New York SCBWI Conference!
The annual New York SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) has become an annual destination for Mary Jane Begin and me to promote our graduate programs in children's literature and illustration at Hollins University.
New Yawk City!
It's become an annual pilgrimmage... I go to New York for the SCBWI winter conference, but go up a few days early to stay with my dear friends Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. They have a lovely flat overlooking the Hudson and walking along it each morning is one of my favorite things to do - no matter how cold!
On Friday, I packed up my considerable suitcase, and caught the subway to the hotel for the conference. More in the next post!
On Friday, I packed up my considerable suitcase, and caught the subway to the hotel for the conference. More in the next post!
Heidi Stemple's JANIE WRITES A PLAY
Jane Yolen's daughter, prolific author Heidi Stemple, who also teaches in our graduate programs at Hollins University, has written a book about her mother's writing journey called JANIE WRITES A PLAY (illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight, published by Charlesbridge, Feb. 11, 2025). I'm happy to share this very special book release. Heidi dropped by to tell us more about it.
Actually, that may be selling it short. If you know children’s books, my mother is THE storyteller.
I am an author. Have been for 30 years and almost 50 books. In my family that makes me a slowpoke.
My mother is Jane Yolen, author of 450 books. But, the book I want to talk to you about today isn’t one she wrote.
My mom has been telling me the story of her “first big success as an author” for as long as I can remember. The story began: I always knew I wanted to be an author, my first big success was in the first grade when I wrote our school musical…” If you tell my mom about an incident like that, the first thing she will tell you is, “that’s a picture book! Go write it!” And because of this, I always assumed she would write the story herself someday. She never did. So, in late 2019, I sat down and started writing. I realized I didn’t have a ton of facts about this play, so I filled in the parts of my mom’s young life that I did know and fleshed out the story. At this same time, my mom had surgery after a nasty fall. While she was recovering, I continued working on the manuscript. When it was done, I read it to her.
She was thrilled.
I asked her a bunch of questions and worked those details in. I switched things I had gotten wrong. We had a fun time talking about her neighborhood and class.
She and I were scheduled to teach a picture book intensive at SCBWI in NYC, but since she was still not so steady on her feet, she decided to back out. I asked one of my favorite editors, Yolanda Scott, to present with me and she said yes. When I visit NYC, I always meet with my agent Elizabeth. I brought her the manuscript and a crazy idea. “I want to hand the manuscript to Yolanda because she is my dream editor for this project…” Elizabeth agreed, even though we both knew it was bad form to hand your editor an unsolicited manuscript at a conference. (Please don’t do this!) To my great relief and joy, Yo was happy to hear about the concept and promised to read it. This was February, 2020. We had no idea what was on the horizon.
Fast forward into what happened next—the pandemic. Everything was topsy turvy and books seemed less relevant and more relevant all at the same time. I spent my time making masks for teachers and librarians, posting free content for kids at home, and I wrote a lot. When it became clear that we were in it for the long haul, publishers began to settle into this new normal and Yo bought the book! This was still early 2020, April, I think. So a pretty quick purchase.
You know what the BEST part was? I got to tell my mom that I had sold the book about her. I asked her how she felt about it. She told me this: “I feel proud at the wonderful job you have done and thrilled that I didn't have to write it!” When the first copy arrived at her house, (for some reason, Charlesbridge sends all our books to her house—but to be fair, we live next door to each other, share a PO box, and are fine with these mailing glitches) she didn’t read the name on the envelope. So, of course, she ripped open the package and she was the one who got to see the actual book. I may have been a little disappointed that I didn’t get to be the first one to open it… but, also, it seemed right for her to be the first. It is, after all, her story.
At the last minute, when the illustrations were done, all the revisions were in, and the book was set to go to print, my mom and I were in the car and we were talking about the book. She started singing one of the songs from the play. I pulled over and typed the lyrics into my phone and sent them off to Yo. She managed to get them into the illustrations!
When I asked my mom to tell me what her hopes for this book are. She said she hope kids will think they can be the next Janie. As a follow up, I asked her, “do you hope people will buy this book?” Ever the pragmatist, she responded “Oh Heidi, everybody who writes a book hopes that.” Thankfully she redeemed herself by adding, “but, for me, this book is special for two reasons—one it’s my story, and two, it’s your telling.”
Thanks Mom!
Love you xoxoHeidi
Actually, that may be selling it short. If you know children’s books, my mother is THE storyteller.
I am an author. Have been for 30 years and almost 50 books. In my family that makes me a slowpoke.
My mother is Jane Yolen, author of 450 books. But, the book I want to talk to you about today isn’t one she wrote.
My mom has been telling me the story of her “first big success as an author” for as long as I can remember. The story began: I always knew I wanted to be an author, my first big success was in the first grade when I wrote our school musical…” If you tell my mom about an incident like that, the first thing she will tell you is, “that’s a picture book! Go write it!” And because of this, I always assumed she would write the story herself someday. She never did. So, in late 2019, I sat down and started writing. I realized I didn’t have a ton of facts about this play, so I filled in the parts of my mom’s young life that I did know and fleshed out the story. At this same time, my mom had surgery after a nasty fall. While she was recovering, I continued working on the manuscript. When it was done, I read it to her.
She was thrilled.
I asked her a bunch of questions and worked those details in. I switched things I had gotten wrong. We had a fun time talking about her neighborhood and class.
She and I were scheduled to teach a picture book intensive at SCBWI in NYC, but since she was still not so steady on her feet, she decided to back out. I asked one of my favorite editors, Yolanda Scott, to present with me and she said yes. When I visit NYC, I always meet with my agent Elizabeth. I brought her the manuscript and a crazy idea. “I want to hand the manuscript to Yolanda because she is my dream editor for this project…” Elizabeth agreed, even though we both knew it was bad form to hand your editor an unsolicited manuscript at a conference. (Please don’t do this!) To my great relief and joy, Yo was happy to hear about the concept and promised to read it. This was February, 2020. We had no idea what was on the horizon.
Fast forward into what happened next—the pandemic. Everything was topsy turvy and books seemed less relevant and more relevant all at the same time. I spent my time making masks for teachers and librarians, posting free content for kids at home, and I wrote a lot. When it became clear that we were in it for the long haul, publishers began to settle into this new normal and Yo bought the book! This was still early 2020, April, I think. So a pretty quick purchase.
You know what the BEST part was? I got to tell my mom that I had sold the book about her. I asked her how she felt about it. She told me this: “I feel proud at the wonderful job you have done and thrilled that I didn't have to write it!” When the first copy arrived at her house, (for some reason, Charlesbridge sends all our books to her house—but to be fair, we live next door to each other, share a PO box, and are fine with these mailing glitches) she didn’t read the name on the envelope. So, of course, she ripped open the package and she was the one who got to see the actual book. I may have been a little disappointed that I didn’t get to be the first one to open it… but, also, it seemed right for her to be the first. It is, after all, her story.
At the last minute, when the illustrations were done, all the revisions were in, and the book was set to go to print, my mom and I were in the car and we were talking about the book. She started singing one of the songs from the play. I pulled over and typed the lyrics into my phone and sent them off to Yo. She managed to get them into the illustrations!
When I asked my mom to tell me what her hopes for this book are. She said she hope kids will think they can be the next Janie. As a follow up, I asked her, “do you hope people will buy this book?” Ever the pragmatist, she responded “Oh Heidi, everybody who writes a book hopes that.” Thankfully she redeemed herself by adding, “but, for me, this book is special for two reasons—one it’s my story, and two, it’s your telling.”
Thanks Mom!
Love you xoxoHeidi
Kerry Madden's WEREWOLF HAMLET
My good friend Kerry Madden has a new book out, and it's a book of her heart. I can't wait to read it! She dropped by to talk about...
My new children’s novel, Werewolf Hamlet, is coming out into the world. It’s my most personal novel aside from Offsides, which came out, almost thirty years ago in 1996 and was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age in 1997. My older kids were six and eight when Offsides was published, and I remember Doug Dutton of Dutton’s books in Brentwood kneeling down to help my son with his necktie. Flannery wanted to wear a tie to my signing at Dutton’s, and my husband was driving from his teaching job in South Central to meet us, so he couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t figure out how to do it on our rush to drive to the Westside in LA traffic from Silver Lake.
I still don’t know how to tie a necktie, but I remember thinking – remember this – as I watched Doug kneeling and looping Flannery’s tie in a perfect knot.
I remember Lucy saying, “Why don’t you sign me a book? Huh? You sign one to everyone else. I want my own book.”
So, I signed her one, and she drew a self-portrait in the book.
How was it all three decades ago? Time is slippery, the years piling up one after another. Now Lucy is married, a mother, and the executive director of a preschool with three branches in Chicago. We have a trans son, Bo, who was born two years after Offsides was published, and while I was pregnant in 1998, I received a letter saying Offsides was going out of print. I felt like such a giant, broke, and pregnant failure. I couldn’t even afford to buy copies of my novel about to be pulped. It was also the scorching summer Mark McGwire was hitting a gazillion homeruns, and Flannery looked at my calves while baseball blared and said with pride, “Mama, look! You have Mark McGwire calves. So cool!”
But Werewolf Hamlet is a story I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want the story to be mine. I wanted a different version, and it began very differently when I wrote the first sentence in 2008.
It was going to be a lark of a novel, a romp, and a way of capturing my children’s childhoods. I wrote it first as a diary, and then an editor warned me that Diary of a Wimpy Kid would kill it, so to write it as a traditional novel, because she loved the premise and the first draft. Then she left the publishing house, and it was inherited by a new editor, who didn’t love it. I rewrote it some more, and it was rejected by one and all in 2014, so that was that.
In 2013, addiction came to our family. It was the monster at the door. It didn’t just knock. It barged in and took root - deep, ugly, gnarled roots. For the last twelve years, we have been on a journey with our son, who currently makes his home beneath a bypass in Silver Lake. In the beginning, when I protested to a counselor – “How can I have a kid who is an addict? I write books for kids! My son was my editor and inspiration for so many stories. So were my other kids.”
Unimpressed, the counselor shrugged. “Write the book for the kids who need it.”
I found a brilliant editor, Karen Boss, who understood on a deep and intrinsic level what I was trying to do, and she helped me find the heart of the novel. I’m both delighted and terrified as we approach pub date. Instead of doing a traditional reading for the launch, I’ve asked two young actors to play the brothers in some of the “interlude” scenes that take place between each chapter called “Conversations with Liam in the Night.” I wrote these interludes when my dear friend, Jennifer Richard Jacobson, told me “There are no quiet moments in your novel.” She was right, so I decided to write dialogues between the brothers, ages ten and seventeen. I found these so effortless to write because I imagined these brothers talking to each other, arguing, insulting each other with the “Shakespearian Insulter” while the younger one, Augus Gettlefinger, tries to rescue-fix-save his beloved big brother, Liam, who is rapidly changing and sneaking in and out at night.
Someone asked me what I hope kids take away from this book, and I hope that if they learn anything, it’s that they don’t have to save anybody today. They can still love and care for the person who is causing them pain, but they still get to live their own lives and find out what they love to do whether it’s putting on plays or making movies or playing baseball or painting or drawing. Werewolf Hamlet is the book I didn’t want to write, but it’s the book I needed to write, and maybe it will offer solace or comfort to a kid who trying to figure things out and make them laugh too. It’s my love letter to my children, whom I love so deeply, and to the city where we raised them, Los Angeles, where my heart will forever reside, even more so after the devastating fires.
As a lonely and awkward child, I read tons of books to feel less alone, and I hope Werewolf Hamlet makes readers feel less alone in the world too.
The book is already getting great reviews and an award!
*BOOKLIST gave it a starred review and says that is is:
a story that is rich in wise insights, comical and emotionally wrenching moments in turn...
It has been awarded a JUNIOR GUILD LIBRARY SELECTION GOLD STANDARD, 2025
BRAVO!
My new children’s novel, Werewolf Hamlet, is coming out into the world. It’s my most personal novel aside from Offsides, which came out, almost thirty years ago in 1996 and was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age in 1997. My older kids were six and eight when Offsides was published, and I remember Doug Dutton of Dutton’s books in Brentwood kneeling down to help my son with his necktie. Flannery wanted to wear a tie to my signing at Dutton’s, and my husband was driving from his teaching job in South Central to meet us, so he couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t figure out how to do it on our rush to drive to the Westside in LA traffic from Silver Lake.
I still don’t know how to tie a necktie, but I remember thinking – remember this – as I watched Doug kneeling and looping Flannery’s tie in a perfect knot.
I remember Lucy saying, “Why don’t you sign me a book? Huh? You sign one to everyone else. I want my own book.”
So, I signed her one, and she drew a self-portrait in the book.
How was it all three decades ago? Time is slippery, the years piling up one after another. Now Lucy is married, a mother, and the executive director of a preschool with three branches in Chicago. We have a trans son, Bo, who was born two years after Offsides was published, and while I was pregnant in 1998, I received a letter saying Offsides was going out of print. I felt like such a giant, broke, and pregnant failure. I couldn’t even afford to buy copies of my novel about to be pulped. It was also the scorching summer Mark McGwire was hitting a gazillion homeruns, and Flannery looked at my calves while baseball blared and said with pride, “Mama, look! You have Mark McGwire calves. So cool!”
But Werewolf Hamlet is a story I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want the story to be mine. I wanted a different version, and it began very differently when I wrote the first sentence in 2008.
It was going to be a lark of a novel, a romp, and a way of capturing my children’s childhoods. I wrote it first as a diary, and then an editor warned me that Diary of a Wimpy Kid would kill it, so to write it as a traditional novel, because she loved the premise and the first draft. Then she left the publishing house, and it was inherited by a new editor, who didn’t love it. I rewrote it some more, and it was rejected by one and all in 2014, so that was that.
In 2013, addiction came to our family. It was the monster at the door. It didn’t just knock. It barged in and took root - deep, ugly, gnarled roots. For the last twelve years, we have been on a journey with our son, who currently makes his home beneath a bypass in Silver Lake. In the beginning, when I protested to a counselor – “How can I have a kid who is an addict? I write books for kids! My son was my editor and inspiration for so many stories. So were my other kids.”
Unimpressed, the counselor shrugged. “Write the book for the kids who need it.”
I found a brilliant editor, Karen Boss, who understood on a deep and intrinsic level what I was trying to do, and she helped me find the heart of the novel. I’m both delighted and terrified as we approach pub date. Instead of doing a traditional reading for the launch, I’ve asked two young actors to play the brothers in some of the “interlude” scenes that take place between each chapter called “Conversations with Liam in the Night.” I wrote these interludes when my dear friend, Jennifer Richard Jacobson, told me “There are no quiet moments in your novel.” She was right, so I decided to write dialogues between the brothers, ages ten and seventeen. I found these so effortless to write because I imagined these brothers talking to each other, arguing, insulting each other with the “Shakespearian Insulter” while the younger one, Augus Gettlefinger, tries to rescue-fix-save his beloved big brother, Liam, who is rapidly changing and sneaking in and out at night.
Someone asked me what I hope kids take away from this book, and I hope that if they learn anything, it’s that they don’t have to save anybody today. They can still love and care for the person who is causing them pain, but they still get to live their own lives and find out what they love to do whether it’s putting on plays or making movies or playing baseball or painting or drawing. Werewolf Hamlet is the book I didn’t want to write, but it’s the book I needed to write, and maybe it will offer solace or comfort to a kid who trying to figure things out and make them laugh too. It’s my love letter to my children, whom I love so deeply, and to the city where we raised them, Los Angeles, where my heart will forever reside, even more so after the devastating fires.
As a lonely and awkward child, I read tons of books to feel less alone, and I hope Werewolf Hamlet makes readers feel less alone in the world too.
The book is already getting great reviews and an award!
*BOOKLIST gave it a starred review and says that is is:
a story that is rich in wise insights, comical and emotionally wrenching moments in turn...
It has been awarded a JUNIOR GUILD LIBRARY SELECTION GOLD STANDARD, 2025
BRAVO!
Arts Commission - Bring on the Bells!
I am a newer member of the Roanoke Arts Commission, so was thrilled to experience our recent Christmas party!
Julie Benbassat's THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN
Our new Design professor at Hollins University is the incredibly talented Julie Benbassat. She's been taking off in the illustration world the last few years and we're lucky to have her inventive and imaginitive voice and talent in our program. Want proof? I talked to her about her most recent picture book, THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN, written by Mk Smith Despres for Neal Porter Books.
What was your creative process/medium, can you walk us through it?
I knew I wanted to do something different for this book than what I did for THE BOOK FROM FAR AWAY,
I received the manuscript from my agent, Rebecca Sherman at Writers House, with a lovely note from the Holiday House editor, Taylor Norman, who said such wonderful things about my work and how this manuscript felt right in my hands. I immediately was in love with Mk’s writing style and honored by Taylors words, so I jumped on the chance to work on THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN. We signed the contract and then went to working together in the next few months. It was such a pleasure to work with the whole Neal Porter books team, from Taylor’s expert input and Jennifer Browne’s page design instinct. They made the book just as special as Mk’s manuscript did.
e: Is there a unique or funny story behind the creation of this story?
I didn’t personally write it so I can’t say anything to the creation of the manuscript per say but I did find a lot of inspiration from these animal drawings my cousins made. They range in ages from 5 to 12 and have such a joyous way of drawing I wanted to bring to the children’s drawings in the book. One of these drawings hangs in my studio right now just because of how much I love it.
e: What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again? I’m looking for your definition of “Heart Art.”
Personally, illustrations that bring you into the world/ concept so seamlessly you forget about the law of art. I used to be so enthralled by artists who applied realism (I still am) but as I’ve gotten older I see effective artists as people developing their own way of visualizing the world and stories they want to tell. It’s the reason Ezra Jack Keat’s shape dominant works are just as evocative as the more rendered works of Jessie Willcox Smith. How does this person draw a bird versus the next, and how do we as humans still recognize them both as symbols for birds. That’s the power and beauty of illustrating stories. You are allowing for people to suspend their belief through the way you see the world and in turn inspire them to create their own.
e: How do you advertise yourself (or do you)?
A mixture of social media and reaching out in real life. The world of publishing is in a strange place, where you are the one oftentimes advertising your book more than the publisher. That has positives and negatives, but you have to try and make the best out of it. Many of my fellow illustrators have very little followers but put so much effort into reels, blog posts, and public outreach that it makes up for the lack of social media presence. I have a good number of Instagram followers, but I hardly see that translate to helping me sell books. I recently had a successful book launch for THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN at my local bookstore, Children’s Book World, and most of it came down to reaching out to people I knew in the area and not social media. It’s a capricious aspect to the job but you get a hang of it eventually.
My favorite part is getting to work on a range of projects that offer up so much variety in subject matter. One day I’m illustrating an editorial article about the mafia and then I’m illustrating a chapter book about a girl growing a tree on her head. (This is for an upcoming chapter book with Candlewick woohoo!) It keeps the job from getting monotonous and gives me a chance to learn something new.
The most challenging aspect is trying to make work without feeling beholden to impossible expectations. I consider myself new-ish to publishing, as I worked as an editorial illustrator for most of my professional career before transitioning to books. In that time, I developed a toxic trait of never feeling like my work was good enough. (Editorial can be cut throat). This transition to books has made me open my eyes to how vast the art world is, and the idea of the “best art” doesn’t really exist in that way. I still have issues unpacking those high standards for myself but I’m working on it.
Is there something in particular about this story you hope readers will take away with them, perhaps something that isn’t immediately obvious?
I hope that readers, young and old, will read this book as it was intended to be: a poem. It’s not just a story of two children becoming friends over the course of a day, it’s also a story of sensations that children might feel in times of change (adults too). I’ve done a few readings of it out loud and the warmth of the words feels like soup for the soul. A gentle slam poetry to the heart that reminds you how much one can feel over the course of a day.
Lovely! e: What are you working on next or what would be your dream project?
I’m currently in between finishing that chapter book about a girl growing a tree on her head, doing final art for a book about a fox named Mungo and planning out dummy revisions for a book about an art collector turned suffragist. I am so grateful to have this range of work and am excited to see what 2025 has in store.
My dream project is something that alternates from day to day but right now it would be working on a book on fairytales/ myths around the world. I love those old Rackham and Dillon illustrations and if I could do something like that, that would be so cool. Fairytales and mythology have guided children and adults alike through hard times and I think we need that more than ever right now.
e: Thank you, Julie! Can't wait to see more of your evocative work!
What was your creative process/medium, can you walk us through it?
I knew I wanted to do something different for this book than what I did for THE BOOK FROM FAR AWAY,
I received the manuscript from my agent, Rebecca Sherman at Writers House, with a lovely note from the Holiday House editor, Taylor Norman, who said such wonderful things about my work and how this manuscript felt right in my hands. I immediately was in love with Mk’s writing style and honored by Taylors words, so I jumped on the chance to work on THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN. We signed the contract and then went to working together in the next few months. It was such a pleasure to work with the whole Neal Porter books team, from Taylor’s expert input and Jennifer Browne’s page design instinct. They made the book just as special as Mk’s manuscript did.
e: Is there a unique or funny story behind the creation of this story?
I didn’t personally write it so I can’t say anything to the creation of the manuscript per say but I did find a lot of inspiration from these animal drawings my cousins made. They range in ages from 5 to 12 and have such a joyous way of drawing I wanted to bring to the children’s drawings in the book. One of these drawings hangs in my studio right now just because of how much I love it.
e: What do you think makes an illustration magical, what I call "Heart Art” - the sort that makes a reader want to come back to look again and again? I’m looking for your definition of “Heart Art.” Personally, illustrations that bring you into the world/ concept so seamlessly you forget about the law of art. I used to be so enthralled by artists who applied realism (I still am) but as I’ve gotten older I see effective artists as people developing their own way of visualizing the world and stories they want to tell. It’s the reason Ezra Jack Keat’s shape dominant works are just as evocative as the more rendered works of Jessie Willcox Smith. How does this person draw a bird versus the next, and how do we as humans still recognize them both as symbols for birds. That’s the power and beauty of illustrating stories. You are allowing for people to suspend their belief through the way you see the world and in turn inspire them to create their own.
e: How do you advertise yourself (or do you)?
A mixture of social media and reaching out in real life. The world of publishing is in a strange place, where you are the one oftentimes advertising your book more than the publisher. That has positives and negatives, but you have to try and make the best out of it. Many of my fellow illustrators have very little followers but put so much effort into reels, blog posts, and public outreach that it makes up for the lack of social media presence. I have a good number of Instagram followers, but I hardly see that translate to helping me sell books. I recently had a successful book launch for THERE'S THAT SUN AGAIN at my local bookstore, Children’s Book World, and most of it came down to reaching out to people I knew in the area and not social media. It’s a capricious aspect to the job but you get a hang of it eventually.
My favorite part is getting to work on a range of projects that offer up so much variety in subject matter. One day I’m illustrating an editorial article about the mafia and then I’m illustrating a chapter book about a girl growing a tree on her head. (This is for an upcoming chapter book with Candlewick woohoo!) It keeps the job from getting monotonous and gives me a chance to learn something new.
The most challenging aspect is trying to make work without feeling beholden to impossible expectations. I consider myself new-ish to publishing, as I worked as an editorial illustrator for most of my professional career before transitioning to books. In that time, I developed a toxic trait of never feeling like my work was good enough. (Editorial can be cut throat). This transition to books has made me open my eyes to how vast the art world is, and the idea of the “best art” doesn’t really exist in that way. I still have issues unpacking those high standards for myself but I’m working on it.
Is there something in particular about this story you hope readers will take away with them, perhaps something that isn’t immediately obvious?
I hope that readers, young and old, will read this book as it was intended to be: a poem. It’s not just a story of two children becoming friends over the course of a day, it’s also a story of sensations that children might feel in times of change (adults too). I’ve done a few readings of it out loud and the warmth of the words feels like soup for the soul. A gentle slam poetry to the heart that reminds you how much one can feel over the course of a day.
Lovely! e: What are you working on next or what would be your dream project?
I’m currently in between finishing that chapter book about a girl growing a tree on her head, doing final art for a book about a fox named Mungo and planning out dummy revisions for a book about an art collector turned suffragist. I am so grateful to have this range of work and am excited to see what 2025 has in store.
My dream project is something that alternates from day to day but right now it would be working on a book on fairytales/ myths around the world. I love those old Rackham and Dillon illustrations and if I could do something like that, that would be so cool. Fairytales and mythology have guided children and adults alike through hard times and I think we need that more than ever right now.
e: Thank you, Julie! Can't wait to see more of your evocative work!
Friday Links List
From PW: Author and illustrator Bruce Degen, best known for his detailed, humorous artwork depicting the fun and informative field trips of Ms. Frizzle’s class in the Magic School Bus picture book series, died on November 7 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Newtown, Ct. He was 79.
From PEN America: Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves - "During the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America recorded 10,046 instances of book bans."
Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Guide to new Bluesky users!
From the NYTimes: How ‘The Wild Robot’ Was Born in a Weedy Patch of Manhattan
From Writer Beware: Someone Else is Impersonating Writer Beware
Students and Horses
Hollins University has a strong equestrian program with a lovely stable full of extremely well-cared for horsies. I've written before about going up on Sundays and grooming the horses - it was my zen every summer when I returned to teach. Sadly, since campus is now where I work full-time, that is something I haven't been doing as much of. So, when one of my students, Caroline, expressed interest in pursuing a stable job and asked if I would be willing to introduce her to the folks at the barn (she's a bit shy), I jumped at the chance——but not just to introduce her to the fine folks who manage the stable, but to also introduce her to what working at the barn might be like. I introduced her to Elise, the barn manager. She met and petted all the dogs. With her calm demeanor, all the critters loved Caroline. The farrier was there that day too, so she got to see a horse being shoed. It was a busy day at the barn! Luckily, I'd called ahead, so they were expecting us and already had a horse ready for us to brush. This is "Also."
Friday Links List
From The Bookseller: Penguin Random House is adding language to the copyright pages of their newly printed books explicitly forbidding the contents from being used to train AI!
From the BBC (via PW): Dracula author's lost story unearthed after 134 years - an amateur historian stumbled upon the pre-Dracula short story "Gibbett Hill" in a Dublin newspaper from 1890. SO COOL!
From the Washington Examiner: A world without boys’ chapter books
It's TINKER DAY!
We never know when it's going to be, only that it will be on a lovely day in the fall. We wake up to the alert at 7:00am - IT'S TINKER DAY! (Click the image below to see the whole crowd on Youtube!)
On Tinker Day, classes are cancelled. Students, faculty, and staff dress in costumes and hike up Tinker Mountain. The reward: a picnic of fried chicken, songs, skits, and Tinker Cake. A newer tradition is that President Hinton puts together a hilarious video each year to prepare - always based on a movie. Last year's movie theme was FERRIS BUELLER. This year was CLUELESS! (Click on the image below to watch on YouTube and you'll see why we love her so much!)
HAPPY! HAPPY TINKER DAY!
On Tinker Day, classes are cancelled. Students, faculty, and staff dress in costumes and hike up Tinker Mountain. The reward: a picnic of fried chicken, songs, skits, and Tinker Cake. A newer tradition is that President Hinton puts together a hilarious video each year to prepare - always based on a movie. Last year's movie theme was FERRIS BUELLER. This year was CLUELESS! (Click on the image below to watch on YouTube and you'll see why we love her so much!)
HAPPY! HAPPY TINKER DAY!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)