New York Daily News - Business - Success story for kids book
"I'm so excited," Taylor said yesterday of his U.S. debut. Speaking from his vicarage on the Yorkshire coast, he added, "It's America, after all, the market with the most discriminating book buyers in the world." The Anglican priest and father of three is due here May 7 on the Queen Mary 2 for appearances that include the "Today" show and Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club," on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Book industry veteran picks the top 100 titles for kids
Here to help is industry veteran Anita Silvey, whose new 100 Best Books for Children (Houghton Mifflin, 192 pages, $20) represents a 20th-century canon for kids. Silvey, former editor of The Horn Book magazine and an ex-honcho at Houghton Mifflin, talked to a couple thousand people about their childhood favorites -- then reread 1,000 contenders in six months...
CNN.com - She's a bestselling author -- at 15 - Apr 22, 2004
"Flavia Bujor's European hit now in America..."
CNN report
"Dick and Jane, the children's book characters who taught an estimated 85 million children from the 1930s through the 1960s how to read, are back in print, and nostalgia-crazed baby boomers are scooping up the titles as fast as they are being released... ..."
pressconnects.com | 04/22/04 | Lifestyle Story
Author Avi finds stories in history... ...
abc7news.com: Children's Books Recalled
Nearly half-a-million children's books are being recalled in the US because they pose a laceration hazard... ...
"The latest crop of young adult novels will pop a few gray hairs on the heads of parents who leaf through their sons' and daughters' recreational reading material... ..."
A report of a talk given by Jim Trelease, the author of a New York Times bestseller The Read Aloud Handbook.
Some clips from the article:
"The parent is the most important professor [a] kid is ever going to meet..."Trelease cited a study called "Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children," in which researchers observed healthy families in different economic classes. After years of collecting data, they were able to calculate the cumulative number of words spoken in front of these families' children.
What they found was that, by the age of 4, children in professional families had heard, cumulatively, 45 million words. Children in working-class families had heard 26 million words, and children in poverty-level families had heard 13 million words.
In other words, by the time these 4-year-olds enter kindergarten together, the professional-class kid has been exposed to 32 million more words than the kid living in poverty.
The father who only finds time to take his kid to the ballgame is a "boy-man," he said. But the father who also finds time to take his kid to the bookshelf is a "grown man."
"I think Harry Potter is the best thing to happen to children's books," perhaps in the history of children's books, he said. The books aren't sophisticated literature, but they are page-turners. Kids love them the same way adults love John Grisham or Danielle Steele.
Ultimately, good children's literature is like good adult literature. There needs to be "conflict. Something has to happen in the story," said Trelease.
CBS News | 'Who Reads What?' List Out | April 14, 2004?18:12:58
Laura Bush joins actors, writers and a former British prime minister in pitching her favorite books for America's annual "Who Reads What?" list, out in time for National Library Week...
R.L. Stine, author of the "Goosebumps" series, called Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine" his favorite.As for Ken Follett, classic children's author Beatrix Potter caught his attention with "The Story of a Fierce, Bad Rabbit." Follett called it "the shortest thriller ever written." The tale of good and evil features an innocent bunny, a bad bunny and a hunter.
"In just 142 words it has suspense, crime, gunplay, and retributive justice," Follett wrote.
Billy Crystal 'love poem' hits bookstores. 14/04/2004. ABC News Online
US comedian Billy Crystal has joined the ranks of celebrities peddling children's books with the debut of I Already Know I Love You, a book he wrote as a "love poem" to his first grandchild.
Author's poignant books 'get kids who don't want to read to read'
Recommended - interview with Chris Crutcher
'When I spoke to him from his home in Spokane, Wash., Crutcher sounded relaxed, smart, irreverent and witty - pretty much the way he sounds in his latest book, King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography. '
Bradenton Herald | 04/11/2004 | Author Carl Hiassen set to speak at library lunch
This feature about Carl Hiassen includes comments about his writing of children's books...
"I was just writing it for my stepson, who was at the appropriate age at the time and for the other kids in the family. It was selfishly for them," Hiaasen said with a chuckle. "Now, there's pressure. I'm in the middle of another (children's book), and it's like, 'Oh, God, I got to step up to the plate.' "
They told her she had no talent. Now her first book is a major motion picture
Feature about Gail Carson Levine, author of Ella Enchanted, now a feature-length movie:
Go to the Miramax Ella Enchanted movie site...
A feature about Wendelin Van Draanen, author of the Sammy Keyes series...
Latest UK title
Sammy Keyes And The Hoolywood Mummy
Information from the article about the next Sammy Keyes title and a new series aimed at boys:
"'Shredderman No. 1: Secret Identity' was just released. There are four books in the series. They'll all be out [in the US] by May of next year. They're aimed at second- through fifth-grade boys. It's not that they don't appeal to girls. But they're aimed at helping . . . boys to become independent readers.
The next Sammy Keyes book is due out in the fall -- 'Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen'. I'm working on the final stages of that now. I'm also working on a spin-off idea from the Shredderman book... ..."
Daniel Handler has spoken out against attempts to restrict artistic expression in educational establishments, after a teacher was dismissed and a student expelled from a San Franciscan Academy for writing a violent short story.
Read this background article and then read Handler's call to rally support, as quoted on Neil Gaiman's journal (Sunday April 4).
Authorlink-Insights-Linda-Johns-on-Children's-Book-Authors and Editors-April 2004
Recommended interview with Brent Hartinger, author of YA novels Geography Club and The Last Chance Texaco.
