for a long time. What did you do along the way, and what skills/​habits did those non-​writing things give you that serve you well as an author?

HEYS: Every part of my journey to now impacts my writing—what I write about, how I write, why I write. After college, I worked as a probation/​parole officer and a private investigator. I worked in and around law enforcement with victims and offenders for years. You can still find bits of this in my writing. Bad Girls is about women who committed all sorts of crimes. The Unsolved Mysteries from History are about investigation. My forthcoming graphic novel called (tentatively) Maddi Mouse and the Private Spies is about solving a crime. On the flip side of this is my love of birds from my dad. You Nest Here With Me, Fly with Me, and Counting Birds come directly from the way he raised me.

RVC: Your first publication was in a book called Famous Writers and Their Kids Write Spooky Stories. What’s the story of how that came to happen?

HEYS: I had just interviewed for a new job as a counselor at a battered woman’s shelter. I discovered I was pregnant on the same day I got the call saying I got the job. Problem was, I was so sick in my early pregnancy, I could barely leave the house. No way I could start a new job. I was bored. So, I accepted a co-​authorship opportunity for a story with my mom.

During the writing, I discovered some things about myself. Mainly, that I could write fiction. I knew I was a good writer, but that had been primarily report and legal writing (at the Department of Corrections, I wrote a lot of really great PSIs—Pre-Sentence Investigations). But, also, I learned that I could write an ending. I had written lots of stories without endings. That was always what scared me about fiction. Not finding ideas, or the writing, or the revision. But, endings are intimidating.

Funny story—it wasn’t until years later that I realized that so many pieces of my life had wound up in that story. In fact, it was about solving a ghost mystery. Turns out (spoiler alert) the woman who became the ghost had been killed by her abusive husband. How did I not connect those dots?

RVC: Tell me why the majority of your books are picture books. What’s so special about them versus, say, MG or YA?

HEYS: I actually just love picture books. They are the perfect size. You are constrained by your 32 pages and there is very little wiggle room. You really have to boil down your story to its essence without losing the beauty of it. It is often a puzzle how to have enough and not too much—detail, texture, beautiful (or pithy or funny or lyrical) language. That economy of language is a challenge. And picture books are meant for sharing. Just last night, I read two of my children’s books aloud to a group of adults at my bird club. Many of them came up to me after and said how moving it was to be read to—that no one had read aloud to them in ages, if ever.

I do love a middle grade length, and I’m working on a couple longer-​form manuscripts right now. YA isn’t for me. Too much angst.

My real love is picture books.

RVC: Many of your books are collaborations of one type or another, with Jane Yolen being a frequent partner. Talk about some of the Best Practices you’ve learned along the way in terms of effectively working with other creatives.

HEYS: Be open, be honest, be flexible, be organized, and be kind. I’m super bossy and opinionated, so not all these things are easy all of the time. But, if you are working with someone else, it’s really important to have a balance with that partner (or all of your collaborators, as in Fly with Me and Animal Stories, both of which I wrote with my mother and both brothers). If you don’t agree, stepping back and looking again with an open mind is one of my best pieces of advice. I am working with a non-​family member on a new book right now and I have to remember that she and I don’t have shorthand yet. My mom and I work so closely on so many projects, we can just jump in without the niceties. In critiquing, the rule is always “say something nice first.” But, when you work more closely, and have no fear of hurting any feelings, the process is easier—more direct.

RVC: Your jointly created book with your mom, You Nest Here With Me, has a unique story from idea to publication. What happened?

HEYS: You Nest Here With Me was written and sold more than 11 years before it was published. We sold the manuscript to the amazing Liz Van Doren when she worked at Harcourt. We were working with her when the publishing house was purchased by a bigger house and Liz was let go. Our book was orphaned. The new editor who inherited it didn’t love it as much.  It got shuffled around and eventually we got the rights back. That was just about the time that Liz Van Doren arrived at Boyds Mills Press. Turns out, she had been watching to see if and when the book come out and she asked after it. We sent it immediately back to her and she, for the second time, purchased it. Melissa Sweet agreed to illustrate (we were thrilled!) and we got on her 3‑year wait list (she is very much in demand). We had already waited 8 years, what was another 3? But, she got to it in early, 2 years later, and the book finally came out—11 years after that first sale.

The moral of this story—never give up.

RVC: I think some people have the misconception that every book idea created by a successful writer like you somehow readily translates into a publication deal. Care to dispel that belief?

HEYS: That is hilarious! I have drawers and files of unsold manuscripts. Some are no good (what was I thinking??) and some are quite wonderful and it baffles me why they don’t sell. But, at the risk of repeating myself, I will say again, never give up. I have a picture book manuscript that I sent around and it got a bunch of rejections. The common theme of the comments was “would she consider writing a longer book about this character?” Why yes! I would absolutely consider it. I, too, love the character. So, I am working on converting the rhyming picture book manuscript into a chapter book. That, too, may not sell. But, you never know until you try.

I have lots of ideas. I just keep writing and sending them out. Eventually some of them will sell, but not all of them. You never know what will happen when, maybe years from now, I pull them out—maybe the market will have changed. Maybe I will be a better writer by then and will give them a new life. Maybe I will look at them and know why they were rejected. But, I will keep writing and growing and, hopefully, selling books!

RVC: How vital is it for picture book authors to have literary agents, and what do you appreciate most about yours?

HEYS: Frankly, my agent (the amazing Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown, Ltd. [see here OPB interview here!]) does all the stuff I have no desire to do. She (and her fab assistants and the legal team and the financial team, etc.) take care of contracts and submissions, make sure I’m paid, deal with issues in the market, chase down books promised in contracts that we haven’t received. All the stuff. Also, she is on top of the market in a way I am not. If I send her a manuscript, she knows where to send it—who is looking for quirky character-​driven stories vs. who is looking for girl STEM books or quiet lyrical texts. And, her name opens doors, or more accurately, allows my stuff to be seen without hitting the slush pile. It is much harder to work as an unagented writer or illustrator in today’s market.

That being said, it is not impossible. Many people are happily unagented.

RVC: Let’s talk craft issues. What’s most often the difference between a really good picture book manuscript that doesn’t get accepted, and a manuscript that DOES get snapped up? What’s the secret sauce that even good writers sometimes forget or don’t use often enough?

HEYS: There is no secret sauce. There is no magic. Well, there is a little magic, but mostly it’s pretty feet-​on-​the-​ground, fingers-​on-​the-​keypad work. For me, the difference between a brilliant and a blah manuscript is the language. The problem with this question is that the language isn’t the same for every book. Each book is unique, but that story voice is what sends it up and over the top. For You Nest Here With Me, it’s the combination of the brevity of text and a spot-​on rhyme paired with the nonfictional element. It’s the pairing of themes—birds and home—that works. In Counting Birds, I took a nonfiction subject and boiled it down (fewer details, more heart) to a read aloud, making it accessible to the very youngest readers. I like to think the alliteration I use sparingly and gently helps. And the fact that the arc of the book begins with one point and grows exponentially, just like the subject matter, bringing it back to the beginning only on the last page. In A Kite for Moon, we collapsed time to show the growth of the character to adulthood in a way that excites me every time I read it aloud and, in my humble opinion, we lay out an ahhhh-​worthy ending without telling the reader how to feel.

Here are some other books that I think have been written perfectly:

Water Is Water (Miranda Paul, Jason Chin)
Circus Train (Jennifer Cole Judd, Melanie Matthews)
Always Remember (Cece Meng, Jago)
P. Zonka Lays An Egg (Julie Paschkis)
The Dress and the Girl (Camille Andros, Julie Morstad)

RVC: You’re a well-​known fan of backmatter. What’s your secret to making it a meaningful part of the book versus just an info dump of extra research the author did?

HEYS: Remembering who you are writing for is key–you are either writing the backmatter for the same kid who is reading the book or for the adult who will need scaffolding for questions after. I prefer to write it for the child reader. Make sure it’s organized. And, I like to answer 2 questions:

  1. Why me?
  2. Why this story?

Answering these questions give the child reader a deeper connection to the book because they have a connection to why I wanted to write it.

RVC: What’s the most unusual-​but-​still-​effective backmatter you’ve run across?

HEYS:  I love all backmatter. I love writing backmatter. One of my favorite things I’ve written is the backmatter in Eek, You Reek! in which I got to write a list of stinking words and then define them. Of course, they all mean “stink” (in some form) so I used humor to differentiate them. For example, “Bouquet: This should refer to the lovely smell of flowers, but in this case, it means the wafting smell of ick.” 

I love backmatter that connects fictional elements of a story to real life subjects. A new fun one I just discovered is in a book about a girl who is teleported different places because of shoes. The backmatter tells you nonfictional information about women who wore that type of shoe in history. Brilliant! Melissa Sweet’s use of endpages as star maps in Tupelo Rides the Rails is a brilliant way to add in supplemental information. Or the amazing diagram of the squid’s parts in Giant Squid. I love silly backmatter like in Some Pets that points out all the pets in the book (and gives them names as well as species) for very young readers. I am always fascinated with timelines that tie the book’s subject into historical context. Good backmatter almost always invites the reader back into the book–and what is better than having a kid read your book?

Having that kid read it twice!

RVC: Here’s the last question for the first part of the interview. What does writing success look like to you?

HEYS: I am not trying to be a bestseller or an award winner. I just want to keep writing. I am not dismissing those things—they are great. Every sale means I can pay my bills and eat. Every award means my book will be discovered by more schools and libraries and, therefore, read by more children. And, I love stickers on my books! Counting Birds has 5 now and I delight in putting them all on the cover. But, really, it’s just being able to continue working that is my idea of success.

RVC: Here it comes—the much-​ballyhooed and never-​quite-​equaled OPB LIGHTNING ROUND! Speed-​of-​sound questions followed by speed-​of-​light answers, please! Ready?

HEYS: Let’s do this!

RVC: What secret talent do you have that nobody would suspect?

HEYS: Most people sing in the shower—I practice owl calls in the shower.

RVC: Most underappreciated bird?

HEYS: Blue-​footed booby. People get stuck at its name and don’t see how amazing this little show off is. Go Google its amazing courtship walk.

RVC: The one food you could eat every day for the rest of your life? 

HEYS: Cheese. Also pancakes.

RVC: Your favorite three indie bookstores?

HEYS: I’m going to choose my locals: the Eric Carle Museum Bookstore, Odyssey Bookshop, and we have a new one I’d like to give a shout out to, even though I haven’t been there yet: High Five Books. But, I could make a very, very long list here.

RVC: The best non-​Yolen picture book of 2019?

HEYS: Zero percent chance of me being able to answer this! But, I am heading to Carle Museum Bookstore to buy a copy of Moth (a gorgeous new nonfiction about natural selection) and Margarita Engle’s new Dancing Hands because it looks so gorgeous.

RVC: Three words that sum up your picture book philosophy?

HEYS: Language, compression, readers.

RVC: Thanks so much, Heidi!

Picture Book Review: Way Past Mad by Hallee Adelman

On By Only Picture BooksIn Picture Book Reviews
Illustrator: Sandra de la Prada
Albert Whitman & Co.
1 March 2020
32 pages
This month’s PB review is by OPB superfan Ryan G. Van Cleave and Florida-​based author/​illustrator Linda Shute.

–Ryan’s Review of the Writing–

It’s incredibly challenging to create a picture book that primarily deals with emotions, but that’s the task Hallee Adelman sets for herself in Way Past Mad. Right from the start, our protagonist Keya is indeed wronged–her little brother Nate messes up her room. Then he inexplicably feeds Keya’s breakfast cereal to their dog. While those two things don’t seem especially malicious, the fact that he “ruined my favorite hat” puts Keya over the edge.

I get it. Little siblings can drive you bonkers. I know that truth from my own childhood, and I see it in the sometimes-​tumultuous lives of my two daughters.

Adelman presents Keya’s anger in this story as something that makes one lose control. That sense of being out of control is shown in how she kicks rocks and sticks on the way to school, and in how, for her, it’s “the kind of mad that starts and swells and spreads like a rash.” That’s a memorable way to describe being mad, though it feels a bit off in that anger flares to life and grows far faster than any rash does, both in real life and in this story. In contrast, Keya’s happiness at the end of the story that “starts and swells and spreads like a smile” feels like a much more apt comparison.

For me, the fuzzy part of Way Past Mad was coming to grips with what being mad is to Keya. If she’s “way past mad,” how can Keya blame it for her saying unkind things to her friend, Hooper (“But my mad made me say it”)? This might seem like I’m nitpicking, but is being mad a destination/​place/​situation/​state of being, or is it its own thing, like an entity one must deal with, as some books present via personification? Does anger have power over you? If so, how can that be the case if one is “way past mad” versus, say, being in the “clutches of anger” or something along those lines?

While Keya owns up to her anger-​infused behavior and apologizes to Hooper, there’s no parallel resolution with Keya’s little brother, despite him doing the three things that kick off this emotional story. Keya clearly values friendship, however, and she learns that things done in the heat of anger–though that’s my language again that doesn’t quite jibe with how this book presents it–aren’t usually that helpful, and those are solid takeaways. I just wish the level of emotional insight the book offered from start to finish was as rich and compelling as the terrific, bold cover that initially drew me to this book.

3.5 out of 5 pencils

 

–Linda’s Review of the Illustrations–

The jacket for Way Past Mad attracted me–a little girl’s furious face boldly drawn in white and black on a bright red background. But we are not introduced to this narrator on the opening page. Bright plaid endpapers and cheery repetitive colors dissipate the cover’s promise of drama. This is a story of building anger that explodes into regrettable action, leaving the protagonist in a dark, lonely place until she finds resolution. What I miss here is a visual story arc that supports the text’s arc.

Design strategies–varying the focus, or the size of the art (like in Where the Wild Things Are), expressive color temperature and dark/​light values, mood-​setting endpapers and front matter–can reinforce story and feelings. Instead, the frown on Keya’s face is our primary visual indicator of her emotional landscape.

During the story, Keya fantasizes she is a champion runner, but there are no compositional clues to indicate these three scenes are in her imagination. She shows up later, in “real time,” wearing the star she won during her fantasy, which furthers the confusion.

Sandra de la Prada created appealing characters and did a competent job illustrating Way Past Mad, but I cannot help regretting opportunities missed by her and the book’s art director/​designer.

3 out of 5 crayons

Linda Shute is an author/​illustrator who earned a degree in art and art history at Florida State University and taught children’s book illustration at Ringling College of Art and Design.
She loves peanuts and beach sunsets.

Editor Interview: Carol Hinz (Millbrook Press & Lerner Publishing)

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OPB readers, friends, and fans, what better way to wrap up 2019 than getting to know Carol Hinz, Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books at Lerner Publishing Group? Her Twitter bio gives a lot of extra insight into who she is and what she’s about: “Also knitter, baker, ballerina, and wrangler of two small humans.” Talk about some pithy bio data, right?

Since OPB is all about underpromising and overdelivering, here are three more Carol Facts to enjoy.

  1. First book publishing job was an internship at Graywolf Press.
  2. Favorite color? Blue (in all shades and hues).
  3. Most unusual airplane carry-​on item? She brought her figure skates to the NCTE conference in Baltimore at the end of November so she could skate at the rink that’s along the harbor. Carol says, “It was totally worth the effort—and all the funny looks I got when people at the conference found out I’d done it!”

With that, let’s get to the Qs and As!

RVC: You ran into a pre-​career crossroads in high school—science and English. We know which choice you made (obviously!), but what appealed to you so much about science?

CH: I’ve always been a curious person, and I think my science classes and my English classes fed my curiosity in different ways. With science, I loved finding out more about the ways the world—and the universe—works, and at least at the high school level, I liked that the questions I was grappling with had definitive answers. There’s something comforting about being able to follow a procedure or a certain line of thinking and come up with a consistent result.

RVC: An example of that scientific curiosity appears in the range of books you’ve edited, like The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just and If You Were the Moon, or Dazzle Ships: World War I and the Art of Confusion and One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia. What’s an unexpected topic or two you’d love to deal with via a book at some point?

CH: I like to be surprised by books—whether that surprise comes from encountering a topic I was previously unfamiliar with or from encountering an innovative presentation of a familiar topic. And I think many reviewers, educators, parents, and kids (especially kids!) enjoy being surprised as well.

I’m not someone who has a running list of super specific topics I’m looking for, but here are some things that have been on my mind lately:

  • Books that incorporate antiracist concepts and work toward dismantling white supremacy in ways that are engaging and meaningful for children (and adults).
  • Books that present science topics other than biology. Kids in the typical picture book age range often love animals, but I’d love to see some innovative, kid-​friendly approaches to other areas, including technology, mathematics, and engineering.
  • This last one isn’t a specific topic, but I’m looking for BIPOC authors and authors from other marginalized backgrounds to write about all manner of topics. Particularly in nonfiction, the vast majority of authors are white, and I would love to see a greater diversity of voices and perspectives represented.

RVC: I share that BIPOC wish, as well, and I’m doing what I can here with my cadre of students at Ringling College of Art and Design’s Creative Writing program. (Watch for their manuscripts in about three years!)

But let’s talk directly about where you work. One of the things I like about Lerner is that they take the time to carefully brand their products via imprints. I think of Millbrook as being curriculum + engagement. With Carolrhoda, it’s more imagination + inspiration. 

CH: Yes, that’s a great way of putting it! I typically say that for Millbrook, I’m looking for books that present curricular concepts in playful or unusual ways. And in Carolrhoda, I’m looking for quirky humor and books that give children an opportunity to see the world (or themselves) in new ways.

RVC: One of the things I admire about your work as an editor is how you’re not afraid of going right after tough topics, as readers encounter in Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship, and Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story, to name just two examples. How do you negotiate the balance between what readers NEED and what readers WANT? And while we’re at it, let’s add in the challenge of what parents, teachers, and librarians think, too, right?

CH: Thank you, Ryan. With the books you mention, a couple of key things were not rushing the editorial process and incorporating the feedback of other people—both colleagues at Lerner and expert readers. I don’t think any one person is going to have perfect instincts for how to handle a challenging topic on the first draft or on the first read through a manuscript. But having time to sit with it, to read other, relevant writing on the topic, and to get feedback from fellow editors or consultants is enormously helpful.

Beyond that, we also need to be humble—the authors and I are going to do our best, but all books, especially those that grapple with topics not traditionally covered in children’s books, will still be criticized. Not every reader is going to be looking for the same thing from a book on a given topic, and we have to be okay with that, whether or not we agree with the criticism.

RVC: While Can I Touch Your Hair? has received a lot of critical praise, some readers are uncomfortable with parts of it—most specifically the poem called “The N‑Bomb.” That’s a prime example of what we’re talking about here, isn’t it?

CH: Definitely. I think adults (particularly white adults) don’t give kids enough credit for what they can handle. This often comes out of a desire to protect kids from all the terrible things that are a part of our world. But we need to keep in mind that not all kids receive that protection, and we can’t control when a kid is going to first encounter something biased, racist, or hateful. To those adults who feel uncomfortable, I say: Isn’t it far better for a kid to encounter the N‑word (or some other “difficult” subject matter) for the first time in the pages of the book, when there’s time and space for a kid to think about it and talk with a trusted adult about it, rather than encountering it first in some other way when there might not be opportunity for thought and conversation?

For more, check out a blog post that Irene Latham, Charles Waters, and I wrote about this very topic.

RVC: Thanks for extending our conversation with the link to that informative post. Much appreciated!

Let’s move back into your work as an editor in general by asking a question few editors get asked. How do you measure success?

CH: Ultimately, success is a book reaching a young reader who appreciates it. And I want our books to get into the hands as many of those young readers as possible, which means connecting with the people who put books into kids’ hands—booksellers, educators, librarians, and parents.

RVC: How do you achieve such a thing?

CH: There are different routes to achieving this goal. It could be getting multiple starred reviews, winning one or more awards, getting on state reading lists, having an author who does a lot of school visits and events, or some other combination of things. Success isn’t always the moments we see on social media—and a whole lot of work and revision and doubt and hope go into every single book we make, with the goal of each book finding its own path to readers.

RVC: Since you brought up the idea of writers/​books finding a path to readers … a lot of writers come to OPB to gain insight into how to improve their chances of selling a picture book manuscript, and sometimes that means investigating the submission process itself as much as talking about issues of craft. So, let’s help them out. Plenty of editors encounter phrases and words in cover letters and queries that are an absolute turn off. Got any to warn writers away from using with you?

CH: Ultimately, I’m a lot more interested in the manuscript than I am in the cover letter or query. That said, I’m turned off by bashing an entire category or genre because an author thinks their work is better than all of it, comments that the author’s child/​neighbor/​grandchild loves the story (because I need people who don’t already know and love the author to also love the story), and an obvious lack of knowledge about a certain genre or category (e.g. a 3,000-word picture book).

RVC: Let’s go with one more writer-​friendly question. How has nonfiction changed over the years of your editing career, and what trends/​shifts might we expect in 2020 and beyond?

CH: Oooh, interesting question. There’s definitely more interest in STEM and STEAM topics and less interest in historical topics (unless the book is about a historical “hidden figure” of some sort). Animal life cycle books used to be a nonfiction staple, but I almost never see them anymore unless they have an innovative approach (such as My Awesome Summer by P. Mantis by Paul Meisel.)

The last few years I’ve been thinking a lot about the different categories of nonfiction, as described by Melissa Stewart. For picture books, I’m seeing lots of narrative nonfiction, some really great expository literature, and a small amount of traditional nonfiction. (For more about nonfiction categories, check out Melissa’s blog and read her School Library Journal article on the topic.)

I’m also seeing a lot of interesting approaches to blending nonfiction and fiction. For instance, Flower Talk: How Flowers Use Color to Communicate by Sara Levine, illustrated by Masha D’yans is narrated by a cantankerous cactus, but the information conveyed is all true. I realize books like this can pose a challenge for librarians—where to shelve them?—but I also expect to be seeing more in this vein.

Word counts remain higher than for fiction. With narrative nonfiction, I generally go for 1,000 or fewer words in the main text, though Dazzle Ship: World War I and the Art of Confusion by Chris Barton is about 1,400 words and Let ’Er Buck!: George Fletcher, the People’s Champion by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson is 1,500 words. Expository literature typically has a lower word count, though a book with multiple levels of text (such as those in Jess Keating’s World of Weird Animals series) may go higher.

Including back matter and providing sources has become increasingly essential, and I’m enjoying just what a wide range of elements authors are including in back matter. Different topics will necessarily be served by different back matter.

Incremental but important progress has been made in publishing picture books by and about BIPOC and people from other marginalized backgrounds (and those books being recognized with starred reviewed and awards), and it’s my belief that this is not a trend but rather part of a permanent, ongoing shift.

Overall, I believe it’s a great time to be making nonfiction. There’s so much room for creativity and experimentation in terms of both format and topic, and I am inspired by all the great nonfiction I’m seeing out there!

RVC: A few years back, you (delightfully) interviewed your own kids on the Lerner Books blog. I’d like to wrap up the first part of this interview with variations on three of the questions you asked them. Here we go. 

#1—What do you like best about being a mom who is a children’s book editor? 

CH: I love that what I do in my job has such a meaningful connection with being a parent: my experiences with my kids inform my work and my experiences with making books inform the way I raise my children. I also think that the act of reading picture books aloud is incredibly powerful, and doing so night after night after night can’t help but shape my understanding of how to make a great picture book.

RVC: #2—What’s your favorite picture book to have worked on?

CH: All of them! That’s a valid answer, right? Truly, I love the books we publish and feel so lucky to be able to work with such incredible authors and illustrators.

If I had to pick a picture book that has had particular meaning for both me and my kids this year, I would choose A Map into the World by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Seo Kim. My 6‑year-​old son loves it [OPB Note: Carol was kind enough to provide a snapshot of her and the aforementioned son enjoying that very book!], and we’ve been reading it multiple times a week for months now. Although it’s a book I completely adore, I was surprised to see it have such staying power for him. This blog post shares more of the story behind the book and how it has led to some very meaningful connections for both of my kids.

RVC: #3—How many picture books have you read them in their lives?

CH: Oh, probably a couple thousand.

RVC: That’s a good answer, Carol, but it’s wrong. According to child #2, it’s 5,952. But you were close!

And now, we move on to the SPEED ROUND where the point values are doubled, and the answers will zing as fast as the answers zoom. READY?

CH: You betcha!

RVC: Best place in Minneapolis to get hot dish?

CH: Probably in a church basement or at someone’s home! Instead, I’d like to recommend the fantastic fry bread tacos at the Four Sisters Farmers Market. I went there on a day last fall when illustrator Marlena Myles was signing copies of Thanku: Poems of Gratitude with the Hennepin County library system, and there I discovered that books and fry bread tacos are a great combination! (Though you do need to be careful not to spill on your book…)

RVC: Favorite late-​night reading beverage?

CH: Water.

RVC: Who’d you most like to edit a picture book from? LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, or Ariana Grande? 

CH: Hahaha! Whichever one of them has spent the last 5+ years reading recently published picture books, drafting multiple manuscripts, and working with a critique group as they honed their writing skills—and would respect my editorial input. 😉

RVC: A Lerner picture book that’s totally awesome yet somehow underappreciated?

CH: Love, Agnes: Postcards from an Octopus by Irene Latham, illustrated by Thea Baker. It’s an innovative look at the giant Pacific Octopus life cycle as portrayed via a series of postcards exchanged by Agnes, various other sea creatures, and a boy on land. It’s clever and charming, whether you’re primarily interested in the storyline or in the octopus facts!

RVC: The coolest picture book of 2019 that wasn’t edited by someone named Carol is …

CH: Gah, this is so hard! I’m going to cheat and break this into a few categories.

For fiction, I’d have to say Home in the Woods by Eliza Wheeler. Every aspect is so well done, and the text, the illustrations, and the design work wonderfully together to create a cohesive whole. Both of my kids also love it!

For nonfiction, I’m going to go with The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. When I first saw the book, I thought it was gorgeous but perhaps too sophisticated for a young audience. But when I brought it home and read it to my younger son, he was very engaged. While he and I had previously talked about race in different ways, we’d not talked much about systemic racism and the long history of racial injustice in the United States, and this book opened the door to some really powerful conversations.

For a science-​themed picture book, I’d say Moth: An Evolution Story by Isabel Thomas, illustrated by Daniel Egnéus. I’d been hearing good things about it and finally got it from the library. My 6‑year-​old son  and I both learned a lot! It is such a clear presentation of a complex idea, and the illustrations are fantastic as well.

RVC: Sum up your picture book philosophy in three words.

CH: Make me care.

(By which I mean that you the author start off invested in the story you’re telling or the topic you’re writing about. But your readers may not be invested in the same way, so you need to find a way to make me–and all readers–care about it.)

RVC: Thanks so much, Carol! This was a sincere pleasure.

 

Educational Activities: This Book Is Gray by Lindsay Ward

On By Only Picture BooksIn Educational Activities

This Book Is Gray
Author: Lindsay Ward
Illustrator: Lindsay Ward
Two Lions
1 December 2019
40 pages

Book description from Goodreads: “Gray just wants to be included. But the other colors are always leaving him out. So he decides to create his own project: an all-​gray book. Once upon a time, there lived a wolf, a kitten, and a hippo…

Gray just knows it’s going to be perfect. But as he adds page after page, the Primary and Secondary colors show up…and they aren’t quite so complimentary.

A book within a book, this colorful tale explores the ideas of fitting in, appreciating others, and looking at things from another perspective and also uses personality and wit to introduce basic color concepts.”

Need some reviews of This Book Is Gray?

Educational Activities inspired by Lindsay Ward’s This Book Is Gray:

  • Before Reading–From looking at the front and back cover: 
    • What do you think this book will be about?
    • Where and when does this story seem to take place?
    • What does the word “gray” make you think of?
    • What type of creature is on the front cover?
    • Why do the creatures on the back cover appear to be so happy?
    • If you could ask the author any question before you read the book, what would it be?
  • After Reading–Now that you’ve read the story: 
    • What were the most important events in the story?
    • How did you react when the colors arrived and wanted to take over Gray’s story?
    • Which of the verbal puns (like “sometimes we can be a little off-​color” etc.) did you most enjoy?
    • If the story had a sequel, what do you think it would be about?
  • Writing–Gray is an underdog character who rarely–if ever–gets to tell his own story his own way. What characters from other books would like the same chance to tell their stories? Select one and write that story. If you feel like drawing pictures to go with the story you’re writing, get some crayons or colored pencils and draw away! What type of story will your character tell? What challenges will they face, and how will they overcome them? Consider sharing the finished story with a friend or adult.
  • Interview–Sometimes the best way to get to know someone is interviewing them. If you interviewed Gray with the following questions, how might Gray respond? Consider inviting an adult or friend to either ask questions (or answer them) as they imagine Gray might. Feel free to add more questions of your own! 
    • What are your hobbies?
    • What makes you laugh?
    • What scares you?
    • What is your earliest memory?
    • What secret do you have?
    • What is your dream job?
  • Craft–With an adult’s help, try some of the following color-​themed crafts: 
  • Further Reading–This Book Is Gray is about a number of things, including the world of colors. Which of these other books about colors have you read? (Click on the book cover for more information on any of these titles!)