One Word From Sophia Blog Tour

One Word From Sophia
by Jim Averbeck, Illustrated by Yasmee Ismail
Atheneum Books for Young Readers (June 16, 2015)
Fiction * Humor * Communication
Audience: Ages 4 to 8
IndieBound | WorldCat

About the Book:
Sophia wants a pet giraffe for her birthday. It is her one true desire. However, she has a problem. In fact she has four problems— she must first convince her mother (a judge), her father (a businessman), her Uncle Conrad (a politician), and her very strict Grand-mamá to approve.

Determined, persistent, and creative, Sophia uses all her wiles to persuade each one . . . but to no avail. “Too many words,” they complain after each elaborate presentation. Undeterred and undefeated, Sophia rethinks her approach – editing and revising it to its essence until she finds just the right word. Simplicity, directness, and sincerity prevail. True desire triumphs in this funny, warm-hearted confection that celebrates words even as it shows that less of them can often be more.

Check out the book trailer for the book:

My thoughts on the book:
Since I had a chance to originally see ONE WORD FROM SOPHIA in January 2015. Months before it was available to the general public. I remember reading it and laughing.  Always a good thing to have positive memories of a book that you read for the first time.  And equally good when it holds up to re-reads. 

Sophia is an articulate, intelligent, creative child who has her heart set on a giraffe as a birthday present. 

Did I say articulate? Sophia is going to argue her opinion to any and all who will listen. It isn't easy to convince everyone that a giraffe would be a great pet. 

Did I say creative? 

Of course, if all else fails an emphatic "please" might work. 

One Word for Sophia is filled with humor, a diverse family, and a lesson that fewer words may be better than more. 

So, what are you waiting for? Please, pick up a copy of One Word From Sophia from your favorite indie bookstore or community public library. 

About the creators: 
Jim Averbeck works, plays, and evades the law in San Francisco, California. His first book, In a Blue Room, was a Charlotte Zolotow Honor book. His popular books Except If and Oh No, Little Dragon! feature charming protagonists with pointy teeth. His book, The Market Bowl and his middle grade novel A Hitch at the Fairmont were Junior Library Guild Selections. His most recent book, One Word From Sophia, was an IndyNext Top 10 for Summer 2015.  website | twitter 

Yasmeen Ismail is an award-winning illustrator and animator who has a love of inks, paints and watercolours. "Time For Bed, Fred!" is her debut picture book. Originally from Ireland, Yasmeen now lives in London.  website | twitter

Resources & Related Media:

Teacher's Guide | Free Skype Giveaway | PW & We Need Diverse Books 

Check out the previous blog tour posts: 
10/19/2015 - Jen at Teach Mentor Texts
10/20/2015 - Jennifer at Reederama
10/21/2015 - Franki and Mary Lee at Two Reading Teachers
10/22/2015 - Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers
10/23/2015 - Crystal at Reading Through Life
10/24/2015 - Alyson at Kid Lit Frenzy

Author Interview: Antoinette Portis

WAIT
by Antoinette Portis
Roaring Brook Press (July 14, 2015)
Audience: Ages 3 to 5 years
Fiction * Patience * Mother/Son
IndieBound | WorldCat
 

Description of the book: 
As a boy and his mother move quickly through the city, they're drawn to different things. The boy sees a dog, a butterfly, and a hungry duck while his mother rushes them toward the departing train. It's push and pull, but in the end, they both find something to stop for.

Acclaimed author/illustrator Antoinette Portis' signature style conveys feelings of warmth, curiosity, humor and tenderness in this simple, evocative story.

Quick thoughts on the book:
With two words, Portis beautifully captures the daily waltz of a mother and son as they navigate their day. 

Brightly illustrated pages and the words "Hurry!" or "Wait!" take readers through an all too familiar experience. 

The small twist at the end was charming. 

Look for WAIT at your local indie bookstore or community library.

Interview with author/illustrator, Antoinette Portis:

WAIT is a book that is easy to relate to. Was it prompted by a personal experience (backstory)?

It’s based on a little vignette that unfolded in front of me as I was sitting in a café. A toddler and mom walked by, but he broke away from her to come over and peer at a bug on the windowsill right in front of me. His mom came back, grabbed his hand and trotted him off down the street—clearly in a rush. I thought, “That’s a book!”  I identified with the little boy, of course, not the mom. I thought how frustrating it would be to walk down the street with never any control over the pace or the destination.

But as I’ve been talking about Wait, I’ve been thinking about my own experience of being a busy working mom with a toddler. The times I slowed down to my daughter’s pace and we noodled around the neighborhood or the park, maybe collecting leaves and interesting seedpods, were some of my favorite times ever. Her curiosity and appreciation of everything around her re-opened my artist’s eyes.

The book’s ending is a tribute to those moments when the child becomes your teacher.

I have been looking at a number of picture books recently that have minimal words and rely heavily on the illustrations to tell the story. Some are written and illustrated by different people. However, in your book, you were able to illustrate the text.  Is the process any different in a book such as this vs. one with many more words?

The fewer the words, the more work the pictures have to do. You have to make things clear visually that otherwise would be communicated in the text. That’s a fun puzzle to work out.

In the case of Wait, having a simple text and text structure allowed me to let go of worrying about the words and concentrate on deepening the pictures. Ideas would just pop up, like having the boy pointing to a rainbow popsicle that foreshadows the rainbow at the end. Like little gifts from the muse, these visual connections made the book richer.

The interplay of the words and pictures is the particular art of the picture book. That’s one thing about illustrating your own writing—you can freely hack away at your text. You’re only offending yourself if you delete a line because it duplicates something that the picture is communicating.

Speaking of process, what is your creative process when working on a book? Do you have any daily routines? Where do you like to work? 

We turned our den into my studio. It’s a pretty big room, which is lucky, because I have a lot of stuff! Kind of a collector—of picture books, old school children’s dictionaries, rocks, vintage toys, cardboard packaging (little found sculptures!), etc., etc.

This is a small part of my picture book collection. The house is littered with bookcases full of them.

A messy corner with stuff I like to look at.

I have a drafting table for drawing, several work tables, some flat files, and a computer desk with my Mac and Cintiq. I tend to let clutter accumulate till it makes me crazy and then I clean up and start the cycle all over again.

Re process:
Every book is a little bit different, but I usually start with the text. I take it to my writing group and go through a couple of rounds of revisions. When the story is working (more or less), I storyboard it thumbnail size to see how it paginates.

Next comes a dummy with the text and rough drawings scanned into Photoshop. Here’s where a lot of text cutting happens, because the visuals start claiming their territory. It becomes clear to me where the picture should the lead and the text become a supporting player. (And vice versa.)

Sometimes I skip the thumbnail step, out of impatience, and go straight to making a dummy from a manuscript. Not a good idea, since it's way more efficient to figure out pacing and composition using thumbnails. So I’m trying to be more disciplined about not skipping that step.

I end up, always, making lots and lots of dummies—at least 30 per book. Working on the computer makes it easy to do multiple variations. Here’s a page from the first version of “Wait,”

when the book was called “But…” and the mom had more dialog.

Are there any future projects that you are working on that you can tell us about?

I have a book coming out later this year, the first book I’ve ever illustrated that I didn’t write. It’s a love story called The Red Hat. It was a pleasure to have David Teague’s beautiful and understated text as a launching pad for pictures. And because it wasn’t my manuscript, I didn’t have to do my usual obsessive tinkering with the text. 50% less stress!

I have another book I did with Neal Porter coming out next spring, Best Frints in the Whole Universe, about two cranky alien friends. It’s all about the funny. A completely different vibe than “Wait”—wild and boisterous.

Thank you to Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press for some sneak peaks:

Here is another peak:

And the final peak:

If you could spend the afternoon with four or five authors or illustrators (living or dead), who would you invite and what would you serve?

I had the opportunity to one of the first Sendak Fellows and I miss Maurice like crazy. I would invite him with Winsor McKay (creator of Little Nemo in Slumberland), and William Nicholson, two artists he admired.

Nicholson is the author of The Pirate Twins, a book Maurice called “The first ­– the best – the most gloriously original modern picture book of all time.” The pirate twins are two dolls (made from black socks) who belong to a little girl. One day they steal a boat and run away, leaving this note: “For Mary We have gone for ever Dont worry Back soon Love form B & A” [spelling mistakes are in the original]. The sudden turn from “gone for ever” to “back soon” was what Maurice loved. The pirates’ note was such a true example of the way kids think. Contradictions aren’t contradictory to them.

You can see it here.

I’d round the party out by inviting Blexbolex (Seasons) and Joohee Yoon (Beastly Verse), because I love their work so much.

Maurice liked a nice pastrami sandwich followed by a vanilla cupcake, so that’s what I’m serving up.

What is your favorite indie bookstore?

I come from a book-loving family and Vroman’s in Pasadena was the place we went. My grandmother often gave books for Christmas or birthdays, and my siblings and I have many well-loved books with small brown Vroman’s stickers inside the back cover. Vroman’s is part of my family history.

This is Margaret Wise Brown’s “Where Have You Been”, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. My grandmother gave it to me when I was three. It’s battered and broken but still stickered.

 But I’ve never met an indie I didn’t like. I’m sure that heaven is a bookstore.

Thank you Antoinette for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy to answer a few questions.

2015 Picture Book 10 for 10 #PB10for10

Thank you to Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek for hosting the Picture Book 10 for 10 (#PB10for10).

The rules are simple:

What:  10 picture books you can't live without.
Hashtag:  #PB10for10
Who:  Anyone interested --- educators, media specialists, librarians, parents, and book lovers.  
When:  Monday, August 10, 2015
Where:  All posts will be linked on the 2015  Picture Book 10 for 10 Google Community Site.  

Last year, for the #pb10for10 post, I shared some of my favorite books to start the school year. In February 2015, for the #nf10for10, I posted my favorite nonfiction picture books about bears. I decided this time around to do my favorite fiction picture books with a bear in it.  Go #teambear 

Something About a Bear by Jackie Morris (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2014) - I can't tell if I love this book because of the gorgeous illustrations or how much I learned about bears from a fiction story. Definitely a beautiful book to add to a collection on bears.

Found by Salina Yoon (Walker, 2014) - Salina Yoon captures the emotions of finding a toy and falling in love with it but worried that another might be missing this special stuffed toy, too. A perfect combination of text and illustrations.

Little Cub by Olivier Dunrea (Philomel, 2012) - An old bear finds a lost cub and adopts him. Simply charming and heart-warming. I wish there were more than two books in this series.

A Bedtime for Bear by Bonny Becker; Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick Press, 2010) - A typical odd couple friendship with a grumpy bear and a friendly little mouse and a change in plans for the evening.

Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead; Illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2012) - What is a bear to do when he has a story to tell but everyone is preparing for winter? Will he remember his story? I love the bear in this book and I find myself drawn to the illustrations of Erin Stead in every book she does.

The Bear's Surprise by Benjamin Chaud (Chronicle Books, September 15, 2015) - The third book in the series technically comes out in September, and is probably my favorite in the series. It is spring and little bear has awaken and is ready for an adventure, but where is Papa Bear? Love the surprise at the end. 

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2002) - Bears and hibernation are a common theme in books and in this book by Karma Wilson, Bear is sleeping while his friends come in to keep warm and end up having a party. This is a delightful read aloud and I love Wilson's illustrations.

No Bears by Meg McKinley; Illustrated by Leila Rudge (Walker Books, 2011) - The narrator of the story may think there are no bears in the book, but the reader will have fun in searching for the bear who turns out to be much more influential than he is given credit.

Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman (Dial Books, 2014) - Another picture book with gorgeous illustrations.  In this story, three mischievous little bears set out on an adventure to find a new gift for their mother.

Of course, no list would be complete without....

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press, 2011) - And yes, I was #teambear when on twitter we indicated support for bear or rabbit. A simple but brilliant story wonderfully executed.

Don't forget to check out all of the other picture book 10 for 10 posts.  

Voting Rights Act 50th Anniversary: Lillian's Right to Vote.

Lillian's Right to Vote
by Jonah Winter; Illustrated by Shane W. Evans
Schwartz & Wade (July 14, 2015)
Audience:  Ages 5 to 9 
Historical Fiction * Voting Rights * African Americans
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: 
An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family’s tumultuous voting history in this picture book publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As Lillian, a one-hundred-year-old African American woman, makes a “long haul up a steep hill” to her polling place, she sees more than trees and sky—she sees her family’s history. She sees the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and her great-grandfather voting for the first time. She sees her parents trying to register to vote. And she sees herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery. Veteran bestselling picture-book author Jonah Winter and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner Shane W. Evans vividly recall America’s battle for civil rights in this lyrical, poignant account of one woman’s fierce determination to make it up the hill and make her voice heard.

My thoughts on this book:

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. After 50 years, you would think that we would be smarter and wiser.  However, in reading Winter's note at the end, I am saddened to learn that the right to vote could be on shaky grounds.  The elimination of Federal oversight of states' election processes by the Supreme Court in 2013 has resulted in states requiring "voter ID laws". (Winter's Author Note)  Unfortunately, we do not seem to learn from our past mistakes.  Consequently, it is books like this that can help keep awareness alive in new generations.

The old woman featured in the story is a composite of many of the African American individuals who 

I was particularly struck by how illustrator, Shane Evans, juxtaposes Lillian against a hundred years of history of her family from slavery to freedom to every obstacle that was placed to keep African Americans from voting. His choice and use of color communicates to readers both the struggle and the accomplishment of this journey.

Add in the progression of moving up a hill as an analogy for the battle for the right to vote, and the story through text and illustrations provide a powerful message for children and adults. Readers get to celebrate with Lillian as she finally makes it into a voting booth and votes for the very first time. 

Pick up a copy of Lillian's Right to Vote at your local indie bookstore or community library, and let's us continue to remember the importance of all people having the right to vote.

Book Review: Night Animals by Gianna Marino

Night Animals
by Gianna Marino
Viking Books for Young Readers (July 14, 2015)
Fiction * Animals * Nocturnal
Audience: Ages 4 to 7 years 
IndieBound | WorldCat | GoodReads

About the book: 
When Skunk asks Possum why he’s hiding, he sets off a chain reaction of animals scared of sounds in the night. Even Wolf and Bear are sure something’s out there. And what is that something? asks Bat. “Night Animals!” reply the animals. “But you ARE night animals,” states Bat. And the animals sheepishly realize they’ve been running away from each other. But then a new night animal sets them off running again: Humans!

Here’s an adorable and very silly spin on a bedtime book that is sure to leave kids giggling their nighttime fears away.

My thoughts on the book:
Over the course of a year, I read a lot of picture books. Some are sad. Some are funny. Some are silly. Some make you cry. And some really stand out from all of the rest. Six months ago I read the folded & gathered (F&G) of Night Animals. On GoodReads, I rated it 5-stars. Recently, I read Night Animals again, and I would still give it 5-stars. It really is that good. 

First, I love the beautiful illustrations in this book. From listening to illustrators talk about their work, I know that black backgrounds can be difficult to print, which makes me appreciate that nearly every page in this book has a solid black background. The choice of background allows each animal to stand out and nearly pop off the page. 

Next, I adore the animals in this story. Quickly, readers will discover that this is a fairly paranoid, but silly group of woodland creatures. Young readers may not fully grasp the humor behind the humor at first but through the text and illustrations, they will understand that these animals are pretty goofy. 

Also, I suspect that small children will find humor and take comfort in the fact that some of the largest creatures in the woods are also the ones that are most afraid of the dark or of what is out there. 

After a lot of panic and fear on the part of the animals, one small bat sets them all straight in a matter a fact manner. Below is one of my favorite pages - the bat hanging from the tree with the huge moon in the background.  

I wondered a little if the bat feels more exasperated as he watches all of the animals be so silly. And just to clear things up, the bat states "But you ARE night animals." 

Though I don't want to ruin the surprise at the end of the book, I suspect that children will love the twist at the conclusion of the book. If you are a parent, prepare to read this one at bedtime over and over again. 

Look for Night Animals at your local indie bookstore or public library. 

About the author: 
Gianna Marino was born in San Francisco and spent her early years galloping horses through Golden Gate Park. Gianna had several jobs at once: apprenticing a muralist, a jewelry designer, a product designer and driving horse carriages through the park. Between projects and then college, Gianna visited West, East and North Africa, India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Noumea, crewed on sailboats in Mexico and the Caribbean and lived in Europe for a time. She now lives and works in the Napa Valley and still gallops on horses. You can find Gianna on her website: www.giannamarino.com