Marirosa Mia: Hello everyone! The lovely writers over at The Veille (an online writing community for writers/painters/etc.) have been kind enough to feature an excerpt of my current novel On Duarte Street along with my sister's awesome illustrations! This is still a work in progress, so it's nice to get a little encouragement from my fellow writers.
I really don't have any excuse for not posting about this sooner. Yes, I could say I was swamped with reading manuscripts that won't be coming out for another year while working on my own books, reading for this blog, and working in my writing group...but really. I have no excuse.
The lovely people over at Verbal Pyrotechnics featured an excerpt of my John Hughes-esque novel PROM (not the final title, I promise) in their second issue.
I've just learned that LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE has won the 2012 Gryphon Award! I love this award! And--really and truly--not solely because I just won it! Here's the official description:
The Gryphon Award is given annually in recognition of an English language work of fiction or non-fiction for which the primary audience is children in Kindergarten through Grade 4. The title chosen best exemplifies those qualities that successfully bridge the gap in difficulty between books for reading aloud to children and books for practiced readers.
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The award is sponsored by the Center for Children's Books at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In other news, I think I neglected to report that Pickle Juice is a 2011 Cybils (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Award) Finalist, in the Early Chapter Books category. Here's a link to the announcement: http://www.cybils.com/2011-finalists-easy-readersearly-chapter-books.html. So exciting!
Happy New Year, Everyone!
We hope you had a lovely (and restful) holiday season.
I know I could use a few more hundred winks, but I'm just lazy.
Did anyone get/read any fun and interesting books this holiday?
I sank my teeth into a friend's manuscript, and I just started LONELY WEREWORLD GIRL by Martin Millar. Julie read Daniel Handler's WHY WE BROKE UP and Jo Nesbo's THE LEOPARD.
How about you guys?
Nice news for LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE!
The Texas Bluebonnet Award has chosen it for their 2012 Master List. The complete list is only 20 titles, all aimed at students in grades 3-6. Hurray!! There will be a winner announced in 2012.
For more information, check out http://www.txla.org/TBA.
Julie: I've been spending a little too much time lately scrolling through the gorgeous reimaginings of classic children's book covers at this new site: http://uncoveredcoverart.wordpress.com. I can't decide which ones I like best! There are some gorgeous Alice in Wonderlands, a handful of funny Princess in the Peas, and a few deliciously dark Red Riding Hoods. One goal of the site is to introduce fresh talent to children's book publishers. These artists sure seem talented to me! What do you think, Mia?
Marirosa Mia: I love, love, love this site, Julie. I can't get enough of the Where the Wild Things Are reimagining and I want more please! And you know I'll be sharing this site with my fellow publishers! Thanks for sharing this site with me, Julie! It's really a find.
Happy news! LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE has been named a 2011 ABC New Voices Selection! Here's what the Association of Booksellers for Children's Group at the American Booksellers Association has to say about the distinction:
"Over the last two months a dedicated committee of 14 independent children's booksellers from around the country, chaired by Cathy Berner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston with the assistance of Carolyn Bennett of the ABA staff, has been reading and discussing over 160 books submitted by a wide range of publishers with the goal of choosing 20 titles --- 10 Middle Grade and 10 Young Adult --- written by outstanding first-time authors. Committee members came from stores both large and small, and represented all areas of the country. The one thing they had in common was a passion for good reads and a keen eye for great new works.
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Over the years, the ABC New Voices Project has helped to introduce debut authors to young readers, parents, and teachers, with the assurance that the titles have been thoughtfully and thoroughly vetted by independent booksellers. Past lists have included titles that have gone on to become national bestsellers as well as award winners."
Isn't this nice?!
LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE has been named a 2011 Junior Library Guild Selection!
What does that mean?
The Junior Library Guild helps school and public libraries across the country choose which books to add to their collections. JLG's editorial team reviews thousands of books and designates a small percentage of those as its recommended "selections." (For more information, check out www.juniorlibraryguild.com.)
And PICKLE was one of the picks!! Hooray!
