SCBWI New England’s New Media Day, 19 Oct.

On Saturday, 19 October, I’ll be at SCBWI New England’s New Media Day, a series of presentations and panels designed for published authors and illustrators of children’s books. This event will take place at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art from 9:30 to 3:30.

The morning sessions feature technology analyst James McQuivey on “Digital Disruption” in publishing and literary agent Rubin Pfeffer on “Books and Beyond.”

After lunch comes a panel that I’ll moderate, titled “OP to E: Bringing Books Back to Life.” The panelists are three SCBWI members who converted their out-of-print titles into digital books:

• Mary Jane Begin, author-illustrator of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, now available through iTunes.
• Gail Gauthier, author of the middle-grade novel Saving the Planet & Stuff, now available for Nook and other readers.
• Emilie Boon, author-illustrator of Peterkin Meets a Star, also available through iTunes.

Finally, event organizer and nonfiction author Melissa Stewart will interview author-illustrator Ruth Sanderson on “Surviving and Thriving in Children’s Publishing” over thirty years.

The registration date for this event has passed, but I hope to come home with some keen insights into the new world of publishing.

It’s Pronounced “Check-Eye”

I’m just back from moderating the Foundation for Children’s Books celebration of “New England Voices.” This year’s session featured three talented and friendly authors with three very different types of books and types of presentations:

• Melissa Stewart showed classroom activities she uses to teach kids about the amphibia in her nonfiction picture book A Place for Frogs.
• Jef Czekaj presented his comics-style picture book Hip and Hop, Don’t Stop! with background beats.
• Kevin Markey read from his manuscript for the next volume in his Super Sluggers series of baseball novels for middle-graders.

And then came the question session. I always think the best questions for a panel of three authors address the work of two or ideally all of them. So where’s the common ground?

Um, wasn’t it hot today?

Did you like dinner at Tartufo?

Where do you get your ideas?

But in fact there are some areas of overlap. First, the baseball team in Super Sluggers is haunted by ecological disasters: thunderclouds over their slumping hitter, unseasonable winter, plagues of locusts. A Place for Frogs talks about how changes in habitats affect animals. Kevin and Melissa were thus able to discuss the environmental awareness of today’s kids, how the idea of ecological trouble is now part of our world-view.

Second, the picture-book authors are using text in non-traditional ways, not just a single thread of third-person narration that an adult can read. A Place for Frogs has three levels of text: a simple main text, additional information about each species, and a more complex description of an effort to save that habitat. Hip and Hop is in comics style, with speech balloons in addition to the narration.

That opened the door to Jef talking about how comics techniques have become acceptable in picture books; he used to write his stories as comics, then convert them to traditional picture-book forms, but now he doesn’t have to. Melissa and audience members talked about how kids can process different levels of texts, particularly when reading together (PDF download).

What an Honor!

This afternoon at the Belmont Children's Picture Book Festival, organizer and author Melissa Stewart presented me with a copy of one of her latest nonfiction picture books, When Rain Falls, illustrated by Constance R. Bergum.

Melissa then told me that she had dedicated this book to me. I wasn't surprised. I believe a more accurate term would be "flabbergasted," or perhaps "gobsmacked." Given the book's meteorological theme, "thunderstruck" is probably the best fit.

Melissa's written over 100 books on all sorts of scientific topics, so I figure she's already dedicated books to her relatives, old friends, teachers, college roommates, hairdressers, and other very important people. But this still feels a tremendous honor. I've been cited and acknowledged in books before, but not dedicationed.

During the book-signing, Melissa reminded me of how we'd met. We were both at a Foundation for Children's Books meeting, and she told people about wishing to meet with other writers. Afterwards, I chased her to the parking garage to give her my card as an SCBWI Regional Advisor, and the rest went on from there. So that's the way to get books dedicated to you, kids! Pursue people through parking garages at night.

Since then, Melissa has directed an SCBWI New England conference, volunteered for the regional group in other ways, and serves as a board member of the parent organization. So this is a public thanks to her, not only for her dedication in When Rain Falls but for her dedication to children's books.