Cynthia Leitich Smith's Blog, page 101

Cover Reveal: Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World about Kindness by Donna Janell Bowman, illustrated by Daniel Minter

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Check out the cover for Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World about Kindness by Donna Janell Bowman, illustrated by Daniel Minter (Lee & Low, 2016). From the promotional copy:

A horse that can read, write, spell, and do math? Ridiculous! 

That's what people thought in the late 1800's - until they met Beautiful Jim Key.

Born a weak and wobbly colt in 1889, Jim was cared for by William "Doc" Key, a formerly enslaved man and self-taught...

Asian Festival of Children’s Content Returns for Seventh Edition

From Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) will return for its seventh run in May 2016, to once again celebrate children’s books and content, with a focus on Asian themes.

Catered for writers, illustrators, educators, librarians and parents, the Festival will be home to 140 sessions as part of conferences like the Writing & Illustrators Conference and Cross-Platform Summit.

A myriad of other activities, including workshops, masterclasses, networki...

Cynsational News & Giveaways

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Author Emily Wing Smith Shares Her Feelings on Living with Living with Brain Injury by Hikari Loftus from the Deseret News. Peek: "Smith’s memoir, All Better Now (Dutton), takes readers into her life before the surgery, as a young girl perpetually in therapy, who spent much of her time angry and feeling separate, to life after the surgery, as an adult woman who had finally begun to understand how to accept and live a full life despite limitations."

Author...

Guest Post: David Lubar on The Name of the Prose

Tor, 2016By David Lubar
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

I love it when people ask the title of my new book. I get to say, “Character, Driven.”

Then, if they nod knowingly, I add, “Character, comma, Driven.”

If they smile at that, I add, “It’s a plot-driven novel.”

I feel it’s a clever title. But a title has to be more than clever. It also has to be a good. It has a marketing job to do.

With 35 books or so to my credit, and close to 300 published short stories, I’ve created a lot of titles. S...

Guest Post: Annette Bay Pimentel on Educational vs. Trade Presses

By Annette Bay Pimentel
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Lately I’ve been dancing between two publishing worlds.

I just finished the editing process on my first book with a trade publisher, Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service, illustrated by Rich Lo (Charlesbridge, Aug. 2, 2016).

I also recently finished my first books with an educational publisher, My Brain (Inside My Body) and My Stomach (Inside My Body) (both Amic...

Author Interview: Heather Lang on Fearless Flyer & Writing Strong Women

Visit Heather Lang's official author site & @HblangBy Helen Kampion
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Congratulations on your new picture book biography Fearless Flyer: Ruth Law and Her Flying Machine (Calkins Creek, 2016) and the starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal! 

I was captivated by your account of Ruth Law’s record-breaking flight from Chicago to New York City one hundred years ago, and Raúl Colón’s illustrations are magnificent.

You are creating a wonderf...

Guest Post: Henry Herz on The Advantages of Independent Publishers

By Henry L. Herz
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Let's first distinguish between the terms "independent" and "small" publishers.

“Independent publishers” (IPs) are publishers that are not part of a larger corporation (e.g., the Big Five).

“Small publishers” are defined in the 2007 Writer's Market as those that average fewer than ten titles per year. So, while all small publishers are independent, not all independent publishers are small.

Pelican Publishing, home of my first three picture bo...

In Memory: Louise Rennison

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Louise Rennison (1951-2016), author - obituary: 'Queen of Teen’ whose comic novels captured the horrors and occasional triumphs of adolescence from The Telegraph. Peek: "Louise Rennison, the author, who has died aged 64, was the creator of Georgia Nicolson, the 14-year-old protagonist of such young adult novels as Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and Startled by his Furry Shorts; the series achieved sales of 2.6 million in Britain alone."

Goodbye, L...

Cynsations News & Giveaways

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

David Bowles on His Garza Twins Series & Pura Belpre Award from Latin@s in Kidlit. Peek: "...Anglo young people facing off against European or Western legendary beings, gods, or dilemmas. 'Wouldn’t it be nice,' we often mused, 'to open one of these books and find a Chicana facing off against Aztec deities or Mexican monsters?'"

Multiple Point of Views, Alternating Between First and Third Person by Deborah Halverson from DearEditor.com. Peek: "Maybe the...

Guest Post & Giveaway: Hannah Barnaby on Writing for My Life: How I Dug into My Past for Fiction

By Hannah Barnaby
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

In early 1999, I was a graduate student in the children’s literature program at Simmons College in Boston.

I had a work study job at the Simmons social work school, mailing out applications and entering information into a computer, and that’s where I was on the morning of February 16th—sitting at someone else’s desk, collating papers—when the phone rang.

I ignored it. It wasn’t my phone.

It stopped, and rang again, and stopped, and finally t...