Autism & Sensory Learning Campaign: Guest Post with author, Samantha Cotterill

Thank you to Samantha Cotterill for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy and sharing her inspiration for the Little Senses books.

Little Senses was created out of a need for something I wish I had access to as a in my younger years ...a series of books purposefully void of any qualitative adjectives or labels that might otherwise turn away a reader who needs it most. These books introduce topics in an approachable way, often using light touches of humor to keep the reader engaged while offering tools to help maneuver overwhelming moments.

The inspiration to create Little Senses came mostly out of my own experiences as a child growing up with Asperger’s, as well as those close to me who view the world similarly. It was important to create stories that were both entertaining and educational, while ultimately giving the reader a feeling of being “heard” and understood.

I grew up in the late 70’s/80’s where autism wasn’t known or understood the way it is today, and most definitely not on the radar during the formative years of my childhood. I was just a very awkward kid who had a lot of “issues”. I felt like an alien trying desperately to fit in and belong, often being teased and bullied by others for my “odd” or “weird” behaviors. Little did I know that the struggles I faced both at home and school were because of my autism, and as a result, I often blamed myself by constantly wondering What is wrong with me? Why don’t I like hugging my parents and sister ? Why do I get so agitated when someone turns on a ceiling light or uses metal cutlery? Why the need to suddenly escape when entering a crowded mall? Why do sock seams digging into my toes and sleeves creasing under my sweater hurt so much? Why is it so hard to develop and maintain friendships? (you get the picture). I worked so hard to manage simple daily tasks and even harder to fit in socially, often mimicking the way the girls in my class talked and dressed...desperate to feel a sense of belonging. I became a chameleon, reflecting the “colors” of personalities around me with such success that I started to lose sense of who I was. I struggled. And felt alone. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college at 19 years of age did I receive a general autism diagnosis, and a further 25 years later before receiving my current diagnoses.

If I could go back in time and give young Samantha these stories, I can only imagine the impact it would have had on her own emotional well being of feeling understood in a world that seemed so foreign and confusing. Seeing a character just like oneself takes away feelings of estrangement, and replaces it with the sentiment of belongingness. Add to that the understanding and awareness it would raise for those around that child (e.g., caregivers ,siblings and classmates), and one can hopefully create an entire support system of encouragement and acceptance in a safe and loving environment .

A bit about the first two stories

Nope. Never. Not for Me! and This Beach is Loud! are the first two books from Little Senses that tackles the stresses that can occur from trying new foods and traveling to new places.

Nope. Never. Not for Me! focusses on the introduction and exploration of one food, which is unlike many other children’s books that instead center around a variety of food within one story. Under the tent of subtle humour, this story takes a young child on a journey of food discovery with the guidance of a calm and encouraging parent, ultimately letting go of the conventional ways we have often become accustomed to when dealing with a "picky eater". There is no stress. No pressure. Just freedom for the child to realistically react, respond, and explore.

In This Beach is Loud! , we follow a young boy on his first adventure to the Beach with his dad. Even with the preparations ahead of the big day, we see hints of nerves as he “excitedly” talks the entire ride to the shore. While the beach may not look extremely busy to many a neurotypical viewer, it looks overwhelming to our young boy. Add new textures and unexpected sounds, it can suddenly all become way too much. Luckily Dad has a few tricks up his sleeve to help his son conquer these moments and get that special day he was longing for.

About the author: Samantha Cotterill is an illustrator and textile designer. She works and resides with her family in Upstate New York.

Check out the other posts in the Autism and Sensory Learning Campaign.

WEEK ONE: I AM NOT A FOX

June 4 – What’s a Kid to Read – Review + Instagram

June 5 – Bookoholic Mom – Creative Instagram Picture

June 6 – Little Earthling Blog – Helping kids understand and embrace their differences

June 7 – Bookwormommyof3 – Creative Instagram Picture

WEEK TWO: BABY DRAGON, BABY DRAGON

June 11 – Inspiration Laboratories – Dragon themed sensory activity

June 12 – YA Books Central – Review + Instagram Content

June 13 – Dream Reader Kids – Review + Picture

June 14 – Miss M’s Kindergarten – Hyperactivity in young students and building awareness

WEEK THREE: LITTLE SENSES (THIS BEACH IS LOUD! and NOPE! NEVER! NOT FOR ME!)

June 18 – Kid Lit Frenzy – Author Guest Post: Her inspiration, research process, and recommended resources

June 19 – For Mommy’s Dragons – Listicle: Top 5 Reasons why I love the series

June 20 – Happily Ever Elephants – Listicle: Picture Books with/about Neurodiverse characters

June 21 – Picturebookplaydate – Creative Instagram Picture

Blog Tour: Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse

When I first saw a very, very early version of Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse, I fell in love with the book. It is such a beautiful book. Today, I welcome Marcy Campbell and Corrine Luyken to Kid Lit Frenzy. Thank you Marcy and Corrine for sharing about your collaboration for this book specifically, what was the hardest concept to get across in both text and art. 

Corinna: When I first read Marcy’s manuscript, I loved the story’s themes of compassion and empathy and appreciated how the book addressed class in an indirect but honest way. I also loved that it had no art notes! Because Marcy never dictated whether the horse should be shown, she left a great deal of room for me to imagine my own way into the story.

Early on, I thought that if I was going to show the horse, it could be hidden in the environment around Adrian. Marcy’s original text said the horse was “golden with a white mane,” and I tried using a porch light to be the horse’s eye and the peeling paint on the side of his house to make a horse silhouette. But once I started drawing golden grasses and fences, I realized that I could use negative space and patterns to make a horse! By using negative space, the horse could simultaneously exist and not exist, depending on how you looked at it. Which seemed perfect.

Marcy: Once Corinna decided to use negative space to create the horse, she asked whether the horse could be “white with a golden mane” instead, and I agreed. An imaginary horse could be any color at all, as far as I was concerned, and I loved Corinna’s idea!

There were other small tweaks to the text throughout, but I would say the trickiest spots to get right, in both text and illustration, were the first and last spreads. In the first spread, we felt that we needed to establish Adrian as a dreamer, but our original text and illustration left a bit too much room for interpretation. (It’s a lunch room scene, and Adrian is sitting by himself, but initially, it wasn’t clear why.) We altered the text and illustration to make quite clear that Adrian is lost in his imagination.

At the end of the book, our editor thought we might need another line to explicitly show Chloe’s change of heart. I liked the last line as it was and suggested we accomplish this goal via the art, with Chloe somehow creating an imaginary horse of her own. Corinna ran with that idea, and the end result is quite wonderful, with the two children joining together to create a horse out of negative space. The end papers are beautiful as well, two horses touching heads, symbolizing the “meeting of the minds” that has occurred over the course of the book.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: A classic in the making, this heartwarming story about empathy and imagination is one that families will treasure for years to come.

Adrian Simcox tells anyone who will listen that he has a horse--the best and most beautiful horse anywhere.

But Chloe does NOT believe him. Adrian Simcox lives in a tiny house. Where would he keep a horse? He has holes in his shoes. How would he pay for a horse?

The more Adrian talks about his horse, the angrier Chloe gets. But when she calls him out at school and even complains about him to her mom, Chloe doesn't get the vindication she craves. She gets something far more important.

Written with tenderness and poignancy and gorgeously illustrated, this book will show readers that kindness is always rewarding, understanding is sweeter than judgment, and friendship is the best gift one can give.

About the author: Marcy Campbell lives in Ohio with her family and menagerie of rescued pets. Her writing for adults has been published widely in journals and magazines, including Salon. She grew up on a farm filled with cows, chickens, cats, and dogs, but she never had a horse. Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse is her debut picture book. You can visit her at www.marcycampbell.com.

About the illustrator: Corinna Luyken grew up in different cities along the West Coast, and after studying at Middlebury College, she settled in Washington State, where she draws inspiration from nature, her family, and the human form. Her debut picture book, The Book of Mistakes, received four starred reviews and has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Nerdy Book Club, and more.

Check out the other stops in the blog tour...

WEEK ONE
August 6 – Lost in Storyland – Personal Story + Q&A
August 7 – The Readathon – Review
August 8 – Happily Ever Elephants – Review
August 9 – Read. Learn. Repeat – Review
August 10 – Kid Lit Frenzy – Author & Illustrator Guest Post

WEEK TWO
August 13 – Here Wee Read – Review
August 14 – DoodleMom – Review + Interactive Moodboard
August 15 – Eastern Sunset Reads – Review
August 16 – Critter Lit – Interview
August 17 – Unleashing Readers – Dual Review + Teacher’s Tools for Navigation

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Hawk Rising Guest Post by Maria Gianferrari

Hawk Rising
by Maria Gianferrari; Illustrated by Brian Floca
Roaring Book Press (May 1, 2018)
Nonfiction * Animals * Birds
Audience: Ages 5 to 9
Indiebound | WorldCat
 

Description from GoodReads: In the companion to Coyote Moon, follow a red-tailed hawk in his hunt to feed his family in this picture book, from Maria Gianferrari (Coyote Moon) and illustrated by Brian Floca. Complete with back matter containing more information about how hawks hunt, nest, and raise families, as well as further sources.

Early morning and a ruffle of feathers,
A shadow gliding through the backyard.
High above your house Father Hawk circles, sharp eyes searching for prey. From the front porch, you watch.
Swoosh!
He dives after chipmunks, crows, sparrows, squirrels.
Screech!
The sun sets low in the sky. What’s for dinner?

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Thanks Maria for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy and sharing more about Hawks with us. 

Top Five Ways for Kids to Research Hawks!!

As a self-proclaimed bird nerd, I am delighted to be writing this post on ways kids can research hawks for Kid Lit Frenzy!

Thanks for having me here, Alyson!

5.  Read books on hawks and birds of prey!

You can start with a classic field guides like Peterson’s Hawks of North America, named after naturalist Roger Tory Peterson. Birds of prey are also known as “raptors.”

 4.   Watch movies!

The Legend of Pale Male is a film about New York City’s most famous resident red-tailed hawk, Pale Male and his mate, Lola, who nested on an posh apartment building on 5th Avenue. See the trailer here.

Check out Looking Skyward: A Passion for Hawk Watching, a movie of why people hawk-watch. It also shares some major places for watching hawks migrate.

3. Field research!

Grab your binoculars! If you live in North America, a red-tailed hawk could be your neighbor! They are North America’s most common hawk. The area where hawks live is called their “range.”

Photo Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds/map

Red-tailed hawks live in all kinds of habitats: deserts, roadsides scrublands, fields and pastures, city and suburban parks, woodlands and forest and even tropical rainforests.

They love to perch hunt along highways, so look for them on light poles, telephone wires, roadside trees, and even highway signs.

Here’s a photo I took when I lived near Boston, Massachusetts:

This hawk was perched in an area where a bunch of major highways intersect.

2. Visit a local wildlife or raptor rehabilitation center!

Raptors who have been injured are treated, and if their injuries heal, they are released back into the wild. Those whose injuries will not allow them to survive in the wild become full-time residents in wildlife rehab centers and serve as “education ambassadors.” Wildlife vets and rehabbers often visit schools or libraries for educational programming events with these birds to talk about raptor biology, how they care for the birds, and their role in the wild.

Here is a directory of wildlife rehabilitation centers throughout the US: http://wildliferehabinfo.org/ContactList_MnPg.htm

Here’s a red-tailed hawk ambassador named Trouble from SOAR (Save Our Avian Resources), a raptor rehabilitation, education and research organization in Iowa

If you live in the northeast, you could also visit Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania.

If you can’t visit, you can learn a ton about hawks and especially raptor migration on their website. See RaptorPedia.

1.    Watch them live on webcams!!

Without a doubt, the best way to research hawks is via Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website on their live webcams!!! You can directly observe Cornell red-tailed mates, Big Red and her new mate, Arthur as they prepare the nest and incubate the eggs.

This year, Big Red laid a clutch of three eggs:

You can watch the chicks “pip” or hatch, and see a newly hatched chick:

You can watch the nestlings grow

And grow

And grow!

And see the kind of prey they eat.

Watch it all live here!! You can scroll back to the very beginning.

And of course, you can also learn a bit about more about hawks by reading, Hawk Rising, while you marvel at Brian Floca’s stunning illustrations.

Roaring Brook Press is graciously offering a copy of Hawk Rising to one lucky US resident reader of Kid Lit Frenzy. (See the Rafflecopter below)

Good luck!

Thanks again, Alyson!

About the author: 
Maria Gianferrari's favorite pastime is searching for perching red-tailed hawks while driving down the highway. When she's not driving, she loves watching birdcams. Her favorite feathered stars are Cornell hawk Big Red and her late mate, Ezra, who together raised fifteen chicks since they began nesting in 2012. Maria is also the author of Hello Goodbye Dog and Coyote Moon, both published by Roaring Brook Press as well as the Penny & Jelly Books (HMH), Officer Katz & Houndini (Aladdin), Terrific Tongues (Boyds Mills Press) and the forthcoming Operation Rescue Dog (Little Bee). She lives in Virginia with her scientist husband, artist daughter, and rescue dog, Becca. Visit her at mariagianferrari.com, on Facebook or Instagram.

Enter to win a copy of Hawk Rising (must be 13 years old and have a US mailing address). 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Guest Post by Author, Natasha Wing

When Jackie Saved Grand Central: The True Story of Jacqueline Kennedy's
Fight for an American Icon
by Natasha Wing; Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger
HMH Books for Young Readers (March 7, 2017)
Audience: Ages 6 to 9
Nonfiction * Biography * Social Activist
Indiebound | WorldCat

Quick thoughts on the book: I learn so much from reading children's nonfiction and When Jackie Saved Grand Central introduced me to a side of Jacqueline Kennedy that I was unfamiliar with and also with a piece of history that I did not know about. Of course, reading it made me want to look up more information on both subjects of this book. Boiger's illustrations add an artistic element that drew me in and seemed to fit perfectly with the subject of the book. Look for a copy of the book at your local indie bookstore or community library.
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I am excited to welcome Natasha Wing to the blog during Women's History Month as she shares about her newest book When Jackie Saved Grand Central. Natasha shares with readers her writing process and the decisions she had to make during that process. 
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From Natasha:
Writing narrative nonfiction is a tricky dance between storytelling and facts. You don’t want too many facts to step on the toes of the story and trip it up or slow it down. But you do want the right facts to lift readers to a higher level of learning about your topic while engaging them in an emotional journey.

In short, you want your story to read like fiction while teaching something.

This was especially challenging when writing my latest book, When Jackie Saved Grand Central: The True Story of Jacqueline Kennedy’s Fight for an American Icon since it contained a sophisticated subject – historic preservation – coupled with court cases, not typical topics young kids read about. So I had to keep the storytelling engaging, and make sure it wasn’t a boring fact dump of definitions and legalese.

When talking about historic preservation I used more kid-friendly ideas such as “Americans cared about their history.” And, the city wanted to “save its architecture,” before mentioning the term historic preservation. And even though there were many court cases, I used them to build momentum without giving too many details of what was being fought over in each case. For instance I streamlined the appeal process down to: New York City won the appeal, as well as another that followed…..But the fight wasn’t over. (tension) The railroad owners took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose ruling would be absolutely final.

Like any good fiction, narrative nonfiction uses these storytelling techniques: Set the tone, create voice, use poetic language and active verbs, find tension spots and aha moments, have your main character go on an emotional journey, make us care about the main character, include a kid-friendly theme, and resolve the story problem.

But what about facts? How do you decide what to keep in and what to cut out?

In doing my research I came across a number of buildings that Jackie had saved. At first I wanted to build the case that Jackie was passionate about old buildings by starting off the story showing all the buildings that she had saved. But too many examples would have bogged down the introduction to the one building that was central to the story, Grand Central. So I picked one – the White House – to use as my entry into Jackie’s theme of her love of buildings. (The other buildings ended up in the endnotes).

Then, in order to take the story from the past when she had restored the White House to the “present” I used a one-line transition: Fourteen years later, another famous landmark, this time in New York City, needed Jackie Kennedy’s help.

I also found a lot of newspaper articles about the lawsuits and the protests surrounding Grand Central’s potential demolishing. But there was one that motivated Jackie to join the city’s fight so I used it as a turning point in my story. Rather than including a block of text from the reporter’s article, I merely referred to it and only used one short quote. Here’s that section in the book: The New York Times ran a front-page story calling Grand Central “one of the most influential pieces of urban design of the twentieth century.” Jackie read this article and couldn’t believe what was happening.

Facts are wonderful in figuring out your story’s subject or character, but don’t become so enamored with them that you feel you must share everything you learned with your kid reader. This may sound odd when you’re writing nonfiction, but remember, too many facts can drag down the poetic flow of the text. Choose the facts that support your story and keep them kid-friendly. 

Wearing her Jackie glasses

About the author: Natasha Wing has been writing for 25 years and writes both fiction and narrative nonfiction. When Jackie Saved Grand Central published by HMH Books for Young Readers (March 7, 2017) has received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus. Find out more at www.natashawing.com

Artwork by Sarah S Brannen @2017

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...

The Someday Birds: Guest Post by author, Sally J. Pla

Today Kid Lit Frenzy welcomes Sally J. Pla to the blog. Sally's debut middle grade novel, The Someday Birds, came out on Tuesday. Thank you Sally for sharing about Charlie. 

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Travels with Two Charlies

There is not much about travel that I like—I’m not a carefree tumbleweed sort of person. I wish I were, sure. But instead, I’m more of a rigid-rooted worry-tree, my mind branching off into anxious “what-if” travel scenarios, whenever it’s time to uproot.  I mean, I do travel, of course. I’m a grown-up! I do it! But it doesn’t come naturally.

Which is maybe why I’ve always been so fascinated with tales of travel adventure.

My debut novel, The Someday Birds, is about a 12-year-old autistic boy who is forced on a difficult cross-country journey to see his war-injured father. He, too, hates any change to routine. He likes order, calm, and a small group of comfort-foods. He’d prefer to live out his life admiring nature from afar, sketching birds out of books, and never setting foot on the grass.

As a child, I was a really anxious kid—basically terrified of everything outside my front door. But when I was twelve, I stumbled across a fascinating road-trip story at the local library. I pulled it at random off the shelf, because there was a dog on the cover, and I loved dogs above all things on earth. Also, I thought I vaguely recognized the author’s name. It was John Steinbeck.

In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck and his standard poodle, the eponymous Charley, take off in Rocinante, the old camper-truck he named after Don Quixote’s valiant steed. The goal was to wander, have an adventure. And to take stock of America in the summer of 1960.

“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”

I loved the book. I’d never read anything like it. Travels with Charley was the first “adult” book I’d ever finished, and I remember feeling so proud.

The thoughtfulness of the writing pulled me in. The descriptions of nature–of autumn leaves bursting with sun-soaked color in New England, of flat, undulating fields of the Midwest – struck a cord in me and filled me with wonder. I had never been much beyond my home state.

And his wise old observer’s eyes noted the ugliness, too—the newly unfurling seeds of environmental damage. “American cities,” he wrote, “are like badger holes, ringed with trash--all of them--surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered in rubbish.”

He mentioned the loss of regional accents, which he supposed was due to the breakdown of individualism into a collective, media-influenced way of speaking and thinking. He foresaw the media-driven dangers of groupthink. Or of Mobthink.

It’s interesting, flipping back through this book today, imagining the child’s brain that first read it.  What had I made out of those passages?

What I most remember, at twelve, were the portraits of people Steinbeck met along the way. There were some horrific caricatures—a description of a lady of sallow cheek who, when she entered a room, turned the very air to grey. I felt that way about some of my junior high school teachers!

But mainly, the people he met were kind.

As a socially awkward child who viewed interactions with others, especially strangers, as downright terrifying, it struck me powerfully to read about traveling alone and vulnerable, across an entire stretch of continent, and surviving. Sharing diner coffee with innumerable new folks. Striking up all those conversations! And surviving…

His journey demystified, for me, the fearful realm of What Lay Beyond, both geographically, in America, and emotionally, in adulthood. At twelve, I was on the cusp. And scared. I read this book, and a light flickered, out there in the Beyond, past my home and school and my small, fearful, circumscribed life. A tiny flicker of a light. Who knows? Maybe, in my future, there really is some navigable terrain out there. Maybe someday, I’d be ready for a journey, too.

But for the moment, as a twelve-year-old, I got to go along, safely.

Because of a book.

My main character in The Someday Birds is named Charlie, as a private nod to the influence Steinbeck’s book had on me as a middle-grader. My Charlie also travels the country, coast to coast, as an act of bravery, He, also, travels with a dog, and has difficult adventures. He makes observations about nature, and people, that remind us about being human, and being kind, and relating to each other.

My Charlie learns, all too well, in Steinbeck’s words, that “we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” He learns that travel can be hard, as life can be hard.

But the people along the way? For the most part, they are kind.

And that makes all the difference.

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Pick up a copy of The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla at your local indie bookstore. 

Watch the Official Book Trailer for The Someday Birds:

About the author: Sally J. Pla is the author of The Someday Birds, a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2017 and a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Kirkus called it "hopeful, authentic, and oddly endearing." Booklist called it "a delight from beginning to end."

She's an advocate of neurodiversity, and currently lives with her husband, three sons, and an enormous fluffy dog near lots of lemon trees in Southern California, where she's hard at work on her next novel. 

Find her on Facebook | Twitter