Bologna Book Fair 2012- Awards and Interviews

I enjoy following the Bologna Book Fair each year.  Two years ago I attended the fair. It's a great way to get a pulse of what is going on in children's publishing. Plus, it's fun see all the international publisher's booths and displays.

The BolognaRagazzi Awards are given each year in several categories. New this year is the BolognaRagazzi digital award, which is given to apps.  Seeing the covers (and reading the descriptions) of the award and honor books give me a good glimpse into the most stunning books of the previous year.

Also new this year is the Children's Museum Award. It was announced by HRH Princess Sibille of Luxembourg. How cool is that? The short list of museums looks intriguing. I hope next year a museum from the U.S. is on the list.

SCBWI is also involved in the book fair and has a booth. Interviews with authors and illustrators and others involved in children's publishing can be found at the 2012 SCBWI Bologna series on Cynsations.

I interviewed Paul O. Zelinsky, Caldecott Medal winner, for this series. If you want to learn more about Zelinsky and his amazing work, you can read my interview at this link.

Link Medley: Subverting Expectations, Marketing, Dinosaurs, and more

This is a wonderful and insightful essay: Subverting expectations by Uma Krishnaswami.

Check out a series of great posts by Janet Fox about marketing and publicity.

Sucker Literary Magazine is a new literary magazine for young adults. To find out more, read Mima Tipper's interview with the editor, Hannah Goodman. Also--this online magazine is a great place to submit young adult short stories.

One of my favorite books from my childhood was a time travel story into the time of dinosaurs. So of course I'm excited for Greg Leitich Smith's soon-to-be-released novel, Chronal Engine. He is celebrating it with photos of writers with dinosaurs. Check out my photo with the Frankfurt dinosaur over on his blog.

Choosing Books for Gifts

I recently received an email from a relative asking for book suggestions for her teens and college age sons.

At first I had two thoughts:

What books do I think each would enjoy?

Word of mouth is powerful.

In this case, her daughter stayed with us this past summer—so I know what types of books she likes. For the others, it is harder to come up with titles. Different books speak to different readers, and it can be tricky when giving suggestions and buying books for others.

So how does one find the “right” book? (Or books, because one book is never enough.) 

1. One of my favorite approaches is to peruse the shelves of a bookstore or library. (Of course, here in Germany, where typically only bestsellers are imported, a bookstore isn’t the same experience. But every time I go back to the states, I visit at least one bookstore and feast.)

2. Lists of books. Many organizations publish year-end lists online, such as the New York Times, Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly. But often we want to find a book that is more specific, a great book that isn’t a bestseller. One can search online and find all sorts of lists, for example, the recent lists about dog books posted by Leda Schubert and cat books posted by Kathi Appelt). For children’s books an extensive list of lists can be found at Chicken Spaghetti.

3. Bloggers' book reviews. There are many wonderful blogs. Kidlitosphere Central has a great listing for those who want to discover and explore blogs that review and talk about books.

4. And of course, word of mouth. If someone gives me a book recommendation, the chances that I’ll buy that book are quite high.

I’ve always given books as gifts. (Which is one reason for our overflowing shelves and our substantial library of children’s literature—a home library that has more English books than either the international school or national library in one country where we lived.) 

Beloved books will be read over and over again and they will be treasured for years. Uma Krishnaswami  wrote a blog post this week about her first book. I also still have my first ragtag books from childhood —Snow Treasure, an Enid Blyton, and Island of the Blue Dolphins.

It's delightful to choose the “right” book for a gift, especially when the child immediately falls into the pages, losing herself in another great story.

Link Medley- "Your Genius", wordless space, "The Grand Plan"

The transcript of Tim Wynne-Jones' wonderful keynote speech, "An Address and a Map: Discovering Your Genius as a Writer" is available here.

The Summer 2011 issue of Hunger Mountain (the literary Journal of Vermont College of Fine Arts) is now available online and the Young Adult and Children's Literature section includes sneak peeks, short fiction, and great writing craft articles about gray space (elision) and ways to makes setting exciting. Check it out.

While visiting Hunger Mountain be sure to read Caitlin Leffel's article, "The Space Bar is Not a Design Tool" which is in the section The Writer's Life. Though Leffel's focus is on nonfiction, almost everything she writes can be applied to writing fiction. If you need more encouragement, here is a teaser quote:
"Wordless space in prose is never mute."

Janet Fox, a YA author and VCFA grad, recently blogged about security, love, and her wish that every child can experience a childhood with loving parents. She also writes about what she discovered in historical sources (early 1900s) when researching for her YA novel, Forgiven. For each comment to her post, she'll donate a dollar to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Also tomorrow Uma Krishnaswami starts her blog tour for her book, The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. My interview with her will be posted here next week.