For Teachers

Book Expo America – Photo Essay & Musings

I just got home from my first ever BEA (Book Expo America) bookseller convention held at the Javits Center in New York City. It’s been nearly 10 years since I visited New York and, though I came very close to canceling the whole thing 3 weeks before, the experience ended up very much worth all the flights from my tiny corner of the world in the Southwest, the Dramamine (ha!) and the angst/worry/nerves/chewed fingernails.

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Javits Center, New York City

Highlights of my experience:

1. This summer my 4th novel will publish with Scholastic (THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES) and I finally got to meet my talented and terrific editor for the first time. Scholastic also set me up with an ARC signing – we estimated at least 100 copies in 45 minutes. Whew! So much fun.

2. I was also able to meet my Harpercollins editor for the first time (FORBIDDEN, Nov ’14) and discuss edits for Book 2 in the trilogy as well as their forthcoming marketing/publicity plans. My editor called it a “robust” marketing plan – whoo hoo!!

I’ve been to ALA and IRA Conventions before, which are geared toward librarians and teachers, while BEA is put on by booksellers (although teachers, librarians, publishers, authors, and READERS, are there in wild abundance.)

I discovered that agents, foreign agents from around the world, movie people, as well as folks from outside publicity firms are also at BEA in strong numbers. I was able to meet and chat with Scholastic and Harpercollins sales and marketing folks manning their respective booths eager to talk about upcoming Fall titles.

BEA Diversity Panel

The WeNeedDiverseBooks Panel Members. I missed it but I heard it was FANTASTIC!!! Raves from everyone who attended.

BEA Diverse

As you can see from the standing room only crowd waiting for the Diversity Panel to begin.

My two days was so wild and crazy with appts, panels, classes (yes there are many of these, much more than I expected), lunches, and autographing sessions, I neglected to take a picture of the Autographing Area. Believe me, there were THOUSANDS of people there to snag ARCs and meet their favorite authors. I did notice that Adult and Young Adult authors were in higher abundance than Middle-Grade Authors. I had one of the few MG ARC signings and the line was crazy huge. I signed like a mad woman, (while trying to simultaneously chat with the terrific readers and booksellers and librarians – my publicist and editor unpacking and opening the books as fast as they could next to me) that I have NO pictures. Truly, I was there! Really! 🙂

BEA Children’s Book Breakfast: Carl Hiaasen, Mem Fox, Jason Segal , and Jeff Kinney (l to r)

Your Average Book-Lover Citizen was able to attend on the final day of Saturday since the BEA convention organizers added a Book Con day (also called Power Reader Day) to the schedule. The public was able to purchase tickets, grab ARCs as well as enjoy demonstrations, games, and panel events with their favorite authors.

Read a great recap of panels and events here: BEA Round-Up by Publisher’s Weekly

Pics From the Floor!

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I *am* partial to the purple flooring . . .

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Middle-Grade Books!

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More Books!

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Scholastic titles that have sold internationally.

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A Lego Bounty Hunter: couldn’t help myself.

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The aisles go as far as you can see in both directions.

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Audio Books!

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Publisher’s Weekly as well as Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and other reviewers were represented.

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I tried to snap displays of MG books for y’all.

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Barefoot Books

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Self-Explanatory. 🙂

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Ditto!

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Gorgeous weather enjoyed by all – except when it suddenly poured rain trying to get a taxi to the airport Saturday late afternoon. Some of my ARCs got wet in my bag. 🙁

 

Was anybody at BEA that I missed? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.

June 27-28 I’m headed to the American Library Association Summer Conference – raise your hand if you’re going! Would love to meet more readers and writers.

Kimberley Griffiths Little’s newest MG novel will release July 29. THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES has already received terrific reviews from Kirkus, PW, and School Library Journal said, “A perfect choice for lovers of ghost stories, historical fiction, or just a good yarn.” Stay tuned for her launch with giveaways right here on MUF. Find Kimberley on Facebook. and Twitter:@KimberleyGLittl

Teacher’s Guides, Mother/Daughter Book Club Guides, and book trailers “filmed on location” at her website.

The Nonfiction Family Tree

A few weeks ago, I attended the New England SCBWI conference in beautiful Springfield, MA. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a workshop given by  Melissa Stewart and Sarah Albee on Nonfiction. It was fascinating!  There was so much GREAT information that I felt it would be good for others to learn about it. I contacted Melissa and she graciously agreed to be interviewed.   For those of you that haven’t heard of  or been lucky enough to meet Melissa, here’s a little about her:

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Melissa Stewart is the award-winning author of more than 150 science books for children. She has always been fascinated by the natural world and is passionate about sharing its beauty and wonder with readers of all ages.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University, Melissa worked as a children’s book editor for nine years before becoming a fulltime writer in 2000. She has written everything from board books for preschoolers to magazine articles for adults.

Melissa believes that nothing brings nonfiction writing to life like firsthand research. While gathering information for her books, she has explored tropical rain forests in Costa Rica, gone on safari in East Africa, and swum with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands.

When Melissa isn’t writing or exploring the natural world, she spends time speaking at schools, libraries, nature centers, and educator conferences. She serves on the Board of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Keene State College Children’s Literature Festival.

With the advent of Common Core, nonfiction seems to be taking off. Can you give us a little background of how nonfiction has changed over the years? Wow, it’s changed A LOT. Fifteen years ago, most nonfiction text was rather dry. If an author wrote a manuscript with a strong voice, it was edited out. Today editors want, no demand, a strong voice. In the past, authors were supposed to be unbiased, but today it’s perfectly okay for writers to express a point of view.  Art and design has also changed. Ever since desktop publishing software was invented, illustrators and designers have been experimenting. The result is dynamic designs that kids can’t resist. The upshot is that today’s nonfiction has a dual purpose. It delights as well as informs.  

 

In your talk, you broke nonfiction up into seven categories. Can you explain these categories? Sure. In my talk with uber-talented author Sarah Albee [link: http://www.sarahalbeebooks.com/], we drew upon the work of a group of highly-respected academics who call themselves the Uncommon Corp [link: http://nonfictionandthecommoncore.blogspot.com/]. They classify nonfiction books into seven broad categories. Data: In more friendly terms, you might call this category Fasts Facts. It includes Eyewitness Books, The Guinness Book of World Records, and my own book Animal Grossapedia. These are the concise, fact-filled books that groups of boys love to read together and discuss.

Expository: You might call this category Facts Plus because the facts are interwoven into a content-area explanation. This is could be considered “traditional” nonfiction in some ways, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about today’s expository titles. Their engaging text and rich, dynamic art and design are sure to delight as well as inform young readers.

Narrative: This is a category we’ve heard a lot (I mean A LOT) about in the last few years. It’s the current darling of awards committees. Narrative titles present facts in the form of a true story with a narrative arc.   As you learn about the next few categories, I think you’ll see that some of the books that have been lumped into the narrative category should really be thought about on their own terms, based on the author’s approach to the information.

Disciplinary Thinking: These books reveal how scientists and historians go about their work, how they evaluate evidence and form theories. The structure could be narrative, but it usually isn’t. This category might also be called something like Experts at Work. Scientists in the Field books are the perfect example, but there are plenty of other examples. Skull by Mark Aronson is one that immediately comes to mind.

Inquiry: This category could also be called Ask and Answer. In these books, the author raises a question or a group of related questions and then seeks the answer. Sally Walker’s Written in Bone and What Bluebirds Do by Pamela F. Kirby are great examples.

Interpretation: For these books, authors research a topic widely, find their own meaning in the information, and present the content from that point of view. Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman is the first title that leaps to mind, but I’d also put books like Those Rebels, Tom and John by Barbara Kerley in this category. I think we’ll see more of these books in the future because this type of presentation directly supports Common Core.

Action: This is category offers a separate spot for titles that invite young readers to take action. The most obvious examples include Citizen Scientists by Loree Griffin Burns and the Science Play series by Vicki Cobb. I’m not sure this system is the be all and end all, but it’s a very interesting way for writers, teachers, librarians, and other book lovers to think about nonfiction. It stretches the way we think about current books and future possibilities, and I think that’s extremely valuable.

 

Do you think certain topics lend themselves to certain categories? Yes. I think narrative nonfiction works very well for biographies and books about historical events. These topics naturally have a beginning, a middle, and an end. With enough research, an author can craft the alternating scenes and summary architecture that characterizes narrative nonfiction. When writing about science, math, or the Arts, narrative nonfiction may not be an option. Even if it is, it may not be the best choice. For a broad overview of any topic, expository usually works best.   Two great examples are Bugged: How Insects Changes History by Sarah Albee and 9780802734228_p0_v4_s260x420 A Black Hole Is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami Decristofano.     If writers think about these categories at the beginning of a project, I think they may have an easier time coming up with a great way to approach a topic and a solid structure for their book. It provides some options, so we aren’t just shooting in the dark.  

 

Which one do you think is most popular with kids? Why? Data books are clearly the most popular with kids. Most school librarians will tell you that titles like The Guinness Book of World Records is almost constantly checked out. Elementary-aged readers love fascinating facts, so Data books can be good for hooking beginning readers. But many educators worry that these books don’t do much to help kids build their reading skills. Right now, thought leaders like Jonathan Hunt and Marc Aronson feel that we need a new breed of book that forms a bridge between Data books and long-form nonfiction that students are expected to read in middle school and high school.

 

Which categories do teachers tend use in their classrooms? In recent years, teachers didn’t use much high-quality trade nonfiction in the classroom at all. But the hope is that Common Core is changing that. Right now, teachers are struggling to learn about nonfiction, and they are building their classroom libraries. Luckily, most school librarians have been singing the praises of the new nonfiction for several years now, so they are becoming trusted advisors in schools where they exist. We need more school librarians!

 

Any tips for readers about how to find fun, engaging nonfiction books? Here are some lists to keep an eye on. They include great nonfiction titles from all seven categories:

  • AAAS/Subaru Prizes for Excellence in Science Books
  • ALA Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
  • CRA Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award
  • Cook Prize for STEM Picture Book
  • Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices List
  • Cybils Nonfiction for Middle Grade & Young Adult
  • Cybils Nonfiction Picture Books
  • NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
  • NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12
  • YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults

 

How do you see the world of nonfiction changing for the future? That’s a great question, and I’m not sure I really know the answer. My hope is that we’ll see more nonfiction being published for children. Although I think many editors are now more open to reviewing nonfiction submission than they were in the past, what I hear is that they aren’t yet acquiring significantly more nonfiction manuscripts. This may be because many editors are still trying to get up to speed on the market. They need to familiarize themselves with what’s out there and gain an understanding of the characteristics of best-selling and award-winning nonfiction. Some editors may also be in a wait-and-see mode, wondering how long Common Core will stick around. There is a lot of controversy regarding the testing associated with CCSS, but the standards themselves are sound. Still, educators are famous for a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater mentality. They tend to move in completely new directions every decade or so, abandoning previous ideas rather than revising them.

 

Of all the books you have written, do any stand out as having been really fun to write? Perhaps they were about a topic that you loved or in a format that you enjoyed.  I guess I’m still an elementary-aged fact-lover at heart. One of my favorite books to research and write was Animal Grossapedia because it’s so chock full of amazing examples of how animals use pee, poop, vomit, slime (mucus), and spit to catch food and stay safe. But what I also really like about this book is that as kids read example after example, they gradually come to the book’s central idea—that animals have an amazing array of adaptations and behaviors that make it possible for them to survive in the world. So I’m sharing an idea that’s a central tenet of biology, but in a package that they find irresistible. To me, that’s a successful book.

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Thanks so much for helping us to understand the wild and wonderful world of nonfiction, Melissa!!

To learn more about Melissa see her website at www.melissa-stewart.com.  Melissa also has a great blog called “Celebrate Science” where she focuses on cool nonfiction books, how she writes them, and talks more about the classification and structure of nonfiction books. Check it out here:  www.celebratescience.blogspot.com

 

**** Jennifer Swanson is the author over 20 fiction and nonfiction books. She is a science nerd at heart and loves to learn new and fun science facts which is why her shelves are filled with books!!

Diversity in Children’s Literature: The Search for the Missing Characters (and Authors!) of Color

courtesy scholastic.com

courtesy scholastic.com

A recent study conducted by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin discovered something shocking. Of 3,200 children’s books released in 2013, a mere 223 were by authors of color, and 253 were about people of color.

If you break that down by ethnic group, that amounts to 93 books about African/African American characters (and only 67 by African/African American authors); 57 about Latino/as; and 69 about Asian and Pacific Islanders. And it was an embarrassing 34 books about Native American characters, with only 18 of those books actually written by Native American authors. No matter how you slice it, it’s no where near enough; a mere fraction of the percentages of those communities represented in the U.S. population.

courtesy bookriot.com

courtesy bookriot.com

At least it has generated some serious conversations. In last month’s New York Times Sunday Review, Walter Dean Meyers asked: Where are the People of Color in Children’s Books? In Meyer’s words, “Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?”

In the same issue, Meyers’ son, Christopher Meyers wrote of The Apartheid of Children’s Literature, suggesting that a dearth of characters of colors in children’s literature results not only in children being unable to see themselves in the stories they read (what we might call the ‘mirror’ function of literature), but also in children being unable to chart their future possibilities (what we might call the ‘map’ function of literature, in other words ‘you can’t be what you can’t see.’). He argued,

[Children] create, through the stories they’re given, an atlas of their world, of their relationships to others, of their possible destinations…We adults — parents, authors, illustrators and publishers — give them in each book a world of supposedly boundless imagination that can delineate the most ornate geographies, and yet too often today’s books remain blind to the everyday reality of thousands of children. Children of color remain outside the boundaries of imagination. The cartography we create with this literature is flawed.

Subsequently, there’s been a lot of buzz about ‘diversity’ in children’s literature. Interestingly, most of that ‘buzz’ has been about YA books, including this CNN post which asks, “Where’s the African American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss?” (Ok, never mind that Katniss was described as olive-skinned in the books, I won’t even go there..)  Author Heather Tomlinson has done a terrific round-up of some of the recent ‘diversity’ conversations taking place here on her blog, including this comprehensive post from bookriot (with even more links) which urges “We Need Bigger Megaphones for Diversity in Kidlit.” In the post, author Kelly Jensen asks,

In a world where John Green takes up nearly half of the New York Times YA Bestsellers list… why aren’t more people like him, with enormous social platforms, giving a little time to these conversations? What does he — or any other of a number of well-positioned, socially-connected YA authors (white men and some white women) — stand to lose from addressing these concerns? Would a reblog or a retweet of one of the first of a series of stories kill their career? Or would it help the voices of those who deserve to be heard get that attention? Would they reach members of their fan bases eager to discover more stories that they have been craving?

Diversity talk seems to be all around the industry right now. When, in mid-March, an attendee at the the New York City Teen Author Book Festival asked why she had only seen  one author of color speak all weekend, no one had a good answer for her. Agent Jim McCarthy, who had an author speaking on one of those all-white panels, subsequently wrote about the experience, asking the following interesting questions: “…where is the root of the problem? Is it in the largely white make-up of the publishing industry? Are we weeding out material by and about experiences we simply don’t understand? Is there an institutional racism that hasn’t been broached yet?”

The issue of institutional racism is a huge one, and it’s one that negates the claim that maybe authors of color don’t write, or at least, don’t write as well as white authors. In a powerful essay called “Diversity is Not Enough: Race, Power and Publishing,”  called the children’s publishing industry to task. The Market, he argues, is not a mysterious and ineffable thing (Who knows! It’s just The Market!), but rather, something constructed by people — people who chose which books to publish, which books to write about/share/review, and which books to economically support regarding promotion and marketing. Blaming authors of color for not knowing ‘their craft’ is simply “the language of privilege – the audacity of standing at the top of a mountain you made on the backs of others and then yelling at people for being at the bottom. If it’s not the intangible Market that’s to blame, it’s the writers of color, who maybe don’t have what it takes and don’t submit enough anyway. Read the subtextual coding here – the agent first places the onus of change on the folks with the least institutional power to effect it, then suggests we probably won’t be able to find the time (i.e., lazy) to master the craft.”

Older quotes from this Vanity Fair interview with actress Anika Noni Rose, in which she says, “There are so many writers of color out there, and often what they get when they bring their books to their editors, they say, ‘We don’t relate to the character.’ Well it’s not for you to relate to! And why can’t you expand yourself so you can relate to the humanity of a character as opposed to the color of what they are?”

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courtesy juliedillonart.com, courtesy buzzfeed.com

The issue is one that is as central to Middle Grade novels and Middle Grade authors as YA novels and authors. Is there an apartheid in MG literature? The numbers surely suggest yes. Rather than blaming The Market or, worse still, middle grade authors of color, perhaps we as a community need to come up with some solutions. These solutions might include:

1. As the CNN article suggests, BIGGER MEGAPHONES. Who are the biggest middle grade names and voices out there? Kate DiCamillo, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, WE NEED YOU (and people like you) to not only support books by and about people of color, but lend your voice and considerable authority to the conversation.

2. Agents and Editors willing to believe in, invest in, and market authors of color (and stories about characters of color). But agents and editors need support too – so we need agencies and publishing houses committed to issues of diversity. (While recognizing that some are already so, I’m looking at you, Tu Books)

How can you help your organization put diversity on the agenda? Maybe your agency/publishing house needs to regularly read and share blogs addressing diversity like that of the  CBC diversity committee. Maybe your agency/publishing house needs to have a book club, google hang out, or twitter chat where you read, discuss and recommend to each other stories by and about people of color (even from among books you don’t represent!). Maybe your agency/publishing house needs to hire more agents or editors of color! Maybe your agency/publishing house could publicly pledge to increase the number of authors of color they represent, or books they publish by and about people of color! (And become an industry leader and role model for doing so!)

3. Librarians, teachers, parents, and readers to promote and embrace stories by and about characters of color – and not just during African- or Asian American history months! Stories that represent our diverse world are needed by all children all year round – not once a month, and not simply trotting out special ‘ethnic’ books for ‘ethnic’ children. And think about genre, too — are all the stories about African American characters historical fiction addressing segregation and slavery? Does your science fiction and fantasy collection feature any Native American, Asian American or Latino/a authors?

4. Authors Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo established the Diversity in YA blog (and reading series!), perhaps there needs to be a similar blog set up called Diversity in MG!

5. Established authors paying attention to ‘who else is at the table’ (or on the panel, as the case may be). Is there a wonderful author of color or book about a character of color you love? Pass it on to your editor or agent! Talk it up on your blog! Tweet, Instagram or shout from the rooftops about it! Someone helped you get where you are, why not pay it forward? (while this is related to point #1 above about bigger megaphones, I also don’t think you need to be a ‘major name’ to support diversity.)

Authors, how’s this for an easily achievable step: When invited to speak somewhere, take the responsibility to ask who else is coming. I learned this trick from several white male academics I know who, when asked to speak somewhere, always ask who else is going to be there. If they realize it will be yet another all  white panel/speaker series/conference, they suggest other names. I actually know of one man who has bowed out of several panels to make room for other voices. Now I’m not advocating for tokenism (stick that one person of color on the panel!) but for us as colleagues to think how even small everyday actions can help us be a part of the solution, rather than  part of perpetuating the problem.

6. All authors paying attention to the diversity present in their stories. Now, like my comment on panels above, this doesn’t mean ‘stick in a token kid of color/disabled kid/LGBTQ kid’ into your story, but rather, that we all write stories that reflect the world around us (and most of us live in a pretty diverse world). There are plenty of good resources on writing cross culturally out there – but I recommend this post on the “12 Fundamentals of Writing the Other (and the Self)”  by , and this one by Cynthia Leitich Smith called “Writing, Tonto and the Wise Cracking Minority Sidekick who is the First to Die.” 

N.B. Although obviously important, I put this point about writing across cultures purposefully last. This is because I think it problematic that conversations about diversity in children’s literature so often become only about non-POC authors being ‘brave’ enough to write racially diverse stories. Now, I’m not endorsing any type of essentialism – ie. suggesting something ridiculous and limiting like authors should only write about characters whose ethnicities, sexualities, genders, etc. are exactly like theirs. Of course not. But I still want to borrow here a slogan from the disability activism movement: ‘Nothing About Us Without Us.’ In other words, I think that any conversation about racial diversity in kidlit has to be first about encouraging, nurturing, publishing, promoting and celebrating authors of color. (Right? Right.)

What other solutions do you as a readership suggest? Let’s use the comments section to  brainstorm – and of course celebrate your favorite middle grade stories by and about people of color!