One Good Night 'Til Halloween by Frank J Berrios and Debby Rahmalia The day is almost here! It's only "one more good night" until Halloween. As a child goes to sleep, they can't wait for all the fun that comes with celebrating their favorite holiday with their loved ones. They know the next day will be filled with the best Halloween decorations, treats, and costumes! Experience familial traditions in this sweet holiday primer. Behind the Mask by Yangsook Choi Halloween is coming. “What are you going to be?” the children ask one another. Kimin says he will be his grandfather. “Going as an old man is not very scary,” they tease. What the children don’t know is that Kimin’s grandfather was a Korean mask dancer. And Kimin doesn’t know that the mask holds a secret for him. With vibrant illustrations, Yangsook Choi joins Korean and American folk traditions in her story about a boy who finds a link to his grandfather, behind the mask. Behind the Mask is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. Gustavo, the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago Gustavo is good at doing all sorts of ghostly things: walking through walls, making objects fly, and glowing in the dark. And he loves almost nothing more than playing beautiful music on his violin. But Gustavo is shy, and some things are harder for him to do, like getting in a line to buy eye scream or making friends with other monsters. Whenever he tries getting close to them, he realizes they just can’t see him. Now that the Day of the Dead is fast approaching, what can he do to make them notice him and to share with them something he loves? With fancifully detailed artwork and visual humor, debut picture-book creator Flavia Z.Drago’s vivid illustrations tella sweet and gently offbeat story of loneliness, bravery, and friendship that is sure to be a treat for little ghouls and goblins everywhere. The Rumble Hunters by Courtney B. Dunlap We set off quick to search the place. We'll hunt this sound - we're on the case! The Rumble Hunters is an unforgettable bedtime adventure your kids will want to read again and again! In fact, you will, too! When five-year-old James, a small boy with a big imagination, is awakened by a mysterious rumble in the middle of the night, he sets out on a curious journey to hunt the sound. Along the way, he enlists some help from his heroic siblings, and their wet, scaly and furry pets. Together, they become known as, "The Rumble Hunters". Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon I went up the hill, the hill was muddy, stomped my toe and made it bloody, should I wash it?Justin knows that something is wrong with his best friend.Zee went missing for a year. And when he came back, he was . . . different. Nobody knows what happened to him. At Zee's welcome home party, Justin and the neighborhood crew play Hide and Seek. But it goes wrong. Very wrong.One by one, everyone who plays the game disappears, pulled into a world of nightmares come to life. Justin and his friends realize this horrible place is where Zee had been trapped. All they can do now is hide from the Seeker. Our Family Halloween Party by Jayla Josep This book is a cute story about a family Halloween party. My children have been quite upset because there will be no trick or treating this year. So I decided to make them a book about all the things we will be doing instead. Closet Ghosts by Uma Krishnaswami When a young girl named Anu has trouble adjusting to her new home and school, she calls upon Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, for help vanquishing the ghosts in her closet. Moving to a new place is hard enough without finding a bunch of mean, nasty ghosts in your closet. This looks like a job for Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, who can change shape in the blink of an eye and chase goblins and demons away with his thundering voice. When Hanuman answers Anu's plea for help, Anu rejoices--until she realizes that those pesky ghosts don't seem to be going anywhere. Jade Braves the Dark by Valdene Mark An imaginative story that encourages children to overcome their fear of the dark. Suitable as both a nighttime read-aloud for younger kids and an engaging self-read story for older readers. Los Gatos Black on Halloweenby Marisa Montes and Yuyi Morales Under October's luna, full and bright, the monsters are throwing a ball in the Haunted Hall. Las brujas come on their broomsticks. Los muertos rise from their coffins to join in the fun. Los esqueletos rattle their bones as they dance through the door. And the scariest creatures of all aren't even there yet! This lively bilingual Halloween poem introduces young readers to a spooky array of Spanish words that will open their ojos to the chilling delights of the season. Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales This original trickster tale, with its vivacious illustrations and dynamic read-aloud text, is at once a spirited tribute to the rich traditions of Mexican culture and a perfect introduction to counting in both English and Spanish. The Ghoul by Taghreed Najjar The villagers are afraid of the “Ghoul.” For years, they’ve tiptoed around the village for fear of disturbing it. The monster doesn’t look like them, and it is believed to eat humans. One day, the brave Hassan embarks on a dangerous mission to face the long-feared Ghoul. When Hassan finally meets the Ghoul living on top of the mountain, he discovers that the Ghoul is just as terrified of people as they are of him. Hassan and the Ghoul realize that they can still be friends, despite their differences. Ghaddar the Ghoul and Other Palestinian Stories by Sonia Nimr
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Last week Hillary Homzie and I did a super fun and informative webinar where we shared 5 Things Agents and Editors Want to See Before Signing You with examples from fabulous books. One of those things was Special X, which was kind of a hook, like a book hook that makes you want to keep reading. With us, Special X was a group of things around behaviors that agents and editors want to see. Well when we got to Special X, we were already over time and got flustered and didn't give it as much as time as we would have liked. So I wrote something up on the webinar recording page for the folks who had registered that summarized the main things from the webinar and included the Special X materials. I felt that this info might also be helpful to a wider range of creatives beyond the wonderful 470 people who registered. So here it is: ![]() 1. Professionalism - Your work is beautifully written with all the main criteria covered of: original subject matter or approach, great voice, awesome plotting or page turners whether it's fiction or nonfiction. It needs to be professionally edited with few typos or grammar errors. Editors and agents who edit are creative editors, not copy editors. And sadly, they are so very busy that they don't have time or interest to do this for you. So being professional means whether it's a query or a manuscript, it has to be professionally written and it has to shine. If this isn't your strength, either take our awesome Grammar course with Miranda Paul or hire a professional editor who also does copy editing. 2. Politeness and Charm - This means don't try and pitch an agent or editor in the bathroom, on an elevator, when they are surrounded by others, or when they are eating. In other words, don't hound them. Politeness is another form of professionalism. When I was an agent, I had someone charming pitch me via email, and while I really liked her and her work, she kept hounding me with emails and it was so overwhelming and gave off so many red flags of being high maintenance that I just said no. And while charm isn't critical, editors and agents are giving large amounts of their precious time to work with you so it really helps to work with someone who is either charming or nice. Actually niceness trumps charm every time, but charm can be fun! 3. Punctuality - Yep, being punctual is critical - doing what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. If you say that you'll get the first 10 pages to them by next Monday then it needs to be there by next Monday. Agents and editors are constantly up against deadlines and they need to know that you can be relied upon to make yours. So punctuality is another form of professionalism. 4. Research - Show that you know what you are doing by researching whomever you are approaching so that they know that you want to work specifically with them. You could call this another form of politeness, niceness, and professionalism. Trust me, it really helps. Agents and editors want to know that you aren't approaching everyone out there and that they aren't wasting their time reading on. 5. Promotion - More and more agents and editors want to see that you have a network of friends and a platform to help spread the word about your books in order to help sell them. What this means basically is having a strong social media following in places like Facebook and/or Twitter and a website that engages people and shares about your work. In fact, in one contract that I negotiated as an agent, this was one of the non-negotiable criteria in the contract. In addition, an editor that I spoke with said that the first thing she does on receiving a manuscript or query that she is interested in, is check them out on the web. I know you might be groaning but this is just the reality of contemporary publishing. Luckily, it's not the case with all agents and editors, although they may strongly encourage you to make sure you have your social media and website in place after they sign you. So that's it for the 5 Things Agents and Editors Want to See Before Signing You and Special X. I hope that you found it helpful. Unfortunately it's too late to register for this webinar recording but to get first dibs on other free webinars, special offers, and other goodies! Dr. Mira Reisberg is the co-teacher of the upcoming ground-breaking Middle Grade Mastery course with Hillary Homzie, starting February 29th! She has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. She has also worn just about every hat in the industry including art director, editor, award-winning illustrator and author, kid lit university professor, and literary agent. Mira holds a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature. In just the past few years, former students have received over 50 contract offers while many others have become agented. This makes her extremely happy!!!
So as educators, we take professional development courses on student engagement. We try new strategies. We use classroom structures, hooks, gimmicks. We’ll do anything from using interactive technology to doing a song and dance if it means that 100% of our students will be “engaged” in the lesson we are presenting.
Because come on, let’s face it. Reviewing how a question will be asked on the end of year state test such as Which detail is least important to include in a summary of paragraphs 1-4 is just not that exciting. Let’s ignore that fact that our review is really about getting students to understand what the question is asking and then how to go about answering the question than it is getting kids to comprehend and summarize a story. But even with cooperative structures, technology clickers, incentive charts, popcorn parties, gold stars, and sour gummy worms we just can’t seem to reach every child to be fully engaged in understanding the least important detail of paragraphs 1-4. Why is this? And why can you take the same group of students, who have varying reading levels, varying behavior, varying social and emotional need, varying home lives and sit them in a classroom with just one thing and EVERY SINGLE STUDENT is ENGAGED? Just one thing. No technology. No incentives, no bribes, no sugar-induced comas. Just one thing. A book. Read aloud by their teacher. You may have heard people say this before. And no, you can’t just take any teacher. And you can’t just take any book. The teacher needs to have some decent read aloud skills and have a genuine love for reading. And the book has to have been carefully chosen by the teacher for the class that she knows so well. Reading aloud a poorly written book by a teacher with poor read aloud skills simply doesn’t work. But unless you have witnessed this first hand, it’s hard to imagine the power this one book and this one teacher have. The sad thing is in an age of “testing” reading aloud seems to get pushed to the back burner. Unless there is a “measureable objective” for every minute in the day, there doesn’t seem to be a place for it any more. We are really missing the target lately. By sharpening our focus on testing to achieve those passing scores, we are blurring the edges of reality. And the reality of it? By forcing elementary students to be focused on passing standardized tests, we have less time to actually teach them to read. Plus we are KILLING their love of reading (if they ever had one.) So Mr. or Mrs. Head of Education, when these students graduate high school not being able to read, not ever having finished a book, and not having any desire to ever read anything please don’t act shocked. Please don’t call us a nation with an illiteracy problem and then decide to remedy this by pushing for more testing starting in Pre K. Please don’t increase the lexile expectations any higher. Please don’t expect our students to work more rigorously in any more complex texts. It isn’t possible for them to “close read” any more than they already are. My suggestion? Start measuring students on how much they love to read. Start hiring teachers that love to read. Make one of your principal “look fors” to be that teachers and students are authentically reading and talking about books they’ve read. Start making “teacher read aloud” a time in the day that doesn’t require a measurable objective. So when you come in to measure “student engagement,” don’t worry, because I can guarantee 100% of my students will be fully engaged. Teachers live this reality. We know what testing is doing to our students. Testing more doesn’t mean they are learning more. They are actually learning less of what they need to be learning. But until someone who has more power than an elementary teacher figures out how much damage testing is really doing to the future of students, we will continue down this road of illiteracy with a side of hating to read. And as an educator, I will continue to still teach my students how to “pass the test” no matter how ridiculously rigorous it becomes and I’ll hang onto that pendulum until it starts to swing in the other direction. But no matter how much education changes one thing will remain constant in my classroom. The secret to creating a literate nation: the love of reading. I will always read aloud to my students. Because it’s the game changer. It’s the one thing that will keep students 100% engaged. It’s the one thing that can change their lives and their future. Sincerely, An elementary teacher of reading So what's the one thing you should know as a writer? Teachers need those well written engaging books that have the power to change lives. The class I was talking about above was a group of 5th graders. And the books they need their teachers to read aloud? Well written middle grade novels. This would be the perfect time to register for the Children's Book Academy course Middle Grade Mastery taught by Mira and Hillary Homzie. The course runs from February 29th- March 28th! For all the details click the link below. http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/middle-grade-mastery.html Hurry to register as the early bird special rates expire on Monday at midnight. Every now and then, there's a writer whose work is so profound and so beautiful that for a moment you want to be them. That writer right now for me is multi-award-winning, New York Times best-selling author Andrea Davis Pinkney who also happens to be an exquisite human being. I'm lucky enough to know Andrea and when Hillary Homzie and I started the Chapter Book Alchemist course, we named the scholarships for it after her. Now that the Alchemist has become an Instant Access course, we wanted to keep honoring Andrea with a new scholarship for our Middle Grade Mastery course, where Andrea is also sharing her writing knowledge for students here. When I said that I wanted to be Andrea, just for a moment, it is because when I thought a little deeper about the pain and heartache she must have gone through researching and writing the extraordinary prose poem middle grade novel The Red Pencil, I don't think I could hold that much sorrow and transform it so eloquently. It takes a special kind of courage and fortitude to take on such a daunting task of creating a 12 year old character who you love and then take them through the dark landscape of war and loss with beauty and humor and hope. Perhaps it's because of my own background as the daughter of war survivors but I don't know if I could do it. I made one of my new sneak peek reviews of this book, this one is less than 4 minutes and due to the length there's so much that I couldn't include so I'm just going to give a brief overview of some of the many themes explored in the novel: Coming of age Family and community World politics War Education for girls Voice and voicelessness Desert life and animal husbandry Loss Spirit Art Creativity Hope Resistance Telling stories in innovative ways Here's the wee video followed by some of Andrea's many books: Find out more about Andrea at her website http://andreadavispinkney.com/ Apply for a 2016 Middle Grade Mastery course scholarship here Find out about the Middle Grade Mastery course itself, right here
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We are so excited to be mixing things up at CBA, beginning with some delicious additions to the Blogfish. Meet our awesome bloggers!!
Here's our lineup: 1st Mondays begin with awesome Aussie debut author and former student Amanda Lieber who will be focusing on Aussie kidlit. 2nd Mondays will feature super smart Melissa Stoller whose career is taking off with several new books. 3rd Mondays will feature our new blogger coming soon. 4th Mondays features new blogger, the fabulous Brentom Jackson, who has a beautiful approach to blogging. And 5th Mondays we'll be taking a break Archives
December 2023
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