Six months from today, a vibrant and truly remarkable book called Every Shiny Thing will be released into the world. It is remarkable because two friends, Laurie Morrison and Cordelia Jensen, wrote it together. Laurie conjured the voice of Lauren in prose. Cordelia channeled the voice of Sierra in verse. And the characters they created virtually leap … Continue reading
Today, I’m celebrating Three Balls of Wool, a story of hope and ingenuity, that was originally written by Henriqueta Cristina in Portuguese. Newly translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann, it is available today for the first time in English. Three Balls of Wool tells the story of a family that moved from Portugal to Czechoslovakia in search of … Continue reading
I’m excited—very excited—to welcome Stephen Bramucci to What Was on… From the very beginning, Steve has been one of the blog’s biggest fans. Anyone who has met Steve knows that he was born for this type of artful reflection and reply. Writer by trade, adventurer by spirit, Steve lives life with his arms and heart … Continue reading
I’m thrilled to welcome Margarita Engle as our guest this week! In March, Margarita won the Nonfiction Golden Kite Award for her memoir Enchanted Air, a gorgeously-written account about growing up as a child of two cultures—the United States and Cuba. Enchanted Air has also won a Pura Belpré Award, a Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award, and a […]
This is a different sort of What Was on… There will be no ‘what was on’ my reading list. No ‘what was on’ my post-its or top ten fears. This post is all about ‘what was on’ my mind for the past few years: Antagonists. I started thinking about antagonists when I was working on my … Continue reading
In the companion post, Enter: The Antagonist, no scratch that, Enter: The Antagonists, Plural, I talk about the 13 Antagonist Archetypes. Starting with Pure Evil and continuing to the Enemy Within, I explain who the different antagonists are and what they can do. Here, we are going to look at how we can romance these antagonists. This … Continue reading
In honor of the Golden Kite Awards and the Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators upcoming celebration of the winners, I’m thrilled to have John Parra as our guest this week! John won the prize for his incredible illustrations for Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans, a heartwarming and inspiring story about a real-life New Orleans … Continue reading
