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Q & A with Patrice Kindl
After the publication of her award-winning first novel, Owl in Love, in 1993, Patrice Kindl wrote three more well-received YA novels, but Keeping the Castle, a historical-fiction comedy of manners, is her first in a decade.
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Obituary: Rosa Guy
Esteemed children's book author Rosa Guy died on Sunday, June 3, of cancer, at her New York City home. She was 89.
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Pits Dinosaur Against Santa: PW Talks with Bob Shea
In his picture book adventures, Bob Shea’s roaring red Dinosaur has taken on bedtime, the potty, and the library. Next, the invincible young dino goes up against a familiar jolly old elf in Dinosaur vs. Santa, due from Hyperion in September with a 75,000 first printing. “I know from my school visits that kids just love anything Christmas related,” Shea says of the genesis of his new story. “And I know from watching my own son that the runup to Christmas is a crazy, happy time for kids.
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Friendship Begets Teamwork: PW Talks with Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
These authors’ friendship began in New York City, where they were both in a graduate children’s literature writing program at the New School. They lived in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, and they’ve been working together and critiquing each other’s work since those early days.
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Balances Tragedy and Humor: PW Talks with Susin Nielsen
After being hired in the late 1980s to serve snacks to the cast and crew of the television series Degrassi Junior High, Vancouver author Susin Nielsen wrote a spec script for the show. The head writer liked what he read, and gave her a shot at writing an episode, which turned into 16 episodes—and launched her writing career.
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Book Long in the Making: PW Talks to David Ezra Stein
A girl’s contagious smile sets off a chain of good feelings that make their way around the world in Because Amelia Smiled (Candlewick), the latest picture book by David Ezra Stein, whose Interrupting Chicken was a Caldecott Honor book. The story, which he wrote in 1999 while a student at Parsons the New School for Design, came quite quickly to the author. The art did not.
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Loving Comics Pays Off: PW Talks to Lincoln Peirce
Yes, a kid’s obsession with comics really can lead to big things. Lincoln Peirce is a case in point. His Big Nate character, a high-energy sixth-grader who serves up big laughs and gets lots of detentions, is the star of a daily syndicated comic strip, an island on kids’ site Poptropica.com, a number of popular comic strip compilations, and a series of bestselling chapter books.
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PW Talks with Patrick McDonnell
Since 1994, Patrick McDonnell has created the Mutts comic strip, which has earned him numerous awards and now appears in more than 700 newspapers in 20 countries. The strip’s stars—Earl the dog and Mooch the cat—have also appeared in a handful of picture books. McDonnell has also written and illustrated other children’s books, among them Me... Jane, a portrait of a young Jane Goodall, which is a 2012 Caldecott Honor book.
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PW Talks with R.L. Stine
After giving kids goose bumps for two decades—and continuing to do so—R.L. Stine taps into grown-up fears in Red Rain, his second adult hardcover horror novel (after 1995’s Superstitious). In the novel, which Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone imprint will publish with an announced first printing of 150,000 copies, a travel writer impulsively adopts two orphaned boys—with horrific results.
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PW Talks with Maggie Stiefvater
Maggie Stiefvater’s fans got a first peek at the launch installment of her four-book series, the Raven Cycle, at BEA on Tuesday, when Stiefvater signed ARCs of The Raven Boys, due from Scholastic Press with a 150,000-copy first printing. Mystery, romance, and the supernatural come together in the novel, which introduces a boy on the hunt for a vanished Welsh king and a girl who has been told that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die.
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PW Talks with Gordon Korman
Gordon Korman has written more than 70 middle-grade and YA novels over the past 25 years, and with total sales of more than seven million copies, he has obviously accumulated quite a hefty fan base. His latest novel, Ungifted, will be released by HarperCollins’s Balzer + Bray imprint with a 75,000-copy first printing. The story centers on Donovan, a middle-school student who accidentally gets placed in the gifted and talented program and shares his own distinctive gifts with the other kids in the program.
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PW Talks with Marla Frazee
Marla Frazee, who won Caldecott Honors for her own A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever and for All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, received accolades for her book illustration early on—as a fourth-grader, in fact. Her best friend announced that she wanted Frazee to draw pictures for a story she’d written. “She was very precocious and told me that if I wanted to illustrate children’s books, I should start with hers, ” recalls Frazee. “So I did. And someone at our school sent it to the California State Fair, and we won an award. We were asked to make a duplicate copy for the school library, and every time I saw it on the shelf, I was so happy that I was a published author!”
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Obituary: Ellen Levine
Noted author Ellen Levine, whose books for young people were born of a love for teaching and her active espousal of social justice, died on May 26 of lung cancer. She was 73.
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Obituary: Peter D. Sieruta
Peter D. Sieruta, author, reviewer, and respected voice behind the blog Collecting Children's Books, died suddenly at his Michigan home on May 25, after suffering complications from a fall. He was 53.
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Illustrator Leo Dillon Dies at 79
Renowned illustrator and artist Leo Dillon died on May 26 from “complications of a sudden illness requiring lung surgery,” according to Bonnie Verburg, his longtime editor at Scholastic's Blue Sky Press imprint. Dillon was 79. With his wife and collaborator Diane, he illustrated over 40 children’s books spanning a career of more than 50 years.
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Maurice Sendak Remembered
Friends, including Jules Feiffer, Chris Van Allsburg, Roger Straus III, and Iona Opie, pay tribute to the legendary author and illustrator, who died on May 8.
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Q & A with Susane Colasanti
In YA novelist Susane Colasanti’s new book, Keep Holding On, protagonist Noelle is neglected at home and bullied at school. She endures a lot of abuse before she finds the strength to “start shaping my life into the one I want.” Here, Colasanti talks about her own difficult teen years, how her book fits into the current conversation about bullying, and what she’s doing to support today’s teens.
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Oliver Jeffers: A U.S./U.K. Production
Author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers, a Belfast native who has lived in Brooklyn since 2007, is enjoying his greatest U.S. success to date with Stuck, his eighth and most recent picture book. His latest book is The New Sweater. Like other Jeffers titles, it is being released simultaneously with HarperCollins in the U.K. and with Penguin/Philomel in the U.S., thanks to an unusual publishing backstory.
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Oh, The Places We Went: My Travels with Jean
Jean Craighead George, author of more than 100 books – including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves – died on May 15 at the age of 92. Wendell Minor pays tribute to his friend and longtime collaborator.
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