Posted by: bonniecrow on: September 26, 2009
My grandchild loves Cowboy Baby. I reckon all you guys with little ones should wander down to that ole “book-hole” and git you a copy. Your little ones will love it as Cowboy Baby puts off going to bed lookin’ fer Texas Ted, Denver Dog and Hank the Horse. Now Riley has to go lookin’ for her toys before she goes to bed.
“Four Friends Together” is another great story. People who love reading stories will enjoy sharing this with their little ones. “Story time is more complicated that it looks! After some squirming and shifting, the four friends setting in for what they love best–a really good story enjoyed together.” Flap
Someday I hope to be able to write stories like Sue Heap and Deb Lund write.
Posted by: bonniecrow on: August 9, 2009
Okay, one of my favorite (new to me) authors is Deb Lund. “Monsters on Machines” is a great tale for boys and girls. I think children will like the different kinds of construction vehicles and how they are used in the story. Children will enjoy the catchy rhyming. The illustrations completed by Robert Neubecker are great…I’ll have to try this out on my two year old grand-daughter when she gets a little older as I’m unsure if the monster may scare her…maybe not. However, I think she would love “All Aboard the Dinotrain” right now. Riley loves dinos and trains. The story is darling. They end up home for dinohugs and an ending with a twist for the next book…I’m sure. Wish I could write rhyme like Deb Lund.
Posted by: bonniecrow on: July 4, 2009
Moose Flannagan is in seventh grade and just moved to Alcatraz where his father is a guard. It’s 1935 and his sister Natalie who is older than Moose is autistic. (Autism wasn’t identified until 1943.) The author grew up with a sister who was autistic so she did a fine job of capturing Natalie’s spirit and how Moose felt about her. This is a great book to study if you’re interested in writing MG.
Posted by: bonniecrow on: July 4, 2009
“The Tiger Rising” is a fantastic story of twelve-year-old Rob Horton. The story’s mentor (or prophetess as Sistine calls her), Willie May, is written perfectly. DiCamillo captures Willie May’s voice: “I ain’t got to do nothing,” said Willie May, “except stay black and die.” Rob has to learn to grieve the death of his mother. The jacket flap puts it concisely: Rob and Sistine prove that some things–like memories, and heartache, and tigers–can’t be locked up forever. Kate DiCamillo is a word artist that is for sure. ”The Tiger Rising” was a National Book Award Finalist. Now I need to reread “Because of Winn-Dixie.”
Posted by: bonniecrow on: June 30, 2009
It was September 22, 2007 and I had the privilege of hearing Stacy Cantor, associate editor at Walker Books for Young Readers speak. I think one of the best points she made was not to use the same word in your manuscript again. If you used “plodded” once don’t use it again. Come up with something different. Ms Cantor also shared with the writers how the story CHICKS AND SALSA came to be including: the original slush pile manuscript, the editor’s letter back to the author—Aaron Reynolds, and how it went through several revisions. It was an eye-opening journey of how a manuscript develops into a final product….a book! Another point Ms Cantor made was that when they first wrote Mr. Reynolds back with their thoughts about revision he took his time to respond, considered what they had to say, rewrote and revised, then sent it back four month later…which in her opinion showed he took time to consider her response. If you ever get the chance to hear Ms Cantor speak do it! I know I will.
Posted by: bonniecrow on: June 16, 2009
I spent hours writing lesson plans for one of my manuscript yesterday. It’s great you can google the Texas Education website to obtain information about the essential elements to tie the plans to their goals for students. This is not the creative writing I prefer but it is something that must be done. Hopefully, it will make it easier for teachers to use the book when it comes out. Not that teachers need this as the ones I know are very creative.
Posted by: bonniecrow on: June 7, 2009
I hope to have a manuscript worthy of entering the Cherrios’ contest. I’ve been working on this piece since Anastasia Suen’s class on poetry in ’07. So its been in and out of the drawer several times since that period. The lastest revision has sounds added because that was an assignment I had in my writing class with Chris Rogers: add sound to a piece. But I think it interferes with the meter…so it may have to go. All writing is rewriting so I need to go.
Posted by: bonniecrow on: June 4, 2009
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Posted by: bonniecrow on: June 4, 2009
Hi. I have been setting up my website all afternoon. It still needs a lot of work but at least it has started. Here it is evening and I’m blogging about it. I want to thank everyone who offered recommendations: Susan Mitchell, Lynne Hoenig, Bruce Foster, Deborah Frontiera and Donna Maloy. Donna actually came over to my house to help me. What a great lady. Our SCBWI group rocks!
So what would make a person set up a website? I attended an SCBWI event in Austin on April 25, 2009 featuring editors and authors from Blooming Tree Press. One of the workshops led by Madeline Smoot was titled: Marketing Your Book (Yes, you have to. And here’s why.) This workshop covered everything about marketing with many good ideas. An author needs to build a corporate identity and there are several avenues to take including: business cards, websites, blogs—how to blog successfully, why you should blog even before you have a book, facebook and several other avenues. She even gave some good tips on what you should not say on facebook.
One of the best things that came out of the workshop was that Anna Herrington asked if she could keep my manuscript, BLOOMING BLUEBONNETS—JEWELS OF NATURE, to share with her group. She even called her mom and shared it with her. Of course I said, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes share it with anyone you want to.” After rewriting it 53 times I was glad an editor liked it!
