This is a feature that I do weekly called Hot Off The Press! based on my weekly visits to Vroman's Bookstore and checking out their wall of new picture books. Here are the 4 new releases that stood out from the pile this week:
Diego Rivera: His World and Ours Author/Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh Publisher: Abrahms Books (May 1, 2011) Audience: Grades 2nd to 5th
This book talks about Diego Rivera's art, what influenced him, and how his style developed over time. The illustrations are lovely and supports the text well. The story also proposes what Rivera may have painted if he were painting today and compared it to the pieces that he had painted. I am going out on a limb here and suggesting that this will likely get a serious look by this year's Pura Belpre committee.
The Quite Contrary Man: A True American Tale Author: Patricia Rusch Hyatt Illustrator: Kathryn Brown Publisher: Abrahms Books (May 1, 2011) Audience: Grades 2nd to 5th
"Beard" Palmer stood up for the right to keep his beard despite being thrown in jail as a consequence for refusing to shave it off. When I first picked up this title, I was expecting a story about an unpleasant person. I was pleasantly surprised for the way the story unfolded. Palmer appears (at least by the way the tale is told) to have been well loved by his family but extremely stubborn when it came to things like standing up for his right to have facial hair or prisoner's conditions (which he managed to speak out against by sneaking out letters to his family). Text and illustrations work well to tell Palmer's story and the author's note at the end provides readers with more information about the historical trends of facial hair and facts about Palmer.
Clementine Author/Illustrator: Sebastian Loth Publisher: NorthSouth (May 1, 2011) Audience: Pre-K to 1st
Clementine is a snail who loves anything round. One day, she decides she wants to go to the moon. With the help of a worm named Paul, there are numerous failed attempts. And though she doesn't quite make it there she does make a remarkable discovery in the process. The illustrations are gentle and the story about a very determined snail will make for an enjoyable read aloud.
Clink Author: Kelly DiPucchio Illustrator: Matthew Myers Publisher: Balzer & Bray (April 1, 2011) Audience: Pre-k to 2nd
At one point, Clink was a snazzy state-of-the-art robot. As with all things, newer and supposedly better models appear. Each day, Clink watches as children clamor over the newer robots. However, no one appears to want Clink, until one day a little boy comes into the story. Will he be the one to adopt Clink as his own? Myers illustrations play well against DiPucchio's text. Another story that will do well as a read aloud for young children.
Today, I would like to welcome Debut Author, Chris Rylander to Kid Lit Frenzy. As part of The Fourth Stall Blog Tour, Chris has done several guest posts and interviews. To check on all of the posts, head on over to Walden Pond Press for more details.
THE FOURTH STALL is your debut novel. Did you intentionally start out to write a Middle Grade novel, or did the story come first and then you realized it was Middle Grade?
It was a definite decision to write a middle grade novel. I’d recently read a few middle grade novels at the suggestion of an agent who eventually became the agent who signed me and sold THE FOURTH STALL. And one thing I noticed about middle grade books, is that it seemed like you could get away with breaking the fourth wall more often and that use of a conversational, treat-the-reader-as-a-friend type voice was more common in middle grade fiction than young adult. I don’t know if that’s actually true or not, but at the time, it seemed like it was. And I thought that style of storytelling would better suit my writing. I wanted to write a casual and fun and kind of wacky book, and I just thought I’d have more freedom to do all of those with a middle grade novel. An interesting fact, though, is that about twenty pages into THE FOURTH STALL, I kind of abandoned it and wrote two other young adult novels… then after those didn’t work out, I returned to the THE FOURTH STALL. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened, how things would have turned out, had I not taken those six months away from THE FOURTH STALL…
In developing a book which has such a familiar voice (a little bit mob, a little bit noir), were there things that you felt you needed to add or avoid to keep it from being too predictable?
This is a great question, and there probably are things I should have conscientiously avoided or added to keep it unpredictable. But the truth is, I didn’t really think about it that much. I just kind of dived into the story without much planning or thought. And I think it was that, more than anything else, that helped to (hopefully) keep the story surprising and different and unpredictable. And if all else failed, I always had the talking unicorn factor in my back pocket. Whenever I hit a wall in a story that feels too familiar, I just bust out the talking unicorn with an eye patch and that usually solves everything. Luckily, or maybe unfortunately, the unicorn was never needed for THE FOURTH STALL.
In writing The Fourth Stall, did you base any of the story on situations that you faced as a sixth grader? Did any of the characters resemble people from your life?
Actually, there is only one scene and one character based on actual events/people. The origin story of Mac and Vince’s business was based on something that actually happened to my brother and I back when we were in kindergarten and first grade respectively. Except the real life version was actually a lot more strange and violent and macabre than what ended up in the book. I already push the boundaries a little regarding violence in a middle grade novel, so the real story, which involved a battle axe and a kid who threw steak knives with deadly precision, had to be edited down a bit. The only character who is based entirely on a real former classmate is Kitten. Which is what makes the fact that he’s most readers’ favorite character so interesting to me.
Did you always want to be a writer? When did you first start writing and what was the story about?
I’d always wanted to someday write a book. But that was just it, I always thought, well someday maybe when I’m like 50 years old and have tons of time, I’ll give writing a try. So based on that logic I never did much writing as a kid. Actually, I didn’t do any writing outside of school assignments. I did like to draw cartoons, though, so there always existed a desire to tell stories. I first started writing when I was 23. And interestingly enough, the very first bit of writing I did was a proposal and sample chapters for a non-fiction book about the bizarre history of the earliest divorces in American history. And the funny thing was, the concept garnered a lot of interest from agents, but none of them liked my sample chapters. Finally there was one agent who kind of gave it to me straight and said, basically, this is a great concept, but your writing is just way too boring, terrible almost. And I really appreciated his honesty, I truly did. It was that rejection that propelled me in the opposite direction… I was kind of like, well, I can do exciting and funny and weird if I want to. And so then I wrote my first bit if fiction, which was a novel for adults about a teacher named Abe Lincoln who gets kidnapped by a guy with a mustache and a chick with an eye patch. The story also had these characters: a Canadian Mounted Police Officer with palindrome and candy necklace obsessions, a packrat wolf, a mannequin who fishes, Elvis, and a talking mustache. I’m not kidding, that’s really what the novel was about and I really did finish it and actually submitted it to agents. And not one of them told me my writing was boring. Ha!
If you could spend that day with 1 or 2 of your favorite children's book characters (doesn't have to be from Fourth Stall), who would they be and what would you do?
Definitely the characters from the HARRY POTTER books. They might be some of the best contemporary children’s literature characters ever created. They really come to life in the pages and when you’re reading about them, you’re just dying to be friends with them. I think that is a large part of the magnetic draw of those books. Plus, they’re British, which means I’d listen to whatever it was they wanted to tell me. And they can do magic, which opens up those two days to be full of crazy-fun stuff.
What kind of writing advice would you give to children who want to become a writer?
This is actually the topic and main point of many of the school visits I do: You’re never too young to be a writer. I wish someone had given me this advice when I was a kid! All I ever heard was that it was impossible to get published, so there was no point in trying. So I didn’t! I mean, I started writing when I was 23 and then had my first book deal within two years and now all the time I wonder… what if I’d started writing at age 9 or 10? Could I have been published by 21? By 16? By 13? I’ll never know, because I never tried.
If someone picked up your iPod/MP3 player, what music would they find on it? Do you find yourself listening to music while you write?
They’d find all sorts of stuff that not many people have heard of: The Weakerthans; Son, Ambulance; Desaparecidos; Karate; David Bazan; Cursive; Damien Jurado; Les Savy Fav; The Elected; Okkervil River; Pavement; and many, many others. They all have one thing in common: great lyrics. I rarely listen to music while I write… but more often than not, listening to music is what inspires me to sit down and write.
What's currently in your book stack to read?
Right now I’m reading a book called YOU KILLED WESLEY PAYNE by Sean Beaudoin. And that has been brilliant and hilarious so far. Also in my To Be Read pile: FAT VAMPIRE by Adam Rex, THE BRIEF AND FRIGHTENING REIGN OF PHIL by George Saunders, JACKBLANK by Matt Myklusch, WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks, THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES by M.T. Anderson, and literally over 100 others (and these are just the books I’ve already purchased, but haven’t had time to read yet.) My actual physical list (and yes I keep an actual written list in a notebook) has well over 1000 titles in it. I definitely wish I were a faster reader!
Thanks Chris for stopping by...I have already started to check out some of your book and music recommendations. And of course, we are thrilled that you didn't wait until you were 50 to write your first book!!!
To find out more about Chris and The Fourth Stall, check out his blog here.
You can follow him on Twitter: @chris_rylander
For details on how to win a copy of The Fourth Stall, check out my interview here.
To order The Fourth Stall, check out IndieBound here.
Check out this YouTube interview with Chris for some additional insights into The Fourth Stall.
Since a goal of mine is to read more books directed towards young readers grades 1st to 3rd, I will be doing occasional posts on what I am reading. Here is the third installment in this feature.
Note: The challenge is to find books that appeal to an audience that is very diverse in their reading abilities. In a first grade, a teacher may have children that are barely reading common sight words to others who are reading sizeable chapter books. Parents and teachers will always need to match the right book to the right reader, but here are two recent book series that I have been reading lately that might engage a child in this transitional period.
Keena lives in Washington, D. C. Her parents are divorced and she spends the weekends with her father in Maryland. Though she wants to start off, second grade on the right foot it isn't long before a small mistake becomes a bigger problem. Keena is fun and likable. She frequently gets into all kinds of sticky situations, but what I appreciated is that there were appropriate consequences for her behaviors. Also, Keena has a sweet relationship with her dad and I loved their "grown-up" chats at a coffee shop. This book is next up on my read aloud list for a class of second graders. I am hoping they enjoy it as much as I did.
Dinkin is a child who is afraid of everything, but the monsters (Frightening Things) under his bed. Together with the help of the Frightening Things, Dinkin tackles zombies, doubles from other dimensions, and other things. The books in this series are fun reads. Dinkin & the Frightening Things are likable characters and there are tons of laughs. I also enjoyed the white pages/black print for day and the black pages/white print for night. Second and third graders will enjoy these books both to read and as a read aloud.
Author: Hervé Tullet Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 30, 2011) Audience: Ages 3 to 7 Source: Personal Copy
Description for GoodReads: Press the yellow dot on the cover of this book, follow the instructions within, and embark upon a magical journey! Each page of this surprising book instructs the reader to press the dots, shake the pages, tilt the book, and who knows what will happen next! Children and adults alike will giggle with delight as the dots multiply, change direction, and grow in size! Especially remarkable because the adventure occurs on the flat surface of the simple, printed page, this unique picture book about the power of imagination and interactivity will provide read-aloud fun for all ages!
On the opening page of PRESS HERE, the reader sees a simple yellow dot on a clean white background and the simple words that invite the reader to "Press here and turn the page." I challenge anyone not to be tempted to "press here". Once you do "press here" and turn the page the journey has begun. Each page invites the reader, to press, rub, shake, tilt, or blow on the page. Each time, readers are rewarded with some kind of action on the subsequent page. Rubbing the yellow dot may make it change color. Shaking it moves all of the dots around. And blowing on the page just might send all of the dots flying. Every time I share this book with someone, I get the same response - smiles, chuckles, and enthusiastic interaction with the book.
There are books and then there are books. PRESS HERE is fun, simple, and brilliantly executed. In some ways, I like to describe this as an iPad app for people without an iPad. It should be noted that the book is designed in a way that also allows for heavy use. With a book that encourages interactions, it is critical that it can stand up to lots of handling. The pages of PRESS HERE are thicker and coated which will support frequently use.
If you are looking for gifts for young children in your life, or just like collecting unique books, I would seriously recommend this one. I am already making up a list of who will get a copy. Have fun watching the book trailer below.
Four bloggers – One kindle giveaway – Lots of lessons learned…
First and most importantly - Yes, we do have a winner…Congrats to Amanda W. who should be receiving her Kindle in the mail any day now.
Second, there are definitely some lessons we learned from running this contest. We thought we would share just in case anyone else ever considers hosting a similar contest:
1. There are a lot of people interested in winning a Kindle. Over 1,000 people totaling up to over 5,000 entries (based on the entry guidelines).
2. If you are going to run a contest with high interest, consider how difficult it will be for the person(s) who will be selecting the winner.
3. If you haven’t considered how long it will be to go through all the entries, plan on lots and lots of time.
4. If you are sharing this between bloggers, develop a plan for how to select and contact the winner and who is responsible for what.
5. Have a back up plan for when “life happens” so that someone can jump in and help another person.
6. Also, clearly have a agreed upon plan for how long you will wait for a "winner" to respond, just in case your first one or two people don't respond.
Finally, we just would like to express our deepest apologies for how long it took to select and announce a winner. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding.
And once again…congratulations Amanda and happy reading.
Clementine 
