Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 123

read out loud!

Thanks to Deborah Taylor for posting this article on Facebook: Four Reasons We Need to Read to Our Kids.  I just finished answering some questions about my "recipe" for getting kids excited about books:

Make reading fun!  Read aloud, and read often.  Let your child see YOU reading and going to the library.  Let your child choose her own books, and ask questions as you read the books together.  Talk about the lessons learned from different stories, and urge your child to imagine...

Girls Life

Thanks to Meghan for featuring Wish in the Book Club section over at Girls Life.  She concludes with this question—how would you answer?

Would you travel back to a difficult time? Where would you travel if you could? Let us know!

Decolonizing the Imagination

It's up!  I wrote this essay back in September, but it's out now in the March issue of the Horn Book Magazine (the full title was "Decolonizing the Imagination: Afro-Urban Magic and The Door of No Return").  You can find it on their website.  While you're there, check out Roger Sutton's interview with National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Katherine Patterson.  I think the Ambassador and the Children's Book Council would be ideal sponsors of the US Publishing Equalities Charter.  ...

Brooklyn sightings…

You may already know that Wish is available at Brownstone Books in Bed-Stuy, but I've just received word that Wish can also be found at the Barnes & Noble on Court Street in downtown Brooklyn—just a few blocks away from where the novel takes place (in Brooklyn Heights)!  Please do keep sending in your photos, and don't be camera shy—I want to see you AND the book!  Thanks to Danielle for saving me a trip downtown…

Wish crosses the pond!

Thanks to Jodie (who blogs at Book Gazing–swing by for a *great* summary of "steam punk" reviews and round-ups) for sending in this photo of Wish, which made it all the way to England!

reward

I woke up feeling kind of anxious this morning…I've never actually done a bookstore reading before, and wasn't sure anyone would show up.  But having Gbemi there tonight made everything feel very comfortable and calm—we had a full room of wonderful readers who asked thoughtful questions, and we sold some books (and ate chocolate).  Many thanks to Crystal at Brownstone Books for hosting our joint reading.  I'm sure not every indie bookstore will open its doors to me, but Crystal was as warm...

we're still on…

…despite the snow!  So if you're in NYC and you're able to travel safely, come on out to Brownstone Books to meet me and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich.

UK Publishing Equalities Charter

I've just submitted a new post for my Huffington blog—it's called "Demand Diversity: the UK Publishing Equalities Charter."  *Many* thanks to Laura Atkins for sharing this charter with me.  It's generated by the Diversity in Publishing Network, DIPNET, and I think it offers us a useful model for changing the face of publishing.  We can't just wait for Bloomsbury or some other publisher to make another mistake—we can prevent those offensive errors if we push for greater diversity in the...

out & about

This has been a busy week!  Part of me wants to crawl under a rock and not emerge for several weeks, but another part of me feels so blessed to have these opportunities to connect with book lovers.  On Tuesday night I was invited by Karen Alford, VP for Elementary Schools at The United Federation of Teachers, to give a talk to NYC educators.  Since both my parents were teachers, I feel really at ease around other educators and had a great time talking about how & why I became a writer. ...

let's talk about sex…

…in YA lit—swing by Chasing Ray for the latest installment in What a Girl Wants.  Neesha brings our attention to Audre Lorde's brilliant use of the erotic:

Lorde dares us to look at the erotic as a powerful force to be channeled, not for purposes of destruction, but for *creation*–as it is meant to be. She suggests that female sexuality has been bound, both literally and figuratively, out of a patriarchal need to control and harness this power. It's an honest and powerful book full of...