Welcome to the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. A huge thanks to Yara @ Once Upon a Twilight for helping co-host this hop and creating the awesome Hop Graphic!
This Giveaway Hop runs from Wednesday, April 20th to Monday, April 25th. There are over 200 blogs signed up to host a giveaway so have fun checking out all the giveaways.
For the Giveaway:
This will be a winner's choose giveaway. What does that mean? If you may chose one of the following -
A gift card for $15 from Amazon
Or Up to $15 in books from Book Depository
Rules for the Contest:
1. Please do not enter any personal information in the comments section, you must complete the Entry Form to officially enter the contest. Any comments with personal information will be deleted.
2. The Contest runs from 12:00 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 to 11:59 p.m. PDT on Monday, April 25th.
3. You must be 13 or older to participate in this contest.
4. If you are selected as a winner, I will notify you by e-mail. If you do not respond within 48 hours, I will select a new winner.
5. International participants are welcome to enter the contest.
Author: Jerry Davis Illustrator: Katie Davis Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (April 19, 2011) Audience: Ages 2 to 6 Source: Advanced Readers Copy
Description from GoodReads: "I hear you cluckin', Big Chicken!" That's the simple refrain that Little Chicken repeats to his mama throughout a typical day. But Little Chicken can be distractable . . . and when he wanders off and gets lost, the day becomes anything but typical. With subtlety and humor, this sweet little story sweeps through a wide range emotions using the simplest of language. From husband and wife team Katie and Jerry Davis, this is a little book with a huge heart. The perfectly minimal illustrations and spare text belie the enormous message at its core: that with family, help is always just a cluck away.
Producing a children's picture book for toddlers and preschoolers that is entertaining for young children and for the adult who will be reading it aloud is not easy. Some books are cloyingly sweet. Others are a bit to sing-songy with the text. Some books have great illustrations but lack memorable text, and then there is the opposite - poetic text with lackluster illustrations. However, Little Chicken's Big Day from Jerry and Katie Davis may literally be my favorite picture book for this age group so far in 2011 (which is saying a lot since I probably have read over 300 pictures books since January).
I am not sure whether I lost my heart to the refrain "I hear you cluckin', Big chicken" or the picture of little chicken strapped into a car seat. Jerry Davis' first attempt at a children's picture book is impressive. His text captures perfectly the amusing wanderings of this baby chick on his outing with mama chick. From the time, mama chick gets little chick up and ready all the way to bedtime, readers will delight in little chicken's antics. Of course, Katie Davis' illustrations amazingly depict the emotions of the story from the look on little chick's face while buckled into the car seat (the "I don't like being buckled in" face) to the happy relief of finding his mommy after wandering off. Their collaboration has succeeded in producing a book that not only will have young children saying "again" upon reaching the end, but one that even mommies & daddies who are reading it will want to read "one more time".
I look forward to future collaborative efforts from the husband and wife team of Jerry Davis and Katie Davis. Little Chicken's Big Day will definitely be added to my list of books to give new parents or or as gifts to my favorite little friends.
You can find out more about Katie Davis and her books at http://katiedavis.com/blog/welcome/
And you can find her on twitter: @katiedavisburps
And don't forget to watch the book trailer for Little Chicken's Big Day. It makes me laugh and is probably my favorite book trailer of 2011.
Authors/Illustrators: Jenni Holm & Matt Holm Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (release May 10, 2011) Audience: Ages 9 to 12 Source: Advanced Reader Copy from ALA Midwinter 2011
Graphic Novel * Humor
Description from GoodReads: Introducing SQUISH—a new graphic novel series about a comic book-loving, twinkie-eating grade school AMOEBA trying to find his place in the world (or at least trying to make it through a school day). Inspired by his favorite comic book hero, SUPER AMOEBA!, Squish has to navigate school (bullies! detention! Principal Planaria!), family (dad: Hates to wear a tie. Secretly listens to heavy metal in the car), and friends (Peggy-rainbows! happy all the time! and Pod . . . who's . . . well, you just have to meet him). Can Squish save the world—and his friends—from the forces of evil lurking in the hallways? Find out in Squish: Super Amoeba—saving the world, one cell at a time!
As a big fan of the Babymouse series by sister and brother team, Jenni & Matt Holm, I was very excited to see that they had a new series. It was probably one of the first books I read out of the pile of ARC's that I picked up from ALA Midwinter 2011 back in January. Though I held off my review until now, that hasn't meant that I haven't been sharing my love for Squish with students and booksellers that I know.
Similar to Babymouse, Squish primarily takes place in a school setting. Of course there are the daily challenges that he must navigate around and figure out how to survive. Those pesky challenges include lunch options (which I found interesting considering the book is about a one-celled organism), a tendency to daydream in class, avoiding detention, dealing with bullies, and Principal Planaria. Squish has a couple of good friends, and supportive parents. The combination of characters led by the day-dreaming Squish is entertaining and filled with a lot of laughs. The format and illustrations are reminiscent of Babymouse. Also, where as some boys might avoid the very pinkness of Babymouse, Squish's color theme is bold and fluorescent.
Since I brought my copy of Squish to school, it has been passed around and around. I am not even sure what child has it anymore and I mean this in a good way. It moves from one child to the next without ever spending too much time back with me. I am excited to know that Squish #2: Brave New Pond will be out at the end of September.
My niece wrote up a shelf-talker for Squish for our local Indie Bookstore. Here is what she wrote on her shelf-talker:
"The book is very funny, and it is a lot about school. Squish (the amoeba) is smart, but daydreams a lot. He has 2 best friends. In the book, Squish has to stand up to a bully. The book shows that you can talk to your parents about school. I liked the way the authors ended it. Read and enjoy!" - Jackie, age 10
Below is the book trailer for Squish, watch and enjoy -
On Twitter:
Matt Holm can be found @mattholm
Jennifer Holm can be found @jenniholm
* Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays were started by Shannon over at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe. You can check out her Marvelous Middle Grade Monday choice and Giveaway Post here.
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.
