Who Wrote That? Meet Patricia Polacco

A bi-weekly feature profiling the talented authors and illustrators who bring children’s books to life.

Patricia Polacco’s childhood friends received “fat cards” for special occasions. Polacco’s family had no extra money for presents so she drew a wordless story featuring her friend as the main character. The edges of Polacco’s fat cards were bound and sewn like real books. Years later when Polacco sold her first children’s stories, she realized she’d been making picture book dummies or mock-ups all of her life. More...

What my author/illustrator friends do in their spare time (part 3)

Popular spare-time activities include family and friends--from volunteering in children's schools to assisting aging parents. Lisa Rojany Buccieri says, "I hate to laugh, but I have three children 8 and under and that is where all my time goes."

In spite of family obligations (or perhaps because of them) we manage to find time to goof-off a bit on the nature trail, in a coffee shop, or in a garden. Again, in the author/illustrator's own words:

Susan Taylor Brown: "I work in the garden. Last summer we removed both our front and back lawns and removed all but 2 trees. We've replaced everything with California Native plants and are creating a wildlife habitat. It is exciting to watch the transformation as we are in the middle of the city surrounded by houses and busy streets and yet already we have all sorts of critters coming to visit."

Eve Aldridge: "I’m running in the Oakland hills with my dog, or pretzel folding in yoga, or smoothing out the wrinkles in my brain with some on-line Sudoku, or my absolute fave – reading a novel, kid or adult, on my sunny deck while tossing back a brew."

Janet Halfmann: "I take long walks along a nature trail near our home with my husband or daughter. It's fun to watch the wildlife and notice how the trail changes every day. I also spend a lot of time in my flower and vegetable gardens, planting, weeding, harvesting. I plant many different kinds of vegetables and lots of tomatoes, so summers are spent making and freezing lots of chili, spaghetti sauce, goulash, and bruschetta."

Marsha Diane Arnold: "When I am not writing, there are so many activities that draw my attention. I am fragmented, as I am in my writing. There is so much delicious food on the banquet table, it is hard to choose. I love to do international line dance, to bird watch, to scuba dive and snorkel, to travel to exotic locations or nearby locations, to garden, to hike, to walk in nature, to horseback ride, to sing with my hobby singing group, "The Powdered Sugars", to learn new things, and to spend time with my family, whether it's through travel, playing games, or watching a good movie."

Caryn Huberman Yacowitz: "My passion for myself--other than my granddaughter--is gardening--which I wish I could do more often--veggies and flowers."

Loretta Ichord: "I'm an avid gardener and devote a lot of time planting, weeding, and nurturing flowers and vegetables. I also grow herbs that I use in my other passionate activity,cooking. I have a large family: four grown children, their spouses, and five grand kids. At least once a month we all get together and have dinner to celebrate birthdays, etc."

Deborah Lee Rose: "When I'm not writing or tackling other professional tasks, one thing I love to do is sew. My favorite things to sew in the last couple years have been small quilts for young children, and making these quilts led me to write a lullaby-type picture book, now under contract for publication. I also walk (six miles at a time), swim, read, and listen to a lot of Broadway show music since my high-school aged son is very involved in musical theater (and I even help sew costumes for the shows)."

C. Lee McKenzie: "Since writing is a lot about BIC time, I take whatever "free time" I have to hike. I do what's called The Jones Trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains a couple of times a week and whenever I can really get away I do the Garrapatas Loop above Big Sur. Any other "free" moments are for yoga, garden, friends, and family--not necessarily in that order."

Cynthia Weber: "My other passion is my garden. It truly sings to me everyday. With such little effort (well, not always easy when I get beat up by rose thorns) I can create alive amazing beauty. "

Genny Heikka: "...enjoying a cup of coffee at my favorite coffee house around the corner. Which usually leads to sitting at a table by the window. Which usually leads to writing."

Thanks to everyone who participated!

BOOK TALK: SLIDING ON THE EDGE by C. Lee McKenzie

From Lee: Sliding on the Edge is kind of gritty in parts because Shawna, the young main character, has been lied to, abused, and abandoned. When she lands in a rural town and meets her cynical grandmother for the first time, there’s a lot of abrasion between the two.

It’s this connection between generations that I loved writing about. I liked letting Shawna make her bumpy coming of age journey and have it parallel that of her grandmother’s. I wanted to show that it’s never late to grow and develop into your full potential.

This is my first novel and it’s been great fun to write and then guide it through the publication process. I’ve learned so much and that’s what I really enjoy about this second career. I used to teach at a university, then I did program administration, then I actually built web sites (not well—I’d give myself a middle to low C.), so changing jobs isn’t a new concept in my life. I’m still not sure what I want to do when I grow up yet, but I do like trying to find out.

Sliding on the Edge
by C. Lee McKenzie
Westside Books
Released May 30, 2009
YA

BOOK TALK: THE FROG SCIENTIST by Pamela S. Turner

From Pam: When Tyrone Hayes was growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, he didn't worry about pesticides in water. He just liked to wade in and collect frogs, snapping turtles, and snakes. Tyrone’s interest in science led him to Harvard University. Though he struggled at first, he found his calling in the research lab of an amphibian scientist. Tyrone graduated from Harvard with honors and headed to the University of California, Berkeley, for graduate school. That same year, scientists discovered that all around the globe, frogs were dying.

The drastic decline in amphibians has many causes, including habitat loss and a disease. Tyrone discovered that the most commonly used pesticide in the United States, atrazine, may also play a role. He found that the chemical caused some of the male frogs to develop into bizarre half-male, half-females. What was going on?

In The Frog Scientist, readers will join Tyrone and his students as they work in the field and in a lab, following the step-by-step progress of a scientific experiment (and discovering that firm answers to complex questions aren't easy to come by). The Frog Scientist is a story of one man’s commitment to frogs—and the health of our environment.

The Frog Scientist

by Pamela S. Turner

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Released July 1, 2009

BOOK TALK: PUMPKIN BABY by Jane Yolen

From Jane: In PUMPKIN BABY a child mistakes adults joking about a new baby as coming from a pumpkin garden or a cabbage patch or being delivered by a stork as real. She wonders if she could love a pumpkin baby or a cabbage baby or a stork baby. And then her baby brother is born and all is revealed.



Pumpkin Baby
by Jane Yolen; pictures by Susan Mitchell
Key-Porter Books
Released July 1, 2009

Do you have a book coming out this year?

I'm beginning a new BOOK TALKS feature on my blog. Do you have a book coming out this year? Send me an email at newmanbooks@live.com with a brief book talk (less than 200 words) and I'll post it to my blog on your release day. Here's how:

• • Send a separate email for each upcoming book;
  • In the subject line, put the release date ONLY, i.e. September 29,
    2009;
  • Include a digital image of the cover;
  • Include publisher and genre;
  • In your 200-word limit, feel free to include your website/blog/twitter addresses or other contact information you feel is pertinent.

  Looking forward to reading about great new books!

Who Wrote That? Meet Lisa Rojany Buccieri

A bi-weekly feature profiling the talented authors and illustrators who bring children’s books to life.

Lisa Rojany Buccieri (pronounced Row-zha-nee Boo-chee-eh-ree) wrote her first book at the age of three by dictating it to her mother. Reading was (and still is) an integral part of her imagination and defined her childhood. “I used to create forts in my closet with blankets, a flashlight, my favorite snacks and stacks of books, and read and read and read,” she says. When she applied to college she remembers thinking she wanted to spend the rest of her life reading and writing. Her dream took a dramatic turn while studying for her Ph.D. at Brown University with the ultimate goal of becoming a college professor. “The myopia and politics of academia was not something I was interested in spending my life doing,” Buccieri says. More...

What my author/illustrator friends do in their spare time (part 2)

This week, we're resuming our discussion of what children's authors and illustrators do in their spare time. As I said in my previous post, the results of my informal survey were so numerous and varied, that I'm devoting multiple blog posts to publishing them all.


One common thread in all of the responses I received was a NURTURING ASPECT OF OUR PERSONALITIES. I guess nurturing is an inherent part of who we are as writers and illustrators because we mold and shape our stories and become part of our characters' lives. As I read through the responses, I couldn't help thinking that the activities we choose to spend time on help us become more compassionate, more empathetic, more understanding, therefore allowing us to create three-dimensional characters that children love.


This week's topic is how we nurture our communities. Again, enjoy your peers' responses below in their own words and in no particular order:


Alexis O'Neill: In my work life, before becoming a children’s author, the division between work and spare time was really distinct. It was almost as if I led two lives – my life in the work-a-day-world, and my “extracurricular” life. In the latter, pursued photography, did lots of theater and made many craft projects. I always looked forward to holidays and vacations so that I could play.
But now that I write for a living, my life is much more integrated. I never know when holidays are coming up, I work on weekends and often late into the night and never feel as if its “work.” My volunteer activities are incorporated into my writing life. I put in many hours a week as a regional advisor for the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators), have organized programming for children and adults for the Simi Valley Friends of the Library and act as an advocate for school libraries. So, my free time and work time are all in one happy package.


Paul Fleischman: I tutor Spanish-speakers in English every Saturday. For several years I've coached grammar schoolers in making string figures.


Teri Sloat: I do consulting for authors and illustrators trying to get started or over a hump and I love pretending that I'm an editor.


Genny Heikka: Some of the activities I do when I’m not writing are: helping at my kids’ school (which I guess is cheating a little because I still get to be around great books, their library, etc!)...volunteering as a mentor mom, getting involved in cancer causes (my mother-in-law and one of my best friends are both cancer survivors).


Caryn Huberman Yacowitz: I am active with a non-profit that helps impoverished Jews in Ethiopia and Israel. I also run a film and lecture program as a volunteer.

Elizabeth Koehler Pentacoff: I chair a young writer program which includes workshops and a writer contest. http://mtdiablowriters.org/

Dianne Danzig: I also like to work with kids in the schools and with asthma - have volunteered as a nurse for Children’s Hospital Oakland’s asthma camp. The camp site, Camp Arroyo, is provided by The Taylor Family Foundation, YMCA, and East Bay Regional Park. Located in Livermore, it offers year-round camps for children with medical needs - different weeks/weekends are devoted to children with cancer, diabetes, burns, hemophilia, asthma, HIV/AIDS, autism, bereavement, heart problems, skin diseases, more. http://ttff.org/

Linda Boyden: I volunteer every month at both our local Barnes & Noble and at the Redding or Anderson Libraries as a storyteller for preschoolers. It takes up time, but it is so delightful. The audiences range in age from new-born to pre-Kindergarten and number anywhere from 30-90 parents and their Littles. As a former primary teacher, nothing helps Littles develop their own literacy as well as giving them the gift of words. We play with stories and songs and puppets and end with coloring and smiles.

Gayle Rusch: I knit hats for people who are being treated for cancer or who have had brain surgery. I coordinate a satellite group of an organization called Head Huggers. http://www.headhuggers.org/ It's both fun and meaningful.

Deborah Davis: I volunteer as a WriterCoach at Berkeley High School with WriterCoachConnection (http://www.writercoachconnection.org/). WriterCoaches tutor students in Bay area middle and high schools on English class assignments.I'm also doing a series of free (and time-limited!) local school visits,focusing my presentations on what it takes to get published (revision,persistence, more revision) and how I'm turning my experiences in India into a novel.

Janet Ann Collins: I don't volunteer much because of health problems, but I used to interpret church services in American Sign Language. More recently I've done preschool story time at the local library, helped out in a Kindergarten classroom, and spoken for free about CA history to fourth graders at a local school. I care a lot about children and people with special needs.

Michael Garland: My wife is a Rotarian. Recently, we sold prints of my work, through the Carmel NY Rotary Club, to benefit an orphanage in Africa.

Who Wrote That? Meet Deborah Hopkinson

A bi-weekly feature (oops! late this week...too much happening!) profiling the talented authors and illustrators who bring children’s books to life.

Deborah Hopkinson has two full-time jobs, writer and professional fundraiser. Her readers know her award-winning picture books, nonfiction, and novels, and her university colleagues know her talents as the Vice President for College Advancement at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Oregon. As the primary breadwinner in her household, she cannot forego the health benefits of full-time employment, so she carves out chunks of time for writing. “I make lists,” she says. “I tend to work on weekends and a little bit in the evenings on shorter things, or I divide what I have to do in smaller pieces.” More...

What my author/illustrator friends do in their spare time (part 1)

I spend several hours each week volunteering for my children's high school band program. The program features a jazz band, two concert bands, and a large 160-student pep band. I became a regular band parent volunteer when my kids were in middle school because they responded to the music and developed close friends. In high school, the band became their family--a group to belong to in a vast sea of faces, classes, teachers, expectations, and pressures.

I help plan fundraisers, chaperone band tours to places like Disney World, the Caribbean, San Francisco and San Diego, help maintain the band website, and even host the end-of-the-year band party at our house. The band director is an amazing teacher who helps his students develop leadership skills as well as music skills. I've watched my children become more confident and independent within the confines of this supportive environment and would gladly volunteer more hours if I could find them in each day.

Recently, I asked my writer/illustrator friends what they do in their spare time. The results were so numerous and varied, I will have to devote several blog posts to publishing them all. Several authors and illustrators focus time on causes relating to animals. Enjoy the responses below (in the author/illustrator's own words and in no particular order), and watch for more spare time posts soon!

Jeri Chase Ferris: "Volunteer at Ride to Walk, a therapeutic horseback riding program, one afternoon a week as horse leader."

Terri Farley: "I...have big fun caring for my neighbor's horses. From a half mile away, the horses hear my front door open & nicker for attention. I love grooming and cleaning hooves, scrunching Darlin' 's mane as if I were another horse nibbling her affectionately, and trying to tempt a cautious mustang named Whiskey to show he likes me, even when I'm not carrying a feed bucket. Through Authoring Change, I do fundraising and publicity for literacy and humane causes, letting my books and bit of notoriety (I would never call myself a celebrity ; see above reference to chocolate) attract attention for all the right reasons. [In] this way I've been able to help out the Nevada Humane Society, a number of horse sanctuaries, Riding for Reading, [and] the Humane Society of the United States."

Susan Taylor Brown: "...training my German Shepherd Cassie. She is a rescue dog I got about a year ago and I want to train her for therapy work."

Anne Robinson: "Growing up in a musically and artistically talented family, I was convinced the talent fairy had passed me by completely. I discovered later in life that I have a talent; I write. I have always written. I can't NOT write. And I write more than children's books. I have actually been published in dog club and dog training magazines and newsletters! And my collie, Sailor, has his own blog, although he has to make advance arrangements for computer time.

"Most of my spare time is devoted to training and showing my collies in agility, herding and obedience. My older collie is titled in agility and obedience and the younger is coming along nicely. The older collie is a Delta Society therapy dog as well. As such, he has visited a local Alzheimer's center and has taken part in a reading project at the East Palo Alto Library. Children in the after-school tutorial program who need help with basic reading skills come once a week to read to the participating dogs. I plan to have my younger collie Delta certified also so he can visit hospitals and become part of the READ program. The Siberian husky simply runs wild and reminds us all how to be happy."

Ginger Wadsworth: "I helped start a program in the Orinda, California Library we call Paws to Read, in which children in grades 1-5, come to the library to read to therapy dogs who are assisted by their handlers. Our Paws to Read sessions are inspired by a national program called R.E.A.D. - www.therapyanimals.org/read, which I read about in my newspaper. I also observed a local version of a very successful one in Pleasanton, CA's public library. Statistics now show that participating children often improve their reading skills in this non-judgmental environment, and they get to be with animals when it isn't always possible at home, due to allergies, etc. Some programs actually have therapy cats!"

Deborah Underwood: "The cause closest to my heart is the well-being of animals, particularly farmed animals, so I spend some of my free time advocating for them in various ways. I'm delighted when I get to combine my two loves--for instance, my picture book Granny Gomez and Jigsaw (out next spring) is about the friendship between a woman and her adopted pig. The book evolved from my experiences at Farm Sanctuary in Orland, where I learned that pigs not only are extremely intelligent, but also form close friendships. I was up at the sanctuary last weekend and had some good cuddle-time with a turkey, so you can guess what my next manuscript might be about!"

Suzanne Morrone: "Dogs! My dogs take up any time I'm willing to give them. I take them to obedience class, we go tracking, we walk every day and play tennis ball endlessly. And I am a Therapy Dogs International volunteer. My three legged Kelpie and I visit our local library and kids read to him. We are going to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life walk and he will offer comfort and support to those who have lost limbs (or just love dogs)."