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Q & A with Patricia Reilly Giff
Q: How did you come to set this story in the world of horse racing?
A: So many things inspired this novel. For years, my family and I lived in Elmont on Long Island, the town where Belmont Racetrack is located. I don’t mention the track by name in Wild Girl, because I wanted to leave myself a little wiggle room in terms of the details. When kids read books and find things that aren’t perfectly accurate, they point a finger and let me know! -
Q & A with Elizabeth Bluemle
Formerly editorial director of a small press, creative director of a book packager and a school librarian, and currently a bookseller, author and blogger, Elizabeth Bluemle knows publishing from the inside out. Bookshelf managed to catch her at a rare quiet moment, to ask her about juggling her various book-related pursuits and about her third picture book.
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Q & A with Michael Grant
Michael Grant has written over 150 books, most notably the Animorphs and Everworld series (which he co-authored with his wife, Katherine Applegate). The Gone books, his first solo novels, feature a distinctive hook: everyone over the age of 14 in the small California town of Perdido Beach has gone missing. To make matters worse for the children, there’s an impenetrable forcefield around the town and some of the kids are starting to develop strange powers.
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Q & A with Sharon M. Draper
Sharon M. Draper has been busy of late, with her new Sassy series for tween girls from Scholastic, as well as the release of Just Another Hero (Atheneum), the final book in her Jericho trilogy. The former teacher now writes fulltime, and does school visits and appearances. PW caught up with the author to talk about her writing life.
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Spring 2009 Flying Starts: Thalia Chaltas
Writing came easily for Thalia Chaltas as a child, but it wasn’t until she was in her 30s that she seriously considered being an author. “Reading was my escape as a kid, but I never thought of it as a career path,” says Chaltas, whose novel-in-verse, Because I Am Furniture (Viking) is narrated by teenager Anke, whose father is abusing her siblings.
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Spring 2009 Flying Starts: Michael Northrop
Michael Northrop may share his first name with the narrator of his debut novel, Gentlemen (Scholastic Press), but don’t think that character is a stand-in for the author. “That was a bit of a trick on my part," he says. “Everyone is always asking that question”--was this what high school was like for you?--“so I decided to turn the dial up on that, to increase that impulse,” he says.
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Spring 2009 Flying Starts: Rosanne Parry
Unlike many authors, writing wasn’t a favorite childhood pastime for Rosanne Parry. “I had terrible handwriting and was a terrible speller,” she recalls. “I didn’t love writing, but I always loved making things up.” One book she read over and over was From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. “I remember how satisfying it was to read about kids going off on their own and having an adventure. And later, as a camp counselor, a teacher and a parent, I came to see the unique power that stories have to keep kids’ attention.”
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Spring 2009 Flying Starts: Jacqueline Kelly
The first line of her first novel came to Jacqueline Kelly as she was suffering through a particularly oppressive summer in her century-old farm house, 40 miles south of Austin, Tex.: “By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat.”
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Q & A with Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka is best known for his picture books; his latest books are a bit of a departure, and are his first foray into the comic/graphic novel format. We caught up with Krosoczka to find out about his latest projects, and whether or not he has a “thing” for any lunch ladies in particular.
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Q & A with Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Author of more than 125 books, including 1992 Newbery winner Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor sets her latest novel, Faith, Hope, and Ivy June, in Kentucky. Bookshelf spoke to Naylor about her new book.
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Q & A with Sandra Day O'Connor
Bookshelf spoke with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor about her new picture book, Finding Susie (Knopf).
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R.L. Stine Visits Chinese Fans
Published in the U.S. by Scholastic, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps novels have sold more than five million copies in China since 2002, when Jieli Publishing House launched the series there. Stine spent two weeks touring five cities across the country.
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Visiting Bookstores Virtually
Two Random House Children’s Books authors have recently embarked on national book tours—without hitting the road. Jerry Spinelli (Love, Stargirl, Knopf) and Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing, Delacorte) are promoting the recent paperback editions of their bestselling novels with virtual bookstore “appearances” to launch the Dial Into Summer program.
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Meeting Rick Riordan: Claire and Rachel’s Excellent Adventure
PW’s Midwest correspondent takes her daughter on a road trip to meet Percy Jackson creator Rick Riordan.
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Q & A with Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Bookshelf spoke with children's author Amy Krouse Rosenthal about her four spring picture books.
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Q & A with Jenny Han
Bookshelf spoke with Jenny Han about her new novel, The Summer I Turned Pretty (S&S, May).
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Q & A with Gayle Forman
Bookshelf spoke with Gayle Forman about her new novel, If I Stay (Dutton).
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Swashbucklers with Bite
British author Justin Somper is a man of many hats: he worked as a children’s book publicist and owned his own publicity consultancy group, before creating the hybrid-genre series, Vampirates. According to Somper’s U.S. editor, Nancy Conescu at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, the first four books in Somper’s series, popular in the U.K. have now been translated into more than 20 languages—and are reaching a growing American readership.
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Q & A with Mark Teague
Mark Teague is the illustrator of the bestselling How Do Dinosaurs… series by Jane Yolen, as well as the author/illustrator of the Dear Mrs. LaRue picture books. In 2009, Teague tackles farm life in a new picture book, another Dinosaur book, and a new (for him) format.
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Q & A with Margarita Engle
Margarita Engle’s The Surrender Tree marked the second time the Cuban-American poet won the Pura Belpré Award. Her novel tells of the brutality of slavery and war, and the compassion people share despite it. The Surrender Tree was also awarded a 2009 Newbery Honor, the first time the award had ever gone to a Latina author.
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