The official blog of Charlesbridge Publishing. Come behind the scenes with us!
Today I began a bug poetry residency with third and fourth grade students in Another extra wonderful thing about visiting this school is that it's the school my two college student daughters attended for first through fourth grades. Two of the three teachers I'm working with are "mine" - that is, they each had one of my daughters in their class. I am so lucky to be working with them and revisiting the elementary school I loved so much when I was a parent volunteer/hanger-arounder, wishing I was in elementary school again. I learned so much from these teachers then, and I'm looking forward to learning from all of them and their students as our residency progresses.
Each group of students brought a different interest sand excitement to our poetry study. Lots had poems to share with me that they'd enjoyed reading, or had already written themselves. In one of the classes, kids were raising their hands to volunteer rhymes, and one student raised her hand and also stood up. She was practically shaking with excitement. Wow, I thought, this lesson is better than I thought. When I called on her, her raised hand became a pointing finger. "Look!" she said, hopping up and down, "a butterfly!"
Sure enough, the first of 21 butterflies had emerged from its chrysalis, part of their class study of the life cycle of the monarch. We stopped rhyming to admire the insect's crumpled, small, but perfect wings, and then the students broke into a spontaneous welcome butterfly dance. Wahoo!
Anne Lamott is my favorite writer who writes about writing.Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is my favorite book about writing.
Word by Word by Anne Lamott is my favorite audio tape about writing.
We waited 89 years for the 2004 win. This time we only had to wait 2. That's better. Easier on the heart. The Red Sox win the American League Championships and are back to the World Series!
Robert's Snow: For Cancer's Cure is sweeping the kidlitosphere. Check out this beautiful video on YouTube created by Sheri Goad of Goading the Pen.Robert's Snow is an online auction that benefits Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 200 children's book illustrators have created art on individual snowflake-shaped wooden templates.
Please visit Robert's Snow and learn about Grace Lin and her inspiring story. Visit the blogs linked below daily to get an inside peek at the illustrators behind the wonderful snowflakes!
Robert's Snow is an online auction that benefits Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 200 children's book illustrators have created art on individual snowflake-shaped wooden templates.
Please stop by and view all the 2007 snowflakes here.
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In June, Karen Jo and her family were going to travel to the
Our next stop was
I spent the 5th of July at the Wellesley Booksmith, although I had less to do than usual because the audience was small and mostly adults. (But we did get mentioned in Alison Morris’s Publisher Weekly blog, the Shelftalker!) A few days later, the Shapiro family was off to their annual vacation in
So, now I am back in
Posted by Karen Jo Shapiro
Krystal found a new book!
Patrons of Blue Chair Children's Books wiggled and waggled, squiggled and squirmed, their way through the store on Saturday.
"The shop did a great job preparing for our visit. We had a nice audience with plenty of bug juice and dirt for snacks," said Mary. "Caroline and I read the story, sang the digging song, had real worms for the kids to pet - and sold some books! We had a great time."
Kudos to Rachel and Doug Rustenberg at Blue Chair for hosting a great event!
One type of research involves visiting the location for a book. After a trip to warrior now a nature specialist at a camp in 
Deciding on a topic leads to a need for research of another kind. A writer has to investigate the target audience. After looking online at various school systems’ websites and swapping emails with teachers and with Wendie Old, my librarian friend and co-author of Busy Toes and Busy Fingers (Charlesbridge), I decided readers in grades 5-8 would enjoy a book about a young man like Jackson and it would also fit into the social studies curricula of most states at those grade levels. Ta-dah! I made a major turn on the path to writing
Targeting the book to an audience mandates a trip to the library. I reviewed all kinds of nonfiction books for ages 9 and up, like Susan Bartoletti’s Black Potatoes:
At last the time comes to do intensive research. Fiction or nonfiction, whether we need details about the ancient past, the immediate present, or the possible future, accurate information is crucial. Could a medieval king have worn glasses? How does that gadget attached to plugs in teens’ ears work? How might a fast food restaurant be different in the 22nd century?
And speaking of someone credible, of course I added
But wait! Another fork in the road. I began to type a story
“We were walking between two hills,”
I added additional information about the Maasai Mara, the beautiful area in Africa where
Jackson
I sent him the manuscript to vet and he wrote back that the additions I made were correct. We had collaborated on a picture book—a turn I did not expect to take in the path to writing a middle reader about his life, but using the same material for several writing projects is always a welcome step.
Now another type of research must be done, equally important and for which no shortcuts exist. I must search for a publisher that might be interested in The Elephant Charge--Vishindo vya Tembo! I will review past issues of Children’s Book Insider, pore over Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market, look at materials of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and investigate websites like that of the Children’s Book Council .
Then it’s back to research for my original book proposal. Will either of the two books I’m working on be published? I don’t know. Writing is truly a winding path that leads a curious and wandering spirit in many directions. And sometimes, even if good research is part of the path taken, a writer runs into a high brick wall!
Posted by author Mary Bowman-Kruhm
CB: A fascinating and fun place that no one’s ever heard of. And it’s right between Oriole Park and Babe Ruth’s Birthplace Museum—I mean, prime Baltimore real estate!! It’s a Smithsonian affiliate with incredible displays and info about all facets of dentistry from ancient times to the cutting edge technology of the near future. It even has every single one of George Washington’s sets of dentures—and, no, not one of them is wooden!
Cannot help being excited to return to the PW Bestseller list with our back-to-school favorite, First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and illustrated by Judy Love.
Charlesbridgians in all their finery
Interns will work for food!
Sorry folks, no jelly doughnuts here.
One monument in particular stays with me. Bebelplatz is a beautiful square on Humbolt University's campus, near the street lined with linden trees (Unter den Linden). It's a peaceful square flanked on all sides by buildings where students gather to learn, and that's what makes the Nazi book burning that took place there all the more unbelievable. I can't even begin to think of the number of first editions that went up in flames here. A small glass plate set into the cobblestone gives onlookers a view into a stark white room below. There are shelves, but they are all empty. It's an empty library capable of housing the 20,000 books by Jewish and other "degenerate" writers that were burned on May 10th, 1933. What's especially haunting is the bronze plaque that lays beside the glass plate. It highlights a quote from Jewish poet Heinrich Heine that reads, "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen," ("Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.") Heine wrote that in 1821.
Berlin constantly walks that fine line between forgetting and glorifying its notorious history. Neither forgetting or glorifying are acceptable, and I think city officials have done a good job at acknowledging the past and looking to the future. For example, instead of destroying the austere Nazi government buildings, like Joseph Goebbels's Department of the Propaganda, the government still works in these buildings. Another example is the Reichstag. Once the seat of the Third Reich, the German house of parliament was rebuilt with a glass dome on the top. The dome itself symbolizes the need for transparency in government. Within the dome is an inverted cone of mirrors that serves not only as something cool to look at, but also as means of gathering energy to power the building. It is a testament to Germany's dedication to energy conservation. Looking to the future and recognizing the past.
Like Boston, Berlin seemed to me to be a city under construction. The city has become a playground for the world's best and most innovative architects. Cranes and scaffolding ruin any attempt at capturing that perfect photo of the city's skyline. However, I am convinced that unlike Boston, Berlin's construction will come to an end in the foreseeable future. I plan to go back in 5 years to find out what kind of progress they're making. Anyone want to join me?
