Penguin Australia has announced changes to how their submissions process works for children’s and YA titles.
They will be accepting certain types of manuscripts at particular times of the year. You’ll find all the details on their website.
Happy writing.
So, I continue to gather good book trailers for the Boobook Brilliant Book Trailer Hall of Fame.
Here is my latest find—a trailer for Eric Vale Epic Fail by Michael Gerard Bauer and illustrated by Joe Bauer (who also created the trailer).
It’s short and catchy, it’s funny and entertaining. Straight to the Hall of Fame!
In my day job I am the editor of Alphabet Soup—an Australian magazine for kids aged 6 to 12 who love reading and creative writing.
Over on Alphabet Soup’s blog, they are giving away a free back issue to the first 200 people who request one before 4 February 2013. Do you know any teachers, librarians or friends who might like a copy? Maybe you’d like a copy yourself?
Head on over there to find out how. (And tell your friends!)
Thank you!
Good Night, Sleep Tight by Mem Fox, ill. Judy Horacek, ISBN 9781742832579, Scholastic Australia, RRP $19.99 Published October 2012
Here’s the perfect nursery rhyme book for bedtime.
Bonnie and Ben are being put to bed by their favourite babysitter, Skinny Doug. (Unrelated tangent: Horacek’s Skinny Doug reminds me a lot of a babysitter my brothers and I once had. One night when my brothers kept popping out of the bedroom, he lay flat on his back on the bedroom floor—on a sea of lego—and stayed there until the boys fell asleep. We thought he was the Best Babysitter Ever. Anyway, back to Skinny Doug … )
He shares some nursery rhymes he learnt from his mother, including:
In between each rhyme, Bonnie and Ben cry a catchy refrain—
‘We love it, we love it!’ said Bonnie and Ben.
‘How does it go? Will you say it again?’
A keen illustration-studier will notice that Bonnie, Ben and Skinny Doug become part of the illustration for each rhyme—they are in there riding horses and ‘tickling under there’ with the rest of the cast of characters from each nursery rhyme.
A rollicking and fun take on a bedtime picture book—and a calm ending to send the readers off to bed ready for sleep.
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I received a review copy of Good Night, Sleep Tight from the publisher but receive no payment for reviewing it. (I do get to keep the book though. Lucky me!)
Readers of this blog (hello to all five of you!) will know that I am a curmudgeon when it comes to book trailers. And yet—HERE I AM! With book trailer #2 making it to the Boobook Brilliant Book Trailer Hall Of Fame. (You will find the first book trailer in the Hall of Fame if you read this earlier post.)
I haven’t read this book. Yet. I like the trailer so much that I am going to track it down immediately and find a small child to read it with me. Why does this trailer make the cut? The music in the trailer is done well (in my—rather biased—opinion), the trailer itself is quirky and visually appealing. I think it does a good job of advertising an alphabet book and is enjoyable to watch just for its own sake. And this book trailer is for:
The Hidden Alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
What do you think, would it make it to your Hall of Fame?
I have a confession—I’m not really taken with book trailers. I want to get excited about them, I really do … but it seems I expect a lot from a book trailer, and most are quite bland.
It’s the National Year of Reading and I think good book trailers are a great way to promote books. So when I come across them, I’ll post the book trailers that do grab me.
Today’s trailer is for is an upcoming picture book by Perth author-illustrator James Foley—In the Lion will be out in August.
Put me out of my misery—can you recommend any other ‘must see’ trailers for children’s/YA titles?
It’s the start of the school holidays here in WA. I thought I’d throw out a few links to cool things I’ve seen around the internet—things to do during the school holidays.
This is a new blog, to go with a new picture book coming out by Meg McKinlay and Kyle Hughes-Odgers. The blog features photos of tiny things that kids (and big ‘kids’) spot while walking about in the streets of their neighbourhoods. There are some amazingly fabulous tiny things photographed and I can’t wait to take my kids walking with a camera sometime over the break. (You can send in photos of your own tiny things in your neighbourhood. Do it! Do it!)
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Printable Paper Rockets (Picklebums)
I know my kids will LOVE this activity and the making will be as much fun as the rocketing. To make these low-tech rockets, all you need is glue, bendy straws, scissors, pencil, tape and download the printable (or improvise your own design on paper.)
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Planning with Kids has a make-your-own glow jar activity outlined step-by-step. It gets dark quite early here at the moment, and glow jars at the end of the day sounds perfect.
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The Book Chook has shared heaps of links about sites where kids can create their own comics. I have two kids who are keen on comic creating and I’ve been meaning to check out some of the Book Chook’s recommended sites. This seems like a good time to get around to it …
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Kids’ Short story comp/Design-a-cover comp (a shameless plug)
Alphabet Soup magazine is running a story writing comp, closing 12 July. There are $20 book vouchers to win in three age categories—under 7s, under 9s and under 12s. (My kids won’t be entering because, you know, immediate family can’t enter etc etc but they do love time to write over the school holidays so we’ll be getting their notebooks out often.)
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OK. So this is not a school holiday activity but a blog I love visiting because I normally spend a good deal of my time packing school lunch boxes, and this is what I wished they looked like … in some parallel universe, I’m sure I am making lunches just like this.
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What are you doing/what did you do for the winter holidays?
